New Doctrine for New Times - Opus Dei Priest: "Defense of Life of the Unborn Relative Truth, and Not from the Gospel."

"Fundamentalists"

Spain has, since the Socialist government approved it in 2010, the most radical abortion law in Europe, one of the few in the world to actually qualify the medical killing of unborn human beings as an almost unlimited "woman's right". After the "conservative" party elected on a platform to change the law and save some unborn lives backed off from it last week, many Catholics have questioned a commitment to "conservative" parties whose only commitment in turn seems to be to economic measures hardly in full accordance with Catholic Social Doctrine and that were only supported for their promises in favor of life.

Not so, says an influential Spanish Opus Dei priest and blogger, the right to life of innocent human beings is a "relative truth." We blame those popes, including John Paul II and Benedict XVI, obsessed with abortion. They gave absolute and full support to the cause of unborn life, and, after times changed, Catholics dedicated to the defense of unborn life did not realize absolute truths became relative, doctrine had become elastic, the Church's commitment had withered, non-negotiable principles had become negotiable, and they were left hanging...

From Infocatólica (translation by reader "M"):

Father Joan Carreras says that "the stubborn defense of the right to life is plain and simple ideology".

In an article entitled "Life and the right to life are relative truths," published in his blog "Nuptials of God" [Nupcias de Dios], the priest Joan Carreras, promoter of the "Catholic Bloggers with the Pope" initiative, and member of the Prelature of the Opus Dei, said that, "the stubborn defense of the right to life as if it were an absolute truth is not a realistic attitude and therefore is not based on the Gospel. It is plain and simple ideology." The priest asserts that, "these days we are witnessing fundamentalist attacks on Catholics who exercise their political freedom in good conscience."

Father Joan Carreras starts his article by claiming that "there is only one absolute Catholic truth: 'God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life' (Jn 3: 16)."

He adds: "Other truths - including life and the right to life are relative. This is the only way to prevent the believers from falling into fundamentalism, no matter which."

After asking: "How is it possible that a society has turned its back on life and does not understand the horror involved in abortion, when a mother terminates the life of her child? If this is the first and most fundamental of human rights, as is repeated again and again in Catholic circles, as if it were a slogan, how is it possible that an

entire civilization does not see or understand it well?"

He answers: "The explanation is to be found not only in the reality of sin and the darkness of consciousness that it raises, but also in the fact that the stubborn defense of the right to life as if it were an absolute truth is not a realistic attitude and, therefore, is not based on the Gospel. It is plain and simple ideology."

He goes on to say: "Life is not an absolute truth. What is absolute is the meaning we give to life: openness to eternity, which anyone can find out if he reasons sensibly and is not fooled by ideologies of one kind or another." Fr Carreras argues that "both life and the right to life are also relative truths that must be covered in the context of evangelization." He explains: This expression - 'in the context of evangelization' - is all more important the less it is understood by Catholics who only see a way to curb the relativistic fundamentalism of Western culture with a Catholicfundamentalism that absolutizes truths of human nature.

Fundamentalist bishops

Given the fact that several bishops have indicated that they may not vote in the Spanish political parties represented in Parliament because they do not defend the right to life and are structures of sin, Fr Carreras accused the fundamentalists: "We are witnessing these days fundamentalist attacks on Catholics to exercise their political freedom in good conscience. Other Catholics tell them how they should or should not vote. Or require them to resign from their posts and to relinquish their leadership or activism in those major parties that have given up defending innocent life from the moment of conception until natural death."

The stunning original article is here: the main references in it are to Cardinal Kasper's book on "Mercy" and to Francis' Evangelii Gaudium; and, for good measure, there is an image of an ISIS fighter: because Catholics who ask politicians who used to defend life but remain in an abortionist government to be coherent and speak up are obviously just as "fundamentalist" as Islamist decapitators and rapists.

Who would guess that one day an Opus Dei priest would be indistinguishable from a liberal Jesuit? The Times They Are a-Changin'...

In honor of the changing times, we reassess below a fundamental (sorry, important, we mean) passage of Evangelium Vitae:

If such great care must be taken to respect every life, even that of criminals and unjust aggressors, the commandment "You shall not kill" has absolute [relative] value when it refers to the innocent person. And all the more so in the case of weak and defenceless human beings, who find their ultimate defence against the arrogance and caprice of others only in the absolute [relative] binding force of God's commandment.

In effect, the absolute [relative] inviolability of innocent human life is a moral truth clearly taught by Sacred Scripture, constantly upheld in the Church's Tradition and consistently proposed by her Magisterium. This consistent teaching is the evident result of that "supernatural sense of the faith" which, inspired and sustained by the Holy Spirit, safeguards the People of God from error when "it shows universal agreement in matters of faith and morals".

Faced with the progressive weakening in individual consciences and in society of the sense of the absolute and grave [relative and debatable] moral illicitness of the direct taking of all innocent human life, especially at its beginning and at its end, the Church's Magisterium has spoken out with increasing frequency in defence of the sacredness and inviolability [relative worth and integrity] of human life.