Archbishop Chaput address to Notre Dame students

Archbishop Charles Chaput, of Denver (USA), gave the keynote address at the student-organised Right to Life lecture series at the University of Notre Dame recently.   The Archbishop chose ‘Politics and the Devil’ as the theme of his address to the gathering.     It is a lengthy document, and I hope that in having chosen a small number of excerpts from it I have not in any way detracted from the entire message.

‘All law in some sense teaches and forms us, while also regulating our behavior.  The same applies to our public policies, including the ones that govern our scientific research.  There is no such thing as morally neutral legislation or morally neutral public policy.  Every law is the public expression of what somebody thinks we “ought” to do.  The question that matters is this.  Which moral convictions of which somebodies are going to shape our country’s political and cultural future – including the way we do our science?

‘The answer is pretty obvious: if you and I as citizens don’t do the shaping, then somebody else will.  That is the nature of a democracy.  A healthy democracy depends on people of conviction working hard to advance their ideas in the public square – respectfully and peacefully, but vigorously and without apologies.  Politics always involves the exercise of power in the pursuit of somebody’s idea of the common good.  And politics always and naturally involves the imposition of somebody’s values on the public at large.  So if a citizen fails to bring his moral beliefs into our country’s political conversation, if he fails to work for them publicly and energetically, then the only thing he ensures is the defeat of his own beliefs.

‘We also need to remember that most people – not everyone, of course, but most of us – root our moral convictions in our religious beliefs.  What we believe about God shapes what we think about the nature of men and women, the structure of good human relationships, and our idea of a just society.  This has very practical consequences, including the political kind.  We act on what we really believe.  If we don’t act on our beliefs, then we don’t really believe them. …

‘The moral and political struggle we face today in defending human dignity is becoming more complex.  I believe that abortion is the foundational human rights issue of our lifetime.  We can’t simultaneously serve the poor and accept the legal killing of unborn children.  We can’t build a just society, and at the same time legally sanctity the destruction of generations of unborn human life.  The rights of the poor and the rights of the unborn child flow from exactly the same human dignity guaranteed by the God who created us.

‘Of course, working to end abortion doesn’t absolve us from our obligations to the poor.  It doesn’t excuse us from our duties to the disabled, the elderly and immigrants.  In fact, it demands from us a much stronger commitment to materially support women who find themselves in a difficult pregnancy. …

‘I have two final thoughts.  First, nothing we do to defend the human person, no matter how small, is ever unfruitful or forgotten.  Our actions touch other lives and move other hearts in ways we can never fully understand in this world.

‘Don’t ever underestimate the beauty and power of the witness you give in your pro-life work.   One thing we learn from Scripture is that God doesn’t have much use for the vain or the prideful.  But He loves the anawim – the ordinary, simple, everyday people who keep God’s Word, who stay faithful to his commandments, and who sustain the life of the world by leavening it with their own goodness.  That’s the work we are called to do.  Don’t ever forget it, if you speak up for the unborn child in this life, someone will speak up for you in the next, when we meet God face to face.

‘Second, a friend once shared with me the unofficial motto of the Texas Rangers: “No man in the wrong can stand up against a fella that’s in the right, and keeps a-comin.”  The message is true.  Virtue does matter.   Courage and humility, justice and perseverance, do have power.   Good does win, and the sanctity of human life will endure.  It will endure because if “God so loved the world that He gave his only Son” (Jn 3:16), then the odds look pretty good, and it’s worth fighting for what is right."

Report on "Vigil for Unborn Life"

Vatican information Services (VIS) have reported on the “Vigil for unborn life”, presided over by the Holy Father and which took place on Saturday last they report

Benedict XVI began his homily by noting that

"with this celebration of Vespers the Lord gives us the grace and joy to begin the new liturgical year", in which "we will feel that the Church takes us by the hand and, in the image of Most Holy Mary, expresses her maternity by enabling us to experience the joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord, Who embraces us all in His salvific and consoling love".

Highlighting the fact that the celebration was being enriched with the solemn prayer vigil for unborn life, the Pope thanked "everyone who has taken up this invitation, and those who specifically dedicate themselves to protecting human life in various situations of fragility, especially at its beginnings and in its first stages".

"The Incarnation reveals to us - with intense light and in a surprising way - that each human life has exalted and incomparable dignity. Man has an unmistakeable originality with respect to all other living things, which inhabit the earth. He is a unique and distinctive being, gifted with intelligence and free will, as well as being composed of material reality. He simultaneously and inseparably lives in the spiritual and the corporeal dimensions".

"God loves us deeply, completely, without distinction", the Pope explained. "He calls us to be His friends. He brings us to share in a reality, which is beyond all imagination, all thoughts or words: His divine life. Moved and grateful, we become aware of the value and incomparable dignity of each human being, and of the great responsibility we have towards others".

Human beings, said the Pope, "have the right not to be treated as objects to be possessed, or things to be manipulated at will; not to be reduced to the status of a mere tool for the benefit of others and their interests. Human beings are a good per se, and it is necessary always to seek their integral development. Love for everyone, if sincere, spontaneously turns into preferential attention for the weakest and poorest. This is the context of the Church's concern for nascent life, which is the most fragile, the most threatened by the selfishness of adults and the clouding of conscience. The Church continually repeats Vatican Council II's declarations against abortion and all other violations of unborn life: 'from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care'".

The Holy Father went on: "There are cultural tendencies which seek to anaesthetise people's consciences by using pretexts" Yet, "as concerns the embryo in the womb, science itself highlights its autonomy and capacity for interaction with the mother, the co-ordination of its biological processes, the continuity of its development, the increasing complexity of the organism. It is not simply an accumulation of biological matter, but a new living being, ... a new individual of the human race. This is how Jesus was in Mary's womb; this is how it is for each one of us in our mother's womb".

Benedict XVI lamented the fact that "even after birth the life of children continues to be exposed to abandonment, to hunger and misery, to sickness, abuse, violence and exploitation. The multiple violations of children's rights committed in the world are a painful wound on the conscience of all men and women of good will. Faced with the sad spectacle of the injustices committed against the life of man, both before and after birth, I reiterate John Paul II's impassioned appeal for responsibility: 'respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!'"

In this context, the Pope also exhorted "political, economic and media leaders to do everything they can to promote a culture that is ever more respectful of human life, in order to create favourable conditions and support-networks that welcome life and ensure its development".

At the end of the celebration of Vespers the Holy Father read a "Prayer for Life" specially composed for this occasion.
which took place last Saturday