QUOTATION: Life is a Mystery

Life itself is mysterious, and those who fail to come to grips with mystery are either very naïve or very angry or end up being both. Many of the attacks on religion, which as we mentioned, are in the popular press at the present time, are ultimately based on a refusal to come to grips with mystery.

--Benedict J. Groeschel, The Tears of God, 2009.

QUOTATION: Life, the Most Fundamental Freedom

To be free, a person must first be alive. To deprive a person of life is to deprive that person of liberty. It stands to reason, literally, that the very right to life has to be respected and protected. Life is an even more fundamental right than freedom.

--Fr. Frank Pavone, Abolishing Abortion

QUOTATION: The Right to Life

Every human being, even a child in the mother's womb has a right to life directly from God and not from the parents or from any society or authority.  Hence there is no man, no human authority, no science, no medical, eugenic, social, economic or moral 'indication' that can offer or produce a valid juridical title to a direct deliberate disposal of an innocent human life; that is to say, a disposal that aims at its destruction whether as an end or as a means to another end, which is, perhaps, in no way unlawful in itself.

--Pius XII, Allocution to Large Families, November 26, 1951

QUOTATION: Human Life

Here I feel it urgent to state that, if the family is the sanctuary of life, the place where life is conceived and cared for, it is a horrendous contradiction when it becomes a place where life is rejected and destroyed. So great is the value of a human life, and so inalienable the right to life of an innocent child growing in the mother’s womb, that no alleged right to one’s own body can justify a decision to terminate that life, which is an end in itself and which can never be considered the “property” of another human being.

--Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, 83

QUOTATION: The Right to Life

Courage is required to restate the most essential things : Thou shalt not kill. We cannot dispose of a human being at his birth nor at his death. Life belongs to God. If man arrogates the right to dispose of his brother’s life, we no longer live in a culture where there is equality of rights, we are in culture where the rights of the strongest dominate. The strongest imposes his right, his supposed right, more exactly. What we have defined as the right to abortion is not a true right because it violates another’s rights. We must recall these things, enter into conflict with the dominant culture up to a certain point, at least in certain countries, and thus risk exposing ourselves to criticism. Witnessing to the truth in the name of Christ obliges us to this audacious claim, which must always be spoken with respect.

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Actualité et avenir du Concile oecuménique Vatican II

QUOTATION: The Gospel of Life

The Gospel of Life is not for believers alone: it is for everyone. The issue of life and its defense and promotion is not a concern of the Christian alone. Although faith provides special light and strength, this question arises in every human conscience which seeks the truth and which cares about the future of humanity. Life certainly has a sacred and religious value, but in no way is that value a concern only of believers. The value at stake is one which every human being can grasp by the light of reason; thus it necessarily concerns everyone.

--Pope St. John Paul II

QUOTATION: Human Life

God’s love does not distinguish between the infant in the mother’s womb or the child or the youth or the adult or the older person. In each one God sees his image and likeness. Human life is a manifestation of God and his glory.

--Pope Benedict XVI

QUOTATION: Prenatal Life is Sacred

When the Sacredness of life before birth is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life.

--Pope St. John Paul II

QUOTATION: Fear Not

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.

--Blessed John Henry Newman

QUOTATION: When Life Begins

Life has a very long history, but each of us has a very definite beginning—- the moment of conception.

--Professor Jerome Lejeune

QUOTATION: Life

The highest manifestation of life consists of this: that a being governs its own actions.

--St. Thomas Aquinas