1-15-10 THE BISHOP'S VOICE: No middle ground
Bishop Michael Sheridan, S.T.D.
Jan 22, 2010 12:00 PM
Another new year begins, and the conscience of America continues to be tested as to whether it is pro-life or pro-death. There is no middle ground.

For 37 years now, the Supreme Court of the United States has declared that it is legal — and a right of women — to abort babies. The conscience

of America remains split, although we are beginning to see the tide turn in favor of life. More than one-half of all Americans favor restrictions on abortions. And young people present themselves as far more pro-life than their elders.

The silent holocaust of abortion has a scarlet cord behind it which is greater than any other holocaust or genocide in recorded human history. The estimated number of babies torn from their mothers’ wombs since 1973 is now more than 50 million! And all of this is executed under the banner of "freedom of choice." There is only one choice, as God himself reminds us in the Book of Deuteronomy, and the consequences of that choice are reciprocal: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days . . ." (Dt 30:19-20, emphasis added).

It is because of legalized abortion — and the contraceptive mentality of our times, which of its very nature chooses against life — that we also struggle over the value and sacredness of life outside the womb. Euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research and the continuing call for the use of capital punishment are all the logical consequences of our willingness to kill children in the womb and prevent life through contraception. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta was known to say on more than one occasion: "When the baby is no longer safe in its mother’s womb, then nobody’s life is safe."

How did we get to this point, to the point of killing our own babies — and under the protection of law? We started on this course more than four decades ago with the widespread dissention from the church’s teaching on artificial contraception. When the world was crying for the church to "catch up with the times" in the 1960s, and even expecting the church to succumb to the world’s expectations that contraception would be declared a morally acceptable practice, Pope Paul VI went against the current and declared an emphatic "No!" when he issued his 1968 prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae. In that encyclical, the pope said clearly that the church has not and never will condone as morally acceptable and responsible a mentality and lifestyle which embraces artificial contraception, in which the intention is always to deny life.

Having beautifully explained and defended why the church’s teaching on conjugal love within the proper context of marriage is in accordance with God’s revealed plan for men and women, Pope Paul did not hesitate to speak prophetically about the consequences for a society which embraces a contraceptive mentality. His words are worth quoting in full:

"Upright men can even better convince themselves of the solid grounds on which the teaching of the Church in this field is based, if they care to reflect upon the consequences of methods of artificial birth control. Let them consider, first of all, how wide and easy a road would thus be opened up towards conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality. Not much experience is needed in order to know human weakness, and to understand that men — especially the young, who are so vulnerable on this point — have need of encouragement to be faithful to the moral law, so that they must not be offered some easy means of eluding its observance. It is also to be feared that the man, growing used to the employment of anti-conceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and, no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.

"Let it be considered also that a dangerous weapon would thus be placed in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies. Who could blame a government for applying to the solution of the problems of the community those means acknowledged to be licit for married couples [contraception] in the solution of a family problem? Who will stop rulers from favoring, from even imposing upon their peoples, if they were to consider it necessary, the method of contraception which they judge to be most efficacious? In such a way men, wishing to avoid individual, family or social difficulties encountered in the observance of the divine law, would reach the point of placing at the mercy of the intervention of public authorities the most personal and most reserved sector of conjugal intimacy?" (Humanae Vitae, 17).

This is a chilling checklist of what has, in fact, taken place in our country and in Western society as a whole. And the unmentioned, but implied, result of the contraceptive mentality is the holocaust of abortion. For if a couple intends to block life through the use of contraceptives, but life is nevertheless conceived, then the logical conclusion is to kill the newly-conceived life that was unwanted in the first place. There is no true love in contraception, despite how "sincere" one may think he or she is. Genuine love is creative, life-giving, sacrificial and selfless.

We must continue to pray for an end to abortion in our land, with prayers for an end to the use of contraceptives. I invite you to join me Jan. 18 for a Holy Hour of eucharistic adoration at 9 a.m. and Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Mary Cathedral for these intentions.

We know the power of prayer. Let’s not weaken in our resolve to see that life is victorious.