One of the best blog post titles I have ever seen

Why isn’t abortion the Catholic Social Justice issue?

Before I go on to my point, you might want to look at this.  It is heavy fuel:

Response to America Magazine’s Editorial “Community of Disciples” (22 June 2009)

As you reflect on that, we move to one of the best blog post titles I have ever seen.

From Creative Minority Report:

Ultrasounds are the Rosa Parks of Abortion

Excerpt:

The unspoken message of the ultrasound is clear to all with an open heart: “I’m human—just like you.”

It was the same message of Harriet Beecher Stowe whose novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” made the horrors of slavery impossible to ignore. It was the message of Rosa Parks who awakened a slumbering country to the evils of racism by the simple act of sitting down. It is the message of the victims and the oppressed throughout our history: “"I’m human—just like you.”

Why do Catholics think that abortion can take second, or fourth, or eighth place to an amorphous mass of other issues?

This is the Social Justice issue.

Super WDTPRS kudos to fellow traveler Creative Minority Report.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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14 Comments

  1. Padre Steve says:

    Wow, I love the blog post title at CMR as well! Excellent!

  2. DdC says:

    Per usual, the Brothers Archbold are in the zone. Credit given, credit deserved.

  3. faithandfamily says:

    As the President of a Catholic-run Crisis Pregnancy Center in Atlanta, I can’t tell you how disheartening it is to frequently
    encounter pastors who are so into “social justice” but won’t allow us to come and speak at their parishes, our primary source of volunteers and funding! Praise God there are enough good priests who generously open their doors to keep us afloat.
    But I digress. To address the USCCB’s inattention to the abortion issue for 37 years: my suggestion is they devote all the collected funds from the CCHD collection to pro-life causes! This serves to kill two birds with one stone – they actually will be using the funds for “human development” and our bishops will no longer find themselves in a tempest due to the groups supported by those funds! amdg

  4. revs96 says:

    Abortion kills many more people than any other issue, so it is much more important than any other issue. I don’t know how anyone can consider things any other way and be a faithful Catholic. Abortion is not just murder, it is genocide.

  5. Elly says:

    I wonder where and when the term “social justice” started becoming so popular. Because if it came from liberal Catholic Universities, abortion is not the social justice issue because the so many of the young women who feel so proud that they are promoters of social justice (taking trains around the city so they can read a book to a minority child) also are on birth control.

    I don’t think I had even heard of the term “social justice” until my first semester freshman year of college and I was annoyed with it after only a couple months. My writing professor, without ever defining what “social justice” was, had her students participate in a social justice activity from her list of choices and write an essay on how the world is so terrible but we had done our part to make it a better place and we’re so great. And then in that same class we had to listen to a defense of the morning after pill. Now that I think about it, I can use that class as an excuse of why I never developed good writing skills (just kidding).

  6. Monk McG says:

    Abortion is the #1 social justice issue – at least according to the Compendium and the two most recent Popes. The question of where abortion ranks among social justice advocates in the US is another matter. I recently heard a talk by a representative of the USCCB’s social justice agency. She spoke of how committed the entire department was to working hand in hand with the pro-life department – I take this as a good sign. I asked myself, “Then why are there still seperate departments in the organizational structure of the bishops conference?” If they merged would it lead to (or appear as) a watering down of one or the other?

  7. VetusMores says:

    I think the answer to that question is 45 years of “it’s a choice” propaganda (see the WDTPRS post about the Hyannisport Conclave, link below). People today have such difficulty thinking otherwise.

    Father Pavone is right: people need to see abortions in order to be upset by them. They need to see that reality, because “abortion” is just a word to them. Just another medical procedure.

    They need to see it for what it is — as revs96 said, it’s genocide. And may God have mercy on us all for allowing it to happen.

    Here’s the WDTPRS link:

    https://wdtprs.com/2009/08/the-1964-hyannisport-conclave-catholic-leaders-teaching-catholic-pols-how-to-ignore-evil/

  8. coletmary says:

    An image that is as clear as the ultrasound. I’ve posted it as my status with a link to the article on my facebook page.

  9. JohnE says:

    VetusMores, I agree with what you and Fr. Pavone said. For too many, abortion is an abstract theoretical procedure on something unknown that might be a person. Pictures of abortion make the abstract theoretical procedure real. Pictures of ultrasounds help to show that the object of abortion is really a person.

    We’ve made ultrasounds part of our children’s scrapbooks. Hopefully as they look at these pictures time after time it will make them feel closer to the plight of the unborn as they grow older.

    Perhaps they might be a useful tool in parish bulletins or video announcements as well.

  10. Shepherdess says:

    Agreed, the best blog title ever.

    VetusMores – You are spot on. Thank you, I was looking for that link last night and could not find it…

    JohnE – There is a fine line here. People who have lost a child to miscarriage, cannot have children and/or were unable to adopt (we fit all 3 of those categories) already find immeasurable sorrow in the news of ever constant abortions. Over zealous use of ultrasound pictures in bulletins or unannounced video presentations would cause unintentional grave sorrow to many of us.

    I am not saying ultrasounds and video should not be used. It should be mandatory that people see a film on the procedure and an ultrasound BEFORE even scheduling an abortion. This is where I think Oklahoma law missed.

  11. wanda says:

    Oddly, a Fox News commentator was just announcing the rush to save ‘millions of innocent lives!’. The sad thing is she was talking about the oil spill off the coast in Louisiana and the threat it poses to wildlife.

    The thing that is going to help end the 50,000,000 and counting abortions IS the ultra-sound image of a living, breathing, human being, a real live person! Grandmom, Grandpop, Moms, Dads, Aunts, Uncles – you know you all have those ultra-sound pictures of your children before they were born – get them out and show them around!!

    The ultra-sound image IS the Rosa Parks of Abortion. When people SEE it, abortion will be doomed. Pray, speak up, visit the Priests for Life web-site, DONATE!

  12. wanda says:

    faithandfamily, Bravo! You are exactly right on all points! Pastors, keep your social justice baloney to yourselves. Talk to us about the fundamental, GOD-GIVEN, RIGHT TO LIFE for each and every human being, every child that God has created from the moment of conception until natural death. Then maybe I’ll listen to your arguments for social justice.

  13. I don’t want to discourage anyone, because I agree that ultrasounds and imaging are the “saver app” for prolife in this country.

    But in many developing countries, people have ultrasounds in order to find out their babies’ sex, so that they can abort the girls. It probably happens here, too, with certain people. So we have to pray hard that hearts be opened, and that a good thing not be misused.

  14. Gwen says:

    Sad to say, ultrasounds and other technology will only convince those with an open heart and open mind. A fellow parishioner told me of an experience outside the local abortion mill. She was talking to the boyfriend (of a young woman seeking an abortion) about ultrasounds. The male (I hesitate to call him a man) said, “I know all that, we’re still getting the abortion.”

    Some people know that they are killing human beings through abortion, and that’s just fine with them. Their lifestyles, careers, and egos are more important to them.

    So many women feel trapped and forced into abortion by boyfriends, fathers, husbands. How do we convince those men to be men?

    All that said, I’ll be at the abortion mill tomorrow a.m., praying. And we have to use technology like ultrasounds to win the media and public opinion battles.

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