Bernard Cardinal Law, Archbishop of Boston

Surely it is our conviction about the value and inviolability of human life, of every human life, that brings us together here this evening. We have just celebrated Easter. How blessed we are that as we celebrate Easter in our part of the world we are also enjoying spring. The new life which spring heralds is such a fitting natural symbol for what Easter is all about. God, as Scripture tells us, did not make death. The whole purpose of the paschal mystery, the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, is the forgiveness of sin, whose last word is always death, and the sure promise of newness of life. Easter cannot be understood apart from baptism, and baptism is a dying to sin and to death and a rising to newness of life in Christ.

In Spanish the word for Easter is the same as the word for Passover, Pascua. This linguistic fact reminds us that our celebration of Easter is related to that original event of Passover and that there is a rich point of contact for Christians and Jews as we ponder together the significance of these pivotal events of Passover and Easter in our lives of faith.

In 1965, the bishops of the Catholic Church, gathered in the Second Vatican Council, addressed themselves to the theme of the church in the modern world. Pope John Paul II, who was a participant in that council, takes the occasion of this encyclical to reaffirm what the council said. Those words of the Second Vatican Council, reaffirmed by Pope John Paul II, bear repetition:

This litany of the ways in which the dignity and inviolability of human persons are transgressed constitute what Pope John Paul II has called a culture of death.

Hear the words of Pope John Paul II as he makes his point powerfully and dramatically:

"We are confronted by an ever greater reality, which can be described as a veritable structure of sin. This reality is characterized by the emergence of a culture which denies solidarity and in many cases takes the form of a veritable ‘culture of death.’ This culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency. Looking at the situation from this point of view, it is possible to speak in a certain sense of a war of the powerful against the weak: a life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless or held to be an intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected in one way or another. A person who because of illness, handicap or, more simply, just by existing, compromises the well-being or lifestyle of those who are more favored tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated. In this way a kind of ‘conspiracy against life’ is unleashed" Evangelium Vitae, 12).

This, I believe, accurately describes the situation we face, and which inspires you to band together as the Vanderburgh Right to Life Committee.

Yesterday was marked as Patriots Day in Boston, Mass., and once again thousands of strangely driven individuals ran the Boston Marathon. The course was 26.2 miles, but there was another course for one of the participants. Her goal was to walk 26.2 feet from the starting line. Her name is Catherine Gabriel Lynch. She measures 28 inches in height and weighs 351bs. She is 26 years of age.

There are those who would counsel the mother of such a child to have an abortion. This extraordinary young woman, however, has loving parents and graduated with honors from high school, where she managed the girls’ indoor-track team. She later graduated summa cum laude from Regis College and serves as an advocate for sick children, their parents and siblings at Boston Children’s Hospital in its Center for Families.

Her economics professor in college, Edward Mulholland, has recently commented:

"When I first met her, I was the first-year class adviser, and I remember thinking to myself. ‘I don’t know if this is going to work.’ All that I saw were her limitations. Now I can say that I have been doing this for 35 years, and I learned more from her than from any other student. When I think back now, I’m almost ashamed of my initial thoughts."

Katie herself says, "No one is disabled, everyone is just differently abled."

The remarkable story of this young woman appeared in the front page of the Boston Globe last Saturday. The media in the Northeast, and probably in many other markets as well, is totally unsympathetic with the pro-life cause. This story is so clearly an affirmation of all that we stand for in the pro-life movement, yet the media elites do not make the connection. Katie and others like her are the inspiration for the pro-life movement,

Last Friday in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston during that time in the service when we have veneration of the cross, I was so moved as I watched the congregation make its way toward the cross in the front of the church. One could see in their faces both deep faith and grateful love for all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus. One of those in the congregation who most moved me was a young man in a motorized wheelchair. He has cerebral palsy, and it is very difficult for him to control the movement of his head, his arms and his legs. Yet he made his way to the cross.

Several weeks ago I was privileged to welcome to the chapel in my home a group of women who share a common experience. Each of the 24 has had at least one abortion. Subsequently, they have suffered incredible sadness, remorse, loneliness and guilt. What brought them together as a congregation in my chapel was their earlier participation in the program Project Rachel. This wonderful ministry seeks to help those who have been involved in abortion to experience the forgiveness of God and to encounter their aborted children in the love of God. As Project Rachel has evolved in the Boston area, it includes a retreat of several days. These women have all participated in one of these retreats.

At the beginning of Mass I invited several of the women to share with me and with one another what the love of God has done in their lives through Project Rachel. What moving testimonials to God’s grace were expressed in their words!

These women, that young man and Katie, our marathon walker, reveal a fuller picture of the pro-life movement’s concerns.

Some years ago the city of Boston was rocked by a terrible crime, A man entered two abortion clinics successively within an hour and murdered several persons working in those clinics. Certainly you and I would agree that those shootings were in direct violation of what we affirm in the pro-life movement. Those who would characterize us as a band of wide-eyed zealots narrowly focused only on the value of the life of the unborn are the winners whenever violence is committed by those who bear the label pro-life.

Since the pro-life movement is countercultural, we face great challenges in our society. The dominant culture not only accepts, but it glorifies abortion and, increasingly, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide as well. What a brilliant stroke of genius it was when abortion rights advocates first framed their cause under the heading of freedom of choice.

What could be more American than the right to choose for oneself? It is interesting to note that the term pro-life is proscribed by some newspapers. Recently, when the Boston Globe ran a feature written jointly by three women who are leaders in the pro-life movement and three women involved in promoting abortion rights, the Boston Globe used the term pro-life. It went to great pains to explain, however, that this was an exception to their policy because they had agreed that they would print the feature exactly as it had been written by the six women. Since the six women had agreed that they would allow each group to describe itself in its own words, it was necessary for the newspaper to print the term pro-life.

The degree to which we are engaged in a cultural war is demonstrated by the orchestrated blackout of the pro-life position in many media outlets.

I am convinced that our united efforts in the pro-life movement in the United States to outlaw partial-birth abortion have been of paramount significance in effecting a change in the attitudes of people in our nation. The advocates of abortion rights are frantic in their efforts to ensure that partial—birth abortion not be outlawed. Why is this? It is because at long last the iron curtain of media censorship has been penetrated, if ever so slightly, and the truth about abortion has begun to be brought before the American people. To be sure, every abortion is the taking of an innocent human life and is to be deplored. The partial-birth abortion debate, however, allows us to engage the minds and hearts of the uncommitted more easily. We must not ease up on our efforts to ban partial-birth abortion.

It is essential, as you have so well recognized here in your efforts, that the pro-life movement recognizes the link between abortion, euthanasia and every other assault against the inviolability and dignity of the human person. On April 10 in the Netherlands, the upper house of Parliament voted 46 to 28 in favor of the law which would legalize what is called mercy killing and assisted suicide. What an obscene misuse of the beautiful word mercy, which finds its fullest embodiment in the compassion of God!

Commenting on the law’s passage, Rob Jonquiere, a retired family doctor in the Netherlands who heads the Dutch Association for Voluntary Euthanasia, commented that a vast majority of Dutch people take the view that "they should control their lives rather than placing their lives in the bands of God." He goes on to say that surveys suggest more than 80 percent of Dutch citizens support the law.

I wonder how the question was framed in those surveys. Another way in which the purveyors of the culture of death make their gains is by the tailoring of surveys to yield predetermined results. It is one thing to ask whether a person who is suffering excruciating pain from a certainly fatal disease should be allowed the help of a physician to bring death more quickly, and it is quite another thing to ask whether the pain caused by terminal illness should be controlled and the terminally ill person cared for in a way that would make his or her dying days more peaceful. It is one thing to ask if someone burdened by the pain of terminal illness might be allowed to end the misery. And it is quite another thing to ask whether terminally ill people should be assisted to live their dying days in comfort so that they might use those precious days and hours to say goodbye to those whom they love, and to be about whatever reconciliation may be needed to bring greater peace to their lives and those of relatives and friends.

One of the great developments in health care is the hospice program. Those of us who are in pro-life should do all we can to lift up this very important ministry.

Not surprisingly, in Germany there has been a widespread negative reaction to the Dutch vote. The president of a leading association of German doctors has said: "Everyone has the right to a dignified death, but nobody has the right to be killed. The dangers of abuse are too great

Writing for the New York Times with a dateline of Berlin, April 11, Roger Cohen reports:

"Front-page newspaper editorials, statements from ministers and criticism from doctors all took the view that, in the words of George Paul Hefty in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the foremost conservative daily, the Dutch had ‘breached a dike’ with dangerous consequences. The extent of the reaction, far greater than in any other European country, seemed to reflect the enduring unease over euthanasia in a country that tried it under Hitler.

"Between 1939 and 1941, using gassing in many cases, the Nazis proceeded with a clandestine elimination of about 100,000 men, women and children who were physically or mentally handicapped. The aim was to improve what they call the Aryan race by eradicating those whom doctors decided had congenital defects."

In the case of euthanasia, therefore, not a matter of surmising what might happen. We have the sad example of recent history to tell us where this fascination with euthanasia can I began with a passage from the Second Vatican Council which Pope John Paul II reaffirmed in his encyclical on the Gospel of life. Let me conclude by underscoring what I think we need to be about in the pro-life movement based upon that passage. If you will recall, the council fathers linked together a host of examples of the culture of death. For the pro-life movement to be more successful in transforming our culture in the United States, I think it is absolutely essential that we be consistently and unambiguously pro-life.

To be pro-life means that we cannot be insensitive to the poor, the suffering and the starving in sub-Saharan Africa. We cannot remain indifferent to the fact that the United States, the richest nation in the world, ranks last among industrial nations in the percentage of gross national product directed toward foreign aid. As the leading industrial nation in the world, we cannot remain insensitive to the fact that the richer nations get richer while the poorer nations get poorer. The gap widens. This is disastrous for us as a nation, and it is an expression of the culture of death, not a culture of life.

We cannot be insensitive to the fact that millions of Americans have no health insurance and that the degree of homelessness and hunger in our own nation is unconscionable.

We must see the pro-life implications in the debate on capital punishment. Certainly there is a vast difference between an individual guilty of heinous capital crimes and an innocent child not yet born. Certainly the state has the right to protect itself, and punishment is appropriate for those who have gravely offended the common good. Nonetheless, as our Holy Father has said in that same "Gospel of Life," "in the circumstances of today there is seldom, if ever, an instance when capital punishment is justified."

The wonderful works of Project Rachel, the magnificent array of services provided by hospice programs and the many other positive efforts to affirm life must be celebrated, must be encouraged and supported.