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 After
Holy Week, Portugal Approves Abortion Law
By Luis Sergio Solimeo
Just after Holy Week when Catholics the
world over recall the indescribable sufferings with which
the Savior redeemed mankind, Catholics, who hold absolute
majority in Portugal, saw the final approval of an abortion
law.
Indeed, after an inexpressive plebiscite
and intense action by leftist parties in the country’s
National Assembly, a projected bill authorizing abortion
was passed. However, it still needed to be promulgated by
the nation’s president, who has the constitutional
power to veto the law.
Catholic President Promulgates Pro
Abortion Law
Unfortunately, as expected, Portugal’s
President Anibal Cavaco Silva, though a Catholic and "opposed
to abortion," promulgated the law.1
We said as expected because, after
the approval of the pro-abortion law by the Assembly, the
country’s bishops failed to ask the President to veto
it.
Bishops Avoid Appealing to President
against Abortion
The bishops could have appealed to the
president’s Catholic conscience by reminding him that
as president he must act consistently with his faith, especially
in matters of abortion, which is clearly condemned by natural
law and the consensus of all peoples.2
Yet, no public appeal was made. For example,
José da Cruz Cardinal Policarpo, Patriarch of Lisbon,
in an interview to the magazine Visão on
February 28 made it clear that he would not appeal to the
president.
The interviewer asked him whether the
Church was going to intervene in the preparation of the
law and appeal to the president, whom he referred to as
a “practicing Catholic.” The Cardinal said there
would be no intervention and that he had had not spoken
with the President: “I still have not spoken with
him, but I am convinced that he will do everything, and
first of all, to obey the Constitution.”
The reporter insisted on asking whether
the Cardinal intended to speak with him about the abortion
law. The answer was: “I have not spoken [with him].
I will speak to him if he requests me to do so. I have had
a good personal relationship with him for a long time, but
I cannot in any way use it in a matter such as this.”3
Laity Appeal to President to Veto
Abortion Law
Catholic laymen have maintained a different
attitude and fought valiantly to prevent the installation
of abortion in Portugal.
On March 28, the campaign director of
Acção Família [Family Action]
in Coimbra, Mr. José Carlos Sepúlveda da Fonseca,
addressed a letter to President Cavaco Silva urging him
not to promulgate the said law.
The letter shows how abortionists had
manipulated the situation and presented the decriminalization
of abortion mainly as a way of preventing clandestine abortions.
He goes on to note that the President’s constant attitude
against abortion raised expectations that he would veto
the law approved by the Assembly: “’Thus, Mr.
President, these same reasons solemnly expressed by Your
Excellency on that date, can only lead you, as we see it,
to veto the present law.”
The letter emphasizes the fact that the
abortion law is opposed “to the most basic moral and
ethic pillars of any civilized society, and especially to
the Law of God!”
Mr. Sepúlveda da Fonseca closes
by invoking the help of Our Lady of Fatima for the Portuguese
President:
“As Catholic laymen, we beg Our
Lady of Fatima, on this 90th anniversary of her apparitions,
to assist you at this historic moment so that Your Excellency,
as supreme head of our Nation, will not fall short of the
stature required to lead the Portuguese State on the paths
of order and of peace.”4
The President’s Contradictory
Attitude
President Cavaco Silva failed to
heed the appeal of lay Catholics to be consistent with the
faith he professes. In a contradictory attitude, fifteen
days after the letter from Acção Família,
he promulgated the law and then attached to its text proposed
recommendations to the country’s Assembly that would
mitigate the detrimental effects of the law he had just
promulgated! Among other measures, he proposed women considering
abortion be showed ultrasound images of the unborn child
they carry in their wombs.5
Mrs. Isilda Pegado, President of
the Federation for Life, pointed out the contradiction of
this attitude. She stressed that the President could have
returned the law to the Assembly for further consideration
in view of his recommendations. “That is not what
happened: the law was promulgated.” She added that
the President’s recommendations to the Assembly “are
good for nothing.” 6
Continue the Struggle
under Our Lady of Fatima’s Protection
It is not by using “extreme
moderation” in the defense of good that one protects
the good. One also cannot win by employing a tactic of concessions
to appease radicals in their advocacy of evil.
Good attracts, convinces and draws
when it is presented in all its integrity and beauty and
when its defenders act gallantly, fearlessly and proudly
to defend the just cause of the truth known as such.
This was the attitude of Our Lord
Jesus Christ in his disputes with the Pharisees. He Himself
summed up this attitude in the straightforward phrase: “Do
not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.”7
As stated in a previous article,
battles are won by fearless generals who actively lead the
fight and encourage their troops, and not by fearful generals
who recommend acting with “extreme moderation.”
Despite the debate Portuguese Catholics
should continue in their struggle against abortion, confiding
in the protection and promise of Our Lady of Fatima who
said: “Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!”
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