The Pope`s comments during his just-completed Austrian visit underscore again the variance existing between his old-age view of the world and its development and a more modern consideration of humanity and its multitudinous problems. The Pope reiterates his church`s principle that ”human life should not be divided into that which is worth living and that which is not” and that ”human life, born or unborn, fully developed or impeded in development, every human life is endowed with a dignity before God which no one can desecrate.”
Parents, desolated in discovering their newly born child lacks a brain of functional ”worth,” already ”undignified” without limbs, stomach or one or more of endless crucial body and nervous system requirements-these parents can hardly be expected to find solace in the Pope`s remarks.
Were the Pope`s statement merely that of an ordinary lay person we might deem it just another old, tired reiteration; coming from one of the world`s most revered and influential individuals, such claim of speaking for God is nothing short of arrogant, flying as it does in the face of human compassion, emotions and, yes, ”dignity.”
