By Judie Brown
The genuine joy of this season resides in our celebration of the birth of Christ. Thus it is horrifying to note the action of Jerri Zhang, a Missouri judge who ended the enforcement of some abortion regulations while leaving others in place. One spokesperson for abortion access said, “We’re relieved the court recognized and enjoined many oppressive laws on the books that serve no purpose except to put abortion out of reach.”
While we know that pregnancy is not a religious matter but a biological reality that flows from the procreative act between a man and a woman, we also know that when it comes to biology, the snakes in the pit have hypnotized our fellow citizens.
Society prefers to talk about reproductive rights rather than the miracle of procreation. We appear to home in on all the reasons why motherhood should never be mentioned as we flaunt the ability of an expectant mother to choose to erase her motherhood surgically, chemically, or otherwise.
In this season of celebrating the birth of our Savior, the hearts of far too many have grown numb to what it means to celebrate life.
And that brings us to the current state of closing out this year with a note of sorrow. We mourn the deaths of millions of preborn children who died from surgical, chemical, and an entire host of reproductive machinations designed to eliminate babies and insult motherhood and fatherhood.
At the same time, we are seeing an escalation in the avoidance of focusing the attention of Catholics on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. And yet there is a definitive connection that we cannot overlook between the unseen preborn child and the mystery of the real presence.
Daniel Gallagher recently wrote an article about obeying Canon 915, the Church law explaining why denial of the body of Christ is a lawful act when the person seeking to receive the sacrament is known to have offended Christ by her actions or inaction.
Gallagher said the action of denying the sacrament can be “complicated.” This statement offends us most deeply. There is nothing complicated about it if—and this is a big “if” in today’s culture—Catholic people have been catechized about the reasons why the sacrament of the Eucharist must be denied to Catholics who support, condone, or otherwise agree that abortion is a right, not an act of killing.
In the definitive teaching document on this question, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote:
Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.
This document was published in 2004, and the words are just as truthful and binding now as they were then. Yet we see few Catholic leaders speaking out on this, teaching about it, or obeying the Church law by denying the Eucharist to Catholics who disregard fundamental laws of God, such as the fifth commandment: Thou Shalt Not Kill.
The grisly avenue to crushing Christmas joy during this season, and every day for that matter, is paved with the bodies of aborted babies, the deceptions of Catholic leaders who have failed to teach, and the blasé attitudes of those who claim to be aware of truth but who fail to honestly defend it.
Cardinal Raymond Burke set the tone, and as the new year begins, we ask, Where are all the other bishops of the Catholic Church?
Are they asleep or simply helping crush Christmas joy?