Cardinal Gerhard Müller harshly criticized the recent British legislation that prohibits praying in front of abortion clinics. In a message sent to the Le Tavole di Assisi conference on September 6th —published in German by Kath.net and picked up by LifeSiteNews— the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that these restrictions recall the persecution suffered by Catholic prelates under the Nazi regime.
“The priest of the Berlin Cathedral, the blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg, died in Gestapo custody in 1943 simply for praying for the persecuted Jews,” Müller recalled, warning that today in England a Catholic can go to prison for praying silently in front of an abortion facility.
Ideologies that Justify Crime
The German cardinal emphasized that both National Socialist ideologues and abortion promoters share a perverse logic: both know it involves killing innocents, but they hide it by denying their status as fully human beings. “The Nazis claimed that Jews and other peoples were not fully human; today abortion ideologues claim that the child in the womb is not,” Müller denounced in statements disseminated by LifeSiteNews.
For the cardinal, it is a strategy of moral anesthesia: “To numb their consciences, they criminalize those who defend the life of the unborn.”
Criticism of Gender Ideology
Müller extended his warning to what he called “gender madness,” which convinces teenagers that they can change their sex and drags them “into a lifelong physical and psychic misery through assisted self-mutilation.”
Gratitude for Pro-Life Policies in the U.S.
The cardinal also pointed out that American Catholics should be grateful to the Donald Trump administration for restoring “the natural moral law as the basis of governmental action in the leading power of the free world.”
British Legislation Becoming Increasingly Radical
The United Kingdom has introduced “buffer zone” laws around abortion clinics, which prohibit any pro-life action, even silent prayer. LifeSiteNews recalls that the Catholic activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested on several occasions for praying silently near these facilities.
In June, the British Parliament also approved a bill that completely decriminalizes abortion, allowing it up to the moment of birth itself.