Pope Francis takes issue with Christians who view abortion more important than migration, immigration issues
Pope Francis took aim with Christians and churchgoers who view abortion as a more important issue than migration.
Rodrigo Santoro blessed by Pope Francis I photo/ Nazanin Boniadi
“Some Catholics consider (immigration) a secondary issue compared to the ‘grave’ bioethical questions,” he said. “That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian.”
Francis targeted the “harmful ideological error” of those who dismiss the importance of the “social engagement of others,” such as in immigration or service of the poor.
Francis criticized those who “relativise” these issues, “as if there are other more important matters, or the only thing that counts is one particular ethical issue or cause that they themselves defend.”
“Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate,” he said, but should not supersede the defense of the poor or migrants.
Life Site News reported on the Pope’s remarks, contrasting his statement with the stance from previous Popes:
Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 remarks to members of the European People’s Party: “As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable.”
Pope Saint John Paul II wrote similarly in his 1988 apostolic exhortation: The Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World (Christifideles Laici) — “The inviolability of the person, which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination . . . “
