In what will certainly become one of the most fundamental speeches of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV told the Spanish Parliament, before receiving a 7-minute standing ovation: "The defense of human life is neither a partisan issue nor a confessional interest: it is a goal of civilization."
"If life ceases to be recognized as a fundamental value, what future can our societies have?" he said, speaking to a gathering of politicians, many supporting abortion and euthanasia.
"Can a community that casts into the shadows the unborn child, the elderly, the sick, those who suffer in silence, or those who depend entirely on the care of others be called fully just?"
"Every human life must be recognized and safeguarded from conception to its natural end, in every circumstance of its existence. When this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable are the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning: to serve and protect every person."
"For this reason, the moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect and love those lives that are most fragile," he said, repeating what John Paul II emphasized decades ago.
Starting his speech he commented that Church's is the "message offered in the spirit of service to the human person."
"When the Church addresses anything concerning public life, she does so while respecting the proper mission of institutions and the legitimate responsibility of those who have received the mandate to legislate," Pope Leo said, emphasizing "the Church offers a reflection born of the desire to serve the common good."
He hailed Spain as country that "has known how to view the human being as more than just a cog in the social, economic or political order. It has recognized the human being as a creature open to truth, endowed with freedom, and driven by a thirst for eternity that no temporal reality can quench -- in a word, as someone whose dignity takes precedence over all utility and to whose service legislative action is subject."
He said it was Catholic orders that "helped to shape a legal and moral consciousness capable of remembering that authority always entails responsibility and that every human being must be recognized as a subject of rights and duties."
"That aspiration continues to resonate today: that dignity, justice and the common good should be the measure of social relations, both at the national and international levels."
Referring multiple times to his "Magnifica Humanitas" encyclical, he said: "When the common good ceases to be a shared horizon, public action runs the risk of fragmenting into partial interests, incapable of safeguarding what belongs to all."
"In this context, the family — the primary human reality and the natural foundation of the community — takes on particular importance," Pope Leo said.
"The family will always be the first school of humanity, where one learns, before anywhere else, the basic grammar of living together: welcoming life, caring for others, forgiving, serving and belonging."
"Human life can never be treated as a commodity," the pope said.
"A law does not attain its true greatness merely by having been formally enacted; it attains it when, in addition to being valid in form, it can stand before the dignity of the person and pass that test without shame."
"I invite you, then, to lift your gaze to the world around you, not to turn away from reality, but to remember that every decision by public authorities affects real people, especially those who have less power to make their voices heard."
"The expanse of one’s vision consists precisely in looking more deeply at what is at stake in every public decision. This is why, alongside technical solutions and legal reforms, a moral renewal is also needed."
Video: Vatican Media
(fragment of speech follows)
Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.
One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??
The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you.
Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!
nobody wanted Arsenal to win the Prem because we thought their fans were gonna be unbearable and annoying, but whats ended up happening is everyone else has become completely unbearable instead, crying and belittling their achievements as much as possible just to fuel agendas
This is the silent part that people wouldn't know.
Behind closed doors inside a medical conference, a large group of clinicians and researchers giving a standing ovation to another group of clinicians and researchers who found a way to increase survival in patients suffering from one of the, if not the, worst cancer in humans.
Metastatic pancreatic cancer.
They'll do this and then be on their way to see their patients the next day as if nothing happened.
And then work on something new to better what they did in this room.
That is how medical science works.
Value it and value its practitioners.
The Empire State Building shines red and white tonight in celebration of @Arsenal’s Premier League Title and trophy celebration.
See the lights live: https://t.co/iavtXSm3Fx
Steven Gerrard: “I look across the Arsenal squad, I don’t see much ego. I see a young hungry manager. You can’t let this setback take anything away from becoming Premier League champions. They deserve a lot of plaudits.” ❤️👏
Celebrities, rich people and ex-prime ministers should not make health policy. Prostate cancer screening is just not as simple as some are making out. There are real harms caused when people are treated unnecessarily.
@Sai_Ishaya_ Spot on. I wanted to respond to this and one other UK politics account, but it can get exhausting because they lack the context or knowledge, but still talk with so much certainty about what they don't know about.
@Ausbones A characteristic of certain sites in the body where they can tolerate antigen introduction without eliciting zealous immune responses. It's a protective feature to limit damage from the immune system. Eg the eyes with the vitreous humour cornea, CNS etc
@4eyednerd This is another part of medicine that fascinates me so much ! Its possibly one of several longevity factors some people have. The burning question is what other effects completing stopping pcsk9 would do. Presumably it has sok either in discovered function. Only time will tell