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March 2003

Why the Catholic Church is Failing

JIM CAFFREY

A chance remark by a Catholic bishop in the summer of 2001 prompted the following reflection on ‘The Hurtfulness of Abortion.’

When an abortion takes place an unborn boy or girl is not only hurt, he or she is agonisingly killed by being cut from his or her mother's womb by the abortionist's knife and removed in pieces or by being sucked from the womb in bodily parts torn to shreds by the force of the suction machine placed inside the mother's body or chemically destroyed by the effects of substances consumed by the mother or otherwise introduced into her reproductive system.

The tiny body of the fatally injured preborn child is then reassembled on a side table so that the abortionist can check that no potentially infectious bits of the child's body remain inside the mother.

Following this some of the child's body parts may be sold and/or sent on to other places such as hospitals and medical laboratories for so called research purposes and profit making in this grisly trade, whilst other parts are simply bagged up and discarded as medical waste before being dispatched to the on site incinerator or one that is in the locality.

To say that the child has been ‘hurt’ is a ridiculous understatement of the highest order. Yet to those who are avowedly pro-abortion or those who hold ambivalent views about it the acceptance of the fact that abortion does cause hurt to the unborn child is a major step forward in the fight for justice for the unborn and a recognition of their right to life.

No one who reads a description of how an abortion is carried out or who sees a film of an abortion taking place could reasonably deny that the flailing body of the child about to be exterminated portrays anything other than a situation of the most profound betrayal and humanly inflicted hurt.

Shared Guilt

How many people contribute directly to or are associated with this scenario of hurt endured by the tiny boy or girl?

How many people are involved, either wittingly or unwittingly, with what goes on behind the abortionist's door?

The following list of those who share actually and potentially the guilt for the crime of abortion is long but not exhaustive and it should provide much food for thought for those who are willing, honest and courageous enough to reflect on the reality of abortion within society:

The child's mother.
The child's father.
The child's maternal grandparents.
The child's paternal grandparents.
Other family members of the mother.
Other family members of the father.
Friends of the mother.
Friends of the father.
Work colleagues of the mother.
Work colleagues of the father.
Fellow pupils or students of the mother.
Fellow pupils or students of the father.
External counsellors of the mother.
External counsellors of the father.
The mother's GP.
The father's GP.
The doctor at the family planning clinic.
A second doctor who signs the abortion forrn.
The other doctors associated with the GP's group.
The doctors and personnel at another abortion referral place.
The nurses of the GP's surgery.
The nurses at the family planning clinic.
The nurses based elsewhere at another abortion referral place.
The administrative personnel at the GP's practice.
The authors of the abortion referral forms.
The printers of the abortion referral forms.
The administrative personnel at another abortion referral place.
The families and friends of all the doctors, nurses, and personnel mentioned above.
The friends of all the doctors, nurses, and personnel mentioned above.
The taxi drivers who provide transport to the abortuary.
The families and friends of those taxi drivers.
The abortionist who carries out the abortion.
The family of the abortionist.
The friends of the abortionist.
The colleagues and acquaintances of the abortionist.
The nurses who work at the abortuary.
The families of the nurses who work at the abortuary.
The friends of the nurses you work at the abortuary.
The colleagues and acquaintances of the abortuary nurses.
The ancillary and personnel staff of the abortuary.
The families of the ancillary and personnel staff of the abortuary.
The friends of the ancillary and personnel staff of the abortuary.
The service suppliers of the abortuary, their families and friends.
The suppliers of surgical instruments to the abortuary.
The suppliers of suction machines to the abortuary.
The newspapers and magazine editors that advertise the abortuary.
The family and friends of editors and media staff who advertise.
The telephone companies' managements who advertise the abortuary.
The telephone staff who communicate with the abortuary.
The shareholders, directors, families and friends of the abortuary.
The waste disposal operators who collect and destroy aborted remains.
Local councillors and civic leaders who support the abortuary.
Local MPs who support the abortuary, their family and friends.
The hospital staff who acquire or buy aborted body parts.
The private hospitals who acquire or buy aborted body parts.
The drivers who transport aborted body parts from place to place.
The family and friends of all those above.
The student doctors who observe and learn abortion procedures.
The student nurses who observe and learn abortion procédures.
Ante-natal screening staff who recommend abortion.
The government which promotes abortion legislation.
The political parties which support abortion legislation.
The leaders of the medical profession who promote abortion.
The personnel of local health bodies who promote abortion.
The film, TV and video media personnel who promote abortion.
The leaders in education who promote abortion in the curriculum.
The teachers, nurses and staff in schools who promote abortion.
The personnel of pharmaceutical companies who promote abortion.
The staff of pharmacies who support the promotion of abortion.
The members of the national electorate who support abortion.
The leaders of the churches and faith community who support abortion.
Church leaders who support abortion by virtue of silence.
The members of the churches and faiths who support abortion.
The members of churches and faiths who support abortion by being silent.
The families and friends of all those mentioned above.

As stated, this horrendously long yet not exhaustive list of the actuaries and accomplices of the abortion industry's day by day, hour by hour destruction of thousands of preborn babies depicts the extent to which abortion's cancerous roots and creepers have chillingly enmeshed so many people in society today.

Literally thousands upon thousands of people in our country today are feeding from the bloody bowl of the abortion industry which provides them with employment, salaries, careers, human materials, contracts and profits which, in turn, provide for mortgages, houses, food, wealth, lifestyles, cars, all kinds of material goods and leisure and holiday pursuits.

All acquired through the blood of countless infants which continually drains into the abortionists' bowl of plenty.

All acquired through the massive hurt of abortion.

All acquired through HURT.

Episcopal Response

The agonising hurt of the aborted babies cries out for vengeance and justice yet not a vengeance based on violent retribution for this is no better than the vengeance of the abortionists' knife against the unborn child.

For many, God alone will exact his vengeance and justice for his unborn babies cruelly murdered by abortion in His own good time and in His own way.

Those who seek to follow God and His commands and His ways can only seek justice for the unborn aborted through prayer and peaceful prayer witness in reparation for the sufferings heaped upon those babies. Those who may not believe in God, equally, can only witness in a manner that is peaceful and dignified in acts of solidarity with those being aborted.

The response of the hurt of abortion can never be to hurt back in revenge.

In this context, quite recently (Summer 2001) a man was speaking with a Catholic bishop of England. The man took the opportunity to explain to the bishop that he was a member of a local pro-life prayer group that prayed regularly, each Saturday morning, outside an abortuary situated a few miles away.

The man further explained that the prayer group was entirely peaceful. Its members prayed in reparation for the sin of abortion and for the souls of the unborn babies being aborted in the building outside of which they stood.

Indeed, they prayed for the mothers of the aborted babies and offered help for those women when it was sought. And they prayed, too, for the fathers of the babies and the staff of the abortuary including the abortionists themselves.

Even when they were insulted, reviled and occasionally spat upon they continued to pray peacefully as they had done for many years in witness to the God given existence of the tiny humans awaiting extinction.

The man finished his explanation to the bishop about the prayer groups hoping, perhaps, for some small word of encouragement, even commendation, that he could relay back to the group members.

A word of recognition for their courage in standing up for the sanctity of life especially in its accordance with the teachings of the Church would, he thought, be most welcome.

The bishop's reply, however, was staggering and I invite readers to reflect on the preceding list to gauge just how staggering it was.

He said (to the man who prayed):

"You wouldnt hurt anyone would you?"

He didn't say:

"I give you my blessing on your work of witness in defence of the unborn."

He said: "You wouldn’t hurt anyone would you?" Before passing on to talk of other things.

The response of this prelate - Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham – in the light of what has been written above is a typically heartbreaking example of how the pro-abortionists in our society have claimed the mindset - seemingly the 'moral high ground' - of our nation. To the extent that a few men and women of mature age are regarded as a physical threat to others whilst the murderous machine that is the abortion industry is allowed to roll on unchecked gathering momentum and sucking in ever more victims year by year.

Sign of Disloyalty

The politically correct mentality that has gripped our society and suffocated its sense of right and wrong in a cesspool of relativism, indifference and denial has taken such a hold that even a Catholic bishop's response to those upholding a fundamental truth and teaching of the Catholic faith - the God given sanctity of life of the unborn - was one of suspicion, alarm, doubt and negativity and mistrust.

His response revealed in microcosm the reasons for the macrocosmic decline of Christianity in the UK today. In the case of the Catholic Church a lack of loyalty to the teachings of the Faith. A lack of loyalty to the teachings of the Pope. A lack of loyalty to the Gospel of Life!

Surely the revival of the Catholic faith will only come when the bishops and all concerned in leading the Church take the time to look carefully over the shoulders of the pro-life prayer groups, who stand on pavements, and into the windows of the abortuaries to see for themselves the tiny bloody bodies lying in bowls … and just who is hurting whom.