As has appeared throughout the Catholic blogosphere today is a letter from Bishop Doran, the Bishop of the Diocese of Rockford. A letter that makes you want to stand up and cheer for it’s accuracy and forthrightness. Here is the first half of it.
Reaping the whirlwind of abortion
I want to touch on this matter before we get too close to the November madness. As human beings, as citizens of a “first world country,” as Americans, and as Catholics, most importantly, we have to take count of the circumstances in which we live. We know that the only creatures of God that outlast time are those created having intellect and will. All other things, with the passage of time, break up or break down.
Many of the issues that confront us are serious, and we know by now that the political parties in our country are at loggerheads as to how to solve them. We know, for instance, that adherents of one political party would place us squarely on the road to suicide as a people.
The seven “sacraments” of their secular culture are abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, feminism of the radical type, and genetic experimentation and mutilation. These things they unabashedly espouse, profess and promote. Their continuance in public office is a clear and present danger to our survival as a nation.
Since the mid-1940s we have been accustomed to look askance at Germans. They were protagonists of the Second World War and so responsible for fifty million deaths. We say, “How awful,” and yet in our country we have, for the most part, allowed the party of death and the court system it has produced to eliminate, since 1973, upwards of forty million of our fellow citizens without allowing them to see the light of day. They have done their best to make ours a true culture of death. No doubt, we shall soon outstrip the Nazis in doing human beings to death.
I do not think that we should spend a great deal of time in lamentation over the children whose lives have been snuffed out by the barbaric practice of therapeutic abortion. They passed from their lives quickly in this world and have gone into the hands of the Lord of Life and Mercy for all eternity. We must make it clear too, that many who have sought to have practiced on themselves therapeutic abortion are in many instances driven to it by persons heedless of their welfare, or by well- meaning but inept parents or guardians who regard abortion as a solution and not as what it is — an immense problem. There are some, I think few, largely given over to immoral lives who regard abortion as a good, but their number is not great.
What we have to remember is that violence breeds violence. When we tolerate unjust attacks upon the tiniest innocents among us, we habituate ourselves to violence. And so we have allowed these barbaric practices to corrupt our laws, our medical practice, and even our ordinary lives. How accustomed we have become to the immense loss of life in our wars throughout the world! Those who have killed millions under their mother’s hearts cannot be expected to balk at a mere few thousand killed in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Somalia, in Darfur, in Bosnia, in Madrid, in London, in Baghdad, in Beirut, in Washington, in New York. The violence of abortion coarsens the lives of all of us.
First off I really like the term November madness. His list of anti-sacraments is dead-on and dead-on is descriptive of the party of death. Can you think of in modern times a bishop using the term buggery? It is rather crude and shocking and at the same time necessary to rise the sleepy from a modernist nap. A nap where 3000 children killed a day invokes no reaction, but the term buggery induces an outcry.
I also like his terming of abortion as unjust attacks against the tiniest innocents. If only we could get people together to have a cease-scalpel declared. This unjust aggression to the unborn should be stopped immediately. Unfortunately some mothers think of their womb as occupied territory, but I can assure them that in all cases the children will agree to leave in nine months or less.
11 comments
We all need to support and pray for our brave bishsops. They will encourage other brave bishops to speak out faithfully, help reform bishops in need of reform, inspire future bishops, increase good vocations and help more of the flock to get to heaven.
Love your graphic!
100% applause for this letter. Our world has outdone the Nazis and indeed, wouldn’t Mengele be delighted (sic) if he knew of the experimentation performed on embryos today? (Mengele – he’s still thought of bad guy or has society changed that too?)
Jeff,
First, yay, that’s my bishop 🙂 It made the local news too.
Second, it’s the Diocese of Rockford. (not Rockville)
I love your comparison to cease-fire and occupied territory.
You’re great – Mary
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008802
Petitioning for Life
“I had an abortion,” Ms. Magazine urges its readers to declare. How about “I wasn’t aborted”?
BY JULIA GORIN
Thursday, August 17, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
The Web site of Ms. Magazine–yes, it still exists–is calling on readers to sign a petition: “I have had an abortion. I publicly join the millions of women in the United States who have had an abortion in demanding a repeal of laws that restrict women’s reproductive freedom.”
Well, so much for the right to privacy. If Ms. readers hadn’t had so many abortions, there might be more Ms. readers. As for the rest of us, here’s a petition we could all sign: “I wasn’t aborted.”
Having narrowly escaped being aborted, I’d be the first in line.
Like most Soviet-era fetuses conceived in Russia by couples who were already parents, I was scheduled for abortion as a matter of course. In a society where abortion was the only form of birth control, it wasn’t uncommon to meet women who had double-digit abortion counts. Often a couple would schedule the appointment before they even stopped to remember that they wanted a second child….
Julia — your testimony is an astounding one. Where are the feminists on forced abortions? Grimmer still are mothers who convince themselves to abort their baby.
Mary — how fares Bishop Doran? Is he suffering the slings and arrows in Rockford?
If so, I just asked the Holy Spirit to bring him balm and protect him!
I, too, applaud Bishop Doran’s letter, but I note with regret that in Illinois, where the good bishop’s diocese is located, there’s more than one major party that seems to support those secular “sacraments” he lists, at least insofar as gubernatorial candidates go. Only one Illinois candidate for governor fails to bow to that secular altar. And he ain’t Republican.
Two Good Entries Over @ Curt Jester
Entry #1 was an excerpt of a podcast homily: That we must be ready to remove from us the soul-killing voices of dissention, rebellion, bitterness, and contention does not mean that we must be ready to ignore or even coddle…
IN a few short weeks, Bishop Doran will be my earthly shepherd – that is where we are relocating to! I am soooo looking forward to the change.
Pretty amazing! Great to hear from our shepherds!
I hate to rain on the Worship Doran party here but this is all a bunch of hooey! As a member of the Rockford diocese and a life-long pro-lifer, you all need to know that Doran is all talk and no action when it comes to promoting the culture of life. Not long ago, a Rockford priest gave a homily on NFP. Doran suspended him after parishioners complained. Before that, another Rockford priest named Joe Jarmoluk refused to give pro-life homilies even on Respect Life Sunday. Then, he refused a bunch of projects proposed by the parish respect life committee because “some parishioners might get offended”. Bishop Doran later gave Jarmoluk the Blessed Miguel Pro award. Bishop Doran also wrote a column telling Catholics to vote their consciences, even if their conscience told them to vote for a pro-abortion candidate. All of this BS about abortion and Nazis is just an attention-getting, praise-thriving scam. Sorry to see you all fall for it!