All are Wanted by God
CHRISTIAN SERVICE
January 22 marks the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The article below is written by Andy Smith, one of our Pro-Life Committee Members and a part of Christian ServiceCommission. Please keep all of our political leaders in your prayers and those that have been touched by abortion. Gratefully, Meg Eib, Christian Service Coordinator, St. Mary and St. James.
“All Are Wanted by God”
Sadly Observing the 37th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
“To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of the common good. It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop. A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized. Only respect for life can be the foundation and guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society[.]” (Pope John Paul II, Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life), n. 101.).
As Catholics, we are called to promote the common good in many ways including through our defense of the inalienable right to life given to each of us by God. Tragically, and despite the sincere convictions of millions of Americans on this issue, on January 22, 1973 the United States Supreme Court issued its controversial Roe v. Wade opinion. The Roe decision, together with subsequent Supreme Court case decisions relating to abortion, effectively eliminated all abortion restrictions in the United States. As we approach the 37thRoe decision, it is with sadness that we must remind ourselves (or even more sadly reveal to the many millions of Americans who have never understood) of the brutal consequences of this decision, including its wiping away of the most precious and essential right of our civilization. We must also renew our call to action to fight this heartless injustice in order to rebuild what Pope John Paul II called the foundation upon which any just society must be built. anniversary of the
According to the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, a California-based pro-life, non-profit educational organization, there are approximately 42 million annual abortions performed globally, with approximately 1.4 million of those abortions taking place in the United States. Despite what the advocates of abortion say in order to justify the need to legalize abortion and to abolish all abortion restrictions, only approximately 1% of abortions in the United States occur because of rape or incest and only 6% because of potential health problems of either the mother or the aborted child; approximately 93% of abortions (roughly 1.3 million annually) are performed as an act of birth control because the aborted child is “unwanted or inconvenient”. Shockingly, self-identified Catholic women account for 31% of the abortions performed in the United States despite the clear pro-life teaching of the Church and the fact that Catholics make up only 25% of the United States population.
How can we reconcile the cruel reality of these statistics with our calling to promote the common good? How can we work to push for justice for all people, no matter how young, old, sick, unwanted or inconvenient, in a society that every day places more emphasis on convenience, physical desire and material and financial well-being as opposed to traditional family values and the dignity of the human person? Obviously through our actions we can bear witness to our belief in those de-emphasized traditional values and human dignity. We can make our voices be heard in the public forums where this debate continues to play out on a daily basis. We can get involved with pro-life organizations in our local area, such as the Oakland/Macomb Chapter of Right to Life – LIFESPAN (248-816-1546). We can teach our children of the importance of respect for human life and of the fact that with a loving God there can be no such thing as a truly unwanted or inconvenient life. We can reach out to those women who are considering aborting their pregnancies and offer the support, love and counseling that we are called to offer to any of our neighbors in need. We can help the families that push their wives or daughters to have abortions realize that there are other options. We can help the advocates of abortion understand that women deserve better than abortion and that abortion is not a sign of empowerment for women but rather a sign that our society has failed to meet the needs of women. We can help our medical professionals to realize that there can be no reconciliation of their performing of abortions with their ethical obligations to respect human life and the dignity of every individual and refrain from supporting or committing acts that contradict those obligations. And we can petition our elected representatives and let them know the central importance of this issue in our lives and in the life of our country.
However, as Catholics, our most important contribution to this cause is to keep strong our faith in God and our hope for a just society and maintain our prayers for an end to the practice of abortion. As T.S. Elliot once wrote, “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” We must continue to pray for all those lives touched by abortion, whether it be the life of the aborted child, the life of the woman choosing an abortion, the life of the family that may be pressuring a woman to have an abortion, the life of the “pro-choice” activist advocating for abortion, the life of the medical professional performing abortions, or the life of the political or judicial official enabling abortion. It is primarily through our faith, prayers and hope that we can realize God’s will for His people on this Earth.
“That is the horizon of hope that, from generation to generation, sustains the great human rights cause of our time and all times—the cause of life. We contend, and we contend relentlessly, for the dignity of the human person, of every human person, created in the image and likeness of God, destined from eternity for eternity—every human person, no matter how weak or how strong, no matter how young or how old, no matter how productive or how burdensome, no matter how welcome or how inconvenient. Nobody is a nobody; nobody is unwanted. All are wanted by God, and therefore to be respected, protected, and cherished by us.” (Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, 2008 National Right to Life Convention).