Polish bishops rap rejection of pro-life constitutional amendments

Published: 2007-04-17

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Poland's Catholic bishops criticized legislators' rejection of proposed constitutional amendments that would have protected life from the moment of conception. "Arbitrary parliamentary arithmetic has won the upper hand over each person's elementary right to life," said the bishops in a statement April 13. "The church in Poland will go on supporting actions by all people of good will to care for the most defenseless," they said. The "negative result" of the vote should not weaken "efforts to obtain agreement in the Polish parliament on such a fundamental question for our nation's future as the inviolability of human life." Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow urged Catholics to continue pressing for the reform, which supporters say would help Poland resist pro-abortion regulations from the European Union. "The church has always declared itself for life, demanding its respect from conception to natural death irrespective of all political decisions," Cardinal Dziwisz told 50,000 Catholics during an April 15 Mass at the Divine Mercy center in Lagiewniki.

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