Fr. Pavone Challenges Graduates to "Stop Counting the Cost" in Defending Cause of Life

By Kathleen Gilbert
FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, May 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)

Two days before leading in prayer a handful of University of Notre Dame graduates protesting President Obama's commencement speech, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life delivered a rousing pro-life homily at the baccalaureate Mass of Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. Fr. Pavone remarked on the nature of abortion, which he called "the opposite of love," and President Obama, whom he said has dishonored the presidency by supporting abortion.

Fr. Pavone introduced the question of the meaning of love with a meditation on Christ's statements, "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends," and "I have power to lay it [my life] down, and I have power to take it up again."

The "power to lay down one's life," said Pavone, is "the power of love, the power to be able to give yourself away purposely, deliberately, knowing what you're going to lose ... because you're not focused anymore on what you're losing, you're focused on what you're giving to the other."

"This is the heart and core of the civilization of love, of the culture of life, of the meaning of being pro-life, of the meaning of social justice, and of the very meaning of service, all summed up in this power to lay our lives down for the other," he said.

"In the culture of death, we see exactly the opposite dynamic."

Pavone continued: "Love says I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person. Abortion says I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself. ...

"Right here in the Eucharist, in the center of love, where love is understood at its deepest level ... we find four words that Jesus uses to express this truth, and the same four words have been hijacked, twisted inside out and upside down by the culture of death, and those words are: 'This is my body.'

"'It's my body,' some say, 'I'll do what I want, even if it means taking the life within me. This is my body," said Pavone. "The Lord says to us today, ' ... given up for you,' and you have the power to do the same."

Fr. Pavone told the congregation that building a culture of life does not require more people, but only "people ready to take a whole lot more risk." Of those who ask him how to help stop abortion, Fr. Pavone said: "They're not asking, 'What is it that I should do?' They're asking, 'How do I find the courage to do it? Because I know that if I do it, I'm going to lose something. ...

"When we talk about abortion in the churches, what do people say? 'Oh, it's too political.' What happens when we talk about it in the political arena? 'Oh, it's too religious.' Talk about it in the world of business? 'It's bad for business.' Talk about it out in the public arena? 'It's going to harm children.'

"If abortion is so bad, where do we go to say so? And the answer is, we say so in all of those arenas, and we stop counting the cost!"

Fr. Pavone praised the example of Mary Ann Glendon, the former ambassador to the Vatican who refused Notre Dame's prestigious Laetare Award this year, in protest of President Obama's appearance at the same ceremony. Obama gave the commencement speech and received an honorary law degree.

The University of Notre Dame itself, said Fr. Pavone, failed a similar challenge to sacrifice. "They aren't taking the challenge, are they?" he asked. "The challenge is, if 'greater love than this no one has, than to be willing to lay down his own life' - well then, maybe you can lay down some prestige and disinvite the president! 'Oh, but if we do that, what will happen to us?'"

Referring to the uproar of over 80 U.S. bishops and 360,000 petitioners against the Obama honor at Notre Dame, Fr. Pavone noted: "Some people say that all of this stuff going on dishonors the office of the President of the United States.

"I have news for them. It is the president who is dishonoring the office of President of the United States by taking a pro-abortion position.

"Every elected official on any level of government who takes a position in which they fail to recognize and work for the protection of the right to life dishonors the very meaning of their office," said Pavone, "because you can't be a public servant if you fail to tell the difference between serving the public and killing the public."

Christendom president Dr. Timothy O'Donnell told LifeSiteNews.com Sunday that it was "a great grace and a great honor" to host Fr. Pavone. The school presented Fr. Pavone with its Pro Deo et Patria award at its commencement Saturday.

"His message fills us with hope and renews our zeal," O'Donnell continued, "and despite the fact that in so many ways it seems we've lost - in the government, and there's been a real assault upon the academic citadels of our Church - the fact of the matter remains there is so much good going on, and remembering always that the darkest hour is just before the dawn."

Leading Vatican Prelate Says Document of US Bishops Partly to Blame for Election of “Most Pro-Abortion President”

Also says Bishops’ Catholic News Service needs to be given "some new direction"

By Hilary White, Rome Correspondent ROME, January 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)

A document of the US Catholic Bishops is partly to blame for the abandonment of pro-life teachings by voting Catholics and the election of the “most pro-abortion president” in US history, one of the Vatican’s highest officials said in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com.

Archbishop Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, named a document on the election produced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that he said “led to confusion” among the faithful and led ultimately to massive support among Catholics for Barack Obama.

The US bishops’ document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” stated that, under certain circumstances, a Catholic could in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports abortion because of "other grave reasons," as long as they do not intend to support that pro-abortion position.

Archbishop Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louis Mo. and recently appointed head of the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church, told LifeSiteNews.com that although “there were a greater number of bishops who spoke up very clearly and firmly ... there was also a number who did not.”

But most damaging, he said, was the document “Faithful Citizenship” that “led to confusion” among the voting Catholic population.

“While it stated that the issue of life was the first and most important issue, it went on in some specific areas to say ‘but there are other issues’ that are of comparable importance without making necessary distinctions.” Archbishop Burke, citing an article by a priest and ethics expert of St. Louis archdiocese, Msgr. Kevin McMahon, who analysed how the bishops’ document actually contributed to the election of Obama, called its proposal “a kind of false thinking, that says, ‘there’s the evil of taking an innocent and defenceless human life but there are other evils and they’re worthy of equal consideration.’

“But they’re not. The economic situation, or opposition to the war in Iraq, or whatever it may be, those things don’t rise to the same level as something that is always and everywhere evil, namely the killing of innocent and defenceless human life.”

Archbishop Burke also cited the work of the official news service of the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference, that many pro-life observers complained soft-pedalled the newly elected president’s opposition to traditional morality.

“The bishops need to look also at our Catholic News Service, CNS, they need to review their coverage of the whole thing and give some new direction, in my judgement,” he said.

A Letter From Fr. Tom Euteneuer

Dear Friends of Life,

The pro-life movement is going through a great deal of self-examination at this time. I am not a pessimist, but my sense of realism tells me that the election of extreme abortion advocate, Barack Obama, and the nearly 7,000 political appointments of his administration will usher in a new decade of war on decency and the sanctity of life. Despite the ferocious optimism of his inauguration, the dark clouds of the culture of death are gathering over Washington as we speak, ready to cast their darkness everywhere.

In this time of preparation for the upcoming total war on life, I offer this modest list of Dos and Don'ts for the generous and valiant pro-lifers who gather for the March for Life in Washington, DC on January 22nd. May all men and women of good will take these recommendations to heart for a fruitful pro-life 2009!
DON'TS
1. Above all, do not grow despondent: there is much to fear for the situation of life around the world, but we are not permitted by our Christian faith to give up our efforts or zeal for life. In fact, we need to redouble it!

2. Do not become absorbed in the quest for a political solution to abortion: after 36 years of working for a political solution to abortion, we may soon see the wiping out of most, if not all, of the pro-life movement's gains with the stroke of a pen. Politics has failed. Or rather, we have failed at politics. Either way, politics now offers us little chance of anything other than just trying to slow the massive momentum of the culture of death.

3. Do not waste any more energy on overturning Roe: two Supreme Court seats are assured during an Obama administration, and they will undoubtedly be filled with extreme pro-abortion activist judges. A third appointment will leave us with no hope of overturning Roe in anyone's lifetime reading this. For that matter, the chance that a good pro-life President will succeed Obama in four years and nullify the leftward lurch of the high court is, shall we say, unlikely. Let's get hopes of undoing Roe out of our system and focus on more productive things.

DOS
1. Pray every day for God to end abortion with our help (in that order): abortion is such a great spiritual and social evil that only the divine power of God Himself can end it. "The Lord hears the cry of the poor," but God will not do it alone. He needs us to humbly recognize the basic fact that it is humanly impossible to end this evil. We need to get on our knees and beg His Mercy on the unborn and the conversion of all those who commit these evils.

2. Commit to fasting every week to end the evils of abortion and contraception: "Some demons can only be driven out by prayer and fasting," said the Lord, and we have to take that admonition seriously if we are to effect any change in the hearts of our people or of our society. Fasting makes us more spiritual and gives greater efficacy to all our works and prayers.

3. Take back the culture: Even if the anti-lifers hold the reins of political power, we must not sit back and allow moral anarchists to define all the terms of the cultural or social agenda. Whether it is through social activism for life (crisis pregnancy centers, pickets and prayer marches) or through touching hearts and minds one soul at a time (persuasion, formation, teaching, media), we cannot be neutral about the direction our American culture is heading. It is leading us to certain spiritual death, and no one can afford that. We need to fight for it and never give up the battle.
I promise you that Human Life International will be in the struggle for lives and souls continuously. It is our calling and mission. We will never give one inch to uphold the truth that the whole world needs to hear more than ever: namely, that human life is sacred from the first moment of natural fertilization to the moment of natural death - and we will defend it whether Obama likes it or not.Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International