Do Not Ignore the Silent Screams
Forty-five years ago, on January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion. Overnight, the crime of intentionally killing an innocent human being became a “right.” In memory of this, and to incite a counter-witness, your station dedicates much of its programming in January to abortion and its consequences.
This can make for difficult viewing. Its purpose, however, is to encourage all of us to fight the tendency to become inured to this evil that occurs daily in our midst. As the philosopher Alice von Hildebrand wrote several years ago in an article titled Habit and Moral Evil: “There is a great danger that those whose moral sense has not been totally warped will at first reject these abominations with horror. After a while, this response of total rejection and horror will be replaced by regret, which will degenerate into tolerance, then acceptance leading to total callousness and indifference."
“Once this state is reached--- the acceptance of the legalization of crimes--- the fabric of the state is threatened. The state should stand for justice. Once it condones the most crying injustice, it has sapped the foundation of its authority. The worm of immorality has eaten so deeply into the apple that it is now rotten to the core and, humanly speaking, it cannot survive.” In the words of St. John Paul II: “A nation that kills its own children has no future!”
Many who vote for a politician that supports “abortion rights” justify themselves by saying that this politician’s social concerns and policies more than compensate for his support for legalized abortion. Not so, says Alice von Hildebrand: “…there is a hierarchy of moral obligations… Man’s first duty is to avoid moral evil (sin); the second is to do as much good as possible. Abortion is intrinsically evil at all times, in all places, under all circumstances. Social concerns never allow us to violate a law with an absolute veto. I am not allowed to kill one person in order to save another person’s life… This does not mean we shouldn’t do everything possible to help those in need, but not to commit moral evil has priority. Murder is irreversible: a corpse cannot be brought back to life.”
At the 2011 funeral Mass of Bernard Nathanson--- the Jewish/atheist pro-abortion doctor who became an indefatigable fighter for the unborn, and later a Catholic--- the celebrant, Fr. Gerald Murray, recounted a story told in Whittaker Chambers’ book Witness. There, Chambers tells of an ardent pro-Communist German diplomat who became an implacable anti-Communist. The event that changed the diplomat’s life was a visit to Moscow, when he discovered the government torturing its citizens: “One night, he heard screams.” Fr. Murray then draws a parallel between this experience and that of Dr. Nathanson. Dr. Nathanson viewed an abortion on ultrasound and saw the child’s body wrench and his mouth widen, as if wailing in agony, as he was dismembered. Dr. Nathanson had heard what he called “The Silent Scream” and said he was “shaken to the roots of my soul by what I saw.”
Like Dr. Nathanson, we must not ignore those silent screams. They are a call to action. The Bible tells us “You shall not stand idly by while your neighbor’s life is at stake.” (Lev. 19:16) And Jesus Himself said “Whatever you neglected to do unto one of the least of these, you neglected to do unto Me.” (Mat 25:45) What should we do?
We can charitably speak the truth about abortion, not attacking, but loving women who have had an abortion. They too, are victims. We can become involved with and support organizations that fight this evil.
Beyond this, we need to help re-Christianize America. “A country that legalizes murder is doomed.” said the fierce anti-Nazi philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand. The lesson of history is that those who turn from God invite catastrophe. Sodom would have been spared had Abraham found but ten good people. We should be those people! “The world is the way it is because each of us is the way we are” said Fulton Sheen. The need for amendment of life, prayer, penance and reparation is the message of Mary at Fatima.
We are told to learn the faith, live the faith and speak and write the faith; to expect to suffer: that standing up for the truth will entail suffering. We are told to offer up our personal loneliness and suffering for the conversion of souls. At the same time, we’re to be cheerful and joyful, confident we’re on the winning side.
Please support your station as we seek to bring our country back to its senses by telling the truth about abortion. Please share the Good News about the station, offer to volunteer, give your financial support if possible, and pray.
God bless you on this Feast of the Holy Innocents