FOCA

Cardinal Rigali wrote a touching reflection on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade and issues a call to arms of sorts in discussing the prospect of FOCA coming up in congress.

This week, however, we recall the anniversary of a very tragic event. We use our memory not to delight in the thought of the blessings that an event has brought to us over the years but to recall with sorrow and shame an infamous day in the history of our country: January 22, 1973. On that tragic day, the United States Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion in our country.

At that moment, this aspect of our civil law, which was once based upon natural and divine law, divorced itself from those firm foundations. On that day, a human court gave to itself a right which no court can ever possess: the right to make laws that transgress both the divine commandment of “Thou shalt not kill” and the law placed within the heart of every human person telling us that it is wrong to take the life of another unjustly.

There is something in our human nature that does not want to remember what is unpleasant. However, the anniversary of this tragic event cannot be forgotten. This is why for thirty-five years, hundreds of thousands of people have traveled to Washington, D.C., often in the bitter cold, to remember this tragic anniversary, not with joy, but with profound sorrow. This is why the Bishops of the United States have designated this day as one of prayer and penance to make atonement for the events commemorated on this sad anniversary. We do this because the effects of this infamous abuse of law continue to be with us like an open wound on the body politic of our nation.

Since that day in January, 1973, some 50 million children have been denied the most basic right of all: the right to life. Perhaps among those would have been someone who would have discovered a cure for cancer. Perhaps there would have been sons and daughters to console their parents in sickness or old age. Surely there would have been young men and young women who would have been wonderful wives and husbands, mothers and fathers. Surely, among those not permitted to be born there would have been those who, through kindness and generosity, would have brought great joy to the world. For all these reasons, this anniversary is by no means a happy one but one of profound sadness.

Read the rest here.