Our Commitment to Life

       During the election season we have heard a great deal of discussion about many issues from taxes, to the economy, to the war on terror, immigration policy and so on. As Catholics the Bishops have been clear that the fundamental issues of our times are those related to innocent human life; namely, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia. Bishop Burbidge and Bishop Jugis pointed this out in their recent letter to the NC faithful:

       Many of the faithful in our dioceses are expressing a sense of being overwhelmed with the many issues that are being discussed and debated, and seek further clarity from us. This leads to the second point of this letter. The Catholic Church proclaims a consistent ethic of life that covers a wide range of issues: the family, global solidarity, human life, social justice, environmental stewardship, etc. While all these issues are important, the intentional destruction of innocent human life is an intrinsic evil that can never be supported, and the protection of human life from conception to natural death is preeminent among our moral values. In the hierarchy of truths, this truth is never morally equivalent to all the other issues embraced under a consistent ethic of life.

       Some have erroneously tried to justify supporting political candidates who support the intentional destruction of innocent human life through abortion or other means by somehow seeing our commitment to the protection of innocent human life as simply one issue among many. The USCCB document Faithful Citizenship has also been misused to justify supporting such candidates by noting that as long as a Catholic voter does not vote for a given candidate because of his or her stance on abortion or other anti-life issues, supporting such candidates can be morally justified. Many bishops have been responding to correct such errors, but this view has been strongly supported by such groups as Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and Catholics for Free Choice all of which are in conflict with important matters of Catholic doctrine and do not use the name “Catholic” with ecclesiastical permission as required by Canon Law. All of this leads to great confusion among the faithful.

       The reality is that abortion is such an evil that our nation’s allowing the slaughter of millions of innocent children for these many years, has resulted in the formation of what our late Holy Father called the culture of death. This cannot be ignored or swept away as one issue among many others of equal importance. It is no surprise that in this culture in addition to abortion we see the continued devaluation of human life through euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research along with a growing acceptance of atrocities throughout the world. Unless we fight abortion and all of those who support it and promote it, we cannot hope to effectively address effectively other issues included in the consistent ethic of life. In a recent homily Edward Cardinal Egan of New York said the following:

       One day, please God, when the stranglehold on public opinion in the United States has been released by the extremists for whom abortion is the center of their political and moral life, our nation will, in my judgment, look back on what we have been doing to innocent human beings within their mothers as a crime no less heinous than what was approved by the Supreme Court in the "Dred Scott Decision" in the 19th century, and no less heinous than what was perpetrated by Hitler and Stalin in the 20th. There is nothing at all complicated about the utter wrongness of abortion, and making it all seem complicated mitigates that wrongness not at all. On the contrary, it intensifies it.

       The immorality of abortion is clear and uncomplicated. It is the destruction of an innocent human life. Regardless of the results of an election, we Catholics have much to do. We have to recognize any failure on our part to effectively and clearly articulate the Church’s authentic teaching on life. We must recommit ourselves to opposing abortion in all its forms and opposing those who would promote it through all appropriate means open to us as US citizens. Most importantly, we must pray for personal conversion and collective conversion so that we might truly be one nation under God where human life is respected from the moment of natural conception to the moment of natural death.

Father John Putnam
Pastor