A Moral Issue that so often works against us.

This cartoon from The Independent newspaper in the UK following the pro euthanasia report submitted to the British Government sponsored by its supporters says far more about "pro life" than the shrill pro-life lobby.

I am quite naturally pro life as well as being a Catholic but the pro-life movement I find generally repellent with its gory videos, it's fanaticism and its inability to see that not everything is black and white;  that there are shades of grey!

I find it particularly difficult in circumstances where people are kept alive by artificial means with minimal brain activity.  "Thou shalt not kill but need not strive officiously to keep alive."  I would agree with that and I hope that applies to me, if necessary.....not that I'd know anything about it either way!

St Margaret of Antioch, Patron of Pregnant Women

Similarly to whip up emotions over abortion and to equate it with murder, which it is not, has resulted in real murders in the USA.  It's the inability to engage in argument and only to shout slogans that does the cause and the Church much harm.


The pro-choice group is not much better and I think the reason for this is that it seems to be impossible to discuss the issue without it being emotive.  Pro-life should be something positive but so often it comes across as being purely negative.  When you think about it 99% of people are opposed to abortion, the disagreement is on how to handle the catastrophic problems of unwanted pregnancy:  those who see abortion as a solution of last resort and those who do not and both groups claim the moral high ground.

St Aloysius Gonzaga, Patron of AIDS caregivers & sufferers

The slogan shouting is at its loudest in the comfortable world of developed countries where there are options ( and I don't mean pro-choice options). In countries like this where newborn babies end up in rubbish bins and shallow graves and so many are born HIV positive the Church's priority is to assist people in their distress and show compassion and that, to me, is the moral high ground.

The most important thing is prayer for everyone involved, no matter what side they are on, and not to neglect the victims.





To end on a lighter...or maybe heavier.....note a wonderful Catholic joke I picked up from The Hermeneutic of Continuity Blog:


A Higgs Boson particle walks into a Catholic Church. So the priest comes up to him and says "Oi you! Higgs Boson! You can't come in 'ere."

So the Higgs Boson particle says, "Without me you can't have any mass."