I'll just leave this here.
https://infovaticana.com/2018/05/29/francisco-se-refiere-al-aborto-como-interrupcion-del-embarazo/
https://infovaticana.com/2018/05/29/francisco-se-refiere-al-aborto-como-interrupcion-del-embarazo/
Dear brothers and sisters:
I am pleased to welcome you and greet you all, starting with the President, Dr. John Lee, whom I thank for his words.
Your qualification of "catholic doctors" commits you to a permanent spiritual, moral and bioethics formation in order to put into practice the evangelical principles in medical practice, from the doctor-patient relationship until reaching the missionary activity of improving the conditions of the health of populations in the peripheries of the world. Your work is a peculiar form of human solidarity and Christian witness; In fact, your work is enriched with the spirit of faith. And it is important that your associations commit themselves to raise awareness about these principles to medical students and young doctors by involving them in associative activities.
The Catholic identity does not compromise your collaboration with those who, from a different religious perspective or without a specific creed, recognize the dignity and excellence of the human person as the criterion of their activity. The Church is in favor of life, and her concern is that nothing is against life in the reality of a concrete existence, even if it is weak or defenseless, even if it is not developed or is not very advanced. To be Catholic doctors, therefore, is to feel health professionals who, from the faith and from communion with the Church, receive the impulse to make their Christian and professional formation more mature, their tireless dedication, and the inexhaustible necessity of penetrate and know the laws of nature to better serve life (see PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae, 24 ).
The fidelity and coherence with which the associations of your Federation, in the course of the years, have given faith of their catholic appearance are known, putting into practice the teaching of the Church and the guidelines of its Magisterium in the medical field. moral. This criterion of recognition and action has favored your collaboration in the mission of the Church to promote and defend human life from its conception to its natural end, the quality of existence, respect for the weakest, the humanization of medicine and its full socialization.
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This fidelity has entailed and entails hardships and difficulties that, in particular circumstances, can demand a lot of courage. Continue with serenity and determination along this path, accompanying the magisterial interventions in the fields of medicine with the corresponding awareness of their moral implications. Nor has the field of medicine and health been effectively spared the advancement of the technocratic paradigm, the adoration of unlimited human power, and a practical relativism where everything becomes irrelevant if it does not serve one's own interests (cf. Lit. in Laudato si ', 122).
Faced with this situation, you are called to affirm the centrality of the patient as a person and their dignity with their inalienable rights, in pris The right to life. It is necessary to confront the tendency to debase the patient as if it were a machine to repair, without respecting moral principles, and to exploit the weakest by discarding what does not correspond to the ideology of efficiency and benefit. The defense of the patient's personal dimension is essential for the humanization of medicine, in the sense also of "human ecology". Worry about compromising in the respective countries and in the international arena, intervening in specialized environments, but also in debates related to legislation on sensitive ethical issues, such as the termination of pregnancy, the end of life and genetic medicine. Do not miss your request in defense of freedom of conscience, doctors and all health workers.
At your next congress, which will be held in Zagreb in a few days, you will reflect on the theme "The sanctity of life and the medical profession, from Humanae vitae to Laudato si '". This is also a concrete sign of your participation in the life and mission of the Church. This participation, as the Second Vatican Council emphasized, is so necessary that "without it the same apostolate of the pastors often can not fully achieve its effect" (Decr. Apostolicam Actuositatem, 10). Be increasingly aware that today it is necessary and urgent that the action of the Catholic physician be presented with a character of unmistakable clarity in the field of both personal and associative witness.
In this sense, it is desirable that the activities of the Associations of Catholic doctors be interdisciplinary and also involve other ecclesial realities. In particular, know how to harmonize your efforts with those of priests, men and women religious and of all those who work in the pastoral care of health, being with them together with the people who suffer: they have great need of your contribution and yours. Be ministers, besides that of priests, of fraternal charity, transmitting to those who approach you with the contribution of your knowledge, wealth of humanity and evangelical compassion.
Dear brothers and sisters, many look at you, as well as at your work. Your words, your gestures, your advice, your choices have an echo that goes beyond the strictly professional field and become, if they are coherent, a testimony of lived faith. The profession rises to the dignity of a true apostolate. I encourage you to continue the associative path with joy and generosity, in collaboration with all the people and institutions that share the love of life and strive to serve it in their dignity and sacredness. May the Virgin Mary, Salus infirmorum, support your purposes, which I accompany with my Blessing! And please, pray for me too. Thank you.