Dear Friends,
This past Friday, January 22, marked the 48thanniversary of the nowinfamous Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion on demand in every state in the country. In the decades that have passed, countless numbers of innocent (and in the case of abortion, they are alwaysinnocent) lives have been snuffed out. It is a moral tragedy, an evil without equal that clouds the history of our country.
In the years since, there has arisen what now has become a vibrant prolife movement, a movement that encompasses people of good will and clear moral vision from across the spectrum of race, creed, social class, whatever distinction. The Catholic Church has been a leader in this movement since its inception, supporting the annual March for Life, as well as countless other prolife initiatives in every diocese in our country and around the world. We must pray continually for an end to abortion and for the conversion of those many people, who, for whatever philosophical, social or political perspective, do not seem to place much value on the life of the preborn (which is a far better term than unborn). It must also be said that there can be no place for violence of any kind in our opposition to legal abortion. A cardinal moral principle is that “the ends never justify the means.” To kill or destroy in the name of promoting life is a travesty and undermines the very cause that so many hold dear.
We also need to pray and work for an end to the partisan rancor that has railed our country. It now falls to the administration of President Biden to try to bring the country together. Will that happen? I do not know. What I have seen and heard thus far makes me wonder. But I hope and pray that it does, for we cannot continue to go on as we have been. What we need is a return to the ways things were done in past decades, when political leaders took strong positions on issues, and then negotiated and reached some kind of a compromise so that the common good can be promoted rather than the narrow, often selfserving political goals of power and domination which do not do our nation any good whatever. I speak here of both political parties, since both are in need of reform. There is nothing wrong whatever with political parties or allegiances, but they must never take first place before the good of the country. One needs to be reminded that the majority “party” in this country is not the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It is comprised of those who are “unaffiliated” or “independents.” They are the ones who, when all is said and done, really swing an election one way or another.
Have a good week!