Montevideo, Uruguay, May 22, 2008 / 13:25 pm
The president of the Bishops’ Conference of Uruguay, Bishop Carlos Collazzi, has strongly rejected a campaign to legalize abortion being led by a feminist organization. The pro-abortions have posted billboards showing a rosary in the shape of a uterus to garner support.
The billboards include the picture of the rosary with the caption, “Get Your Rosaries off Our Ovaries,” “The right to our own bodies is not a question of faith. It is a question of democracy.”
In an interview with Radio Carve, Bishop Collazzi said the campaign betrayed a lack of respect for democratic principles and for a religious symbol that is important for the nation, “because the rosary speaks of the very religious sentiments of the Uruguayan people.”
“The issue at heart,” he said, “is always abortion.”
“The bishops have spoken out on numerous occasions and we have made statements that show we are not oblivious to the difficult circumstances” that many pregnant women face. “We are aware that social inequalities must be addressed, that the many difficulties that women who are pregnant face must be recognized…but the bishops and Christians or believers cannot be accused of being fundamentalists for defending the rights of the unborn.”
Bishop Collazzi said believers would continue to stand up for the right to life in a respectful way, and he emphasized that “the legalization of abortion does not change something evil into something good. That is a principle that we hold firmly and I am sorry to see a religious symbol used in a campaign against the faith, principles, the defense of life, which are not only religious principles but rather fundamental principles of human dignity, principles of life because five centuries before Christ Hippocrates refused to put his medical knowledge at the service of death.”
Regarding the accusation of “hypocrisy” leveled against the Church by abortion supporters, Bishop Collazzi responded, “The biggest hypocrisy is to say that life should be defended at certain times and not at others, and in my opinion, not defending all life is the height of hypocrisy.”