Irish Daily Mail

Pope likens abortion to ‘white glove’ Nazi eugenics

- By Nicole Winfield

POPE Francis has denounced abortion as the ‘white glove’ equivalent of the Nazi-era eugenics programme and urged families to accept the children that God gives them.

Francis spoke off the cuff to a meeting of an Italian family associatio­n, ditching his prepared remarks to speak from the heart about families and the trials they undergo.

He lamented how some couples choose not to have any children, while others resort to pre-natal testing to see if their baby has any malformati­ons or genetic problems.

‘The first proposal in such a case is, “Do we get rid of it?”’ Francis said.

‘The murder of children. To have an easy life, they get rid of an innocent.’

Francis recalled that, as a child, he was horrified to hear stories from his teacher about children ‘thrown from the mountain’ if they were born with malformati­ons.

‘Today we do the same thing,’ Francis said.

‘Last century, the whole world was scandalise­d by what the Nazis did to purify the race. Today, we do the same thing but with white gloves.’

The Pope urged families to accept children ‘as God gives them to us’.

Francis has repeated the strict antiaborti­on stance of his predecesso­rs and integrated it into his broader condemnati­on of what he calls today’s ‘throw-away culture’.

He has frequently lamented how the sick, poor, elderly and the unborn are considered unworthy of protection and dignity by a society that prizes instead individual prowess.

He has also decried how women are often considered part of this ‘throw-away culture’, sometimes forced to prostitute themselves.

Francis has dedicated much of his pontificat­e to preaching about families, marriage and the problems that families today encounter.

He is expected to highlight these issues during his August trip to Ireland where he will close out the Catholic Church’s big family rally.

Mary Carr – Page 12

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