FRATERNITY IN DEFENSE OF LIFE

Sister Maria Lúcia Barbosa de Oliveira, SFP

“Choose life,” is the theme of the Church’s 2008 Fraternity Campaign in Brazil. This theme had led us in reflection and prayer during Lent. It is rooted in and finds its strength in the death and resurrection of Jesus. To defend life, to choose it, is to welcome the life that is born from the greatness of the Kingdom of Hope -- with which every human being has been clothed. This greatness is inviolable especially when the possibility of manipulating human embryos for scientific experimentation is involved. 

The Kingdom of Hope has given a new sense of being to the whole universe by opening our eyes and awakening us to defend, choose, welcome life as part of the whole environment.  Having celebrated the Easter of the Lord we can now more willingly and freely proclaim: “Choose, then, life,” meaning, “Welcome life, then!”
           
Every day we see around us the degradation of life caused by humanity’s irresponsibility.  Men and women wish to take on God’s role, by choosing to allow those they want to be born to live and by killing those who, from their point of view, are unwanted. We also see around us the massive degradation of nature.

The Second Vatican Council Documents already condemned as an evil everything that stood in opposition to life. Thirty years later in 1995, in his Evangelium Vitæ Encyclical, John Paul II emphasized the reality that threats to life were increasing.  With the promotion of the individualistic and utilitarian mentality along with scientific and technological progress, new violations began to be practiced. The Pope concluded that in today’s societies not only are many of these practices no longer considered to be illegal, they are often authorized by the State.

Although we are asked to permanently oppose all threats to life, the expression “in defense of life” has been used to designate the struggle against all these specific threats. These threats obscure the perception of the value of human life itself, of good and evil, of right and wrong.  To not confront these evils would imply the loss of our capacity to recognize fundamental values. These values impel us to fight against forms of aggression to all life including that directed against human beings (especially those stemming from poverty, violence, war, pollution, and deforestation).

The Church reaffirmed the journey in defense of life and of human beings in 2007. The document from the 5th General Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean Bishops inaugurated by Pope Benedict XVI in Brazil, reminds us that our faith cannot be reduced to norms and prohibitions:

“We are being called even today to choose between ways leading either to life or to death”  (cf. Deuteronomy 30: 15).  The ways of death are those bringing us to degrade the gifts we received from God from those who preceded us in our faith.  The ways of true and full life for all, the ways leading to life eternal are those opened by faith, bringing us to the plenitude of life brought to us by Christ”   (Aparecida Document, 2007). This document states that Latin America hosts the greatest biodiversity on the planet. Latin America is home to an ample and rich sociodiversity granted by its many groups of people and cultures who have great knowledge of the traditional and wise use of tropical plants for medicinal purposes, other natural resources for food, and of the earth itself without wearing it down.

Even today many Native nations continue to struggle for the integrity of their traditional territory as they did when I personally participated with them as a missionary to the indigenous peoples of Mato Grosso.  The current government of Lula da Silva roused much hope in resolving the problems these peoples are facing. Unfortunately as the years go by, not enough is concretely happening to help the Brazilian Natives secure their land.

The attempts against the lives of these indigenous peoples are in the decisions made based on the riches of nature’s biodiversity. The Natives are practically excluded from the debate and pushed out from their land by multinational companies.  The earth is being degraded, water sources are being treated as profit-making ventures. Water has also become a resource much disputed by the sovereign nations of the world. 

The most important example of this situation is the Amazon Region.  In his visit to Brazil last year, Pope Benedict XVI called the attention of young people to be more committed and visible in action: “The devastation of the environment in the Amazon Basin and the threats against the human dignity of peoples living within that region call for greater commitment in the different areas of activity than society tends to recognize.”

Before all this, we cannot remain silent with our arms crossed.  As we believe, God gave us a mission when He created humankind.  This is the time to do it.  Let us go on, then, and fight!