A Question of Life

As Ireland now prepares for a referendum on abortion, the latest in a  number of attempts to introduce abortion on demand into the country, two of our bishops have published Pastoral Messages inviting the faithful to consider the importance of the issues involved. The Primate, Archbishop Eamon Martin addressed the question of life in his Pastoral for the New Year, "To Serve Human Life is to Serve God", reminding us that human life is sacred and urging us to be missionaries for life. In the last couple of weeks Bishop Kevin Doran, Bishop of Elphin, issued his Pastoral Message titling it "The Gift of Life - A Shared Responsibility". I have provided links to the full texts of both messages at the end of this post.

In his pastoral message Bishop Doran wrote:

"If society accepts that one human being has the right to end the life of another, then it is no longer possible to claim the right to life as a fundamental human right for anybody.   The very same arguments which are now being used to justify abortion will be used to justify ending the lives of frail elderly people and people with significant disability.  If we were to agree that Article 40.3.3 be removed simpliciter, the government would be left entirely free to introduce whatever abortion regime it chooses, now or at any time in the future."

For this anaysis the bishop was subject to the opprobrium of the pro-abortion movement here and its allies in the Irish media. Yet the Bishop is entirely correct. In every country where restricted abortion has been introduced those restrictions have been relativised and diluted be it through supplementary legislation or through practice. Before long euthanasia is proposed, those arguments employed to break down resistance to abortion used to chip away opposition to "mercy killing". Over the last number of years more and more countries are introducing the practice beginning with restricted euthanasia (as promised to the electorate) but gradually expanded to a permissive regime - just like abortion. In the Netherlands and Belgium, as we know for example, there are now very lax laws facilitating the killing of the elderly and the sick – sick being a very relative term now, encompassing any desire to be euthanized or to have another euthanized.  What was originally advertised as voluntary is now non-voluntary and in some situations a necessity.

There is no doubt that those who attacked Bishop Doran know full well in their hearts that what he says is true and not because they have observed it in other countries, as we all have, but also because, for some of them, this is part of their mission for Ireland. There is at work here, as there has been in many other countries, a particular agenda, one which seeks to loosen our attitude to human life for various reasons. Here in Ireland our media has been campaigning vigorously these last number of years to soften up the people through hard stories, favourable interviews with pro-abortion/pro-euthanasia campaigners, "public interest" features with a particular slant, subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) demonisation of pro-life figures and lately a constant and unrelenting barrage of attacks on the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution. What is most remarkable about it all now is that it is barefaced, there is not even an attempt to feign objectivity: it is naked aggression.

The Gift of Life
Our friends in other jurisdictions will know all about this as they have had to endure this for many years now.  As pro-life advocates watched as one protection for vulnerable human life after another fell to what Pope St John Paul II correctly termed the "culture of death", they saw that each strike emerged from the last and prepared for the next - they were all connected. At the heart of it all is a desire to control life, to dominate, to rate it, to place a value on it and, if it fails to measure up, to be able to dispose of it. This attitude is as old as humanity itself. Ancient warrior societies, in order to preserve strength within their communities, disposed of the weak. Infanticide was common and newborns that did not meet the standard were killed or left exposed in the wilderness to die or be killed and eaten by animals. A mark of many societies, in the revelation of God to the Hebrews it was revealed to be the mark not of a noble people but a brutal one. As you read the books of the Law in Scripture you see a particular tenderness for the weak and the poor, this was in fact a revolution. In this light we can see that what is now proposed as compassionate and mature is nothing more that society reverting to its brutal past.

Judaism and Christianity offer a more human and humane approach to life. As our modern ideologues try to show Christian morality as oppressive, they recoil against the idea that there is line in the sand which we as human beings must not cross. That line is one which testifies to the nature of human life and encloses it in an embrace of respect and beauty. Bishop Kevin Doran's letter testifies to this as he reiterates what we Christians believe and proclaim: life is a gift - a gift of God. Quoting Pope Benedict XVI's homily from the Inaugruation of his pontificate, the bishop notes: "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary". That last clause is vital: each one of us is necessary, we are unique. In an age when so much emphasis is placed on the individual and their rights and freedom, the utter uniqueness of each child conceived is quickly forgotten when it comes to abortion.

I am reminded of an apocryphal story from the life of St Teresa of Calcutta in which she was asked by Hillary Clinton “Why do you think we haven’t had a woman as president yet?” St Teresa is said to have responded, “Because she probably has been aborted”. Some say the conversation took place at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC in 1994, but it has also been disputed by others;  whether true or not the sentiment expressed by St Teresa is correct: each human being conceived has a place in God’s plan and if they are discarded then we are all the poorer for it.  Life is a mystery, Bishop Doran reminds us, it is a gift: it is God who calls us into life and into relationship with him (and with others). Though man and woman provide the genetic material, it is God who breathes his life-giving spirit into the new human being and so it becomes from the very first moment of conception a living soul made in the image and likeness of God. This is true for every child conceived, healthy or unhealthy, destined for a long life or a short one.  It falls to all of us to cherish this gift of life for as long as it naturally exists, indeed, the Bishop correctly reminds us, it is our responsibility to do so.  It must be noted that life is a gift from God, not from other people, not from the State nor a medical team, so it is not up to others or a government or a medic to decide when and how life begins or ends, but it is up to all of us to cherish it and support it.

The Seamless Garment
What we should find astonishing is that many of those who deny the connection between abortion and euthanasia see the inter-connectivity of life in other areas. For the last number of years we have been told that there exists in our environment such connectivity so much so that our behaviour with regard to one area of ecology is effecting all the others. The most famous issue in this regard is climate change. Yet, where moderns see a seamless garment (if I may use Cardinal Bernadin's famous phrase for a moment) in regard to the environment, they fail to see it in regard to human life and morality. Yet such does exist, and no greater testament to this exists in official Church teaching than Blessed Pope Paul VI's encyclical, Humanae Vitae, that much maligned and extraordinary prophetic document.

We are told that this year could see the canonisation of Blessed Pope Paul. There are many who will not be happy with that and there are many others, including myself, who will. Whatever mistakes the man made in other areas of his pontificate, his witness to the sacredness of life was noble and there is no doubt that he suffered for it as he faced opposition and attack, not only from outside the Church, but from within: chief among his attackers there were bishops, shepherds who had been entrusted with the care of souls.  There are rumours that this year may also see a reevaluation of Humanae Vitae, one which will be presented as an development of its teaching but may in fact be, in reality, a moving away from it, a dilution, an undermining. I hope that is not so, for if this does happen it will be a tear in the seamless garment of the Gospel of Life; a rupture and, indeed, another wound inflicted on the body of the Church. We must pray that does not happen.

Blessed Paul saw that the use of artificial contraception nurtured an attitude of dominance over life. Far from lacking compassion for married couples, Paul sought to guide them to morally licit means of family planning. However, he urged that there must be a faithfulness to God's design, a recognition that human life is sacred: quoting Pope St John XXIII, Paul noted, " From its very inception it [life] reveals the creating hand of God" (cf. Pope St John XXIII, Mater et Magistra). There are divine laws which must be adhered to and unless we acknowledge this we will never be happy, as Paul states in his concluding paragraph, "man cannot attain that true happiness for which he yearns with all the strength of his spirit, unless he keeps the laws which the Most High God has engraved in his very nature. These laws must be wisely and lovingly observed". These laws maintain the balance of human life and life in general and they inform the moral law.

Fighting For Our Lives
Ireland is facing a horrendous few months ahead. The battle for life, and it is a battle, will increase in intensity and it will be bitter. If the last referendum campaign is anything to go by, those on the side of life and truth will have much to endure. Great patience and restraint will be needed - resources too: the pro-life groups will need donors to help fund their campaigns, unlike the pro-abortion groups they don't have billionaires covering their bills, so we all must dig in deep to help. Volunteers will also be needed to help the core pro-life groups campaign on the doorstep and the streets- this is the best means of campaigning but also the only one open to us - the Irish media is pro-abortion so its coverage will most likely be biased in favour of a yes vote, as it has up to now and we cannot expect a Pauline conversion there. We must also pray and fast for the pro-life cause: remember ultimately we are not dealing with earthly powers here, the enemy at the heart of this will need to be met with powerful weapons and those the Lord recommended are the best (cf. Matthew 17:21).

So this is a call to arms, and all men and women of good will are urged to listen. Bishop Doran asks all of us to take up the cause - "Politics is not just for politicians". He reminds us, "Politics is the art of good government and, in a democracy, we all have our part to play in government". And so we must. Christians have as much right to speak as others in secular society, and they have the right to influence our society and country so it may reflect the values that we cherish. Silence is not an option, in this campaign none of us can afford to remain silent. Why? Because we are fighting for the lives of the most vulnerable, be they the children in the womb or distraught mothers who may feel that have no other option but to abort and who will then afterwards have to endure years of suffering. But we are also fighting for our own lives, once the seamless garment is torn our own lives are devalued and other dimensions of the "culture of death" lie in wait.  Bishop Doran advises us: "...talk to your politicians, or write to them, and make clear to them that you want them to defend the right to life of the unborn. Be polite, but make sure they know you are there and they know what you believe." There are ideologues among our parliamentary representatives who will sacrifice anything to get this pro-life amendment out of the Constitution, but there are many whose first priority is their seat and if they see that is in danger next election they may well allow their principles to evolve. Pray to their patron, St Thomas More!

"To Save The World Entire"
There is a phrase made famous by the movie Schindler's List, " "He who saves a single life, saves the world entire"; it is in fact a variant of the saying in the Talmud which deals with respecting the lives of the Jews. It reads:

"Therefore, Adam the first man was created alone, to teach you that with regard to anyone who destroys one soul from the Jewish people, i.e., kills one Jew, the verse ascribes him blame as if he destroyed an entire world, as Adam was one person, from whom the population of an entire world came forth. And conversely, anyone who sustains one soul from the Jewish people, the verse ascribes him credit as if he sustained an entire world." (Sanhedrin, 37a)

We can reflect on this in the context of abortion and our work to erase it from the world and provide a more human and loving response to crisis pregnancies in order to guard against the culture of death becoming the dominant force within our society. Each child conceived is a son or daughter of Adam, but also a child of God, our work to save this child is a work for the entire world, a work of hope and a work of charity in its highest expression, agape.  The answer to crisis pregnancies and illness, even terminal illness, cannot be death as in the case of abortion and euthanasia, it must be life and nurture, and this is the message we must proclaim in these days and months. How we care for the most weak and vulnerable will be the measure of how we value humanity. 

We in Ireland ask the prayers of all our pro-life friends around the world. Abortion has demolished so many countries, let us pray and work together so this country does not fall but rather becomes the first in rebuilding our nations on the firm foundation of a culture of life. 

Pastoral Message, "To Serve Human Life is to Serve God", of Archbishop Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.
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Pastoral Message, "The Gift of Life - A Shared Responsibility", of Bishop Kevin Doran, Bishop of Elphin.