A Man with a Spine

Excerpt from a strongly worded sermon to be delivered on Thursday afternoon (31 May) at St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh by Cardinal Keith O'Brien:

We see the affirmation of the immense value of life from its very conception. The redeemer in the womb unites himself with all of humanity. By becoming incarnate in the womb of Mary, God raises to a new level the greatness of every human life.

The joy of that meeting holds out to us the message of delight that should accompany every pregnancy. With every life conceived God acts directly to create a new and unique human being, a person destined to life everlasting. Sadly, joy is not always the dominant emotion evoked by news of pregnancy in the world we live in today.

Today as we remember the Visitation we mark the “Day for Life” in Scotland, with a mixture of emotions, celebrating the gift of life but remembering also the tragic loss of life. Abortion is the theme for this year’s “Day for Life” which significantly is the 40th anniversary of the passing of the abortion act. In those 40 years the loss of life has been staggering. Around 7 million lives have been ended as a consequence of that one piece of legislation.

We were told that backstreet abortions were killing women and had to be decriminalised. We were told abortion would only be used in extreme cases. We were told medical scrutiny would be rigorous. We were told a – lies and misinformation masquerading as compassion and truth.

The scale of the killing is beyond our grasp. In Scotland we kill the equivalent of a classroom full of school children every day. For many women abortion has become an alternative form of birth control. The lives of the babies involved are not at risk any more than the lives of their mothers are threatened by pregnancy. Abortions to save the life of a woman are almost unheard of. As a society we wilfully ignore these realities.

We need to build, once again, a society, which joyfully accepts new life. The abortion industry has impacted massively on the values of our society as its proponents continue to spread their culture of death. There is acceptance of a philosophy, which permits the destruction of children in the haven of their mother’s womb.

We must remain witnesses to the truth and be unambiguous in defending life in all that we do. I have campaigned on behalf of the developing world, urging the G8 nations to act in defence of life. I have campaigned against the indiscriminate killing power of nuclear weapons and in defence of innocent life; I speak out today in defence of life at its most vulnerable and defenceless.

It is not easy to turn societies against the natural urge to protect young life. Yet care and concern for children is still very much alive. We are gripped with concern when news coverage of a child snatched or harmed appears on our television screens. We have ached over the disappearance of young Madeleine McCann in Portugal; together with her parents we know the inestimable worth of one precious life. Yes life is precious and precious also are those lives that are snuffed out in darkness hidden from the world.

Let us build up within our society a generation of medical professionals who are unwilling to cooperate in the slaughter. I call on our universities and medical schools to teach that all human life deserves protection. I call on our hospitals to end testing procedures designed only for targeting and killing the weak and infirm. I call on all politicians to answer one simple question: will you protect the right to life of all persons in our society from conception until natural death? And I call on you to hold these elected representatives to account.

For those unwilling to give this support we must be unwilling to give our vote. History will judge us on where we stood in this crucial issue. But there is a judgement more important than history. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.

I urge politicians to have no truck with the evil trade of abortion. For those at Westminster this means finding means of overthrowing the legislation, which makes the killing possible. For those at Holyrood that means refusing to allow our health services to participate in the wanton killing of the innocent. Peace cannot be built in the shadow of the abortion rooms.

In making this call, I speak most especially to those who claim to be Catholic. I ask them to examine their consciences and discern if they are playing any part in sustaining this social evil. I remind them to avoid cooperating in the unspeakable crime of abortion and the barrier such cooperation erects to receiving Holy Communion. As St. Paul warns us “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.”

I would be failing as a pastor not to highlight the gravity of this situation not just to law makers but to anyone: mother; father; boyfriend; counsellor who in any way leads a mother to abortion.

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I first saw the horror of abortion as a freshman in college. I lived in a dorm and was close friends with several girls there, and the next year four of us would move into our "first apartment." But the freshman year in the dorm, one of my friends became pregnant by a boy who was also in our circle of friends. Even though my friend was an Italian Catholic, she never once thought of having the baby, because of the certain anger of her parents and because it would mess up her very ambitious college plans. As far as I knew she only confided in me, though years later, I came to suspect that was not true. But anyway, as there was no changing her mind, I owned one of the few cars available on campus (that was a rarity in those days, to own a car as a freshman, but my stepdad was a mechanic and got a great car for only $400 for me) I had to drive her to the "clinic." Her boyfriend had nothing to do with it, and I was her only friend in this situation. I figured, if I brought her in a car, and she didn't have to go alone on the bus, we had up to the LAST MINUTE for her to change her mind. I would have been thrilled to have been her friend as she had her baby. (I had already cared for my niece when I was only 14 years old, when both my brother and his wife were working one summer.) The waiting room was packed... an image that still sickens me. Abortion was NOT "rare" even then, in the mid-70's. None of the girls in the waiting room would meet my eyes.

Ironically, my friend married and had some children and a successful counseling practice, and I never got a chance to meet her living children, because she drifted away in friendship after graduation. I got to see her get an abortion, but not to see her have a family. Hmm.