By Judie Brown
In 1999 Cardinal John O’Connor wrote, “The traditional ‘just war’ teaching of the Catholic Church has never been intended to promote war but to prevent or impede it. It is not a matter of ‘justifying’ war. It is a matter of spelling out the conditions under which a nation may legitimately go to war, if all peace efforts have failed, and the moral principles which must be observed in the conduct of the war itself.”
He was addressing the war in Kosovo, but the weight of his words reminds us of the conditions that exist when man loses his sense of justice, whether it is a war on other nations or on children prior to birth, which is what we see today. The cardinal did not mention the babies, but when it comes to modern wars, we cannot help but think of the fact that the war on the preborn in this nation has killed more human beings than all the wars in the history of humankind.
And we know that, in this war, there are never any “just” reasons to kill a baby.
In his most famous speech, American statesman Patrick Henry said, “There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”
These powerful words could well be the motto of Americans who employ their talents and their treasures in the struggle to save the babies.
What greater effort can we think of, what greater cause can there be than that of ending the war against the innocent children whose lives are snuffed out daily under the guise of choice? There is no justification for this war, and as Cardinal O’Connor and Patrick Henry would undoubtedly agree, there is no middle ground when the vile acts of war are killing God’s precious children.
As the dearly departed Pope Francis said, “Abortion is murder.” Yet this is not the predominant understanding.
In Wyoming, a pro-abortion attorney told the state Supreme Court that “abortion is much safer than pregnancy and childbirth.” Local columnist Cassie Craven did not agree, writing, “Obviously, for the baby who is killed, it’s not safe at all. The hypocrisy of the Left never ceases to amaze me.”
But in this war against the innocent, words have become swords, muskets, and rifles used to denigrate truth and elevate the desires of the wicked. Craven got it right, but her words are not on the national news, nor are they to be found in your local newspaper because Craven speaks truth to power, and in our twisted culture of psychobabble, the obvious is always replaced by the absurd. Not seeing it? Just take a moment to consider the Iowa Catholic hospital that is arguing in the case of a 35-week-old preborn child that the baby is not a legal person! Once again, the words of deceit strike at the heart of reality and diminish the very biological facts that underscore the truth about who, not what, a preborn child is and will continue to be if not murdered.
As long as there are those who brashly tell the world that abortion is so urgently needed that outlawing it “threaten[s] all our rights,” this land of ours will continue to suffer from the dreadful results of an unjust war against the innocent.
Cardinal O’Connor laid out the principles for a legitimate versus an illegitimate war. In the case of abortion, no matter how it occurs, there can never be an authentic justification for it because the war on the preborn is and always will be illicit.