Fanning Anti-Catholic Flames

FANNING ANTI-CATHOLIC FLAMES by Judie Brown

Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice recently claimed that Pope John Paul II was opposing abortion and artificial birth control (i.e. population control) because money was at stake, money she alleges the Church is likely to acquire only if American foreign dollars no longer go for the funding of abortion and contraception. Kissling says, "They need that money."

Catholics for a Free Choice has spoken out repeatedly against Catholic teaching on abortion and birth control. Thus, we should not find it too outrageous that CFFC's Kissling has pulled another argument from her bag of anti-Catholic harangues against the Church she claims as her own.

And while we are discussing Catholic-bashing, it was the National Organization for Women's (NOW) Executive Vice-President Kim Gandy who recently said, "The suggestion that people may not want to 'pay' for someone else to have an abortion is a bogus issue. My neighbor may not want to pay for your lung cancer, particularly if you're a smoker."

She was referring, of course, to the United States Catholic bishops' adamant opposition to any health care reform package that includes abortion as a "benefit." Though Catholic bishops recognize abortion as an act that destroys a child and wounds a mother, NOW sees it as a "woman's right."

Why all the fuss? Well, when the Catholic Church speaks out against crimes against humanity ¾ which is exactly what abortion is and what contraception leads to ¾ dissenters can not attack the moral teaching of the Church, for that is nearly 2,000 years old and has been consistent during all that time, but they can attack the Church's shepherds, including the Holy Father and those bishops who, in union with him, preach the truth, teach the truth and stand up for that truth, even when it is not politically correct to do so.

Because these men of God represent so many millions of people in America and around the world, it becomes necessary for the pro-aborts to set up straw men, scream about their rights as women who cherish the ability to kill children in the womb and then impute to these men motives that have absolutely nothing to do with the truth.

But, what is really sad about these feminist zealots is not what they say, but that the major media give them credence by reporting their comments. For if they were to make such statements into a vacuum of non- media attention, no one would hear from them. Sadly, however, the media concur in their hysterical claims, choose to fan the flames of anti-Catholic bias by reporting what is said, editorializing about it and then questioning whether or not Roman Catholic leaders have any right to speak in the first place when it comes to matters of foreign or national health policy.

Of course Church leaders do. Let us recognize above all else that the Roman Catholic Church has always taught that the act of abortion takes the life of an innocent human being created in the image and likeness of God and that this act is an abominable sin against the laws of God. The fact that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that this crime against humanity is no longer punishable by law does not mean that this same court has also altered one of the Ten Commandments.

The Church has an obligation to speak out and to encourage others to do the same when a court of law rules against innocent human beings and their right to life. The Church is obliged to insist on absolute respect for all innocent human beings regardless of what the media report, regardless of what the president's policies may be, regardless of what abortion advocates may say. After all, the truth is never altered by opinion polls or network coverage. It certainly may be distorted, or in many cases, completely ignored, but the truth is still what it has always been, and that includes the truth that abortion kills a person.

And why does the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, speak out so consistently and articulately against the practice of contraception and the act of abortion? Merely because it is his opinion that these things are morally wrong? No. The pope is obliged to speak the truths of the Roman Catholic faith, as they have always been and as they are now. You see, no matter how many special interest groups are involved, no matter how many polls are taken, no matter how many well-funded foundation study groups are spawned, the teaching will not change because it can not change.

Let us not forget that as Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, so too are the truths He taught, which are the deposit of faith within the Roman Catholic Church, and are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Thank God for that. Brown is president of the American Life League, Stafford.

This article appeared in the August 4, 1994 issue of "The Arlington Catholic Herald."

Courtesy of the "Arlington Catholic Herald" diocesan newspaper of the Arlington (VA) diocese. For subscription information, call 1-800-377-0511 or write 200 North Glebe Road, Suite 607 Arlington, VA 22203.