Cardinal Kim Su-hwan and Respect for Life

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Cardinal Kim Su-hwan who left a great mark on the country's democratization and protection of human rights. He was a 'lamp of the times' and a 'living conscience'. Always on the side of the weak. The writer of the Catholic Peace Weekly column, Diagnosis of the Times, mentions the comfort and encouragement she has received from his decisive yet upright defense of human dignity. 

After the 1970s, Korea achieved rapid industrialization and economic growth, but at the same time reduced human beings to political and economic tools and promoted materialistic dehumanization. 

 

According to Cardinal Kim Su-hwan, the biggest cause of dehumanization is the contempt for life. In other words, "the fact that we do not value human life is a phenomenon that occurs because we do not value human existence itself." This verse contains very important information. For Cardinal Kim respect for human life is a respect that must be possessed because of human dignity. The protection of human dignity and human rights without respect for human life is absurd. Let's listen to what Cardinal Kim has to say about this. 

The right to life is the most basic of all human rights. When this is ignored, other human rights cannot be well protected. The lack of ethics and values ​​resulting from abortion threatens the safety of ourselves and our country. We are getting into a very serious situation. 

That is why I am in favor of all life movements. Because only then can we be saved. And all life movements must be fundamentally rooted in the prevention of abortion, which protects the young human life of the unborn child. This is because the true movement of life cannot exist ignoring the life of the fetus, which is the beginning and foundation of human life, and its right to live.  

(Cardinal Kim, Encouragement Speech at Symposium on Prevention of Abortion, 1991) 

In a society that routinely kills, in a political society that not only neglects but rather promotes it, the disrespect for life is prevalent, and all kinds of crimes against humanity and life increase daily. The root cause of human rights violations, ignoring human dignity, is the lack of respect for human life. 

Human dignity is innate. This fact has existed from the beginning of human life and cannot be determined by human standards. The thoughts on 'human life and abortion' of major presidential candidates, recently revealed through the Korean Catholic Bishops Conference, contain a trend of contempt for life that is of great concern. This attitude is prevalent in society, the social consensus, which finds no problem with the routine killing of life, is this not something really unfortunate?

Cardinal Su-hwan Kim, while calling for the protection of human dignity and human rights, strongly criticized the trend of disrespecting life, dehumanizing people in politics and economics. However, the voice of criticism still awakens us. As he said, "The democratization we want is humanization rather than the democratic system itself." That is humanization in which we value all human life, from the beginning, and cherish the very existence of human beings. Therefore, leading this culture should be one of the main responsibilities of the next president.