Vatican City: Beauty at any cost, Beauty as a symbol of Pride : such ‘beauty worshippers’ are the modern day idolaters, says the Holy Father, Pope Francis.
Pope Francis today (Jan 11) took aim at the modern world’s obsessions with power, success and beauty, citing the example of a woman who had an abortion to preserve her looks.
In an anecdote he said dated from his time as Bishop of Buenos Aires, Francis recounted the story of a a very beautiful woman who was inordinately proud of how she looked.
“She said, as if it was natural, ‘Yes, I had to have an abortion because my appearance is important’,” the 80-year-old, whose papacy began in March 2013, said during his midweek public audience.
“When values such as physical beauty, health become idols to which everything must be sacrificed they create confusion in our spirit and in our hearts.
“Rather than promoting life, they drive us towards death,” he added in comments that also targeted “power, success and vanity with their illusions of eternity and omnipotence.”
Catholic teaching considers abortion as akin to the most heinous of murders.
Francis does not waver from that line but has authorised priests to absolve women who have had terminations, something which only a bishop could previously do.
Abortion to ‘save looks’ is an insult to God added by editor1 on
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Idol worship is forbidden: and truly, the truly ‘idol worship’ as the Pope says, is when we start to give things like beauty, money or power a place above our own human life. The Pope makes sense when he talks about placing things like beauty above all else.
At the same time I would say that a woman has the right to take decisions about her body, and whether she should or should not give birth.
This does not mean i support abortion unilaterally!