By Kathleen Gilbert
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, October 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh has issued a strongly pro-life pastoral letter urging his flock's active protection of life from conception to natural death – and reminding Catholic politicians that, in order to maintain their Catholic identity, they must show the same commitment.
In the October 17 document, Zubik's third pastoral letter, the bishop exhorts public officials to “avoid the sad and morally bankrupt positions that prevent the protection of human life.” “Rather, they must support the dignity of all persons, whatever their age, race, gender, stage of development, or citizenship status,” said Zubik.
“Whether in the legislative, executive or judicial branch of government, public officials who wish to honor their identity as Catholics are called to live by the same Church teachings as the rest of the faithful, and work for the defense of human life and protection of the weak and vulnerable,” he insisted.
Zubik introduced the topic of life, saying that life is “so sacred it comes from the hands and the heart of God. At the same time, it is so undervalued, misunderstood and abused in the world in which we live.”
“This inherent dignity of life is integral to each human being from the first moment of conception until the last breath of natural death. It cannot be removed by law or edict,” he said. “Even the reality of sin, which manifests itself in every human person, does not diminish human dignity and worth.”
Zubik described one occasion several years ago when, as bishop of Green Bay, Wis., he washed the feet of twelve prisoners on Holy Thursday to fulfill the traditional Catholic ritual. It was just before the Mass began that Zubik learned each prisoner was a convicted murderer.
“As I washed and kissed each prisoner's foot, as I looked at their faces – each of them, all of them – had tears streaming down their cheeks,” wrote Zubik. “That day, if never before, some of them came to know the absolute value of human life, especially their own, and the inestimable dignity of the human person, particularly their own.
“How much our society has been introduced to the opposite, the disregard for human life and the very limited view of the human person.”
The damage done by legalized abortion and assisted suicide, said Zubik, is “not just the sheer volume of lives destroyed, more than 40 million over these last four decades. It is also the damaging effect on human consciences.”
“If public policy permits the killing of innocent human life in the womb, what else, or who else, will the law permit citizens to destroy?” he asked.
Zubik also highlighted the evil of legally allowing physicians to directly kill their patients, which “especially weakens the moral fabric of society by allowing members of a profession whose vocation is healing to put to death lives they are entrusted to save.”
“It is incumbent on us to identify, to name threats to human life in our world today, to call it as it is,” wrote the bishop. “Only by appreciating the inestimable value of each and every person can we understand the evil of these threats, and summon the willpower to address and overcome them.”
“It is the responsibility of each of us to use our voices to speak out against abortion, euthanasia and all of the aforementioned realities that betray God the Creator and fracture the order and purpose of His creation,” he wrote.
Click here to read Bishop Zubik's letter in full.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Sioux City Bishop Calls for “Exorcism” of “Spirit of Vatican II”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/oct/09101606.html