Bishop Lynch on Pro-Life

Published on Bishop Lynch's Blog

Bishop Robert Nugent Lynch
Bishop of Saint Petersburg, FL

January 22, 2009

As I mentioned in an earlier post, today is the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Tens of thousands will brave the cold to make their voices heard, hopefully in the White House and the halls of Congress. The fervor of this day has not dimmed with the passing of the years.

Pro-life people are worried and they should be. Our new President almost two years ago told Planned Parenthood that if a “Freedom of Choice Act” were to hit his desk, he would sign it. Worrisome indeed. Several members of the House of Representatives have reintroduced the FOCA legislation (worrisome) which went no where in the Democratically controlled Congress the last two years but interestingly there does not yet seem to be a rush to sign on by lots of other members. There is no question in my mind that were the Congress to pass and the President to sign a FOCA act, I and others would have no choice but to lead a movement of civil disobedience.

Our parishes have been placing post cards in the Churches which we will forward to our elected representatives in Washington. I hope you will fill one out and then bring it back to be sent north. With a few glaring exceptions, (Congresswoman Castor and Senator Nelson) most of our delegation to the House and Mel Martinez in the Senate can be counted on to be pro-life, some strongly so. I hope to personally meet with them all to explain the consequences of FOCA legislation as it has been proposed in the past.

The Supreme Court did enough damage on this date three and a half decades ago. We do not need the Congress or the President to nail the casket shut on innocent, unborn human life. Personally, I do not think there is sufficient support in this Congress for this radical reordering of an already awful situation but I may have thought the same thing in 1973 when the real “Supremes” confounded all expectations. It is important in this matter of life and death not to be caught asleep at the proverbial switch once again.