Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 23, 2007 / 10:53 am (CNA).- In a letter to the Mexican bishops made public last Friday, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his concern over efforts to legalize abortion in Mexico City, calling on the nation to “firmly protect and defend the right to life of every human being from the moment of conception.”


The Holy Father “joins the Church in Mexico and so many other persons of good will in their concern for a new law in Mexico city that threatens the life of the unborn,” the letter, signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone indicates.  

“In this Easter Season, with the resurrection of Christ we are celebrating the triumph of life over death.  This great gift motivates us to firmly protect and defend the right to life of each human being from the moment of conception in the face of any manifestation of the culture of death,” the letter states.

The Pope concluded his message “commending all of the sons and daughters of this beloved nation to the maternal intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

The Pope’s letter was made public after a committee vote in the Mexico City Legislative Assembly on Friday to legalize abortion during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.

On April 24 the full body will vote on the proposal.

In the wake of the Pope’s support for the defense of life in Mexico, the bishops gathered for their general assembly called on all men and women “Catholics and non-Catholics alike,” to reject proposals that attack human life.

In a letter to the people of Mexico, the bishops noted that abortion “is a grave moral disorder” that no law can ever make licit.

“One of the primary obligations of the State,” the bishops stated, “is to keep watch over and defend the natural right of every human being to life and physical integrity from conception to natural death.  If a law deprives a category of human beings the protection which it is owed by the civil order, the State is then denying the equality of all before the law.”

“When the State odes not put its power at the service of the rights of all citizens, and particularly of those who are weakest, the very foundations of the rule of law are broken,” they said.

“It should be clear that direct abortion, that is, desired as an end or as a means, is a grave moral disorder in that is the deliberate elimination of an innocent human being,” the bishops stated.

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