Letter To National Church Leaders From A Pro-Life Christian

Dear Pastors of Christ’s Church,

Grace and peace be multiplied to you through Jesus Christ our Lord!

I speak as a Catholic Christian tormented by the ongoing destruction in Canada of innocent unborn children. Please forgive my lengthy letter and I do thank you in advance for your attention and interest.  

Imagine a situation where a desperate woman sought your help, claiming her husband was returning home in the evenings and physically assaulting her and her child on a regular basis. By shrewd and devious means this man was able to foil the justice system at every turn and the abuse continued unabated. The woman and her child suffered cruelly at the hands of the vicious father, often appealing for help, but exhaustive efforts to remedy her crisis had failed to protect her.

An important question presents itself from this scenario: At what point does God relieve the Christian of responsibility to bring justice to bear upon this woman’s plight? Would six months or a year suffice in God’s eyes? Would five or ten years of determined advocacy by the Christian satisfy God’s demands? After all, the Christian might be tempted to reason that the difficulty here is a flaw in the justice system and proper vigilance by authorities. So when does God grant permission for the ears of the Christian to close to the plea of the woman and her child? When is it acceptable to walk away, speak no more of their plight and to address the more common, everyday cases of injustice?

In this parable, the “vicious father” is legalized abortion and the mother and child are its typical victims, the child paying by the most violent means with his/her life at the rate of about 288 lives per day in Canada alone.

Has the Christian Church in fact been discharged of this responsibility by God the Father? Can Christians by analogy dispense with the woman and child, closing their ears and heart to the cry of the unborn, and proceeding with the business of the day?

Does it not seem obvious that we in Canada are behaving as though this were the case? If this claim is questioned let us ask ourselves what specific steps are being taken by Christians as a whole to ensure protection for the unborn and what unified strategy is being implemented by Christians to restore justice to the very least of God’s little ones? What reduction has been seen in the numbers of lives destroyed yearly as a result of this strategy?                                             

Scarcely a Sunday will go by, dear Pastors, that we do not hear some reference to the theme of social justice, be it homelessness, poverty, immigration inequities, clean water shortages, human trafficking and others. Yet rarely, if ever, is the subject of the killing of unborn children included in a list of injustices referred to in our homilies or prayers. It is as though this most heinous crime against God were not happening! Tragically, we might imagine much the same took place in churches in Nazi Germany while non-person Jews were being butchered and in many of the white churches of America while non-person Blacks were being lynched, all under the protection of the law.  

In our day we remember such societies, and especially the Christians therein, with shame, disdain and yes, even contempt, because it is apparent to us that their neglect, indifference and cowardice sustained such evil. Considering that in our society over 100,000 unborn children per year perish in the womb, this reality constitutes the most horrendous discrimination and violence and dwarfs all other injustices around us. Can one be blamed for thinking that our omission of the atrocity of abortion when speaking of injustice is something incredible, even bizarre? 

Dare we contemplate answering God with the argument that child killing was legal at the time and Christians in Canada after long years were thereby excused from serious thought, prayer or action in the matter? If so, what then of the same argument used by Nazi war criminals, slave traders and white supremacists? Would theirs not be an equally valid excuse?

It would seem, I believe, that God has already spoken His answer to this entire matter through the prophet Isaiah:

Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke; is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house? When you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

But again, have we not in some real sense hidden ourselves from our own flesh? The unborn in Canada surely deserve to be considered as our own flesh many times more so than those in other countries who suffer from a host of other injustices, diseases and misfortunes in which we have had no direct part. What right do we have to be practically silent regarding the most heinous injustices taking place daily within our borders and then speak out loudly with dollars and manpower on behalf of those in foreign lands?

God forbid! And God have mercy! Does this not present the most serious kind of contradiction, one where we allow our own innocent children to be killed through silence and inaction but then expend time and money to bring clean water, food and medicine overseas? Ought we not to have first purged the evil from our own shore and then we should see clearly to right the injustices faced by those in far away lands?  Better still; why not seek, with duly proportionate resolve and strategy, to do both? 

In the midst of such contradiction, surely our credibility as Christians in Canada is being questioned in the eyes of the world and by our fellow Christians abroad. Is it not possible that the Apostle Paul was addressing in the New Testament the very same principle as Isaiah in the Old when he declared, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”

Always I am challenged deeply, yet often inspired, by the words of Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae:

 (#73) Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them [emphasis mine] by conscientious objection.

It is precisely from obedience to God -- to whom alone is due that fear which is acknowledgment of His absolute sovereignty -- that the strength and the courage to resist unjust human laws are born. It is the strength and the courage of those prepared even to be imprisoned or put to the sword, in the certainty that this is what makes for "the endurance and faith of the saints" (Rev 13:10).

(#90) I repeat once more that a law which violates an innocent person's natural right to life is unjust and, as such, is not valid as a law.

Yes, challenging, because I must ask myself: If my obligation to oppose them is “grave and clear,” what actions must accompany an obedient attitude? Certainly this would demand serious steps. By no means, least of all by my simple silence, must I ever allow the impression or appearance that I accept such unjust laws as legitimate or valid. The matter of “obedience to God” to the point of imprisonment or at the risk of physical injury speaks to the seriousness of these crimes and to the seriousness of my response as a Christian.

From these words of John Paul II, it does seem clear to me that should we Christians accept abortion as a legal and valid act in Canada, as I believe we have, we stand in grave danger of the judgment of God. Unfortunately I can see no other possible reason for our silence. Granted, the current law in Canada makes abortion legal only because it does not prohibit it, but the result is the same and according to John Paul II we can NEVER stop protesting the evil of abortion and agitating until the evil is outlawed and until our law conforms finally to the law of God. As I read the spirit of Evangelium Vitae, for the Christian who desires to be obedient to God, no measure of resources or self- sacrifice can be spared in the accomplishment of this goal.

Dear Pastors, is the Christian called ever to accept the status quo on evil? Is not God ready and willing at any time to smash and defeat the power of evil? Does He not await the Christian who will rise up and say, “No more, with God’s help, no more.” Was this not David’s attitude when he accepted the challenge of Goliath?

Surely then, we have the means to accomplish this task, however formidable the task may seem. Consider, Pastors, has not the key been laid in the hands of we Christians? We have only to declare the truth to God’s people and have them apply that truth in the voting booth. Let us place Christian truth in tandem with democracy, a wondrous gift of God through nineteen centuries of Western Christianity, and achieve what we today might consider the impossible. Indeed, God is the God of the impossible, and we can take Him as our Helper.

The truth is that abortion is intrinsically evil and NEVER to be accepted or justified under any circumstances. The application of that truth in the voting booth is merely an educational objective, one which can be accomplished through the same means used to achieve any other educational objective. It IS attainable. Is it not possible for the Pastors of Christ’s Church to undertake such a project,  a component of the mobilization spoken of by John Paul II (EV #95), “a general mobilization of consciences and a united ethical effort to activate a great campaign in support of life.”

Dear Pastors, Goliath does truly stand before us but let us determine to step out in faith and undertake those tasks, however small, to achieve that which God has placed within our hearts. Furthermore, by means of this letter, please be advised that I  stand ready to assist the Pastors of Christ’s Church in any way possible in order to ensure, ultimately, legal protection in Canada for not only the unborn, but for all human life from conception through natural death.

Your servant in the Truth, and on behalf of the Unborn in Canada.

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Content based very closely upon a real letter sent to Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops several years ago. No response was ever received.