Right to Life is Highest Priority and a Condition for All Other Rights
VATICAN, Feb 14, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Yesterday Pope John Paul II said “The promotion of the culture of the life should be the highest priority in our societies,” in a speech welcoming Walter Greinert, the new Ambassador from Austria to the Holy See. “If the right to life is not defended decisively as a condition for all other rights of the person, further reference to human rights – for instance to health, housing, work, establishment of a family – remain deceitful and illusory.”
The pope said that the fact that abortions are allowed during the first three months in Austria and various European countries is the cause of a “bleeding wound in my heart.” He stressed that “man has a right to life in every phase of his existence, from conception to natural death, and in every condition: in health or in sickness, with impediments, rich or poor.”
(LifeSite translation of the Pope’s German-language address)
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