VATICAN CITY, Dec 19, 2000 (LSN.ca) – In a recently released letter from Pope John Paul to Cardinal Antonio Maria Javierre Ortas, the pope heavily criticized the European Charter of Rights. He said, “The defense of the rights of the person and the family, in particular, could have been more courageous. … In many European States they are threatened, for example, by policies favoring abortion, which is legalized almost everywhere, by attitudes which consider euthanasia as ever more possible and, finally, by certain projects of law in the matter of genetic technology which are not sufficiently respectful of the human quality of the embryo.”
The pope also expressed his “great disappointment for the fact that not even one reference to God, Who is the supreme source of the dignity of the human person and his basic rights, was inserted into the text.” The pope’s criticism follows that of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who intervened in the EU Charter process to say it was a “godless” document which would cause “moral and social harm” undermining the natural family.
See related LifeSite coverage: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/dec/001204.html#6
A copy of the full letter in German is available at: https://www.vatican.va/cgi-bin/w3-msql/news_services/bulletin/news/8276.html? index=8276&po_date=16.12.2000&lang=it