SIGN THE PETITION: Support Charlie Gard, forced off life support by judge

July 7, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Carlo Caffarra blasted the court rulings against baby Charlie Gard as the "pit of barbarity" and said they indicate we're at the "end of the road of the culture of death."

Caffarra is the former Archbishop of Bologna, Italy and the founding president of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. Such a statement from him is particularly powerful given that he is the person to whom Sister Lucia, one of the Fatima visionaries, wrote that the "final battle" between God and Satan will be over marriage and family.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates, Charlie's parents, have been fighting in European courts for their right to bring their 11-month-old to the U.S. for experimental treatment for his mitochondrial disease. They raised over $1 million to do this, but English courts sided with the hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital, which wants to remove him from life support rather than allow him to be transferred to another hospital.

Then, the European Court of Human Rights also sided with the hospital. The hospital now has the legal right to turn off Charlie's life support at any time now, and his parents aren't allowed to take him out of the hospital.

It was these anti-parental rights rulings that Caffarra called the "pit of barbarity."

Today Connie and Chris received some temporary good news: Great Ormond Street Hospital has asked the High Court to consider "fresh evidence" about possible experimental treatment for Charlie. It means Charlie will remain on life support for now, although the hospital says it maintains its position that Charlie shouldn't receive treatment elsewhere.

These hearings are expected to be on Monday, July 10 and Thursday, July 13, according to an email from Americans United for Life. The advocacy group's president is in England with other human rights activists helping Charlie's parents.

"We have come to the end of the road of the culture of death," Caffarra told an Italian outlet. Ed Pentin at the National Catholic Register translated his remarks.

"It is now public institutions, the courts, who decide if a child has, or hasn’t, the right to live — even against the will of the parents," he said. "We are the children of institutions, and we owe our lives to them? The poor West: it has rejected God and his paternity and now finds itself entrusted to bureaucracy! Charlie’s [guardian] angel always sees the face of the Father (cf. Mt 18:10)."

"Stop it, in the name of God," Caffarra asked those denying Charlie's parents the right to continue his care. "Otherwise, I say to you with Jesus: 'It would be better for you if a millstone were hung round your neck and you were cast into the depths of the sea.' (cf. Lk 17:2)."

Caffarra is one of the signers of the dubia asking Pope Francis for moral clarity on Amoris Laetitia. At the 2017 Rome Life Forum, Caffarra said that Sister Lucia's prophesy is coming true today.