Just Rebels To Be Won

Given the increasing rhetoric on the matter of the unborn and whether they should be considered persons and, therefore, defended, we are posting excerpts from a talk recently given by Fr. John at a Right to Life of Michigan event. Though we previously posted a link to the audio and video of that talk, because of the importance of this issue it has seemed worth dividing parts of the talk up into more digestible “bites” for our own consumption and so as to be able to share with others. Last week's third excerpt can be found here at actsxxix.org This is the fourth of four parts.

I would like to end this series of articles with two stories. Both of them will take us back to where we began. That is to say, seeing a picture. 

First, this woman, who has to be one of the most disturbing women I have ever come across in my life.

I never met her. If I had, we would have gone rounds, and she would have probably defeated me on every single issue. Dorothy Day was an atheist, a communist, an anarchist, an alcoholic, she had multiple affairs, she had an abortion, and she tried several times to take her life. 

She lived what is often described as a “bohemian lifestyle.” She should be the poster child for this culture right now and for our youth.  If you have never come across her and don’t know who she is, I cannot encourage you enough to find out everything you can about her. Her cause is up for canonization in the Catholic Church.

That is to say, a woman who in 1919 had an abortion at the pressure of her lover is soon, please God, going to be somebody Catholics are publicly going to ask to intercede for them. What an amazing sign of hope it will be for those of us who for whatever reason had an abortion, because she is a child of God and she is a woman who knew first-hand the remorse that she experienced for what she went through, the trauma that it caused her, which is why she tried to take her life, but most of all who came to understand and to experience the unbelievable mercy and love—not just tolerance—love of God.      

And in December of 1927, Dorothy Day was baptized and became Catholic. And then she dedicated her whole life to the poor, to the marginalized, to the discarded. And again, what a mighty intercessor she is and publicly will be for many of us. 

Second, this man.  

Some of you might be familiar with Bernard Nathanson as an OB-GYN. He passed away in 2011.

 He was the co-founder of NARAL. If you are not familiar with NARAL, originally NARAL was the National Appeal of Abortion Laws. It is now known as the National Abortion Rights Action League. He was the director of the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health in New York City. It was the largest abortion facility in the world at the time. 

 Bernard Nathanson was known as “The Abortion King.” He oversaw 75,000 abortions. But a funny thing happened to Nathanson. Like Day, an avowed atheist, and the most significant figure, almost certainly, in our country for the right to abortion, he also became a disciple of Jesus. He came into the Church in New York City, and then became unabashedly and unapologetically pro-life. 

 You know what caused that? He saw something. One of his friends, who was also an abortionist, videotaped through an ultrasound an abortion taking place. Some of us perhaps have seen “The Silent Scream.” That was the videotape. It was just a friend of his. And he saw a child fighting for its life against the intentional act to kill it. 

That one image changed him forever just like for hundreds of thousands and millions of people, that one video image of Ray Rice punching his fiancée in the face changed forever our understanding of domestic violence. You see, it is one thing to hear the words “domestic violence”; it is another thing to see a man hit a woman. It is one thing to hear the word “abortion”; it is another thing to see an innocent human being leaving this life as it’s fighting for its life because of an intentional act to kill it. 

But seeing was not enough for Nathanson. We have to believe that. There must have been unknown numbers of prayers, which were going up for him, a man who was doing wicked things. Prayers uttered by people who understood that he, as grave as the things he was doing, was not the enemy. He was just deceived. And by the power of those prayers by untold numbers of people when he saw what he saw, his mind and his heart were changed. And he went from killing human life to defending and protecting it. 

 In the few months ahead, you and I, leading into this fall’s election, are going to need to make sure we know what we are talking about, that we understand what is behind the word “abortion,” and that we are able to talk about it calmly, reasonably, intelligibly, so that we can help others to “see” what we are talking about. And we are certainly going to need to pray for those who for whatever reason are championing the rights to intentionally and deliberately kill innocent human beings.

Because that is what abortion is. 

May you and I strive and may we pray for one another that we will have not only the grace to do that courageously but to do it charitably.