Rest in Peace, Fr. Rubén Pérez

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MADRID (ChurchMilitant.com) – Debate in Spain over the incidence of abortion for babies diagnosed with Down syndrome came into focus following a devastating explosion that left four dead at a Catholic parish in Madrid.

On Jan. 20, Fr. Rubén Pérez died after a gas leak detonated at the Virgen de la Paloma parish in the Spanish capital. Fr. Pérez was 36 years old and had been ordained to the priesthood in June 2020, after attending Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Madrid.

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Aftermath of Jan. 20 explosion in Madrid

But it was a letter the young priest wrote shortly before his death that has become fodder in the debate over Down syndrome in Spain, where nearly all babies diagnosed with the condition are believed to be killed before birth. Father Pérez wrote about a mystical experience at Mass when he was assisted by an altar boy with Down syndrome.

Disappearing Down Syndrome

In testimony before Spain’s Chamber of Deputies in 2018, José Fabián Cámara estimated that about 100% of pregnant women opt for abortion after receiving a diagnosis of Down syndrome from a prenatal medical test. Speaking for the DOWN España advocacy organization Cámara told the Committee on Disability that the small number of Down syndrome children (approximately 200) born each year may be due to an error in the diagnoses women receive.

Cámara said that DOWN España, which advocates for the health and human rights of Down syndrome people, found that at Madrid’s Reina Sofia Hospital, all the women who received a Down syndrome diagnosis decided to kill their unborn babies.

At Madrid’s Reina Sofia Hospital, all the women who received a Down syndrome diagnosis decided to kill their unborn babies.

In Europe, studies have shown that as many as 92% of babies throughout the region who tested positive for Down syndrome were aborted. Down syndrome, which is also known as Trisomy 21, is a genetic condition that is caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21.

According to DOWN Españathere are currently 34,000 people in Spain (about twice the seating capacity of New York City’s Madison Square Garden) with the chromosomal disorder. However, there is no official census of people living with Down syndrome in Spain. The number of births of Down syndrome children has been declining over the years, from 16 out of 10,000 born in 1980 to 5 out of 10,000 born in 2018, according to DOWN España. Evidence of the dramatic decline in the Down syndrome community is pointed out by the Fundación General Mediterránea of Spain, which notes that the DS community numbered 300,000 in the mid-1970s. 

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Agustín Matía

Eugenics in Disguise

Agustín Matía of DOWN España told Spain’s Congress in 2019, “One of every 700 births, statistically, should be a Down syndrome child. However, we are currently below 150, which is the lowest index in the world.” According to his projections, there should have been 571 Down syndrome children born in Spain in 2018; yet, births have not reached that level in many yearsIn 2012, 306 Down syndrome babies were born, declining steadily to 269 in 2015. According to DOWN España, at the current rate, there will be no Down syndrome children born in that country by 2050. This has already happened in Iceland.

Professor Jaime Vilarroig of CEU San Pablo University of Madrid, who wrote a study on the decline of Spain’s Down syndrome community, told El Confidencial newspaper in 2018 that Spain is seeing “eugenics in disguise.”

He said, “No one wants to mention the term because it brings Nazism to mind, but eugenics is obviously a much wider practice that began in the 19th century and has been openly practiced in countries such as the United States and in northern Europe,” adding that “we’re talking about hard eugenics here: the elimination of human beings before birth.” Eugenics was the false science that started in the United States and came to its logical terminus in Nazi German death camps in the 1940s.

DOWN España called on Spain’s socialist government in Jan. 2020 to eliminate “discrimination on the basis of disability” in the country’s abortion laws: “We call for investigating the eugenic and discriminatory elements in prenatal procedures in our country, given that we have detected a culpable incoherence.” It also demanded the elimination of forced sterilization of the disabledSpain finally outlawed non-consensual and forced sterilization in Dec. 2020.  

Down Syndrome Babies Targeted 

According to the Boston Children’s Hospital, Down syndrome affects one out of every 700 births in the United States. According to “Prenatal Diagnosis of Down Syndrome: a Systematic Review of Termination Rates (1995–2011),” 67% of U.S. pregnancies where prenatal testing suggests the presence of the chromosonal condition leading to Down syndrome end in abortion. Likewise, in Canada, legacy media has noted the prevalence of the selective abortion of girls, especially in the Indian expatriate community. 



In a conversation with Church Militant, biochemist Tara Sander Lee of the Lozier Institute warned that as the technology of prenatal testing develops, more women may choose to kill unborn babies whose genetic make-up does not accord with their pedigree of choice. Church Militant asked whether she is opposed to prenatal testing, given that some women may resort to abortion after receiving unfavorable diagnoses. Lee, who has decades of experience in academic and clinical medicinesaid: “That’s a good question because it really gets at what are the benefits of prenatal diagnosis, and it depends on the test.”  

Lee said that there are cases when knowing the prenatal medical condition of a baby can lead to better quality of life and increased utilization of medical therapies. She said, “There are some situations where that information can be used for good, but these genetic tests, especially those that look for the trisomy disorders and DiGeorge syndrome, more often than not, will not make a huge difference before the baby is born.”    

Abortion after prenatal testing reduced the Down syndrome population in the United States by 30% for the period 2006–2010.

This information, she said, can become “depersonalized medicine” that is used to harm rather than heal babies. “It can lead to eugenics and discrimination, like we’re seeing in the Down syndrome population,” she said. Lee questioned whether the results of the tests offer “life-affirming information.” Parents often consult, she said, “genetic counselors who don’t come from a perspective of ‘This is a child of God that deserves respect and dignity, and let’s now work with the information to protect this child.'”

According to the pro-life Jerome Lejeune Foundation, abortion after prenatal testing reduced the Down syndrome population in the United States by 30% for the period 2006–2010It said, “This should not be confused with the percentage of women who abort following a prenatal diagnosis. That number would certainly be higher. This reflects the overall reduction in the Down syndrome population, and takes into consideration total Down syndrome pregnancies, whether prenatally diagnosed or not.”

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Charles C. Camosy

Live DS births for the period was about 12.6 per 10,000, or a total of around 5,300 births each year, and the number of abortions following prenatal diagnosis is estimated at 3,100. The authors cited by the article estimated that “there would have been 7,600 live births each year in the absence of prenatal diagnosis that resulted in abortion.”

Growth in Abortion and Vatican Silence

The current bull market for non-invasive prenatal testing is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. According to a report in The Courier, the global non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) market accounted for $4.3 billion in 2020 and will grow to $11.8 billion by 2029. Among the companies offering the technology are Sequenom, Roche, Quest Diagnostics and Illumina.

Recently, Fordham University theologian Charles C. Camosy wrote an open letter to Pope Francis, calling on him to make prenatal justice his central focusWhile he applauded Francis’s denunciation of “throw-away culture,” he was disappointed that the Fratelli Tutti encyclical did not mention prenatal children.

Camosy wrote to the Pope that his “direct and forceful language in favor of prenatal justice has almost always come in offthecuff remarks,” but when it comes to authoritative teachings and statements, “you often do mention abortion, yes, but it is almost always as a secondary consideration or something thrown in as part of a longer list of problems to address.”

A complete translation of Fr. Pérez’s letter is reproduced below: 

Six months after being ordained, my bishop sent me to lead a parish. I replaced a parish priest who had been there for more than 30 years, so I initially found that I was not accepted by the residents of that place. The task was arduous but fruitful, and I would not have had so much fruitfulness without the help of a little boy named Gabriel — the protagonist of this story. 

On the second week after arriving there, a young couple presented their very special little son (he has Down syndrome). They asked me to accept him as an acolyte. I thought about rejecting him, and not because he was a differently-abled child, but because of all the difficulties as I began my ministry there. I couldn’t say no because when I asked him if he wanted to be an altar boy, he didn’t audibly answer but hugged me around the waist. I was convinced. 

I made an appointment with him for the following Sunday, 15 minutes before the Eucharist; he was punctual and dressed in his red cassock and rochet that his grandmother had made for him for the occasion. 

I must add that his presence there attracted more parishioners because his relatives wanted to see his debut. I had to prepare everything necessary by myself for the Eucharist. I did not have a sacristan or a bell ringer, so I had to run from one place to another, and it was not until before Mass began that I realized that Gabriel knew nothing about how to help. Due to the rush, it occurred to me to tell him: “Gabriel, just do everything I do, okay?” 

It should go without saying that the childlike Gabriel is the most obedient boy in the world. So, when we started the Liturgy and kissed the altar, the little guy attached himself to it During the homily, I saw that the parishioners were smiling when I spoke, which overjoyed my young priestly heart. But then I realized that they weren’t watching me but Gabriel, who kept trying to imitate my movements. In any event, this was one of the details of that first Mass with my new altar boy. 

When I finished, I told him what to do and what not to do and, among other things, told him that only I should kiss the altarI explained how the priest joins Christ with this kiss. He looked at me with his big questioning eyes without fully understanding my explanation. And, without concealing his thoughts, he told me: “Well, I want to kiss Him too.” I explained again why he should notIn the end, I told him that I would do it for the both of us. He appeared to be satisfied. 

But the following Sunday, when starting the Liturgy and kissing the altar, I saw how Gabriel placed his cheek on it and, with a big smile on his little face, did not part from the altar.  

I told him to stop it. At the end of the Mass, I reminded him, “Gabriel, I told you that I would kiss Him for both of us.” Gabriel replied, “Father, I did not kiss Him. He kissed me.” Crossly, I said: “Gabriel, don’t play with me.” He replied: “Really, He showered me with kisses!” The way he said this filled me with holy envy.  

When closing the church and saying goodbye to my parishioners, I approached the altar and put my cheek on it, asking: “Lord, kiss me like You kissed Gabriel.” That child reminded me that the work was not minewinning the hearts of those people could only stem from sweet intimacy with the only true priest: Jesus Christ. 

Since then, my kiss at the altar is always double, because after kissing Him, I put my cheek there to receive His kiss. Thank you, Gabriel. Bringing others closer to the mystery of salvation calls us to live our own encounter with Him. Like me, with my dear altar boy teacher Gabriel, I learned that before I kiss the altar of Christ, I must be kissed by Him!  

Lord Jesus Christ, make us feel your kisses every day so that our hearts may never need any more love because You fill everything. 

Fr. Rubén

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