WASHINGTON, March 18 /Christian Newswire/ -- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, today responded to the letter from several dozen leaders of women's religious congregations who expressed support for the Senate health care bill.
"First of all, contrary to its claim, this statement does not represent 59,000 nuns; it represents the approximately 59 nuns who signed it. Secondly, while the bishops' analysis of the health care bill relies on the expertise of legal analysts, it is not clear what expert analysis these signers have relied on. Third, it is absurd to advocate social justice while risking the expansion of a holocaust. The right to life is at the heart of social justice. We can't pursue one by sacrificing the other," Fr. Pavone said.
Earlier this week, Priests for Life called upon all clergy and religious to visit the local offices of their US Representatives, and to echo to them the bishops' call to reject the bill in its present form. In the light of this letter from women religious, Priests for Life will redouble its efforts to bring the voices of millions of Catholics to this debate in the days ahead.
Priests for Life is the nation's largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org.
Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.