abortion

Totalitarian Abortion

Totalitarian Abortion on May 26, 2018

It is possible to give too much importance to the fight against abortion insofar as it is only natural life that is being defended, and not supernatural life. All things being equal, the same time and effort would be better spent on defending by whatever means the life of grace than on defending the unborn life of nature, but in today’s society all things are not equal. Above all, there is so little faith left in our godless world, that to talk of the supernatural with most people today is like talking to them Greek – “God, Heaven, Hell, eternity – what on earth are you talking about?” But if people today have a shred of decency left in them, they can still conceive what a crime it is to turn the sanctuary of life, a mother’s womb, into a prison of death. Therefore God bless Catholics who do what they can to hinder abortion.

But they are up against the totalitarian State of England today. An anti-abortion campaigner of many years’ standing writes that a new technique of “pavement counselling,” which engages more directly with women coming for an abortion, has provoked a draconian reaction from the System in place, no doubt because it has been effective, at least in the short term. In the first PSPO (Public Space Protection Order) of its kind in the country, the local Council has voted to confine the anti-abortionists to a grass area 100 metres from the abortuary, where they are not to number more than four, they are not allowed to display posters larger than A3 size, they are not to mention abortion, baby, mum, foetus, soul, kill, hell or murder, they are not to display any images, play amplified music or voices, shout messages relating to abortion, or even pray aloud. These restrictions came into force on April 23 and could be applied both more widely by this local Council, and also by others. Fines for defying the restrictions could run up to £1,000.

What can one say? England is committing suicide. Possibly the local Council chose to enforce the restrictions on April 23 because that is St George’s Day, when England celebrates its patron Saint, as though to protect abortion is an act of patriotism, or love of country! But what is more anti-natural for a woman than to destroy the fruit of her own womb, or more anti-social for a man than to encourage her to do so? How far must a woman have gone down the road of self-destruction to consent to the literal murder of her motherhood, the main purpose of her existence next after the saving of her own soul. “Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty,” says Scripture (I Tim. II, 15), which is the Word not of a supposed misogynist, but of God.

True to form, Shakespeare has seized on the essence of woman’s self-destruction in a few lines which he puts in the mouth of Lady Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 5) as she steels herself to push her husband to murder Duncan, his king, cousin and friend, even while Duncan will also be a guest under Macbeth’s roof. In terrifying words she calls on devils to rip out of her all feminine tenderness and compassion:—

“. . . . Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here

And fill me from the crown to the toe top full

Of direst cruelty, make thick my blood,

Stop up the access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,

And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers . . .”

She proceeds to overwhelm Macbeth’s scruples, and he murders Duncan, the first of many more victims.

Readers, please pray for England, once the Dowry of Mary and still the object of Her motherly care.

Kyrie eleison.

Wonderful, Counsellor

Wonderful, Counsellor on December 25, 2010

Christmas Day is a suitable moment to recall why we may and should rejoice in the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He and he alone can solve all the real problems of men, which go back to the very beginnings of mankind, and which are graver than ever today.

This is because all real problems of men involve sin. Any purely material disorder only becomes serious if it is in some way spiritual, for instance if a physical illness makes a man curse or bless. And anything spiritual that goes on inside me is only a disorder if it is in some way a sin. For instance Job lamented bitterly his physical afflictions, but his lamenting was not sinful. As for sin, it is a disorder or offence primarily against God, secondarily against self and only thirdly against neighbour.

Therefore all real problems of men which are not merely material problems, are problems of men having offended God. A terrible example is provided by a woman who has committed an abortion. Superficially her problem is solved. The baby is out of the way, and her life is “back to normal.” But deep down, either she hardens her heart (and joins in a world coming to hate and suppress Christmas), or she knows and admits to herself that she has done something terribly wrong. Either way something in her is more or less twisted out of true for the rest of her days, and many such women, even if they are Catholics and know by their Faith that God has forgiven them through sacramental Absolution, can still be tormented, such is the wound that that sin has inflicted on their souls. Nor is abortion the worst of sins. Sinning directly against God is graver.

Grim thoughts for Christmas Day? Yes and no. The problem of sin is grim, but the joy of knowing that it has a real solution is correspondingly great. If the poor girl goes to confession, almost every Catholic priest will do all he can to persuade her that if she is truly sorry for her sin (with a sorrow of Peter and not of Judas Iscariot), then through his absolving her she may not doubt that God has forgiven her. How many penitents then walk out of the confessional with a sense of relief and joy that nothing else can give them, because offending God was at the heart of their torment, and they know that God has forgiven them.

And where did this joy take its beginning? In the certainty that God took a human nature from a Jewish maiden, lived upon earth and gave us, amongst other sacraments, that of Penance, deriving its force from the merits of his Passion and Death, which he endured only with the help of the same maiden and mother. But how could he have died unless he had been born? It all began with his human birth from the Blessed Virgin Mary – Christmas.

So the solution of all the world’s most terrible problems of my fellow-men and myself is available. No wonder Catholics are joyful. No wonder there is a special joy available even to disbelievers at Christmastime – so long as they have not yet hardened their hearts.

Kyrie eleison.

Last Cartridge?

Last Cartridge? on May 24, 2008

A priestly colleague of the Society of St. Pius X has just written (or maybe adopted) a parable whereby the Society is the last cartridge of a hunter who must shoot to kill the monster of Neo-modernism entrenched within the structures of the Catholic Church. Since it is the last cartridge, the hunter cannot afford to miss! Well, the “hunter” may be burdened, but let me attempt to assure him that he is not burdened that much!

First and foremost, the Catholic Church belongs to Almighty God who has numerous possible ways of coming to its rescue that we men cannot even imagine. “Is my arm shortened because you men are wicked?” asks the Lord God (Isaiah L:2). To imagine that the Lord God depends upon the SSPX to deal with the monster of Neo-modernism is gravely to underestimate His powers!

Secondly, Neo-modernism is surely far too entrenched in Catholics (or former Catholics) for a little Congregation of some 450 priests to be able to dislodge it! Just as the crime of abortion has become more and more normal and accepted over the last 40 years, so too has the heresy of Neo-modernism more and more established itself over the same time-period in the hearts and minds of the mass of Catholics (or once Catholics). By the grace of God, the SSPX may still have the Truth, but what grip or leverage does truth still have on diabolically disoriented minds, starting with those of today’s leading churchmen?

Thirdly, what power does the SSPX have other than the – today – powerless Truth? Besides the Faith, the SSPX has neither great numbers nor great theologians nor great writers. It is holding its own all over the world, which is already a miracle, but it is fragile and in worldly terms it is advancing surely no more than one little step at a time, whereas the worldwide Revolution is advancing by leaps and bounds.

No, dear colleague. The humble mission of the SSPX is surely not to kill the storm dead (as only Our Lord could do), but to ride it out. Not to overwhelm the lies, but to sustain the Truth. Not to conquer, but to give witness. Not to be in a hurry, but to wait for God’s good time. It is his Church, and he is certainly looking after it by, amongst other things, sustaining thus far the SSPX. But he is never short of cartridges!

Kyrie eleison.