In order to live together

In an address to the Italian organiztion ‘Movement for Life’ yesterday, Pope Benedict noted the 30th anniversary of the legalization of abortion in Italy and said it’s time to take a hard look at the human and social impact of those laws.

The essence of his message is that a value more fundamental than even someone’s religious belief is the respect for human life, without which we can’t really live together in civil society.

Here’s how he actually said it:

“We cannot but recognise”, he went on, “that, in practical terms, defending human life has become more difficult today, because a mentality has been created that progressively devalues human life and entrusts it to the judgement of individuals. A consequence deriving therefrom is lessened respect for the human person, a value that lies at the foundation of any form of civil coexistence, over and above the faith a person may profess”.

Abortion has not been the answer it was portrayed to be when laws were made to allow it.

Abortion “not only has not resolved the problems afflicting many women and no small number of families, but it has opened another wound in our societies” said the Holy Father.

And there is no social justice without the premise that all lives have dignity and deserve respect.

The Pope pointed out that this year also marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and he praised the Movement for Life’s commitment “in the political sphere, assisting and encouraging the institutions to ensure that correct recognition is given to the words ‘human dignity’.

Benedict went to the United Nations on his US visit to observe that anniversary and call the UN back to the original principles of the Universal Declaration. That body, and many member nations, have strayed off course from their original purpose in defining and protecting all human rights. His address there repeatedly referred to ‘human dignity’.

The founding of the United Nations, as we know, coincided with the profound upheavals that humanity experienced when reference to the meaning of transcendence and natural reason was abandoned, and in consequence, freedom and human dignity were grossly violated.

When this happens, Benedict told the UN General Assembly, international order is undermined. The “pragmatic approach”, which just looks for the “common good” separate from objective values, is a mistake, said the pope.

This reference to human dignity, which is the foundation and goal of the responsibility to protect, leads us to the theme we are specifically focusing upon this year, which marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This document was the outcome of a convergence of different religious and cultural traditions, all of them motivated by the common desire to place the human person at the heart of institutions, laws and the workings of society…

At the same time, the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of human rights all serve as guarantees safeguarding human dignity. It is evident, though, that the rights recognized and expounded in the Declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person, who remains the high-point of God’s creative design for the world and for history. They are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations.

Here’s a loaded statement that probably went ring over the heads of listeners:

Experience shows that legality often prevails over justice when the insistence upon rights makes them appear as the exclusive result of legislative enactments or normative decisions taken by the various agencies of those in power. When presented purely in terms of legality, rights risk becoming weak propositions divorced from the ethical and rational dimension which is their foundation and their goal.

As I mentioned in this analysis, the shorthand for that statement is ‘just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s moral.’

Examples readily spring to mind. Some non-governmental groups have tried to write into the UN’s documents the language of “reproductive rights” in order to export contraception and abortion globally and tie it to international aid. The language of the right to end one’s life is similarly spreading euthanasia disguised as compassion. But Pope Benedict addressed those trends in more nuanced, elegant terms.

The words stand out most profoundly in reading the text of the address. They apply to the UN’s efforts and obligations to relieve suffering and save lives in Myanmar and China….and everywhere else people are threatened. Protection is available, and help should be on the way.