Forum FocusA Publication of the Wanderer Forum Foundation Is The Seamless Garment Pro-Life? TABLE OF CONTENTS Is the Seamless Garment Pro-Life? by Prof. Charles E. Rice Is the Seamless Garment Pro-Life? BY PROF. CHARLES E. RICE
Does your parish Respect Life Committee or diocesan Respect Life Office focus on affordable housing rather than on the murder of unborn children by abortion? Is "global warming" considered as important a life issue as abortion or euthanasia or has it surpassed them in importance in your parish or diocese? If you have noticed the emphasis on educating Catholics about the intrinsic right to life of all human beings has been diluted, sidetracked, or even aborted altogether in your area in recent years, then you have encountered the "seamless garment" approach to life issues. The theory is the pro-life cause is a seamless garment which should not be torn asunder. All issues regarding the sustenance of human life - housing, health care, global warming - are of equal importance and abortion is first on the list only because it begins with "a" rather than because without the right to life none of the other issues could exist. In truth, abortion and euthanasia are unique issues because they involve the legal killing of the innocent. But that fact is getting lost in the shuffle when the right to life becomes part of the whole scramble of politically correct issues of the day. When a liberal politician has the "right" (read: politically correct) positions on health care, environmentalism, housing, homosexual rights, and quality of life, he or she is certified as "pro-life" by compliant clergy, despite a little thing like his or her support for the legalized execution of the unborn. The pro-life cause is a seamless garment, after all. Yes and no. There really is a "seamless garment" of pro-life issues. But it is not the cover that some Catholic bishops and academics have provided for well over two decades which has derailed effective pro-life work in parishes and has enabled pro-abortion politicians of both parties to claim pro-life support. The first inkling of the sell-out of the right-to-life movement by some highly placed people in the American Church came as early as 1974. In an editorial, "The Bishops Have No Strategy For Life," Al Matt wrote in The Wanderer (December 5, 1974):
This politically correct nonoffensive approach to the right to life was solidified by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin in his Gannon Lecture at Fordham University on December 6, 1983:
In Catholic schools and parishes as well as in political campaigns, Catholics have been told that the "seamless garment" approach to life as described above is the Catholic approach. Catholics who insisted that abortion is a decisive and defining issue were dismissed as "single issue" zealots. Cardinal Bernardin's argument was used to induce pro-life voters to avoid an abortion "litmus test" and to support pro-abortion Catholic politicians because of their politically correct positions on "quality of life" issues. The argument has also provided cover for academics at Catholic universities. In the 2000 election, George W. Bush was not unambiguously pro-life. But Al Gore was wholly in support of the culture of death. Yet I would confidently bet the car and maybe even two football tickets that faculty members at mainstream Catholic universities, including clerics, voted for Al Gore by a decisive margin. Why, less than one month before the election, even Catholic News Service (and likely most diocesan newspapers as well) published a long interview - sans contrasting editorial commentary - with pro-abortion Al Gore in which he said he hoped a "common ground" on abortion could be found, even concerning partial-birth abortion! Over the years, supporters of the Bernardin position vigorously insisted that pro-life politicians should adopt politically correct positions on "quality of life" issues. But there was no comparable insistence that liberal politicians should adopt an uncompromising stand against abortion. The "seamless garment," to mix the metaphor, was a one-way street. As William McGurn aptly noted, "What pro-choice Catholic pols understand is that the bishops will not go to the mat….In the end, the conflicting signals leave the Church with only one real power: the power to dilute the message and undermine those politicians who are pro-life. And the pro-choice forces ceaselessly manipulate this to their advantage" ("Going Their Way: Bishops, Where is Thy Sting?" Wall St. Journal, Dec. 4, 1998, p. W17). This is quite a change from the episcopal outrage expressed after Roe v. Wade in 1973! Reverence And Love So what is the real "seamless garment?" Read what John Paul II has to say in Evangelium Vitae:
Among "the projects and initiatives" John Paul urged: "centres for natural methods of regulating fertility,…[m]arriage and family counseling agencies…homes or centres [for] unmarried mothers and couples in difficulty…communities for treating drug addiction, residential communities for minors or the mentally ill, care and relief centres for AIDS patients, associations for solidarity especially toward the disabled [and 'humane assistance' for] the elderly…and the terminally ill" (Ibid, n. 88). The culture of life extends to economic matters. Here, as in the "life" issues, "the foundation on which all human rights rest is the dignity of the person" (Ecclesia in America, n. 57). That dignity is founded on his creation in the image and likeness of God. Relation to others is intrinsic to man as it is to the Persons of the Trinity. Therefore society and the state should foster solidarity among persons rather than the sterile individualism of the Enlightenment. "The awareness of communion with Christ and with our brothers and sisters…leads to the service of our neighbors in all their needs, material and spiritual, since the face of Christ shines forth in every human being….[A] culture of solidarity needs to be promoted, capable of inspiring…initiatives in support of the poor and the outcast, especially refugees forced to leave their villages and lands in order to flee violence" (EA, n. 52). That solidarity is shown "in the first place by the distribution of goods and remuneration for work. It also presupposes the effort for a more just social order" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1940). "The object is solidarity among the poor and workers, between rich and poor, between employers and employees and among nations and peoples" (see CCC, n. 1941). There is nothing new here. The healing hand of Christ has reached across centuries through the religious and laity who have practiced the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Every age has had its need and the Church which Christ founded has risen to the challenge of seeing His face in others from Europe's plague-ridden streets in 1343 to the back alleys of Calcutta in 1980. Bearing witness to life in Him has been a matter of fact since the Christians stood before the lions in the Colosseum to the beleaguered churches of Poland standing fast under Communism in the 1960s (see "Pope John Paul II: His Vision and Hope for the Faithful in the United States" WFF Forum Focus, Spring 1999, p. 10-12). Even regarding the death penalty, the Church weighs in on the side of life. While the Church continues to teach that the state, which derives its authority from God, has authority to impose the death penalty, the 1997 final version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church incorporates the teaching of Evangelium Vitae and makes it clear that the death penalty can be justified only if it is the only possible way to defend lives against that particular unjust aggressor (CCC, n. 2267). The allowance of the death penalty only "if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor," confirms that a Catholic can no longer argue for the death penalty from a general need to protect society, obtain retribution or promote the common good (CCC, n. 2267).This practical elimination of any use of the death penalty arises from the importance of conversion of the criminal. "Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity." God put a mark on Cain to protect him because "God, who preferred the correction rather than the death of a sinner, did not desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of homicide" (Evangelium Vitae, n. 9). The ultimate correction, of course, is repentance. Up to the final moment, God offers opportunities to repent, to change, to see life as He sees it, so that this one lost sheep can still achieve his eternal destiny in Him. Eternal Destiny For that's what it is all about - reaching our eternal destiny. As a person with an eternal destiny, man cannot find his fulfillment in serving the state or in any politically correct ideal or in any temporal order. To paraphrase Augustine, our hearts are restless until they rest in Christ. This restlessness, this striving of the inner soul for God denies the claim of any state to total jurisdiction over us and our actions. We belong to Another and our salvation, our final destiny, depends on how well we employ our efforts in seeking that destiny. John Paul has stressed the importance of the family and "other intermediate communities." He has emphasized the Church's "preferential option for the poor, which…is not limited to material poverty, since it is well-known that there are many other forms of poverty, especially in modern society - not only economic, but cultural and spiritual poverty as well" (Centesimus Annus, n. 57). The cultural and spiritual poverty is the grim spectre before us. When life is so basely regarded that babies can be partly born and then ruthlessly executed, when newborn children with disabling conditions starved to death, when places like Netherlands allow assisted suicide for young teens whose lives are just beginning to find meaning, there is poverty for worse than any hovel in India or on a Caribbean island. Poverty of spirit is more a danger to mankind than global warming will ever be. "I came that you might have life" Christ said. He didn't say affordable housing, a well-paying job, free health care, and school vouchers. While those things are nice, without life they have no meaning. They have been invented to support life, not be seen as equal to it. None of these peripheral and politically correct issues can stand alone without a focus on human life. Health care for whom? Affordable housing for whom? Environmental protection for whom? Mother Earth was created by God to support human life. It is life which informs all of these, not the other way around. While there was no seam in the garment, there had to be a beginning, an initial thread, an idea to which all parts would adhere and support. The seamless garment for us should be the same. The issue which all others must uphold and be subordinate to is the right to life of every person. The Challenge To Us On every relevant issue, John Paul challenges the pagan culture of death and the claim of the state to total power over life and death. In Evangelium Vitae, John Paul said, "[T]he Direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral" (Evangelium Vitae, n. 57). "[A] civil law authorizing abortion or euthanasia ceases by that very fact to be a true, morally binding civil law….In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to 'take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it'" (EV, n. 72-73, quoting from Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion [1974], n. 22). John Paul has stated that, "[W]hen it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality" (EV, n. 73). While a legislator could vote for such a law, John Paul did not say that he should do so (see Charles E. Rice, The Winning Side, St. Brendan's Institute [219-633-0710], 2000, p. 255-8). John Paul's words leave no room for compromise, yet compromise is the hallmark of the seamless garment approach as it is used today in the United States. It creates the impression that whoever supports the majority of "life issues" on the current (political or otherwise) agenda, even if abortion is not excluded, is worthy of support, be it a vote, a lawn sign, a contribution, a kind word from the pulpit. Let me reiterate: abortion and euthanasia are unique issues. The right to life is not part of a whole gamut of issues. It is the foundation upon all is built. And we all know without a solid foundation, a structure will collapse. The utter failure of the compromising, establishment pro-life movement leads to the conclusion that abortion should be an absolutely disqualifying issue. A legislator should not vote for any law that would affirm or accept the legitimacy of any legalized abortion. Nor should a voter ever vote or support a candidate for any office, whether President or trustee of a mosquito abatement district, who personally favors the legalization of abortion in any case. The true seamless garment is founded on the dignity of the person. It affirms the right of every human being to be treated as a person from the moment of conception and the absolute invalidity of any law that would allow the intentional killing of the innocent. It is the measure by which all our actions and those of others should be judged. Dr. Charles E. Rice, professor of constitutional law at the University of Notre dame Law School for over 30 years, is an editor of the American Journal of Jurisprudence and chairman of theboard of the a Wanderer Forum Foundation. He is also a member of the governing boards of Ave Maria School of Law, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Eternal Word, and a director of the Thomas More Center for Law and Justice in Ann Arbor. He has authored several books, including The Vanishing Right to Live; the Supreme Court and Public Prayer; and recently, The Winning Side: Questions on Living the Culture of Life. From The Eyes Of A Young Priest By Fr. RAMON DECAEN
These words of Fr. Lacordaire capture the priesthood of Jesus Christ in very clear and vibrant images. This is the priesthood. This is the priesthood for me as well. This is my calling. Not long ago an acquaintance called me on the telephone and immediately asked me how I was doing. I immediately responded with, "I'm sore. My response, I think, caught her off guard. Strange words coming from a priest after such a standard question. However, my soreness did not come from working out in the gym or playing sports, but rather from the "exercise" of scooping snow off of the porch so that the mailman would deliver the mail! While scooping snow off the porch of the rectory does not exactly capture the typical images of the Sacred Priesthood of Jesus Christ, the story does illustrate a very real and practical part of the priesthood: sacrifice. The priesthood is a sacrifice, but not a grudging sacrifice as sometimes the word "sacrifice" connotes. It is a sacrifice of joy! Of pain, but of joy, freely chosen. At His crucifixion, Jesus did not say, "Well, if I have to, I'll die on the cross for you. But you owe Me!" No. It was a sacrifice He freely chose. He was not forced. This is the priesthood. He made His sacrifice because He loved us and because the Father's will was His will: to save the world. The priest's main role, too, is the salvation of His people. This is why The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n.1120) says that the "ministerial priesthood is at the service of the baptismal priesthood." Of course, the priesthood has its source, fulfillment, and meaning from the highest sacrifice of the High Priest who is both priest and victim: the Sacrifice of Calvary. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the climax of the priesthood. The 1971 Synod of Bishops pointed out that, "the priestly ministry reaches its summit in the celebration of the Eucharist." The Eucharist is the source and summit of the priesthood. Not long ago, a friend of mine wrote an article in Homiletic and Pastoral Review entitled "A New Breed of Seminarians" (October 2000). This article touched on the reality that many seminarians in the United States who are labeled "rigid," "narrow-minded," and "legalistic" are oftentimes the same ones who manifest Christ in their actions and have the sense of what it means to live the priesthood, as manifested in the Sacrifice of Calvary. As a newly ordained priest from this prestigious (or to some, infamous) group, I pray that the doors of hearts may be opened to Christ rather than to the smoke-screened rhetoric of some. Let us pray for holy and dedicated priests. Fr. Ramón Decaen was ordained on May 27th, 2000 for the Diocese of Lincoln. He received his bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College in 1996; Masters in Moral Theology and Divinity in 2000 from Mt. St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. He is currently assigned to St. Mary's Catholic Church in Nebraska City, Nebr., where he is associate pastor. To Our New Priests By FR. CHARLES FIORE I agree with T. S. Eliot's estimate that April is "the cruelest month". He had his reasons; I have mine, as I'll explain. During May and June in the United States, hundreds of young men, ebullient and hopeful, courageous but with trepidation, robed in white albs and cinctures like the "army of martyrs" to be stained with the Blood of the Lamb, their chests crossed with the deacon's stole, chasubles neatly folded over their right arms, prostrate themselves on sanctuary floors during the Mass of Ordination, while bishops, priests, families, and friends kneel to chant the plaintive Litany of the Saints, imploring the Blessed Trinity, the Mother of God, all the virgins, doctors, martyrs, angels and saints of Heaven, named and unnamed, to pray for them, sanctify them, consecrate them, intercede for them, protect them, lead them to salvation! For the ordinands it is a surreal time that brushes eternity; their lives are forever changed, as in thundering silence, the bishop presses his hands on their bowed heads - a moment, once the focus of years of hope, arduous preparation and study, now arrived. For those who understand, these men are a sign to the world of things unseen - -of God's Providence for his Church by His pervasive and transforming grace - a reminder that none belongs to this place or time, but all are inevitably linked to the time to come; and that this ceremony and these men are God's special instrumentality in the linkage that is the Communion of Saints. Their souls seared with the fire of the moment, their throats too constricted to sing, they add whispered prayers to the chant, and with faces hidden mutely give their first eloquent sermons - -lay(ing) down their lives in an Offertory, consecrated forever (Aquinas calls it an immolation), forsaking family, flocks and fields to serve the least of these sinners. And this is not their doing; they know what round-about routes have brought them here, called, marked, frail and ignorant, like stuttering Jeremiahs, through no merit of their own, because the Master wishes them to walk with Him. The mind doesn't comprehend it. But the heart reaches out and says, "Lord Jesus, I fear your touch, and because of your goodness, I can only trust You; have mercy on me, unworthy and sinful. Mother Mary, never let go of me; hold me close to yourself and your Son always. You are my life, my sweet hope, my consolation!" Some of these men have read the words of the French Dominican, Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, who preached at Notre-Dame de Paris, about Christ crucified:
Dear Fathers and brothers, there is a phrase, a warning, in the traditional rite for the ordination of priests, that the bishop speaks when he gives the ordinands the instruments of sacrifice, the chalice and paten: "Try always to imitate what you handle," which is to say, "Be holy like Christ." It is another way of saying that daily Mass is the source and touchstone of all you do, for the sacrifice of Calvary is the wellspring of grace. The works and apostolates that you will be given, the human busy-ness that occupies your days, none of that defines you or has value of itself. You are not a functionary, however brilliant or talented, but "a man set apart," turned inside--out, whose essential identity from your ordination is that of "another Christ - alter Christus" - a human channel of grace doing what Jesus does. "Do you believe this?" unbelievers say (and there will be days when we ourselves come close to doubting. Lord, help our unbelief!). The character of the priesthood that now scars your soul for all eternity, sets you apart, and it alone validates and vivifies the tasks you perform. You are a priest, not a "presider." The priesthood is who you are, not what you do - in aeternum - forever! If you should betray this calling, it will haunt you always; but if you go daily to the center of the mystery, you will not stray far or for long. That is why you must resolve now always to say Mass reverently and with concentration. Understand that its words are no mere ritual, but a dialog of sacrificial love: words of repentance and forgiveness, of generosity and acceptance, of union and passion, the appointed time and place where God touches and renews our flagging humanity, so that purified and chastened, we are able to show Him to others despite our faults. The Mass must never be a performance that you do. Jesus is its single focus in His primordial act of salvation repeated each day; it is His Body that is broken; His Blood that is shed. You are His emissary and emulator, His hands and voice. Never obstruct His work by carelessness, thoughtlessness, unpreparedness or egotism. His efficacy increases as we elevate and exalt Him. We abase ourselves so that He can lift us up with Him. He is the Sacrificer and the Victim, and we ineluctably follow Him at the juncture of human and divine - the Cross, the altar. "This is My Body...This is My Blood," He says, and saying it with Him we give ourselves, and if we don't resist, are more and more conformed to Him, and by our own brokenness over time are emptied of our egos, showing the faithful His (and our) love affair and martyrdom. That is why "April is the cruelest month." It is the time of the perennial Passover Sacrifice, the spring planting of the new Easter seed "that falls on the ground and dies" so that it can "rise again in newness of life." The Christian loses his life to recover it, cleansed by Christ's Blood. Those who do not believe, call these mysteries of the Mass "folly" and a "stumbling block," and refuse to see His Real Presence among us in the Bread of Life and the Cup of Eternal Salvation. And they walk among the dead. Jesus confides to us in the Mass the wonderful, essential "secret" of the mysteries of His life, death and resurrection: Give yourself and what you have away, and I will give you more and better - filled up, stamped down and running over! Look for Me in the empty lives and clenched fists, and give them my truth to eat, and my forgiveness to drink! Tell them about Bethlehem Babes and room for Holy Innocents, about lepers' bells and stiff-necked rulers, about the wasteful, loveless lusts and selfish commitments. Either this Man of Nazareth is right, or He is Insane. And we with Him! No wonder impetuous, fearless Paul gloated, "Death, where is thy victory?; Death, where is thy sting!" He knew the eternal Easter - out of cruelty comes love; out of death, life! Remembrance A few days before I was ordained, after a practice "dry run" of the Mass rubrics, my director said, "When people ask you to 'remember them or their intentions' at Mass, how will you do that?" It seemed an innocuous question. I thought, "Well, I'll write them down, I suppose." "But if you don't; if you forget...?" Clearly, I was in trouble, but he saved me embarrassment then and a bad conscience in the future. "Whenever you are asked - and even when you are not - then and there you add their requests to your habitual intention at Mass!" It was a stroke of genius, I immediately realized with my three years of pre-ordination theology. Even if one is offering the Mass for a particular intention, the priest also includes his own intentions at every Mass. And since the merits of the Mass are infinite, there is no limit to the intentions one can bring to the Offertory. Every Mass-goer should do this when praying the Mass. An habitual intention is just that: one kept and referenced, even if not adverted to daily. So, from my ordination day, I have added to my habitual Mass intention and to whatever merits accrue to my other prayers and sacrifices, all who have asked for my prayers (even if I cannot possibly remember them all or have forgotten them), and even those who have not asked, but whom I believe are in special need (It does wonders for my blood pressure to "leave them to Heaven" instead of my Sicilian temper!). After the death of my friend, Fr. Malachi Martin, July 27, 1999, I was given an old, begrimed looseleaf notebook that he kept for many years. It is a treasure that I now keep by my altar, and whose intentions I include in my own habitual intentions at Mass (I pray that when I die, some kind priest will do the same with my intentions and Malachi's, and those of my other comrade priest, the murdered Fr. Alfred Kunz, bundling all our intentions with his own at the altar. Perhaps all priests should resolve to carry on each other's intentions, as Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus, whenever one of our fraternity dies). All of that fits nicely with the Morning Offering, "in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world!" What Malachi wrote in his distinctive hand on a single sheet of paper at the beginning of his book of habitual intentions, eloquently illustrates his love and awe for the Mass, and his profound priestly heart:
Then there follow on page after page, dated, typed and hand-written, the names of those for whom he prayed: for his family of generations he had traced, for me and my parents and family and for others whom he knew and loved. And for many who did not know him, or whom he did not know - famous and obscure alike - whose lives and deaths he remembered at the altar;
Fragile Vessels of Election Fathers and brothers, it is true: "We carry this treasure of the priesthood in earthen vessels." Better than anyone else, we know our unworthiness and fragility, and how, "but by the grace of God," we would be useless, crumble and be lost. Does that responsibility terrify you as it does me? Do you anticipate Good Friday after Palm Sunday; the profanity of suffering after the plaudits and hosannas of your ordination? Do you believe that the priesthood you share is something you won because of your brilliance or talents or puny virtue? Do you understand that this priesthood is a bloody, violent life, this life and death of the Lamb? And that you and I are caught up in a frightful warfare, unto the shedding of our own blood if necessary, as even happens today? Think. If the day of reckoning comes, will you look for an escape or loophole? How many priests and bishops made peace with Henry VIII and Cranmer, and lost their souls? How many among us rationalize our vows and solemn promises when tempted? Is His grace "sufficient for you"? Can you love Him more than yourself? Can you love? How much will you endure for the gift of the priesthood in the fallow days to come? Will your sermons on "fidelity" mock you; the echo of your voice taunt you? Will you tailor your conscience to the ebb and flow of the theological tides? "What" and how much "will (you) give back to the Lord for all He has given (you)?" Can you empty your spirit for the Kingdom and Him Who sits on the throne? Tomorrow when you vest for Mass, think again of what you do, and resolve again to "imitate what you handle." Draw your habitual intention, your saints and holy ones, around you. We are all suppliants at the foot of the Cross. There simply is no other way. Fr. Fiore was ordained on June 3, 1961. He writes from Lodi, Wisconsin. He has been active in pro-life work for many years. |