Madrid Cardinal renews call for respect for human life

Madrid, Spain, Nov 10, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Almudena in Spain, the Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Bishops Conference of Spain, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, renewed calls for respect for human life saying, “Nobody can manipulate the human condition as it has been planned and created by God.”

The Cardinal made his comments during a Mass celebrated in Madrid’s central square on the Spanish feast of Our Lady of Almudena.  The mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, as well as various political leaders, were among the 10,000 people who attended the Mass.

During his remarks, Cardinal Rouco Varela said, “The Church defends the truth about man against the attacks on life and natural death, on the institution of marriage and the family, on the true meaning of human sexuality,” because the Church “recognizes that nobody can manipulate the human condition as it has been planned and created by God.”

He went on to say that “certain ideologies that disguise themselves as progress lead to the annihilation of the person,” and that “a society which turns its back on the law of God ends up dehumanizing itself and turning against man.” 

“We live in difficult times of cultural, human and spiritual crises of a very grave nature and with consequences for the lives of the smallest and most defenseless,” lamented the Cardinal.  “It is a spiritual crisis, which leaves man with no sense of the transcendent” and which threatens “to pull God out of our society and out of ordinary life.”