Opposition to war incompatible with support for abortion, says Spanish cardinal

Madrid, Spain, Jun 14, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The vice president of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares of Toledo, said this week opposition to war or to domestic violence is incompatible with support for abortion.

Speaking at a summer course on Catholicism and Spain offered through the University of San Pablo and the Garcia Morente Foundation, the cardinal gave his analysis of the moral state of the country and asked, “How can you say no to the war, no to violence in the home and yet say yes to abortion?”

According to the cardinal, family, education and the defense of human life are not “truths of the faith,” but rather “the three basic realities that make Spain what she is and what she is called to be today and in the future.”

These three realities, he added, “are not particular to any one confession, but rather are directed towards all persons independent of their religious preference.”  The Spanish cardinal explained that many parents are appealing for urgent help for the family, “which is enduring grave problems, and it is time to provide solutions.”  

Cardinal Cañizares said one of the causes of the crisis of the family is “the plague of divorce - whose victims are the children,” and he said homosexual unions and marriage between persons of the same sex are being used to “destroy the truth about marriage.”

“It hurts my ears to hear them talking about (homosexual marriage as) “progress” and defending positions that denigrate the family,” the cardinal said.