Laura Chinchilla: Pro-Life Catholic Woman Elected President of Costa Rica

Laura Chinchilla gives us hope. It is time to run Pro-Life, Pro-Family and Pro-Freedom candidates for public office.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - I write as a U.S. Citizen who loves my country and is deeply concerned over its loss of a moral compass. This is most obvious when we consider the acceptance of the term "abortion right" in the media. First of all, abortions do not have rights, people do. And, no-one has a right to take innocent human life, period.

The notion that freedom of choice includes a "right" to reach into a womb and kill our youngest neighbor at any time and for any reason with surgical strikes or chemical weapons is simply evil and reveals a culture on a downward spiral. We are losing a true understanding of freedom, its essential connection to truth, and the obligations it entails.

Legal abortion amounts to a commodification of human persons. They are relegated to the status of products to be used rather than persons to be received as gifts in what has become a culture of consumerism.

I write as one concerned over the growing attacks on marriage and the family founded upon it. Marriage - and the family founded upon it - is the first society and the building block of any just and truly human society.

The hostility revealed by efforts to paint those who defend marriage and family as a threat to the Nation is a sign of a growing intolerance among those who claim to be "tolerant" and a disdain for the existence of objective truth. We are experiencing the dangerous results of what Pope Benedict rightly called the "dictatorship of relativism."

I write as one concerned that our economic crisis has a moral basis and legislation alone cannot eradicate its root cause. Few are addressing the cause or offering the proper remedies, accepting instead the jingoism of the Statist "left" or the atomism of the increasingly libertarian "right" and thinking that economic manipulation will somehow fix it all.

I write as one worried about the growing efforts to paint anyone who dares to insist that defending the dignity of every human person and protecting marriage and the family founded upon it serves the common good of society as trying to "impose" religion.

I write as one convinced that the Social teaching of the Catholic Church offers principles and insights which, if applied in the formulation of public policy, could help our Nation at this critical time. We are without leaders of substance and principle and we are desperately in need of them.

Supporting FREE Catholic Education with Grass-fed Beef

So, I am encouraged with the election of the new President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla. She is precisely the kind of leader the world needs in this time of need. I was also delighted to read her first exchange upon hearing of the results of the election with Archbishop Hugo Barrantes Urena. It was reported by the Catholic News Agency:

*******

"Radio Fides, the official radio station of the Archdiocese of San Jose, released a phone conversation between the archbishop and the president-elect. The prelate congratulated Chinchilla adding that he was proud she would become "the first female president to lead us in the executive branch...My prayer is with you."

He went on to note that "the Church and the State are independent but not indifferent to each other." For this reason, he continued, "those programs in which the human being is at the center will always have our support. May God enlighten you so your policies will embrace those most in need. I know that you are a worthy person and of your great intentions to make Costa Rica better."

For her part, Chinchilla responded, "I am grateful for the gestures of the Catholic Church in the creation of a climate of harmony...I will always be appreciative of the Church's advice, which is welcome." She thanked the archbishop for his words, which she said were "very heartfelt and based on the social doctrine of the Church.The latest papal encyclical (Caritas in veritate) sheds much light on this."

Chinchilla also expressed her commitment to the "defense of the truth and the values the Church proclaims. I will strive to keep them at the center of my administration." She continued "Let us ask for strength of our patroness, Our Lady of the Angels," said Chinchilla, who then traveled to the shrine to give thanks for her election victory."

******

The new president of Costa Rica is its first Woman President. More importantly she is a Woman of principle, substance and dedication to the truth. She is a feminist, but of the "New Feminism" style championed by the Venerable John Paul II - not the strident Planned Parenthood counterfeit. She also truly cares about the poor, including those whom Blessed Teresa of Calacutta called the "poorest of the poor", our first neighbors in the womb.

She campaigned on an unapologetically Pro-Life platform, including openly opposing the so called "morning after pill." Raimundo Rojas, the Hispanic outreach director for the National Right to Life Committee told LifeNews.com that President Elect Chinchilla's win, "wasn't just a victory for the ruling party, this was a victory for women's lives and this was a victory for the unborn children of Costa Rica. In a decade where we have seen outside influences ferociously attempt to change the laws that protect unborn children in Latin America, Chinchilla's victory offers a set-back for pro-abortion forces in central America".

Secret Archives of the Saints, Subscribe Today

On November 28, 2009, she proudly marched and participated in the "March for Life and Family", the Costa Rican equivalent of our own Annual March for Life in the United States. The March defended the dignity of every human life against the evils of abortion and euthanasia.

The march also called for the protection of marriage against efforts by homosexual equivalency activists who seek to replace it.Yes, the Homosexual equivalency activists are trying in Costa Rica, as in the United States, to steal the word "marriage" and engage in a kind of social alchemy in a dangerous cultural revolution.

They call relationships incapable of achieving the ends of marriage something they will never be. They then want to use the Police Power of the State to enforce their cultural revolution. The President elect is married with a teenage son. She is a friend of marriage and the family and will defend both against all who threaten their primacy.

She is eminently qualified, academically and professionally, for the important office she has been elected to. She graduated from the University of Costa Rica, and received her master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University. She has worked on judicial reform and public security issues much of her career. She is admired for her policy expertise, communications skill and work ethic.

Her political credentials are equally impressive. She served in the José María Figueres Olsen administration as vice-minister for public security (1994-1996) and minister of public security. (1996-1998) From 2002 to 2006 she served in the National Assembly as a deputy for the province of San José. She was a vice-president under the second Arias administration (2006-2010) but resigned in 2008 to obtain her Party's nomination and prepare for her run for the Presidency for the Presidency in 2010. She won the Office in a landslide.

So, some good news from beautiful Costa Rica. A Pro-Life, pro-Marriage and Pro-Freedom Catholic Woman has been elected President. It is time to get to work in our own Nation, running Pro-Life, Pro-Family and Pro-Freedom candidates for every public office.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'