LAST NIGHT, Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore gave one of the most inspiring pro-life homilies I have ever heard with heavy emphasis on the Beatitudes and their compelling application to our life-saving cause.
At the beginning of the Mass, the Cardinal observed that as he looked into the eyes of those at the Basilica, he didn't see weariness, only faith and hope and love. My wife and family were deeply moved last night -- so much so that my 11-year-old daughter Elyse whispered, "Maybe we won't have to march next year, because the little babies will be protected."
A wonderful thought! We can all learn a lot from the faith or a child, for nothing is impossible for God to accomplish.
But like anti-slavery abolitionists of another era, we have to do our part in God's plan, no matter how long it takes, regardless of cost or inconvenience or vilification, to stop the violence of abortion in the United States and abroad. We need to recommit ourselves to the "least of our brethren: in the womb and to their dear mothers and say anew to God, as my favorite Christian rock group Petra sings, "I am available." All of us must say, "I am available" because so much prayer, fasting, and work needs to be done now. You and I have a heavy burden knowing the uncomfortable truth that many refuse to see: Abortion is violence against children and it exploits, injures and dehumanizes women.
Those who fashion themselves as "advocates of children" and "pro-women" while promoting or even acquiescing to abortion are either hypocrites or are living in an unhealthy state of denial.
The unconscionable cruelty to children from partial-birth-abortion -- the execution or a partially-born girl or boy by stabbing them in the back of the head and sucking their brains out -- shatters the myth that abortion is somehow benign, just, or compassionate. It is ugly beyond words. And if Americans would only connect the dots -- they'd see the inherent violence of all abortion methods. And they would demand compassion, justice, and protection for unborn children.
That, it seems to me, is our calling.
Let us never shrink form enlightening society that abortion methods dismember and decapitate and cut to pieces the fragile bodies of children; that abortion methods pump salt water and other poisons onto their innocent bodies. Abortion means violent, painful death to little children -- kids who, if allowed to live, might someday thrill their parents with their first step, play soccer or baseball, or maybe make the honor roll in school, and fall in love someday. All of that potential is lost when the fatalism of abortion prevails.
As the new Congress convenes, please pray and fast for the President and the First Lady, Vice President Gore and Mrs. Gore -- that they would cease their unseemly and aggressive persecution of children here in America and overseas. The scandals that have rocked the White House pale to near insignificance when compared to the anti-child policies so methodically pursued by our Abortion President and his administration.
Pray and fast for Congress and all politicians -- that we might have the love, wisdom, courage, and numbers -- that is to say, the votes -- to protect human life.
And continue praying and fasting for, and loving, as you have done so magnificently, the women who've had abortions. They -- perhaps more than anyone in society today -- need love, reconciliation, and the "peace that surpasses all understanding" that only God can give.