| Politics

I hope that the National Pro-life March this year will break every record in the history of American Protests. This is the year to show the whole world that the people of life are never going to give up!

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - The news is filled with reactions to the homily and letter of Fr. Jay Scott Newman, a priest of the Diocese of Charleston and pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina.This parish and this priest are highly respected among many who believe there is a movement underfoot within the Catholic Church which can be characterized as a “dynamic orthodoxy”. St. Mary’s Parish is alive in the Holy Spirit, profoundly evangelistic, refreshingly faithful to the teaching of the Magisterium (teaching office) and dedicated to fidelity to both the Rubrics and the spirit of good Liturgy. They understand the connected truths of the old Latin maxim “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi!” Popularly expressed …as we worship and we believe, so will we will live. I sincerely hope that Fr. Newman’s national prominence will lead many to discover what a truly great Parish St. Mary’s is. It is a sign of the “New Springtime” which our late Holy Father John Paul II proclaimed.

However, my purpose is NOT to weigh in on this controversy. I will make only this brief comment. Fr. Newman did not refuse to give the Blessed Sacrament to anyone. He asked his parishioners, well after the voting in the US presidential election was over, to examine their conscience and consider whether their exercise of that right conformed to the teachings of the Catholic Church on the sanctity of every human life. If not, he encouraged them to do penance and seek sacramental absolution prior to receiving the Holy Eucharist. The propriety of his letter is not for me to determine. It is also not up to the secular news media to access its propriety. I do want to use some of the words from this letter written by Fr. Newman to place in context the real challenge which faithful Catholics now face in the aftermath of this historic election.

Fr. Newman wrote: “This election ends a political process that started two years ago and which has revealed deep and bitter divisions within the United States and also within the Catholic Church in the United States. This division is sometimes called a “Culture War,” by which is meant a heated clash between two radically different and incompatible conceptions of how we should order our common life together, the public life that constitutes civil society. And the chief battleground in this culture war for the past 30 years has been abortion, which one side regards as a murderous abomination that cries out to Heaven for vengeance and the other side regards as a fundamental human right that must be protected in laws enforced by the authority of the state. Between these two visions of the use of lethal violence against the unborn there can be no negotiation or conciliation, and now our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president.”

Prayer, Persistence, Resistance

These words are an accurate assessment of the past and of the outcome of this election. However, the election is over and President - Elect Barack Obama will soon take the oath of office. I respect his office. I have begun to pray for him daily. I pray for the Lord to give him the grace that he needs to govern our Nation wisely and move us toward equal justice for all. I pray that President Elect Obama will not fulfill the Pre-election pledge he made to Planned Parenthood to sign the lethal “Freedom of Choice Act”. If he plans to do so, I will join with the people of life to raise a massive resistance.

I am concerned about indications from his transition team that he will immediately lift the few restrictions on abortion which currently exist by Executive Order! If he does I will join with all the people of life to raise a massive resistance. I pray that he undergoes a genuine conversion of heart and mind while in office, coming to recognize the truth that the child in the first home of the whole human race is a person and our first neighbor. If he sees this truth he must then see that it is always wrong to kill our neighbors. I pray that his reminders during the campaign that “we are our brothers (and sisters) keepers” sink deeply into his own soul and that he will be given eyes to see that call to solidarity.

I pray that he will recognize those whom Blessed Mother Teresa rightly called the “poorest of the poor”, our youngest neighbors who have no voice but our own. I pray that when he does, he will stop those who are now reaching into the first home to kill them by dismemberment, suction, surgical strikes and chemical weapons in what is an all out war on the womb. Can it happen? I believe in the power of prayer! One has only to study Presidencies like the other Illinois resident, Abraham Lincoln's, to see how people can change in office.

I also believe in persistence and resistance.I hope that the National Pro-life March this ...