Suspended bishop and president-elect of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, has selected two pro-abortion ministers for his future cabinet, sparking protests from pro-life organizations.
The two nominees, Lilian Soto and Gloria Rubin, have been named to lead the Secretariat of Women and the Secretariat of Public Function respectively. According to Paraguayan pro-life organizations, the two have made repeated statements affirming their support for decriminalizing abortion.
The Federation of Associations for Life and Family, together with numerous other groups, denounced the nominations in an open letter to Lugo.
"The selection of the ministers for the Secretariat of Women and the Secretariat of Public Function surprises and concerns us," wrote the Federation. "They have publicly and openly announced, at national and international events, their opposition to the protection of human life from its conception, promoting the modification of national legislation in favor of the decriminalization of abortion."
The letter also states that "protection of human life from conception to natural death" is an "inviolable principle, which serves as the foundation and sustenance of every democracy" as is the "protection of marriage and family understood as an agreement between a man and a woman, open to children" and the "freedom of education, highlighting the parents as the primary educators of their children and respecting parental rights."
The letter was co-signed by a panoply of different organizations, including the Association of Evangelical Pastors of Paraguay, the Thomas More Institute, the Consortium of Catholic Physicians, the John Paul II Youth Movement, the Legion of Mary, the National Coordination of Lay Movements, the Promotion of Female Artisans and Workers, and others.
Fernando Lugo is the former Bishop of San Pedro, Paraguay, who resigned from his position several years ago when he began to involve himself in politics, in disobedience to the laws of the Catholic Church. He was later suspended from his functions as a bishop, although he has not yet been reduced to the lay state by Church authorities, who have the option to do so.
Lugo will assume the presidency of Paraguay on August 15th.
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