Friday, December 12, 2014

The Gospel of Life

In Korea there are  many things that are illegal but you would believe were legal. An article in the Peace Weekly begins with the words of a doctor turned  ethicist who mentions a news story where 117 persons were apprehended for child  pornography and of that number, half were in their  teens and one third of those were in elementary school.

Doctor Lee was a well known gynecologist who is now teaching at  Catholic Universities the ethics of life. He received his doctorate in ethics at a university in Rome last year. In 2008, at the age of 64 he decided to go on to study moral theology.

He wanted to  find out why God made male and female to be one.  Why was the Church opposed to artificial birth control and condoms? He wanted to find out where the roots of this teaching on life came from. This desire as a Catholic to find the reasons for the culture of life teachings, at his age was difficult,  but he was  adding to the knowledge he had as a doctor, which made it very satisfying.

The doctor was now more interested in the moral issues associated with life than the field of  gynecology that he had devoted most of his life. He was now interested in natural child birth, problems with birth control, abortion, stem cells, suicide and the other issues connected with the culture of life. He now wants to share his knowledge with others.

Korean society has little teaching on sex which is a large problem. Schools have given up on sex education which makes it open for all kinds of distorted views. By the coupling of the male and female, we have new life and the meaning of this life:  morally, philosophically, is  to be taught within the Church. There are certain elements that can't be taught with medical and scientific knowledge.

Doctor Lee has entered late into the movement for life. Even though he is well on in years, he feels it is  a call of God, and wants to dedicate the rest of his life to the movement. 

In Evangelium Vitae (#5), Pope John Paul II addressed an appeal to all of us: "in the name of God: respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!"