Politics
Tuesday September 11, 2007
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"
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
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.
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.