POLAND
The Polish bishops have accepted “with profound regret” Parliament’s decision not to approve the introduction into the Constitution of the principle of defence of life from conception to natural death. “Unfortunately a cruel parliamentary arithmetic prevailed over the fundamental right to life of each human being”, say the members of the permanent Council of the Polish Bishops’ Conference in a statement. The statement stresses that “the Church in Poland will continue to support all persons of good will who have at heart the fate of defenceless human beings”. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow, referring to the failure to introduce the principle of the defence of life in the Constitution, declared that “the right to life cannot be cancelled by any law approved” and that “laws contrary to life are at the same time contrary to man”. Referring to some Polish MPs, the vicar general of the Archbishop of Poznan, Zdzislaw Fortuniak, stigmatised as “shameful” the conduct of those “who declare themselves Christians and believers but who at the same time regard the bartering of goods as the supreme values”.
