By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
VATICAN CITY, October 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On October 18th, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet met with Pope Benedict XVI in the offices of the Vatican. Although details of the meeting were not revealed, Bachelet admitted that the Pope had raised the issue of “human life” during the discussion, a controversial topic during her administration.
Bachelet, a socialist and agnostic, decreed that the abortificacient “morning after pill” would be administered free of charge to adolescents without their parents’ consent. She also recently supported a failed measure that would effectively prohibit Chileans from denouncing homosexual behavior, under the rubric of “discrimination”.
Before the meeting, the pro-life organization Muevete Chile! (Go Chile!) sent a petition to the Vatican’s secretary of state, noting Bachelet’s anti-life and anti-family record as president. In addition to her support of the “morning after pill” and special privileges for homosexuals, the organization noted that Bachelet has also supported measures that undermine the Chilean family and corrupted the educational system.
“The media are destroying the family, as a fruit of campaigns and erroneous public policies for normalizing sex among adolescents and children in a scandalous manner,” noted the organization. “It is only necessary to see the immorality of the newspaper La Nación (The Nation), which, financed with resources from all Chileans, resembles a pornographic magazine. AIDS campaigns openly promote homosexuality, pre-marital relations and sex outside of marriage. This is destroying Chilean youth.”
The group also noted that “the government, through projects and legislative changes, is trying to overturn the Chilean educational system. Public accreditation commissions have been created for universities, and the same is also planned for the systems of secondary, basic, and preschool education, that include politicizing the system of awarding public resources, attacking religious and educational liberty.”
The petition letter concludes by calling upon the Holy See to act: “Adhering to the faith, as it is expressed in the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, we believe it is urgent to take notice of the grave turn that events have taken in the most recent administrations, and particularly in the current one…we believe that a clear, specific, and strong statement from the Holy Father could be of great importance for the safety of human lives, and for public morality, the preservation of the faith, and of the healthy traditions of our society, as well as its Christian identity.”
Related LifeSiteNews Coverage:
Chilean Homosexual Non-Discrimination Law Fails Following Protest
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07091003.html
Proposed Chilean Law Threatens Religious Freedom
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07090401.html
Chilean President Signs Decree to Permit Hand-Out of Morning After Pill
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07013102.html
Chile Legislators Soundly Reject Abortion Despite UN Pressure
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06112209.html