Birthright will continue to help women in need
To the letter writer wondering (Catholic Virginian, May 16) what the pro-life advocates will do when (or if, as of this writing) Roe v. Wade will be overturned, I’m sure many on the left side of this issue wonder the same. Perhaps I can be of help.
For me, I will continue to volunteer at Birthright as I have for years. I share most of the concerns you have, and I am doing my best, along with a host of others, to lift up local women in need. Birthright predated Roe, and it will exist after Roe so long as women in troubled pregnancies are in need.
Concerning the future of activism, it may interest you that Birthright’s charter prohibits involvement in that activity lest we lose our ability to provide unbiased counsel. Personally, I do not enjoy casting attention onto my ministry, lest I sound boastful. But upon prayerful reflection, I saw an opportunity.
If anyone is so concerned about the issue of women in troubled pregnancies, I invite you to seek out ways in which you can help them and their babies. Women have a right to give birth, and babies have a right to be born.
And to Dr. Morgan, since you have shown both interest and effort, perhaps you would like to start a local chapter of Birthright in your area. – Name withheld by request, Chesapeake
God calls us to mercy
While meditating on recent tragedies, God has led me to understand more deeply that he is not here to take away our earthly suffering; rather, he gives us a model of love for getting through it.
As much as we would like God to miraculously intervene to stop evil, he rarely does so. Instead, he turns our eyes to Jesus who, through his own example, shows us how to hold love in our hearts even in the midst of pain and death.
I feel anger, sadness and frustration — mere shadows of what the families directly affected must be feeling — at our society that holds others’ lives in such low regard. Why do we not understand that our “right” to our bodies ceases to be all-inclusive when we have a life growing inside of us, and that our “right” to own assault weapons must cede to the right of innocent children and adults to live?
Yet, even in the face of injustice, God calls us to mercy. As I do what I can to make the world right, and weep heartbroken alongside Mary when evil seems to triumph, I try to turn my anger into love.
To anyone struggling to find hope, I would recommend “Our Lady of Kibeho” and other books by Immaculée Ilibagiza, who lost most of her family in the Rwandan genocide, yet, through God’s grace, managed to genuinely forgive the perpetrators. – Dr. Teresa Hancock-Parmer, Salem
For whom do we mourn?
Are each of the 1,500 babies who are on average brutally murdered each day in abortions of less worth than each of the 19 children who were brutally murdered on May 24? If so, regulating guns takes precedence over abortion.
This mindset implicitly assumes that there is a subjective valuation of life than an objective one. Since all of our lives are valuable in the eyes of God, our lives have objective, not subjective, value. Consequently, the criteria for objectively weighing different methods of murder of the innocent is reducible to comparison of numbers. Since everyone can agree that two murders are worse than one murder, 1,500 daily murders are worse than 19.
Which is objectively worse — being condemned to hell for all eternity by dying in a state of mortal sin (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1033) or dying in a state of sanctifying grace and going to heaven for all eternity? We ought to mourn the permanent loss of sinners dying in mortal sin more than a temporary separation from our loved ones no matter how subjectively painful. The pain gives us great indication on how much those 19 children are loved.
Ought we to love the 1,500 aborted babies and unrepentant sinners just as much? What does it say about us when we mourn more over those 19 children that we see than the 1,500 that we don’t see or the unrepentant sinner? – Timothy Olmsted, Farmville
Support life at all stages
Dr. Frank Morgan’s letter (Catholic Virginian, May 16) sums up my thoughts excellently. All life is sacred and worthy of support, not just the unborn. His call for life-affirming mission at all stages for all people is straight on. – Jerry McCarthy, Richmond
Disagrees with Cardinal Cupich
I have to respectfully totally disagree with their belief that guns are the problem, not the shooters (Catholic Virginian, May 30). A gun was what stopped the shooter from killing more children.
After 9/11, we did not do away with airplanes. The cockpits were secured. Security in the airports was increased. Therefore, the schools need to be secured and security increased. A would-be shooter who is determined will obtain a gun any way possible.
Cain killed Abel with a rock. God did not take away the rocks. – Beverly Trent, Rustburg
Americans need to transfigure society
The USA inherited from England a mostly Protestant and anti-Catholic worldview and political system; our society has since degenerated into what I once heard Francis Cardinal George call a “post-Christian” society. We Americans may be living as Unitarians, or pagans, or Fascists who deify their country, but we are not a Catholic society.
When our bishops offer what they consider to be principled Catholic advice on national and state policies, they should remember the conditioning within the audience’s soul and mind. Why should they be taken seriously by people immersed in a post-Christian culture that despises the faith and the bishops?
Our bishops are commissioned the chief evangelists of their dioceses and eparchies. “Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins.” Clothe yourselves in a life of God’s supernatural grace. This message at the core of the bishop’s authority is what our American people need to transfigure American society. – Anthony Rago, Newport News
Prayer is not enough
Terrible news in Texas from the latest school shooting. Heartbreaking.
I’m mad, sad and everything in between.
I will say it again: prayer is not enough. Sorry, it’s just not.
The country needs to have a serious discussion on gun violence, obsession of guns, effects of social media and basic morals just to name a few, none of which are occurring. – Eddie Baird, Ashland