Dear Deacon John,
As I was preparing to send you my regular column, I got the news this morning that abortionist George Tiller was killed today in Wichita, KS.
Following is the statement I released this morning to the media:
"I am saddened to hear of the killing of George Tiller this morning. At this point, we do not know the motives of this act, or who is behind it, whether an angry post-abortive man or woman, or a misguided activist, or an enemy within the abortion industry, or a political enemy frustrated with the way Tiller has escaped prosecution. We should not jump to conclusions or rush to judgment.
"But whatever the motives, we at Priests for Life continue to insist on a culture in which violence is never seen as the solution to any problem. Every life has to be protected, without regard to their age or views or actions."
[End of statement to media]
It should be noted that peaceful pro-life efforts in Wichita were very close to success in getting Tiller's license revoked. He was on trial recently for breaking various aspects of Kansas law related to late-term abortions. A jury acquitted him, but there were still other violations being investigated.
If in fact it comes to light that the shooting today was done for the motives of trying to stop abortion (and again, that is by no means clear), the point should not be missed that the killings of other abortionists and their staff (David Gunn – 1993; John Britton – 1994; Shannon Lowney and Leanne Nichols – 1994; Barnett Slepian – 1998) occurred in an environment in which there was a lot of frustration over the pro-abortion initiatives of President Clinton. Now, there is similar frustration regarding the Obama Presidency and its support of abortion. This is not to blame our Presidents for someone's misguided actions. But neither should we miss what may be emerging as a pattern: when hope diminishes that the government is going to do something to protect the vulnerable, the temptation to take the law into one's own hands increases.
Priests for Life has always been committed to nonviolence. (Seewww.priestsforlife.org/nonviolence). We remain committed to train pro-life activists worldwide in the spirituality and strategy of peaceful pro-life activism.
Below I share with you the regular column I was sending out this week:
June 1, 2009
Are you angry at how so many trivialize the abortion issue, whether it comes to the actions of President Obama or of Catholic institutions that honor him?
If so, my column today may help you to put your feelings into words. Please pass it along to others, too!
And when it comes to dialogue, we at Priests for Life have been engaged in dialogue according to the Church's understanding of that term since the beginning. We sit down with practicing abortionists, in the spirit in which Jesus sat down with sinners to engage in the dialogue of salvation. But at no time is dialogue supposed to trivialize the need to bring about justice for those whose rights are trampled. And that's a key point of my column…
On other matters, we're all grateful for good friends in our lives. Two of my special friends have me on their TV and radio programs this week.
One is Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR. I first met Fr. Benedict when I was a high school student. He was one of my professors in seminary and has been an important advisor to me and Priests for Life. At the time of ordination, each priest chooses another priest to "vest" him during the ceremony, that is, to assist him to put on the Mass vestments for the first time. I had the privilege of being vested by Fr. Groeschel.
On Sunday night I was on his live show on EWTN; our conversation, about the spirituality of the pro-life movement, will be re-aired on EWTN on Saturday, June 6 at 5pm ET.
Another friend is Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family. I was out to see him in Colorado Springs last week, and we taped two radio shows together about the progress of the pro-life movement. The shows will air today and tomorrow. You can get more information at www.focusonthefamily.com/about_us/broadcasts.aspx.
By the way, I was just informed that my new book, Pro-life Reflections for Every Day, will be released by Catholic Book Publishing Company on or around September 15. This book is a devotional. For each day of the year, it has a brief pro-life reflection and prayer. It will help you to nurture your pro-life commitment in a spiritual context. You may pre-order the book from us now, or make a note in your calendar for September!
Sometimes "Respect" Can Blind Us
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life
At least for the moment, Giovanni Maria Vian is editor of the Vatican's newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano." He caused a stir recently with his comments about President Obama, and by doing so, unwittingly revealed what's at the heart of the abortion controversy. Vian stated, in an interview with the newspaper Il Riformista, "Obama has not upset the world …His speech at Notre Dame has been respectful toward every position. He tried to engage the debate stepping out from every ideological position and outside every 'confrontational mentality.' To this extent his speech is to be appreciated."
Wow. "Respectful toward every position." To put it plainly, that's nonsense. The position that is precisely excluded is the position of the unborn child…the position that demands absolute respect and protection for that child, not because we have come to some consensus about it, but because the child deserves it now, without compromise or delay.
It is the position that says it is not equivalent to every other position, and thatwe cannot 'agree to disagree' about abortion. Why not? Because when someone is carrying out violence against someone else, you don't sit back and 'agree to disagree' with the perpetrator. You intervene to stop the perpetrator and to protect the victim.
But the fact that this is the forgotten position should be no surprise, because ultimately that is the problem. The child in the womb is the forgotten member of our society.
And the tragedy of the forgetfulness that excludes these children is never more clear than when the society and its leaders who forget at the same time claim to be seeking justice for everyone, advocating for everyone, respectingeveryone, and remembering everyone.
One cannot relegate the soul, the energy of the pro-life movement just to a "position" on which one can have a civil "disagreement." The position of pro-life advocates is in a different category, because abortion itself is in a different category. We don't settle for civil disagreements about racism, segregation, genocide, terrorism or other human rights violations. It's only the human rights of that forgotten brother and sister in the womb that seem not to matter enough.
The position that sees abortion as a deal-breaker, a show-stopper, is precisely the position toward which the President is not respectful. It's the position that allowed people to vote for him, though they said they opposed abortion. Yes, abortion is evil, they admitted. It's just not a deal-breaker. It's the position that prevented so many from seeing a problem with honoring President Obama with a law degree at Notre Dame. Sure, we disagree with him on abortion. But it's not a show-stopper. We wouldn't give the degree or the platform to a racist, but this is different. It's the position that allows people to ignore the question of whether a Supreme Court nominee is for or against abortion. So what? It's not like we're putting an advocate of violence on the Court, right?
It's time for the blindness to end. If abortion is murder, let's act like it.
