Sometimes I feel completely alone

[Corki]

Personally, I think a lot of priests are going to be trying to console people this weekend. Sorrow and regret we got in spades. Right now a lot of us need consolling. I don’t envy the job priests have at the best of times, and I certainly don’t envy them now.

I am sorry if you were close to this tragedy and need consoling. As for me, I don’t know anyone in that town. Any consolation spent on me would be wasted - it belongs with the family, friends and neighbors of those who were harmed. They deserve ALL the consolation and prayers.

This thread brings up an interesting question. Why is this more “tragic” than other deaths - not just abortion but also things like the thousands killed on 9/11, the 80+ deaths (in just the US) from Hurricane Sandy, the 1000+ killed by the typhoon this past weeks in the Phillipines or the 394 soldiers killed this year in Operation Enduring Freedom?

Just compare the CT killing and the topic of the OP - abortion:

Is the CT killing more tragic due to the sheer number of people killed? Not by a long shot.

Is the CT killing more tragic due to it being more recent? Nope, Saturday is the busiest day at aboruaries.

Is the CT killing more tragic since it is repeated over and over again? No but abortion is.

Is the CT killing **more **tragic because of the innocence of those killed? Not unless you somehow think unborn babies are evil.

Is the CT killing more tragic since it was perputrated by someone who was a trusted member of the community who should be concerned with healing or protecting life but betrayed that trust by taking life instead? No but those abortionists who call themselved “doctors” do.

Is it a crime where the perputrator will get away “scott free”? No, he’s dead but abortionists rarely are charged for the deaths they cause- even when they break the law or kill the mother along with the child.

So, here’s my theory - it’s a two-parter.

We are horrified by the CT shooting first because it is unusual. There is a shock aspect that hits us harder than the actual tragedy due to the loss of life. We have become immune to the tragedy of other forms of killing.

And second, we are reacting to this shooting because it is sensational and being broadcast into our lives over and over. This shooting was practically a gift for the media. Cute schoolchildren and pretty teachers juxtipositioned against sobbing parents and “heartbroken” politicians - the stories practically write themselves.

Two other opinions to share:

The first, from a priest

Wake up America, how can we respect life outside of the womb if we do not respect life of the innocent in it?
~Fr. Scott Brossart, SOLT

The second, being attributed (unconfirmed) to actor Morgan Freeman"

You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here’s why.

It’s because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed
people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he’ll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN’s article says that if the body count “holds up”, this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer’s face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer’s identity? None that I’ve seen yet. Because they don’t sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you’ve just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man’s name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news.

This last is being reported as a possible internet hoax. But even if Mr. Freeman did not write this words, the content is accurate.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I wonder, do you suppose that the absence of talk about abortions in the homily might be due to the presence of young children in the mass? I know as a parent of young children, I wince every time abortion is brought up in mass. Children aged 5 and up are required to be at mass in our parish, yet they use descriptive language talking about the evils of abortion. My oldest daughter learned about abortion in mass and I had to explain it to her at home. She was distraught and terrified.
I don’t know if this makes any sense at all, and maybe my thoughts tend toward the overprotective side of things, but that was my thoughts regarding why the priest might have felt like he had to address the national news issue but refrained from discussing abortion. Because abortion is a situation where a mother asks a “doctor” to purposefully kill her baby. In that case, the monster to be feared is the mother and the doctor, two people whom. Child should be able to trust above most others.

I am sorry you feel alone, though, TRJ. You truly aren’t. Many weep silently at home or in their hearts about the loss of all the holy innocents. Sometimes the pain is too deep for tears. You are not alone in that.

Edited to add: okay, i just saw that you said that your priest and parish are thoroughly heterodox. That would feel incredibly lonely. I am sorry. At least your parish has you! Without faithful orthodox Catholics holding the line, the Church in America would collapse. The Lord promised His Church would last, but not that it would persevere in any particular nation or town. We must hold the line and strive to be faithful. But it is very lonely sometimes.

I went to the other parish today, and something struck me…There was a lovely family sitting in front of us, with 5 children. Five! I realized that I have never, not once, not in all the years I have attended the more heterodox parish, seen even one family with 5 children. Now, granted, we almost always attend the Saturday Vigil Mass, which tends to be an older group, but still. I honestly cannot remember a large family like that. Sad, isn’t it? I do think it say something about that parish - that perhaps the “tone” is self-selecting for more of the contraceptive-using Cafeteria Catholics than for faithful, orthodox Catholics.

It wasn’t that way before the current priest took over. Of course this parish was always less orthodox, but not like now.

 

[Gwendolen]

I have spent much of my adult life fighting the war of abortion, and have learned some things. Perhaps they will be useful to your perspective.

Abortion is not like other human rights, and life and death issues. It seems it should be, but it isn’t. The simple reason that people don’t have the same outcry against the abortion of an unborn baby (usually in the first trimester) is because they don’t see the life of a baby in very early development the same as a baby that can survive outside the womb. You may think this is wrong of them, but in order to fight this war, we have to accept the fact that people don’t, instead of lamenting that they are wrong.

I can try to explain a little of why, although I don’t know if my words will make sense to you. Try not to argue them in your head as you read them, and just listen with your heart.

When I was pregnant with my first baby, I loved her fiercely and immediately from the moment I got a positive pregnancy test. However, our next two babies (twin girls) did not survive to even leave the hospital. So when I got pregnant a third and final time, I purposely hardened my heart against my baby, convincing even my pro-life self that it wasn’t real, to protect myself against more heart ache in case I miscarried. I bonded with my youngest child much, much later in the pregnancy, as my OB, after the upteenth blank stare when he tried to talk to me about my pregnancy, finally started printing out ultrasound pictures and placing them into my hands. However, in that first trimester, I was pretty much in denial most of the time I was even pregnant, and refused to look at the ultrasound screen as they tried to date the pregnancy.

So how do we fight abortion? The only weapon we really have is love — the mother must feel love for her child. I’m here to tell you it is easier than I would like to admit to shut that love off early in the pregnancy under severe stress. The only thing really that will keep the mother from aborting her child is to love him/her. Where does love come from? You cannot shame a mother into loving her child. You cannot be so angry that abortion exists that the mother will love her child – no – the only way is to love the mother yourself – as fiercely as you can, as much as you can, to be that support she is not getting. It is then that she can take that love, and turn it into loving her child. You do not have to convince the mama (regarding abortion) that you are right, you need to convince her that she is loved.

The love of Christ, with you as His body, will prevent many more abortions than any pictures of fetus, graphic descriptions of abortion procedures, anger or outrage.

“Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.”

Love and serve them (these distressed mothers) and you will not feel so alone, I promise!

 

[Kelfa28]

Move to the south coast of Mass and come to my Church!

Our priest includes an end to abortion prayer every mass during the intentions. In fact, we prayed for an end to abortion and for the poor little souls whose lives were taken yesterday.

He’s the only one I know of, in the area, that always prays for an end to abortion. We’re the only church in the area that can fill a bus (and then some) for a full day of prayer at our local abortion clinic and we’re the only church in the area that makes a pilgrimage to Washington for the March For Life.

Come to the Sunday 10:30 or the Saturday vigil and you’ll see lots and lots of big families. A family with three kids is considered small.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I have spent much of my adult life fighting the war of abortion, and have learned some things. Perhaps they will be useful to your perspective.

Abortion is not like other human rights, and life and death issues. It seems it should be, but it isn’t. The simple reason that people don’t have the same outcry against the abortion of an unborn baby (usually in the first trimester) is because they don’t see the life of a baby in very early development the same as a baby that can survive outside the womb. You may think this is wrong of them, but in order to fight this war, we have to accept the fact that people don’t, instead of lamenting that they are wrong.

I can try to explain a little of why, although I don’t know if my words will make sense to you. Try not to argue them in your head as you read them, and just listen with your heart.

When I was pregnant with my first baby, I loved her fiercely and immediately from the moment I got a positive pregnancy test. However, our next two babies (twin girls) did not survive to even leave the hospital. So when I got pregnant a third and final time, I purposely hardened my heart against my baby, convincing even my pro-life self that it wasn’t real, to protect myself against more heart ache in case I miscarried. I bonded with my youngest child much, much later in the pregnancy, as my OB, after the upteenth blank stare when he tried to talk to me about my pregnancy, finally started printing out ultrasound pictures and placing them into my hands. However, in that first trimester, I was pretty much in denial most of the time I was even pregnant, and refused to look at the ultrasound screen as they tried to date the pregnancy.

So how do we fight abortion? The only weapon we really have is love — the mother must feel love for her child. I’m here to tell you it is easier than I would like to admit to shut that love off early in the pregnancy under severe stress. The only thing really that will keep the mother from aborting her child is to love him/her. Where does love come from? You cannot shame a mother into loving her child. You cannot be so angry that abortion exists that the mother will love her child – no – the only way is to love the mother yourself – as fiercely as you can, as much as you can, to be that support she is not getting. It is then that she can take that love, and turn it into loving her child. You do not have to convince the mama (regarding abortion) that you are right, you need to convince her that she is loved.

The love of Christ, with you as His body, will prevent many more abortions than any pictures of fetus, graphic descriptions of abortion procedures, anger or outrage.

“Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.”

Love and serve them (these distressed mothers) and you will not feel so alone, I promise!

Yes, everything you wrote makes sense to me, and I understand it. In fact, one of the mothers who was served by the mobile pregnancy clinic just a couple of months ago was just like you were. Even when she could clearly see her baby moving around on a large screen, in 3-D, she did not acknowledge that it was alive and HERS. I was sad when I read the account of how hard the counselors worked to help her break down her walls. As I recall, they do not think they reached her, and she probably did go through with her abortion.

The problem is that we need MORE people praying in front of clinics, more PRIESTS especially. When priests show up, abortions are halted. I’m not saying you and I aren’t important, but you must have experienced this yourself. The demons sit up and take notice when priests and ministers show up. I have never been angry at the women going into Planned Parenthood. Just sad, and heartbroken for them.

And Catholics who have had abortions should hear that they have sinned greatly yet God will forgive them. I think priests just don’t want to tackle the subject because they don’t want to hurt the women who have had abortions, yet NOT talking about it will cause them more pain in the long run.

Well, that’s my perspective, anyway. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Move to the south coast of Mass and come to my Church!

Our priest includes an end to abortion prayer every mass during the intentions. In fact, we prayed for an end to abortion and for the poor little souls whose lives were taken yesterday.

He’s the only one I know of, in the area, that always prays for an end to abortion. We’re the only church in the area that can fill a bus (and then some) for a full day of prayer at our local abortion clinic and we’re the only church in the area that makes a pilgrimage to Washington for the March For Life.

Come to the Sunday 10:30 or the Saturday vigil and you’ll see lots and lots of big families. A family with three kids is considered small.

Sounds great! Around here, there’s a Lutheran church that puts us Catholics to shame - they are really pro-life and heavily support the Catholic pro-life coalition. They are always out in front when it comes to covering the 40 Days for Life campaigns and raising money for the mobile pregnancy clinic.

Nothing against you or your state, but I couldn’t leave Texas for a blue state…

 

[Kelfa28]

Nothing against you or your state, but I couldn’t leave Texas for a blue state…

LOL!


Seriously…I don’t blame you.

There are only three reasons hubby and I stay.
Our ENTIRE family lives here. So, we’d have a lot of hurt relatives who wouldn’t be able to see their Grandbaby, niece, cousin…and so on.
And our parish. Our parish is the city on the hill. It’s the only one of it’s kind in the area…and we’ve got a ton of active parishes within a 5 mile radius of our house.
And finally, we’ve got the open ocean only three blocks from our house. I don’t think I could live in a state that is either land locked or mostly land locked.

Otherwise I would be purchasing cowboy hats and boots and moving down south!

BTW…go Lutherans! That’s pretty awesome that church does that. All of the protestant churches around here are so liberal I swear they have collections that go directly to Deval’s reelection campaign. With the exception of the lone non-denominationals. But there are so few of them.