Letters | Wednesday, 02 December 2009

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

Inter-faith concerns for the unborn child

In November this year the Malta Unborn Child Movement (MUCM) organised the first Inter-faith Celebration of Life in Malta. Representatives, school children, teachers and parents from the Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Baha’i communities in Malta recited prayers, made presentations and drawings, sang songs and read poems and short essays on the unborn child.
In December 2008 top Catholic and Muslim scholars met in Rome to give their contribution to the promotion of dialogue and peace during the turbulent times of the world financial crisis. Christianity and Islam value very highly the promotion of world peace and the dignity of human life from its very beginning. Since then the two religions formed a forum for ongoing dialogue named “A Common Word”.
In their final joint statement the two sides declared that “human life is a most precious gift of God to each person...and it should therefore be preserved and honoured in all its stages... Human dignity is derived from the fact that every human person is created by a loving God out of love, and has been endowed with the gifts of reason and free will, and therefore enabled to love God and others. On the firm basis of these principles, the person requires the respect of his or her original dignity and his or her human vocation. Therefore, he or she is entitled to full recognition of his or her identity and freedom by individuals, communities and governments, supported by civil legislation that assures equal rights and full citizenship.”
In October 2007, in Jerusalem, in a Joint Communique at the second meeting of the Chief Rabbis of Israel and the Archbishop of Canterbury the two sides declared: “The papers provided for that meeting and the discussions that took place on its theme of the sanctity of human life were constructive and insightful...they revealed a depth of mutual agreement, rooted in our shared scriptural heritage, that human life is a gift from God to be valued from conception to the natural ending of life. Between the beginnings of life and its ending, human life is to be nurtured and enabled to flourish and all violence against other human beings is to be deplored as a defacing of the image of God in humanity.
In a message on “A Common Word and Hindus” in November 2008, Hindus applauded the meeting and called it “a step in the right direction”.
The Universal Society of Hinduism said that the concluding joint declaration of both the groups contained some commendable ideas like honoring human life, respecting human dignity, ensuring equality among men and women and becoming instruments of love and harmony.
On November 3, leaders representing the world’s major religions gathered at Windsor Castle in England to formally launch a series of action plans involving their communities in a long-term effort to protect the environment. The event was sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was present. He said “I have long believed that when governments and civil society work toward a common goal, transformational change is possible....and faiths and religions are a central part of that equation.” He added “Indeed, the world’s faith communities occupy a unique position in discussions on the fate of our planet...”
In the final statement of the 11th colloquium of the Catholic Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and the World Islamic Call Society, in Rome on 17-12-2008, the two sides declared that “considering the role religions can and should have in society, religious leaders also have a cultural and social role to play in promoting fundamental ethical values, such as justice, solidarity, peace, social harmony and the common good of society as a whole, especially the needy, the weak, migrants and the oppressed.” Surely, the unborn child falls in more than one of these categories.
The Maltese government declares on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website that: “Malta will continue to actively support the protection of the basic human rights of children in the world particularly as laid out in the International Convention on the Rights of the Child” and that “Malta will continue to support international actions and policies that respect the rights of the unborn child and foster the best interests of children.”
An opportunity seems to be arising for Malta to proclaim before the world community that “all men are created equal” and that all unborn children – 200 million every year world-wide, including 4,000 in Malta: the common beginners in all mankind, and “created equal” everywhere - should be considered the “common concern of all mankind” and that their dignity, rights, protection, care and development should be the common moral, legal and political responsibility of the world community in word, on paper and in deed, everywhere.
The proposal fits also into the concept of Malta as a Centre for Peace, and a bridge between religions in the Euro-Mediterranean zone. Lately, when appointing the US Ambassador to Malta, US President Barak Obama identified Malta as “an ideal place for inter-faith dialogue.”
Towards the end of the Inter-faith celebration of life by MUCM , in the presence of Dr Douglas Kmiec, the US Ambassador to Malta, MUCM, together with the Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Bahai communities in Malta, issued a declaration that they will work with other faiths and civil institutions, in Malta and abroad, together and separately, to promote, everywhere, in a proactive way, the dignity, the well-being, the care, the protection and the wholesome and sustainable development of unborn children in their mothers’ wombs... their first home, their first environment, their first world.

Tony Mifsud,
Coordinator,
Malta Unborn Child Movement

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below.
Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.