Pro-Choice Violence and Radical Love

Argentine_cathedral-585x401     LifeSite News recently published an article and a video on disturbing events in Argentina. The video shows men united in prayer, protecting the Catholic cathedral from being defaced by pro-abortion feminists. Enraged by the loving, peaceful, and prayerful presence of these men, the feminists assaulted and berated them. (See the video here).

A friend of mine once told me that one sign of demonic possession is the inability to see a religious picture, statue, relic, sacramental, etc., or to hear any sort of religious utterance. He recounted a story of a demonically possessed woman who saw a statue of Padre Pio and exclaimed “what is that?! That is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” Indeed, the demonic cannot see – much less understand or appreciate – beauty, because the demonic specializes in destroying, twisting, perverting beauty. It specializes in making the ugly beautiful in its eyes and the beautiful ugly. For, by distorting man’s ability to see beauty, the demonic is thus able to distort man’s ability to see God, who is beauty itself. It is this purely evil force that drives, directs, guides, influences, and controls the pro-“choice” movement. Is this utter defilement and defacement of the sacred and beautiful that distorts pro-“choicers” souls and makes them into pawns for the Devil’s use. There is no two-ways about it: this is an evil movement, motivated by evil means, for evil ends.

The pro-“choice” movement singles out the Catholic Church every time. In a fight against the institution of Truth in the world, pro-abortionists attempt to destroy what they cannot control. They attempt to remove the Church from the world, or at least, remove the outer beauty of the Church from the eyes of men. Perhaps, if they can rid the world of the sight of external beauty, man will forget internally the beautiful love God has for them.

Yet, “unwearied is [His] love for us,” and the Lord continues to love us, to love men, despite man’s attempts to rebuke Him and His presence. Indeed, the Lord continues to be crucified for all men in order that they may come to know Him. What marvelous love is this, to bear the sins of the world simply because there is beauty in life?

Just as the crowds spat on, berated, tempted, beat, humiliated, and scorned Christ, so too the feminists attacked the witness of Christ given by these young men. The events in Argentina were all too familiar to Christ’s crucifixion to the point that the saddest part of the video is the loss of souls. The presence of love, offering itself on the wood of the cross, on the lips of these men in prayer, was refused. Indeed, as Christ bore the sins of the world out of love for the world, and the world rejected him, so too does the pro-life movement carry the burden of a broken culture out of love for this culture and the culture continually rejects any healing remedy.

The beautiful and courageous Catholic men of Argentina died to themselves, died to their pride, to their fear, all for something greater, something more beautiful than anything on this earth.  They understood that Truth, love, life, and the dignity of life are beautiful, regardless of their abuses in this life. Those men were willing to suffer out of love for the Lord.

These men will be saints one day. Indeed, what other movement so calls for and creates saints as the pro-life movement? What movement challenges its people to such radical love, peace, and joy as the pro-life movement? To be Catholic is to be pro-life because to be pro-life is to acknowledge that there is, to quote Samwise Gamgi, “goodness out there, and it’s worth fighting for!

It is easy to envy these men – their courage and even their current fame. We recognize that they did something great. In that recognition we both admire them and long to be them. Everybody wants to do something great, wants to be faced with an opportunity to choose great right over great wrong. We want to know that we have it in ourselves to make that decision.

Our time is coming. This battle will not stay off of our soil for much longer. Indeed, it is already creeping in. Before we know it we will be faced with the decision – the demand – to defend beauty; to become saints. We do not know the place nor the hour, and so let us then spend the next few weeks, months, years, preparing for this moment, for this decision. He will come and when He does, may we be ready to receive and defend His holy name. May we bear the armor of Christ and gird ourselves with Truth, so that when the battle comes home, we may show half the courage, strength, and love as those Argentinian men. The battle is coming. May we be prepared.

Emma King

Emma King

Emma graduated cum laude from Hillsdale College in May, 2013 with a BA in Philosophy. She is happily married to a wonderful man and lives in Michigan.

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9 thoughts on “Pro-Choice Violence and Radical Love”

  1. Thank you, so much, Emma for your courageous, insightful and inspired article. Thank you, also for honoring these amazing men for their fidelity, fortitude and great charity in the face of such vitriol and desperation. I too believe we are very close to our time of reckoning and testing. May Our Lord Jesus, through the intercession of Our Lady on our behalf, grant us the necessary graces to courageously and faithfully perserve. Emma may God bless you abundantly in time and eternity for all you have done and continue to do for the innocent and the defenseless.

  2. A change in language used by priests, would help: instead of accusing women for abortion , let’s see how men force abortion on women.

    1. The Cathecism is clear in that formal cooperation in abortion is a grave sin (§ 2272). The paragraph is not gender specific. That includes both the woman who allows it to happen and the man who insists, manipulates, threatens, or in any other way cooperates for the abortion to happen.

      Although I admit I have never heard a priest preaching about abortion, I have never had any doubt that, when both agree to have an abortion, the man is as culpable as the woman.

      Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. The sin is the same for two, but the woman sins independently from the man, and vice versa. And each can only repent for his/her own part. An abortion is sad as it is, there is no help or use in seeing it as a gender war issue.

      1. It’s not hard to think of an example. He could threaten to kill her, or her family, or to leave her unless she did it. Regardless of the woman’s responsability regarding the abortion, the man will have sinned in all these cases.

      2. As sad as it may seem, yes, scenarios like that have actually occurred.

        Bruno, your post is excellent, thank you for insisting that abortion not be contorted into a “gender war” issue. I believe that such a contortion is merely a smoke-screen so that people can avoid dealing with the truth of the matter.

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