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PART ONE
Some people will say that I am against a procured abortion for the horror that I feel before the slaughter of innocent babies in the wombs of their mothers. Others will say that I am against this crime in view of my obligations as a priest and member of the Catholic Church to condemn it. Still others will say that I am against a procured abortion because it is an intrinsic evil and bad of its own nature and therefore justified under absolutely no circumstances at all.
All the above is true, but they are not the main reasons as to why I am against abortion. There are two principal ones that stir me passionately against this great insanity of a crime. The first is that this evil crushes God’s very heart and spirit. Ever since 1967, I have never been able to pray to Jesus in peace before the tabernacle without Him nagging me to no end and repeating in my ears the same constant and pleading words: “Get rid of abortion! Get rid of abortion! Get rid of abortion! It wounds my heart with an especially deep and excruciating pain.” I had to therefore get up and do something to relieve God of this affliction coming to Him from abortion.” If I went to pray to Him again, I would be hearing the same words over and over again. He counted on me to take away these thorns in His heart coming from this horrendous murder of defenseless lives. I felt like a husband who could no longer bear to see his wife dying from cancer and goes in search of some medicine to cure her or relieve her pain.
The second reason for being against abortion is a personal and selfish one. God is preparing a chastisement for humanity on global proportions never before seen in the history of the human race. Knowing about this, I rather wish that I had been born in a different epoch of history. When the punishment comes, it will affect everyone, whether good or bad. It did no good for a person to complain to God and declare that he was not part of the Nazi regime in Hitler’s Germany and therefore should not be taken to a concentration camp. When the chastisement of World War II came, it struck everyone, whether saints or sinners. Religious, as well as non-religious people were gassed to death.
The only two sins I know of that would provoke a punishment of catastrophic proportions is abortion and homoerotic behavior. A father can tolerate many failings and weaknesses in his child, but if this son were to really go beyond the limits, the father would no longer support this, but lose his patience and respond with a heavy spanking. There are two types of wrongs that God supports, but one causes Him to release His powerful arm against humanity. Our daily sins are forgiven by God with much patience, love, mercy and understanding. God loves the sinners who are always trying to better themselves. Iniquitous acts are cold, heavy, serious, pre-meditated and pre-calculated crimes that subject one to the fires of hell. God, in a tremendous attitude of mercy, still tolerates the iniquities of mankind and practices a long patience with us.
Abominations, however, are the types of sins insupportable to God. They are sins of the worst kind which attract severe punishment. Abortion is an abomination before God’s eyes. It evokes his fiery justice and anger on mankind. Knowing all this, I really want to save my skin and the skin of others as well. If I do fight abortion, it is because I do not want to see myself, my town, valley, State, country or family and friends destroyed in the Divine upheaval provoked by this crime. Abortion is not a private matter between the doctor and the mother, but involves the chastisement and destruction of our own lives and society as well. If a person enters a public swimming pool without a doctor’s approval, his disease could spread to all the other people present also. Abortion is a disease that affects not only the abortionists, but all of us who live in their midst and are threatened in our very existence and peace by their abominable activities. Sin has serious social as well as private implications and consequences. Why should I suffer a Divine chastisement because of some blind vultures who have the shameless audacity and sole desire to live off of human carnage and insult God to His Face? Not only will they be swept away by the deluge of God’s anger, but will drag along the rest of us with them. It is for this reason that fence sitters and even those who might even agree with abortion, nonetheless should ardently fight against it and eliminate it from our communities. If the fire department tells me I am not to make any barbecues because the weather is warm and dry, I will obey, despite what I might think of barbecues. Safety and the conservation of my environment must precede my personal interests or ideas and tastes.
PART TWO
The second thing to do in order to end abortion is to be educated in the matter. Before I get into this, however, I would like to say something about education itself. The object of education is to come to freedom, whether internal or external. Education has to free our youth or else it is not education. A young man or woman educated to generous love, a sense of law, dedication to others, a respect for human life, etc. is all liberating. Education does not mean that we are to produce a generation of consumers. It does not mean that we are to form a group of technocrats geared for scientific discoveries. This is simply the fruit of a materialistic society.
What we need to teach to our youth is truth and goodness. When youth have knowledge of the good, then they will want to possess and love it. A young man’s or woman’s will also needs to be guided and perfected and not only his intellect. It is amazing how many people in America are greatly informed about so many things, but the formation of their will is nil. Intellectualism is not the answer to our problems. The first school of education is in the family. All the psychological traumas, bad examples, ignorant ideas and discriminating attitudes start in this environment. The places where the youth work, study, sing, dance and pray will also influence them to either respect human life or destroy it. Emotional suffering, lack of love and affection, disillusions, friendships, social costumes, laws, popular opinions, gossip and broken relationships all will affect a young man or woman in his educative process and outlook on life itself.
Youth have an innate tendency toward heroism and if this aspiration is not fulfilled, they will turn it against themselves and society. Instead of becoming heroes and martyrs for the good (because of a family or society that frustrated such ideals and dreams) they will become drug addicts, alcoholics, ambitious materialists and socialists. Such energy in youth needs to be recognized, gathered, accepted and channeled into right use. It must not be denied nor suffocated. Youth need to know that the truth exists of its own nature and not because it is based on the word of some authority. They therefore are to sincerely dedicate themselves to its search throughout their lives. Our teachers and parents are to help us to come to this awareness and not to mislead us. Those who deny the truth to youth, show their own incompetence, cowardice and despair and frustrate these young people in its search and teaching of it.
Those involved in the formation of youth need to be a rock, guide, light and beacon for them. They are not to deceive them, since the youth have need of his help. Youth today have nowhere to go and will be lost without a reference for truth. The search for truth, finally, has to be a humble and sincere one.
Once the intelligence is fed with the truth, moral education will come as natural result. It will not be necessary to educate the will since practical reason will take care of this itself. Practical reason is educated through the presentation of principles that influence the will. It is due to this mistrust of reason that so many Catholic schools invented hundreds of rules and regulations that really annoyed the students in them. It is for this motive too, that a great number of these religious schools and their educational system failed miserably.
PART 3 and 4 July and August
Father Anthony Mellace
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