Recently I blogged about how proud I am of Fr Richard Parsons, my local parish priest, and why the clergy of England and Wales give me great cause for optimism for the pro-life movement.It is also very encouraging to see American priests, such as Fr James Farfaglia (pictured), speaking out boldly against the contraceptive culture.
I agree with Fr Farfaglia when he says:
"[a]bortion is a manifestation of an anti-child, contraceptive mentality that has gripped most Americans. Contraception is the gateway to the culture of death."In an excellent article, Scott Lloyd has explored the importance of opposing contraception for the pro-life movement. Mr Lloyd explains that recently released statistics from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion organisation, show that:
"54% of women who had abortions were using contraception in the month they conceived; 70% used contraception within three months of conception, and 79% used it within six months of conception. Among women who had abortions in the year 2000, 92% were contraceptive users at one time."Mr Lloyd points out that it is within a context that has accepted the lie that contraceptives are a reliable way of making sex non-procreative that abortions are most likely to occur.
Not only does contraception create a context in which abortions are more likely to occur, but as Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura, told young Catholics in Australia last month, many contraceptive methods are themselves abortifacient. Cardinal Burke said that:
"[t]he so-called ‘contraceptive mentality’ is essentially anti-life. Many forms of what is called contraception are, in fact, abortifacient, that is, they destroy a life which has already been conceived, has already begun."It is therefore vital for the pro-life movement that we continue to oppose the contraceptive mentality that has gripped our culture. I pray that more and more clergy will follow the lead of men like Cardinal Burke and take the sort of courageous stand that Fr Parsons and Fr Farfaglia have taken. That's why I am delighted to see that Bishop Alan Hopes, an auxiliary bishop of the Catholic archdiocese of Westminster, will be praying outside an abortion clinic in West London this month.
We should all take hope from such events. Fr Farfaglia identifies eloquently the immense power of a strong opposition to abortion from the Catholic laity and clergy.
Abortion in America could end tomorrow if the Catholic Church in America were to take a militant and united stand against abortion. But, it can only take a militant and firm stand in favor of the unborn, if the Church were to affirm in practice, and not only in words, that contraception is intrinsically evil.What Fr Farfaglia says of America is true in Britain too and throughout the world.
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