According to recent news from the Vatican, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is experiencing aggravated kidney failure and had a pacemaker recently fitted. The Pontiff – whose worsening condition is under close medical observation – has been a long-time vocal defender of the right to life from conception to natural death.
Benedict XVI spent much of his eight years as pontiff of the Catholic Church addressing world leaders, governments, and international organizations such as the United Nations. He also composed a number of communications and encyclicals – letters from a pope to bishops. In his speeches and writings, Benedict constantly addressed the the dignity of human life and the need to protect it.
In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), Benedict addressed the social issue of the environment. He explained that if there is to be a true respect for nature, humanity must understand that man (the human being) is the focus of creation. If human nature cannot be respected from conception onward, then the ecological environment cannot be honored.
Pope Benedict XVI visited the U.S. in 2008. In his address to American bishops in Washington, D.C., he spoke of the growing secularism in our society and its consequences in the lives of individual citizens.
The result is a growing separation of faith from life: living “as if God did not exist”.
The Pope went on to say that the most scandalous example of this is the promotion of abortion as a right by Catholics.
During the same trip, Benedict XVI visited the United Nations’ headquarters in New York City. His address to UN representatives centered around human rights. At a time during which governments and institutions around the world were increasing their human rights rhetoric, the Pope proposed that human rights must stem from the dignity of human life. He expounded on the fact that human rights cannot have any meaning if they do not originate from the idea that the human being is created by God.
During his time as head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict also defended the family as the basis of a healthy society. His pontificate ended in 2013.