Monday 4 April 2016

Official Communique of the Polish Bishops' Episcopal Conference on the Protection of Human Life




Communique of the Polish Bishops' Episcopal Conference on the full protection of human life. The Polish Parliament i considering a complete ban on abortion.

Though the official number of abortions in Poland is extremely low (less than 1000 per annum); Poland's catastrophically low birth rate (one of the worst in the world) would along with contraception involve abortions undertaken outsdie Poland. NOnetheless, the total ban of this horrendous crime is to be lauded.  

(Toronto Catholic Witness translation. You may use freely, but you must credit us). 

To be read in every parish on Sunday, April 3rd, 2016. 

The life of every person is protected by the fifth commandment of the Decalogue: "Thou shalt not kill!". Therefore, the position of Catholics in this regard is clear and unchanging: from conception to natural death, the life of every human being is to be protected. 

With regard to the protection of unborn life one cannot stop at the current compromise expressed in the Act of 7 January 1993, which in three cases permitted abortion. Thus, in the year 1050th Jubilee Anniversary of the "Baptism of Polish  people" we ask all of good will, from believers and non-believers, to take action that is aimed at the full legal protection of the unborn. We ask members of parliament and government leaders who have taken legislative initiatives and launched programs that would also provide practical help for parents of sick children, the disabled and conceived as a result of rape. We ask all the Polish people to pray for the full protection of human life from conception to natural death, both in our country and beyond its borders.

Archbishop Stanislaw Gądecki
Metropolitan Poznan
Chairman of KEP

Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski
Metropolitan Lodz
Deputy Chairman of KEP

Bishop Arthur G. Miziński
Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference

Warsaw, 30 March 2016.

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