Is the Sin of Abortion Calling
Down God’s Chastisement on
January
22, 2011 marked the 38th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision of
1973. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion for the 7-2 decision in the
case against the state of Texas which made abortion legal in the United States
during the first 6 months (22 weeks) of pregnancy, claiming a non-viable fetus,
one that cannot survive outside the womb, is not a human person and therefore
has no rights and protection under the law. It denied states the right to make
their own abortion laws but did allow states the right to continue to restrict
abortion during the last trimester when, according to them, the fetus was
viable outside the womb and was therefore considered a human person protected
under the law, but Roe vs. Wade still made exceptions in that last trimester
when the mother’s life was at risk.
The Court had to determine if the
“right” to choose to terminate a pregnancy was indeed a fundamental right
protected by the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Since Roe vs.
Wade was a suit against
Let
us look now at the Roe vs. Wade decision, an example of Positive or man-made
law, in terms of Divine Law, both Natural and Moral, and in terms of the teaching
of the Catholic Church and the message of Lady
of America®. Authentic private
revelation can never contradict Divine Revelation or Church doctrine.
THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, #’s1954
through 1959 states that the Natural Law
is universal, is engraved in the soul of every human person and leads him
to do good and to avoid evil. It asserts
the incomparable dignity and worth of the human person and is the basis for the
person’s fundamental human rights and duties. It is immutable and permanent and transcends the variations
of history. It is the Creator’s work and is the solid foundation for man’s individual
and communal moral choices and the necessary
basis for civil law.
In #’s
1950-1951 of the Catechism Moral Law is
defined as the work of Divine Wisdom, fatherly instruction outlining the conduct that leads to
beatitude with God or separation from God and one’s own destiny. All law is a rule of conduct enacted by
competent authority for the sake of the common good. The moral law presupposes a
rational order established among
creatures for their common good and
for the attainment of their final end,
union with the Creator. Hence, all
civil law hinges necessarily upon both the natural and moral law established by
God. Our fundamental rights do not come
from man nor a Constitution but from God Himself who has written them into our
very human nature and right reason. Thomas
We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We cannot
subjectively judge people; only God can, but we must objectively judge human
thought and behavior. Objectively
speaking, abortion is grave sin against the Natural Law for it is irrational
and unnatural for human beings to destroy their own offspring; to destroy any
human life, especially the most innocent and helpless life in the womb; and it
is out of order for a creature to disobey the order established by the
Creator. Abortion pits one person’s perceived right against another’s true right and threatens the common
good and the continuation of the human family. It is objectively sin against
the Moral Law’s Fifth Commandment in the taking of another’s life and most often
is a sin also against the Sixth Commandment involving sexual sins against purity
and chastity in fornication and/or adultery.
Even in marriage abortion can result from a false love wherein one spouse
violates the dignity of the other person by using the other for his or her own
pleasure, making the person an object of exploitation. Abortion may also occur in marriage due to
the failure of spouses to be open to life in the marriage act, putting the
secondary aspect of marriage’s pleasure above the primary one of procreation,
failing to put reason and spirit over flesh and passion, and failing to accept
the natural consequence of the marriage act they chose to engage in. Abortion
used as a method of birth control or population control is likewise a sin
against both natural and moral law.
In Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel
of Life, Pope
Whatever is
opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion,
euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the
human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts
to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman
living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution,
the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions,
where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and
responsible persons; all these things and others like them are infamies indeed.
They poison human society, and they do more harm to those who practice them
than to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonour to the Creator". (#’s 3 and 5.)
Today there
exists a great multitude of weak and defenseless human beings, unborn children
in particular, whose fundamental right to life is being trampled upon.
In
speaking of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel and the blood of Abel crying out
to heaven for justice, His Holiness writes:
But God cannot leave the crime
unpunished: from the ground on which it has been spilt, the blood of the one
murdered demands that God should render justice (cf. Gen 37:26; Is 26:21; Ez 24:7-8). From this
text the Church has taken the name of the "sins which cry to God for
justice", and, first among them, she has included wilful
murder. 12 For the Jewish people,
as for many peoples of antiquity, blood is the source of life. Indeed "the
blood is the life" (Dt
12:23), and life, especially human life, belongs only to God: for this reason
whoever attacks human life, in some way attacks God himself. (#9)
He
addresses the large scale systematic attacks upon life being approved in the legal and medical
sectors of our society today. Statistics
record over 50 million abortions in
the
The
twentieth century will have been an era of massive attacks on life, an endless
series of wars and a continual taking of innocent human life. False prophets
and false teachers have had the greatest success".15 …We
are in fact faced by an objective "conspiracy against life",
involving even international Institutions, engaged in encouraging and carrying
out actual campaigns to make contraception, sterilization and abortion widely
available. Nor can it be denied that the mass media are often implicated in
this conspiracy, by lending credit to that culture which presents recourse to
contraception, sterilization, abortion and even euthanasia as a mark of
progress and a victory of freedom, while depicting as enemies of freedom and
progress those positions which are unreservedly pro-life. (#17)
To claim
the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right
in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance:
that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of
true freedom…Nothing and no one can in any way permit the killing of an
innocent human being, whether a fetus or an embryo, an infant or an adult, an
old person, or one suffering from an incurable disease, or a person who is
dying. Furthermore, no one is permitted to ask for this act of killing, either
for himself or herself or for another person entrusted to his or her care, nor
can he or she consent to it, either explicitly or implicitly. Nor can any
authority legitimately recommend or permit such an action".52
The
Second Vatican Council defined abortion and infanticide as “unspeakable
crime.” Contrary to the Roe vs. Wade
decision, Pope
…"From the time that the ovum is
fertilized, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor the mother;
it is rather the life of a new human being with his own growth. It would never
be made human if it were not human already. This has always been clear, and ...
modern genetic science offers clear confirmation. …The human being is to be
respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore
from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in
the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to
life".59
…The killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help
others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act.
All legitimate authority comes from God; therefore civil law must
conform to divine law. Pope
… "human law is law
inasmuch as it is in conformity with right reason and thus derives from the
eternal law. But when a law is contrary to reason, it is called an unjust law;
but in this case it ceases to be a law and becomes instead an act of violence.96…Every
law made by man can be called a law insofar as it derives from the natural law.
But if it is somehow opposed to the natural law, then it is not really a law
but rather a corruption of the law".97
“Abortion and euthanasia are thus
crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in
conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to
oppose them by conscientious objection. …In the case of an intrinsically unjust
law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never
licit to obey it, or to "take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it".98 #73 …To refuse to take part in
committing an injustice is not only a moral duty; it is also a basic human
right.”
It
is the duty of the Catholic Church to teach and defend Divine Law which is
always superior to human law. It states
clearly that human life begins at the
moment of conception and must be
protected from that moment of conception until the moment of natural death. It
must vehemently protest the human rights violations against the pre-born child,
especially as regards the most inhumane and cruel methods of abortion—saline
solutions that burn the infant’s body, suction which tears apart that tiny
body, and partial birth abortion which literally brings the baby alive from the
womb and then punctures the brain and destroys the body. Modern science
confirms the truth of the pain inflicted upon the infant in the womb. We
prosecute people for such cruelty to animals and chastise nations who use such
cruelty against human beings, but we legalize it against helpless, innocent
infants and falsely claim it is an intrinsic right. Reason itself cries out against such evil thought and deeds, such
contradiction!
The 20th century which Pope
Is the sin of abortion calling down
God’s chastisement on
Although these words are not stated
per se in the Diary of messages from Our Lady of America©, Sister Mildred (Mary
Ephrem) Neuzil was adamant
in making that statement to those around her during her life. The locutions and appearances of Our Lady of
America® over 40+ years began after World War I and the Great Depression of the
1930’s and during the years of World War II. They were prior to the Second
Vatican Council which was held from October 11, 1962 through December 8, 1965.
They were prior to the flux of priests and religious out of the consecrated
life and the increase in the divorce rate, breakdown of marriage and family
life, the sexual revolution, the rise in immodest dress, pornography and
recreational sex that soon would rob our children of their innocence at early ages
as evil forces attempted to belittle the virtues of purity, chastity and
virginity and the proper respect for parental authority in the home. These same evil forces already had an evil
eye toward the economy of abortion. Is
it any wonder then that Our Lady, while favoring
That God is chastising
While neither Our Lady nor Our Lord
cite abortion itself, the sin which they address as unnatural acts that are erroneously called intrinsic rights in the name
of love, certainly implies and includes it. God gives us the guidelines and
we are to find the details in the teachings of Scripture and the Church. The
Catholic Church is the sacrament of the living Presence of Christ on earth; it
is His voice in the world today. We have certainly cited enough of the Church’s
teachings on divine law and the fundamental and intrinsic rights of the human
person for us to draw all the proper conclusions. We can rationally assume
Sister Mildred was led to focus on abortion because it is the center and
starting point for all issues on the sanctity of life, the dignity and worth of
the human person, whose protection demands a purity of heart and mind and soul befitting
the noble, nearly divine nature God bestowed on us. Let us reflect on Our
Lord’s and Our Lady’s words.
Many
unnatural acts are being committed in the name of love. This evil is being disguised and tolerated as
an intrinsic right like any other. Even
some of My priests and consecrated virgins are being
caught up into this web of evil, not realizing its terrible consequences. … there are those in high places in the Church who disobey and
refuse respect to my Son’s Vicar on earth.
These betray the teachings inspired by the Divine Spirit sent by my Son
to be with the Church ‘til the end of time. …There are those who teach false
doctrines, and those who repudiate the Holy Sacraments. They are filled with intellectual pride. And so refusing to follow my humble Son, they are
being destroyed together with those who misguidedly follow them down the path
of error and falsehood.” (Diary, Pgs
40-43.)
Every covenant has two parts—blessing for obedience and curse for
disobedience. Many want to focus on Our
Lady’s favor to the exclusion of her warnings of untold punishment if we do not
obey those warnings. If the blood of one man, Abel, could cry out to heaven for
justice, how much more must the blood of 50 million innocent babies in
“I come to you, O children of
“My
beloved daughter, what I am about to tell you concerns in a
particular way my children in
“Dear child, unless the United States
accepts and carries out faithfully the mandate given to it by heaven to lead
the world to peace, there will come upon it and all nations a great havoc of
war and incredible suffering. If,
however, the United States is faithful to this mandate from heaven and yet
fails in the pursuit of peace because the rest of the world will not accept or
co-operate then the United States will not be burdened with the punishment
about to fall.” (Diary, Nov. 22, 1980, Pg. 38.)
On February
11, 1981 Sister Mildred stated it is
evident that the Forces of Evil are enveloping the world and their hatred is
particularly focused on the
“O my children, you
still aren’t listening. I see the
destruction coming but you do not believe me.
You can stem this tide of suffering if you at last do as I’ve been
asking of you for so long. Renew your
hearts, your spirits, by seeking and following the light of the Holy Spirit
within yourselves and in the teachings of
Is
the sin of abortion calling down God’s chastisement on
Copyright ©
Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity,
January, 2011.
All rights reserved.