By Peter Baklinski
 |
| Archbishop Silvano Tomasi |
The Holy See’s permanent observer
to the United Nations in Geneva has criticized the recently agreed-upon
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for containing what he says is an implicit
push for abortion using the language of “reproductive rights,” a move that he
says is contrary to authentic human development.
The overall objective of the SDGs
is the eradication of inequalities and poverty by 2030, but by including goals
affirming abortion as an “achievement, a right to be guaranteed to all,” said
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, it’s as if the UN thinks that by “eliminating people
there would be fewer problems."
The archbishop, in an August 11
interview with the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire, criticized the UN and
other international agencies for insisting that "with abortion, that is,
with ‘reproductive health,’ you can help eliminate underdevelopment" and
allow women to “fully express their freedom.” He called this an example of a
“markedly individualistic ethic” that is contrary to a truly human development.
Tomasi said that while the
Catholic Church works concretely around the world to end poverty and inequality
and promote solidarity, it cannot support the inclusion in the SDGs of
“reproductive health” when it means access to abortion.
“For the Church people matter,
people with their rights, for the development of the whole society, under the
banner of the concept of the common good - based on an idea of transcendence -
[an idea] that individualism denies," he said.
The 17 SDGs,
agreed-upon at UN headquarters in New York August 2, set an international
agenda for the next 15 years to end poverty, promote the well-being and
prosperity of peoples everywhere, and to protect the environment. But pro-life
advocates warn that two of the targets call for “universal access” to “sexual
and reproductive health and reproductive rights,” phrases that the document
says must be interpreted by previous UN conferences that spell out access to
“safe abortion” where it is legal as a necessity.
Joseph Meaney of Human Life
International called the
language of “sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights” in the
SDGs “UN-specific language [that calls] for universal access to abortion and
others services geared for population control efforts.”
“Why are the SDGs significant and
not just ineffectual rhetoric? As in most UN initiatives, behind the utopian
vision, platitudes, and specialized jargon, there is a cold hard fact. Billions
upon billions of government issued funds will be poured into implementing the
SDGs. In fact, all international non-government organizations (NGOs) are
lobbying for these funds, including the population control advocates,” he
wrote.
The Holy See submitted written
reservations on the SDGs to the UN in the fall, highlighting concerns about the
language of “sexual and reproductive health.” Pro-life advocates raised
concerns last month after the Holy See made a statement appearing to endorse
the SDGs without qualification, but they denied it, saying rather that the Holy
See “cannot and will never support … anything that can undermine the Family or
the Right to Life from the moment of conception.”
Archbishop Tomasi said that the UN
pushing to have “reproductive health” interpreted to mean “abortion” indicates
what he called a “gap” that has emerged between its actions and the actual
“problems facing the world.”
He said that now, more than ever
before, has the time come where it is "urgent to rethink the [UN’s] mode
of action and work.”
“It would take a great effort
based on an effective solidarity which sees the common good as the engine of
development of the global society,” he said.
Source: LifeSiteNews
No comments:
Post a Comment