Cardinal encourages conscientious objection to RU-486
The president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco , encouraged doctors who defend life and oppose abortion to exercise their right to conscientious objection in response to the decision by health care officials to allow the sale of the abortion drug RU-486. In an interview with the Italian daily Avvenire, Cardinal Bagnasco warned the decision encourages Italians to view “abortion as a contraceptive, something that law 194 absolutely forbids,” and he expressed his “sadness, bitterness and care” over the position of health care officials, which he called a “crack in our society.” Where there is no respect for human life, the cardinal went on, “from conception in its fragility and later during its course, society is less human. That the right of the strongest thus prevails is bitter.” Behind this society, he added, “is an individualistic culture, hidden under respect for the freedom of women,” who “in reality experience a tragedy, live in suffering and worry; w...