Addressing the Forum of Family Associations in Rome on Saturday, the Pope praised members for their work, noting the family is "at the center of God's plan."
Unexpectedly, Francis then set aside the remainder of his prepared remarks and launched into a firm, off-the-cuff defense of life and family.He blasted the abuse of prenatal genetic testing, noting that Down syndrome babies have been decimated by abortion because many doctors, nurses and parents judge their quality of life too low. This view, the Pontiff warned, is a revival of the Nazi concept of Lebensunwertes Leben — "life unworthy of life."
Children should be welcomed the way they come, the way God sends them to us, the way God allows, even if sometimes they are ill.
"I have heard that it's fashionable, or at least usual," Francis reflected, "that when in the first months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has [some affliction], the first proposal in such a case is, 'Do we get rid of it?'"
Nazi propaganda: "Life without hope""The murder of children," he added. "To have an easy life, they get rid of an innocent."
The Pope likened the practice to evils perpetrated under German dictator Adolf Hitler.
"Last century, the whole world was scandalized by what the Nazis did to purify the race," he said. "Today, we do the same thing but with white gloves."
"Children should be welcomed the way they come, the way God sends them to us, the way God allows, even if sometimes they are ill," he declared.