The Gospel of Life I

Details: 14 September 2012

In 1995, Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical entitled "Evangelium Vitae" or "The Gospel of Life." The encyclical was prompted by a 1991 consistory of cardinals held in Rome that focused on contemporary threats to human life.

John Paul II notes in the encyclical that the cardinals unanimously asked him to "reaffirm with the authority of the successor of Peter the value of human life and its inviolability, in the light of present circumstances and attacks threatening it today." Prior to writing the encyclical, John Paul wrote a personal letter to every bishop asking for their input on the document.

In that letter to his brother bishops, John Paul referenced the encyclical "Rerum Novarum," which had been written 100 years prior, saying the following:

"Just as a century ago it was the working classes which were oppressed in their fundamental rights, and the Church very courageously came to their defense by proclaiming the sacrosanct rights of the worker as a person, so now, when another category of persons is being oppressed in the fundamental right to life, the Church feels in duty bound to speak out with the same courage on behalf of those who have no voice.

"Today there exists a great multitude of weak and defenseless human beings, unborn children in particular, whose fundamental right to life is being trampled upon. If, at the end of the last century, the Church could not be silent about the injustices of those times, still less can she be silent today, when the social injustices of the past, unfortunately not yet overcome, are being compounded in many regions of the world by still more grievous forms of injustice and oppression, even if these are being presented as elements of progress in view of a new world order."

In the introduction of the encyclical, John Paul provides two foundational considerations upon which the document is based: The incomparable worth of the human person and the new threats to human life.

Regarding the "incomparable worth" of human life, JPII says "Man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God. The loftiness of this supernatural vocation reveals the greatness and the inestimable value of human life even in its temporal phase."

This Gospel of life, John Paul says, "has a profound and persuasive echo in the heart of every person--believer and non-believer alike--because it marvelously fulfils all the heart’s expectations while infinitely surpassing them... [E]very person sincerely open to truth and goodness can, by the light of reason and the hidden action of grace, come to recognize in the natural law written in the heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15) the sacred value of human life from its very beginning until its end, and can affirm the right of every human being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree."

Christians, in particular, "must defend and promote this right, aware as they are of the wonderful truth recalled by the Second Vatican Council: ‘By his incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every human being.’ This saving event reveals to humanity not only the boundless love of God who "so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3:16), but also the incomparable value of every human person."

Regarding the "new threats to human life," John Paul points out that "[i]n addition to the ancient scourges of poverty, hunger, endemic diseases, violence and war, new threats [i.e. abortion and euthanasia] are emerging on an alarmingly vast scale." Compounding this problem is "a new cultural climate" in which "broad sectors of public opinion justify certain crimes against life in the name of the rights of individual freedom."

"The end result of this is tragic," JPII says. "Not only is the fact of the destruction of so many human lives still to be born or in their final stage extremely grave and disturbing, but no less grave and disturbing is the fact that conscience itself, darkened as it were by such widespread conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil in what concerns the basic value of human life."

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.