Right to Life Month
October is Right to Life Month. As Catholics, we believe in the value and
dignity of every human life, and we fight for the right of every person to
life, from conception to natural death.
There is no other Catholic position on this issue. This month, we as a Church highlight the
importance of this issue; we attempt to educate, evangelize, inspire, and
ultimately convert hearts.
Pope John Paul II (and many, many others) have spoken about
the right to life as being the fundamental right, from which all other rights
flow. This is, of course, because
without life, one can not enjoy any other right. One can not experience a right to health, or
education, or liberty, if one has not first had his right to his very life
respected. This is the fundamental moral
issue of our time, and the threats which we as Catholics must fight are many.
The primary of these threats is abortion. Abortion is the greatest evil of our age,
from my perspective. Not only are so many
people denied their right to life by abortion, it tears at the heart the
family, which is the fundamental building block of society, and is sacred to
God. We must never lose our focus on
saving as many babies as possible, and on changing laws so that our country can
once again be a place where the most innocent human lives are valued and this
great scourge can be eradicated.
Of course, our pro-life work in this area focuses on more
than just babies. There are many crisis
pregnancy centers that desperately need our support. Christians are well known for their support
of women in crisis pregnancies. As
Father Frank Pavone, the founder of Priests
for Life says, “Women don’t get abortions because of freedom of choice;
they get abortions because they feel they have no choice.” We, as Christians, have to show them that they
do have a choice, that there are many people who want to love and support them.
Another critical area of pro-life ministry is post-abortion
healing. There are untold millions
of women and men suffering so grievously for the mistake of a past
abortion. They desperately need to see
the loving Face and feel the healing Touch of Christ. We, His Hands and Feet, must bring that to
them. There are ministries like Hope After Abortion, Rachel’s Vineyard and others, that help
women and men to feel God’s forgiveness and love, and be made new. If we know someone whom we can help in this
way, we have to try and help them believe that they can truly heal and find
forgiveness and rebirth in Christ.
Another threat to life that is gaining steam is
euthanasia. We have seen this evil
spread in Europe and now in many U.S. states.
It is my belief that it will also be one of the evil fruits of Obamacare
if it is allowed to take root. We need
not only fight against the lie that euthanasia is an act of charity, we need to
show true charity to those who are suffering.
We need to support ethical research into palliative care, and most of
all, truly love those whom God has placed in our lives who need help enduring
and finding meaning in their suffering.
And we need, once again, to be a nation that reveres and honors our
elderly.
The Culture of Death we oppose has also claimed many people
with disabilities. Currently 90% of
babies with Down Syndrome are aborted, often under pressure from a
physician. They are seen as useless, a
burden, and possessing a life not worth living.
If there’s one message that we must send to the world, it is that all
life is precious, everyone has value, and there’s no such thing as a life not
worth living. We must see the value and
beauty in our disabled brothers and sisters, and if we are disabled ourselves,
be lights to the world. Those suffering
with a disability are perhaps the most powerful spiritual lights there are,
with the ability to inspire people, and bring about miracles with their prayers.
The most controversial issue we must confront this Right to
Life Month is capital punishment. I do
not want to imply that it is on a level with issues like abortion. It is not.
There is more flexibility in the Catholic understanding of this issue,
and the execution of the guilty is very different than the death of the
innocent. However, both John Paul II and
Benedict XVI made very strong statements against capital punishment in
practice, if not its outright prohibition in theory. The fact that it is essentially never
necessary for the protection of society in our day and age makes it difficult
to justify. And cases like that of Alessandro
Serenelli should give us all fruit for meditation.
There are, of course, many other threats to the right to
life: war, human trafficking, human rights abuses at home and abroad. But what we are being encouraged to do this
month is take a step. One more step in
the defense and honor of all human life that can become a permanent habit.
Perhaps we can remember these issues more in our prayer
intentions (there is still time to make a novena before the end of the
month). Perhaps we can occasionally join
a prayer group in front of an abortion clinic. Perhaps
we are being called to be more politically active, perhaps to support a local
pregnancy center or an assisted living facility or hospice. There are countless ways to live a pro-life
spirituality as a Catholic.
As always, the most important thing is prayer. The more we can unite our hearts with His
Heart, the more we will be a people of life, and the more souls and lives we
will save, and maybe, God willing, even a culture.
