A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

Is the “March for Life”……… January 24, 2012

………actually the “March Against Surgically Procured Abortion?”   A local priest made a case last night – a quite convincing case – that the embrace of contraception and sterilization among numerous in the pro-life movement fatally undermines that movement’s moral authority and helps to insure that demand for abortions will continue far into the future.   It’s impossible to know the makeup of all the various March for Life events, even the one in Washington, DC.  Even if the crowd is largely Catholic, there is still likely a very large proportion of people who have used and/or continue to use contraception without the slightest moral qualms.

These two issues -abortion and contraception – are inextricably linked.  And while many Catholic priests and bishops are willing to take a strong stand on abortion, very few are willing to speak out against contraception. Indeed, since Cardinal O’Boyle first tried to discipline priests apostasizing on Humanae Vitae in the late 60′s – and was promptly shot down by Cardinal Wright and other figures at the Vatican, terrified of the bogeyman of “schism” – there has been a great, silent apostasy on this issue.  After all, a precedent has been set – if you enforce discipline on contraception, you’re going to be left out to dry.  Thus, the vast majority of priests and bishops refuse to address the subject, publicly, while many priests will, in the privacy of the confessional, counsel that contraceptive use is just wonderful.  I know, because I have been told such myself – after all, we have six kids, and isn’t that enough?  There’s a planet to think of!

And so we’ve now had 39 massive rallies in Washington, DC, and countless more in other places, but until the Church in this country starts to take contraception seriously and enforce the unchanging Doctrine regarding it (as evidence by the Holy Ghost guiding Pope Paul VI, hardly a strict enforcer of traditional Doctrine, to maintain that Doctrine in the face of massive pressure and advice to “change” it), the efforts to abolish abortion are going to be severely hamstrung. 

The bishops chickens, as Jeremiah Wright might say, are coming home to roost.  The bishops are now gravely offended that the federal government is giving the large majority of Catholics just what they want – more contraception, provided via our new socialist health insurance scheme.  This is a massive over-reach, they say, a terrible assault against the First Amendment.  And it is.  But how many bishops voted for Obama?  How many participated in writing the execrable “Forming Consciences” document that was so equivocal that one could practically justify voting for Adolf Hitler based on its “guidance?”  How many encourage their priests to stand strong in the Faith regarding contraception and sterilization, and give strong sermons exhorting the faithful to live by this Doctrine?  How many make plain that using contraception is a mortal sin and that they cannot pick and choose which doctrines they will observe, that God presents all of us with various choices, where we can either choose Him or the world, the flesh, and the devil?  My personal experience is, not very many.  The bishops of today did not create this moral mess, but they’ve done little, collectively, to effectively clean it up.

Where is the wise?  Where is the disputer of this age, standing up for the moral Doctrine of the Faith?   What is the March for Life, if no mention is made of contraception?  How have we gotten to such a point in this country that a presidential candidate has to dance around, practically denying, his true beliefs in order to have a chance of getting elected?  We have so surrendered our moral authority that the broader culture thinks anyone opposed to contraception is essentially insane.  A mere 50 years ago, this was absolutely not the case.  But we’ve utterly squandered those 50 years.

As the priest also said – we need to get very serious about praying our rosaries.  We need to pray for our bishops, our priests, and our fellow Catholics and countrymen to turn away from this selfish use of contraception.  We need to fast and do penance.  We need to offer up prayer constantly, because we are so very far gone and the chastisement, the persecution, is already underway.