This year’s March for Life begins in an atmosphere of cautious optimism and great expectations. We do not wish to see this emerging century follow in the blood-stained footsteps of the last.
After the long and harsh pro-abortion winter suffered for the past eight years, we hope for a thaw with the inauguration of a new President, one who courted the anti-abortion cause.
At the dawn of a new millennium, we are also inspired with great expectations. We expect many specific achievements in the coming years: We expect the end of partial-birth abortion. We expect the termination of federal funding for all abortion providers. We expect court decisions that challenge the fallacious premises of Roe v. Wade.
It is time to fulfill promises made. We know that this will not be an easy road to travel. The razor-thin margin of victory brings with it the temptation to compromise principle for a false unity. But we have the right to expect courage in our nation’s leaders.
The Abortion Cycle
It is not enough, however, merely to pass anti-abortion legislation or engage in pro-life rhetoric.
The nation needs and expects far more. The new Americans who survive beyond the womb in this new millennium must find an America that will give them the elements to break the horrific abortion cycle that perpetuates this crime.
They must find the family welded together by the indissoluble bond of marriage solely between a man and a woman. The family is the organic cell of all society where we find the foundation of the moral and social virtues, which then vigorously radiate outward to all social bodies and the state itself.
Children need families that will nurture them, guard their innocence, and develop their personalities. In particular, all children must find within their homes the Faith that enables them to know, love, and serve God in this world and be happy with Him forever in the next.
As long as the traditional family remains in crisis, we will never sever the power lines that supply the abortion mills. As long as the Faith remains dead in souls, we will never wipe out the moral rot of sexual immorality, which is the contaminated soil where the abortion movement grows and flourishes.
Return to a Wholesome Society
It is not enough to revitalize our families. For if no man is an island, neither is the family. The family can flourish only when it is a healthy part of a healthy whole. All society must be involved in this veritable crusade.
Abortion thrives upon the foul decadence of a culture. Thus, fashion, music, arts, and entertainment must uphold morality, not destroy it. The porno-cultural epidemic sweeping our country with blasphemy and filth is infecting millions with the germs of abortion.
Society must recognize the primary right of parents to educate their children with an authentic education that teaches them the absolute difference between right and wrong. Too long have we wandered in the modern educational wasteland to the detriment of countless souls.
Society must give material stability to the family by reducing the excessive burden of taxes, and by ending the death tax and the marriage penalty tax. In sum, we must return to a wholesome and godly society whose laws and social customs preserve what is good and curb what is evil. Only if we restore health to all society will the abortion cycle be brought to a halt.
Appeal to the Nation’s Leaders
What, then, do we ask of our Nation’s leaders as we enter the year 2001? Give us the elements to break the abortion cycle. Eliminate the hostility toward Christian morality that pervades our government. Let us return to the idea that a nation’s greatest obligation is to protect its people from error and ruin by fostering good and by opposing evil, even if it be merely by raising obstacles to its action.
Thus, address the great moral issues that constitute the abortion cycle. When the matter comes before you, stand up in defense of the victims of abortion and euthanasia. Do not accept the idea of homosexual “unions” or legalize them on the same footing with traditional marriage. Promote an education system that will bolster morality and not dismantle it. Let us become once again a Nation built on principle and living in accordance with moral standards. Above all, be yourselves models of uprightness and virtue. We have had our fill of shame and scandal; bring back dignity and honor.
As Catholics, we call upon our Nation’s bishops, our shepherds, to lead us in a veritable crusade against the moral chaos so characteristic of our postmodern times. Speak out courageously, loudly, and clearly against sex-education, blasphemy, indifference, and so many other cultural ills that corrode our Faith and society. Our weary souls clamor for this If this is done, we can definitively break the abortion cycle and reconquer the honor of America. If not, the very future of our Nation is at risk.
A Beacon of Hope
In its defense of the immutable values of Christian civilization, the American TFP sees the heroic struggle of those resisting abortion as a flame of hope for the Nation. In the anti-abortion movement, there are countless families that ardently thirst for a return to the Faith and to a wholesome society. These go to great lengths in giving themselves to this cause. It is our hope that all of these may see abortion not as an isolated problem but rather as part of a whole series of evils.
Like one all-encompassing fire, these evils are devouring our Nation. We must respond in like manner, extinguishing the raging fires of our abortion culture wherever they appear. If we are faithful to this just cause, we can be assured of the help of Providence to give us the strength and courage to forge ahead.
From this hope we may expect yet another: that we may not only break the abortion cycle but that God and Our Lady will bless our efforts and that we may see the true America yet fulfill the great role given her by Divine Providence.