Pope promotes common good

Published on Saturday 13 February 2010 19:11

THE visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Scotland is a challenge to the secular assumptions that appear to underpin life. Religion is marginalised to the outer periphery of the polity where dialogue of faith and culture does not exist. The teaching of the Catholic Church on such matters as the sacredness of human life from the moment of conception to natural death is a case in point.

We in Scotland tolerate the destruction of unborn life as a matter of "choice" and have recently witnessed the attempt of a parliamentarian to introduce a bill to allow voluntary euthanasia for those who believe their own life is no longer worth living. The Pope recently told the bishops of Scotland that the "positive and inspiring vision" of the Church on human life is a positive message of hope: not a series of prohibitions and retrograde positions, but a message directed to "the fullest possible realisation of the great potential for good and for happiness that God has implanted within every one of us."

The development of a "culture of death" our society is experiencing is dangerous for all, as a coarsening of public opinion to accept and even welcome abortion and euthanasia leads inexorably to a "survival of the fittest" mentality, where brute power and strength are the points of reference to what is considered the "good" of human life.

I am sure that the Holy Father will be made welcome by the people of Scotland and will offer the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to aid us in promoting the common good for our nation in the midst of confusion and moral relativism.

Andrew Gray, Edinburgh