the “heavenly” efforts that the Church exerted among senators until the last minute

Never before before a bill – not even against the previous version that the Senate rejected in 2018 -, the Church has made such intense efforts like in recent days with senators to prevent the new attempt to legalize abortion from being approved in the upper chamber.

Meetings, phone calls -Some who were not present- and even exhortations from the pulpit legislators of the capital, Greater Buenos Aires and the interior constituted the ecclesiastical offensive which was supplemented by public statements at the national and provincial levels.

The involvement of bishops and priests far surpassed the one they had when it came to an equal marriage ten years ago -At the end approved-, which dealt with statements which, due to their harshness, ended up being counterproductive.

At that time, then-cardinal Jorge Bergoglio warned that former President Néstor Kirchner was going to play hard for his approval and recommended promoting civil union, but the position of outright rejection was ultimately imposed.

In any case, from the point of view of the Church, the severity of equal marriage is not comparable to abortion because – as we know – he considers that the voluntary termination of pregnancy implies the end of a life in gestation.

When in February 2018 President Mauricio Macri announced the sending of a project to legalize abortion, the bishops they didn’t believe he had a chance to be punished, especially because the first president declared himself absent.

But now with the current president, Alberto Fernández, the great promoter of the new project, the bishops have decided to get deeply involved, knowing that this time the challenge was going to be more difficult, this approval would be much more feasible.

Over the days, they assessed that the president’s “pressure” on senators – and even governors – it was bigger than expectedPerhaps because in a year of many setbacks there is an urgent need to move the law forward.

If to this we add the absence of two celestials, the tucumano Jose alperovich, on leave accused of abuse, and of Carlos menem, due to illness, the situation became even more complex for the bishops, forcing intensify contacts.

Not captured by television cameras, although reproduced on social media, they will go down in history Calls with the names and surnames of priests to senators in their province chairs.

To this, we must add the breath of the clearing to the demonstrations of pro-life groups across the country, as we saw this weekend, in an attempt to show the opposition of large sectors of society to the project.

Finally, it is not known if there have been ultra-reserved efforts by Pope Francis himself, but no one doubts that gave some guidelines that would get votes.

His letters in recent weeks to women in lower-income neighborhoods who oppose abortion and to his former students at Colegio de la Inmaculada, Santa Fe, reiterating his position were part of the offensive.

Which was supplemented by Francisco’s suggestive tweet on Tuesday morning, which reveals all the intensity of the ecclesiastical offensive.