This is the text of Fr. David Konderla’s speech
at the state-wide Rally for Life at the Capitol Building in Austin 2000
When Joe Pojman asked me to speak to you, he mentioned that I should speak
from the perspective of our battle against abortions and Planned Parenthood in
our local area in Bryan and College Station.
It has been almost a year now since Planned Parenthood announced that they
would begin to perform abortions in Bryan. So, perhaps I can begin by giving you
a status report.
Our first hope was to prevent them from building. They built.
We then hoped we could keep them from opening. They opened.
We then hoped we could keep them from killing innocent children in their
facility. They are killing them, over 230 according to their own statistics and
counting.
And in view of such a record, you might think that I would be depressed or
worried about the future. Well, that is simply not the case.
I came here today to claim victory over them. Not a shallow victory, not a
rhetorical victory, but the only victory that counts, the victory that comes
from God and endures.
In the face of the evidence, how can I make such a claim? It is easy. I can
see the future.
I saw it in a debate I had on campus last year with a spokeswoman for Planned
Parenthood when she complained to the students that they did not seem to be
interested in protecting the rights that she and her generation had fought so
hard to give them.
I see the future in the women and men I work with in post-abortion counseling
and healing. They more than anyone know how terrible is the lie that abortion is
good for women. As they find healing, they are refusing to be silent. They will
not allow the abortion industry to continue to spread the lie that abortion is
good for anyone but the abortion industry.
I see the future in my Aggies and in all of you college students here who
pray faithfully in front of the abortion mills and who do sidewalk counseling
and who give out pamphlets and other information to your peers on campus. You
are saving your own generation.
And I especially see the future right here in front of me with all these
babies and young children and young families.
I remember an experience I had last year at the rally when I had to leave
early. As I left this large group full of youth and life and vigor and joy, I
passed through the gates out front and through a small band of maybe twenty
young men and women chanting pro-abortion slogans. They had no babies, no
children, no families, no future.
And that is the reason I claim victory over abortion.
The people who brought us legalized abortion are growing older. When I look
at them, I don’t see youth and vitality and life. I see the violent past. While
they thought they had made the right to abortion their servant, they are only
now waking to find that it has become their taskmaster, that it has robbed them
of their youth, of their children, of their future. Their tribe is shrinking and
their influence and power is going with it.
Planned Parenthood and all the other promoters of the culture of death may
have the money, but we have the true wealth, the children. They may have today,
but without children, they have no tomorrows. We have all the tomorrows.
Meanwhile, those who understand the gift of life are always growing younger.
When I look at you, I see life and youth and vitality. I see the future. Our
tribe is increasing and these children will grow up and these children will see
the truth about abortion and these children will vote.
In simple language, we are going to out-baby them. Perhaps I should rephrase
that. As a celibate priest perhaps I should say you are going to out-baby them.
So, the writing is on the wall. Like slavery and other forms of institutional
injustice, we will leave the violence of abortion behind with all the other
violence of the 20th century. It is the most obvious violation of
human rights and belongs to the primitive past.
We are moving forward into the 21st century. But as we do so, let
us not leave anybody behind.
God has richly blessed us with an understanding and appreciation of the
sacred dignity and value of life. So, let us not be stingy with God’s blessings.
As we move forward with the work that remains to be done to make abortion a
thing of the past, let us not hold a grudge against those who in the waning
years of the 20th century fell into slavery, in many cases sincerely
following a false god.
As the Spirit of God blows the breath of life and fertility through you and
into your families, don’t hold it in, but breathe it out in love to those who
don’t believe anyone could love them because they were in the service of the
culture of death.
Just as God loves you and your children into being, into life, so turn around
and love your pro-choice brothers and sisters into life, into truth. Pray for
them. Don’t give up on them. We need every person created in God’s image in our
family. We are pro-life because we believe in the sacred dignity of every human
life. God did not create them to follow the false god of abortion. It is up to
us to help them see the beauty of life and the God of life. They are slaves, we
must set them free.
There are millions of men and women all around us who are hurting, who are
grieving a child lost in an abortion. This wound is so painful that like a
frightened child they are very protective of it. They may lash out at us in
their pain. They may act as if abortion was good for them and we are the enemy.
If we walk away from them, they may never find healing. You and I, let us
examine our consciences and make sure that when they meet us, they will find
love and forgiveness and life. The God who has given us life has called us to go
out to them.
Even as we continue the urgent work of dismantling the culture of death, let
us do all things in love and compassion for those who have been wounded by
abortion which is the common enemy of the entire human race.
When you leave here today, praise God for the victory He is giving to us and
pledge your lives anew to the service of God and a culture of life where all
God’s children are respected and treasured.
Using the Word of God to Preach Against
Abortion
