By SHAUN KENNEY
While the Catholic world is still reeling from Ireland’s capitulation to the abortion industry despite heroic resistance from within, the pro-aborts have set their sights upon a new target: Argentina.
Argentina’s Catholics are starting from a position where Ireland’s Catholics felt themselves to be about ten years ago. Back in 2004, about two out of every three Argentinians opposed a further liberalization of the current abortion laws — laws that still permit the destruction of over a half million Argentinian babies every year.
Yet despite being the home turf of one Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio, not only has support for Argentina’s current abortion laws come under siege, so too is the Church itself.
Mass attendance — the most predictable indicator of opposition — is down sharply over the last 15 years.
Recent polling indicates that two out of every three Argentineans support opening up their country to the abortion industry for the vivisection of babies up to 12 weeks gestation.
And just as The Wanderer went to press this week, Argentina’s lower house voted to legalize abortion within 14 weeks of conception, as well as late-term abortions in cases of fetal deformity or to protect the “psychological” health of mothers.
The measure now moves to Argentina’s Senate; most of its members have said they will oppose it. Argentina’s president claims to be pro-life, but said he will not veto the measure if it reaches him.
Of course, any legal apparatus that functionally offers an endgame of “…and then you can kill the baby” is an unjust law in and of itself.
Argentina’s laws — though still far stricter than what we have here in the United States with some of the most liberal abortion laws in the world — should serve as a cautionary tale for those within the pro-life movement who believe exceptions are the ropes that make the bridge between today and a pro-life future. For the babies, those ropes are a half million nooses in Argentina alone…every year.
Yet the real question is this. Pope Francis was amazingly (and perhaps shockingly) quiet as Ireland moved to adopt pro-abortion legislation that would bring Ireland in line with Argentina’s current set of abortion laws.
With the nose under the tent and a half million Catholics being slaughtered every year, where is Pope Francis — the former archbishop of Buenos Aires no less — and why is the Vatican remaining silent as the abortion industry moves from one bloody conquest to another?
One of the things that openly frustrates this Catholic is the silence of our bishops and priests in the face of evil. Or worse, when we as faithful sheep so much as bleat, the crooks of our bishops come down on the heads — not of the wolves — but upon the sheep.
The good news is that future generations of priests seem to know this. Folks would rather live an authentic faith than a watered-down one, and for all the Protestant examples? Meeting the world halfway tends to make you more worldly; the world doesn’t become more holy for the sake of compromise.
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Report from the battlefield? Trump boosters received a series of major victories across the nation as conservatives and libertarians were dealt serious defeats across the board. Is there is any more clear sign that we are in the throes of a political realignment? The 2018 midterms may seal the deal.
See Dexter Duggan’s front-page article for more on this.
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Newly installed Tucson Bishop Ed Weisenburger floated the idea of levying canonical penalties on any Catholic involved in apprehending undocumented workers and illegal immigrants – including Catholics who work for ICE or U.S. Border Control.
Now far be it from me to criticize a bishop . . . but where, in God’s name, is this zeal for the protection of the faithful when it comes to children in the womb?
Surely when the likes of Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry present themselves for Holy Communion, this is when the maximum penalties of canon law (Canon 915 specifically) should come to the fore?
Of course, we know why — and it’s a brutal truth we have ignored for far too long. There exists a sizable minority within the Catholic Church in America that simply does not recognize the Real Presence in the Eucharist, or if they do, it is a mental love rather than a holy love.
One immediately thinks of Jesus questioning Peter on the shores of Galilee – “Peter, do you love me?” Philos mea, responds Peter. I love you intellectually…but not spiritually as Christ desires. Until we as Catholics begin treating the Church as a faith rather than a collection of principles? It will be easy to concede in the face of whatever fashions raid the commons.
In the meantime, wouldn’t it be nice if we simply enforced the laws on the books?
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Chicago’s Blase Cardinal Cupich decided that it might be a good idea to revise the USCCB guidelines on faithful citizenship, to the groans of the Catholic Twitterverse. It reminds me of the film 1776 where, during the debate on the Declaration of Independence, one delegate rises to ask “But nowhere do you mention deep sea fishing rights. . . .”
According to Crux, a number of bishops at the USCCB’s Florida meeting complained that the latest version of the document does not adequately reflect the thinking of Pope Francis, on issues such as climate change, immigration, and poverty.
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Of course, I am succeeding (but not replacing) the inestimable Mr. James K. Fitzpatrick for the First Teachers column. Please feel free to send any correspondence for First Teachers to Shaun Kenney, c/o First Teachers, 5289 Venable Road, Kents Store, VA 23084 — or if it is easier, simply send me an e-mail with First Teachers in the subject line to: svk2cr@virginia.edu.
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