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Wednesday September 15, 2010


Faithful Have ‘Obligation’ to Disobey Abortion Law: Spanish Archbishop

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

TARRAGONA, Spain, September 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Archbishop of Tarragona, Spain, is instructing the faithful of his diocese to disobey Spain’s pro-abortion legislation.

Archbishop Jaume Pujol Balcells writes in the latest diocesan bulletin that there are “obligations inherent in the relationship between the people and the civil authorities,” as well as the “right to a constructive criticism” of government policies.

Those rights, he adds, include “the love and service of the country, the right and the obligation to vote, to pay taxes, and the defense of the country.” However, he adds, it also “includes the obligation of not obeying in conscience when the laws of the civil authorities are opposed to the moral order.”

The situation is “especially serious if these laws go against human life, from conception until its natural end,” writes the archbishop, making it clear that his words are directed against Spain’s new “abortion law,” which permits women to terminate the lives of their unborn children for any reason up to the 14th week of pregnancy. The law also allows girls as young as 16 to obtain abortions without their parents’ consent.

The new abortion law, passed by Spain’s strongly pro-abortion Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE), has provoked fierce resistance among many Spaniards. Its constitutionality is currently being disputed before Spain’s Constitutional Court.

The PSOE’s strong stand in favor of abortion, and the bitter conflict it has generated, may have contributed to the party’s plummeting voter ratings. In a recent poll, 65% said that Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero should not run again, and indicated that if the election were held today, the PSOE would lose to its closest rival, the more conservative People’s Party, by 8%.

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