The Real and Only True Hope We Have

[Thanks to Ed, my acquaintance on the Left Coast, for posting this on his Facebook, where I first saw it.]

Promote the Pro-Life Cause By Visiting JustOneJudge.com and Signing the Petition!

I rarely depart from the subjects of Catholic liturgy, saints, and art, but at this point in Western civilization, serious Catholics must be bold and stand up for the sanctity of life from conception until natural death. Four such Catholics -- Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court, who converted to the pro-life cause and to the Catholic Church; pro-life activist and fellow Catholic convert Jason Jones; actor Eduardo Verastegui of Bella fame; and Miss America 2001 Angela Perez Baraquio; have acted in such a bold manner with their video presentations on the new website JustOneJudge.com. The aim of this website is to get Catholics to vote for pro-life candidates on Election Day [November 4] "who will support the nomination and confirmation of Supreme Court judges who value Life" (taken from their petition, which people can sign).

In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, the late Pope John Paul II stated, "Faced with the progressive weakening in individual consciences and in society of the sense of the absolute and grave moral illicitness of the direct taking of all innocent human life, especially at its beginning and at its end, the Church's Magisterium has spoken out with increasing frequency in defence of the sacredness and inviolability of human life."

Devout Catholics must emulate our Popes and Bishops and speak out "with increasing frequency in defence of the sacredness and inviolability of human life." One such way we can do this is to sign the petition on JustOneJudge.com.

Later in the encylical, Pope John Paul II made three statements can be seen as infallible, according to the ordinary and universal Magisterium. The statement on the issue of abortion is below, along with some of the context from the encyclical:

61. The texts of Sacred Scripture never address the question of deliberate abortion and so do not directly and specifically condemn it. But they show such great respect for the human being in the mother's womb that they require as a logical consequence that God's commandment "You shall not kill" be extended to the unborn child as well.

Human life is sacred and inviolable at every moment of existence, including the initial phase which precedes birth. All human beings, from their mothers' womb, belong to God who searches them and knows them, who forms them and knits them together with his own hands, who gazes on them when they are tiny shapeless embryos and already sees in them the adults of tomorrow whose days are numbered and whose vocation is even now written in the "book of life" (cf. Ps 139: 1, 13-16)....Throughout Christianity's two thousand year history, this same doctrine has been constantly taught by the Fathers of the Church and by her Pastors and Doctors. Even scientific and philosophical discussions about the precise moment of the infusion of the spiritual soul have never given rise to any hesitation about the moral condemnation of abortion.

62. The more recent Papal Magisterium has vigorously reaffirmed this common doctrine. Pius XI in particular, in his Encyclical Casti Connubii, rejected the specious justifications of abortion. Pius XII excluded all direct abortion, i.e., every act tending directly to destroy human life in the womb "whether such destruction is intended as an end or only as a means to an end" [Address to the Biomedical Association "San Luca" (12 November 1944)]. John XXIII reaffirmed that human life is sacred because "from its very beginning it directly involves God's creative activity" [quote from his encylical Mater et Magistra]. The Second Vatican Council, as mentioned earlier, sternly condemned abortion: "From the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care, while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes" [Vatican II's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 51.]....

Given such unanimity in the doctrinal and disciplinary tradition of the Church, Paul VI was able to declare that this tradition is unchanged and unchangeable [ in his encyclical Humanae Vitae, 14.]. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the Bishops-who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine-I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.

No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church.

It cannot be more clear than that. We must work with all due effort to end the scourge of abortion and stand up for the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life. If the wrong candidate becomes president of the United States and a stronger pro-abortion majority is elected to the Congress, all the work that pro-lifers have performed to increase the protections on unborn human life could be rolled back.

Cor Jesu sacratissimum, miserere nobis!