A Message From Fr. Frank Pavone
February 3, 1998
Dear Friends,
"I will not cooperate with im moral, unjust laws corruptly and cowardly
imposed on the American people for the sake of pretending to solve social and
economic problems by murdering innocent children...Indeed, I will not obey
unjust laws nor consent to cooperate with the murder of the sacred lives of
God's precious children. I could no more adhere to the unjust laws of this land,
or in any way give credence to evil enshrined in law, than deny God Himself."
These are the words of Joan Andrews Bell, who, as many of you know, recently
began another prison sentence.
She did nothing morally wrong.
She simply tried to save babies in a society that has gone crazy killing them
by abortion.
For years, I have been privileged to count Joan and her husband Chris among
my friends. As I observe their commitment to life, and work to defend life along
with them, I constantly come back to a simple thought: this should be
normal.
At this moment, when Joan and her family are separated, they want us to focus
on one thing: babies are being killed, and the normal response
should be to save them.
The normal response should be to sacrifice ourselves for them.
The normal response should be to refuse to cooperate with
abortion in any way, shape, or form.
The normal response should be to obey God first and above all.
We can talk for a long time about the reasons why what should be normal is
not.
But not even that is important right now.
What is important is that each of us publicly affirm, in word and action,
that we absolutely refuse to cooperate with the killing of children, and that we
resolve to do everything we can to stop it. We stand with Joan and with so many
others who are detained unjustly because of their commitment to life. The focus
for them is not getting arrested or going to jail or anything else than the
simple command: love one another.
When that command is applied to our smallest brothers and sisters, it translates
into the kind of response Joan has expressed by her words quoted above.
Let us resolve to bring out of the injustice of her imprisonment the good
fruit of having our own souls purified in the willingness to sacrifice
everything to love our youngest brothers and sisters into life.
Let us pray and call for her speedy release and the conversion of this nation
and its laws to a Culture of Life. On such a conversion depends the very
continuance of our nation.
Fr. Frank Pavone
