Pastor's Pen - Jan. 25, 2015

LET THERE BE LIFE!
I have shared the heart of this message in the past and repeat it
here.

This past January 22!" marked 42 years since our U.S. Supreme
Court legalized abortion through the Roe vs Wade Case. Since
1973 there have been over 50 million abortions legally performed in our country (3,700 abortions each day in recent years). Abortion has been for centuries and continues to be today a grave moral wrong in our society in spite of the Supreme
Court’s arguments. Freely and knowingly choosing to destroy an innocent human life after conception is a mortal sin and needs the forgiveness and reconciliation of our Lord and the Church community through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.


As a chaplain for Project Rachel which tries to serve those women, and even men, who suffer from emotional, mental and spiritual
abortion trauma and pain, I have a real problem with the hate and judgments directed toward these women and men, e.g. calling them ‘murderers.’ I have witnessed and listened to the stories of their broken hearts and sorrow over what they have participated in. I have found situation after situation of desperation that clouded their good judgment at the time of their pregnancy. I have regularly met with people who still after 30 or 40 years suffer silently within, even after participating in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I have found their sorrow to be sincere
and their hope for peace in their life such a longing. If we say “we respect life,” then we need to respect their lives too. We should want everyone to be able to be as productive a Christian as possible, especially after that person has made a grave mistake. This is the mind of God for them. That’s why God is willing to forgive them and to forgive all of us sinners too. Let’s hate the sin and
teach about the sinfulness of abortion, but love the sinner (a thought from the Gospels).


Let’s continue to “choose life,” support the “inalienable right to life” and stand with the Gospel and the Church against abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, the use of human embryonic stem cells, the death penalty, partial birth abortion, and taking the life of the mentally & physically disabled.


Let there be Life! Fr. Ralph