Tag: Christianity

Jerusalem, March 5, 2024

Palestinians receive medical care at Kamal Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, Feb. 29, 2024. Photo: cbsnews.com     

On March 1, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, including the Orthodox primate His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos, issued a statement condemning the attack that occurred on civilians last week.

The statement begins by explaining that on Thursday, February 29, according to eyewitness testimony, Israeli forces in Gaza City began shooting at civilians who were waiting to receive humanitarian aid to feed their families.

More than 100 Gazans were killed and hundreds more injured.

The ecclesiastical leaders “condemn this wanton attack against innocent civilians and call for the warring parties to reach an immediate and lengthy ceasefire that allows for the speedy disbursement of relief supplies throughout the Gaza strip.”

Read the full statement below:

In the early morning hours of Thursday, February 29^th, according to eye-witness testimonies, Israeli forces in southwest Gaza City opened fire on crowds of civilians seeking to receive sacks of flour to feed their starving families. The ensuing carnage resulted in the death of more than a hundred Gazans, with hundreds more seriously injured. Doctors on the scene and at receiving hospitals reported that most were killed or injured by gunfire, with some becoming victimized after being either trampled by panicked crowds or hit by aid trucks fleeing the horrific scene.

Although government spokesmen initially tried to deny the soldiers’ involvement in this incident, later that day Israel’s Minister of National Security not only praised IDF fighters for acting “excellently,” but also attempted to blame the victims for their own demise, charging that they had sought to harm heavily armed soldiers. He went on to assail the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, arguing that it should cease.

That stated desire has already become a harsh reality for the half-million remaining in Gaza City, where aid deliveries have nearly halted because of heavy entry restrictions and lack of security escort for the delivery convoys. Humanitarian officials have so often warned of siege-induced famine in north Gaza that foreign governments of goodwill have been forced as a last resort to conduct humanitarian airdrops. Yet these offer only a tiny fraction of the relief that is needed for a remnant civilian population greater than that of Tel Aviv, Israel’s second largest city.

In the aftermath of yesterday’s horrifying events and their cruel context, We, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, condemn this wanton attack against innocent civilians and call for the warring parties to reach an immediate and lengthy ceasefire that allows for the speedy disbursement of relief supplies throughout the Gaza strip, and for the enactment of a negotiated release of those held as captives and prisoners.

While expressing these entreaties on behalf of all innocents suffering from the war, we convey our special prayers of support to the Christian communities in Gaza under our pastoral care. These include the more than 800 Christians who have now taken refuge in St. Porphyrios and Holy Family Churches in Gaza City for nearly five months. We likewise extend these same expressions of solidarity to the intrepid staff and volunteers of the Anglican-run Ahli Hospital, and to the patients they serve.

In issuing the above calls, our ultimate hope is that the end of hostilities, the release of captives, and the care of the downtrodden will open a horizon for serious diplomatic discussions that finally lead to a just and lasting peace here in the land where our Lord Jesus Christ first took up his cross on our behalf. May God grant us all his grace as we seek the fulfilment of this hopeful Easter vision.

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The Catholic Church’s aid organizations must follow God’s example of giving freely without expecting to see the immediate impact of their work or to receive anything in return, Pope Francis said.

When an organization provides aid to a region, “it is natural that we expect a result,” the pope wrote. “But a perception of this kind would be contrary to gratuitousness, which is evangelically defined as giving without expecting anything in return.”

The pope’s comments came in a message March 5 to the heads of Catholic aid organizations working in Latin America, who were attending a Vatican-sponsored conference in Bogotá, Colombia, March 4-8 with Cardinal Robert Prevost, president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. The meeting was a follow up to a June 2023 gathering in Rome with the leaders of aid organizations, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Among the groups represented at the Bogotá conference were Aid to the Church in Need International, Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. bishops’ conference’s Office of National Collections.

Pope Francis encouraged conference participants to consider the Gospel example of giving and to ask themselves: Who gives, what is given and to what end?

“God is He who gives, and we are merely administrators of the goods received,” he wrote in his message, adding that everything humanity has — from life, creation and intelligence to the gift of Christ on the cross — “is either from God or is a proof and pledge of His love.”

“If we lose this awareness in giving and also in receiving, we distort His essence and our own,” Pope Francis wrote. “Instead of solicitous stewards of God, we become slaves to money and, subjugated by the fear of not having, we give our heart to the treasure of false economic security, administrative efficiency, control, an unstirred life.”

The pope encouraged the participants to see how God freely gives and remains faithful to humanity despite its sins.

“God gives Himself, in a word, in the midst of His people,” he wrote. “Let us therefore not avoid those who are blind, those who lie on the side of the road, who are overcome with leprosy or misery; rather, let us ask the Lord to be able to see what prevents them from facing their difficulties.”

“God does not set limits: we sin a thousand times, He forgives a thousand times,” the pope wrote.

Gratuitousness, he explained, is therefore “imitating the way in which Jesus gives Himself for us, His people, always and totally, despite our poverty. And why? Out of love.”

Working for charity is not pointless, the pope wrote, “because there is a purpose. To give ourselves in this way, imitating Jesus who gave Himself to save us all.”

Pope Francis stressed that to embrace the cross “is not a sign of failure, it is not vain work,” but rather “it is joining in the mission of Jesus to bring good news to the poor.”

To give oneself as Jesus did means “to truly touch the wound of that brother, that community, who has a name, who has an infinite value for God,” the pope wrote, “to bring him light, to strengthen his legs, to cleanse his misery, to offer him the opportunity to respond to the plan of love the Lord has for him.”

Câmpina, Prahova County, Romania, March 5, 2024

Photo: Basilica News Agency     

The Romanian Orthodox Church is festively celebrating the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the relics of St. Demetrius the New to Romania this year.

His relics have been protecting Bucharest since July 13, 1774, when they were removed from the village of Basarabov for protection from the fighting of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774. Today, he is honored as the patron saint of the Romanian capital, and every year, there is a Bucharest: Procession with relics of Sts. Demetrius the New, Demetrios the Myrrh-Gusher, Panagia Sumela Icon, and more (+VIDEO)Every year, there is a week-long celebration in honor of St. Demetrius, with pilgrims coming to the Patriarchal Cathedral to venerate his holy relics.

“>week-long pilgrimage around his October 27th feast day. The transfer of his relics to Bucharest is also celebrated on New feast in Romanian Church: Transfer of relics of St. Demetrius the New to BucharestSt. Demetrius is the patron saint of the Romanian capital.”>July 13.

In honor of the 250th anniversary, a pilgrimage with his relics began yesterday, March 4, and will continue until April 16. This will be the largest such pilgrimage with his relics since the 1950s, when Romania was going through a severe drought, reports the Basilica News Agency.

The 6-week journey began with a blessing service officiated at the Patriarchal Cathedral by His Grace Bishop Paisie of Sinaia, who noted that St. Demetrius has worked countless miracles of healing, aid, and deliverance over the years.

The relics were first taken to Câmpina, about an hour and a half north of Bucharest, where they blessed the faithful of several different parishes. Bp. Paisie preached:

Touching his holy relics makes us feel touched by God’s grace, to remember that our final goal is the Kingdom of Heaven. In his presence, as with other saints, we feel the need to cleanse our souls, to sanctify our lives, to become pleasing to God again, reconciled with our fellow men, reconciled with ourselves. We feel St. Demetrius as a good and protective friend with whom we cannot bear to part.

The first day of the pilgrimage ended at the Caraiman Monastery, where the hierarch celebrated Holy Unction and the All-Night Vigil.

***

Photo: oca.org St. Demetrius was born early in the 13th century to a peasant family in the village of Basarabov, then part of Bulgaria. Even in childhood, he gave himself to fasting and prayer.

Once, walking across a field, he accidentally stepped on a bird’s nest in the grass, killing the young birds. He was so filled with remorse that he went barefoot for three years, winter and summer, in penance. When he was grown he joined a monastery and, after a few years of community life, received a blessing to dwell in a cave near the River Lom.

After many years of solitary struggle, he reposed in his cave. 300 years passed, during which all memory of the simple ascetic was lost. Then, one spring the river flooded the cave and carried off St. Demetrius’ body, which had lain incorrupt in the cave for centuries. The body was carried downstream and buried in gravel. Another 100 years went by, and the saint appeared in a dream to a paralyzed girl, telling her to ask her parents to take her to the riverbank, where she would be healed.

The family, along with many clergy and villagers, went to a spot where some local people had earlier seen an unexplained light. They dug and soon unearthed the still-incorrupt and radiant body of St. Demetrius, by which the girl was instantly healed. A church was built in the village of Basarabov to honour the precious relics, and through the years the saint worked many miracles there.

In 1774, during the Russian-Turkish war, General Peter Saltikov ordered the holy relics taken to Russia so that they would not be desecrated by the Turks. When the relics came to Bucharest, a pious Christian friend of the general begged him not to deprive the country of one of its most precious saints; so the general took only one of the saint’s hands, sending it to the Kiev Caves Lavra. St. Demetrius’ body was placed in the cathedral of Bucharest, where it has been venerated ever since.

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St. John Joseph lived an ascetic life, even from a young age. He devoted himself to God through poverty and fasting. When he was 16, he joined the Franciscans in Naples, becoming the first Italian to follow the reform movement of St. Peter Alcantara. 

John Joseph was known for his holiness, which prompted his superiors to put him in charge of establishing a new friary, even before his ordination. He obediently accepted this appointment and others, like novice master, guardian, and finally provincial. He performed these roles with great charity and humility, insisting on working in the kitchen or carrying wood and water. 

When his provincial term was over, John Joseph dedicated himself to hearing confessions and practicing mortification. He was canonized in 1839, and is the patron saint of Ischilia, Italy, where he was born. 

Sirius, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, March 5, 2024

Film director Emir Kusturica. Photo: english.ahram.org     

The famous Serbian Orthodox film director Emir Kusturica is planning a new project based on two works of the famous novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky.

“The next movie I’m going to film here, in St. Petersburg and Siberia, will be Crime Without Punishment. It will be a combination of The Idiot and Crime and Punishment,” Kusturica said during the World Youth Festival currently taking place in the Krasnodar Krai in Russia.

After the Dostoevsky mashup, the director then plants to tackle Eugene Vodolazkin’s international best-seller novel Laurus, and then something from the Russian author Nikolai Gogol.

Emir Kusturica is a Serbian film director and actor who has won awards at the world’s largest festivals, including two Palme d’Ors from the Cannes Film Festival.

The director was born into a secular Muslim family in Sarajevo in 1954. On St. George’s Day in 2005, he was baptized Orthodox at the Savina Monastery near Herceg Novi, Montenegro. To those who accused him of betraying his Bosnian roots, he replied:

My father was an atheist and he always described himself as a Serb. Okay, maybe we were Muslim for 250 years, but we were Orthodox before that and deep down we were always Serbs, religion cannot change that. We only became Muslims to survive the Turks.

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New York, March 5, 2024

The Orthodox-Catholic Consultation at its meeting in May 2023. Photo: assemblyofbishops.org     

The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation has issued a new joint statement on the pastoral care of mixed marriages entitled, “Neither Yours Nor Mine—But Ours.”

The consultation is chaired, from the Orthodox side, by Metropolitan Methodios of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston, reports the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, though the report does not name the other Orthodox members.

The Assembly report emphasizes that, “Like most dialogue-agreed statements, this document does not speak officially for either Church,” but has been drafted by theologians and is being circulated “for prayerful reflection and discussion.”

According to the statement, the Orthodox and Catholics “recogniz[e] the ecclesial reality of baptism in both Churches.”

After reviewing a number of past joint statements, the Theological Consultation “propose[s] that instead of dividing the parties in a mixed marriage into yours and mine, to adopt, as a starting principle, a joint solicitude for the spouses and embark on the pastoral care of each mixed marriage as our concern.”

The document explains that from the Catholic side, a mixed marriage celebrated in an Orthodox church is perfectly acceptable, while from the Orthodox side, a mixed marriage celebrated in a Catholic church is traditionally seen as an impediment to continued participation in the sacramental life of the Church for the Orthodox spouse.

Thus, the Consultation recommends that mixed marriages be celebrated in Orthodox churches.

However, despite the above recommendation, the Consultation also recommends that Orthodox hierarchs extend further economy to Orthodox Christians who get married in a Catholic church (in addition to the economy of permitting a mixed marriage, in contrast to the akrivia of Canon 72 of the ecumenically approved Council of Trullo):

We also recommend that Orthodox hierarchs consider the extension of ecclesiastical economy to Orthodox parties in legal contractual unions that have been established through the exchange of matrimonial consent and made with the intention of a lifelong bond in the Catholic liturgical and canonical tradition. Such an economy would be extended solely to the Orthodox spouse for the purpose of his or her canonical standing in the Orthodox Church, reflected in continued eucharistic participation and subsequent sacraments offered in the life of the Church such as the ability to serve as godparent at a baptism or sponsor at a wedding, and full participation in parish ministry life, including serving on the parish council, and so forth.

Regarding the religious upbringing of children in mixed marriages, the Consultation states that, “Parents should be unafraid to share the commonalities of their faith and be open and respectful where their faith diverges. Appreciation of diversity can provide a positive model for childhood development.”

Further, the theologians of the Consultation believe that pastoral care for children in such situations should be handled by both churches:

Nevertheless, membership in one church does not necessarily exclude some participation in the life of the other church. A child should be made aware of the faith traditions of both churches, even as the parents decide how to approach such an awareness together.

Ideally, both churches are jointly responsible for the pastoral care of spouses and children in mixed marriages. This responsibility must also be carried out in a spirit of love and mutual respect.

Traditionally, the Orthodox Church has expected that a mixed marriage be celebrated in the Orthodox church, with the spouses promising to raise any future children in the Orthodox Church.

At Council of Crete in the summer of 2016, which saw the participation of 10 Local Churches, a document on Marriage was adopted, which addressed the issue of mixed marriages.

The pre-conciliar version of the document from the Synaxis of the Primates held in Chambésy, Switzerland, in January 2016, stated:

Marriage between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians is forbidden and is not blessed in the Church, according to canonical akribeia (Canon 72 of the Quinisext Ecumenical Council). However, such a marriage can be blessed by dispensation and out of love, on the condition that the children born of this marriage will be baptized and raised within the Orthodox Church [emphasis added].

However, Holy and Great Council: The Sacrament of Marriage and its ImpedimentsThe institution of the family is threatened today by such phenomena as secularization and moral relativism. The Orthodox Church maintains, as her fundamental and indisputable teaching, that marriage is sacred. The freely entered union of man and woman is an indispensable precondition for marriage.

“>the final version, adopted at the Council of Crete itself, no longer includes any stipulations about children. It states:

Marriage between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians is forbidden according to canonical akribeia (Canon 72 of the Quinisext Ecumenical Council).

With the salvation of man as the goal, the possibility of the exercise of ecclesiastical oikonomia in relation to impediments to marriage must be considered by the Holy Synod of each autocephalous Orthodox Church according to the principles of the holy canons and in a spirit of pastoral discernment.

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March of this year came in like a Lenten lion, but will go out like a Paschal Lamb. As April begins, we’ll find ourselves in Easter Week. We’re moving forward in small increments, sacrifice by sacrifice, prayer by prayer, alms by alms.

We move toward Easter along a path well worn. The saints have gone before us to show us the way. Consider St. Cyril of Jerusalem, a fourth-century bishop and perhaps the classic preacher and teacher of the wonders of the Lenten and Easter seasons.

St. Cyril is best known today for the catechetical sermons he delivered to new converts. He was a profound biblical theologian; and as he preached he ranged over many points of Christian life, from morals to prayer to the creed. He ended with a stunning series on the sacraments of initiation: his famous Mystagogical Catecheses, in which he walked step by step through the liturgies and explained the details of the rites in light of the Scriptures.

When those new members of his congregation stepped into the baptismal pool on Easter Vigil, they were stepping decisively into the stream of salvation history. The sacramental moment had been foreshadowed in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New. God had willed it from the dawn of creation. Christ had come, in the fullness of time, to call these particular men and women to the water, to the anointing, to the banquet.

St. Cyril was especially good at his job. He excelled as a preacher and teacher, theologian and biblical scholar. He delivered his message with the power of a poet.

But his message was not unique. What he practiced was mystagogy — guidance in the mysteries — and we find the same points touched upon in the works of other great mystagogues of the ancient Church: St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, and Theodore of Mopsuestia (to name just a few).

They preached at the time the world was waking up to the Gospel. Over the course of their lifetimes, Greco-Roman paganism crumbled almost entirely to dust. Cyril alone probably guided tens of thousands of converts into the mysteries of faith. Even now, more than a millennium and a half later, you can sense the excitement of what was then a “New Evangelization.”

When Cyril preached during Easter week, his congregations roared with applause as he spoke of the sacraments. That’s a fact, and we know it because we have the diary of a European woman, Egeria, as she traveled through his city — and she recorded that ovation for posterity.

Oh, for the return of such a day, when Catholics could barely contain their love for the Eucharist, for the baptismal gift, for the strength of their anointing. May it be so this Easter.

Making the world a better place for everyone starts with prayer and little steps like saying hello, sorry or thank you, Pope Francis said in a letter to the world’s children.

“Our world will change if we all begin with these little things, without being ashamed to take small steps, one at a time,” he wrote in the letter that was released March 2.

The letter included an invitation for the youngsters to participate in the first World Children’s Day meeting in Rome May 25-26. At a news conference after the letter was published, organizers said 57,000 children from 60 countries already had signed up and they hoped 100,000 children ages 6-12 would attend the opening event at Rome’s Olympic Stadium and Mass with Pope Francis the next day in St. Peter’s Square.

In his letter, Pope Francis told children that they are “a source of joy for your parents and your families, but also for our human family and for the Church, in which each of us is like a link in a great chain stretching from the past to the future and covering the whole earth.”

Children also remind everyone of their need and desire “to grow and flourish,” and that all people are someone’s sons and daughters and are brothers and sisters, he said. “We would not be alive unless others brought us into this world, nor could we grow without having others to love and from whom to receive love.”

“The fact that we are small reminds us that we are also frail and need one another as members of one body,” the pope wrote.

Pope Francis explained to the children that he chose the Bible passage, “Behold, I make all things new,” as the theme for World Children’s Day because it is a reminder that to make the world a better place, people need to be united with Jesus and with others.

“With Jesus, we can dream of the renewal of our human family and work for a more fraternal society that cares for our common home,” the pope wrote.

Sharing “a special secret” with the children, Pope Francis told them that if they really want to be happy, they need to pray every day “because prayer connects us directly to God” and “fills our hearts with light and warmth.”

And even the youngest people can understand that they cannot be happy all alone “because our joy increases to the extent that we share it,” he said. “Joy is born of gratitude for the gifts we have received and which we share in turn, and it grows in our relationships with others.”

“When we keep the blessings we have received to ourselves, or throw tantrums to get this or that gift, we forget that the greatest gift that we possess is ourselves, one another: all of us, together, are God’s gift,” the letter said. “Other gifts are nice, but only if they help us to be together. If we don’t use them for that purpose, we will always end up being unhappy; they will never be enough.”

“Think of your friends and how great it is to spend time with them: at home, at school, in the parish and the playground, everywhere,” Pope Francis wrote. “Playing, singing, discovering new things, having fun, everyone being together and excluding no one. Friendship is wonderful and it grows only in this way: through sharing and forgiving, with patience, courage, creativity and imagination, without fear and without prejudice.”

In preparation for World Children’s Day, the pope asked them to pray the Our Father every morning and every evening with their families and to think about the words.

Jesus, he said, “is calling us and he wants us to join actively with him, on this World Children’s Day, to become builders of a new, more humane, just and peaceful world.”

“Jesus, who offered himself on the Cross to gather all of us together in love, who conquered death and reconciled us with the Father, wants to continue his work in the Church through us,” the pope wrote. “Think about this, especially those of you who are preparing to receive First Communion.”

Parishes in the LA Archdiocese are being asked to hold an emergency second collection to help Christians in the Holy Land affected by the ongoing war in Gaza.

“In solidarity with our suffering brothers and sisters, Archbishop [José H.] Gomez has asked all parishes to consider conducting a non-mandatory special collection during the weekends of March 2-3 and March 9-10, 2024,” read a Feb. 20 message to parishes and archdiocesan staff from Father Jim Anguiano, the archdiocese’s vicar general and Moderator of the Curia, and Msgr. Terrance L. Fleming, executive director of the archdiocese’s Mission Office.

Funds collected from parish masses on both weekends will go to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which collects relief money on behalf of the Holy See to be distributed for special causes.

According to a spokesperson for The Pontifical Mission Societies, the money will benefit Christians in Gaza, as well as the West Bank and other areas where the war between Israel and Hamas has had a devastating effect on the local economy.

“The fund is a concrete response to Pope Francis’ appeal to heed the cry for peace of the poor, the people, the children in the Holy Land,” said Father Anthony Andreassi, national director of The Pontifical Mission Societies. “We are called to take the side of peace, to pray and sacrifice for peace, and also offer concrete material help whenever possible.”

“We thank the generosity of Angelenos, who have long been strong supporters of the Church’s missionary efforts, as we saw last year, when the Archdiocese raised over $400,000 that have already been distributed among missionaries in Syria and Turkey to aid in the reconstruction following the devastating earthquake from February 2023.”

For Christians in the Holy Land, the local economy is largely driven by pilgrim visits to holy sites in places like Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Galilee. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the tourism industry in the region has largely come to a standstill.

The Feb. 20 letter to the archdiocese also noted that the emergency collection is different from the annual “Holy Land Collection” held at parishes every Good Friday (March 29 this year).

Online donations for the collection can be made by visiting MissionsLA.org/product/donate, selecting “Society of Propagation of the Faith” and specifying “Emergency Relief for the Holy Land” in the special instructions box.

All checks should be made payable to The Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Memo: Emergency Relief for the Holy Land, #200475. Donations may be mailed to Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 3424 Wilshire Blvd – 3rd Floor, Los Angeles CA 90010.

Alabama lawmakers in both the state’s House and Senate Feb. 29 passed similar bills to implement legal protections to in vitro fertilization clinics following a ruling by that state’s Supreme Court that frozen embryos qualify as children under the state law’s wrongful death law.

IVF is a form of fertility treatment opposed by the Catholic Church on the grounds that it often involves the destruction of human embryos, among other concerns.

Both chambers passed similar bills, but they must reconcile their pieces of legislation before sending one to the governor’s desk. Republican Gov. Kay Ivey has signaled her support for protecting IVF in law.

The ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court found that embryos are children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, a statute that allows parents of a deceased child to recover punitive damages for their child’s death. That ruling came in response to appeals brought by couples whose embryos were destroyed in 2020, when a hospital patient improperly removed frozen embryos from storage equipment, which they argued constituted a wrongful death. The judges found that under the law, parents’ ability to sue over the wrongful death of a minor child applies to unborn children, without an exception for “extrauterine children.”

While the ruling itself was limited in scope, it was met with backlash, as it created complex legal questions about what it entailed for IVF treatments in the state. Multiple IVF providers in the state paused treatments in its wake.

Republican lawmakers and candidates for office, most notably former President Donald Trump, frontrunner for the GOP nomination in 2024, sought to distance themselves from the ruling.

“Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families,” Trump said in a Feb. 23 statement. “We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every State in America.”

Trump added in his statement, “Like the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, including the VAST MAJORITY of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-Life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby.”

Trump urged Alabama lawmakers “to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama.”

The 1987 document from the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith known as “Donum Vitae” or “The Gift of Life,” states the church opposes IVF and related practices, including gestational surrogacy, in part because “the connection between in vitro fertilization and the voluntary destruction of human embryos occurs too often.”

Issued by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, the teaching named the “right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death” and “the child’s right to be conceived, brought into the world and brought up by his parents” as behind the church’s moral objections to those practices.

“The political authority consequently cannot give approval to the calling of human beings into existence through procedures which would expose them to those very grave risks noted previously,” the documents states.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 238,126 patients underwent IVF treatment in 2021, resulting in 112,088 clinical pregnancies and 91,906 live births.