St. Nicholas Owen: Mastermind and Architect behind Secret Priest Holes
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Parents, 1 Peter cautions us, “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour.”
We know that evil exists. Turn on a TV or open a webpage and you will see evidence. But while most people know this Bible verse, they don’t know that the admonition does not stop there. It continues with this advice: “Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings.”
Resist him.
Resisting the devil requires not just vigilance but action. We can’t simply sit by and watch or lament about what’s going on in the world, especially when it comes to the evil our children face. We must resist the devil and all of his legions by leading our families in faith, by teaching our children the truths of the Church, and by building that solid foundation that equips our children with the courage to go out into the world and take up that fight on their own. It’s not an easy task, and it can be extremely difficult in today’s culture, especially when we are faced with a preponderance of evil.
Case in point is a new children’s book that calls abortion a “superpower.” Yes, a children’s book—a book for kids ages five to eight. Published by Shout Your Abortion, Abortion Is Everything targets innocent children and claims that killing a baby is not only okay but is akin to superpowers such as flying, teleporting, or turning themselves invisible. If that doesn’t disturb you, the description will.
A Google Books description attempts to paint the book in a glowing light, saying,
Abortion Is Everything speaks directly to five to eight-year-olds about what abortion is, how it might feel, and why people have abortions. With accessible, inclusive language, Abortion Is Everything frames abortion as the actualization of a uniquely human superpower: our capacity to imagine the future and make choices that lead us towards the life we envision. Abortion is a tool that allows human beings to shape our destinies, and which has shaped the entire world around us. Parents, caregivers, and educators who work with children have long been searching for a tool to talk with kids about abortion, especially given the volume of political noise currently surrounding the issue.
The devil, my friends, is not simply prowling around the world. He is now in schools and in libraries—places that should protect the safety and innocence of our children. Yet instead of learning math, science, and English, our children are bombarded by a culture of death that seeks to normalize the slaughter of innocents. These are the modern-day Herods, and they want our children. Why? Because when they teach children from a very young age that they are the only ones who matter, that a preborn child is not valuable, and that a mother’s future can be “ruined” if she carries her child to term, they have successfully devoured these young souls, corrupting them for their own wicked ways.
So yes, we must be vigilant. But we must also take action to care for the souls of our children. A parent’s primary job is to lead their families to heaven. We know that kids make their own choices as adults, but laying a foundation of faith while they are still young is our responsibility. And it’s not a responsibility we should take lightly.
We must teach our children that all human beings have value, and we must live that belief in all that we do. Let us take time each day to pray as a family, to talk about God’s goodness and love, to discuss age-appropriate subjects related to faith and the news, to do good for those around us, and to incorporate educational booklets from the Culture of Life Studies Program into our days. Teaching values that respect the dignity of all people takes effort, but look around at the effort that the pro-abortion culture is taking. They’re not just bombarding our kids with books about how “abortion is everything,” they’re teaching that gender can be changed at will, they’re attacking faith, they’re condemning traditional families, and the horrors go on and on.
So resist the devil. Remain steadfast in faith. Go to God in prayer for help when you need it. And always pay attention to what your children are exposed to and reading. One day, God will ask us how we spent our home lives, what we talked with our children about, how we treated them and others, and how we encouraged their faith. Will we say we lived a steadfast life attempting to thwart the devil at every moment, or will we say that combating the culture of death was too hard?
Let us hope that it’s the former, for we know that God, not abortion, is everything.
Susan Lochner Ciancio has a BA in psychology and a BA in sociology from the University of Notre Dame and an MLS from Indiana University. She has worked as a writer and editor since 2003; nearly 17 of those years have been in the pro-life sector. Currently, she is the editor of American Life League’s Celebrate Life Magazine—the nation’s premier Catholic pro-life magazine. She is also the director and executive editor of ALL’s Culture of Life Studies Program—a pre-K-12 Catholic pro-life education organization. Susan has written hundreds of Catholic and secular articles and has edited nearly two dozen books.
