New Vatican document calls on every diocese to develop pro-life plan
March 25, 2025
The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life has published a 40-page document calling for organized pro-life initiatives in every diocese.
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The document, “Life is always a good: Initiating Processes for a Pastoral Care of Human Life,” commemorates the 30th anniversary of Evangelium Vitae, Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical letter on the value and inviolability of human life.
“In a time marked by extremely serious violations of human dignity, with many countries afflicted by wars and all sorts of violence—especially against women, children before and after birth, adolescents, people with disabilities, the elderly, the poor and migrants—we must forge a genuine Pastoral Care of Human Life,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the dicastery’s prefect, wrote in the document’s preface. “Therefore, every person’s life should always be respected, safeguarded, and defended. This principle, which is recognizable even by reason alone, is to be implemented in every country, village, and household.”
Cardinal Farrell called for the development of “an organic and structured Pastoral Care of Human Life, which can provide workers, educators, teachers, parents, young people, and children the right formation to respect the value of life.”
He explained:
I am referring to an “organic” ecclesial pastoral care, since the Church is a dynamic living organism; it is the Body of Christ that grows bigger. It is entrusted with the priceless gift of life. As such, it is called to always defend, promote, and serve life, every human life. Therefore, the Pastoral Care of Life should engage all the “organs” that compose the Body of the Church, all its faithful, pastors, and lay people. It should be a constant and dynamic concern for every baptized faithful, fostering a united, clear, and consistent pastoral care, which is also well-integrated in all its aspects.
In this respect, the Pastoral Framework does not aim to provide particular Churches [i.e., dioceses] with preset and ready-to-use “recipes.” Instead, it aims to initiate “processes” to develop a Pastoral Care of Human Life all over.
The document offers extensive guidance to dioceses for organizing such frameworks. The document also states that the world’s bishops, in their ad limina visits, identified 16 pro-life priorities, with the following six the most frequently identified: (1) legal abortion, (2) contraception, (3) sexual morality / gender, (4) in-vitro fertilization, (5) euthanasia and assisted suicide, and (6) trafficking of women and children (p. 15).
The document concludes:
Do not be discouraged by secularization, the lack of Christian values, laws that legitimize the worldwide suppression of life. Let us continue to foster a positive dialogue with culture, so that all younger generations can know the truth about the priceless value of every human life ...
Every human life, unique and unrepeatable, is of inestimable value. This must be proclaimed and calls us to solidarity and fraternal love for the whole human family. Therefore, with Saint John Paul II, we remind the world of the call he addressed to all of us over thirty years ago: “Respect, defend, love and serve life, every human life!” (Evangelium vitae, 5), in every situation and stage of development.
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