Duchowa adopcja a paradygmat „dwóch miłości” św. Augustyna z Hippony

Abstract

The initiative called «spiritual adoption of a child conceived at risk of extinction» is a prayerful work. It takes the form of a socio-religious movement. Its goal is to care for the lives of unborn children at risk of abortion. Spiritual adoption involves the person undertaking it committing to daily prayer for nine months for the safety of the conceived child, whose identity is known only to God. Such prayerful accompaniment of a child throughout the entire period of its stay under its mother’s heart can be identified as a form of its adoption. A person praying for the safety of a child at risk of abortion takes on the role of spiritual parenthood. The idea of spiritual adoption is implemented in pro-life circles to overcome the propaganda of pro-choice supporters. Since purely human, rational means are insufficient, it was decided to use supernatural means above all. In the context of Catholic social teaching, spiritual adoption can be seen as an ethical effort to build civitas Dei. This is a reference to the thought of St. Augustine of Hippo. In this context, his teaching can be considered a content and cognitive paradigm that explains the general meaning of spiritual adoption. It is a fight for human life that is only in the prenatal phase. This struggle, however, takes on a more general dimension; it is an expression of the struggle between the «culture of life» (directed towards the ideal of civitas Dei) and the «culture of death» (leading to civitas diaboli).