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COMMENTARY
October 8, 2013
‘Everyone’s life and
dignity need to be fully
protected and respected.’
Respect life! Every October the
Catholic Church issues this clarion call.
What exactly does it mean to respect
life? For many Catholics, respecting life
means to pray and work to protect unborn babies from murderous abortion.
With the brutal dismembering of
over one million aborted unborn brothers and sisters annually in the United
States, and the killing of approximately
55 million unborn babies worldwide
every year, our efforts to end this grave
evil should be maximized and ongoing.
Most every Wednesday, I join other
people near an abortion mill in Baltimore, to witness to the humanity of the
unborn and to pray for an end to abortion. Putting an end to the killing of
unborn babies is a priority for me, and
it is a priority for the Catholic Church.
It is not the only priority.
The concern of Christ and the
Catholic Church for the suffering of the
world is not limited to any one group of
people – born or unborn. Our deep and
active concern must be directed to all.
In the words of Blessed Pope John Paul
II, “we are all really responsible for all.”
So we are not to rank prolife, social
justice and peace issues; we are to link
them. It’s what the Catholic Church
calls the “consistent ethic of life.” In
1983, as head of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, the late
Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin, champi-
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oned for our time, the early Church’s
consistent pro-life ethic.
‘Putting an end
to the killing of unborn
babies is a priority for me.’
During an address at St. Louis University, Cardinal Bernardin said, “The
case for a consistent ethic of life – one
that stands for the protection of the
right to life and the promotion of the
rights, which enhance life from womb
to tomb … is both a complex and demanding tradition.
“It joins the humanity of the unborn infant and the humanity of the
hungry; it calls for positive legal action
to prevent the killing of the unborn or
the aged and positive societal action to
provide shelter for the homeless and
education of the illiterate.”
So therefore, not just the unborn,
the poor, the hungry, homeless, wartorn, the undocumented, medically
uninsured, condemned prisoners, the
environment and future generations,
but all of the above deserve our care.
Everyone’s life and dignity need to be
By Tony Magliano
Respect life – every life
fully protected and respected.
Catholics, and all Christians, cannot
ignore the Lord’s call to consistently
build up the Kingdom of God – the
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