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Home News Cases and articles Pope urges Mexico to respect life, praises abolition of death penalty Pope urges Mexico to respect life, praises abolition of death penalty
Monday, 13 July 2009
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --
Emphasizing the importance of protecting human life, Pope Benedict XVI
congratulated the government of Mexico for its decision in 2005 to
eliminate the death penalty.
"One cannot insist enough on the fact that the right to life must be
recognized fully," the pope said July 10 as he welcomed Hector Ling
Altamirano as Mexico's new ambassador to the Holy See.
Governments must enact laws and
public policies that "take into account the high value that a human
being has at every moment of existence," the pope said.
"In this regard, I welcome with joy the initiative of Mexico, which in
2005 eliminated its capital punishment legislation, as well as the
recent actions some states have taken to protect human life from its
beginning," Pope Benedict told the new ambassador.
The pope said he prayed that Mexico would be able to face its current
problems with courage and determination so the nation would "continue
on the path of freedom, solidarity and social progress."
The government has taken many steps to promote a more just social order
and resolve serious problems such as violence, drug trafficking,
inequality and poverty, "which can breed delinquency," the pope said.
He told the ambassador that an effective and lasting solution to such
social problems also requires "moral renewal, the education of
consciences and the building of a real culture of life."
The Catholic faith, shared by the vast majority of Mexicans, espouses
values that Mexico needs in the process of "promoting justice, working
for peace and reconciliation, encouraging honesty and transparency,
combating violence, corruption and crime, caring constantly for human
life and safeguarding human dignity," he said.
Respecting freedom of religion means not only protecting people's
rights to believe and to worship, but it also means allowing them to
try to apply their religious values to public discussions and social
policies, he said.
Pope Benedict also called on the Mexican government to promote policies
that assist families, both because they are a central value of the
Mexican people and because strong families are essential for a strong
nation.
"The family -- a community life and love founded on the indissoluble
marriage of a man and a woman -- is the basic unit of the social
fabric," he said. Families are "schools of respect and mutual
understanding, seedbeds of human virtues and a motive of hope for the
rest of society," he said.