RU 51/2007 - CROATIA, GERMANY

- CROATIA: this Balkan country (4.5 million inhabitants), candidate with the European Union, is characterized by a population which is 88% catholic. This particular quality made it possible to Croatia, without any major change of the existing legislation, to reduce the number of abortions from 51,289 babies in 1989 when the country got free from the Communists, to 4,563 babies today, a dramatic drop of 91%. According to specialized observers of Croatia - Dr. Antun Lisec of the pro-life movement HLI, and the Canadian novelist Michael D.O' Brien -, the primary reason for this change of the hearts and the spirits on the issue of abortion in Croatia was the vigorous leadership of the catholic bishops and priests. O' Brien: “They have maintained a dynamic orthodoxy in their seminars, in their clergy, in their religious orders. There is no vocation crisis in Croatia.” And he added: “They are a sign for the West!” While many bishops and episcopal conferences in western Europe when dealing with the issue of embryonic stem cell research, have refused to touch the underlining issue of in vitro fertilization (IVF), the conference of the bishops of Croatia precisely did the contrary. It declared in 2005 that the IVF, the source of most of the worlds’ embryos for embryonic stem cell research, is “a serious crime against conceived human lives and their dignity”. My God, thank you for their vigorous guidance! Let’s hope that their efforts which brought about so many fruits, may encourage throughout the world other bishops and faithful to stay up for the defence of the human life, priceless gift of God. The Croatian State, on its side, did not remain inactive in this reversal. Even if the abortion remains authorized - a communist legacy -, it’s paying (approximately 600 USD, corresponding to more than one month of wage). In the public schools, sexual instruction courses called “Teen Star” are based on sexual abstinence. The young people are informed about the dangers of the contraceptive pills and about the fact that the condoms do not offer a real protection against the diseases. Lux ex Oriente ! - (ru; cf LifeSiteNews Dec. 18^th 2007; ACPD July 15^th 2007)

- GERMANY: In atheistic France, a few months before, a president of the Republic called Chirac dared to assert: “No to a moral law which would precede the civil law”. It referred to the Natural Right - all while denying it -, engraved by the Creator into each human heart. It’s an important issue, and we would like, in this end of the year 2007, to recall a basic text of the time of the foundation of the FRG made 60 years ago by the judgement of “Hadamar” and never invalidated since (translation from German by UNEC): “There is a right located above the laws, a right which must be used as final measurement for all laws. It’s the Natural Right which imposes essential and ultimate limits on human legislation. There are principles of right which are so deeply anchored in nature that everything which is considered as right and law, morals and habit, must conform in final analysis to this Natural Right which is a right above all legislation. These last axioms of law in the Natural Right are binding, since they crossed the millenia independently of the changes of time and of the alterations of human considerations, maintaining through all times the same contents and the same validity. Consequently, they must constitute an essential and permanent element of what the human legislation and the human understanding ultimately indicate as right and law. - Indeed, the principle saying that the law is equivalent to the right is correct, but this principle is valid only with this unique and exclusive limitation. If a law transgresses that by violating the eternal norms of the Natural Right, then this law - because of its content - cannot be equated any more with the right. It’s not only deprived of the binding force for the citizen, but it’s juridically invalid and is not to be observed by him. Its inequitable contents are, at this moment, so considerable that it can never attain the dignity of the right, in spite of the fact that the legislator has wrapped its content into the exterior shape of a valid law. - One of these axioms of right anchored deeply and inseparably in nature is the principle of the sanctity of the human life, and the human right to this life, which the State of a civilized nation can only claim on the basis of a judgment or in war.” - To read, read again and make read! - (ru; cf JS March 21^st, 1947)    

                                                       - The whole team of “RU” wishes you a MERRY CHRISTMAS! -