MESSAGE OF MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA TO THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT, CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 5 - 13, 1994

I speak today to you from my heart -- to each person in all the nations of the world, to people with power to make big decisions as well as to all mothers, fathers and children in the cities, towns and villages.

 

Each one of us is here today because we have been loved by God who created us and our parents who accepted and cared enough to give us life. Life is the most beautiful gift of God. That is why it is so painful to see what is happening today in so many places around the world: life is being deliberately destroyed by war, by violence, by abortion. And we have been created by God for greater things -- to love and be loved.

 

I have said often, and I am sure of it, that the greatest destroyer of peace in the world today is abortion. If a mother can kill her own child, what is there to stop you and me from killing each other? The only one who has the right to take life is the One who has created it. Nobody else has that right; not the mother, not the father, not the doctor, no agency, no conference, no government.

I am sure that deep down in your heart, you know that the unborn child is a human being loved by God, like you and me. How can anyone, knowing that, deliberately destroy that life? It frightens me to think of all the people who kill their conscience so that they can perform an abortion. When we die, we will come face to face with God, the Author of life. Who will give an account to God for the millions and millions of babies who were not allowed to have the chance to live, to experience loving and being loved?

God has created a world big enough for all the lives He wishes to be born. It is only our hearts that are not big enough to want them and accept them. If all the money that is being spent on finding ways to kill people was used instead to feed them and house them and educate them -- how beautiful that would be. We are too often afraid of the sacrifices we might have to make. But where there is love, there is always sacrifice. And when we love until it hurts, there is joy and peace.

If there is a child that you don't want or can't feed or educate, give that child to me. I will not refuse any child. I will give a home, or find loving parents for him or for her. We are fighting abortion by adoption and have given thousands of children to caring families. And it is so beautiful to see the love and unity that a child brings to a family.

The child is the most beautiful gift of God to a family, to a nation. Let us not refuse this gift of God. My prayer for each one of you is that you may always have the faith to see and love God in each person including the unborn.

God bless you, M. Teresa, MC href="http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/contemp/teresa.icpd.txt">http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/contemp/teresa.icpd.txt