Pro-Life Sermon 3

     This sermon was delivered by Fr. Kevin Drew of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 10th, 2019.

     Are you a doctor? You said a “doctor!”
     That was a very distraught Steve McQueen in the 1963 movie Love with the Proper Stranger.
McQueen had just arranged for his female acquaintance, the young Natalie Wood (whom he had
impregnated) to have an abortion.
     McQueen and Wood had been duped. They paid money and were told to go to an empty office
building in Manhattan where they would meet a doctor. But when they entered the cold and
empty office, McQueen sensed they had been played. He asked the stern looking woman, “Are
you a doctor? You said a ‘doctor!” And the woman, not a doctor, just looked at him and said,
“Take it or leave it.”
     When McQueen told Wood they were getting out of there, she caught a glimpse of the
abortionist’s tools on a mat on the floor. And then she started bawling uncontrollably. The
abortionist and the man who brokered the deal quickly scampered out of the office with their
tools and the young couple’s money, while Wood collapsed to the floor in McQueen’s arms.
It’s a brutal and gut-wrenching scene in an otherwise romantic comedy/drama.
     At first glance one might conclude the scene was filmed to serve as a deterrent to abortion. More
likely it was used as a method to legalize it. “You said a doctor,” McQueen protested. Abortion
activists in the 1960’s argued that abortions needed to be legalized so doctors could perform
them instead of butchers in back-alleys.
     How many women died due to back alley abortions? Listen to the now-deceased Dr Bernard
Nathanson, who in 1969 helped found NARAL, then known as the National Association for the
Repeal of Abortion Laws:
     It was always “5,000 to 10,000 deaths a year.” I confess that I knew the figures were totally
false, and I suppose the others did too if they stopped to think of it. But in the “morality” of our
revolution, it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with
honest statistics? The overriding concern was to get the laws [against abortion] eliminated, and
anything within reason that had to be done was permissible.
     The truth was that “back alley” abortions were rare. In 1960 Planned Parenthood stated that:
90% of illegal abortions are presently done by physicians. Those were performed in the back of
doctor offices, not in the back of alleys.
     In 1970 New York shocked the world by voting to legalize abortion. It was a shock because at
the time abortion was a non-issue. People in New York were not clamoring for abortion. But
activists got abortion snuck on the ballot, it went up for a vote, and somehow it passed.
Lawrence Lader, who helped found NARAL with the above-mentioned Dr Nathanson, said
about the abortion victory:
     The Catholic Church was caught off guard. They didn't think we had a chance, so they were
really not that loud on the subject until the end. The church was really focused on a bill for state
aid to parochial schools.
     That’s an interesting comment, don’t you think? Lader didn’t mention the Presbyterians or
Lutherans, or Orthodox Jews being caught off guard. No, this man knew who his enemy was.
Years later he sued the Catholic Church in an attempt to strip it of its tax-exempt status due to its
involvement in “political” affairs like abortion.
     A political affair?
     The first Church Catechism, the Teaching of the Twelve, (the Didache) was written before 100
AD. It begins stating there are two ways: The way of life, and the way of death. The second
commandment of the Didache instructs the faithful: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do
not corrupt boys; do not fornicate; do not steal; do not practice magic; do not go in for sorcery;
do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant.
     What that should tell us is that contraception (magic, sorcery), abortion and infanticide were
practiced by the pagans in Christ’s time. The Apostles wouldn’t have mentioned those things
otherwise. If a person wished to be Christian, he had to leave the pagan way behind. He had to
follow the morality of the revolution that was Christianity.
     But too many people today, including priests and bishops, tell themselves that since the Didache
is 1900 years old, somehow it no longer applies to our sophisticated modern age. And so,
activists call for a “development of doctrine,” or a “paradigm shift” in Catholic teaching. They
argue the Church needs to update herself and get with the times. These are just new and made-
up terms for something as old as the hills – heresy. Throughout the ages, we can always find
heretics who claimed the Church needed to get with the times.
     What about our times? Have we been duped? Have we been played? It’s interesting: Activists
argued that if we contracepted there would be less abortion and happier marriages. That was a
lie. Contraception was legalized in 1965 and abortion was legalized nationally in 1973. Since
then we have killed going on 60 million babies, and divorce and broken families have become
the norm.
     It’s also interesting: The same year abortion was legalized in New York, in 1970, Catholics went
to Mass one morning and found it had been radically overhauled, brought up to date for our
sophisticated modern age. Never mind the fact that the lay faithful had not been clamoring for
an updating. It was a non-issue. And it was an update that downplayed the beauty and mystery
of Christ’s eternal act, his Eternal Sacrifice that saves us.
     Is there a connection, a correlation between the overhaul of our worship which became more
man-centered, more focused on the community, right at the time contraception, abortion, and
sodomy were becoming the new norm? It appears so.
     And is there a price to be paid for this new norm, this turning away from God and his laws? Of
course there is. For now, most of our brothers and sisters, and our sons and daughters no longer
go to Mass.
     And our enemies have become quite emboldened. They’re smelling blood.
     A candidate for US President recently called the Knights of Columbus an “extremist group.”
The Knights’ crime is its stance against abortion and disapproval of same-sex marriage. An
“extremist group?” This is from a serious contender for the US Presidency. Clearly it is now
open-season on those who profess the Catholic faith.
     In the meantime, New York is now telling women they don’t need doctors for abortions: A
doctor? We said a “doctor”? Ha! We developed our doctrine on that. And Cardinal Dolan, the
Archbishop of New York, who thought he could have it both ways, is now beside himself. He
has been duped, played by his political “friends” in New York.
     My friends, there are only two ways. And Jesus Christ is a priest yesterday, today, and forever.
We do not update Christ to have him get with the times. So, look up to the crucifix above the
altar at your Eternal Priest. Gaze on him hanging high on his lofty throne and meditate on the
price of your salvation. It’s a brutal and gut-wrenching scene.
     Christ hangs in his Mystical Body, the Church, until his enemies are made his footstool. The
question for you is: Will you hang with him, or run with the pagans? Listen to Christ at the
Holy Sacrifice of Mass. Listen to him tell you: There are two ways: The way of life and the
way of death. There are two ways, one Church and one truth.
     Take it or leave it.

Interesting context on New York legalizing abortion in 1970 ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/09/nyregion/70-abortion-law-new-york-said-yes-stunning-
the-nation.html

Movie clip with Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxvIpidQpT8

Statistics on abortion deaths and Planned Parenthood quote on illegal abortions found here ...
https://www.abortionfacts.com/facts/12

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