The
holy Roman Catholic Church is at the forefront
of the pro-life fight. This is why the
enemy, including liberal media, is focusing
on trying to destroy or weaken the Church.
CFC-FFL, a Catholic lay renewal movement,
is also at the forefront of the pro-life
and pro-family fight. This is why Satan
is so intent on destroying it. Unfortunately,
just as with the Catholic Church, there
are the enemies within, who allow themselves,
wittingly or unwittingly, to be used
by the real enemy to assist him.
Then there are the clergy in the Philippines,
a nation that is one of the last hold-outs
against abortion and divorce. Many clergy
are clueless about the coming devastating
flood orchestrated by the enemy assisted
by the US government and the European
Union. Their lobby groups are feverishly
at work. Legislators are enticed by
millions of pesos. Though the Philippine
clergy are pro-life, many do not realize
the extent of the diabolical threats
to life. Because abortion is illegal,
they can become complacent. They even
support the election of a pro-RH President.
If the Catholic Church in the Philippines
is to be at the forefront of the pro-life
fight, the clergy must also jump into
the fight, right now. The clergy must
strongly support authentic pro-life
groups such as CFC-FFL. If not Catholics,
then who?
John Smeaton Talks to LSN's Hilary
White about the Role of the Catholic Church
in the Pro-Life Fight
By
John Smeaton
Editor's
Note: This article was originally published
by John Smeaton, the head of the UK's
Society for the Protection of Unborn
Children (SPUC), on his personal
blog. It is reprinted
here with permission.
July
30, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)
- When I was in Rome, earlier this month,
I met Hilary White, the well-known writer
for LifeSiteNews.com
Hilary
describes herself on her blog as "an
Anglo-Canadian writer, researcher and
art student recently re-assigned by
God to Rome and desperately sand-bagging
in sight of the coming flood."
The
pro-life movement is, thankfully, made
up of people of all faiths and none.
Hilary, on the other hand, who's a prominent
person in the pro-life movement, is
unreservedly and forthrightly Catholic.
Her answer to my first question reflects
her distinctive position.
I
asked Hilary: “What is the significance
of the Catholic Church to the pro-life
movement?” She replied:
"It
is difficult to think how to answer
that question. Not because it is hard
to think of ways in which the Catholic
Church has an impact on the movement,
but in the way that it is difficult
to, say, quantify the significance of
water for the existence of life on planet
earth.
"I’m
being glib, but not inaccurate. While
we like to say that the pro-life position
can be apprehended and held by anyone
with any religious affiliation or none,
the reality is that in practice, there
are certain factors that, shall we say,
mitigate strongly against atheism or
even simple modern secular irreligion
allowing the pro-life position, at least
in its fullness.
"There
are things about being a Catholic that
make it possible (though never easy)
to stand against the whole tide of the
world and refuse to sway. It is this
absolutist stand that so infuriates
the world. Why are the world’s
media so doggedly pursuing the Catholic
Church on the sex abuse scandals? Why
only the Church when there are assuredly
whole oceans of fish to fry in the Anglican,
Lutheran and Baptist communities? Or
for that matter, among teachers, scout
leaders and librarians?
"It
is because the Catholic religion proposes
absolute and unchangeable teachings
on life, the universe and everything,
and claims for them the infallible authority
of God. Catholics grasp the concept
that truth is simply what it is, and
no amount of 'consensus', 'social progress',
or committee-think will change it. It
is why Catholics laugh (though somewhat
darkly) when media experts demand that
the pope change the teachings on homosexuality
or abortion or contraception to become
accepted by the modern world. The World
cannot grasp, no longer has the intellectual
capability to grasp, that the Catholic
Church presents the truths of religion
in the same way as a mathematician presents
a mathematical axiom.
"This
is the secret of the martyrs. It is
not, I guess, that martyrs have some
great personal well of strength to endure
torture. It is simply that the truth
of the Faith is unalterable. It cannot
be denied any more than gravity can
be denied. We merely shrug in the face
of these demands. The axioms of the
mathematicians are less certain. It
is not within our power to deny. Easier
to ask us to fly.
"I
have known for some time that there
is a deficiency of education within
the pro-life movement. There are a lot
of sincere and often hard-working people
who are, or believe themselves to be,
pro-life but who hold the position without
a concrete understanding of why. With
feeling and sincerity, but with little
knowledge.
"I
hope your readers will forgive me for
the criticism, but there is a strong
streak of sentimentality in the movement
that is little use in answering in a
sensible way the questions and demands
of the abortionist world. We cannot
expect to win this war on feelings,
on a vaguely held notion that babies
are cute and that the world will automatically
default back to sanity if we can only
overturn Roe v. Wade.
"Feelings
are easily swayed, as we have seen with
the push for legalised euthanasia and
assisted suicide in Britain. The media
are the master manipulators and can
have us cheering for a woman who kills
her daughter out of “compassion”.
Or at least weeping in sympathy and
begging the courts for leniency. Feelings
are swayed when they are not under the
control and supervision of an informed
intellect and will (a Catholic concept,
BTW).
"What
is missing in the pro-life world is
solid education, intellectual training
in logic and critical thinking skills
as well as the facts. Many are hampered
by their ignorance of the dots and lack
of training in drawing lines between
them. I have met too many nice pro-life
people who cannot defend their position
in the face of emotive arguments or
slogans. 'But what about rape?' demands
the abortionist world, and many nice
friendly pro-lifers are stymied.
"Liking
cute babies is not enough.
"Where
the Catholic Church comes in for educational
purposes is to provide these robust,
intellectually rigorous answers to the
abortion movement’s political
slogans and their (occasionally) honest
questions. Catholicism is not a religion
of sentimentality.
"Why
is IVF a bad thing? What is the pro-life
position on embryonic genetic research?
... Why isn’t there such a thing
as a right to commit suicide? Why is
it wrong to use donor sperm? Why can
we not 'adopt' frozen embryos? Why is
rape not a legitimate 'exception' for
abortion? What is the moral difference
between removal or withholding of 'extreme'
medical interventions and dehydrating
a comatose patient to death?
"The
Church derives its teachings (and yes,
I can provide links to the documents
answering all these questions) logically
from basic principles. We start with
an axiom: 'You can’t kill people
to solve your problems …or theirs.'
(Or as it is put more elegantly, 'thou
shalt not kill'.) From this principle
it is possible to find one’s logical
way, step by step into the things the
Church teaches about the sacredness
of human life. Sometimes this process
has been laborious and on some topics
it has taken a long time. Centuries.
But there is not one thing the Catholic
Church teaches that is not intimately
and inextricably connected to everything
else she teaches.
"When
I was younger, I was convinced, by my
Catholic parochial school, that the
Catholic religion was nonsense. All
merely a set of contrived and arbitrary
rules designed to oppress and restrict
human freedom. An evil creed by (evil
old white) men. Then one day, the thought
popped into my mind, 'I might be wrong'.
Although I considered the possibility
to be very slim, I thought it only fair
to investigate this enormous and immensely
old and important institution on its
own merits. What did the Catholic Church
have to say for itself? After eleven
years of reading, I was ready to concede
that the one thing that could not be
denied about Catholicism was that its
teachings were not arbitrary. If you
accepted their basic premises, the dogmas,
doctrines and even disciplines of the
Catholic religion where coherent, sane
and in keeping with reason. There are
no internal contradictions in Catholic
teaching.
"After
a few more years of reading, I concluded
that no other religious or political
system proposing answers to the big
questions could say the same.
"This
is why the Catholic Church must and
does necessarily lead the pro-life movement.
And it is why when John asked me the
question, 'What is the significance
of the Catholic Church to the pro-life
movement?' I laughed. It was like being
asked 'What is the significance of physics
to quantum theory?' or 'What does gravity
have to do with things falling down?'
...."
I
then asked Hilary whether the pro-life
movement was winning any of its battles
around the world - referring, when I
did so, to our recent successes in the
UK (in Northern Ireland, on the last
British government's failed legislative
plans on sex and relationships education,
and on the failed attempt to make huge
extensions of the British abortion law).
Hilary replied:
"Yes,
in fact, we are [winning battles], though
it may not look like it. The war is
pretty hot, and on the one hand, this
means that the bad guys are fighting
hard, but on the other, it means that
they know they have something big to
fight, namely us. If we weren't making
life difficult for them, they wouldn't
be working so furiously.
"What
does not often get reported is that,
although the news is nearly all bad
at the legislative and judicial levels,
on the ground, where it actually counts,
the philosophy of abortionism (if I
may coin a term) is beginning to burn
out. It is not widely known that in
Italy, for example, 70 per cent of doctors
will refuse to commit an abortion, and
the public opposition to euthanasia
was enormous during the Eluana Englaro
fight, though she died.
"The
reason the EU and other places are putting
in legislation attacking the consicence
rights of health care workers, is that
more and more health care workers are
exercising them by refusing to have
anything to do with abortion. Abortion
in the US is getting harder to obtain
at the state level, which is why, I
imagine, the Obama administration is
so keen to put abortion into a national
system. In the UK, more doctors are
refusing to do them, which is prompting
the abortionists in the House of Commons
and the medical regulatory agencies
to push for more abortion training in
medical schools, to weed out early those
who might obstruct abortion as doctors.
"Another
indication is the explosion of young
people at the March(es) for Life. In
the last ten years, since I started
in this field, the overall numbers of
people attending these annual events
in Washington and Ottawa has grown enormously.
In 1999 when I first attended in Ottawa,
I think the number was about 2000 and
about 175,000 in Washington. Last year
in Ottawa we had around 12,000 (don’t
knock it! Canada’s a small country
with a government-controlled press)
and in Washington it was well over 300,000.
At the same time the numbers have gone
up, the percentage of young people attending
has grown even more. Long gone are the
days when the pro-life movement could
be characterised as little old ladies
with rosaries, and angry old white guys.
Feminism, which is the foundation of
abortionism, is very widely discredited
among young women, a large percentage
of whom were raised by single mothers
and who have been able to see first
hand what it has wrought.
"What
is really going to help us is demography.
The 1960s 'Me generation', the ones
who have created this moral free-for-all
have failed to capture a following in
the next generations. Young people know
they have been lied to and betrayed.
"Most
of the best pro-life work around the
world is being organised and led by
people in their 20s and 30s. People
who have survived abortion themselves,
who have seen the damage being done
not just by abortion, but by divorce,
contraception, and the hyper-sexualised
culture, are using the activist skills
their parents used to tear down the
culture, in order to build it back up.
"In
Europe the trend has caught on, and
pro-life activities have stepped up.
In the last two years, I believe we’ve
had our first, and well attended Marches
and demonstrations for life and family
in places you’d never expect to
see them. Places like Copenhagen and
Brussels.
"Again,
as with the Church, the tide is turning
against the post-hippie dinosaurs, although,
secure in their corner offices in Westminster
and Brussels, they may not know it yet.
When these young people are taking over
those corner offices in Westminster
and Brussels, I think we will see quite
a different set of trends.
"What
the end result will be remains to be
seen. It’s why I’m glad
I’m here doing this work. I get
to watch it all from a front row seat."
"For
to me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain." (Phil 1:21)