Holy See diplomat laments population control measures against immigrants

April 26, 2013

Speaking at a meeting of the United Nations’ Commission on Population and Development, a leading Holy See diplomat decried population control measures aimed at immigrants.

“We cannot fail to recognize the impact that the enactment of draconian population control policies have wreaked on countries whose populations can no longer sustain themselves, nor the destructive impact that the forced promotion of harmful notions, such as reproductive rights, has had on migrant families, trivializing marriage and the family and denying the very right to life for the unborn,” said Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See at the United Nations.

Emphasizing that all should respect the human dignity of immigrants, the prelate added that “such a promotion of population control as a way to development has also led States to use forced abortion and sterilization as a means for controlling or mitigating the demographic and racial impact of migrants on their countries. States, on the contrary, have the duty to bolster the family, the fundamental group unit of society, so as to provide support for the institution where the relations of tomorrow must be cultivated.”

Archbishop Chullikatt’s address came on a day on which several other speakers called for great access for immigrants to “reproductive services,” at times a euphemism for abortion. The representative of “Catholics for Choice,” a pro-abortion organization rebuked by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that “if a migrant should happen to seek help from a Catholic hospital, clinic or organization, she would find her options for sexual and reproductive health care severely limited,” according to a UN summary of remarks made before the commission.

 

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Further information:

• Pope: Caring for others in a time of crisis (Vatican Radio)
• Migrants’ Complex Global Movement Affects National Economies, Communities, Families, Say Speakers In Commission On Population And Development Debate (UN Economic and Social Council)