Friday, Jan. 22, will mark the 43 rd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s horrific decision to legalize abortion in theU.S. at any time during pregnancy. Since 1963, some 60million innocent lives have been snuffed out by that Court’s action. The case was Roe v. Wade and the struggle continues to reverse the infamous decision. Bishop Emeritus Eugene Gerber once said: “Abortion is serious because human life belongs to God; whoever attacks it, in some way, attacks God, Himself.” In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the sins are named which cry to God for justice, and first among them, is willful murder.

Abortion would be an example of such. However, the Church offers ways to help heal the inner wounds, to unburden the conscience, to ask God’s forgiveness and to forgive one’s self. You don’t have to be a woman who had an abortion to experience the pain it causes. Maybe you are a husband or a boyfriend, a mother or a father, a family member or friend. There are pathways to peace for those who seek it. Abortion goes on, despite alternatives and assistance for the pregnant woman. The unborn child must be defended by the Church from the moment of conception as a person like any other human being, for the entire human family is diminished by the death of an innocent child whose life is taken by abortion. We have a presidential election this year and Catholics should be advised to check where the candidates stand on Life.

We close with Mother Teresa’s words on abortion: “By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems, and by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.” – Marcel Normand