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Dear Sisters and Brothers in
the Lord:
Let’s continue with the article by Father Thomas D. Williams, dean of
Theology at Regina Apostolrum University in Rome entitled: Abortion and
Catholic Social Teaching:
3.) A third factor separating abortion from other justice issues is its
legal status. Unlike other instances of massive killing of human life,
like terrorism or serial killing, which stand clearly outside the law in
advanced nations, abortion enjoys legal sanction. It involves the
systematic, hygienic, legal elimination of human life. Pope John Paul
wrote of the novelty of such “scientifically and systematically
programmed threats” (Evangelium Vitae, no. 17) Later, he remarked on the
peculiarity of abortion as a legal right. After listing a series of
terrible threats to human life, such as poverty, malnutrition, war, and
the arms trade, he contrasted these with a new class of threats to life.
Not only are these new attacks on life no longer considered crimes, he
wrote, but “paradoxically they assume the nature of ‘rights,’ to the
point that the State is called upon to give them legal recognition and
to make them available through the free services of health care
personnel” (Evangelium Vitae, no. 11).
4.) A fourth distinguishing aspect of abortion is its arbitrary division
of human beings into those worthy of life and those unworthy. Abortion
deals not with the random killing of unrelated individuals, but with the
circumscription of an entire class of human beings (the unborn) as
non-persons, excluded from the basic rights and protections accorded to
all other human beings. In this way abortion mimics the great historical
tragedies of all time, which always began with the denigration of an
entire class of people as unworthy of life or freedom. Historically the
greatest social evils perpetrated on humanity—genocide, racism,
abortion, anti-Semitism, sexism, slavery—have always violated the
principle of equality, relegating an entire sector of the human family
to an inferior status, with a dignity lower than the rest. Since human
rights flow from human dignity, once dignity is called into question
equal rights cannot but share in the same fate. If human dignity depends
on anything other than simple membership in the human race—be it
intelligence, athletic ability, social status, race, age, or health—we
immediately find ourselves having to distinguish between persons who
count and those who don’t. As John Paul wrote: “How is it still possible
to speak of the dignity of every human person when the killing of the
weakest and most innocent is permitted? In the name of what justice is
the most unjust of discriminations practiced: some individuals are held
to be deserving of defense and others are denied that dignity?” (Evangelium
Vitae, no.20)
5.) Abortion even distinguishes itself from related questions of medical
ethics, such as euthanasia and assisted suicide, by the absence of any
possibility of informed consent. The status of the unborn as voiceless
and most vulnerable adds a further dimension to discussions of the
morality and gravity of abortion. Here the bioethical category of
“autonomy” cannot be applied, since unborn children have no way of
speaking for themselves.
6.) Finally, abortion differs
from other major social ills such as unemployment and divorce because of
its relative invisibility. Not only are the victims themselves
voiceless, but those who profit from abortion have no interest in
speaking publicly about it; nor, generally, do the mothers and families
who are the secondary victims of abortion. Even our legislators are
squeamish about frank discussions of the phenomenon of abortion, and
pro-life advertising is banned from most network television. Abortion
takes place behind closed doors, and is hushed in public. As in the case
of slavery, ending the social injustice of abortion relies mainly on the
courage and willingness of persons and institutions not directly
involved in abortion to speak out.
Catholic social thought
offers two distinctive elements to the abortion debate. First, it lays a
bridge between moral theology and public discourse. In its long
experience dealing with social questions, the Church has sought not only
to set forth the Christian truth in all its richness, but to influence
Christians and all people of good will in building a civilization of
justice and love. To this end, catholic Social Teaching often employs a
natural-law vocabulary directed to all persons of good will, and frames
its arguments using accessible concepts and constructions that can be
brought to bear on moral discourse in a non-confessional environment.
Second, perhaps more than any institution in the world, the Church
in its social teaching has developed a series of principles to address
the complex moral questions in the social order. As new situations have
arisen from the rapidly changing socio-political landscape, the Church
has shown admirable elasticity in accommodating new states of affairs
while ever defending the essential dignity of the person and the family.
A case in point is the
Church’s preferential option for the poor, an evangelical principle,
which refers to a deliberate emphasis on and attention to those most in
need. Pope John Paul II called it “a special form of primacy in the
exercise of Christian charity” that should affect the life of every
Christian (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, no. 42). On numerous occasions the
Magisterium has clarified that the “poor” in question are not a social
class or merely those who suffer material need, but include the entire
sphere of human misery and indigence. “This misery,” we read in the
Catechism, “elicited the compassion of Christ the Savior, who willingly
took it upon himself and identified himself with the least of his
brethren” (CCC no. 2448).
Just as a mother or father dedicates a disproportionate amount of time
and energy to a child who is sick, without for that reason loving their
other children any less, Christians are called to focus their efforts
preferentially toward the most needy and defenseless among us. Applying
this principle to contemporary society, the social injustice that most
cries out to Christian conscience, for the reasons we saw earlier, is
the deliberate and massive attack on the most vulnerable members of
society, the unborn. In its venerable tradition of standing up for
society’s most defenseless members, the Catholic Church is uniquely
qualified to speak out authoritatively on the abortion issue.
This, as John Paul the Great
so clearly taught, is the number one priority for Catholic social
thought today—which must inevitably be expressed not only as social
thought, but as social action. |
