Hinimok ni Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula ang bawat mananampalataya na kilalanin ang buhay bilang isang handog mula sa Diyos at isang tungkulin at pananagutan na dapat ipagtanggol at pangalagaan.
Pinangunahan ni Cardinal Advincula ang Misa para sa Walk for Life 2025 na ginanap sa Manila Cathedral, kung saan mahigit 3,500 mananampalataya mula sa iba’t ibang pro-life groups at institusyon ng Simbahan ang lumahok sa prusisyon mula Luneta patungong Manila Cathedral. Ang tema ng pagtitipon ngayong taon ay “Walk for Life, Walk for Hope.”
Sa kanyang homiliya, binigyang-diin ng Kardinal ang kahalagahan ng pagtatanggol sa buhay, lalo na ng mga sanggol sa sinapupunan, at ang tungkulin ng bawat isa na manindigan laban sa mga gawaing lumalapastangan sa dignidad ng tao.
“While we cannot judge a person and the inner movements of his heart, we can judge actions and their surrounding circumstances. We can and must judge the killing of the unborn and defenseless to be always wrong. We can and must judge the commodification of sex and the human body to be immoral. We can judge the technical manipulation of human procreation for the acquisition of babies as wrong. For a child is a gift and not a product to be procured under one’s specifications,” ayon kay Cardinal Advincula.
Igniiit din niya na walang moral na batayan ang tinatawag na “mercy killing” at ang extrajudicial killings, sapagkat parehong lumalabag ang mga ito sa dignidad at karapatan ng tao.
“We can and must judge the so-called mercy killing of the weak, the disabled, and the aged to be morally indefensible. We can and must judge extrajudicial killings as evil, as a violation of human dignity. What we cannot judge is the state of the person’s soul or the motives of the heart. We do not condemn the person who kills, rather we call the person for conversion.”
Binigyang-diin din ni Cardinal Advincula na ang walang pasubaling pagmamahal sa lahat, lalo na sa mahihina at tinatanggihan ng lipunan, ang pinakapuso ng espirituwalidad ng pro-life movement.
“Loving the unlovable is the very backbone of our pro-life spirituality. What society considers weak, irrelevant, unproductive, ugly, and burdensome are precisely the object and the designated recipient of our love and devotion.”
Ayon sa Cardinal, ang mensahe ng Diyos ay nagbibigay ng malinaw na gabay upang makilala ang tama at mali.
“But we are also gifted with reason and His revealed words. This has given us the ability to distinguish right from wrong. In this sense, we can and must judge the difference. If we are not able to judge between right and wrong, then neither could we say, ‘Do not judge,’ for that itself is a judgment.”
