BISHOP CONGRATULATES EAST TIMOR GOVERNMENT
FOR RESISTING FOREIGN PRESSURE ON ABORTION
James Tillman of LifeSiteNews.com
reported on July 16 that Dom Alberto Ricardo Da Silva, Bishop of Dili,
said that the Church has a duty and a call to contribute to the
well-being of women and children and their families."
For this reason Catholics should work for the health of both mother
and the unborn child, despite the fashionable trend of promoting
abortion as a means of population control, as a number of NGO's
including at least two that are
funded by the Canadian bishops official development arm - have recently
done in East Timor.
The country only recently staved off an attempt to significantly liberalize
its abortion laws. The bishop made the remarks on July 11 at the "National
Conference on Reproductive Health, Family Planning, and Sex Education,"
which was attended by several members of the Timorese national government.
The issue of foreign pressure on East Timor on sexual and population issues
has a lengthy and sordid history. The
country claimed independence from Indonesia in 2002 after years of occupation,
during which Indonesia had covertly
sterilized thousands of women in East Timor.
"In [East Timors] case the people fought hard for our human
rights, the right to life and the right to have children, during the occupation
days," said Bishop Da Silva. "Many sacrifices were made, but
with the hope that our prayers would be answered and that one day we would
be in control of our destiny."
Among the traditional Timorese values for which they fought, he said,
was the right to life of the unborn.
"In our mother tongue Tetum," he said, "when a woman becomes
pregnant, isin rua meaning two-bodies, the status
of the fetus is immediately recognized as a human person."
He said that national wellbeing also requires civil laws based on the
moral law. What is "good for the human person is good for the family
and what is good for the family is good for the society," he said.
"Furthermore, what is good can only be founded on strong moral values
based on natural law."
"East Timorese values are not inconsistent with womens right
to health. One must not confuse right to health with right to eliminate
life."
He saluted the Government and National Parliament because "they have
not opted for the easy way out and joined the fashionable trend of promoting
abortions for population control to the detriment of a childs life
and its human rights."
East Timor's new penal code forbids abortion, while permitting pregnancy
to be "interrupt[ed]" in extreme cases when it is the "only
way" to save the life of the mother.
The new code is dramatically more pro-life than the code passed by the
East Timor Council of Ministers in April, which would have permitted abortion
when the physical or mental health of the mother or unborn child was in
danger.
Ironically, at least two of the East Timorese feminist organizations that
were spearheading the effort to legalize the abortion laws are funded
by the Canadian bishops' official development arm, the Canadian Catholic
Organization for
Development and Peace.
Bishop Da Silva also promised that the Catholic Church would soon "inaugurate
a Maternity hospital to provide maternal health to mothers," and
help train families in Natural Family Planning.
"As we have done in the past," he said, "we will continue
to provide caring, counseling advice to pregnant young women, mothers,
families and patients, improve maternal health and bring down infant and
maternal mortality rates."
East Timor is more than 95% Catholic. See related stories:
East Timor Criminalizes Abortion Despite Heavy Opposition from
Pro-Abortion Groups Funded by Canadian Bishops
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09061003.h tml
CEDAW Committee Targets East Timor on Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09052114. html
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