Vote to Protect Unborn Human Life, the Most Innocent Among Us

11-01-2020Weekly Reflection

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has reminded Catholic voters that abortion remains the “preeminent issue” in this election. Sadly many claiming to be Catholic have embraced the Planned Parenthood abortion-mentality which includes the candidates running for public office in the upcoming election who claim to be devout Catholics. They must not be supported.

Catholic politicians have an obligation to fight against abortion and euthanasia, while applying the whole of Catholic social teaching in their political work.

We cannot accept euthanasia in civil society because it is contrary to life; or abortion because it means the death of the innocent child in the mother’s womb.” This has now reached the point where politicians like Governor Cuomo, allegedly Catholic, support infanticide after botched abortion. He cheered for it.

Each life of the individual person has an absolute value in itself. Politicians can call themselves Catholics only if they accept this obligation to fight for the fundamental principles of social ethics, which are human rights.

These human rights cannot be redefined according to one’s own preferences.

Without respecting this principle, society slips into Social Darwinism, promoting “survival of the fittest” rather than innate human dignity or eugenics which seeks to lessen births from groups considered less worthy by racist power-elites. It has been pointed out that most of Planned Parenthood’s abortion efforts are directed at African-American people with the highest number of abortions.

Catholic politicians must promote natural law, the principles of fundamental ethics, also all of the social doctrine of the Church, all efforts for universal peace. This includes the meaning of marriage as between a man and a woman.

While the Church teaches that human rights come from God, even those who do not believe in God can understand simply through their intellect that innocent human lives are not to be used and manipulated and destroyed or treated as things or objects.

Every human life is sacred. Catholic politicians have an obligation to fight against abortion and euthanasia, while applying the whole of Catholic social teaching in their political work.

Pope Paul VI was a prophet when he predicted that the use of contraceptives would bring about this devaluation of human life, children, family, and a great lessening of respect for women, not to mention fostering irresponsible men and a crisis of fathers. Countless children are growing up without fathers and often in the media fathers and men in general are ridiculed or seen as the enemy in the service of extreme ideologies allegedly advancing the cause of women.

On the other hand we have heroic witness to the teaching of the Church in favor of life, marriage, and family, and the teaching of the Church against the use of artificial contraceptives and against the Planned Parenthood mentality on the part of heroic individuals resisting the current decadence. Catholics are called to this heroism.

Joe Biden has claimed to “accept as a matter of faith” that at the moment of conception there’s a human life and being” but that he will not “impose” a “rigid” or “precise” view of abortion on others. Kamala Harris has refused to say if abortion is ever wrong that it’s up to the woman. President Trump has said of abortion: “Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God. Together we must cherish and defend the dignity and sanctity of every human life.”

Vice-President Pence has said that all are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights and first among these is the right to life.

The Democrat Party Platform supports abortion on demand and opposes federal and state laws that create barriers to abortion. The Republican Party Platform supports the unborn child’s fundamental right to life and against the use of public funds to perform or promote abortions. Joe Biden has pledged to sue the Little Sisters of the Poor and other Catholic groups to force them to pay for abortions and contraceptives. President Trump reversed the prior Obama-Biden era rule forcing the Little sisters of the Poor and Catholic groups to pay for abortions and contraceptives.

The Church teaches that abortion or euthanasia is a grave sin. The Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, with reference to judicial decisions or civil laws that authorize or promote abortion or euthanasia, states that there is a “grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. [...] In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to ‘take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law or vote for it’” (no. 73). Christians have a “grave obligation of conscience not to cooperate formally in practices which, even if permitted by civil legislation, are contrary to God’s law. Indeed, from the moral standpoint, it is never licit to cooperate formally in evil. [...] This cooperation can never be justified either by invoking respect for the freedom of others or by appealing to the fact that civil law permits it or requires it” (no. 74). Formal cooperation means you participate in the action with the intent to foster it.

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. The Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, and not use the death penalty. Pope Francis refers to the death penalty as “inadmissible” That is a prudential judgment on the part of the Pope, which civil authorities and others responsible for the common good may disagree with since the application of the death penalty, if chosen, is provided for by Scripture and Tradition, which the Pope and all Catholics are bound to. The teaching doesn’t say it must be used but can be used. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, or immigration and other issues but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia which are intrinsically evil. Vote for the candidates who support and will protect the right to life. Every other human right depends on a human life in existence!