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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

March 1996

Dr. Joe Hylton in the February 18, 1990, Journal of American Medical Association states, "'Who can say that the fetus is not alive and is not a separate genetic entity? Its humanity [emphasis added]...also cannot be questioned scientifically. It is certainly of no other species. That it is dependent on another makes it qualitatively no different from countless other humans outside the womb.' Dr. Hylton continued: 'It strikes me that to argue that one may take an innocent life to preserve the quality of life of another is cold and carries utilitarianism to an obscene extreme. Nowhere else in our society is this permitted or even thinkable -- although abortion sets a frightening prospect.'"


JANET E. SMITH, reviewing Turning Point: The Inside Story of the Papal Birth Control Commission by Robert McClory in the February 1996 Homiletic & Pastoral Review, points to the Church in the Philippines: "A recent trip to the Philippines exposed me to a Church that has mobilized to fight the corruption of their traditional society by contraception. The U.S. media did not publicize widely that one million people took to the streets in Manila to protest Cairo. This show of force was the result of a concerted effort by the hierarchy and laity to educate the people about the Church's teaching on sexuality.

"In 1990 the bishops of the Philippines issued a pastoral letter condemning population control programs. A remarkable section of this letter includes an abject apology of the churchmen to their flock for their failure to promote the Church's teaching on contraception and to promote methods of natural family planning. This section states: 'It is said that when seeking ways of regulating births, only 5% of you consult God. In the face of this unfortunate fact, we your pastors have been remiss: how few are there among you whom we have reached. There have been some couples eager to share their expertise and values on birth regulation with others. They did not receive adequate support from their priests. We did not give them due attention, believing then this ministry consisted merely of imparting a technique best left to married couples.'

"'Only recently have we discovered how deep your yearning is for God to be present in your married lives. But we did not know then how to help you discover God's presence and activity in your mission of Christian parenting. Afflicted with doubts about alternatives to contraceptive technology, we abandoned you to your confused and lonely consciences with a lame excuse: 'follow what your conscience tells you.' How little we realized that it was our consciences that needed to be formed first. A greater concern would have led us to discover that religious hunger in you.'"


MARCHERS FOR LIFE. Thomas A. Droleskey, covering this year's March for Life in The Wanderer, Feb. 1, 1996, highlights some of the featured speakers: "Marchers gathered on the Ellipse heard from numerous members of the House, including [Cong.] Dornan, and one senator, Mike DeWine of Ohio. Among those addressing the rally were Congressmen Michael Forbes (New York), James Bunning (Kentucky), Todd Tiahrt (Kansas), Steve Chabot (Ohio), Tom Latham (Iowa), Roscoe Bartlett (Maryland), Steve Stockman (Texas), Linda Smith (Washington), and Christopher Smith (New Jersey).

"Linda Smith, who won a Republican primary in 1994 after a two week write-in effort, told how her husband came to the pro-life position long before she did. It was his calm reason, she said, that convinced her that she was wrong. 'If it [the child in the womb] is not a person, then what is it?' And it is calm reason, she told marchers, which will convince this country to stop abortion, and to get rid of President Bill Clinton, who has promised to veto the partial-birth abortion bill."

"Next, Cong. Stockman, who is developing a reputation as 'Bob Dornan without the restraint,' delivered a fiery address, saying that 'Bill Clinton is an abortionist -- and we need to get him out of the White House.' Noting that three of our Lord's Apostles fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, Stockman asked the crowd if the pro-life movement would be 'going to go to sleep' in the election ten months from now. The crowd responded with a decisive 'no!' Mocking Jane Fonda, Stockman closed by having the marchers repeat after him: 'We are here! We are pro-life! We're in your face! And we're not going away! We mean it!'"

"Hundreds of priests were present, some with their parishes. The entire student body of Christendom College marched, led by their president, Dr. Timothy O'Donnell. A substantial number of students from the Franciscan University of Steubenville were present, with Magdalen College making its presence felt."


LINGUAE LATINAE USUS SERVETUR. To a round of applause Cardinal O'Connor informed his flock at Mass on Jan. 28 that he will soon say a Novus Ordo Mass in Latin at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Catholic New York, Feb. 1, 1996, relates, "'This is not to go back to before the Second Vatican Council or anything of that sort,'[the cardinal] said, 'but just as a reminder of our tradition.'

"Commenting on the relative neglect of traditional liturgical music since the council, the cardinal said, 'I personally did not see any tremendous virtue in substituting the magnificent musical tradition in the Church by way of blue jeans and banjoes, but some people seem to like it, even if now it is fading.'

"'Perhaps we'll recover some of our treasures,' he added."


ROTTEN RHETORIC. The Human Life Review (Winter '96) features an article by one-time pro-choice advocate Marjorie Reiley Maguire. Maguire had a good Catholic education while young, but slowly became involved in the women's movement at grad school in the '60s. Her pro-choice friends showed their true colors when her husband (ex-priest pro-abort Daniel Maguire) divorced her in 1990: "I expected our pro-choice friends to rally to my aid. I thought they would confront my husband with the dissonance between his divorce action and his pro-woman rhetoric. Instead, I got a cold shoulder from most of my pro-choice, feminist friends. I was even asked why I was making a fuss that could hurt 'the cause.' When I answered that my 'cause' was women, not abortion per se, I was told that I was mixing up my personal life with public concerns.

"When the actions of my feminist friends revealed to me the consequences of the pro-choice rhetoric, my eyes were opened to aspects of the pro-choice movement that I had not previously considered. I began to see the abortion movement not so much as a pro-woman movement as a pro-sexual-liberation movement. I saw how advocacy for the legality of abortion subtly shifts to moral justification for abortion. That, in turn, promotes a moral neutrality toward the irresponsible sexual behavior which too often is the cause of most abortions... In this way, abortion rhetoric plays into a degenerate male sexual agenda, rather than promoting the moral agency of women.

"By offering incense at the altar of the god Sex, abortion rhetoric tends to redefine love and fulfillment for women. Love is reduced to genital expression. A woman's fulfillment is divorced from her womb. It has become politically correct to support lesbians, but not to champion the cause of wives and mothers. Although modern culture treats a 'controlling person' as a pariah, absolute control over one's own life, especially one's sexual life, is set forth as the moral ideal."

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