By REY FLORES
Abolishing Abortion: How You Can Play a Part in Ending the Greatest Evil of Our Day by Fr. Frank Pavone. See www.abolishingabortion.com or www.amazon.com for ordering information.
“Abortion is like a bone stuck in the throat of the American people. We can’t swallow it, and yet we can’t quite get rid of it either.”
This is the analogy that Fr. Pavone uses in his new book Abolishing Abortion: How You Can Play a Part in Ending the Greatest Evil of Our Day. It makes a good analogy for a few reasons Fr. Pavone points out, such as: “When we speak about abortion in church, we’re told it’s too political. When we speak about it in the political arena, we’re told it’s too religious.”
He’s absolutely correct. Think about it; when was the last time anyone in this nation has had a civil discourse on abortion? I’m talking about people who disagree on abortion being able to rationally discuss the topic. The reason is that if we were to have that discussion, people who support abortion would be completely incapacitated and totally unable to provide any rationalization of any kind for abortion.
Of course, those who support abortion would invent their own rationale which makes this fight that much more complicated because of the lies and deception the abortion and contraception industries continue to use to justify such heinous atrocities.
This is what Fr. Pavone points out in this book, that there is just no good or justifiable reason to abort, or murder, an innocent preborn person. What he also shares with us is that there is much work ahead, stating, “Before we can win over the state, however, we must first win over our churches,” which is a terribly sad reality.
Why is it that so many of our clergy steer clear of this behemoth of a problem? Why is it that so many stand in silence while the human slaughter marches on? Some lack either courage or conviction.
For other clergy, it may have to do with their own self-censoring because they feel they might put their tax-exempt status in jeopardy, but Pavone also shares how clergy can be actively involved in the pro-life movement without putting themselves in any danger of that.
Fr. Pavone makes an especially timely point, reminding us that Christians do belong in the public square — having more rights than we think. The pro-abortion, pro-homosexual powers-that-be, in both the government and the media, constantly pound the lies into the mainstream, so that many of us start to believe them.
This is what has helped build an anti-Christian animosity against any of us opposing “gay marriage” and abortion publicly.
One very thorny debate that Fr. Pavone addresses here is the one between the personhood “no exceptions” pro-lifers and the “incrementalists.”
While I can see the value of both sides, there is always that sense of compromise that leaves a shadow of a doubt for me on incrementalism, but perhaps we can take away some of Fr. Pavone’s wisdom here.
Father writes, “As a goal, I can never decide, choose, will, or agree to make even a single abortion acceptable or legal. But if the legislative support for protecting babies before twenty weeks does not yet exists in a particular legislative body — if, in other words, the votes just aren’t there — then I can support that ban precisely because I’m doing everything I can at the moment.”
We’ll let the readers decide for themselves on this matter.
Along with being an author, Fr. Pavone serves as the president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council and as the pastoral director of Rachel’s Vineyard, the world’s largest ministry of post-abortion healing. And he is the national director of Priests for Life, the largest Catholic pro-life organization in the world.
In his own words, Fr. Pavone calls his new book Abolishing Abortion: How You Can Play a Part in Ending the Greatest Evil of Our Day his pro-life manifesto; I call it Fr. Pavone’s own “rules for radical pro-lifers.”
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer and speaker. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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