Category Archives: Pro-Life

A single parent

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One of the more common reasons given by women considering abortion is that she would be a “single mother” unless she had the abortion. Maybe the child was conceived during a one-night stand. Maybe the boyfriend/husband/partner has threatened to leave if she gives birth to the child. Whatever the reason, becoming a single mother is seen as a guaranteed trip to a ruined, painful life.

In contrast, a single mother says it’s not that bad. Please pass this link on to any women who are considering an abortion because they can’t imagine being a single mother.

A few quick thoughts about Fr. Pavone vs. Bishop Zurek

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I’ve shared a couple thoughts on Google+ about the issue of Fr. Frank Pavone being recalled to the Diocese of Amarillo by his bishop, Bishop Patrick Zurek. Instead of writing up a new blog post covering the same issues, I’m going to copy from what I’ve posted on Google+ into this post. Consider these open letters to Fr. Pavone and those who want to “free” him. To make it clear, I’m not going to cover the canonical issues with the Bishop’s letter, nor with any of the accusations that are floating around. I’m not a canonist (nor would I ever want to be one), and many of the accusations are ridiculous and not worth even mentioning.

First, to those who have the “Free Fr. Frank” page on Facebook:

Dear Free Fr. Frank folks,

I received your email today, and I’d like to respond. No, Fr. Frank Pavone is not being persecuted for being pro-life. No, every pro-life person in america does not need to stand up against his bishop, because it won’t do a thing to “TAKE ACTION FOR THE BABIES!!!” No, I won’t do anything that you want, like sending a letter to his bishop, the Archbishop of San Antonio (who isn’t the boss of the Bishop of Amarillo, sorry), Archbishop Dolan, or the Papal Nuncio’s office.

If you want to help Fr. Frank, stay out of it! If his bishop has some concerns about Fr. Frank, let them sort it out. If you want to help the pro-life cause, go do something! Go pray at an abortuary. Go help at a crisis pregnancy center. Get down on your knees before the Blessed Sacrament and pray to Our Lord and His Mother on behalf of the unborn and their mothers.

Ticking off Bishop Zurek, Archbishop Siller, Archbishop Dolan and the Papal Nuncio won’t do a darn bit of good for the pro-life movement. In fact, it would probably have the opposite effect.

Next, my advice I’d give to Fr. Frank Pavone, if I could:

I have a lot of respect for the pro-life work that Fr. Pavone has done, but I think Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture nails the issues with his fight against his bishop. As a diocesan priest, Fr. Pavone made the same promise I did: obedience to the diocesan bishop. Nowhere in that promise was anything about “unless I have a personal mission in life that I see as more important than being a diocesan priest.” Right now, the best thing Fr. Pavone could do is drop off the radar for a while and serve the Diocese of Amarillo as a diocesan priest, not the head of Priests for Life who incidentally happens to be a diocesan priest.

As an outsider to this particular argument, I don’t know the whole story (neither do those who want to “Free Fr. Frank”), just what Fr. Pavone and the Diocese of Amarillo have chosen to make public. That being said, as a diocesan priest, I take the promise of obedience very seriously, and you do what the the bishop orders unless he orders a priest to do something that is immoral. Fr. Pavone freely took the promise of obedience as a priest in the Archdiocese of New York, and later freely incardinated into the Diocese of Amarillo.

Being recalled to the diocese that he incardinated into is not an immoral act, especially if the bishop has some concerns about the ministry of a priest under his care. In fact, the bishop is doing Fr. Pavone great good if there are problems with how Fr. Pavone practices the priestly ministry. If there are no problems, then we need to trust that Bishop Zurek and Fr. Pavone will work out the differences that led to this conflict, and Fr. Pavone can get back to his pro-life work.

P.S.: I’m usually very open to allowing comments, but one thing I will not allow is bishop bashing. The bishops are the successors of the Apostles, and deserve respect for that reason alone. Yes, they’re fallible human beings, but that doesn’t mean I will allow speculation in my combox that one might be a Mason or influenced by politicians to go against Catholic teaching. So, thank you to all for your comments, but I’m closing this comment box and removing all comments on this post. I should have done that when I first posted, and will use this as a learning experience.

Concern About Children Conceived After Death of Parent

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An article on Fox News caught my eye this morning: Children Conceived After Death of Parent Face Uphill Battle for Inheritance Rights. Now, this isn’t about children conceived naturally and born after the father dies. Rather, the article details a couple of mothers who each had a child conceived by in-vitro fertilization from the stored sperm of their late husbands. Because the children were conceived after the fathers died, they are not eligible for Social Security inheritance payments.

I’m not so concerned about the money involved, although it should be topic of discussion in a country which currently faces serious debt issues, and has for some time now. My concern is the larger picture about how children are viewed in the United States and other Western European cultures today.

I live in a country where children are killed by the rate of over 1 million a year just for the crime of being “unwanted” by the mother or a “risk” to the mother. Because children are only viewed as “wanted” or “unwanted”, they’re seen by many as objects to possess or be thrown away. They’re not viewed as human,  but just another object – like a car, computer or TV – that will enhance or detract from what I want.

With the prevailing view of children as objects in this culture, I’ve got three concern about the inheritance rights article. First, the fact that science can conceive a child from a dead man’s sperm does not mean that it should, especially for the sake of the mother’s mental health. I fail to see how having a child artificially from her late husband’s sperm will help the mother overcome the grief at losing their husband. Isn’t it more likely that the child will be a constant reminder of the husband she lost?

Second, it’s one thing to be a single mother raising a child due to the accidental or health-related death of the father. It’s another issue for a mother to willingly place herself and the child in that situation from the beginning. Children deserve to have the love and care of both parents, father and mother, if at all possible. To conceive a child in this situation is to willingly deprive the child of the love of its father.

Third, I’m concerned that the children will be seen as objects of remembrance of the deceased husband, much as a beloved photograph or favorite item, instead of a unique human being. Too many children are seen as objects to possess, and too many couples feel they have an entitlement to a child. No one has a right to a child, and no child deserves to be viewed as a memorial to someone else. Gravestones and pictures help us to remember someone; other humans shouldn’t be conceived just for that purpose.

While my heart goes out to all women who have lost their husbands suddenly due to accident or illness, having a child artificially from his sperm is not going to solve the loss, and does no favors to the children.

Vigil for All Nascent Human Life – Saturday, November 27, 2010

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Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has encouraged bishops to join him on Saturday, November 27, in holding vigils for all nascent human life on the upcoming eve of the First Sunday of Advent. For those, like me, who are unfamiliar with the word “nascent”: nascent life is life that is just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential, what pro-lifers commonly call the unborn or preborn. I’ll be holding one of these vigils here in Malta, even with the busy Thanksgiving weekend, and I hope priests throughout the world will do the same in their parishes.

Teen sex may not hurt GPAs, but is that the only concern?

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Another day, another new study. A front-page article in today’s local paper proclaimed, “Teen sex not always bad for school performance“. Well, parents, I guess you don’t have to worry any more if your teens are in a “committed relationship” and engaging in premarital sex, because a group of sociologists from the U of California and the U of Minnesota have determined that “teens in committed relationships do no better or worse in school than those who don’t have sex.” Well, I guess that’s one less thing to worry about for parents, huh?

Not quite. Let’s start with a few definitions, shall we? First, what is a “committed relationship” versus “hooking up”? Yes, those are the terms used in the article (probably not in the original study, though). Is a committed relationship one where the couple is engaged, but not married yet? Is it having dated for a significant length of time before beginning sexual activity? Or is merely a monogamous relationship for a couple of months or so?

To put it simply, a committed relationship is one in which the man and woman commit themselves to remain faithful to each other for life. In other words, entering into the marital covenant. Anything else is not a committed relationship. It may not be the casual sexual relationships you see on TV and in the movies, but it is still less than a true commitment to the other. What woman wants to hear, “I love you, and I’ll commit to you until I get tired of you and want to find someone else”? Yet this is what a couple is saying when they enter into the sexual act without the bonds of marriage. It’s a false commitment.

By the fact that this study focused on teenagers, the so-called “committed relationships” are really false commitments. Legally, teens in most states can’t get married until 16 – only with parental permission – and with good reason. I would venture that the great majority of teens today are not mentally mature enough to make the life-long commitment that marriage demands. (As an aside, I’m sure every reader of this post can think of an adult who is not mentally mature enough for marriage.) Just because one has reached the age of puberty does not mean that he or she is mentally ready for the commitment and consequences that come with sex.

Now, let’s look at the other phrase: “hooking up”. As I’ve heard that phrase, it means having casual sex with multiple partners with no relationship beyond the sexual act. This, of course, is extremely dangerous physically and emotionally. The article is correct when it points out that hooking up leads to greater risk of truancy, diseases, criminal acts, and so on. It also views the other people as objects to provide physical pleasure.

The problem I have with these so-called committed relationships is that they become a long-term hooking up. Rarely does one couple remain together for the entire 4 years of high school, much less for the rest of their lives. Instead a couple will get together and date for months or a couple of years. They’ll break up, find new partners and repeat the process. They’re still having sex with multiple partners, just over several years. Sadly, this has become so prevalent that there’s a popular term for it: serial monogamy.

When these couples do break up, which will eventually happen in most cases, the emotional turmoil that is unleashed can and will seriously affect the teens at an age in which the emotions are already confused. I doubt the sociologists ever looked at the effects of the breakup of these committed relationships, and how it affects the teens’ GPAs at that point. I’m also sure they never looked at the teens’ later likeliness to enter into marriage and remain married, yet premarital sex does affect how one views marriage, especially the desire for entering into marriage and remaining within a marriage once difficulties arise. If you can enter into a “committed relationship” and break up when you’re no longer “in love” (meaning no longer feeling the mushy attraction towards the other person), why would you want to commit to someone for your entire life?

In short, the teens’ GPAs should be the least of their worries if they’re engaging in premarital sex. Sadly, the study only focused on one insignificant, unimportant aspect of their lives.

The Irony of Timing

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I have to wonder if I’m the only one who sees the irony behind the health care bill, which most major pro-life groups and the USCCB view as dramatically expanding abortion coverage, being passed the Sunday before what is arguably the most pro-life feast of the liturgical year? In this Solemnity of the Annunciation, we celebrate that moment when Our Lord became incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Note that we don’t celebrate the first trimester of His Incarnation, or the point of viability of His Incarnation, but we celebrate His Incarnation at the very moment of His conception by the power of the Holy Spirit. This feast, which has been celebrated since at least the 5th Century AD, points to an indisputable biological fact: at the moment of conception (AKA fertilization by those supporting birth control), the embryo is a unique human child with a distinct DNA pattern.

Sadly, the laws in the United States and many other developed nations throughout the world fail to recognize this scientific fact, instead choosing to treat the developing child as a “clump of cells” no different from a cancerous tumor. These laws promote the view that abortion is just a routine surgery, like removing a questionable tumor from your arm, with no moral consequences. As a result of laws permitting abortion, a child in the womb has zero human rights until it is “wanted” by the mother.

Today, on this Solemnity of the Annunciation, dedicated as the International Day of the Unborn Child by a number of pro-life groups, let us continue to pray that these unjust and inhumane laws may be overturned and viewed for the abominations that they are. Let us also pray for those who have been hurt by abortion: the children killed directly, and those who were harmed physically and psychologically by abortion.

Edit: this evening, after posting this entry, I saw a post by Twitter user Luke_181 which linked to a website called The Great Prayer Project – End Abortion. If you want a concrete way to pray for the end of abortion, this is it. Pick a couple 20-hour time slots a week and spend that time in prayer. I’m not going to say “Please consider”. Instead, to quote the old Nike slogan: “Just do it!”, and join me in praying for the end of abortion.

Problems with Promotion of Volunteerism?

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Next week, there will be a major push through the “big 4” television networks in the United States to promote volunteerism. Gus Lloyd, host of Seize the Day on the Sirius/XM Catholic Channel, brought up some concerns regarding this program on his show this morning.

Now, being a volunteer is a good thing, a very good thing. In fact, as Catholics, we’re called to volunteer our time and abilities in the service of the Church. I would dare to say that most parishes don’t have enough volunteers, and are almost always in need of more people willing to volunteer. The problem that Gus Lloyd has with this program is that many of the so-called volunteer opportunities are really promotions of agendas. For example, if you search the AARP-sponsored Create the Good site for health care, one of the first links is a video on “How To Spread the Truth About Health Care Reform”. No matter how important the current debate on health care is, what does it have to do with volunteering in our communities? Gus also points out that several of the volunteer opportunities in the Beverly Hills, CA, area includes volunteering for Planned Parenthood to promote their view of women’s health, which always includes abortion on demand. Again, this is politicking, not volunteering.

Gus came up with a great alternative on his show. Instead of using these sites to find volunteer opportunities, find other options. Ask your parish how you can help. Volunteer some time at a crisis pregnancy center. Contact your local St. Vincent de Paul or Catholic Charities and find out what needs they have for service. There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer in a way that will promote a culture of life, not perpetuate the culture of death so common in this country.

Homily for the Day of Penance for an End to Abortion

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Today, we’re remembering one of the most painful anniversaries in the history of our nation. We have many anniversaries that commemorate great events within our history, but this is not one of them. Thirty-six years ago, on January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion at all stages from conception to birth. To remember this anniversary, we are asked to make today a day of penance, which is why I’m wearing the purple of Advent and Lent instead of the green of Ordinary Time.

Our previous Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, challenged our nation during his visit to St. Louis, Missouri in 1999 by saying, “And so America: if you want peace, work for justice. If you want justice, defend life. If you want life, embrace truth – truth revealed by God.” When we look the United States’ track record in fulfilling his challenge, we’ve failed in two ways. First, we’ve failed to embrace the truth that all life is sacred, from conception to natural death. Second, we’ve failed to defend those who are the most defenseless and cannot speak for themselves: the unborn. It’s little wonder why there is so much division and violence in our nation when we refuse to view life as sacred.

Here in Montana, these attacks on life have reached a new level through the judicial approval of so-called “physician assisted suicide”. The approval of physician assisted suicide, more accurately known as euthanasia, is just a logical conclusion to the principle that human life is not sacred, and therefore is not worthy of protection, especially when it is inconvenient. If life is not respected and protected at the very beginning in the womb, why respect and protect it at the end?

To combat these attacks on human life, and those to come in the future, we must remind ourselves of the sacredness of all human life. Our lives are gifts from God, and we show our appreciation for this gift by protecting and defending life from those who would destroy it. To repeat Pope John Paul II, “And so America: if you want peace, work for justice. If you want justice, defend life. If you want life, embrace truth – truth revealed by God.” May our nation embrace the truth revealed by God and defend all life from conception to natural death.

Unthinkable, then Illegal

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Right now, it appears that the Pro-Life movement is doing some very serious and necessary soul searching. Pro-life groups are trying to figure out how to handle a majority pro-abortion government here in the United States. Many pro-lifers seem to be getting discouraged, as 36 years of pro-life legislative work may go up in smoke literally with the stroke of a pen. If any time in the history of the pro-life movement is ripe for a new approach, this is it.

The main problem with trying to end abortion in the United States is that too many Americans don’t view abortion as unthinkable. They may never have one, they may strongly discourage others from getting one, but it’s not held up as something that must never happen in a civilized society. Homicide and rape are unthinkable; even embezzlement from a corporation is considered beyond the pale.

In contrast to homicide and rape, abortion is seen as something that is a “woman’s right”, a private issue between her and her doctor. Because abortion is seen as a right, it’s viewed as distasteful (for the most part) but essential to maintain. Of course, this is somewhat of a generalization, as there are very strong pro-life advocates who oppose abortion for any reason, as well as pro-abortion advocates who see no reason to ever limit abortion. It’s safe to say that most Americans fall within a very large gray area between the two positions, but many Americans support some form of abortion rights, even if only for cases of rape or incest.

This leads to the problem with trying to legislate away abortion: it is highly unreasonable to expect that most Americans — and their elected officials — will ever support making what is viewed as a human right illegal. It just won’t happen. To overcome this inertia towards the culture of death, those of us who are involved in the pro-life movement have to make abortion unthinkable before it can be made illegal.

This is not without precedent. The pro-life movement has long compared the fight to end abortion with the civil rights movement with culminated in the 1960’s, with good reason. The civil rights laws that are on the books now were not able to be passed until a major percentage of the United States population found the concept of Jim Crow laws unacceptable. While there is still lingering racism within the United States, it is nowhere near the extreme levels that existed even up to the 1940’s and 1950’s. The civil rights movement was successful thanks in big part to its use of powerful imagery on national television, radio, and newspapers. Many of us who grew up in the period following the civil rights marches have heard the “I Have a Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King and seen video recordings of marchers being blasted by firehoses and attacked by police dogs. These sounds and images contributed in no small part to the success of the civil rights movement.

For the pro-life movement, we need to get our message out as loud and clear as the civil rights message. One difference, however, is that we don’t have most of the mainstream media on our side, so we will have to work harder to get that message across. It may take a lot of determination, some major failures, and many more small successes, a ton of prayers, not to mention a lot of time, work, and money, but we will be successful. We have to be. The future unborn generations are counting on us to succeed.

To accomplish our goal of ending legal abortion, I think we have a lot of work ahead of us. Yes, I’m speaking in the first person plural here. I’m throwing in my commitment to this work here and now. I’ve been involved in the pro-life movement on a local level over the past 9 years, including participating in the Crossroads Pro-Life walk in 2003, and I’m recommitting myself to seeing the pro-life movement succeed, not only in Montana or in the United States, but throughout the world. This does need to be an international effort, ending abortion in those countries where it is legal and keeping it illegal where it has not been legalized.

The work that we need to do will encompass far more than I can cover in one blog post. To this end, this is the first post of what I hope will be a roadmap that we as pro-lifers can use to advance our cause and end legalized abortion in this country. I don’t want this to be a monologue on my part, so please consider this a discussion. Feel welcome to post ideas and thoughts in the comments section, or post your ideas on your blog, if you have one, and send me the links so they can be added to the discussion. I know I won’t think of everything, so I welcome any and every bit of input I can get.

For now, I’m leaving the comment boxes unmoderated. This may be a risk, but it’s one I’m willing to take if it will lead to open discussion.

Fight FOCA

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President-elect Obama has vowed to sign the Freedom of Choice Act when it crosses his desk after January 20th. Fight FOCA is a website that has information on this bill and a petition which will be sent to all members of Congress when the bill is reintroduced. I encourage you to check out Fight FOCA and sign their petition.