Quotes from Pope Francis

 

  1. Our defence of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development. Gaudete et Exsultate, par 101.
  2. Adopting a child is an act of love, offering the gift of a family to someone who has none. It is important to insist that legislation help facilitate the adoption process, above all in the case of unwanted children, in order to prevent their abortion or abandonment. Amoris Laetitia, par 179.
  3. Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? Laudato Si, par 120.
  4. “Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenceless 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…Precisely because this involves the internal consistency of our message about the value of the human person, the Church cannot be expected to change her position on this question…It is not ‘progressive’ to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life…”. Evangelii Gaudium par 213-214.
  5. “All life has inestimable value even the weakest and most vulnerable, the sick, the old, the unborn and the poor, are masterpieces of God’s creation, made in his own image, destined to live forever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect.” Message to Catholics taking part in annual Day for Life in Britain and Ireland July 28, 2013.
  6. “All too often, as we know from experience, people do not choose life, they do not accept the ‘Gospel of Life’ but let themselves be led by ideologies and ways of thinking that block life, that do not respect life, because they are dictated by selfishness, self-interest, profit, power and pleasure, and not by love, by concern for the good of others.“…As a result, the living God is replaced by fleeting human idols which offer the intoxication of a flash of freedom but, in the end, bring new forms of slavery and death.” – from the homily at Mass for ‘Evangelium Vitae Day’ June 16, 2013.
  7. “All life has inestimable value even the weakest and most vulnerable, the sick, the old, the unborn and the poor, are masterpieces of God’s creation, made in his own image, destined to live forever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect.” It is necessary to reaffirm our solid opposition to any direct offence against life, especially when innocent and defenceless, and the unborn child in its mother’s womb is the quintessence of innocence. Audience with Italian Movement for Life, April 11, 2014.
  8. Every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world’s rejection. And every elderly person…even if he is ill or at the end of his days, bears the face of Christ. They cannot be discarded, as the ‘culture of waste’ suggests!” Speech to Catholic healthcare professionals and gynaecologists, September 20, 2013.