Cardinal Rivera makes energetic call to defend life and women in Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico, Jul 1, 2009 / 17:48 pm

During his homily on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City called for the defense of life from conception to natural death and for support for women, as the country prepares for local and national elections on July 5.

During his remarks, the cardinal explained that the Church "ought to follow her best traditions of healthy feminism. We must esteem and defend total equality between man and woman on a personal level and in the area of human rights. But we must also affirm their diversity, not as something contradictory or juxtaposed, but as complementary."

"We cannot continue applying the outdated theory of class struggle to man and woman as if they were two irreconcilable beings," he warned.

"In today’s circumstances, when so many cultivate and proclaim a culture of death, Christians and the Church must promote the dignity of human life and defend it from conception to natural death," the cardinal exhorted.

He went on to state, "Today we need to urgently promote and defend human life in our country because of the many attacks against it from different sectors of society, which some even hold up as a sign of progress and social struggle."

Cardinal Rivera also warned that "Christians and the Church cannot just merely denounce everything that attacks life, but rather following the example of the Lord of Life, they must bring men and women from less humane to more humane conditions, to the point of full knowledge of Jesus Christ."