Can We Talk About Abortion: Specifically its Jurisdictional Aspect?

Shortly after the 2016 election, in a piece I called, An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton and Her Supporters, I wrote this:

"For me, everything changed when I joined the Catholic Church. Everything...and nothing… Suffice to say that the Democratic ideology I had formerly embraced was not only impossible but had become abhorrent. Upon conversion to Catholicism, I had once, and for all dealt with the abortion I'd had years earlier. I had finally stopped lying to myself about what abortion is: Murder. And learned to speak publicly about the dreadful consequences of killing our children and then using euphemisms to obscure and deny our sin."

Consequently, in August of 2020, when Fr. Greg Altman posted his notorious video called, You Cannot Be Catholic & A Democrat, I wholeheartedly agreed. Frankly, I thought it obvious.

But fifty-two percent of Catholics voted self-professed Catholic Biden in as President. In doing so, unleashing one of the most radically pro-abortion agendas in the world.  

How could the majority of American Catholics vote in a party platform contrary to God's Law and a jurisdictional plan that contradicts the Church's teaching?

·       Vocabulary of euphemisms

One of the many tragedies of this entire polarizing argument is the bland superficiality of the rhetoric:

"my body, my choice,"

"abortion is an integral component of women's health care,"

and my favorite: "Personally, I don't believe in abortion, but I will not judge the choice of another."

It isn't new.

The brilliance of renaming a thing to mitigate its meaning is a well-known tactic of manipulation. Thus, adultery becomes an affair, fornication becomes living together, and suicide becomes euthanasia.

When considered in this light, the importance of words and their meaning invokes Him- the one Word uttered by God the Father.

·       The sexual revolution

In The Catholic Thing, The Tragedy of An Opportunity Missed, George Carlin writes that things could have been very different.

"Had the Catholic Church taken a very strong and very conspicuous stand against the Sexual Revolution, had it placed itself at the head of a sexual counter-revolution, it would, to be sure, have lost many of its lukewarm members, but who can doubt that it would have won great numbers of new members from among the tens of millions of Americans who dissent from the Sexual Revolution?  Besides, the Church is losing these lukewarm members anyway.  And the new converts would have been red-hot, the opposite of lukewarm.  One fervent Catholic probably makes up for ten tepid Catholics."

·       Rights talk

Now that abortion is considered a right, we have elevated—ennobled it. The meaning of the word ennoblement bears some thought. It means to elevate in degree, exalt, dignify—Homosexuality is good, abortion is a necessary part of the life of a successful woman.
 

Cecile Richards, former President of Planned Parenthood, publicly spoke of her abortion. In an article called, Ending the Silence that fuels abortion Stigma.

"It was a decision my husband and I made. It was a personal decision. And we have three children that we adore and that are the center of my life. And we decided that was as big as our family needed to be. That was really the story. It wasn't anything more dramatic than that. But I can't imagine a woman being in that circumstance — with an unintended pregnancy–and not being able to make her own decision about that pregnancy."

For those who don't believe in God, her comments are eminently reasonable. But obviously, they work for those who claim Catholicism as their faith too, since one out of two Catholics voted in a platform that denies sin.

·       The weight of the culture

Our current culture is one in which most American citizens—believers and non-alike— believe that fornication is not just acceptable but should be encouraged. Sexual intercourse between men and women and between all varieties of the growing list of artificial genders is natural and healthy. Thus is protected by the government and prosecuted by those who write against 'diversity.'

Chastity or abstinence is a forgotten virtue even in Christian and Catholic homes. We close our eyes and smile when the kids decide they like the man or woman they’re dating well enough to live with him or her. But not to marry.

Father Greg Altman’s warnings to his Catholic parish about the incompatibility of our Catholic faith and the Democrat Party was dealt with by his Bishop a few months ago.

The Bishop wrote that Callahan's statement recognized that many Catholics are looking to him for clarity.

"The amount of calls and emails we are receiving at the Diocesan offices show how divisive he is. I am being pressured by both sides for a comment; one side holds him up as a hero or a prophet, the other side condemns him and vilifies him and demands I silence him,

Several months later, Bishop Callahan asked for Fr. Altman’s resignation.

Quite clearly, then, we cannot speak about the jurisdictional aspect of abortion.

I know of no other way to end than by quoting St. Paul’s words from the daily mass of October 12th:

Brothers and sisters:
I am not ashamed of the Gospel.
It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:
for Jew first, and then Greek.
For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith;
as it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.”

The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven
against every impiety and wickedness
of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
For what can be known about God is evident to them,
because God made it evident to them.
Ever since the creation of the world,
his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity
have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.
As a result, they have no excuse;
for although they knew God
they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks.
Instead, they became vain in their reasoning,
and their senseless minds were darkened.
While claiming to be wise, they became fools
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for the likeness of an image of mortal man
or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.

Therefore, God handed them over to impurity
through the lusts of their hearts
for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie
and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator,
who is blessed forever.