Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 22, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Amidst the heated public debate in Argentina surrounding the recent cases of handicapped women whose families sought to obtain abortions for them, Bishop Martin de Elizalde of Nueve de Julio has called for a greater response to the, “moral emptiness of society,” which causes such problems as the spread of sexual immorality and the “frivolous destruction of life.”
 
In a statement on, “the defense of life and of sexual and reproductive ethics,” the Argentinean bishop denounced that “the spread of sexual immorality, the justification of aberrant attitudes in this area, the frivolous destruction of life, as if it were nothing more than an undesired or defective consequence of immoral acts,” are the result of a “terribly grave situation: the moral emptiness of our society.”

“Not only Christians, but all men and women of good will must react before we reach the point of no return,” Bishop Elizalde warned.  “The responsibility of politicians is inexcusable.”

“Voters must make their will known, demanding that their representatives reflect the ideals that should mold society and not combat and annul them,” the bishop continued.  “Catholic professionals, for their part, are morally obligated to seek formation and to be informed about the teachings of the Church, in order to thus act in accord with them and to convey to those who solicit their service, proposals that allow them to work with justice and mercy,” he added.

Abortion for handicapped women

Regarding the recent cases of two young handicapped women whose families sought to obtain abortions for them, Bishop Elizalde warned that they are being used as an argument to promote abortion on demand.

“From a concrete and limited example, although not infrequent, it is being argued that the consequence should be applied, according to the cultural model being imposed, across the board.  This is what is happening with the young handicapped pregnant woman, for whom the so-called ‘right to abort’ was being requested, based on the argument that conception was the result of rape,” the bishop stated.

He noted that media coverage of the story was biased toward a liberalizing of the country’s abortion laws.  “Not everything that is legal is moral,” the bishop emphasized.  “What the law proposes as possible, as non-punishable, is not always something that should obligatorily take place,” he said in conclusion.