In his encyclical letter, Veritas Splendor, Pope John Paul II reminded us that Church teaches that « there exist acts which per se and in themselves, independently of circumstances, are always seriously wrong by reason of their object. » He went on to quote from a Vatican II document a list of such infamies. Few will be surprised to see abortion in this list but many may be taken back by the other moral atrocities included in this category.
• Whatever is opposed to life itself
such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion,
euthanasia or willful self-destruction
such as mutilation,
torments inflicted on body or mind,
attempts to coerce the will itself
• Whatever insults human dignity
such as subhuman living conditions,
arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery,
prostitution, the selling of women and children;
as well as disgraceful working conditions,
where men are treated as mere tools for profit,
rather than as free and responsible persons
and others of their like, are infamies indeed.
but they do more harm to those who practice them
than to those who suffer from the injury.
Moreover, they are supreme dishonor
to the Creator.
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
Vatican Council II
