[NOTE: The draft letter below was not written by, or for, any bishop. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there is no copyright on this post, and any bishop is free to use it.]
My Dear Brothers in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ,
May the peace of Christ be with you!
The peace promised by our Lord can never be fully realized in this life. But today, sadly, even the imperfect peace of our civil society is shattered again and again by acts of violence. The violence on our streets finds echoes in the violent images on our television screens and video games, the violent quarrels within many of our families, and even the violent language of our public debates. We are living, I fear, in a climate of violence, in a society that sees violence as a solution to conflicts.
You may recall Mother Teresa’s warning: “The greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.” She went on to say: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.” I have come to feel the full force of that prophetic statement, and to recognize that the widespread public acceptance of abortion is at the root of our current societal discord.
We bishops and priests, as representatives of the Catholic Church, have always taught that abortion is gravely wrong. But have we done enough to convey that message— not only to our own faithful people, but to our non-Catholic neighbors? Have we done enough to persuade them that opposition to abortion is not a sectarian issue, not just a matter of concern for Catholics, but a basic matter of natural law, which until recent years was recognized as such by every religious and moral tradition? Any society that accepts the deliberate destruction of innocent human life is attacking the very foundation of common decency, common law, and the common good.
Continue reading at Phil Lawler’s Substack