By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
VATICAN CITY/BRUSSELS/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – The Vatican has condemned the European Parliament’s decision to include the “right to abortion” in the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.
“Thursday, April 11, was a sad day for Europe and its institutions. Sanctioning that abortion, i.e., the deliberate killing of the most defenseless of human beings—please don’t call it “appendix ” or “little piece of meat”—can be transformed into a fundamental human right says a lot about the ethical drift underway,” said Vatican News service Editorial Director Andrea Tornielli.
Thursday’s vote came days after the Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration prepared for five years and recently approved by Pope Francis.
The document deals with the alleged violations of human dignity, including abortion.
“We need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or the temptation of self-deception… procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth,” the declaration said.
Unborn children are, thus, “the most defenseless and innocent among us. Nowadays, efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this,” it added.
It must, therefore, be stated with all force and clarity, even in our time, that “this defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development,” the declaration stressed.
UNANIMOUS RATIFICATION
Tornielli stressed that the Vatican realizes that for the European Parliament’s decision to come into force, “a unanimous ratification by the 27 EU-member countries is required. And that unanimity in this field will be difficult to achieve,” the director added.
Countries such as EU member Hungary have mentioned the protection of “the life of the fetus shall be protected from the moment of conception” in the constitution.
“However, the message remains a silent, tired Europe, incapable of expressing one voice on diplomatic initiatives to stem the ongoing war and the abyss towards which the world is heading at an ever faster pace,” Tornielli argued.
Europe, which is “incapable of taking responsibility as a community for the plight of migrants and of helping them, preventing the Mediterranean from continuing to be a cemetery,” has shown that it has “among its priorities that of consecrating as a fundamental European right” the “killing of women and men in the initial phase of their existence.”
Tornielli noted that most of the 27 EU member nations already allow abortion in their respective legislations.
While the European Parliament was to vote on abortion, Pope Francis spoke to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences about “today’s throwaway culture,” which becomes “a culture of death” affecting the weakest.
“Every human being,” he said, “has the right to live with dignity and to develop integrally, even if they are unproductive or were born with or developed limitations. This does not detract from their great dignity as human persons, a dignity based not on circumstances but on the intrinsic worth of their being. Unless this basic principle is upheld, there will be no future either for fraternity or for the survival of humanity.”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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