Happy Baptism, Priests for Life, and a Little Pro-Life Apologetics

Happy Baptism of The Lord!  Fr. Denis Wilde from Priests for Life spoke at our mass this morning.  I absolutely love the ministry of Priests for Life.  Being a state Right to Life director myself, we use a lot of their resources in our ministry.  Our organization is officially non-denominational, but most of what P4L evangelizes transcends denomination. 

Fr. Wilde gave a brilliant, yet simply stated homily about some general pro-life statistics and apologetics.  He talked about how many lives have been lost to abortion since the most horrific day in our nation's history - January 22, 1973.  He urged pro-lifers not to use the term "pro-choice," an argument I make all the time!  Calling oneself "pro-choice" ignores the fundamental issue.  If I asked you out of the abortion context to raise your hand if you wanted to "make a choice," you would certainly ask me, "Well, what choice do you want me to make?"  I would hope you would ask what the choices are before you were forced to make one!  But this is how the pro-abortion lobby has successfully deceived our society.  They have semantically simplified the killing of babies by calling the act a "choice."  Everyone is "pro-choice" in most aspects of our lives.  But choosing to beat your wife, rob a bank, or molest a child, for example, doesn't make it morally acceptable just by calling it a "choice."'

Father also refuted the popular pro-abortion argument that says, "I would never have an abortion, but I don't think the Catholic Church should force their morals onto other people (or that the government should be involved, etc)."  The pro-life rebuttal is similar to the one I made above.  Every law is someone's morality being "forced" onto society.  You would never make the argument, "I would never molest a child, but I don't think the government should be involved in that decision."  I know that sounds completely absurd...perhaps callous...but moral evil is moral evil.  It is never justified by saying "I would never do it but for some people, in some situations, it's ok."

Having Fr. Wilde speak on pro-life issues at the mass of the Baptism of Our Lord, rounding out the Christmas season, was so fitting.  It was refreshing to hear a priest candidly and confidently champion this most important ministry (being a leader in the movement, I have fought priests tooth and nail on speaking about pro-life issues from the pulpit...a whole post in itself). 

On this day, please remember to pray for all the children who have not had the chance to be baptized because they were denied a right to live outside the womb.  For you can be certain they're interceding for you from Heaven.

I'll leave you with my favorite inspirational quote from Congressman Henry Hyde.  Remember - we're never alone!

"When the time comes as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I've often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God and a terror will rip through your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, "Spare him because he loved us," and God will look at you and say not, "Did you succeed?" but "Did you try?"'

Ok, back to IF blogging tomorrow, I promise!  :)