Tell it to Lincoln!

A great letter in this weeks "Catholic San Francisco":

At Expense of Unborn?

In Father Ken Weare's May 25 comments regarding Nancys Pelosi's stance on abortion, we see a textbook example of a priest giving cover to Catholic politicians who support abortion. Within the context of a divided if not uneducated populace, he says, the forced establishment of laws contrary to the common morality could be detrimental. Some choose to move more slowly, attempting to educate before they legislate, even at the expense of the unborn.

So that means politicians should wait until the polls favor moral and ethical behavior before they act to end injustice? Tell that to Abraham Lincoln who did not wait for public opinion against slavery to be unanimous before he fought a war to end that injustice. Should Hitler have been permitted to slaughter the Jews until the uneducated world came around to his way of thinking about the desirability of a master race?

Just law is not based on public opinion or the common morality of the day. It is based on truth. Truth is constant and eternal, unlike culture.When politicians attribute their actions to the time or place in which they live, they abdicate all sense of personal responsibility for their actions. Since they are elected to uphold the common good, politicians especially are challenged to uphold moral absolutes in a changing cultural context.

It is only the saddest of our elected officials who jump on the common morality bandwagon and accept evil instead of working for good. And clergymen who attempt to provide justification for the actions of politicians like Nancy Pelosi's, do them no favor. I doubt that there are any arguments in favor of slaughtering the unborn--even just a temporary slaughter--that will work in eternity.

Eva Muntean, Co Chair
Walk for Life West Coast
San Francisco