The Greatest Destroyer of Peace today is abortion

But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself.

And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.

By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems.

And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.

Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today - abortion which brings people to such blindness.

And for this I appeal in India and I appeal everywhere - "Let us bring the child back." The child is God's gift to the family. Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things - to love and to be loved. In this year of the family we must bring the child back to the center of our care and concern. This is the only way that our world can survive because our children are the only hope for the future. As older people are called to God, only their children can take their places.

But what does God say to us? He says: "Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hand." We are carved in the palm of His hand; that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God from conception and is called by God to love and to be loved, not only now in this life, but forever. God can never forget us.

I will tell you something beautiful. We are fighting abortion by adoption - by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: "Please don't destroy the child; we will take the child." So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: "Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child." And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child - but I never give a child to a couple who have done something not to have a child. Jesus said. "Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me." By adopting a child, these couples receive Jesus but, by aborting a child, a couple refuses to receive Jesus.

Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.

From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.

I know that couples have to plan their family and for that there is natural family planning.

In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self and so it destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception. Once that living love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily.

I also know that there are great problems in the world - that many spouses do not love each other enough to practice natural family planning. We cannot solve all the problems in the world, but let us never bring in the worst problem of all, and that is to destroy love. And this is what happens when we tell people to practice contraception and abortion.

The poor are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. Once one of them came to thank us for teaching her natural family planning and said: "You people who have practiced chastity, you are the best people to teach us natural family planning because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other." And what this poor person said is very true. These poor people maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home to live in, but they can still be great people when they are spiritually rich.

When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread. But a person who is shut out, who feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person who has been thrown out of society - that spiritual poverty is much harder to overcome. And abortion, which often follows from contraception, brings a people to be spiritually poor, and that is the worst poverty and the most difficult to overcome.

Those who are materially poor can be very wonderful people. One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition. I told the Sisters: "You take care of the other three; I will take care of the one who looks worse." So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face.

She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only: "thank you" - and she died.

I could not help but examine my conscience before her. And I asked: "What would I say if I were in her place?" And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself. I would have said: "I am hungry, I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain," or something. But she gave me much more - she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face. Then there was the man we picked up from the drain, half eaten by worms and, after we had brought him to the home, he only said:

"I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die as an angel, loved and cared for."

Then, after we had removed the worms from his body, all he said, with a big smile, was: "Sister, I am going home to God" -and he died. It was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that without blaming anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - this greatness of people who are spiritually rich even when they are materially poor. We are not social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of some people, but we must be contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we are touching the body of Christ and we are always in his presence.

You too must bring that presence of God into your family, for the family that prays together, stays together.

There is so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice, are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put into what we do.

If we are contemplatives in the heart of the world with all its problems, these problems can never discourage us. We must always remember what God tells us in Scripture: "Even if a mother could forget the child in her womb - something impossible, but even if she could forget - I will never forget you."

And so here I am talking with you. I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be that good news to your own people first. And find out about your next door neighbors. Do you know who they are?

I had the most extraordinary experience of love of neighbor with a Hindu family. A gentleman came to our house and said: "Mother Teresa, there is a family who have not eaten for so long. Do something." So I took some rice and went there immediately. And I saw the children - their eyes shining with hunger. I don't know if you have ever seen hunger. But I have seen it very often. And the mother of the family took the rice I gave her and went out. When she came back, I asked her: "Where did you go? What did you do?" And she gave me a very simple answer: "They are hungry also." What struck me was that she knew - and who are they? A Muslim family - and she knew. I didn't bring any more rice that evening because I wanted them, Hindus and Muslims, to enjoy the joy of sharing.

But there were those children, radiating joy, sharing the joy and peace with their mother because she had the love to give until it hurts. And you see this is where love begins - at home in the family.

So, as the example of this family shows, God will never forget us and there is something you and I can always do. We can keep the joy of loving Jesus in our hearts, and share that joy with all we come in contact with.

Let us make that one point - that no child will be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, or killed and thrown away. And give until it hurts - with a smile.

Because I talk so much of giving with a smile, once a professor from the United States asked me: "Are you married?" And I said: "Yes, and I find it sometimes very difficult to smile at my spouse, Jesus, because He can be very demanding - sometimes." This is really something true.

And there is where love comes in - when it is demanding, and yet we can give it with joy.

One of the most demanding things for me is traveling everywhere - and with publicity. I have said to Jesus that if I don't go to heaven for anything else, I will be going to heaven for all the traveling with all the publicity, because it has purified me and sacrificed me and made me really ready to go to heaven.

If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world.

From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak - the unborn child - must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!

I just took this part of the speech. The whole speech can be found at the web site indicated in the header.

But over 50 million unborn babies have been slaughtered in this country since 1973. Many are killed in the 6th, 7th, 8th, or even 9th month of the pregnancy.

Many girls and women have suffered horribly through abortion. There is a saying about abortion -- one dead and one wounded. The mother is often wounded in spirit if her conscious is not dead. Sometimes she is physically wounded -- scares to the womb, puntures to the womb.

One truly sad comment that the most dangerous place in America is the womb of a woman/girl. Over a million babies die there each year -- inside the place that God meant as protection for the unborn.

So if many of you are turning to God and asking "why?" this week, maybe you have better ask yourself -- "why have I sat by while millions of babies are being slaughtered". "Am I as bad as the German people for not resisting with all my effort Adolf Hitler and his SS -- the modern version -- abortion.".

During the moment of silence, these are things to think about.

Atlanta where I live supposedly has 14 abortion clinics and is much smaller than New York, but Planned Parenthood and International Planned Parenthood has offices in New York City.

I was living in Louisiana, and going on Saturday's to an abortion clinic in Baton Rouge. I had to travel 70 miles to support the unborn -- Catholic South Louisiana (Lafayette and Cajun country) does not allow any abortion clinics in that area.

The abortion clinic I used to go to recently burned down because of an electrical fire.

Some of my friends there thought God wanted me in Atlanta because abortion is so bad here, and there were plenty of people who went out every Saturday in Baton Rouge to pray for an end to abortion.

Here in Atlanta, CNN tried to arrest me for being in front of a TBS building across from an abortion clinic. I have also seen where the police are against people praying in front of abortion clinics. The Atlanta Police comes out in force when people gather to "peacefully pray" in front of abortion clinics -- even if it is the other side of the street.

There is not much of freedom of religion or freedom of expression. We have the "horrible" Atlanta Journal- Constitution newspaper here.

I have gone out to the clinic to try to keep one of the few side walk counselors here from getting arrested because the "death escorts" will assault her, and charge her for the smallest offense. in Atlanta

Your point is that we need to be united and have as much support as possible.

My point is that we need God to help us. With God, we can do anything.

Just look to the "Battle of Midway Island" and the "D-Day" invasion. God smiled on us on both of those days. In the "Battle of Midway Island", our torpedo planes took the Japanese fighters down to sea level. They were wiped out. But the Dive Bombers came in just after, and did not have to worry about any fighters. They appropriately dispatched a total of 5 Japanese carriers to the bottom (if my memory serves me right). We eventually lost one carrier, but we should not have lost one.

If you mistake the fingerprints at Midway, those are God's.

For the Normandy Landing, God gave the perfect weather to "cover the landing" -- an extremely severe weather front that clears just a couple of hours before the airborne troops needed to be in the air. The Germans were totally deceived by the weather -- they did not expect the Allies to invade in the midst of such a "harsh" channel storm.

God is to be thanked in both cases. Many things can go wrong with military operations, and many in the military are strong believers in God. When you face death, one often gets closer to God.

You consider this derisive. I consider it appropriate because abortion is a much deeper wound in this country than the loss this week. Yes, what happened this week is painful, but there are millions of girls/women who experience "post abortion syndrome" -- some commit suicide as a result of this.

There have been cases of women/girls who have had abortions who have nightmares of hearing a baby's voice crying at night. They also have other torments from abortion.

You had better not alienate God anymore, we need Him on our side.

I live in Boston, which is probably worse than Atlanta.

But there is good news! There is a pregnancy resource organization in Boston that is winning the battle against infanticide.

http://www.awomansconcern.org/services.html

AWC is the first pregnancy resource center with nurses and a medical doctor on staff and which offers free ultrasound examinations.

80+% of women who see their unborn children on the ultrasound screen choose life! That's a 400% greater success rate than counseling alone. AWC is saving hundreds of babies annually.

AWC is beginning what will be one of the greatest movements of this century. By the grace of God, AWC is attracting donors and is opening centers at a phenomenal rate. I am confident that this movement to create centers which offer free ultrasounds to abortion-minded women will cut the abortion rate in America by 50% in the next 20 years. Rejoice!

Some of my friends there thought God wanted me in Atlanta because abortion is so bad here . . .

This is the abortion capital of the South, and the practice is protected by our Democratic legislature on grounds it keeps down the African-American population. (The head of NOW here was quoted in the newspaper to that effect.) Clearly, the clinics have the blessing of local political leaders: city and county police "guards" go way beyond the call of duty to keep critics at bay. And the death-dealers cloak themselves in the mantle of patriotism too. The place where I pray, on 14th Street, is flying a big new American flag today--and doing a booming business on this national day of prayer.

Thank you so much for posting Mother Teresa's Speech.

Imagine -- Mother Teresa warned us in 1994 that we must respect all human life but especially our children's -- our future.

May we take heed now -- during these days of self examination and may these horrific acts of violence that took so many innoncent lives of fathers and mothers just going to work for their families be remembered as the day that America said: WE MUST STOP THE KILLING now.

We as a nation have been comsumers and exporters of abortion to all our poor brothers and sisters throughout our nation while we fund the United Nations Population Control programs.Many Muslim nations have alligned themselves with The Vatican to fight this evil.

Pope John Paul II has warned us: "A nation that kills its children is a nation without hope."

Hilaire Belloc wrote the following in 1938:

It has always seemed to me possible, and even probable, that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between the Christian culture and what has been for more than a thousand years its greatest opponent.

Why this conviction should have arisen in the minds of certain observers and travellers, such as myself, I will now consider. It is indeed a vital question, "May not Islam arise again?"

In a sense the question is already answered because Islam has never departed. It still commands the fixed loyalty and unquestioning adhesion of all the millions between the Atlantic and the Indus and further afield throughout scattered communities of further Asia.

But I ask the question in the sense "Will not perhaps the temporal power of Islam return and with it the menace of an armed Mohammedan world which will shake off the domination of Europeans - still nominally Christian - and reappear again as the prime enemy of our civilization?" The future always comes as a surprise but political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment of what that surprise may be. And for my part I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam. Since religion is at the root of all political movements and changes and since we have here a very great religion physically paralysed but morally intensely alive, we are in the presence of an unstable equilibrium which cannot remain permanently unstable. Let us then examine the position.

... I say the suggestion that Islam may re-arise sounds fantastic - but this is only because men are always powerfully affected by the immediate past: - one might say that they are blinded by it.

Cultures spring from religions; ultimately the vital force which maintains any culture is its philosophy, its attitude toward the universe; the decay of a religion involves the decay of the culture corresponding to it - we see that most clearly in the breakdown of Christendom today. The bad work begun at the Reformation is bearing its final fruit in the dissolution of our ancestral doctrines - the very structure of our society is dissolving.

In the place of the old Christian enthusiasms of Europe there came, for a time, the enthusiasm for nationality, the religion of patriotism. But self-worship is not enough, and the forces which are making for the destruction of our culture, notably the Communist propaganda from Moscow, have a likelier future before them than our old-fashioned patriotism.

In Islam there has been no such dissolution of ancestral doctrine - or, at any rate, nothing corresponding to the universal break-up of religion in Europe. The whole spiritual strength of Islam is still present in the masses of Syria and Anatolia, of the East Asian mountains, of Arabia, Egypt and North Africa.

The final fruit of this tenacity, the second period of Islamic power, may be delayed: - but I doubt whether it can be permanently postponed.

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