Confronting the Devouring Dragon

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We are approaching the anniversary of the promulgation of Evangelium vitae, a papal encyclical given on March 25, 1995.

“The incomparable worth of the human person,” Pope John Paul II wrote 26 years ago in Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life), which addressed numerous aspects of the Church’s social justice teachings: murder, abortion, contraception and sterilization, euthanasia and capital punishment.

Introducing the encyclical, JPII quoted a passage from the Second Vatican Council: “Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others like them are infamies indeed. They poison human society, and they do more harm to those who practice them than to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator.”

This passage, the pope wrote, “retains all its relevance today.”

Writing 26 years ago about a document published 30 years previously, the pope added, “Unfortunately, this disturbing state of affairs, far from decreasing, is expanding: with the new prospects opened up by scientific and technological progress there arise new forms of attacks on the dignity of the human being.”

The same could be written today. In our state, in our nation, in our world, murder and euthanasia and abortion are increasingly common. State-sanctioned murder, also known as the death penalty, was brought back by the federal government last year. In the spring, Spain is expected to become the sixth country to allow assisted suicide; here in Utah, similar legislation was proposed in 2020. In 2018, abortion became legal in Ireland; few countries now completely ban killing a child in the womb, and abortion is available on request throughout North American and most of Europe.

The pope echoes the Church teaching that we don’t limit the worth of a human person simply to his or her life; the quality of that life also is a concern. Jesus told us that “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” is the second greatest commandment, which leads us to ask whether we would treat ourselves as we do the elderly, the hungry, homeless, the migrant, the refugee, those addicted to drugs, who are mentally ill, who suffer from AIDS. “Where life is involved, the service of charity must be profoundly consistent. It cannot tolerate bias and discrimination, for human life is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation; it is an indivisible good. We need then to ‘show care’ for all life and for the life of everyone,” JPII wrote.

Pope John Paul II in his time, as Pope Francis does now, called for us to build a culture of life “rooted in the Church’s mission of evangelization. … We need to begin with the renewal of a culture of life within Christian communities themselves. Too often it happens that believers, even those who take an active part in the life of the Church, end up by separating their Christian faith from its ethical requirements concerning life, and thus fall into moral subjectivism and certain objectionable ways of acting.”

As we approach the anniversary of Evangelium vitae during Lent, now is an excellent time to ponder whether we separate our faith from our ethics: In what ways do we fail to fight against the dragon that threatens to devour “the child brought forth,” as described in Revelations? In what ways can we take up or strengthen our efforts in this battle? How can we become, as John Paul II phrased it, “the people of life and for life”?