Archbishop urges Argentineans to defend life and family

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sep 21, 2010 / 20:01 pm

Archbishop Alfonso Delgado of San Juan de Cuyo, Argentina denounced the recent series of attacks against life and the family in the country, including the various attempts to legalize abortion. He called such measures modern-day manifestations of the massacre of the innocents ordered by King Herod.

During an ordination Mass for five new priests, the archbishop recalled that the family is based on the profound union between one man and one woman meant to be a life-long endeavor of love.  “That special complementarity of marriage, which goes from the biological to the spiritual, is capable of creating a new human life and assuming responsibility for it. Children are the fruit of human life and of the creative power of God,” he explained.

This natural disposition is under assault from the lawmakers who recently approved homosexual unions by violating their consciences and their oath to represent the people, the archbishop continued. “In this way they have placed themselves against the people that elected them, against the Argentinean family and against nature.  I believe that when the time comes the people will remember this assault,” he said.

“The attacks on the family and life do not end here,” the archbishop went on. “Other bills have already been proposed that would legalize the killing of newborns and the unborn.  Jesus himself experienced this risk and for this reason he fled to Egypt.  The martyrdom of the ‘holy innocents’ bears witness to this.  It seems there are new Herods who aim to repeat that cruelty.  Babies are just as human as each one of you, they are the most vulnerable and defenseless among us, the ones who deserve the greatest care and protection from all of society and its leaders.”

Archbishop Delgado wondered aloud whether this “permission to kill” would constitute “crimes against humanity” committed by the State.  “What happened to the human rights that those who support this killing often speak about? In which trash can of our consciences are we throwing away the first of all human rights, which is the right to life?” he asked.

He exhorted Argentineans to urge their representatives to stand up for life and not become “accomplices of a new and horrible slaughter of human beings, a new genocide in Argentina.” Comparing abortion to the Nazi holocaust, the archbishop said, “This cannot be the path for Argentina or for Argentineans.  Nor can it be the path for anyone who has a minimum of respect for human dignity and rights. Much less should someone who claims to ‘represent’ the people act in this way,” he concluded.