MightySteely

Here to understand the world better and share the little I have learned.

[Paulina Guzik @Guzik_Paulina]

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)

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Count me out @sainsburys

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Sainsbury’s accused of sacrificing animal welfare for net zero https://t.co/5Qw2VlwH9K

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@AlejandraM78461 3

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@GodswillChemist List please, Sir

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@whitepilledpage The Catholic Church awaits.

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@LabourMercedes Save the sick and vulnerable from the ill thought through and pernicious faux empathy exhibited by clowns such as yourself.

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@benonwine Yes absolutely 💯

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@thegarybrecka I’m trying to be kinder - less judgemental and less sweary 😂

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@blaiklockBP We need a national campaign against halal and kosher slaughter methods. We have enough animal lovers here still to stop this once they realise what is going on.

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@MarkHeath45 Early days - so much could happen. Reform look set to join the uni party though.

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@BishopBarron So very true.

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@EnochBurke Keep going - you are amazing people, tasked with a really critical job. To lay bare the hypocrisy of this so called government and its lunatic agencies.

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@RealJamesWoods She also tried to abort her only child and declared in her own memoires that she would have preferred to give birth to a little dog… not sure I can celebrate her beauty anymore. Seems rather ugly to me…

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@_sorrengailll CBA mostly 🤣 but thought my skin would age better - not sure if that is true though…

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@damekatydenise_ Happy Christmas! Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noel! Froheweihnachten!

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@theamelia__ Zorro

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@AllisonPearson @jessphillips Yes, wilful moral blindness. Evil.

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@lady_valor_07 38 for me

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@JamesMelville 23 for me