My Dear Friends,

This Tuesday is the feast day of Pope St. John Paul II. We know that St. John Paul worked and preached tirelessly on the issue of life, which is why I am asking our parish to pray for 24 hours in our participation in the Forty Days for Life that Catholic parishes and dioceses promote every October.

I am also aware that there are some people who get very angry when the Catholic Church defends life in all stages and wants to see an end to abortion. At the very least, men and women should be praying for a society and a culture where abortion is never “necessary.” Peter Buttigieg and Bill Maher have both recently come out and said that men should want and desire abortion because it makes them free (Buttigieg) and it saves them money in this bad economy (Maher). I will never see how a man who is irresponsible and avoids at all costs any kind of responsibility will empower women.

We are all familiar with Church teachings and the words of Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI on abortion, but we are not really familiar with the words of Pope St. Paul VI and Pope Francis on this same issue. In 1974, Pope Paul VI promulgated the document, Declaration on Procured Abortion. The language used in that document is very strong and blunt. I have highlighted a few passages but I would encourage you to find the document and read the whole thing.

12. Any discrimination based on the various stages of life is no more justified than any other discrimination. The right to life remains complete in an old person, even one greatly weakened; it is not lost by one who is incurably sick. The right to life is no less to be respected in the small infant just born than in the mature person. In reality, respect for human life is called for from the time that the process of generation begins. From the time that the ovum is fertilized, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor of the mother, it is rather the life of a new human being with his growth. It would never be made human if it were not human already.

18. What we wish to say again with emphasis, as was pointed out in the conciliar constitution "Gaudium et spes," in the encyclical "Populorum Progressio" and in other papal documents, is that never, under any pretext, may abortion be resorted to, either by a family or by the political authority, as a legitimate means of regulating births. The damage to moral values is always a greater evil for the common good than any disadvantage in the economic or demographic order.

22. It must, in any case, be clearly understood that whatever may be laid down by civil law in this matter, man can never obey a law that is in itself immoral, and such is the case of a law which would admit in principle the liceity of abortion. Nor can he take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it. Moreover, he may not collaborate in its application.

Pope Francis has been equally blunt.

“Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to throw someone out in order to save another. That's what the Mafia does. It is a crime, an absolute evil.”

“How can an action that ends an innocent and defenseless life in its blossoming stage be therapeutic, civilized, or simply human? I ask you: Is it right to ‘do away with’ a human life in order to solve a problem? Is it right to hire a hitman in order to solve a problem? One cannot. It is not right to ‘do away with’ a human being, however small, in order to solve a problem. It is like hiring a hitman.”

When a journalist from the Jesuit publication, America Magazine, asked the Pope on Sept. 15 about “a woman’s right to choose” and giving Communion to politicians who have supported pro-abortion laws during an in-flight press conference, Pope Francis responded that “abortion is more than an issue. Abortion is murder.”

“Scientifically it’s a human life. The textbooks teach us that. But is it right to take it out to solve a problem? This is why the Church is so strict on this issue because accepting this is kind of like accepting daily murder.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

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