SOME PARISHIONERS WALKED OUT during a homily given by Father Walter J. Quinn, O.S.A, of New York City-based Priests for Life at Sacred Heart Parish in Coronado the weekend of November 14-16. In his hard-hitting homily, Father Quinn chided apathetic Catholic laity, particularly Catholic politicians, for voting their finances instead of their faith. The following are excerpts from the homily Father Quinn gave at the 9:00 a.m. Mass, for which he received a hearty ovation.
"...There is nothing in our society that destroys more lives than abortion: not crime, sickness, disease, natural disasters, not even war. There are more lives taken in this country by abortion in one single year than all the wars that the United States ever fought, from George Washington right up to the present. The figures don't even come close."
"...There are two generations of Americans who have grown up, especially if they went to public schools, hearing that abortion is somehow some kind of a right, and everybody else has to pay for it with their tax dollars. Most Americans seem to be unaware, and might be quite shocked to learn, that there are 4,400 abortions in this country every 24-hour period. That's more than [died in] the World Trade Center every single day.
"...The great tragedy of the last and the current century is the deliberate and brutal destruction of countless human lives, sanctified by government and bought into by all levels of society including the United Nations."
"...Economics, education, war, capital punishment, jobs, whatever, none of these other life issues is equal to, superior to, can be equated with, or used as an excuse not to support the very right to life."
"...Women do not get an abortion because of freedom of choice. No. They get them because they feel they have no freedom and no choice. They feel trapped, desperate, and afraid because they have no one to turn to except the abortionist."
"...Legal abortion facilities in this country of ours are the most unregulated surgical facilities in the entire nation. Unregulated. Animal hospitals, veterinary clinics, are cleaner and safer, held to higher standards and subject to stricter legal controls than are the facilities where 4,400 human babies are destroyed every single day."
"...At the March for Life in Washington in January, I usually stand at the corner of Seventh and Constitution, because when you're in the parade, you don't see it. From curb to curb, there are 25 or 30 people abreast. Every four rows is 100, every 10 units is 1000. And yet we get phone calls and e-mails from all over the country in which people tell us that they didn't read or hear about it in their local press. That's called suppression of truth."
"...Human life is being destroyed on a massive scale, and all the levels of society are looking the other way, just like they did in Nazi Germany in the 1930s."
"...Don't be bullied by slogans that sound very, very nice such as pro-choice. It sounds very fair, very feeling, very American. But some choices have victims. The child of abortion is the obvious victim, destroyed by the mother's choice."
"...Those who continue to support and to vote for candidates, persons and programs [that support abortion] are simply making possible the deaths of millions of innocent human lives."
"...It's long overdue that all those anti-life and so-called pro-choice Catholics begin to suffer a guilty conscience, because someday they will meet God, and then they will know the meaning of God's will and God's grace."