Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 21, 2024 Column Father De Celles
First, thanks to Fr. Tad Pacholczyk for visiting us last Saturday and giving his excellent talk on the evils of IVF (in vitro fertilization) and the moral alternatives for couples struggling with fertility issues. Thanks also to Fr. Sabas Banshirahe who spoke to us at all the Masses in a mission appeal for his Diocese of Kigoma in Tanzania. And thanks to all of you for your generous response to his appeal.
Lies of the Media. Last week Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser wrote in a letter to the President of ABC:
Last night’s ABC News Presidential Debate featured network moderator Linsey Davis attempting to debunk former President Trump’s assertion that some states allow for the killing of an infant after birth, saying, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.” This is 100% inaccurate… Here are the facts:
– There are numerous examples of babies born alive after failed abortions, and there is a community of abortion survivors within the Abortion Survivors Network who have grown up and chosen to go public with their stories.
– The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 2003 and 2014, around 143 babies died after being born alive following failed
abortions. The CDC admits that this …likely undercuts the actual number. …
– Nine states and D.C. place no gestational limit on abortion….
– …Minnesota currently allows abortion at any stage of pregnancy….
It’s also a fact that, as a U.S. senator, Kamala Harris voted against protections for babies born alive after failed abortions….
POPE FRANCIS CONFUSION. On his recent trip to visit to the Asia-Pacific region, our Holy Father once again stirred confusion, twice.
On the US Elections. According to the Catholic News Service:
Asked what a U.S. Catholic given a choice between voting for a person who supports abortion or one who supports closing borders and deporting migrants, Pope Francis said one must choose “the lesser evil.”
“Who is the ‘lesser evil’ that woman or that man?” the pope asked, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. “I do not know. Each person must think and decide in his or her conscience.”
…A U.S. television reporter asked him about the choice Catholic voters face between Harris, who supports legalized abortion, and Trump, who wants to severely restrict immigration and has said he wants to deport tens of thousands of migrants.
Both attitudes “are against life: the one who wants to throw out the migrants and the one who kills children,” the pope said. “Both are against life.”
… The one who does not care for migrants is lacking; it is a sin.”
And “to have an abortion is to kill a human being. Whether or not you like the word, it is killing,” the pope said. “The Catholic Church does not allow abortion because it is killing. It is assassination. And we must be clear about that.”
Very confusing. First of all, under both the former Trump Administration and the current Biden-Harris Administration, illegal immigrants were housed, fed and given medical assistance. You could legitimately argue where one took more or less care, but care was given. However, with the approximately 85,000 illegal immigrant children unaccounted and the burgeoning of trafficking of sex slaves during Harris’s administration, it seems to me that the candidate “who does not care for migrants” is Harris.
It is true that Trump wants to deport illegal immigrants. But it is incorrect to say that “the one who wants to throw out the migrants…[is] against life.” After all, nations have a right to control their borders, regulate immigration and to deal with those who break their laws. Consider:
“…The exercise of such a right [to emigrate] is to be regulated, because practicing it indiscriminately may do harm and be detrimental to the common good of the community that receives the migrant.” Pope John Paul II, MESSAGE for … WORLD DAY OF MIGRATION 2001
“States have the right to regulate migration flows and to defend their own frontiers, always guaranteeing the respect due to the dignity of each and every human person. Immigrants, moreover, have the duty to integrate into the host Country, respecting its laws and its national identity.” Benedict XVI, MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER …WORLD DAY OF MIGRATION 2011
“…Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions….Immigrants are obliged to …to obey its laws….” Catechism of the Catholic Church 2241
“Can borders be controlled? Yes, each country has a right to control its borders, who enters and who leaves…” Pope Francis, El País, January 2022
Finally, the deportation of people who break the law to live here is in no way comparable to abortion. Abortion destroys innocent life (“killing…assassination”), and at worst deportation places restriction on where people who break the law can live.
All Religions Lead to God. And then there are the reports he seemed to make about the equality of all religions. Here let me just quote what retired Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote in First Things:
Pope Francis has the habit…of saying things that leave listeners confused and hoping he meant something other than what he actually said.
….According to news reports, Pope Francis suggested that, “[Religions] are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all. Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God.” He went on to say, “If you start to fight, ‘my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn’t,’ where will that lead us? There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths [to God].” ….
That all religions have equal weight is an extraordinarily flawed idea for the Successor of Peter to appear to support. It is true that all of the great religions express a human yearning—often with beauty and wisdom—for something more than this life. Humans have a need to worship. …But not all religions are equal in their content or consequences. Substantial differences exist among the religions the pope named. They have very different notions of who God is and what that implies for the nature of the human person and society….
Simply put: Not all religions seek the same God, and some religions are both wrong and potentially dangerous, materially and spiritually.
…As our faith teaches very clearly, it is only Jesus Christ who saves. Christ is not merely one among other great teachers or prophets.…Jesus…emphatically claimed that, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). A loving God may accept the worship of any sincere and charitable heart—but salvation comes only through his only son, Jesus Christ.
Which is why Jesus did not say, “Stay on your path, and let’s talk about it.”
…The bishop of Rome is the spiritual and institutional head of the Catholic Church worldwide. This means, among other things, that he has the duty to teach the faith clearly and preach it evangelically. Loose comments can only confuse. Yet, too often, confusion infects and undermines the good will of this pontificate.
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles