ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

The Challenge of Building a Culture of Life

 

Dear Friends,

I am grateful for this opportunity to be with you during this meeting of Couples for ChristCFoundation for Family and Life.  Your celebration of marriage and family life is so needed in our world today, and even in our Church.  We live in challenging times when marriage and family life are under attack by many forces.  And so we must not only celebrate marriage and family life, but we are also called to heroically defend marriage and family life.

As you know, I chair the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.  And so I have the unique perspective of witnessing not only new threats to family life, but also new threats to human life at its most vulnerable stages.

The effort to restore legal protection for unborn children faces new challenges, as we deal with a new Administration and Congress that support "abortion rights." Many are asking: Where do we go from here?  We first need to recall why we are here and why we Catholics became involved in these tough battles. We begin with the dignity of each human person.

From the neighbor next door to the unknown person living thousands of miles away, each and every one of us has intrinsic and immeasurable worth. That is because God created each of us in his image by the outpouring of his infinite and unconditional love. In return he asks only that we share that love with others, beginning with the family, and embracing especially those most in needCthe poor, the vulnerable, and the despised of this world.

This intrinsic God-given human dignity is the basis for all inalienable human rightsCbeginning with the most basic right, the right to life. It is most basic because it is the condition for all other rights.  First we must live, then we can talk about living well. If a government acknowledges a right, such as that of free speech, but can kill you if you say something it dislikes, you don't in effect  have any real right to free speech.

The right to life is not more important or higher than all other rights. In a sense the highest or supreme right is freedom of religion, because that is the right to do what God created us for, loving and serving Him by loving and serving others. But the right to life is the core element of other rights. All other earthly rights involve something more than life itself B but without life, they are illusory.

That "something more" is vitally important. The defense of life reaches its fullness when it expands to defend the entire range of human well-being. This is all one vision, and ultimately one issueCthe dignity of the human person. In the words of St. Irenaeus, Gloria Dei vivens homoCthe glory of God is man fully alive.

To keep that vision constantly before our eyes, to remember why we are here and to gain the strength to move forward, we need to begin all our efforts with prayer. Our efforts must be centered on God and His infinite love for usCfor the born and the unborn, for those who oppose us as well as those who agree with us. Only in this way can we maintain our perspective in a world of political pressures and partisan loyalties.

In defending the right to life, our first duty is to oppose the direct taking of innocent human lifeCany human life, at any stage. As Pope John Paul II confirmed in his encyclical The Gospel of Life: "...the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral" (no. 57). Abortion and euthanasia are preeminent concerns of the Church for reasons that are intrinsic to these issues, as well as reasons that are situational.

Intrinsically, abortion and euthanasia always constitute the direct taking of a human life that is innocent and defenseless. And they are willed and carried out by those most called to defend human lifeCmembers of the healing professions, and of one's own family. To undermine these two havens of life is to make a culture of life impossible.

Situationally, abortion and euthanasia are the areas where those committed to a conditional and selective vision of human rights have planted their flag in our time. They want to draw lines between so-called "important" and "unimportant" members of society, between "persons" and "non-persons." In a different time or place the forcing issue might be slavery, racism or anti-SemitismCtoday abortion and related issues force us to decide whether we mean what we say in speaking of inalienable human rights, linked simply to being human.

In particular, the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision has made abortion the battleground over our tradition of inherent human rights, and has polarized our society as nothing else has. Later efforts to use law as a weapon against other innocent human livesCagainst newborn children with disabilities, for example, or against the sick and elderly through a "right" to assisted suicideChave cited Roe as their inspiration and precedent.

Thus in promoting a culture of life, we must give priority to defending innocent unborn boys and girls from direct attack. We must also make it clear how this effort stands for the dignity and well-being of everyone, before and after birth.

Opportunities are available to do exactly this through our advocacy in Washington, D.C. to defend the unborn, and to show how this effort upholds all who are vulnerable. 

In defending conscience rights in health care, for example, we stand with the unborn child, and also with the women and men of our healing professions whose freedom of conscience is at risk, and with women who will lose access to basic life-affirming health care if those who truly care about them and their children are forced out of medicine.

In sending tens of millions of postcards to Congress against the radical "Freedom of Choice Act," we have helped stop extreme legislation that would treat ready access to abortion as the ultimate public goalCa goal overriding respect for unborn children or for the well-being of pregnant women.  I thank each of you who participated in that massive postcard campaign earlier this year.

By insisting that the federal government promote only morally sound stem cell research, we defend the life of embryonic children and also the health of patients endangered by the many risks of attempted embryonic stem cell treatments, and the health of women, whom some want to exploit as "egg factories" for attempts at cloning human embryos for stem cells. 

Our positive efforts to extend life-giving help to those most in need include support for  the "Unborn Child Rule" in the State Children's Health Insurance Program, allowing states to provide prenatal care for unborn children and their mothers regardless of the woman's immigrant status. More broadly, the "Pregnant Women Support Act" will provide a wide range of assistance so women can bring their children to live birth and receive a helping hand as they parent the child or make an adoption plan.          

Of course, helping those in need is not only the task of government. The dedicated efforts of Catholics at pro-life pregnancy centers, maternity homes, hospitals, retirement homes, and parish-based support networks for pregnant women and children, as well as prayer and assistance efforts outside of abortion facilities, are needed now more than ever. These important efforts will help change the culture, one person at a time.

Our task is to help change hearts and minds, including our own. Nothing brings about this conversion more effectively than prayer and sacrifice. All our good works in the areas of public policy, education and pastoral care must be undergirded by prayers and sacrifices offered up to the Lord of Life.  By His saving power, and through the prayerful intercession of our Blessed Mother, we can indeed  build a lasting culture of life.

The defense of human life at its most vulnerable stages is an essential duty of those inspired by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our prayers and efforts in this cause should open us up to defending the rights and meeting the needs of human beings all along life's spectrum. Having said "no" to attacks on innocent human life, we need to affirm a great "yes" to the full range of human living and well-being. 

Dear friends: the work of changing hearts and minds begins within the sanctuary of the family.  We can change the culture if our families are loving environments where human life is loved, cherished and protected, and where openness to children is celebrated.  From generous families open to life we learn the transforming power of sacrifice for the good of another. We learn the importance of setting aside our own desires for the benefit of the community around us. 

This generosity and self-sacrifice, dear couples, is also central to the mission of Couples for Christ and all those associated in your apostolate.  Thus you share in this unique calling to build a culture of life that reflects a true civilization of love.  I encourage you to live that calling dramatically, prophetically and prayerfully.  Thank you for your witness to the sacredness of all human life, as well as to the immense dignity of the family that reflects the communion of the Most Blessed Trinity in life and love.

May our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you, dear friends, in your great mission and fill you with His joy and peace.  And may our Blessed Mother Mary, the Mother of Life, sustain you by her love.