Archbishop says it is hypocritical to be shocked by the Iraq war and yet support abortion
MADRID, February 6 (CNA) - In his most recent pastoral letter,
Archbishop
Francisco Gil Hellin of Burgos said it was hypocritical to be shocked
by the
Iraq war and yet support legal abortion in Spain, where 85,000 unborn
are
killed each year.
"One wonders how there could be such hypocrisy when evaluating, for
example,
the war in Iraq and abortion. What would have happened if there were
85,000
executions in Spain in one year? It is unthinkable," the archbishop
said in
his letter.
Archbishop Gil said the national and international media were rightly
"outraged" by the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Grab but that this was
"Snow
white in comparison to what happens with the aborted unborn: most of
them
are dismembered, others are poisoned, others are cut to pieces. After
21
weeks, the mother undergoes a caesarian and the fetus is extracted
alive and
left to die."
The archbishop compared the number of abortions carried out in Spain
during
2004 with "the horrors of Nazism and Stalinism." The data from that
year was
"chilling," he said, as abortion in Spain was up 6.5% from the previous
year, 27% of women have had more than one abortion, 23% of abortions
are
performed after the 12th week of pregnancy, and the average age of
women who
have abortions continues to go down. The archbishop said estimates are
that
during the last 20 years since abortion was legalized in Spain, "almost
one
million innocent and defenseless lives have been taken."
"The horrors of Nazism and Stalinism are not far off in this society
that
calls itself and presumes to be progressive and democratic. It is not
an
exaggeration to state that we are facing a totalitarian situation,
where the
strongest impose their will on the weakest." This is occurring, he
said,
with "at least the tacit consent of politicians and the mass media."
Society "remains asleep and is allowing unprecedented genocide,"
Archbishop
Gil continued, "even though people are now beginning to see abortion as
something evil."
The Church is attacked for denouncing such "barbarism" and for trying
to
awaken consciences, he added, and the number of women "who suffer over
the
child that could have been theirs continues to grow." The Church will
continue to reach out to young women to help prevent them from having
to
carry "a heavy conscience for the rest of their lives."