A LAY INITIATIVE FORMED TO DEFEND

CATHOLIC TEACHING ON THE FAMILY

Voice of the Family calls on church leaders to be unwaveringly obedient to natural law and teaching of the Church

ROME, 19 May 2015: “No authority, not even the Pope, has the power or the right to alter, or to appear to alter, in any way that which has been revealed to the Church by Almighty God” John Smeaton, co-founder of Voice of the Family [1], and chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said at a press conference organised by the Filial Appeal in Rome today. He was a guest speaker at the press launch of “100 Questions and Answers relating to the [Family] Synod [2]” a Filial Appeal publication.

John Smeaton said:

“The silence of the Synod authorities’ final document last October was deafening – on abortion, on contraception, the foundation stone of the culture of death, on euthanasia and assisted suicide, on pornographic anti-life sex education, on the suppression of parents as the primary educators of their children and on the indoctrination of children into the homosexual ideology. These crimes against life and the family did not merit a mention in the Synod documents published by the Vatican.

“The International Planned Parenthood Federation must be delighted with the Synod authorities. They understand the significance of the Synod authorities’ silence on these matters better than anyone.”

Mr Smeaton continued:

“The studied ambiguity of the Synod authorities’ published documents on the questions relating to homosexual unions in general and on children brought up by homosexual couples is of huge significance for the pro-life movement.

“Same-sex couples are now demanding the right to have children – making it even more difficult for pro-life groups effectively to oppose surrogacy and in vitro fertilisation. According to peer-reviewed research, for every baby born by IVF, 23 are either discarded, or frozen, or used in destructive experiments, or miscarry. Defending the right to life of unborn children will increasingly be viewed as an attack on the rights of homosexual couples. Homosexual indoctrination thus leads to increased contempt for the sanctity of human life.

“If the Church at the highest levels insists on imposing its will on these matters, without prejudice to Catholic doctrine which can never change, and continues to proclaim an ambiguous message which gives aid and comfort to the homosexual lobby in our countries back home, the work of groups which work to safeguard the sanctity of human life from conception till natural death may effectively all but disappear off the world map.

According to John Smeaton, other recent developments at the Vatican are also causing Voice of the Family concern. Last month, a symposium was held at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences called “Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity. The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development”. This workshop featured Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute.

John Smeaton said:

“My organisation, SPUC, has been sending lobbyists to the United Nations for the past twenty years seeking to uphold the sanctity of human life in international agreements. Two of our greatest opponents in recent years have been Ban Ki-Moon and Jeffrey Sachs. Ban Ki-Moon has on many occasions promoted the “right” to abortion worldwide [3]. Dr Jeffrey Sachs is a well-known international proponent of population control and abortion.

“Understandably the population control, pro-abortion lobby must be feeling very much empowered by the influence being exercised in the Vatican by two of the culture of death’s leading figures, Ban Ki Moon and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, especially just before the publication of an encyclical on the environment. If the encyclical remains silent on the hidden UN agenda, one can be quite certain that the UN and Obama administrations will find ways how to use the encyclical to promote the sustainable development goals.

“Without prejudice to the validity or otherwise of the many theories about climate change, they should not be exploited to bring into question or deny the inviolability and the sanctity of each and every human life, unborn or born.”

John Smeaton concluded:

“We have a right and a duty to require from our clergy and from the Holy Father unwavering, unambiguous, obedience to the natural law and the teaching of the Church. No authority, not even the Pope, has the power or the right to alter, or to appear to alter, in any way that which has been revealed to the Church by Almighty God.”

The full text of Mr Smeaton’s address is available here.

[1] The Voice of the Family team was formed by SPUC, in conjunction with other pro-life and pro-family groups, in August 2014. The Voice of the Family team was present in Rome in October last year to follow closely what took place at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family and to liaise and lend support to Synod Fathers. 24 organisations have joined this coalition from 13 different countries and 5 continents. It has published a narrative on the proceedings which His Eminence Cardinal Burke says provides an accurate account of what happened and Voice of the Family has published an analysis of the final relatio, the final document, produced by the Synod authorities.

[2] “Preferential Option for The Family, 100 Questions and Answers relating to the Synod”, a publication of Filial Appeal.

[3] In September 2010 at the Human Rights Council in Geneva and Navanethem Pillay, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, launched a report “on discrimination against women, in law and practice, and how the issue is addressed throughout the United Nations human rights system”. In that report they called for the policing of nations worldwide to “address the refusal of physicians to perform legal abortions”.

 

 

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