By DEXTER DUGGAN
Why do people choose a certain path in life, whether political, religious, occupational or otherwise? Why do some see patriotism as admirable while others see it as constricting and tribalist?
Why do some seek God’s own revealed truth in religion, while others think it’s up to them to construct whatever makes them feel good and think that God is subject to their feelings?
Other people may fall somewhere in between these in their attitudes, but political conservatives and political liberals don’t see the world with the same gaze.
An example occurred at the pro-life presentation given January 13 by the nationally known Defend Life activist organization in Bethesda, Md., that featured remarks by Frank Pavone, the pro-life longtime internationally activist priest who was surprised to learn in December that he was laicized the previous month by some authority in the Vatican.
Also speaking in Bethesda was Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute (lepantoin.org), which is prominent in investigating misuse of funds by Catholic organizations including the U.S. Catholic bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development when the money is given to organizations that oppose core Catholic moral teaching.
For more than two hours Pavone and Hichborn spoke in separate talks about widespread, serious immoral activity under the aegis of the U.S. government and Catholic agencies.
Following this, pro-life activist Anna Little closed the program by singing God Bless America.
After the audience had listened to numerous facts that might make a person reject the U.S.A. as unworthy of any affection or loyalty, Little reflected their gratitude to be Americans and sang out to bless this nation.
On the other hand, when U.S. leftists for decades often were given what they demanded from politicians and the courts, no matter how reprehensible, like massive permissive abortion, they still condemned this nation as retrogressive, racist, and in need of total transformation toward some sort of globalist or Marxist society.
What qualities within different people make one choose a certain path, and the other select a very different one?
Whatever the reasons, some people observed that the strongly pro-life Pavone being laicized and thereby forbidden to function as a priest was very different treatment than that which clergy who might be considered open heretics and outright dissenters received from Rome.
LifeSiteNews.com posted on January 10 that it had an interview with Gerhard Cardinal Mueller, the former head of the Church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whom it quoted: “There are other prominent persons in the United States and other countries who are denying openly the basics of the Catholic faith and morals, and they [face] no reactions from the side of the ecclesiastical authority.”
The news service said Mueller said, “I think there was truly a lot of pressure [from] the Democratic Party” and champions of permissive abortion against Pavone, who had been a campaign adviser of pro-life former President Donald Trump.
In his January 13 Maryland talk, Pavone said he was asked to speak about his work of the last 30 years by Jack Ames, founder and director of the Baltimore-based Defend Life (www.DefendLife.org). Pavone said that during that time, the battle expanded to include other elements like transgenderism.
It’s a fight “between common sense and insanity,” said Pavone, who continues as national director of Priests for Life, which is based in Florida.
He said that in 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade opinion legalizing permissive abortion nationwide, “of course we knew” the child in the womb is a human being, but pretended otherwise.
Saying today that “a man is not a man” because of transgenderism is simply the logical outgrowth of the fiction of the acceptability of abortion, Pavone said.
He talked of how he was led into fighting to defend preborn babies and into the priesthood.
As a high school student he attended the third annual national March for Life in Washington, D.C., in 1976, which launched his vocation, Pavone said, adding that his involvement in the pro-life movement and development as a priest were integral.
He was ordained for the Archdiocese of New York and loved every moment of parish life, including doing marriages and funerals, Pavone said, although some priests groused about performing these ceremonies.
“It was the wake services which were really memorable,” Pavone said, describing how he’d attend these gatherings and circulate the word that people could come see him in another room at the mortuary so they could go to Confession and properly prepare themselves to receive the Eucharist the next day at the funeral.
“Lots of people” would come to the room for penance after word circulated that he was a nice guy, he said.
After four to four-and-a-half years, Pavone said he came to a point “when you know what’s next,” so he asked New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor for permission to do pro-life work full-time as his ministry, which Pavone said O’Connor granted.
“I wanted to get on the road” and visit every national pro-life leader in order to ask “how can we help you,” Pavone said, even though he had little to work with financially.
Pavone’s later problems with other prelates appear to stem from their disagreement with this sort of full-time ministry, and Pavone’s strong belief this is the only proper assignment for him.
He said he introduced former militant national pro-abortion leader and practicing abortionist Bernard Nathanson, MD, for a 1994 talk on chemical abortion, but Nathanson, who still was an agnostic after having been an atheist, told the audience he wanted to talk about his spiritual journey.
Pavone told the January 13 Maryland audience that Nathanson said the love he saw among pro-lifers, including pro-life rescuers at abortion clinics, had cracked his shell, adding, “I stand before you today on the brink of conversion.”
Two years later, Pavone said, O’Connor baptized Nathanson into the Catholic Church.
Pavone described forming friendships of a sort with militant abortion leaders like Martin Haskell, MD, who had given the first detailed description of performing partial-birth abortions to a convention of abortionists.
When Pavone asked how Haskell could do such abortions, he replied, “I don’t know when the baby receives a soul.” The priest said he responded the fact is that the baby has a body.
One illustration Pavone provided showed the difference between pro-life and pro-abortion activists.
Radical pro-abortion pioneer Bill Baird attended many pro-life conferences, Pavone said, both demonstrating against them outside the venue and coming inside to listen to the talks.
So, Pavone said, he asked Baird if he could attend one of Baird’s events, but Baird replied, “Frank, I don’t think I could guarantee your safety.”
Pavone said that thanks to “credible threats” against him, “To this day, I have federal protection.”
In 2003, on the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, someone said the pro-life movement needed something more, so the “Silent No More” organization of women who publicly regretted their abortions was founded, Pavone said, enabling them to arise from their despair and find healing and forgiveness with Jesus.
He said he could go on and on about his work, including time spent in Rome with Pope John Paul II, and also working with Mother Teresa — both of whom later were canonized as saints.
John Paul II palpably understood the importance of the pro-life movement, for whom his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae was “a Magna Carta,” Pavone said.
“To be pro-life politically is a winning issue,” Pavone said, describing pro-life as “the greatest human-rights cause, not only of our time” but of all time.
Taking audience questions after his talk, Pavone was asked about the laicization. “Not much changes, believe it or not,” he said, because a lot of his work wasn’t sacramental ministry although that was important.
“I’ve gotten offers to become bishops in other denominations,” he said, but he’s staying with the Catholic Church.
He didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to the priesthood, saying, “If this Pope doesn’t do it, what comes after him.”
He could run for political office but has no plans to do so, Pavone said, adding that his current work is “all-consuming.”
Pavone said he doesn’t know if the person responsible for laicizing him understood the full implications because Priests for Life assists the Holy Father’s mission to the United Nations. “This is the largest pro-life organization in the Catholic Church.”
He mentioned a recent National Public Radio presentation of a woman having an abortion that regarded abortion as “a big eraser, a magic wand” to make the pregnancy cease to exist. However, Pavone said, NPR said nothing about the necessary task of disposing of the baby’s body parts.
An abortionist said that in a suction abortion, the baby’s heart can be seen still beating as it goes through the suction tube and into the collection jar for up to a minute, Pavone said.
Pavone didn’t say this, but I will: Maybe the smirking dunce of a bad Catholic named Joe Biden would like to hold some of these baby hearts destroyed by the trauma of dismemberment and tell the nation how proud he is of his depravity.
The Salvation Of Souls
The evening’s other speaker, the Lepanto Institute’s Michael Hichborn, cited the Bible on the qualities a good bishop should have — not merely not being a criminal, but also not having such characteristics as pride and impiety.
What of the steward, Hichborn asked, who not only squanders the funds entrusted to him but also gives them to the king’s enemies?
One such example, he said, is the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which he has investigated since 2009 and which has given money to organizations promoting abortion, contraception, Marxism and homosexuality.
The Lepanto Institute’s website says: “The Lepanto Institute was created to present the facts regarding organizations that claim the name Catholic or even Christian, but are acting in opposition to the teachings of our Blessed Lord and His Holy and Immaculate Church.
“Sadly,” the site says, “organizations like Catholic Relief Services, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the Catholic Health Association and many others are giving aid and comfort to the enemies of Christ.
“Even worse,” it continues, “dissident and apostate Catholics in politics and other prominent arenas are giving a false witness to the faith by claiming to be Catholic while promoting abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. As a remedy to this grave situation, the purpose of the Lepanto Institute is to encourage recourse to the Holy Rosary, particularly offered for bishops and priests, while presenting the facts on individuals and institutions such as these.”
The CCHD says it has a rigorous vetting process about who receives funds, Hichborn said, but it’s easy to discover negative information about the recipients.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are Marxist, Hichborn said, but Pope Francis promotes this.
“God loves souls. He desires the salvation of souls,” Hichborn said, asking what about bishops who commit to worldly causes that have nothing to do with souls’ salvation?
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