By PAUL KRAUSE
One of the blessings of being involved in Catholic educational work is getting to know young Catholic students. While trendy Catholic “rebels” tend to take the media clout, young Catholics who are devout in their faith, I have found, are enthusiastically pro-life. This should fill us with great hope.
Abortion used to be “the Catholic issue.” While evangelicals and various Baptist groups initially supported Roe v. Wade, Catholics have always held the line concerning the dignity of life and the grave sin of abortion. Sophists like to claim “nuance” by citing patristic writings on the distinction between abortion pre and post “quickening” of the soul. These tactics fail to mention that in either case abortion was always a grave matter.
Catholic opposition to abortion, and the ecumenical conversion of evangelicals and other Protestants to the pro-life cause, should be seen as a great victory for Catholics and the Catholic Church in a world that we perceive as often dark and darkening.
Decades of education, marching, and praying have brought us to this point. Moreover, the next generation of Catholics seem ready to hold the line and advance human dignity in legislative law. There can be no common good without that dignity recognized by law.
It is well-known that Catholics who attend Mass more frequently, pray regularly, and read Scripture at least weekly, are the most pro-life when compared with lukewarm and lapsed Catholics. It is also known from Pew Research that older, Boomer age Catholics constitute the largest bulk of Catholics by proportion who support the murder of infants. Millennial and Gen Z Catholics are about evenly divided.
Yet, despite the divide, those young Catholics who are passionate about their faith regularly make mention of their commitment to the pro-life cause. They wear pro-life clothing. They talk about attending or desiring to attend the March for Life. They confess confusion at how other Catholics can take abortionist beliefs.
The forthcoming Synod on Synodality is supposed to give voice to the faithful laity. The Church leadership, often afraid of embracing its own teachings while embracing the hot-button social issues of today (always the issues of the left and antithetical to Church teachings mind you), cannot keep looking the other way. Young Catholics who voiced their pro-life commitments will hopefully be heard.
If the Church is serious, instead of just being sophistic, about listening to the laity, then the Church must hear the calls of their truly faithful members on abortion. More to the point, they must hear the spirit and love which moves her youngest members who will be the ones attending Mass, supporting Church missions, and possibly filling the seminaries and eventually presiding over Mass.
The enthusiasm of various young Catholics I’ve encountered and gotten to know on pro-life matters is inspiring. The joy in their eyes and faces when they discuss it proves it. They are not giving diplomatic answers like many clerics in leadership positions. They move and speak with a vigor and happiness in being involved in the fight.
Moreover, this isn’t just one of many issues. Though there are many issues that we, as Catholics, ought to be concerned with. This we know. But for many students I’ve gotten to know, this is their priority issue.
While they like to talk about Scripture, theology, mysticism, literature, and all the other good stuff that comes with being Catholic and what Catholics should take seriously, it is abortion that routinely takes a center stage in their discussions and concerns. It is their banner issue. It is the one issue that they devote a lot of time to. I might say, from what I know, that it is the issue that they spend the most time on and return to most frequently.
There is a truism that the future is always in the hands of the next generation. Catholics can take some comfort in knowing that there is a vocal and energetic pro-life cohort in the next generation. Their steadfast love for truth and commitment to life can break hearts of stone simply by listening to them and observing their mannerisms.
Contrast their conduct with abortionists, the grotesque and violent and repulsive behavior they manifest which was recently on display this Mother’s Day.
Love And Joy
The Church ebbs and flows in time. The great insight of St. Augustine in The City of God is that the Christian life is not sunshine and rainbows but a struggle. Jesus even says as much. As does St. Paul in his epistles. Despite the struggle, God’s will is done. The Christian finds love and joy in the fight.
But in this struggle the true heart of love also appears. That light, however small, shines brightly in the darkness. While abortionists and their media allies try to cast the pro-life movement as totalitarian, the opposite is true. The pro-life movement is spirited by love.
And anyone who actually talks to young Catholics committed to the sanctity of life can see that if they have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and hearts open to conversion.
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