Thursday, September 30, 2010

Brazilian Presidential Front Runner Declares Herself ‘Personally Against’ Abortion

Brazilian Presidential Front Runner Declares Herself ‘Personally Against’ Abortion

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent
BRASILIA, Brazil, September 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — In an apparent attempt to counteract a massive pro-life internet campaign against her party, Brazilian presidential front runner Dilma Rousseff told the nation’s media today that she is a Catholic and is “personally against abortion.”
“In my conception, I am favorable to the valuing of life,” Rousseff said. “And I am personally against abortion, which is violence against a woman.”
Rousseff made the statements following a meeting with various religious and political leaders, which was organized in apparent response to the dissemination of numerous internet texts and videos criticizing her and the socialist Labor Party for supporting abortion.
“I told the pastors that, from the point of view of the presidency, there are women who have recourse to abortion and they have to be cared for,” said Rousseff, referring to the Brazilian policy of giving medical care to women who have induced abortions, despite their illegality. “We respect and value life,” she added.
Asked if her position was in conflict with that of the pro-abortion Labor Party, of which she is a member, Rousseff clarified that “the government [of the Labor Party] has always had one position.  Now, we are a democratic party.”
However Rousseff also repeated the Labor Party’s public position on abortion, calling it a “public health” issue, a term commonly used by international abortionist organizations. She also said she opposed a plebiscite on the matter, which in strongly pro-life Brazil would lead almost certainly to a rejection of abortion.
Pro-life activist Julio Severo, who has strongly opposed the Labor Party’s reelection, told LifeSiteNews that Rousseff’s words indicate her “lack of ideological clarity and honesty.”
“She says that she is personally against abortion, and again emphasized that she ‘defends the treatment of abortion as an issue of public health’,” he added.
“Just like Dilma, [Brazilian President Luiz] Lula also declared himself to be a Catholic, said he was personally against abortion and defended the treatment of abortion as a public health issue,” said Severo. “In 2002, candidate Lula had also made an agreement to not allow his future government to promote abortion and homosexualism. But after his election, his government promoted abortion, at the national and international level, so much that we fear, in the best of hypotheses, that Lula had suffered some kind of attack of amnesia.”
Dilma Rousseff is widely viewed as the handpicked successor of President Luiz Lula da Silva, who, despite his pro-abortion position, is leaving office with an 80% approval rating.
Abortion is illegal in Brazil and is punished with criminal penalties in all cases except rape. Opinion polls indicate that over two-thirds of Brazilians oppose the further decriminalization of abortion.
Related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Brazilian Pastor Threatened by Government for Opposing Pro-Abortion Policies
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10091713.html
Divulgation: Blog Julio Severo in English: http://www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Brazilian Pastor Threatened by Government for Opposing Pro-Abortion Policies

Brazilian Pastor Threatened by Government for Opposing Pro-Abortion Policies

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent
BRAZIL, September 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — A Brazilian pastor is being threatened with “legal measures” by government officials following a sermon condemning the ruling party's support for decriminalizing abortion, the homosexual agenda, and infanticide committed by indigenous tribes in the Amazon rain forest.
In a YouTube video that has now been viewed over 1.6 million times, Pastor Paschoal Piragine Jr. of the First Baptist Church of Curitiba, warns his flock that the ruling Brazilian Labor Party (PT) is seeking to create “institutionalized evil” in Brazil.
“We need to take a stand and say: ‘we don’t want this in our country,’ and look for people to represent us to say, ‘I will vote against such things.’ Otherwise, evil will be made official, and God will have no other option but to judge our land,” says Piragine.
“And I would not only ask you to pray — I think we should all pray — but to take a stand, and when you vote, to vote for people who take a clear stance against these things and make a commitment to fight in the national Congress, and in the institutions of government, against the legalization of evil,” he adds.
After showing his flock a video presentation on the pro-abortion and anti-family political movements that threaten to legalize abortion and destroy traditional marriage, Piragine notes that the PT “has made a commitment on this issue.”
“During this year’s meeting, where they select their representatives, [President Luiz Lula] made them pass an agreement on these issues. In other words, if a PT representative or senator, votes against any of these laws in accordance with his conscience, he is expelled from the party. Two federal representatives were expelled from the PT for expressing their opposition to abortion.”
Noting that some Catholic bishops had already urged Brazilians to vote against the PT, Piragine adds, “I would tell you the same thing. Some people won't like what I am saying, but I am saying it very clearly.”
“As a pastor I have never done this. I am not telling you to vote for A or B. I am going to tell you whom not to vote for: for people who are working in favor of evil in our land. Otherwise, my dear ones, God will judge our land.”

Angry Response

Apparently alarmed by the massive distribution of the video, high officials of President Luiz Lula’s regime have been lashing out at Piragine.
In an interview on Brazil's CBN Radio, PT member and federal congressman Enio Verri expressed outrage at the video.
“With his own words he committed a great sin and will have to respond to his own community,” said Verri. “But the PT is going to take the appropriate legal measures as quickly as possible, be sure of that.”
The Leader of Government of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, which is the rough equivalent of the Speaker of the House in the United States, has responded with a public letter denying Piragine’s accusations and claiming that members of the PT have the right to dissent from the party line based on their consciences.
“It is not true that the deputies of the PT were expelled for opposing abortion,” writes Deputy Gilmar Alves Machado. “It is true that they had conflict with women’s movements over issues related to abortion, but they were not expelled. Because of those problems, they were punished by the PT, which led them to change parties.”
Contact information:
Embassy of Brazil in the USA
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
20008-3634
Phone: (202) 238-2700
Fax: (202) 238-2827
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org
Embassy of Brazil in Canada
450 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6M8
Phone: (613) 237-1090 or (613) 755-5160
Fax: (613) 237-6144
E-mail: mailbox@brasembottawa.org
Embassies of Brazil to other Nations: http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Brazil/Brazil1.html
Related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Brazilian Government Joins UN to Urge Latin American Nations to Depenalize Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10073001.html
Brazilian Government Seeks to Remove "Homophobic" Christian Programming from Daytime TV
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09051502.html
Brazilian President Luiz Lula Defends Abortion, Gay Unions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091815.html
Source: LifeSiteNews