Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director
Priests for Life
A few years ago, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles wrote a stirring column
in his Archdiocesan paper The Tidings entitled, "Complete the sentence,
please…" Reflecting the experience of so many of us across the country, he said,
"So often I hear candidates for political office proclaim their great support
for "a woman’s right to choose…." But choose what? As the many political races
begin to heat up across the country, I am growing increasingly confused and
frustrated by those candidates who seem unable to finish a simple English
sentence."
In some talks, I have asked the audience to engage in a simple exercise. "On
the count of three," I told them, "I want you to choose. Ready? One…two…three…choose!…"
You, dear reader, may do the same right now as well.
Now on the one hand, this phenomenon constitutes an implicit admission that
abortion is indefensible. It is the same phenomenon one sees when "clinic
escorts," leading women inside to get abortions, wear vests that say "Pro-choice
escort" rather than "abortion escort."
On the other hand, the incomplete sentences of the "pro-choice" crowd are
more than an unwillingness to state something. On a deeper level, they
express a much more frightening statement, which summarizes the deepest
spiritual perversion symbolized by the phrase "pro-choice." It is the assertion
that what I choose does not matter, because the rightness of my choice does
not depend on what is chosen, but only on the fact that I choose. In other
words, it is the concept of a self-validating choice. My choices don't have to
conform to any moral norm other than me.
The Scriptural reference is Genesis 3:5, "You will be like gods, knowing good
and evil" ("Knowing" here means the power to decide the difference
between good and evil. See Pope John Paul II, The Splendor of Truth,
n.35)
The Supreme Court reference is Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (1992):
"At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence,
of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life" [505 U.S. 833,
851].
The Magisterium reference is what our Holy Father writes in The Gospel of
Life, "…freedom negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to
the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its
essential link with the truth" (EV 19).
This indeed is the problem, and you'll see more evidence of it when you
notice how politicians who defend legalized abortion combine their incomplete
sentences about "choice" with incoherent sentences about "belief." "Let everyone
believe what he or she wants about when life begins," they essentially say,
"It's not up to the government to decide those things." The problem, of course,
is what to do with the person who comes along and doesn't believe that the
newborn is human, or that you are human.
No "freedom" or "belief" should be used to justify killing the innocent. And
no politician should be allowed to continue to confuse the issue.
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