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Abortion in Portugal: Man Speaks, God
Responds
By Luis Sergio Solimeo
Under pressure from the European Union
and its own Socialist Party, a referendum on abortion was
held in Portugal in 1998. Pro-life forces managed a narrow
victory although the referendum was not legally binding
since more than half of the electorate abstained.
The abortionists’
tactic: To “fight clandestine abortions”
Now, over eight years later, the ruling Socialist Party
held a new referendum to allow abortion on demand until
the tenth week of pregnancy.
This time, the pro-abortion movement used
the interim between the two referenda to intensify its propaganda
with substantial help from abroad. Its strategy was to de-emphasize
the negative aspect of the death of the unborn child and
highlight the “positive” idea of “fighting
clandestine abortions.” Allowing legal abortion would
supposedly end the plague of clandestine abortion, which
places women’s lives at risk.
A morally
desensitized public opinion
This basic yet clever ploy seemed to be tailor made for
a morally desensitized public. Modern man is so worried
about himself and his personal advantages that he finds
himself morally and mentally insensitive to matters of principle.
The result of the new plebiscite was similar
to the previous one. More than half the voters, some 57
percent, abstained thereby voiding the results. However,
unlike the earlier referendum, the pro-abortion option received
59.25 percent of cast votes while opponents garnered only
40.75 percent.
The Bishops’
disconcertingly discreet stance
Regarding the campaign itself, it is worthwhile to note
that, although the Portuguese bishops clearly condemned
abortion by reaffirming it to be a sin, they adopted a low
profile that left the laity to campaign against it alone.
In statements to Vatican Radio before the
referendum, the Secretary to the Bishops’ Conference,
Bishop Carlos Azevedo, emphasized that “the hierarchy
will try to ‘appear as little as possible.’
Lay movements have ‘autonomy’ to manifest their
opinions and put forward the culture of life.”1
Certain statements by the Patriarch of
Lisbon, José Cardinal Policarpo, later modified –
that the Church would not campaign against abortion because
it is a political rather than religious issue, and that
the number of clandestine abortions had diminished thanks
to contraceptives – caused great confusion and were
used by abortionists. 2
On the eve of the referendum, Lisbon’s
conservative paper Correio da Manhã published a long
article with the title, “Priests Call on People to
Vote, Give No Indication of ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”
It quotes statements by priests and bishops from all over
Portugal saying they would not speak directly about the
abortion referendum during Sunday masses on election day.
3
Less than
3 in 10 approved abortion
Be it as it may, the concrete fact is that, contrary to
its vain boasts, the Socialist Party was far from rallying
a majority to support abortion.
Indeed, only 3.8 out of 8.8 million registered
voters showed up – a mere 43 percent. Thus the real
number of those who voted in favor was not 59.25 percent
of all voters but 26 percent of registered voters.
Given that the abortionists displayed
more ardor during the campaign, one can suppose that most
of them voted and that the great majority of those who did
not go to vote oppose abortion or at least have reservations.
Ninetieth
Anniversary of Fatima’s Apparitions
It is important to note that the referendum to change the
Portuguese abortion’s law was held during the year
commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions.
This fact was highlighted by Acção
Família, one of the lay Catholics organizations that
opposed the liberalization of abortion. According to director
José Carlos Sepúlveda da Fonseca, the organization
distributed 2.7 million leaflets showing how the approval
of abortion in Portugal is directly opposed to the Message
of Our Lady of Fatima.
God’s
answer?
The fact is that with pressure from the European Union and
the Socialist Party, the referendum will result in favoring
the establishment of a pro-abortion law in yet one more
Catholic country (as has happened in Italy, Spain and others).
Abortion is not only a sin of itself but
also the consequence of other sins, such as the pervading
promiscuity of today’s society. Immoral fashions,
which Our Lady spoke against at Fatima, have brought unspeakable
levels of immodesty, above all on beaches.
Indeed, the fact that a majority of those
who voted chose the legal elimination of children in the
mother’s womb makes its rejection of divine law even
graver.
Such transgressions cannot fail to give
rise to personal speculation about whether the little-reported
earthquake (5.8 in the Richter scale) felt all over Portugal
the morning after the referendum was a manifestation of
God’s displeasure.4
Many will dismiss these tremors as mere
coincidence. With a smirk, they will credit the nearby fault
line that provokes such natural quakes as it did in the
terrible earthquake that destroyed Lisbon in 1775.
Alas, we live in skeptical and cynical times
that are incapable of discerning meaning in such signs. Using
these seeming commonsensical arguments, modern man seeks to
exclude Divine Providence from history, and the fact that
such natural events can often serve to teach, warn or punish
us.
The Divine Savior clearly addressed this
mentality with the Pharisees who asked Him for a sign from
Heaven. He rebuked them saying that although they knew how
to interpret natural signs, they would not use the same reasoning
to discern signs with supernatural meaning. Given their malice
in not wanting to understand the clear signs of their time,
Our Lord rebuked them and refused their request.5
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