Archbishop slams groups pushing for legalization of abortion in Peru

Lima, Peru, Mar 24, 2009 / 12:26 pm

Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren of Piura and Tumbes has called on Peruvians to “be on guard” to protect the unborn from “very powerful ideological and economic interest groups that seek to legalize abortion in Peru at all costs.”

During the Mass for the Day of the Unborn Child, which will be commemorated on March 25, Archbishop Eguren recalled that “the natural law inscribed on the hearts of all human persons and illuminated by Christian revelation” demands respect for life from conception to natural death.  For this reason, he called on all Peruvians to reject abortion.

“Today when we speak so much about human rights, we must also proclaim with courage that the right to life is the first and most fundamental right of the human person,” he said.

The archbishop, who is also president of the Bishops’ Committee on the Family, Childhood and Life, said Peruvians want peace, but he warned that social peace “cannot be built through criminal violence that takes place in the mother’s womb through the crime and sin of abortion.”

After recalling that science confirms that life begins at conception, the archbishop said the unborn child is an expression of the love of God, “and therefore should always be cause for joy.”

“There was a time in which Jesus Christ, like us, was an embryo, that is, an unborn child. If we had attacked Him in his mother’s womb, we would have committed the same crime carried out by the Roman soldiers on Calvary,” he said.

“Said in another way,” the archbishop continued, “even before being born, from the womb of Mary, Jesus Christ has revealed to us the dignity of human life.”

Therefore, he said, “The Church is called today to defend the weakest of the weak, the poorest of the poor, those who have no voice to defend themselves: the unborn.”