Andrea Bocelli Remains Pro-Life, Opera Singer is 'In Favor of Life'
Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli recently announced his pro-life stance again.
“It is not Christian to go against someone,” said Bocelli to The Telegraph. “I am in favor of life.”
He spoke directly to the question of abortion.
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“Of course, personally I do not share the idea of being able to interrupt life arbitrarily,” he said. “But I cannot be the judge of those who decide in a different way. As much as I can, I show them an example and act as a role model, because I believe this is the only way.”
The tenor's pro-life views first garnered media attention in 2010 when he released a widely shared video detailing how his mother suffered an appendicitis attack during pregnancy. Doctors tried to persuade her to abort the child, warning the child would be born with a disability.
"The doctors advised her to abort the child. They told her that would be the best solution because the child would doubtless be born with some kind of disability," he said. "But the courageous young wife decided not to terminate the pregnancy, and the child was born. The woman was my mother, I was the child.”
Bocelli was diagnosed in childhood with congenital glaucoma and was completely blind by age 12.
“Maybe I am partisan, but I can say it was the right choice,” Bocelli added.
Bocelli told Il Foglio the video was made to raise funds for a friend, Father Richard Frechette, a missionary priest in Haiti, trying to build a new home for orphan children.
“He asked me to say a few words of hope for mothers in difficulties and I chose to tell the story of my birth,” Bocelli explained. “I did it privately, telling the story of my mother without even asking permission, but I was not reprimanded [by her], but I was not prepared for all this fuss and delayed explosion.”
Bocelli said he received a deluge of phone calls from around the world after the video circulated from curious fans hungry to know more about his birth story.
“I wanted to help, to comfort people who are in difficulties who sometimes just need to not feel abandoned: life is difficult, but you have to listen to them,” Bocelli said.
