Discussing abortion, for love of life

It is hard to believe that some people defend abortion for abortion’s sake. Abortion involves eliminating life or interfering in a vital process that culminates in human life. Personally I am against abortion because I love life in each of its phases and in all its forms.

But this does not blind me to a macabre reality that must not be ignored and which defies good sense and public authority. Each year nearly 800,000 clandestine abortions are performed in Brazil. Every two days a woman dies, victim of an improperly performed clandestine abortion.

This reality must be confronted, not by the police but with a responsible public health policy and a realistic sensibility. I consider the attitude of those who intransigently defend life in the embryo and do not adopt the same attitude facing the thousands of children abandoned in misery, without food or love, wandering in the streets of our cities, to be hypocritical, (Pharisaic). Life must be loved in all its forms and ages, and not only in its first awakening in the mother’s womb. It behooves the State and all of society to create the conditions so that women generally will not need abortions.

On the steps of the Cathedral of Fortaleza, I myself assisted a famished mother, begging and nursing her child with the blood of her breast. She had the figure of a pelican. Perplexed and filled with compassion, I took her to the house of Cardinal Dom Aloisio Lorscheider, where we gave her all the assistance possible. For such reasons abortions occur, always painful, that profoundly affect the psyche of the mother. I will narrate what Leon Bonaventure, the eminent psychoanalyst of the Jungian school wrote, and which was mentioned in his introduction to a book by another Jungian psychoanalyst, Italian Eva Pattis, titled, Abortion, lost and renewal: paradox in the search of feminine identity, (Aborto, pérdida y renovación: paradoja en la búsqueda de la identidad femenina, Paulus, 2001).

Leon Bonaventure relates, with the subtlety of a fine psychoanalyst for whom spirituality constitutes a source of integration and curing of the wounds of the soul:

«A priest was confessing a woman who had aborted in the past. After listening to the confession, the priest asked her: “What name did you give to your child?” The woman, surprised, remained silent for a long time, because she had not given her child a name.

“So” –said the priest–, “we will give your child a name, and if you agree we will baptize him”. The woman nodded her head in agreement and they symbolically did it.

Afterwards, the priest made some reflections on the mystery of life: “life exists” –he said–, “that comes to the light of day to be lived in the Earth, for 10, 50, or 100 years. Other lives will never see the light of the Sun. In the Catholic Liturgical Calendar, December 28th is the feast of the Holy Innocents, the newly born who gratuitously died when the Divine Child was born in Bethlehem. May that day also be the feast day of your child”.

And he continued, saying: “in the Christian tradition the birth of a child is always a gift from God, a blessing. It was a custom in the past to go to the temple to offer the child to God. It is never too late to offer your child to God”.

The priest ended by saying: “as a human being I cannot judge you. If you sinned against life, the very God of life can reconcile you with life. Go in peace. And live”» (p. 9).

Pope Francis always recommends mercy, understanding and tenderness in the relations between priests and the faithful. That priest lived avant la lettre those profoundly human values that also belong to the witness of the historical Jesus of Nazareth. May those values inspire other priests to have the same humanity.
Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Discussing abortion, for love of life

It is hard to believe that some people defend abortion for abortion’s sake. Abortion involves eliminating life or interfering in a vital process that culminates in human life. Personally I am against abortion because I love life in each of its phases and in all its forms.

But this does not blind me to a macabre reality that must not be ignored and which defies good sense and public authority. Each year nearly 800,000 clandestine abortions are performed in Brazil. Every two days a woman dies, victim of an improperly performed clandestine abortion.

This reality must be confronted, not by the police but with a responsible public health policy and a realistic sensibility. I consider the attitude of those who intransigently defend life in the embryo and do not adopt the same attitude facing the thousands of children abandoned in misery, without food or love, wandering in the streets of our cities, to be hypocritical, (Pharisaic). Life must be loved in all its forms and ages, and not only in its first awakening in the mother’s womb. It behooves the State and all of society to create the conditions so that women generally will not need abortions.

On the steps of the Cathedral of Fortaleza, I myself assisted a famished mother, begging and nursing her child with the blood of her breast. She had the figure of a pelican. Perplexed and filled with compassion, I took her to the house of Cardinal Dom Aloisio Lorscheider, where we gave her all the assistance possible. For such reasons abortions occur, always painful, that profoundly affect the psyche of the mother. I will narrate what Leon Bonaventure, the eminent psychoanalyst of the Jungian school wrote, and which was mentioned in his introduction to a book by another Jungian psychoanalyst, Italian Eva Pattis, titled, Abortion, lost and renewal: paradox in the search of feminine identity, (Aborto, pérdida y renovación: paradoja en la búsqueda de la identidad femenina, Paulus, 2001).

Leon Bonaventure relates, with the subtlety of a fine psychoanalyst for whom spirituality constitutes a source of integration and curing of the wounds of the soul:

«A priest was confessing a woman who had aborted in the past. After listening to the confession, the priest asked her: “What name did you give to your child?” The woman, surprised, remained silent for a long time, because she had not given her child a name.

“So” –said the priest–, “we will give your child a name, and if you agree we will baptize him”. The woman nodded her head in agreement and they symbolically did it.

Afterwards, the priest made some reflections on the mystery of life: “life exists” –he said–, “that comes to the light of day to be lived in the Earth, for 10, 50, or 100 years. Other lives will never see the light of the Sun. In the Catholic Liturgical Calendar, December 28th is the feast of the Holy Innocents, the newly born who gratuitously died when the Divine Child was born in Bethlehem. May that day also be the feast day of your child”.

And he continued, saying: “in the Christian tradition the birth of a child is always a gift from God, a blessing. It was a custom in the past to go to the temple to offer the child to God. It is never too late to offer your child to God”.

The priest ended by saying: “as a human being I cannot judge you. If you sinned against life, the very God of life can reconcile you with life. Go in peace. And live”» (p. 9).

Pope Francis always recommends mercy, understanding and tenderness in the relations between priests and the faithful. That priest lived avant la lettre those profoundly human values that also belong to the witness of the historical Jesus of Nazareth. May those values inspire other priests to have the same humanity.
Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Votar a Dilma Rousseff es continuar con la invención del nuevo Brasil

Tiempo atrás publiqué un artículo con el título “Contra las trampas de la derecha: apoyar a Dilma Rousseff”. Ahora, en tiempo de campaña presidencial veo la actualidad que sigue teniendo. Rehago el texto en el contexto actual.

Es sabido que la derecha brasilera especialmente aquella articulación de fuerzas elitistas que ocuparon siempre el poder del estado y lo trataron como propiedad privada (patrimonialismo), apoyadas por los medios de comunicación privados y familiares, se está aprovechando de la crisis que es mundial y no solo nacional (tenemos la ventaja de mantener un mínimo de crecimiento y empleo de los trabajadores, cosa que no sucede ni en Europa ni en Estados Unidos), para atacar a la Presidenta Dilma y desmoralizar al PT y crear así una atmósfera que les permite volver al lugar que perdieron por la vía democrática.

Celso Furtado en un libro suyo poco conocido Brasil: la construcción interrumpida escribió con acierto: «El tiempo histórico se acelera y la cuenta regresiva de ese tiempo se hace en contra nuestra. Se trata de saber si tenemos un futuro como nación que cuenta en la construcción del devenir humano o si prevalecerán las fuerzas que se empeñan en interrumpir nuestro proceso histórico de formación de un Estado-nación» (Paz e Terra, Rio 1993, 35).

Aquí reside la verdadera cuestión: ¿queremos prolongar la dependencia de aquellas fuerzas nacionales y mundiales que nos han mantenido siempre alineados y socios menores de su proyecto o queremos completar la invención do Brasil como nación soberana que tiene mucho con que contribuir a la actual crisis ecológico-social del mundo?

Si por una parte no podemos privarnos de algunas críticas al gobierno del PT, críticas constructivas, por otra parte sería faltar a la verdad si no reconociésemos los avances significativos bajo los gobiernos del Partido de los Trabajadores. La inclusión social realizada y las políticas sociales benéficas para aquellos millones de personas que siempre estuvieron al margen, poseen una magnitud histórica cuyo significado todavía no acabamos de valorar, especialmente si nos comparamos con las fases históricas anteriores, hegemonizadas por las élites tradicionales que detentaron siempre el poder del Estado.

En muchos ámbitos de la sociedad ha surgido un extraño odio contra el PT: sospecho que ese odio es porque las políticas públicas han permitido a los pobres usar el avión e ir a visitar a sus parientes en el nordeste, conseguir comprarse un automóvil e ir de compras a un centro comercial moderno. El sitio de ellos no era el avión, sino permanecer en la periferia, pues ese era su lugar. Pero han sido integrados en la sociedad y en sus beneficios.
Debemos aprovechar las oportunidades que los países centrales en profunda crisis nos propician: reafirmar nuestra autonomía y garantizar nuestro futuro autónomo pero relacionado con la totalidad del mundo, o desperdiciarlas y vivir sujetos al destino decido siempre por ellos, que nos quieren condenar a ser solamente abastecedores de los productos in natura que les faltan, y así vuelven a recolonizarnos de nuevo.

No podemos aceptar esta extraña división internacional del trabajo. Tenemos que retomar el sueño de algunos de nuestros mejores analistas de la valía de Darcy Ribeiro y de Celso Furtado, entre otros, que propusieron una reinvención o refundación de Brasil sobre bases nuestras, gestadas por nuestro ensayo civilizatorio tan enaltecido mundialmente.

Este es el desafío lanzado a los candidatos a la más alta instancia de poder en el país. No veo figura mejor para seguir esta reconstrucción a partir de abajo, con una democracia representativa y participativa, con sus consejos y movimientos populares opinando y ayudando a formular caminos que nos lleven hacia adelante y hacia arriba, que la actual Presidenta Dilma.

La situación es urgente pues, como advertía pesaroso Celso Furtado: “todo apunta hacia la inviabilización del país como proyecto nacional” (op.cit. 35). No queremos aceptar como fatal esta seria advertencia. No debemos reconocer las derrotas antes de haber dado todas las batallas, como nos enseñaba Don Quiote en su gaya sabiduría.

Esta batalla se decidirá el 5 de octubre. Que los buenos espíritus guíen los rumbos de nuestro país.

Traducción de Mª José Gavito Milano

Discutere l’aborto per amore della vita

Faccio fatica a credere che esistano persone che difendono l’aborto per l’aborto, una pratica che implica l’eliminazione di una vita o comunque significa interferenza in un processo vitale che culmina con l’emergere di una vita umana. Personalmente sono contrario all’aborto, perché amo la vita in ciascuna delle sue fasi e in tutte le sue forme.

Ma questa affermazione non mi rende cieco nei confronti di una realtà macabra che non può essere ignorata e che sfida il buon senso e i pubblici poteri. Ogni anno in Brasile sono praticati 800.000 aborti clandestini. Ogni due giorni muore una donna vittima di un aborto clandestino male assistito.

Questa realtà deve essere affrontata non con le forze dell’ordine, ma con un sistema di sanità pubblica responsabile e con senso di realismo. Considero farisaico l’atteggiamento di coloro che difendono la vita embrionale in modo intransigente e non adottano lo stesso atteggiamento davanti a migliaia di bambini nati e buttati nella miseria, senza pane e senza carezze, vaganti per le strade delle nostre città. La vita deve essere amata in tutte le sue forme e età e non soltanto al suo primo albeggiare nel seno di una donna. Tocca allo Stato e tocca alla società creare le condizioni perché le mamme non siano costrette ad abortire.

Personalmente, sulla scalinata della cattedrale di Fortaleza, ho aiutato una donna affamata, che chiedeva l’elemosina mentre allattava il figlio con il sangue del seno. Pareva un pellicano. Perplesso e preso da compassione la portai fino alla casa del cardinale Dom Aloisio Lorscheider, dove le demmo tutta l’assistenza possibile.

Comunque ugualmente avvengono aborti , sempre dolorosi e che arrivano a toccare in profonditàla psiche della donna.

Vorrei raccontare quello che ha scritto un eminente psicanalista di scuola Junguiana di São Paulo, Leon Bonaventure, nella introduzione scritta per un libro sfidatore e intrigante e non esente da discussione: Aborto: perdita e rinnovamento: un paradosso nella ricerca dell’ identità femminile (Paulus 2008) di Eva Pattis, una psicanalista infantile di origine svizzera nota nel suo ambiente.

Conta Leon Bonnaventure, con la sottigliezza di un fine psicanalista per il quale la spiritualità costituisce una fonte di integrazione e di cura delle ferite dell’anima.

«Una signora cercò un sacerdote e gli confessò che aveva praticato un aborto qualche tempo addietro. Sentita la sua confessione, il sacerdote le domandò con profondo senso umano: come avrebbe voluto chiamare suo figlio. La donna, perplessa, rimase a lungo in silenzio.

Allora il Sacerdote le disse:se lei, signora,è d’accordo, gli daremo un nome e lo battezziamo pure”.

La signora fece di sì con la testa. E così simbolicamente eseguirono.

Dopo il sacerdote parlò del mistero della vita umana. Disse: «Ci sono vite che vengono in questo mondo per dieci, venti e persino 100 anni; altre mai arriveranno a vedere la luce del sole. Nel calendario liturgico della Chiesa c’è la festa dei Santi Innocenti, il giorno 28 dicembre, quelli che Erode fece uccidere al momento in cui Gesù Bambino veniva al mondo. Questo giorno sia anche la data di compleanno di suo figlio».

Il sacerdote terminò il suo pensiero con le seguenti parole consolatrici: “Come essere umano non posso giudicarla. Ma se lei ha peccato contro la vita, il Dio della vita può riconciliarla con la vita e con lui. Va in pace e vivi».

Il Papa Francesco raccomanda sempre misericordia, comprensione e tenerezza nei rapporto dei sacerdoti con i fedeli. Questo sacerdote aveva vissuto ‘ante llitteram’ quei valori profondamente umani e che appartengono alla pratica del Gesù storico”. Che essi possano incoraggiare altri sacerdoti a coltivare la stessa umanità.

Traduzione di Romano Baraglia