RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, October 19, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – An outspokenly pro-life, conservative politician is the frontrunner in Brazil's upcoming presidential election.
The 63-year-old Jair Bolsonaro has demonstrated his commitment to the pro-life cause.
The law-and-order politician inked a pledge to Brazilian Cardinal Orani Tempesta at the archdiocese in Rio this week, vowing to keep abortion illegal. He also holds that marriage is between a man and a woman. Bolsonaro's promise also includes opposing sex-ed material that promotes acceptance of homosexuality in schools and any efforts to decriminalize drug use.
“We are signing a commitment defending the family, defending the innocence of children in the schools, defending the freedom of religion, against abortion and the legalization of drugs,” Bolsonaro reportedly said.
Abortion is currently only legal in Brazil in cases of rape, when there is a risk to the mother's health, or when the baby's brain is seriously deformed.
Bolsonaro has become somewhat of a lightning rod for left-wing extremism.
Left-wing extremist Adélio Bispo de Oliveira stabbed Bolsonaro at a campaign rally and inflicted such deep and life-threatening wounds that the politician lost 40 percent of his blood.
Stuck in a hospital bed and barely able to speak, Bolsonaro continued his campaign on Twitter.
It seems to be working for him.
Polls show Bolsonaro currently enjoys the support of about 59 percent of voters, while his leftist Labor Party rival Fernando Haddad only has the support of 29 percent of the population less than two weeks before the October 28 election.
Haddad's party supports abortion as a “right.” He has previously indicated some support for legalized abortion while simultaneously maintaining that he is “personally against abortion.”
Among voters, though, it's clear Haddad is widely perceived as being pro-abortion. So it was no surprise when many Roman Catholics were outraged with a priest gave him communion and then defended that by quoting Pope Francis' famous dictum, “Who am I to judge?”
Catholic canon law is quite clear. It states that those “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
After the mass, Haddad went further, using the occasion to preach his leftist political message to the faithful and the press, painting his political opponent as a “Nazi” because of his position on the right to bear arms.
“Bolsonaro is violence, he is bullets, Bolsonaro is lack of respect. He is the representation of all that is bad in terms of violence in this country,” Haddad said.
