QUOTE: Observe, O man, and see
whether the dog goes after the bitch after she has conceived. Look at the cow
or certainly at the mare, and notice whether the bulls or stallions bother them
after they are with young. Obviously, they forego the pleasure of intercourse
when they sense that they are unable to produce offspring. Therefore, since
bulls and dogs and other kinds of animal show such regard for their young, it
is men alone, whose teacher was born of the Virgin, who have no fear of destroying
and killing their little ones, made in the image of God, just so that they can
satisfy their lust. This is the reason why many women practice abortion before
their term is complete, or certainly why they discover means of mutilating or
damaging the tiny and still fragile limbs of these little ones. And thus, as
they are impelled by their incentives to lust, they are first murderers before
they become parents. [Letter 96, Letters
91-122, Fathers of the Church: Medieval Continuation, Owen J. Blum, O.F.M.,
1998, Catholic University of America Press, pp. 62-63, ISBN 0813208165 ISBN
9780813208169. Editor's note: “Here we have one of the few references, perhaps
the only explicit one, in Damian's letters, to the practices of abortion. And
to the horror of post-modern feminists he puts the blame on ‘the many women who
practice abortion,’ charging them ‘with being murderers before they became
parents.’ This discussion and its context are important evidence from the
Central Middle Ages, reflecting the constant opposition of the Church to
abortion from the Council of Elvira (ca. 302) to the present.”]
AUTHOR: Saint Peter Damian, O.S.B. (Petrus Damiani, also Pietro Damiani or Pier Damiani; c. 1007 – February
21/22, 1072) was a reforming monk in the circle of Pope Gregory VII and a
cardinal. In 1823, he was declared a Doctor of the Church. Dante placed him in
one of the highest circles of Paradiso as a great predecessor of Saint
Francis of Assisi.
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