What do the popes tell us about the sanctity of life? Why does God call us to protect all human life, and what does that mean for the Church today?
As we prepare for the National Prayer Vigil for Life on January 22-23, we invite you to meditate on these 10 quotes from the popes about the sanctity of life and the unborn.
The Significance of The Right to Life
“The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right – it is the very opposite.” — Pope Benedict XVI
“Life is the first good received from God and is fundamental to all others; to guarantee the right to life for all and in an equal manner for all is the duty upon which the future of humanity depends.” — Pope Benedict XVI
Every Human Life Has Inherent Dignity
“Human persons are willed by God; they are imprinted with God’s image. Their dignity does not come from the work they do, but from the persons they are.” — Pope John Paul II
“Every human being is endowed with a dignity that must never be lessened, impaired, or destroyed, but must instead be respected and safeguarded, if peace is really to be built up.”
— Pope John Paul II
How Every Human Life Bears the Image of God
“The sacred books, in fact, set out to show God’s love for every human being even before he has been formed in his mother’s womb.
These words acquire their full, rich meaning when one thinks that God intervenes directly in the creation of the soul of every new human being.
God’s love does not differentiate between the newly conceived infant still in his or her mother’s womb and the child or young person, or the adult and the elderly person. God does not distinguish between them because he sees an impression of His own image and likeness (Gn 1: 26) in each one.” — Pope Benedict XVI
Progress and Protecting Life
“Economic and social progress cannot have a sure foundation and concrete hope if there is a basic refusal to acknowledge the right to life. There is no future for a society that is incapable of duly appreciating the wealth represented by a newborn child and of valuing a woman’s vocation to motherhood.” — Pope John Paul II
“Respect for life requires that science and technology should always be at the service of man and his integral development. Society as a whole must respect, defend, and promote the dignity of every human person, at every moment and in every condition of that person’s life.” — Pope John Paul II
“It is not ‘progressive’ to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life.”
— Pope Francis
The Imperative to Protect Life in All Its Stages
“In the modern world there is a surprising contradiction. Precisely in an age when the inviolable rights of the person are solemnly proclaimed and the value of life is publicly affirmed, the same right to life is being denied or trampled upon, especially at the more significant moments of existence: the moment of birth and the moment of death.” — Pope John Paul II
“A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members; and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying.”— Pope John Paul II
