One of the most conservative cardinals in the Catholic Church has described how his mother was advised to have him aborted.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, currently patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, reveals his mother's health problems during her pregnancy in a book-length interview with the French journalist Guillaume d'Alancon.

She became seriously ill, and a doctor advised her to have an abortion.

"You already have five children, and it is important that you are healthy so that you can take care of them," said the doctor.

Cardinal Burke continued: "My parents refused. They said they believed in God and that Christ would give them all the help they needed.

"My mother gave birth to me, and everything went well.

"To protect and defend human life is an issue that concerns me deeply, because I could just as easily have been killed," the Cardinal says in the book, Hope for the World, according to Vatican Radio.

Cardinal Burke talked also about the "violent attack on life" of the modern age in which "the sexual act has been distorted by contraception".  

He urged Catholics to stand up for and defend human life.

The devil wants people to despair, he added. "He tries to sow doubt in our minds when it comes to defending human life in the public space. In a subtle way, he tempts us to remain silent, not to listen to the voice of our conscience."