VATICAN CITY (VIS) – Archbishop John Foley, president of the
Pontifical Council of Social Communications, addressed the Second
International Meeting of Catholic Obstetricians on Friday in Rome. He
congratulated participants for being “faithful adherents to and indeed
apostles of the teaching of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human
life at all stages of its development.”
The archbishop said that “as Catholic obstetricians you are more on the
front line of media interest than any other Catholic professionals,”
precisely because of the “issues in which the media have such an intense
interest: abortion, contraception, stem cell research, artificial
insemination, either by a husband or donor, intrauterine surgery, and
indeed a host of others.”
He noted that worldwide there “is diminishing respect for motherhood,”
and that “even in Catholic countries, the birth rate is falling rapidly.
… We must also face the fact that artificial contraception is widely
used, even by Catholics apparently without misgivings. Objectively, of
course, they are wrong.”
“To combat the morally noxious environment in which we live,” said
Archbishop Foley, “we must promote an environment – especially a media
environment – in which human life is respected at every stage of its
development” and one “of sexual responsibility and, therefore, of sound
family life.”
(This article courtesy of Vatican Information Service.)
