SANTIAGO, August 31, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Jorge Medina, ex-Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments has called the common use of euphemisms in abortion rhetoric, ‘demonic’. Speaking in the auditorium of Catholic University in Santiago, Chile, the senior Vatican prelate said that the devil makes use of euphemism in persuading people to sin by defending abortion ‘rights.’ “The devil is very present, and he uses lies and euphemisms to deceive. He calls abortion the ‘termination of pregnancy’ and children burdens. He fosters homosexual marriage and laws allowing for divorce, presenting evil as good and making money a god,” said the Chilean Cardinal. His remarks came at the end of a talk on demonic activity and exorcism. He reiterated the traditional Catholic doctrine that the devil was not merely a concept or idea, but a person devoted to “keeping humanity off of the road to salvation, which is in the cross of Christ.”
Jorge Medina received attention in 2002 when he put his signature to a document, as head of the relevant Vatican department, that said homosexual men could not be ordained to the priesthood.
Ordaining homosexuals, he said – with a reference to the homosexual abuse scandals in the US and elsewhere – “is absolutely inadvisable and imprudent and, from a pastoral point of view, very risky.” ph