Priest Says Pro-Life Cause Doesn't Foment Violence

Fr. Frank Pavone Encourages Continued Clear and Strong Response to Abortion.

NEW YORK (Zenit) - The director of Priests for Life is cautioning against the danger of being shamed into silence after the murder of abortionist George Tiller.

Father Frank Pavone wrote this Monday on his blog.

He affirmed his unity with other pro-life leaders that condemned Sunday's murder of abortionist George Tiller, stating that "the end never justifies the means" and "violence has no place in the effort to end abortion."

The priest stated that one negative effect of this killing is that it "tars" the reputation of the pro-life movement "despite the fact that those who kill abortionists are always disconnected from pro-life organizations."

Another effect, he said, is that it makes the government "reach too far in clamping down on First Amendment activity against abortion."

However, Father Pavone asserted, "those are not the biggest dangers."

He warned against the "enemy within," as a greater danger, the "fear and self-doubt to which we can all too easily fall victim."

"It is the voice inside that makes us feel guilty for saying 'abortion is murder' or 'abortion is a holocaust' or 'the babies who are being killed need to be defended now,'" he explained.

The biggest danger, the priest affirmed, "is that some will listen to those in the pro-abortion movement who try to lay blame for violence on us and who, as one person wrote on my blog, think that saying 'Abortion is murder' should be prosecuted because it leads to violence against abortionists."

Father Pavone noted the Church teaching that "we have to look evil in the eye" and call it "by its proper name."

He continued: "This is no time to shrink back from the reality of what is going on every day in abortion.

"Children are being killed, and the reason it continues is that too many of our fellow citizens are blind to it."

The priest referred to Martin Luther King, Jr, who responded to criticisms that civil rights activists were fomenting violence by saying, "That's like saying the person who owns money is fomenting the activity of the robber."

"To expose the violence that is already occurring, to call it what it is, and to sound the alarm that it has to stop, is not to foment violence," Father Pavone affirmed.

The pro-life movement, he stated, "is a movement of nonviolence" that does not imply "passivity" or "obscurity."

He added: "It is a force. It is a clear and strong response against violence, in whatever form that violence takes."

"Let the outcry against Tiller's murder be loud and clear," the priest said, "and let the outcry against the murders he committed -- and that other abortionists commit -- be loud and clear as well."