The protection of unborn human life - The Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference published a pastoral letter

In its pastoral letter Renewal in love dated 13 November, the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference had already discussed the importance of protecting conceived human life, but as the issue is highly topical, we would like to accentuate the Church’s position on the question. Our bishop predecessors published a pastoral letter on 12 September 1956, when abortion was legalized in Hungary. The language of this document may seem antiquated, but its content has remained valid up to this day.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jer 1,5), says the Book of Jeremiah confirming that life does not begin with birth, but with conception. Paragraph 2270 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states the following: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.”

On 28 December 2019, on Holy Innocents Day the Bishops’ Conference publish a pastoral letter addressing the members of the Church and the society to repeat the teaching of the Church and to ask that through the exclamations of our prayers God’s teaching may be heard and become a blessing for the world.


Budapest, 28 December 2019

General Secretariat of the HCBC