September 28, 2016: Del Rio News-Herald * OPINION * Letter to the Editor * "Catholics for life, not choice"
Letter to the Editor,
Catholics for Life, not Choice
Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio responded to the
Catholics for Choice advertisement in the San Antonio Express-News.
The Archbishop stated, “An organization called Catholics for
Choice placed a full-page advertisement in the September 12 edition of
the San Antonio Express-News with inaccurate information which
must be corrected, since it misrepresents the truth and what the Catholic
Church believes and teaches.
This misrepresentation is demonstrated by their statement that
‘Public funding for abortion is a Catholic social justice value.’ Nothing could
be further from the truth.
Before responding to claims made by Catholics for Choice in
‘Abortion in Good Faith’ it should be noted that this group does not speak for
the Catholic Church.
For more than 2,000 years, the Church has steadfastly
proclaimed that respect for all human life at every stage is foundational to
the Catholic faith.
Abortion from the earliest tradition of the Church has been
considered immoral.
The Catholic Church’s position on abortion is clear.
In the
magisterial document The Gift of Life, affirmed that, ‘The human being is
to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and
therefore from that same moment the rights as a person must be recognized,
among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human
being to life’.
The intentional killing
of a human being living in the womb is always seriously immoral because as
persons the right-to-life is the most basic and fundamental right we possess.
Hopefully one day Catholics for Choice will take the time to
acquaint themselves with basic Catholic teachings, and acknowledge the truth of
the Catholic faith, and not choose to misrepresent those teachings with false, inaccurate
advertisements that only work to confuse and mislead the public.”
Concluding his statement Archbishop
Garcia-Siller stated, “Upholding the sacred dignity of all human life is the
duty of every member of society and it must be taken seriously in order to
ensure that we are a culture that affirms the right to life for all.”
Marian Casillas, Ed.D.
Del Rio