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The Episcopal Conference has published a note this Wednesday in which it encourages “all Catholics to promote the defense of life, denouncing the legislative projects that attempt against it and confuse injustice with the right.” A clear, though not direct, reference to the demonstration that various pro-life organizations have organized for this Sunday and that has as its motto «We risk our lives! Enough of laws against truth and human nature!”
The letter, signed by the Episcopal Subcommission for the Family and the Defense of Life, also adds that “we thus encourage, with all the channels that a democratic society allows, to mobilize in favor of life and to creatively seek new ways of establishing this necessary culture of care that promotes and protects it».
The bishops thus settle their support for the demonstration, after has been one of the topics discussed in the Permanent Commission, which is meeting these days in Madridagainst which they did not present themselves with a unanimous position.
While some dioceses, such as Valencia and Getafe, have incorporated Sunday’s demonstration as an event on their website agenda, others, such as Madrid, have been more cautious in supporting the event. The note recalls that “there are many activities programmed by the different dioceses and ecclesial movements to show this yes to the family, which is also a yes to life, since the proposal of the Christian family is linked to the transmission and defense of life». The demonstration is called by some confessional entities such as the Catholic Association of Propagandists and e-Christians and the Neos cultural platform, promoted by Jaime Mayor Oreja.
Although in the presentation of the call, Mayor Oreja assured that they had previously spoken with “the Church”, he could not confirm the presence of any bishop in the march. Precisely one of the issues that divides the episcopate. Although they are in favor of the objective of the march, some think that their direct participation would give them a leading role that they prefer that it fall on the lay conveners. However, others consider that the current situation —with the project to reform the Abortion Law approved by the Government and the Euthanasia Law, whose validity turns one year this Saturday— is reason enough to take to the streets. In any case, each bishop is autonomous and a decision of the Permanent Commission could not condition his participation.
The note makes a long review of the situations in which the defense of life is involved: «We encourage everyone to promote the yes to life and express our support for those who have the right to be born and to be welcomed by their parents with love; in favor of mothers, who have the right to receive the necessary social and state support to avoid becoming victims of abortion; in favor of the freedom of parents and of the schools that collaborate with them to give their children a comprehensive education, which gives the necessary importance today to affective and sexual education, in accordance with moral convictions that truly prepare them for being parents and welcoming the gift of life; in favor of palliative care and freedom of conscience; denouncing the situations in which she is threatened, as it continues to be seen in various forms of slavery, in human trafficking or in abusive working conditions ».
In this way, the note published this Wednesday makes an exercise of balance with the intention of satisfying both sensitivities of the Episcopal Conference. We will have to wait until Sunday to find out if the bishops go out again to demonstrate in the streets against the decisions of the Sánchez Governmentas they did at the time against Rodríguez Zapatero’s.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism