Connecting the dots: Will change hearts for life

		Notes from the  Vicar General  Msgr. Paul J. Swain

Much of the attention concerning abortion and life issues in this election year is on politicians and the law, and rightly so.

Yet if we have learned anything over these 31 years since abortion became by judicial decision a legal right, it is the need to better educate on the implications of choices made so that hearts will be changed.

One example

If people see these issues only in a political context, it is easy to avoid their fullness. Hearts can be changed if we help connect the dots.

An example. When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, he had recently left the military service. He had been in the Vietnam War where life and death were everyday gambles which resulted in certain callousness. This court decision seemed so remote from his personal experience that he concluded that it did not affect him.

In law school he studied the cases and learned the legal theories. He also quickly learned that abortion was a political hot potato. It divided people in emotional and often unpleasant ways. Theology and medicine were beyond his interest and competence. Better to stay clear of all that. Life issues did not affect him, he concluded.

Then God tapped him on the shoulder and said, come, follow me. God led him to the Roman Catholic Church where the great commandments became part of his thinking. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Like the scholar of the law, he asked, who is my neighbor? The issue became more personal. He reflected that he was a fifth child, not uncommon in the 1940s, rare in new millennium America.

Prodded by the Holy Father's haunting phrase, the culture of death, he learned better what to love God and neighbor as oneself meant. It is a call to live the Gospel of life and to work for justice for all. Human life is sacred, the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society, people are more important than things, and the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.

It finally dawned on him that abortion and every other threat to human life do affect him. Choice is the American way, and he had a choice to make. He chose to answer the call of Christ which is the call to life.

That person of course is me. Over those years my heart has changed although the law has not. We need to do more to assure that others discover the truth and not see life issues as not affecting them, or simply in political terms.

Need for education

Each of us has opportunities, by public witness and gentle persuasion, to do what we can to open people's hearts to the beauty of all life. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has identified these as some areas in need of greater education and understanding:

1. Biblical and theological foundations that attest to the sanctity and dignity of human life. Church teaching is clear and consistent. Yet the call to preserve life comes from our very being, not academic study. When we human beings tinker with the natural law, regretful results seem inevitable. It was recently reported that the one child per family policy in China, which requires forced abortions, has resulted in an unhealthy disparity between the numbers of men and woman because girls are aborted as less desirable.

2. Scientific information concerning the humanity of unborn children, especially that made available by modern genetic science. Just recently a new ultrasound scan was developed in England that shows pictures of a 12 week old unborn "walking" in the womb, yawning, rubbing its eyes, and smiling. What we scientifically know today about the unborn child is radically different from what our laws enshrine.

3. American founding principles as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, that reflect unchanging truths about the human person. As we recently recalled on the 4th of July, our founding fathers risked all they had because they concluded that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

4. Society's responsibility to safeguard every human life, to defend life by non-violent means wherever possible, and never purposely destroy innocent human life. Often we hear the promises of personal happiness or miraculous advances if life is taken. Immoral means even for a good end is never justifiable.

5. Morally acceptable solutions to the very real and difficult problems that can exist for a woman during and after pregnancy, as well as help for those who suffer from the consequences of abortion. We have learned from the anguish of others that life issues are not simply legal ones. Alternatives to abortion are available and need to be better known.

Church sponsored post abortion healing and reconciliation programs like Project Rachel and Rachel's Vineyard have revealed the depth of psychological and spiritual hurt. Political slogans cannot heal.

One of the most powerful actions we can take to change hearts is through prayer.

Pope John Paul II has said: A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world . . . Let us discover anew the humility and the courage to pray and fast so that the power from on high will break down the walls of lies and deceit which conceal from the sight of so many the evil practices and laws which are hostile to life.

From my own experience I can attest that once all the information is known, all the dots connected, there is only one choice. It is for life.