By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
MEXICO CITY, August 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the wake of a ruling by the Mexican Supreme Court in favor of a Mexico City law depenalizing abortion on demand for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, Cardinal Noberto Rivera Carrera has ordered that the bells of the city’s Catholic churches be rung as a sign of “mourning.”
The Archdiocese said that the bells will ring to “manifest our suffering in the face of the ratification of the criminal abortion law in our city.”
On its official website, the Archdiocese adds that the law “makes legal what can never be moral, as is the murder of innocent and defenseless babies in the womb of their mother, and for which the government offers its health facilities for these abominable crimes, institutions that in other times sought to defend the principle of life.”
“We contemplate with sadness the egotism and pettiness that defends death before life and for that reason we lift our requests through prayer and the ringing of the bells, so that, in a sign of suffering, mourning, and penance for the indiscriminate slaughter of infants, we may ask the forgiveness of God for those who have promoted, voted for, and ratified this murderous law.”
Citizens of Mexico City also protested the decision, including a group of young women from various universities who stood in front of the Supreme Court, chanting “Life, yes, abortion no!” and “It’s not opinion, and it’s not religion, taking a life is not your decision!”
They told the newspaper Milenio that they intended to take their protest to the schools, workplaces, and public plazas of the city to stop the arbitrary destruction of life.
Only three of the court’s eleven justices declared their intention to vote against the constitutionality of the law, which has resulted in the deaths of over 12,000 unborn children since its passage in 2007. Despite the stance of the ruling Party of the Democratic Revolution, which passed the ordinance, the vast majority of Mexico City residents oppose abortion.