Madrid, Spain, Dec 11, 2007 / 01:32 pm (CNA).- Bishop Jose Ignacio Munilla Aguirre of Palencia warned this week that the recent arrests of personnel at various clinics in Barcelona where illegal abortions up to the eighth month were being performed confirms that the defenders of abortion see man as just an animal.

“When we answer the question about what man is, we must make a choice with our response: either we consider him to be a merely material being, a simple animal—albeit more evolved than anything else—or on the other hand we discover in him a spiritual principle that makes him essentially different from any animal species.  Undoubtedly the defenders of abortion are in the first group,” the bishop warned in article entitled, “Little Angels for Heaven.”

“Of course, they will claim that ‘that’ is nothing more than a piece of flesh, and not a person. If we take abortion to its ultimate consequences, we are left with the question of the spirituality or materiality of man.  Does the human soul exist?” the bishop stated.

Bishop Munilla noted that the reports about the abuses at the clinics in Barcelona have been very disturbing to many people.  “The blender connected to the drain pipe, the falsified scans to cover up abortions in the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy, etc, were just too bloody to be ignored.  However, in this age of media impact, there is a risk that the issue of abortion will be limited to the size of the fetus or the clandestine mafias of this ‘industry.’  It seems like the question of the good or evil of abortion depends on the respect of determined limits,” the bishop said.

The denial of the existence of the soul poses a fundamental problem regarding the dignity of the human person, he continued.  “Why does the human being have a dignity that animals do not?  Why do we think it is okay to make an ox suffer by pulling a cart on a farm, but it’s not okay to use or exploit a person?” he asked.

Bishop Munilla pointed out the series of contradictions that occur when the existence of the soul is denied.  “Humans are treated like animals (as in the case of abortion) and animals are treated like humans (salons for dogs, hotels for pets, cemeteries and crematories for animals, etc).  It’s an inversion of values that has as its root the denial of the immortal human soul.”

“Recently I remembered an anecdote that I had almost forgotten.  Once when I was a seminarian, I went into the office of a fellow seminarian and on the table was a family portrait.  It caught my attention because in addition to showing the parents surrounded by their five kids, on the sides there were two angels.  What do those two angels on your family portrait mean? I asked him.  His answer blew me away: ‘My mom had two miscarriages, and they always taught us that we were a family of seven kids and not just five’,” Bishop Munilla said.

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