Pro-life message from Bishop Hollis

In his Pastoral Letter for the Feast of the Holy Family, Bishop Crispian Hollis, of the Diocese of Portsmouth, spoke about the celebration of the family as something "we particularly need that at this time when, politically and often socially, family life is being undermined and diminished. Later in his letter, he wrote:

But it’s not just family life that’s under threat in today’s world – we live today in many ways in what Pope John Paul described as a culture of death. Life itself has become cheap and, as a society, we have become careless and destructive of life, whether that life is found at its very beginnings, in the womb and in the unborn child, or in the old and frail as they approach natural death. To see such persons – for that is what they truly are – as somehow disposable or a nuisance or of no consequence, is to show a supreme disregard for the value and dignity of all who, like ourselves, are children of a loving God.

As Catholics, we pride ourselves on being “pro-life” and that is true for the diocese, for all of you who form our diocesan family and for myself. We are committed to defending life at all its stages. This commitment is the seamless garment for Christian living, and it means that all, but especially those who suffer from defencelessness and vulnerability of any kind, poverty, disease and conflict, have a right to a special place in our hearts and in the heart of the Church. This rich vision of life will not necessarily endear us to the culture in which we live but this is where we have to stand if we are to be faithful to the truth that all human beings, our brothers and sisters, are created in God’s own image and likeness.

I have had occasion to disagree with Bishop Hollis on some matters and I feel it is only right to highlight his excellent pro-life message for the occasion of the Holy Family.

H/T to Ponte Sisto.