The Church all over the world is observing today as “Pro-Life” Sunday
What does it mean to be “pro-life”? Many would immediately associate being pro-life with “anti-abortion.” This is appropriate since “pro-life” has always been used to describe the position of those who have passionately fought for the right to life of the unborn. In many countries, abortion has been legalized. Even in our country, there are over half a million abortion performed every year. To be pro-life therefore is to promote and defend the value of life – right from the moment of conception. The right to life is an inalienable right, and those who are in their mother’s womb have a right to live.
What is horrifying is that nowadays the right to life of the unborn is being ignored, trampled and violated in favor of the right to choose (pro-choice). Abortion – the murder of the millions of the innocents in their mother’s womb is justified by the right to choose – choose what? Death for the unwanted child in the womb. For many, the politically correct position is to be pro-choice. Being pro-life is regarded as being conservative.
This is a manifestation of the culture of death that is infecting the North American and Europe and that is being exported to poor countries. Thus, it imperative for Christians to proclaim the defend and promote the value of life – especially of the unborn – and to oppose abortion.
Being pro-life does not stop with the fight against abortion. Being pro-life cannot be exclusively associated with anti-abortion – it also more than that. We need to also to oppose other manifestations of the culture of death that was described by John Paul II in his encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” : capital punishment, war, extra-judicial killings/ summary executions, destruction of the environment, poverty, euthanasia, etc. Corruption also contributes to this culture of death. We need to adopt what the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin calls a consistent ethic of life. We need to affirm the value of life in all its stages, we need to struggle against whatever threatens human life.
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This is what I have been biking for - for life and peace. I consider myself a pro-life activist. My advocacies - for peace, for the environment, against war, against summary killings, against aerial spraying, against abortion, against corruption, etc. - are all part of this pro-life stance.
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