Incidentally, why are we referring to the assassination of Mister Tiller as a murder?
The killing was illegitimate because imprudent (
CCC 2243), and on those grounds I condemn the action. But there’s nothing
inherently unjust about taking the life of a practicing murderer who fully intended to murder again come Monday morning. Further, in a nation where there is no legitimate civil authority supporting human rights (and where the institutions of government are in fact directly
opposed to efforts to protect those rights), there’s nothing untoward about a private citizen carrying out such a killing. If the killing is not unjust, then it may be illegitimate (as it was here), and it is certainly homicide, but it certainly isn’t
murder. Calling it a “murder” only plays into the abortionists’ portrayal of the entire abortion issue as a battlefield where valiant “abortion doctors” advocating “women’s health” and “helping those in need” crusade against “crazy right-wing fanatics” who “oppose human rights.”
The only reason the killing was wrong – or so it seems to me – is because it damages the anti-abortion movement as a whole and makes it more likely that more babies are going to die in the long run. That’s a very serious problem, and one wishes Mr. Roeder had talked to somebody with a firmer head on his shoulders before committing this senseless act of justice. But let’s not feed the enemy narrative by conceding that
this was a murder any more than
they concede that Mr. Tiller was a murderer.
Yes?
And, yes, I will say two extra prayers tonight: one for the babies Mr. Tiller murdered and one for Mr. Tiller himself. Just because I think his killing was, in some sense, just does not mean I condemn the man, nor that I do not hope one day–somehow–to meet him in heaven.