By Bishop Robert Barron

“Three cheers for Pope Leo’s comments regarding the Christian foundations of Europe and the defense of the unborn. Echoing the sentiments of Pope Benedict XVI, Leo reminded his audience that the essential structures of European society and Europe’s commitment to human rights are unthinkable apart from Christianity. And speaking before a hard-left Spanish Parliament, the Pope presented an admirably consistent ethic of life, defending migrants, to be sure, but also insisting that no society which “casts into the shadows” the unborn can be called truly just. With bracing clarity, he insisted, “Every human life must be recognized and safeguarded from conception to its natural end, in every circumstance of its existence.” And he concluded that “the moral greatness of a nation” is manifested in this principle. That he has been received so warmly in Spain I take to be an encouraging sign that the people of that country, especially the youth, have finally had it with a soul-flattening secularist ideology.”