A Vatican official has disagreed with pro-life groups over the involvement in a climate change conference of people who have supported abortion.
Pro-life sources had expressed concern that the Vatican partnered with United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and US economist Jeffrey Sachs at an April 28 summit in Rome.
The summit was hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and brought together leaders in religion, business, science and politics.
Both Sachs and Ban spoke at the meeting, with Ban and Pope Francis speaking privately before it began.
Pro-life sources challenged the head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Archbishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, citing positions taken by the UN and Sachs on abortion and population control.
Archbishop Sorondo replied in part that he had just returned from an Argentine conference on combating new forms of slavery, such as forced labour, prostitution, and human and organ trafficking.
“Unfortunately, there is not only the drama of abortion, but there are also all these other dramas, in which you should also be interested, because they are closely related,” the archbishop replied to an Italian pro-life critic.
“The climate crisis leads to poverty and poverty leads to new forms of slavery and forced migration, and drugs, and all this can also lead to abortion,” Archbishop Sorondo stated.
Voice of the Family expressed “grave concern” over Sachs’s and Ban’s participation specifically, and more broadly, of collaboration with the UN.
“Unfortunately, pro-life and pro-family advocates who lobby at the UN have witnessed the environmental issues become an umbrella to cover a wide spectrum of attacks on human life and the family,” the coalition stated.
Archbishop Sorondo replied: “Instead of attacking us, why not enter into dialogue with these ‘demons’ to maybe make the formulation [of UN sustainable development goals] better, like we did on the issues of social inclusion and new forms of slavery?”
Sources
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News category: World.
