Gospel of Life # 2 of 2

Gospel of Life # 2 of 2

Pope John Paul II’s “Evangelium Vitae” 1995
Blog - cinops be gone, Sunday, March 15, 2008
(continued from Randall A. Terry's booklet, A Humble Plea)
7) When a parliamentary or social majority decrees that it is legal, at least under certain conditions, to kill unborn human life, is it not really making a ‘tyrannical’ decision with regard to the weakest and most defenseless of human beings? Everyone’s conscience rightly rejects those crime against humanity of which our century has had such a sad experience. But would these crimes cease to be crimes if, instead of being committed by unscrupulous tyrants, they were legitimated by popular consensus? Section 70

The doctrine on the necessary conformity of civil law with the moral law is in continuity with the whole tradition of the Church. (72)
In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to “take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it.” (73)

8) Faced with so many opposing points of view, and a widespread rejection of sound doctrine concerning human life, we can feel that Paul’s entreaty to Timothy is also addressed to us: ‘ Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching.’ (2 Tim.4:2). This exhortation should resound with special force in the hearts of those members of the Church who directly share, in different ways, in her mission as ‘teacher’ of the truth.

May it resound above all for us who are Bishops: we are the first ones called to be untiring preachers of the Gospel of Life …
… Aware of their specific role, may they never be so grievously irresponsible as to betray the truth and their own missions by proposing personal ideas contrary to the Gospel of life as faithfully presented and interpreted by the Magisterium.’ (Emphasis added, 82)

9) “… The Church hears every day the echo of Saint Paul’s words of warning: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!’ (1 Cor. 9:16) As Paul VI wrote, ‘evangelization is the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.’
“Evangelization is all-embracing, progressive activity through which the Church participates in the prophetic, priestly and royal mission of the Lord Jesus. It is therefore inextricably linked to preaching, celebration and service of charity. Evangelization is a profoundly ecclesial act, which call all the various workers of the Gospel to action, according to their individual charisms and ministry.
“This is also the case with regard to the proclamation of the Gospel of life, an integral part of the Gospel which is Jesus Christ himself.” (78)

10) “Christians, like all people of good will, are called upon grave obligation of conscience not to cooperate formally in practices which, even if permitted by civil legislation, are contrary to God’ law. Indeed, from the moral standpoint, it is never licit to cooperate formally in evil. Such cooperation occurs when an action, either by its very nature or by the form it takes in a concrete situation, can be defined as a direct participation in an act against innocent human life or a sharing in immoral intention of the person committing it. This cooperation can never be justified either by invoking respect for the freedom of others or by appealing to the fact that civil law permits it or requires it. (74)

George H. Kubeck, Duplicate and or translate into Spanish and Vietnamese.