In a speech to a family association Saturday, Pope Francis again stressed that God’s vision of the family is between a man and a woman, and compared the abortion of children who are sick or disabled to a Nazi mentality.
“I’ve heard that it’s fashionable, or at least usual, that when in the first few months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has something, the first offer is: let’s send it away,” the pope said June 16, referring to the trend of aborting sick or disabled children.
This, he said, is “the murder of children…to get a peaceful life an innocent [person] is sent away…We do the same as the Nazis to maintain the purity of the race, but with white gloves.”
Pope Francis spoke to members of the Forum of Family Associations, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
His words on abortion come just days after his home country of Argentina voted June 14 in favor of a bill that would legalize abortion as early as the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. The comments also come just over a month ahead of his Aug. 25-26 trip to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families, which will feature Jesuit Fr. James Martin as a keynote speaker on how to be welcoming to the LGBT community.
The pope, the paper reported, said it is “painful” to think that society would accept the killing of children simply because they are sick or disabled, but this is the current mentality.
Turning to his 2016 post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis said that some have reduced the document to “you can, you can’t,” referring to the debate surrounding access to the sacraments for the divorced and remarried in the document’s eighth chapter.
“They have understood nothing,” he said, explaining that his exhortation “does not hide problems,” but goes beyond mere case studies. To understand the text, he said, one must read chapter four on the spirituality of everyday life, which he said is the “is the core” of the document.
Francis then pointed to the emphasis placed on marriage preparation in Amoris Laetitia, saying the family “is a beautiful adventure and today, I say it with pain, we see that many times we think of starting a family, getting married, as if it were a lottery. We go and if it works, it works, if not we end it and start again.”
What is needed, he said, is “a catechumenate for marriage…men and women are needed who help young people to mature.”
The pope also pointed to the increasing difficulty for families to spend time with their children, especially in times of social and economic crisis.
“To earn money today one has to have two jobs, the family is not considered,” he said, and encouraged parents to take up this “cross” and the excessive hours of work, while also spending time playing with their children.
“Children are the greatest gift,” he said, even when they are sick. Children, he said, must be “received as they come, as God sends them.”
Full story at Catholic News Agency.
Thank you Pope Francis! All of you who are against Pope Francis – listen up! He is teaching Catholic doctrine…and always has!
Is he trying to close the barn door after the horses have run out? Impeccable timing.
Actually, Francis has been rather slow in being clear. So while you may hold animus against those you perceive as being against Francis, the idea is that we call one another to speak the truth in season and out. Thank goodness Francis, for whatever reason, is speaking up clearly. Pray it continues.
When you consider that close to 60 MILLION unborn baby children have been killed by abortion since Roe versus Wade legalized abortion in America in 1973 this is even far worse than what the Nazi’s did. Then when you take into account those children being killed by abortion throughout the entire world the numbers of those killed by abortion reaches into the hundreds of millions. The abortion of the unborn is the number one issue facing humanity today. I also wonder if the mainstream media will give any publicity to the Pope’s comments that marriage is only between a man and woman. Pope Francis could not be more clear than that. Turn to a God of love and mercy. Repent and convert! End abortion now! Adoption is the loving option.
Pope Francis also said the other day that gays/same-sex couples can’t form a real family. They’re not families at all. Only a man and a woman/father and mother can form a real family.
Maybe this pope is coming around.
Yes, he did, and God bless him for finally speaking out.
Before Vatican II, the Catholic Church used to be very strong in inculcating the Catechism, and Christian Morality, in all Catholics, from an early age! People respected the moral and religious authority of the Church and Pope, worldwide– regardless of their own religious beliefs! Our prelates had tremendous authority, power and influence, all over the world! They were all unified under one Faith– Rome speaks, and you obey, worldwide! People were more respectful of God and Church authority, at that time— and had more fear of sin! Today’s Church has abandoned her responsibility for moral and spiritual leadership– in favor of silly, unworkable, babyish, “individual” preferences and beliefs— big mistake!
During World War II, many thousands of heroic European Catholic lay people and clergy, risked their lives, to help save the Jews– including Pope Pius XII, and the future Pope St John Paul II! Our current Pope, and many of his priests and prelates today– risk so very little, for Christ!! So– in the end– must we rely on young Catholic schoolkids, not even old enough to vote, to hold public marches, to try to defend the lives of the unborn—- and hope for secular laws to somehow be passed– and remain on the books, permanently?? Is that all we can hope for??? And poor, young David Daleiden going to jail????
Is the pope Catholic? Maybe after all!