RBWords - Volume 34 - Number 7: July 2021
Something to Think About
R.B.WORDS - VOL. 34 - NO. 7 - JULY 2022
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SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT -
The DOBBS case in the U. S. Supreme Court has been on a lot of front burners for the past month. Even with the “warning shot” of a leaked draft opinion, the reaction has been vociferous, no matter which position is advocated. On a legal level (for someone like me with a law degree), the Supreme Court decided correctly in regard to the non existence of a constitutionally protected “right” to elective abortion. But I feel they simply punted the issue to the states, allowing them to decide if there is a “right” to elective abortion in their individual state constitutions. All of this ignores the right to life of the unborn child! What may or may not be legal does not thereby become moral. Our federal system, under this decision, becomes a legal minefield and the prominent media seize on spectacular cases to promote pro-elective abortion. They ignore the old law adage: “Hard cases make bad law!”
The bishops of the USA issued a measured statement applauding the decision but now the battle moves more to the local diocesan level. What is each diocese doing to help and support women with emotionally and physically fraught pregnancies? What are Catholic health care professionals and institutions doing to help the bishops in the task of preaching the sacredness of all human life from womb to tomb? Boasting about one Supreme Court opinion decision that does not at all recognize the right to life of an unborn child is empty since the reality remains that elective abortion can and does remain “legal” in some states.
Changing hearts and minds is always harder than changing laws or constitutions. The struggle to convince our secular civil society not to kill its own children will probably go on for years and years to come. But that struggle begins with each one of us. We must recognize Christ in the unborn child. IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
It Has Been Said
IT HAS BEEN SAID:
The presence of Jesus among us and in the gifts of bread and wine are the same presence. As we recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, we recognize him also in our brothers and sisters, As we give one another the bread, saying, “This is the Body of Christ,” we give ourselves to one another, saying, “We are the body of Christ.” It is one and the same giving, it is one and the same body, it is one and the same Christ.
From BREAD FOR THE JOURNEY - A DAYBOOK OF WISDOM AND FAITH by Henri Nouwen