In his homily at Mass for Evangelium Vitae day, celebrating Pope John
Paul II’s encyclical, Pope Francis stressed the importance of promoting
life and not saying yes to idols that lead to death. “This celebration has a very beautiful name, Evangelium Vitae, the Gospel of Life. In this Eucharist, in the Year of Faith, let us thank the Lord for the gift of life in all its forms, and at the same time let us proclaim the Gospel of Life.”
On the previous day Cardinal Raymond L. Burke of the Apostolic Signatura, essentially the Vatican’s supreme court, told a conference here that participating in the political process in favour of human life is a part of the New Evangelisation.
“While the transformation of hearts is the most fundamental means of new evangelisation regarding human life, Catholics and all persons of good will must be attentive to all laws, which safeguard the dignity of human life,” he said.
On the topic of law and the protection of life, Cardinal Burke mentioned Pope John Paul II’s statement from Evangelium Vitae in which he said, “I repeat once more that a law which violates an innocent person's natural right to life is unjust and, as such, is not valid as a law.”
I was able to get some time in the busy cardinal’s schedule to get his view on the move to introduce abortion in Ireland.
I began by reading him what the Taoiseach has said about himself earlier in the week, that he is a ‘politician who happens to be a Catholic and not a Catholic politician’. As head of the Vatican’s top court what did the cardinal make of that statement?
“Abortion is a matter of natural moral law which is written on every human heart. One cannot, as a Catholic politician, excuse oneself from the question of abortion by claiming that one should not bring one's Catholicism into the political realm. Of course, the Church does teach that abortion is evil, but the evil of abortion can also be known by human reason. The natural law is to do good and avoid evil and the first precept is to safeguard and promote human life. The distinction made in the statement you mention therefore does not make any sense.
“If the natural law is not upheld, people enter a culture of death which, when it becomes prevalent, destroys the people.”
I then asked the cardinal about Catholic politicians, not just those in Ireland, who seem to have a very loose relationship with their Catholic conscience.
“The present situation is most grave. There are 80 to 100 Catholics in the United States Congress who act against the natural moral law, who seek to enact abortion and redefine marriage. In the present culture of death with its anti-life message, we must give special care to the family and must educate Catholics. I do not know well the situation in Ireland, but in the United States, the catechesis generally given over the past 40 years has not adequately prepared Catholics to respond to the culture of death. It is most important to support pro-life and pro-family media.
“There are signs of hope. In France, which is said to have become almost pagan, over 500,000 people marched to protest the recent legalisation of so-called ‘gay marriage’. On May 12 last, about 40,000 people participated in the National March for Life in Rome, which was double the number of participants from last year. We have to believe that when Catholics are properly formed and educated, they will not support anti-life and anti-family measures.
“I was raised in an Irish Catholic family which had a keen sense of the moral law. I go back to Ireland regularly and there are many wonderful people in Ireland hungering for leadership. There are deep spiritual roots in Ireland, which need only to be watered, to bring forth new shoots.”