By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
The March for Life event each January draws thousands of pro-life Americans to Washington, D.C., to witness for the weakest and most defenseless among us, preborn boys and girls who cannot speak on behalf of the sacredness of their lives in the face of legalized abortion which, in some cases, threatens their existence at every moment up until the point of birth. This year the March will take place on Friday, January 18. I hope to see you there.
The rightness of the pro-life cause is very clear: Abortion is the murder of a child in the womb. It violates the fifth Commandment of the Decalogue. Putting aside the normal human instinct to defend and protect the most vulnerable is denied in the case of the unborn — a particularly evil manifestation of selfishness and moral blindness. Murder is never justified. God has declared every human life sacred without exception.
In the same month as the largest annual pro-life protest in the nation’s capital, Washington this year languishes under a continuing showdown between the president and Congress over the border wall. The “government shutdown” means people temporarily lose income to support their families and pay bills on time. The president exercises his right and duty, as he sees it, to refuse to sign the budget because it doesn’t include funding for the wall which he promised to those who elected him.
But it is the insistence on the part of elected officials, including self-described “Catholics,” on forcing Americans to pay for the murder of other Americans through abortion which truly begs for moral condemnation.
A typical tactic used to shut down the voice of conscience or of faith is to tell the Church to stay out of politics. Priests or others who speak out against the legalization and funding of abortion get pushback from militants who haven’t thought deeply at all beyond the almighty “personal will.” Of course, the will of God for them is inadmissible as an argument.
If politicians would stay out of religion, I would be the first to happily comply with their demands. But advocating for murder and demanding funding for it leave me no choice but to act and to speak without ceasing until justice is done and all lives are once again protected by law.
Nancy Pelosi, a radical abortion advocate who claims to be Catholic, assigned a charge of immorality against the wall. All the while she continues, in an irony evidently lost upon her, to demand taxpayers fund abortion. In the same week that she fallaciously assigned a moral value to an inanimate object, she introduced legislation to extort tax money from pro-life Americans to fund the legalized slaughter of only true innocents among us, the boy and girl in the womb.
Al Perrotta writing in stream.org has an interesting point to make in regard to this controversy over Pelosi’s remarks:
“How can House Speaker Nancy Pelosi look at the victims of illegal immigrants with a straight face and declare that building a border wall is ‘immoral’? Some might say ‘years of skin-stiffening plastic surgery’ — but that’s not my answer. After all, her claim is far more than skin deep. It’s so cynical, so designed to paint proponents of border security as heartless, amoral people, so deadly, that it needs a serious answer.”
Pelosi vainly attempts to invoke morality where it is non-applicable in matters of defense and ignores it where inconvenient such as promoting abortion on demand. She also ignores the pleas for justice of victims of illegal immigrants, as Perrotta points out. We have all been exposed to the agonizing details of the murder of young women, among others, who have been victimized by more criminals loose on our streets simply because we refuse to solidify our very porous border, as advocated by Trump and his supporters.
Pelosi and Send. Chuck Schumer responded to the president’s TV address on the shutdown with more of the same moral grandstanding.
Schumer and Pelosi claim that the wall is “immoral” because they want to give free passage to the families and children seeking the refuge of a safer life here in America. That life here is “safer” for children is debatable.
There is no moral equivalency whatsoever between supporting the wall, which Catholics may in good conscience do, and supporting abortion, which Catholics may not under any circumstances do. It turns out, ironically, that we need the wall to protect more children from Schumer and Pelosi. If young immigrants come to our land and kill their own young thanks to tax-funded abortions, what good will it have brought to their lives?
Though you may react with surprise that this point has to be made, one look at the responses to the tweets about this subject on my timeline shows the necessity.
@CharlesMonsen responded to me, “Disappointing tweet Fr. Using one evil to promote another.”
Just to make the point clear: A wall is never “evil.” Walls also have doors, including the walls of every house inhabited by everyone opposed to the proposed border wall. And those inside the doors always insist that visitors knock and request entry rather than breaking in.
They also insist that guests follow the rules of the house wherever they are blessed to enjoy the gift of hospitality. All of these considerations apply to a sovereign nation like the USA. The wall will have a door. Guests will be admitted. There is no moral imperative, however, for admitting everyone who asks. Charles would be quick, I hope, to see the logic involved. I have no doubt as to his reaction if I were to show up unannounced at his private home and demand, as if entitled, to be admitted on my own terms and for as long as I like.
Pelosi reacted to the president’s televised appeal on behalf of the wall by charging him with perpetuating a “manufactured” crisis. The White House twitter account responded to her thus:
“A ‘manufactured crisis?’
“In California, a veteran was raped and brutally murdered by an illegal alien with a long criminal history. In Maryland, MS-13 gang members viciously stabbed a 16-year-old girl.
“100,000 assaults. 4,000 murders. Tell those families this crisis isn’t real.”
The bottom line take-away phrase: There is no moral equivalency between supporting the wall, which Catholics may do, and supporting abortion, which Catholics may not under any circumstances ever do.
If you cannot March for Life in D.C. this week, march wherever you live. March until Roe v. Wade is no longer the Damocles sword hanging over the precious life of every unborn child in this nation. Insist on any kind of wall to protect the most innocent humans from our national scourge and shame, until every life is protected from conception until natural death.
@MCITLFrAphorism
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