Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb 21, 2007 / 09:18 am
Archbishop Domingo Castagna of Corrientes attacked abortion and the death penalty this week, noting that there are certain rights that must always be protected, such as “human life, the supreme gift, which when it exists, can never be taken by invoking another right.”
“When conflicts occur - sometimes artificially initiated - the solution cannot be the suppression of that fundamental right (to life). Unfortunately, more and more politicians and judges do not understand this,” the archbishop stated during his weekly radio broadcast.
He pointed out that for God “the value each person is of such importance that, even if a person commits a crime, he still retains his fundamental rights, because the guarantor of those rights will always be the one who granted them.”
“Every person, no matter how serious a criminal he is, is made in the image of God and should tend towards the perfection of the One whose image they reflect - even though it appears unattainable.
Archbishop Castagna ended his comments by saying, “Man is worthy of love not because he personally deserves it but because of the dignity that has been conferred on him freely by his Creator.”