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Peruvian Cardinal to Health Minister: "Abortion is Murder"

Adds "We cannot remain in silence to avoid problems, and those children have every right to live"

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

LIMA, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Cardinal Archbishop of Lima, Peru, gave a stinging sermon Sunday stating that abortion "is murder and those who commit it are murderers", as Peru's health minister Carlos Vallejos sat in the pews. Although Vallejos claims to be pro-life, he supports the abortifacient morning after pill and has cooperated with efforts to normalize "therapeutic abortions" in Peru.

"It is cowardice on the part of contemporary society," continued Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, in his homily for the mass for Family Day in Peru. "We cannot remain in silence to avoid problems, and those children have every right to live," he added.

Responding to the rhetoric of internationally-funded feminist organizations that are constantly pushing to legalize abortion in Peru, the cardinal denounced the relativist mentality which states that "because there are so many abortions it is necessary to legalize them.  By this reasoning, then, it will be necessary to legalize robbery, crime, and everything that happens frequently in society."

"What good is accomplished by a great conquest in the scientific field if it is used to hurt others?" he asked.

Addressing the abortion lobby's claim to promote "freedom", the cardinal noted that "today much is said about freedom, but freedom is trampled upon. In the name of freedom, pressure groups trample on liberty."

"The man of today has an immense challenge: to conquer his freedom," he added.

Peruvian Health Minister Carlo Vallejos, who was in attendance during the cardinal's remarks, bowed to pressure groups in June of this year when he seemingly reversed his pro-life position and implemented a commission to create a national "protocol for therapeutic abortion", a list of medical conditions under which abortion would be permitted, ostensibly to protect the health of the mother.

The Peruvian Medical College also held a conference at which the leadership endorsed such a protocol (see recent LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07071605.html).

However, following protests by pro-life groups in the country, a scheduled pro-abortion meeting in the Peruvian congress was canceled on June 18th, and Vallejos has taken no action to establish a protocol.
 

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