Human life has infinite and divine value because it is formed in the image and likeness of God, our Creator. The call to respect life is no challenge when people are healthy, caring and productive. The challenge comes when life is not healthy (e.g., a deformed unborn or born child) or not productive (the homeless) or caring (the troublesome child, teenager, spouse, or criminal).
The way our Church and society looks at human life is radically different. Following the example of Christ, our Church places infinite value and dignity on human life, whereas society more and more sees some human lives as very dispensable. For example, our Supreme Court gives us permission to kill our holy innocents (the unborn), to kill the criminal, to hasten the death of the sick. On the other hand, our Church, following the Great Commandment of Jesus, calls us to love all people, the weak and the strong, the old and the young, the saint and the sinner. None are to be excluded from our loving embrace, no matter how helpless, unloving, weak or poor or unproductive they may be.
A Sensitive Issue
Jesus’ call to us to love and respect human life at all its stages can be a very sensitive issue in certain situations.
Preaching and writing about protecting the life of the unborn is a sensitive issue for all women who have had an abortion and may still be struggling to come to terms with having made a decision to kill their child. This is a sensitive issue for women who may have had a crisis pregnancy or who may sincerely believe in a woman’s right to choose abortion.
Preaching and writing about domestic violence (which also shows a grave disrespect for human life) is also a sensitive issue because many people sitting in pews on a Sunday morning may have experienced domestic violence or, worse yet, may have perpetrated such violence and are now trying to come to terms with the harm they did to the lives that they abused.
Preaching and writing about the death penalty is a sensitive issue for families who may have had a loved one killed or raped by a violent member of our society. This is also an emotional issue for the 65-67% of Catholics who still believe we should execute people guilty of capital offenses. Preaching and writing about euthanasia may be a sensitive issue for people who have witnessed a loved one die a very painful death. Preaching and writing about our call and responsibility to care for the poor is also a touchy issue, especially when we are being asked to pay more taxes so that the poorer members of our human family can be helped.
Also A Challenging Issue
Despite the sensitivity of each of the above issues we, as disciples of Christ and members of his Church, are called to be totally pro-life. We are called to gently but firmly oppose a culture that is losing its nerve and will, when it comes to life issues. Since 1973, about 39 million abortions have occurred in America—one abortion every 24 seconds. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 abortion rulings, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, it has been legal to abort unborn babies anytime during the nine months of pregnancy for any reason. A few years ago our Supreme Court expanded the right to kill children almost completely born (Stenberg v. Carhart). Most likely, most of us do not like to even reflect on this issue. In partial birth abortions, a doctor starts to deliver a living child in a woman’s second or third trimester of development. He stops in mid-delivery. And with only the child’s head still inside the mother, the doctor kills the baby. Even though 70% of Americans oppose Partial Birth Abortions, our Supreme Court ruled to permit this procedure. Hopefully, this horrible procedure will soon be outlawed.
This is one area we cannot “agree to disagree.” It would be like our ancestors “agreeing to disagree” on the issue of slavery. As if one said: “personally, I’m opposed to slavery, but if others want to have slaves, that is okay with me because I do not want to impose my morality on others.” One hundred and fifty years ago, that would be seen as a reasonable viewpoint, especially in Southern states.
Today, we would be outraged if anyone tried to reason with us in that way. Yet, is that not the kind of reasoning we hear all the time when it comes to the issue of abortion. “Personally, I’m opposed, but if . . “ Our Church clearly tell us that abortion is an issue that we cannot just “agree to disagree” with because it is a direct violation of another person’s right to life. “Agreeing to disagree” on abortion is an attempt to move the issue into a morally neutral zone. As followers of Christ, we can never permit this issue to be moved into a morally neutral zone. So, the challenge here is to be unequivocally pro-life and, at the same time, full of compassion for women who bear the brunt of this issue with crisis pregnancies.
Our Bishop’s 1999 Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty
In 1999, our U.S. bishops issued the following Good Friday appeal for an end to the death penalty. Their appeal reads as follows:
Increasing reliance on the death penalty diminishes all of us and is a sign of growing disrespect for human life. We cannot overcome crime by simply executing criminals, nor can we restore the lives of the innocent by ending the lives of those convicted of their murders. The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life by taking life . . Through education, through advocacy, and through prayer and contemplation on the life of Jesus, we must commit ourselves to a persistent and principled witness against the death penalty, against a culture of death, and for the Gospel of Life.
When I consider some of the crimes that some people commit, I frankly think that a lethal injection is too small a punishment. A part of me thinks that such people should die a slow and very painful death. I also know that such thinking does not proceed from the most noble or Christ part of me, but rather from that part of me that wants to take revenge on those who hurt me or others. As the bishops state: the death penalty solves nothing and it diminishes us as a people. Capital Punishment only serves to perpetuate the circle of violence. As Gandhi once said, "violence only adds darkness to an already dark night."
Another very important part of the Capital Punishment issue is the inadequate representation that many people receive. Let’s face it, when was the last time that a defendant who could afford to pay top-notch attorneys was executed. It should concern all of us that the system not only does not offer adequate representation, but it sometimes allows the execution of innocent persons.
When we hear the term pro-life, most of us think of the abortion issue. Yet, to be pro-life in the way our Church thinks involves a whole range of issues, the unborn, the poor, domestic violence, human rights, even respect for the life of the criminal—hoping that he or she will repent of his/her ways and be saved. While we may not be active in all of the above areas (who could?), we should be philosophically pro-life, all the way. As we have seen, that is very challenging in certain situations. Thank God, we have wonderful examples in our Church family and wider society of people toughing it out during a crisis pregnancy, people very dedicated to improving the lives of the poor, people who work hard to help people die without pain, people who even reach out to criminals serving on death row. Such people are like Jesus who reached out to the criminals who died beside him on Calvary. Finally, being pro-life calls us to treat each other with dignity and respect. Those of you who live day in, day out in a family will, at times find that call very challenging. All we can do is keep trying.
Reflection questions on Life issues and on today’s Gospel