By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
VATICAN CITY, February 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Pope is urging Brazil’s pro-abortion leadership to maintain the nation’s existing laws against abortion and euthanasia.
In a reception for Brazil’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Luiz Felipe Seixas, yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI praised Brazilian President Luiz Lula’s efforts to help the poor, but rejected his administration’s pro-abortion stance.
Benedict asked the government to “promote fundamental human values, the family and the protection of human life from the moment of its conception until its natural death.”
In a veiled reference to Brazil’s embryonic stem cell research program, which destroys human life at its earliest stages, Benedict urged the government to “protect the right of the embryo to be born.”
The Brazilian Supreme Court issued a narrow ruling last year approving the government’s experiments on embryonic human beings, despite the law’s prohibition of abortion.
Luiz Lula, who has been Brazil’s president since 2003, has appointed an outspokenly pro-abortion heath minister.
Related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Brazilian President Luiz Lula Defends Abortion, Gay Unions
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091815.html
Brazilian Health Minister Gives False Testimony in Eugenic Abortion Case
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08090512.html
Government-Sponsored National “Youth Conference” Promotes Abortion and Homosexuality
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052001.html
Brazilian Supreme Court Upholds Deadly Embryonic Stem Cell Research in Close Vote
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08053005.html