Venezuelan Church to start year-long campaign against abortion

Caracas, Venezuela, May 20, 2013 / 11:09 am

A Venezuelan bishop said his country's 13th annual pro-life campaign will extend for the whole year, aiming to defend life and reject abortion "as the killing of a weak and defenseless human being."

In a statement sent to CNA, Bishop Rafael Conde Alfonzo recalled that for several years the Week for Life has begun on March 25.

However, this year it was postponed because the date fell on Monday of Holy Week and because of political controversy following former president Hugo Chavez's recent death.

Bishop Conde Alfonzo, who serves as president of the Venezuelan bishops' committee on Family and Childhood, said an international campaign exists to impose abortion locally under the pretext that it is a woman's right.

These organizations do not like the Church's position in support of the unborn and would prefer the Church adapt herself "to the different trends they are seeking to impose and thus contravene basic principles that are not only religious, but in many cases simply humane," he said.

However, the "Church's defense of life is based on the teachings of the Lord, who said that he had come that we might have life and have it in abundance," Bishop Conde Alfonzo emphasized.

"This statement of Jesus shows us that life is a gift from God...For this reason, it is a contradiction to consider the extinguishing of a life that has just begun as a right. God is the only author of life and He alone has power over it."

In his statement, Bishop Conde Alonzo called on Christians to fulfill their duty to "be defenders and promoters of the gift of life."

"Let us ask God that all human beings, especially believers, will learn to be thankful for the gift of life that God has given us and that those who govern the destinies of the nations will establish laws that respect and defend that gift."

"Jesus, who died and rose, is the Lord of life and wants us to have it in abundance," the bishop said.