Our Holy Father was in Africa this week, and one day while he was there, he visited a parish called Saint Joseph the Worker in the slums of Kenya. (The name got my attention obviously.) There was also the tragedy in Colorado this week. I feel I would like to speak on them both, and strangely enough, I can connect them, as well as make a connection between this tragedy and the one in Paris.
(On a personal note, I also came home one day this week and found a man and a young girl, no more than 10 years old, who I presume was his daughter, sifting through the dumpsters behind my complex. This, too, in addition to the Pope's visit to Africa, got me thinking about the poor.)
I condemn the killings at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado the other day. While the motives of the killer remain unclear, the acts are wrong, and it is never appropriate to respond to violence of any type, both to the born and unborn, with violence. Yes, "violence begets violence", but that is in the natural order. Christians are called to respond to violence supernaturally with the grace of the Prince of Peace, to be "channels of peace", as the popular hymn of Saint Francis exhorts us to. In the litany to him, we discover Saint Joseph is "most patient" and "most prudent". One can get frustrated with what goes on inside Planned Parenthood clinics, but instead of responding as this man did, we need to respond with those aforementioned virtues of Saint Joseph and all the saints who imitated Our Lord so well.
To say that anyone in the pro-life movement would welcome this development is not logical. With all the undercover videos that have recently been released, there was momentum, at minimum, for investigations into this organization, and possible defunding of them. This tragedy will certainly slow the momentum on that.
I mentioned last week with the tragedy in Paris that I saw a connection between the loss of practice of the Catholic Faith and the conditions that make it more possible for tragedies like that to occur. There is some truth to that, as well, with this tragedy, and the pro-life movement in general. Specifically with this tragedy, have any of the shooters at Planned Parenthood clinics over the years been practicing Catholics? No. If they have been "religious", they have usually been self-professed "Christians", when in reality they are loners who read the Bible on their own, and don't look for authoritative teaching (such as the Magisterium) on it. This is a real danger when the Bible is allowed to be interpreted by individuals, which is permitted in the Protestant world (I say this with all due respect to my Protestant brothers and sisters). When we all become our own "magisterium", and interpret the Bible as we want to, the more unstable among us can come to the conclusion that the sin of abortion can be dealt with violently.
Now, moving away from this specific tragedy, and speaking of the pro-life movement in general, I would like to state something else. I believe it is because the fullness of Catholic teaching (which includes teaching against all forms of birth control, in addition to teaching against abortion ) has not been embraced, and promoted by the pro-life movement, is one of the reasons why the movement, despite legal successes here and there, has generally not been successful since it really got going after the Roe v Wade decision in 1973. The abortion laws on a national level pretty much remain the same as they were since then. My feeling is that keeping the dialogue on the level of the personhood of the fetus, as opposed to also raising the prior issue of whether the sexual act that created the fetus is sacred or not, is hurting us. If we looked at the sexual act as a sacred one, which cannot be tampered with by contraceptive devices, then the fruits of that would obviously be sacred too. If we inject more of the fullness of Catholic truth into the whole pro-life discussion, I think we would see better fruit. I may be able to get more into this in future posts.
Whenever I see discussion on the abortion issue, I think of Blessed Mother Theresa. She said that her order would take in ANY baby that was not wanted. She laid it out there for everyone. "Anyone, if you are thinking of aborting your baby, do not, I will take it! " Those were not her exact words, but that is the gist of her message. That alone, in my opinion, is reason enough to give legal protection to the unborn. Mother Theresa knew that abortion was not the answer to helping the poor. She spent her life ministering to, in her words, the "poorest of the poor". She was a hero to me, as she is to many.
I thought of the saint this week because of the aforementioned tragedy, and also the fact that Our Holy Father visited the poor this week in Africa. He spoke of the need for basic rights to be respected for all people which includes (awful he even had to say this) " toilets, sewers, drains, refuse collection, electricity.." Yet, it is interesting that he also noted a certain wisdom that can be found often in these poor neighborhoods. He said they were able, in his words, “to weave bonds of belonging and togetherness which convert overcrowding into an experience of community in which the walls of the ego are torn down and the barriers of selfishness overcome."
Now here is the connection between the Pope's words, and the tragedy in Colorado.
Think of these words: belonging, togetherness, experience of community. Abortion does the opposite. It divides, and most definitely does not unite. People who are part of a strong community are not inclined to abort their child. They know a support mechanism is in place. At the same time, it seems to me any of the shooters at these clinics over the years definitely did not feel a sense of belonging to anything. They were not part of any community. They were loners. People who are part of a strong community do not shoot people for their sins. They try to encourage them to convert by other means.
The poor have something to teach us. Mother Theresa, who ministered to them, has something to teach us. Our Holy Father is calling the Church to be a Church of the poor for the poor. Maybe if we heed his words, as well as the fullness of the Church's teaching, we can do better in the fight against abortion, see better fruit, and see less rotten fruit such as we regrettably saw this past week.
Joseph most strong, pray for us.
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