By Judie Brown
Detective Joe Friday’s famous line from Dragnet, “Just the facts, Ma’am,” seems so appropriate when we consider the terrible crush of deception surrounding President Trump’s support for the Biden administration’s position on the deadly abortion pill. Trump is not a pro-life politician, he is as some might say, a stuffed shirt.
Contrast this with the news about Pope Leo XIV and his allegedly surprising position on pro-life matters. Talk about moral insanity! Pope Leo XIV is called by God, as were his predecessors without exception, to uphold the commandments of God and the Magisterium of the Church. He is therefore not accidentally pro-life; he is expected to take the Catholic position! So why on earth should reporters be so surprised?
Such is the world in which we live today. Nobody can take anything for granted, including the truths set forth by God Himself. This is why we pray for our spiritual and political leaders. We are living in a time when, according to some pundits, nothing is sacred in the world’s view.
As columnist John Horvat II wrote:
The sacred has always had a note of exclusivity. In its narrow sense, the sacred is anything dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of God. In a broader sense, it can apply to anything that is entitled to reverence and respect. The sacred evokes a sense of mystery and awe since it points to something above and beyond the person seeking to understand it.
Implicit in the rejection of the sacred is the idea that there should be no restraints for anything. It is unjust that there be anything set beyond the reach of others. It is wrong that anyone is recognized as being more than someone else.
In other words, we cannot proceed with our lives as people of faith who know that God is the creator of all without stepping on the proverbial toes of the more “enlightened” members of our society. And therein lies the rub.
Joe Friday always investigated his cases with an eye toward drilling down to get at the root cause of an injustice. It is time for us to do the same.
The world rejects Christ’s truth because it is not a popular position, but then again, Christ Himself was not popular. In fact, He was crucified as the crowds cheered. This occurred because rather than grappling with truth and striving to understand it, people prefer to reject it and move on to subjects that more adequately appeal to their comfort zones.
Yet no matter which era we live in, the truths of our faith cannot and will not change because “if 2+2=4 is true, it cannot later be true that 2+2=5, no matter who proclaims it to be so. If Jesus is divine, or if he is substantially present in the Eucharist, then at no time does he become a mere man (however good and wise), and at no time does the Eucharist become mere bread (however symbolically significant).”
At no time does the abortion pill become defensible if one understands that every human person’s life is precious from its beginning until the end.
At no time does it become fashionable to criticize a newly elected pope merely because he stands for truth rather than worldly fictions.
At no time should a pro-life person walk away from these truths. This is so because we are not in a cafeteria line making selections for lunch; we are in a struggle to save our own souls and the souls of others, if God so wills it.
Trump is in error, so we pray for him. Pope Leo XIV’s election is a sign of hope, so we pray for him.
To the doubters, we say “We have the facts.” Not only that, but we are grateful for them, we stand on them, and we share them because that is what the Lord expects of us. That is a fact, Ma’am.