Commitment of Catholics to immigrantsAs “Catholics of Madrid we must commit ourselves without hesitation to the formation of a social climate and civic opinion open and receptive to immigrants. This will be one of our contributions” to “a future of brotherhood and peace for Spanish society”, declared the auxiliary bishop of Madrid, the Most Rev. Fidel Herráez. Speaking at the symposium “Migrations. Christian commitment”, organized by the diocesan Delegation for Immigration last weekend, the bishop seconded the appeal made by the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela: “Our Christian communities – he said – must feel themselves impelled to go towards immigrants. They must not welcome into brotherly communion only those of them that are baptized and share our faith, but must offer hospitality to all foreigners, of whatever race, culture and religion”. Moreover, Catholics “must reject the exclusion of or discrimination against any person, and hence must pledge to promote his/her inalienable rights”. According to Mgr. Herráez, we must do all we can to “make possible a new society and a profoundly human community on the basis, eminently evangelic, of our mutual recognition as brethren”: we must adjust “our pastoral strategies to the needs of the new communities and the new society”. In the view of the bishop “the mere denunciation of racism or xenophobia is not enough”. University professors against euthanasia”In the face of the intense pressure exerted on Spanish society to induce it to consent to the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia, it is essential to defend the dignity of natural death as the end of every human life”. These are the opening words of the manifesto signed by a group of Spanish university professors, who have joined together in defence of the dignity of natural death. Their joint communiqué was read out during a press conference held in Madrid on 27 October. In their document the university professors point out that “the life of the human being is inviolable, due to his/her intrinsic dignity, which cannot be subject to limitations, since it is universal, independent of any situation of age, health or autonomy that may be determined”. This dignity, they affirm, “implies the inalienable right of everyone to life, since it is the imperative duty of the State to protect and safeguard it, even if the person in question seems to attach no value to it”. In the discharge of this duty, the more responsible States also “recognize the right of each person to the most advanced treatments in the field of healthcare, and therefore it is contradictory deliberately to accept and promote the termination of life of all those who may be reduced to situations of weakness, dependence on others or terminal illness”. “Euthanasia – continues the communiqué -, understood as a deliberate act to put an end to a person’s life, whether at that person’s own request or by the decision of third parties, and assisted suicide, are ethically and morally deplorable”. The alternative to euthanasia must be the promotion of palliative treatments that exploit “the specialist expertise and progress of medical and psychological treatments, as the affective and spiritual support for the terminal phase”, says the manifesto. “Science and medical practice increasingly have better instruments to act and to discern; to claim their use to the benefit of human life is everyone’s right”, continues the manifesto. Lastly, an appeal is made to all citizens, and especially to the public authorities, to recognize the dignity of natural death. “A society that accepts to put an end to the life of any person due to the precariousness of that person’s health, through the intervention of third parties, inflicts on itself the offence of presuming to consider unworthy the life of any person who is sick or seriously diminished in his capacities”, conclude the university professors.IPF: abortions rising and data concealedThe Government is concealing the data on abortions for 2007, accuses Eduardo Hertfelder, chairman of Spain’s Institute of Family Policy (IPF). The fact that at the end of 2008 – when even the main autonomous communities had published their official figures -, the Ministry of Health had still not released the data on abortions for 2007, is, in IPF’s view, a clear sign “of responsibility and negligence”. The situation today is even more inadmissible because “the Government is proposing a new law on abortion. By this concealing of data, the Government is manipulating the debate on the new law”. “We in the IPF demand the immediate publication of the data on abortion for 2007. It is unacceptable – continues Hertfelder – that as a result of the increase of the number of abortions it has been transformed into the main cause of mortality in Spain” and in spite of that “the administration keeps the data hidden, all the more so when the Government itself is pressing to implement a law that would even further increase the number of abortions in Spain”. From the data published by the various autonomous administrations it can be inferred that the number of abortions carried out in 2007 exceeded 110,000, adds Hertfelder. In Madrid alone the figure rose from 19,243 in 2006 to 22,013 in 2007, an increase of 14.4% and 2,771 more abortions than in the previous year; Andalusia has registered a rise from 18,581 abortions in 2006 to 20,117 in 2007 (+ 8.27% and 1,536 more abortions), and Valencia from 10,219 abortions in 2006 to 11,085 in 2007 (+ 8.47% and 866 more abortions).
