Any progress is good progress
Purple Catholic Saturday Post
Yesterday was the March for Life in Washington, DC. The annual march, even in a post-Roe America, is still a striking and important mission for prolifers as we work to protect human life in our country.
As we saw in the 2022 mid-term elections, pro-lifers lost the message on abortion. In Michigan and Ohio, we failed to properly explain and justify our position that life is sacred. We must work on doing that.
There is reason for hope, though. This week, the Knights of Columbus released their annual poll on American attitudes towards life and abortion. As has been the trend in recent years, Americans largely support some restrictions on abortion but the majority of Americans would call themselves “pro-choice.”
The results of the polling demonstrate that there is a lot of progress and education that needs to be made on the life issue.
Certainly, it was a good step in the right direction when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health decision. It is clear that abortion was read into the Constitution in Roe and it was somehow upheld during Planned Parenthood v Casey.
We must now be willing to work incrimentally to restrict abortion across the United States, especially now at the state level.
I maintain that any progress is good progress. If abortion is legal up to birth, a law limiting it to four months is in a sense good. It has now lessend the amount of deaths caused by abortion.
Similarly, limiting abortion all together with exceptions for rape and incest would also be improvements. Rape and incest account for less than 1% of abortions. Procedures to save a mother’s life (in many cases) do not involve a direct abortion; often times these procedures fall under the principle of double effect.
As the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said in 2003 (under the pontificate of St. John Paul II mind you), it is licit for Catholic politicians (and I would argue could be extended citizens as well) to support such measures. They write that a politician “whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality.”
This does not justify abortions performed under these exceptions or before the gestinational limits, which are largely arbitrary. It does, however, significantly limit the total number of abortions (which are intentional killings) in our country.
I laud those who travelled to Washington this week for the March for Life. I hope our legistlators will hear our voice and the voice of the majority of Americans that abortions ought to have some restrictions.
We must not lose sight on nor ignore, however, our obligation to education our fellow Americans on horror of killing innocent human. And remember that any progress is good progress.
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
This Sunday, we continue our jourmney in Ordinary Time. The readings at Mass will be Nehemiah 8:2-6, 8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30, and Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21
In the Office of Readings, we are continuing our reading of Deuteronomy and we are in Psalter Week III.
Here is a calendar for the rest of the week:
Monday, January 27 - Memorial of St. Angela Merici, virgin (optional)
Tuesday, January 28 - Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor
Friday, January 31 - Memorial of St. John Bosco, priest
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed.
Luke 4:18
In the news:
The United States
USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio (Archdiocese of US Military Services): Some provisions in Trump’s executive orders are “deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us” - Catholic News Agency
Trump pardons twenty-three pro-life activists - Catholic News Agency
Joe Biden: When The Last Hurrah met Catholic Lite - George Weigel in Denver Catholic
The Vatican
Pope to World Economic Forum: AI must promote and never violate human dignity - Vatican News
The World
Church in Mexico responds to Trump’s new immigration policies - Catholic News Agency
Is the Vatican’s China deal making progress on a road to nowhere? - Ed. Condon in the Pillar
After noteworthy career, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (Vienna, Austria) exits - The Pillar
Have a good weekend,
Matthew
