Argentinean bishops propose 2011 as 'Year of Life'

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 18, 2010 / 19:59 pm

The executive committee of the Argentinean Bishops’ Conference called on Argentineans this week to make a “sincere and mature” commitment to life. They declared 2011 to be “The Year of  Life.”

In their recent statement, the committee referred to Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to Catholics to participate in a prayer vigil for the unborn on November 27. The date was chosen so the beginning of Advent would be an expression of gratitude to God for the gift of life.

“When we speak of the gift of life, the sacred gift of God to man, we refer to the life of each person at every stage …  and in all of its dimensions: physical, spiritual, familiar, social, political, religious,” the committee explained.

The bishops expressed their desire to affirm “the vital need to prioritize … the right to life in all of its manifestations” during the year of 2011. They noted that this will include the unborn, as well those “who grow up in poverty and are marginalized.”

The committee reiterated its call to defend life saying, “We will not be able to build a nation that includes all if the primary right to life of every person - the right to life from the moment of conception -  does not prevail in our country.”

For this reason, the bishops urged greater protection for women who are pregnant and for the strengthening of the mother-child bond in order to ensure the quality of life until natural death.“We must find ways to care for the lives of both mother and unborn child and thus save both,” they said.