CHOOSE LIFE!

Homily for January 22^nd, 2015. CHOOSE LIFE!

            On this day 1973, just 42 years ago, our country’s Supreme Court, which in the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857 declared that African Americans were not citizens and thus could not claim any rights under our Constitution, declared that unborn babies were not persons and could be killed at will. The Court did this by overturning as unconstitutional all state laws protecting the life of the unborn. Those laws had been passed by overwhelmingly Protestant state legislatures, not a few of them openly anti-Catholic. The bishops of our land have asked us to pray annually on this date, therefore, that legal protection for the unborn may be restored in our country; and to offer prayers of penance and reparation for this ongoing terrible crime, which to date has taken the lives of close to 60 million pre-born babies.          

You may hear people claiming that Pope Francis has decided to de-emphasize our opposition to abortion. Do not believe them. Speaking in Rome on Sept. 20^th, 2013 to an international congress of Catholic doctors, Pope Francis said: “Every unborn child, condemned unjustly to being aborted, has the face of the Lord, who before being born, and then when he was just born, experienced the rejection of the world. And every elderly person, even if he/she is sick or at the end of his/her days, bears in him/herself the face of Christ. They cannot be discarded!” You cannot speak more clearly than that.

While we pray that legal protection will once again be extended to children still in the womb, we must realize that laws are of little use unless they enjoy wide support. The first thing necessary, therefore, is to change hearts and minds. To do this we must be known as people of compassion. This means showing compassion and support for women in unwanted pregnancies. To tell such women that there is a quick fix – just get rid of the baby – is cruel and not compassionate. Years and even decades later women who choose abortion – often under pressure from selfish, irresponsible men – are still experiencing grief and pain.

Up until our Civil War we tolerated an evil no less cruel than abortion today: slavery. Today we are ashamed of slavery. When our people become as ashamed of the killing of the unborn as we now are of slavery, the battle for the defense of life will be over. That is what we pray for in this Mass.