As Haley reports, Pope Francis has made an unequivocal statement condemning the “despicable” practice of surrogacy — “a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child” — and calling for a global ban. A reader responded to a New York Times article reporting these statements:
Lest anyone be deluded into thinking that Francis, despite being Pope, is fundamentally a good guy and dedicated to dragging the Catholic church kicking and screaming out of the Middle Ages, well, here you go.
Of course, similar sentiments are often expressed from the opposing viewpoint when Pope Francis appears to be taking the church in a more progressive direction, as in the recent controversy surrounding same-sex blessings (more on that here).
But whatever one thinks of the pontiff — good pope, bad pope — his remarks on surrogacy should not come as a surprise. He has been consistently forceful on life issues.
His zingers on the subject include: “Abortion is murder,” like “hiring a hitman.” He has compared abortion in the case of fetal anomaly to Nazi eugenics. In 2014, the pope told members of the Association of Italian Catholic Medical Doctors:
The dominant thinking sometimes suggests a false compassion, that which believes it is helpful to women to promote abortion; an act of dignity to provide euthanasia; a scientific breakthrough to produce a child and consider it to be a right, rather than a gift to welcome [referring to artificial reproduction technologies forbidden by the church]. . . . We are living in a time of experimentation with life. But a bad experiment. Making children rather than accepting them as a gift, as I said. Playing with life. Be careful, because this is a sin against the Creator: against God the creator, who created things this way. . . . Fidelity to the Gospel of life and respect for life as a gift from God sometimes require choices that are courageous and go against the current.