Archbishop of DC: Never Has Responsibility to Protect Life Been More Difficult Than in Our Day

By Cardinal Donald Wuerl
Archbishop of Washington, DC

As I begin these reflections, I want to thank Father Adam Park, Pastor of this Parish and also Chaplain to the Catholic faculty and students at George Washington University, for arranging this opportunity to celebrate the University Mass for Life in which we give thanks to God for the gift of human life.

The Liturgy speaks to us. At every Mass the Word of God is announced so that we can hear that Word and seek to have it form our lives. What does God say to us? What does the Word of God, announced in this Liturgy, say to us tonight?

Some of that Word is addressed explicitly to you, the young people, the university students who are at the heart of this University Mass for Life. God says to you as he did to the Prophet Jeremiah, “Do not say I am too young, I do not know how to speak.” Do not say, I am not sure how I should voice my support for unborn children. Because the Lord says to the Prophet Jeremiah, “See I place my words in your mouth!”

The second reading tells us why those words are so important. Saint Paul writing to the Romans, then and to us now, says, “Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

Yes, there is a powerful political correctness movement, emphasis, perspective, environment and force all around us. It says to set aside such things as the value of human life and substitute the politically correct position that you should be free to choose to kill unborn children. But the Word of God comes to us to say, “Do not conform yourself to this age.”

And finally, in the Gospel, Jesus tells us in response to the question of the young man, “What must I do to gain eternal life?” “Keep the commandments.” And these include “You shall not kill.”

Once, some years ago, I was at a hearing that involved a number of community leaders, political, law enforcement, educational and Church. One of the young at risk people, about 14 years old, was asked by one of the people on the advisory board, “Why is it that you act so violently towards other people?” (The young man was in custody for having shot and gravely injured another young person.) His response was, “How come you get to draw the line?” His inference was clear to everybody in the room.

For two generations our culture has been saying it is perfectly alright to kill unborn children, it is perfectly alright to take the life of someone else if that someone is inconvenient to you. His question was, “How come you get to draw the line?”

Article continues: http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2016/04

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