The Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio is condemning a recent ad by Catholics for Choice declaring that “public funding for abortion is a Catholic social justice value.”
The full-page ad, published in the San Antonio Express-News, is part of a broader ad campaign attempting to paint abortion support as not only compatible with Catholicism, but inspired and necessitated by it.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” the Archdiocese declares in its response. “For more than 2,000 years, the Church has steadfastly proclaimed that respect for all human life at every stage is foundational to the Catholic faith. Abortion from the earliest tradition of the Church has been considered immoral.”
The response goes on to quote the magisterial document Donum Vitae (The Gift of Life), in which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declares: “The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life.”
It is our hope,” the Archdiocese concludes, “that one day Catholics for Choice will take the time to acquaint themselves with basic Catholic teachings, and acknowledge the truth of the Catholic faith, and not choose to misrepresent her teachings with false and inaccurate information and ads that only work to confuse and mislead the public.”
Numerous Bible passages unambiguously condemn the taking of innocent human life, which includes abortion: Genesis 9:6 declares, “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind”; Proverbs 6:16-17 calls “hands that shed innocent blood” “detestable to” the Lord; Matthew 19:17-18 quotes Jesus as reaffirming, “If you want to enter life, keep the commandments,” including “You shall not murder”; and Jeremiah 1:5 has God saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
