Reig Pla, disability and the cynicism of a left-wing that supports monstrous eugenics

In Spain, it has become commonplace for many media outlets to manipulate the words of a Catholic bishop.

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They have gone from murdering bishops to trying to imprison them for their opinions

For years, we have witnessed false controversies created by some media outlets to manipulate statements by bishops in order to demonize Catholic doctrine, simply because the editorial line of many media outlets in Spain is openly hostile to that doctrine. The latest manipulation is against Juan Antonio Reig Pla, Bishop Emeritus of Alcalá de Henares, whom many media outlets are accusing of portraying people with disabilities as sinners. Regarding this gross manipulation, political parties and various associations have attacked the bishop, and in a further step in this demonization campaign, the government has reported Reig Pla to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

This is not the first time that the Spanish left has attacked a Spanish bishop. Let us remember that during the Spanish Civil War, 13 Spanish bishops were tortured and murdered by the left, crimes that socialists and communists have never condemned and for which they have never asked for forgiveness. Now, instead of murdering bishops, they are trying to imprison them for defending Catholic doctrine, with the same persecutory zeal that motivated the left in 1936. However, the justice system has been rejecting and filing all these complaints, since defending Catholic doctrine is not a crime in Spain. At least as long as we remain a democracy.

What Reig Pla said is the same as what the Catechism says

As El Debate has pointed out, this is the paragraph that those who support this new campaign of demonization against Reig Pla are clinging to (it is not the first, and it surely will not be the last):

You and I come from the infinite love of God, who gave us life through the love of our parents. And this confirms your origin. You are not a failure, not even from the beginning. This is also true for children born with physical, intellectual, or mental disabilities. But this is already a legacy of sin and the disorder of nature. But they have been called by God and, like us, have the entire foundation of our existence in God, who is the origin, foundation, and goal.

Reig Pla's statement about sin and the disorder of nature is not his own invention: it is part of Catholic theology and is clearly stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

418 As a consequence of original sin, human nature was weakened in its powers, subjected to ignorance, suffering, and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin (an inclination called "concupiscence").

1264 Nevertheless, certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized person, such as suffering, sickness, death, or the inherent fragilities of life, such as weaknesses of character, etc., as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence, or metaphorically fomes peccati: "Concupiscence, left for the sake of combat, cannot harm those who do not consent to it and who courageously resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ. Rather, 'he who fights lawfully will be crowned' (2 Tim 2:5)" (Council of Trent: DS 1515).

2448 “In its many forms—material poverty, unjust oppression, physical or mental illness, and finally death—human misery is the manifest sign of the congenital weakness in which man finds himself after Adam's first sin and of his need for salvation. For this reason, human misery attracts the compassion of Christ the Savior, who chose to take it upon himself and identify himself with the “least of his brothers.” For this reason too, those oppressed by misery are the objects of preferential love on the part of the Church, which, from the beginning, and despite the failings of many of its members, has not ceased to work to relieve, defend, and liberate them. She has done this through countless charitable works, which always and everywhere continue to be indispensable” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instr. Libertatis conscientia, 68).

Of course, to affirm that human nature was weakened by sin does not mean to disparage the weak, nor the sick, nor the dead, nor the suffering, nor anything remotely similar. In fact, if there is an institution that clearly manifests its love for them, it is the Catholic Church, which not only develops all kinds of initiatives to support the sick and disabled, but also vindicates their human dignity even against the dominant trends in today's world, such as abortion and euthanasia.

The cynicism of a left that supports monstrous eugenics

Regarding the latter, the same left that demonizes Reig Pla for those words, starting with the coalition government of socialists and communists that has reported him to the Public Prosecutor's Office, is the one that promotes the ideology of discarding the disabled and the sick, both at the beginning of life (legalizing abortion and granting an additional period to kill unborn children if they present any sign of disability, as occurs in Spain, where children with Down syndrome are already being born because of that monstrous eugenics) and at the end (legalizing euthanasia, an aberrant practice that transmits to certain sick and disabled people that their life is not worth living).

In fact, in 2013, the current Minister of Transport, the socialist Óscar Puente, called unborn babies with disabilities who are aborted "deformed children", in a message in which he stated that the Popular Party "forces us to have deformed children" simply because of the intention of the then Minister of Justice, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, to suppress eugenic abortion. Criticizing Puente for these statements cost me being blocked by him on Twitter.

Curiously, the media, parties and associations that today demonize Reig Pla did not do the same with Óscar Puente for those vile statements, and neither have they done so for the left's support for a monstrous eugenics that has been firmly rejected by the Catholic Church. In fact, Reig Pla is the target of manipulation campaigns like these for being one of the Spanish bishops who most insistently rejects abortion and euthanasia and claims the dignity of the victims of these atrocities. Of course, my full support for Monsignor Reig Pla.

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Photo: Efe.