God loves humans from womb to tomb, pope tells Vatican academy

That is one reason why the church proclaims the sacred and inviolable character of all human life, even in the form of a pre-implanted embryo, the pope told participants at a Vatican conference Feb. 27.

The conference, sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life, was examining the theme "The Human Embryo Before Implantation: Scientific Update and Bioethical Considerations." The pope said the topic was fascinating but very difficult, one that science alone cannot fully fathom.

From the church's point of view, neither Scripture nor ancient Christian tradition offers explicit treatment of the subject of embryos, he said. But he said the Bible does reflect an awareness of and respect for human life at its earliest stages.

He quoted God's words as recounted in the Book of Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I dedicated you."

The meaning of that passage becomes clear, the pope said, when one considers that "God intervenes directly in the creation of the soul of every new human being."

"The love of God does not distinguish between the newly conceived still in the womb of his mother, and the child, or the youth, or the man or elderly person," he said, adding that in each one is God's image.

The connection between man and his Creator gives the human being a unique dignity at every stage of his life and is the reason the church proclaims such life sacred, he said.

"This moral judgment is valid already at the beginning of the life of an embryo, even before it is implanted in the maternal womb, which protects and nurtures it for nine months until the moment of birth," he said.

The pope said that while scientific advances have shed great light on aspects of nascent life science alone could never decipher the mystery of human life.

"In fact, as soon as reason succeeds in overcoming one limit that was thought insuperable, other limits, until then unknown, challenge it. Man will always remain a profound and impenetrable enigma," he said.

At the beginning of the third millennium, he said, humanity has greatly increased knowledge on many fronts, but "it seems too difficult for human intelligence to recognize that, when looking on the created world, one encounters the imprint of the Creator."

To grasp the true significance of man and creation, people have to move beyond the limits of the scientific method and begin "the adventure of transcendence," he said.

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