If Catholics Acted Like Catholics...abortion would have ended years ago! [Catholic Caucus]

Les Femmes ^ | 8/15/15 | Mary Ann Kreizer

[markomalley]

Unfortunately Judases undermined the pro-life cause from the very beginning, especially those in the church bureaucracy like Fr. James McHugh (later bishop), head of the Family Life Division of the Catholic Conference (now the USCCB). When, in 1970, the Society for the Christian Commonwealth, headed by Professor Charles Rice, tried to launch a national initiative to defend life, it was McHugh who did everything he could to dilute and stymie their efforts. He did not want the Church to get into politics; neither did he want opposition to abortion preached from the pulpit. McHugh was, at the time, a good friend of Mary Calderone of SIECUS (Sex Informatin and Education Council of the United States). When Rice's group began to organize a national conference, McHugh, who said he would not interfere in their plans, did just the opposite. He sent a letter to all the bishops slandering the group. At the same time he sent a hypocritical response to the Congress' invitation pretending that he was considering attending and supporting it, but requesting further information. His malice was clearly revealed by this action. Here's some of what McHugh wrote:

A small group of people are planning a National Right to Life Congress in Washington D.C.. . as a new call to action for interested citizens. [Keep in mind, that among this "small group" were some well-known Catholic lay leaders including L. Brent Bozell, Professors Germain Grisez and Charles Rice, Dr. Herbert Ratner, and others. Actress Loretta Young had agreed to be the honorary chairman of the event.]

This is to advise that this Congress is neither sponsored by nor supported by the USCC or any of its offices....

Since at least some of the supporters of the National Right to Life Congress have already urged violence and a tougher stand, we must withhold support. ....We recommend that the bishops do not fund or support other meetings [besides those organized by McHugh's office]. N.B. McHugh also sent the letter to many pro-life groups around the country.

Charles Rice protested this lying letter recording his "profound shock." He wrote, "That the officer chiefly responsible for directing the Catholic Church's role in this area should attempt to discredit and discourage Catholic participation in an ecumenical effort to save lives is simply beyond my comprehension." Professor Rice called for McHugh to make an "appropriate revision" of his slanderous comments to "undo the enormous damage which you, in the name of the Church's Family Life Division, ma yhave done to the now desperate struggle to uphold the sanctity of human life."

Rice sent a letter to all the bishops addressing McHugh's actions and representatives of the Society later met with McHugh and the bishops' general secretary, Bishop (later Cardinal) Joseph Bernardin, to discuss the situation. The Congress ultimately went forward without the support of McHugh who continued to undermine pro-life efforts throughout his career. Michael Lawrence, editor of Triumph Magazine, later published the entire sorry affair as a documentary.

Just think how different things might have been without the "soft approach" to abortion recommended by McHugh and Bernardin, without the "seamless garment" providing a cloak of cover for pro-abortion extremists like Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi.

In the mid 70s a friend and I went around northern Virginia meeting with protestant ministers and with the priests' council of Washington, D.C. and Bishop Welsh of Arlington. Our purpose was to make the case for the shepherds to lead the charge defending the least ones by "sitting in" at local abortion mills. If enough people of good will would actively show that they believed the rhetoric that the babies had the same rights and dignity as the rest of us, abortion could not be sustained. It would be an act of reparation for the failure of believers to oppose the Nazi holocaust.

After meeting with dozens of ministers and priests we had ONE commitment -- from Pastor Renee Scott of Truro Episcopal Church. If other pastors would go he would join as well. None would. Bishop Welsh agreed to participate in a protest at the Northern Virginia Women's Medical Center where some of us had been arrested for going in and blocking the doors to the death chambers, but that was the total success of our attempt to save the babies. The rescues continued, mostly without clergy support, and even those were crushed when Leviathan passed the FACE Act (Freedom to Clinic Entrances Act) in 1994.

Why am I writing about this today? Because I received a pro-life newsletter with a story about a Catholic Hospital, Franciscan Healthcare, in La Crosse, WI that allows abortionists to consult with women in high-risk pregnancies. Since that fact came to light in 2014, pro-lifers picket the hospital on an almost daily basis. As has always been true in the pro-life movement, it is grass roots activists leading the charge with little support from their shepherds. And, in fact, some shepherds like Archbishop Blase Cupich acted exactly like McHugh when he instructed his priests in Spokane to boycott the 40 Days for Life initiative. No wonder Jesus wept when he looked over the city of Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish faith.

I wonder what the Lord will say to our religious leaders on Judgment Day who spent almost every waking hour of their ministries ignoring the little wounded Jews on the road to Jericho.

[aquila48]

Well, maybe they are. Isn’t that what confession and a few “Ave Marias” are for?

I wonder how many priests have heard in their confessionals...”Forgive me father, I have aborted.”

[Arthur McGowan]

A few years ago I wrote to Archbishop Charles Chaput, pointing out that most bishops have treated pro-lifers like scum, refusing to meet with them, condemning their efforts, etc. He wrote back, telling me not to write to him again.

No one condemned the Rescue Movement more often, and more emphatically, than the local Catholic bishops. Only Cardinal O’Connor, and Bishops René Gracida, James Sullivan, Paul Dudley, and a couple of others, voiced support.

Cardinal James Hickey never uttered a syllable in support of the Rescue Movement. Archbishop John May condemned rescues repeatedly, before news cameras.

Archbishop James Malone, President of the NCCB/USCC, was asked whether he approved of resistance to apartheid in South Africa and the Rescue Movement in the U.S. He answered: “The situations are not comparable. The Church’s teaching does provide for civil disobedience when there is an intolerable situation.” (Translation: Abortion is tolerable.)

Archbishop Cupich is the latest in a 45-year-long tradition of bishops who have condemned and undermined the pro-life movement, and minimized the evil of abortion.

The Catholic bishops, as a whole, have been foes of the pro-life movement.

[markomalley]

I do not think there are many among Bishops that will be saved, but many more that perish: and the reason is, that it is an affair that requires a great mind.

St John Chrysostom, Homily 3 On Acts

[Falconspeed]

Mary Ann is correct. McHugh is culpable of blocking the work of the guards and protectors of innocent life. I prayed on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood in So Cal this weekend and I met brave men and women who have strong faith, clear ethics and a gentle smile. The leadership in the US Bishops and the religious orders have failed to support the guards of life. Culpability is moral debt and no one wants to die with that.

Pope John Paul II really was JP II the Great. He saw the weeds and the wheat in the church, smiled, and promoted the Gospel of Life. It was JP II’s trip to Greece in May 2001 that revealed the clear lines between goodness and evil. I’ll never forget that trip. I’m sure McHugh would have felt at home with the lazy leaders in Greece.

[ebb tide]

I (Francis) also consider the situation of a woman with a failed marriage in her past and who also had an abortion. Then this woman remarries, and she is now happy and has five children. That abortion in her past weighs heavily on her conscience and she sincerely regrets it. She would like to move forward in her Christian life. What is the confessor to do?

“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that.

But now that he's Pope, he's continuing to speak about it.

[piusv]

But now that he's Pope, he's continuing to speak about it.

As shown by his lip service to abortion in one small paragraph in his 182 page encyclical on the environment.

The rot is from the head down, and not just the US bishops.