By Dave Andrusko
Last week I ran across a very brief item which was not only short but was based on one of those mangled Google translation. I just ran across a much fuller account of this amazing story, written by Fr. Mark Hodges.
What I knew–or thought I knew–was that 30 abortionists in Romania had said they were temporary stopping performing abortions until after Holy Week–the seven days beginning on Palm Sunday and ending April 12 (which is Orthodox Easter, or “Pascha”). Why?
According to their spokesman, Marius Craina, “because we think it is not right to upset God.” Presumably, according to their warped perspective, God would no longer be upset when they resumed aborting His creations after Easter.
According to Fr. Hodges:
Not only did Craina, an abortionist and gynecologist, acknowledge that what they do for money upsets God, he expressed regret over the 250 abortions taking place in Romania each day. In this country where most citizens profess Christianity, nearly one-third of pregnant women abort their children in the womb. There were 88,000 abortions recorded in 2012, compared to only 200,000 births.
“Here, abortion is seen as a means of contraception. We have one of the highest abortion rates in Europe,” Craina lamented.
The Orthodox Church is the overwhelmingly predominant faith in Romania. Fr. Hodges quoted from a statement from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America which is strongly pro-life:
The Orthodox Church has a definite, formal, and intended attitude toward abortion. It condemns all procedures purporting to abort the embryo or fetus, whether by surgical or medical means. …The Orthodox Church brands abortion as murder, that is, the premeditated termination of the life of a human being. Decisions of…legislatures by which abortion is allowed, with or without restrictions, should be viewed by practicing Christians as an affront to their beliefs in the sanctity of life.”