The newly appointed rector of the PUCMM, Father Ramon Alfredo de la Cruz Baldera has criticized what he called the “fundamentalism” of religious leaders in response to the presidential observations to the Penal Code debated in the National Congress. He said the legislators’ response to the observations on the abortion rulings should instead be the result of a dialogue between science, faith and reason. He said that so far there has been “a great deal of fundamentalism” in the discussions, and that leads nowhere, neither in politics, economy or religion.
He said Pope Francis advocates the contrary. “Let us help the Pope and open ourselves as a renovated Church, that we be motive and motor to lead towards a new society.”
Ramon Alfredo de la Cruz Baldera will begin his work at the PUCMM on 15 January 2015, replacing Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado who headed the institution for 44 years.
At the time of his appointment to head the largest private university in the country, De la Cruz was rector of the Universidad Nordestana in San Francisco de Macoris.
The presidential observations on the Penal Code are on the agenda for tomorrow’s Chamber of Deputies session, Tuesday, 16 December 2014.
The Penal Code debate revolves around supporters of exceptions to the ban on abortion on the grounds that abortion is a health issue and not a religious one. The Penal Code reinforced the restrictive ban in the 2010 Constitution. Politicians in the DR had always bent to the religious opponents of abortion until President Danilo Medina vetoed the measure, urging legislators to decriminalize abortions in cases where the woman’s life is at risk or in cases of rape, incest or fetal malformation.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/12/15/i926041_nuevo-rector-pucmm-critica-fundamentalismo-debate-aborto.html