The Primate of Ireland: “We are called to be missionaries for the cause of life”

As people “inspired by the Gospel of life and the Gospel of the family, we are all called to be ‘missionaries for the cause of life,’ at home in our families but also in our parishes, communities, workplaces, and at social gatherings.” Card. Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, said this in his introduction to this morning’s panel session on Chap. 5 of Amoris Laetitia and the gift of new life, at the Dublin World Meeting of Families. “As a Bishop,” he acknowledged, “I have been overwhelmed by the courage of many people here in Ireland who witness to the need for love, respect, and the protection of life as a gift from God. I am especially impressed by the example of the willingness of lay men and women, many of whom are mothers and fathers, to become the voice of children who are not yet born and, therefore, voiceless.” Our young people, he observes, “are surrounded by what Pope Francis calls a ‘culture of waste’ and the contraceptive and anti-birth mentality that speaks of ‘unwanted life,’ while ‘the primacy of individual choice’ is becoming ‘increasingly indifferent to abortion.” On the other hand, he underlined, young people are offered “a technocratic commodification” of childbirth, accessible “independently of any sexual relationship.” In this scenario, the Cardinal says that he is convinced that “the Church’s proclamation about life and the family—based on a faithful relationship of love between a man and a woman and open to the gift of children, who are the fruit of that love, is good news for society and for the world.” A country that truly loves freedom, he concludes, “will respect the conscience of its citizens, including its public representatives, doctors and nurses, regarding such an important human value.”