Time for new pro-life commitment

I’ll make an assumption and say that if you are reading this article, you in some way identify as pro-life. 

But what does it mean to be pro-life? I mean, we’re talking about life. Almost no one is against life, are they?

Then why is abortion now the leading cause of death in the world ... with an estimated 56 million happening globally every year?

It is truly frightening to think that we are standing by while a major part of society insists it is not only acceptable to take innocent human life, but it is actually good and is a constitutional “right.” Our own Catholic prime minister insists that everyone must believe in the right to abortion and euthanasia. Medical care personnel are being co-opted, even forced to participate in the unsavoury task of taking a human life. Palliative care centres designed to provide compassionate care until the end of life are being forced to provide assisted suicide.

One way of looking at what it means to be pro-life would be to promote the dignity of all human persons in all stages of life. To be pro-life is to be pro humanity, and we need to help each other understand that. There are numerous ways of expressing our pro-life support and a variety of organizations that approach the problem from plenty of perspectives. Yet, in Canada, there is no groundswell of resistance to abortion.

As it happens, pro-life leaders are an independent sort; they have strong feelings – dare I say outrage – about the issues and they go about organizing people to stand against the prevailing culture, a culture that promotes death over life.

So, there is a small core of Catholics, Christians, and other sensible folks who know that killing is wrong and do something to try to stop it.

But I’m quite perplexed by the fact that we have 13 million Catholics in Canada, close to 40 per cent of the population, and yet we don’t seem to have a voice that shouts to the rooftops that the killing of innocent human life is wrong. If we use our voice at all, we’re whispering. We are not being heard even by our own constituency. We are not being heard by our young people.

To be fair, we are facing a virtual monolith in the media and the halls of power that is intent on blocking our voice. As we have seen recently, our rights to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion are under attack. But that is no excuse for not steadfastly bringing the Gospel of Life to the world.

The truth is, of the 13 million Catholics in Canada, many are not in the pews and have been sucked into the culture. Meanwhile most of the rest who are sitting in the pews or standing in the pulpit think it’s not their thing. They think it is a problem among many other problems.

But that is just not true. If we stand by and leave it to others to fight for the right to life for all humans, we are not doing our duty. Quite simply, there is nothing more important than life. “Choose life that you and your descendants might live” (Dt 30:19)

So, where is our voice? It is not being heard because the pro-life movement suffers from BAD BRANDING.

Frankly, I’m looking for a new model for what it means to be pro-life. I’m looking for a model in which every elementary schoolchild does not lose what he or she knows from birth – that life is precious and we don’t have the right to harm other humans; that we avoid unnecessary harms; that if a harm is unavoidable, we minimize it.

If we fail in this fundamental principle, then all other ethical principles do not stand up. Our society is failing to teach and to practice this principle of nonmaleficence – to do no harm! The result is an underestimation of human dignity, a declining culture, and the abuse of individuals and groups of individuals. We need to turn this around.

I’m looking for pro-life models in which all people of good will vehemently condemn the very notion of killing another human being; models in which all people of good will understand the implications of abortion and euthanasia. I’m looking for models along the lines of what Signal Hill is doing with their Value Project or their Empowering Life Series.

We need new ideas. We need to reach the young folks. We need new strategies. As chaplain for pro-life for the Archdiocese of Vancouver, I would love to hear your ideas. Ultimately, prayer is the answer, but we need strategies.

We have all heard the Ignatian phrase, “pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you.” Let us pray and do the work.

Father Lynn is chaplain of pro-life for the Archdiocese of Vancouver. He can be reached at [email protected].