Catholic coward

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CharlesMatthewG

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Should bishops lead us to give up our lives trying to protect unborn children?
How far should we go to protect the unborn: jail?
 
Every battle cannot be fought by every soldier to their demise - our warfare must be sustainable and responsible. So I don’t think it would be prudent for all Catholics in the world to go out and be arrested while trying to stop one evil, when the world is full of many more.
 
Different people are called to and given the grace to do different things. For example, a husband should not try to maintain the prayer schedule of a monk, because they each have different states of life with different requirements of action. Husbands should pray, yes, but in accord with their state of life.

Some may be called to give their lives for the cause of stopping abortion, others may he called to work in an area completely different.
 
Also, God generally does not grant the grace needed until it *is *needed, so it doesn’t mean you are a coward now.
 
Jesus never promoted or tolerated civil disobedience. all we can do is pray, converse, persuade and vote.
 
We can never cooperate with evil so if you were forced by law to assist in an abortion, you should be willing to risk your freedom and even your life. But if you aren’t being forced, one can even argue that it would be a sin to volunteer to go to prison instead of using your talents in a more constructive way.
 
We should start at home. We cannot have Catholics contracepting and voting for pro death candidates. If the Church got it’s act together, Roe v Wade would be reversed as a matter of bad law.
 
Whether or not we, as pro-life Catholics, should risk arrest to protect the unborn depends on what you mean by “risking arrest.”

There are, in my opinion, three distinct forms of what we might call civil disobedience:
  1. Refusing to obey an inherently unjust law. Examples: early Christians refusing to offer sacrifice to Caesar; Catholics sheltering priests in regimes where the practice of the faith was illegal (France during the Revolution, Elizabethan England); abolitionists helping slaves escape through the Underground Railroad (in defiance of the federal Fugitive Slave Law).
  2. Refusing to obey an otherwise just law in a particular situation where its results are unjust. Examples: a reporter refusing to reveal sources under pain of a contempt of court citiation, a parent defying a court order to return a child to an abusive parent (just because the child custody law did not work to the child’s good in this instance, does not in and of itself prove the law is unjust). An abortion clinic “rescue” operation might fall into this category; the law being broken (against trespassing) is generally just, but in this particular case, is being broken to prevent a greater evil (the death of unborn children).
  3. Going out of one’s way to break just and reasonable laws, such as those against trespassing or vandalism, simply to call attention to one’s cause. Examples: anti-war protesters trespassing on military bases, various types of sit-ins, blockades, etc.
I personally think that #1 and #2 are genuine examples of the type of civil disobedience envisioned by people like Thoreau, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. #3, however, is mainly a creation of the media age and I personally do not approve of it, or believe it to be all that morally praiseworthy. It usually succeeds only in making its practitioners look like self-centered publicity hounds and does little or nothing to actually help people suffering from injustice.
 
St. Thomas More, in his fight against what he considered an unconscionable law, did all he could to avoid the legal confrontation. However when this confrontation was inevitable he heroically sacrificed his life for his conscience and his God. He was no coward, but we are thankfully not called to the supreme sacrifice often within our society. If we were, what would be our reaction. I thank God this cup is not offered to me.
This issue opens up the difficulty of balancing the laws of privacy and private property against our defense of the unborn.
If we saw someone killing a little child in the public street, even with the acquiescence of its mother, our intervention would be praised, even considered mandatory, by our society.
However if this objective murder occurs on private property behind closed doors our intervention is a crime. As the yanks say - go figure!
 
We should start at home. We cannot have Catholics contracepting and voting for pro death candidates. If the Church got it’s act together, Roe v Wade would be reversed as a matter of bad law.
 
concretecamper said:
We should start at home. We cannot have Catholics contracepting and voting for pro death candidates. If the Church got it’s act together, Roe v Wade would be reversed as a matter of bad law.
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In some places, that leaves no candidates at all.
 
bisco said:
Jesus never promoted or tolerated civil disobedience. all we can do is pray, converse, persuade and vote.
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Well actually He turned over a lot of tables in the temple causing quite a ruckus. 😉

I think what we are doing right is we have people at the abortion clinics picketing them and giving options to young, bewildered girls. I would also like to see that the Pope makes it policy to excommunicate people that vote for child sacrifice politicians and the Catholic politicians themselves.

What we need to do as lay people is get the word out and not be afraid of being hated.
 
1st Question: No!
2nd Question: Support pro-life politicians. Support those organizations that advocate for pro-life. Peaceful marches and protests. And lots of prayer!
 
the vatican sets the example for the faithful to follow. they speak out against abortion, and try to win the hearts and minds of the pro choicers. letting the Holy Spirit change hearts. as far as action is concerned, they move slowly and tend to err on the side of caution, allowing people like pro choice Catholic politicians time to realize the error of thier ways and repent.
 
CharlesMatthewG said:
Should bishops lead us to give up our lives trying to protect unborn children?
How far should we go to protect the unborn: jail?
Click to expand...
I would suggest asking a priest about any obligation on this. I think most people are called to just vote against pro-abortion policies and candidates as much as possible.

I’d like to see more Catholics write their representatives and advocate for pro-life, pro-marriage, anti-human cloning policies.
 
CharlesMatthewG said:
Should bishops lead us to give up our lives trying to protect unborn children?
How far should we go to protect the unborn: jail?
Click to expand...
I am not convinced that getting arrested would help. There are probably other ways that would be more effective, with better odds at success. I knew of a lady who would pray outside of a place where they did abortions, and they’d take pictures later of all the babies that were saved that way.

That method you mentioned might be more effective if you had a lot of people willing to do that. If one or two people get arrested, I don’t think it has as much of an impact.
 
My church has staged demonstrations, but all were done legally and with full knowledge of the police department. No posters that would upset children, no counter demonstrators, everyone was safe, and we made our point.
 
esieffe said:
My church has staged demonstrations, but all were done legally and with full knowledge of the police department. No posters that would upset children, no counter demonstrators, everyone was safe, and we made our point.
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I don’t think protests should be like that should either. It really gives the mainstream media the excuse they need to cast a dark light on pro-lifers. 🤷
 
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