What is your stand on this dilemma?

[CaptainPrudeman]

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. It would be difficult, but forgiveness would be necessary.

Forgiveness does not mean forgetfulness.

Would you welcome them if they murdered their toddler?

 

[redcatholic]

Question.
If you had a friend who was going to rape someone, would You accompany them? Would you sit in the car or lobby and pray they change their mind? Would you console them after?

 

[Dlee]

I’m not saying it would be easy - but I pray that God would grant me the grace to forgive them and welcome them. Christ teaches that our sins are forgiven only if we forgive others. If He can forgive the repentant, who am I to say I can’t forgive them.

 

[CaptainPrudeman]

Once again, forgiveness=/=forgetfulness. One can be forgiven of murder. That doesn’t mean your relationship with that person isn’t changed.

 

[lwest]

Complicit. Let’s substitute one sin for another, shall we? What if someone wanted to rob a bank. You explained why robbing a bank is wrong but this person insisted on robbing a bank. Would you drive the get-away car? Or adultery. Someone wants to cheat on her husband. You explain why it’s wrong. This person insists. Do you let them use your bedroom? See where I’m going here? We can’t condone sin.

 

[Psalm30]

From what I have seen, priests typically accompany the person to be killed, providing comfort, and so make it easier for, and on, the executioner.

I think this is a stretch. The priest is there to provide comfort for the one being killed, not the one doing the killing.

I know. But does that justify the presence? Priests visiting the terminally ill do not, in my experience, wait for the moment of death.

No one is being murdered in this scenario. It is death from natural causes. Not relevant to the discussion.

 

[Psalm30]

I cannot find one place in Scripture or the Catechism where we are commanded to desert a friend, or even a stranger, when they are in crisis.

The problem is that the crisis they are in is a decision to do moral evil. As another poster said, would you accompany the same person and hold their hand, or quietly wait in the waiting room and pray while they murdered their two-year-old?

 

[Psalm30]

If my friend called me and told me they killed someone, I would ask if I can come over and talk to them.

I would probably call the police, but…ok.

 

[TheLittleLady]

As murder is against the law in my country, and abortion is legal, these repetitive comparisons with crimes are not logical.

If you want to make a parallel, say a friend is bent on going to a bar and getting sidewalk licking drunk, would you shun them or would you go with them so you could drive them home safely?

 

[MNathaniel]

As murder is against the law in my country, and abortion is legal, these repetitive comparisons with crimes are not logical.

Murder is a crime whether or not the law in a given country recognizes it at the time. Laws have an obligation to recognize human rights (like the human right to life). Laws don’t ‘create’ these rights (and can’t revoke them).

If a country’s laws fail to recognize murder as a crime, that country simply has unjust laws that fail to conform to reality.

Comparing one form of murder to another form of murder is nonetheless valid. What a state has to say about its classification is perhaps the least relevant consideration.

Murder of children in the womb will always be murder, and more relevantly compared to murder of older children or adults, than to some lesser evil of a different type like “getting sidewalk licking drunk”.

 

[PaulinVA]

So, what would posters here do if a friend called them and asked to be picked up at an abortion clinic after an abortion? How about if they were distraught?

 

[Psalm30]

As murder is against the law in my country, and abortion is legal, these repetitive comparisons with crimes are not logical.

I fail to see what being legal has to do with anything. Abortion is murder. Period. Life in the womb is as valuable as life outside the womb, whether the laws of a particular country say so or not. It’s perfectly reasonable and logical to ask if you would similarly support someone who is in the process of killing a person already born as you would someone who is in the process of killing a person who is unborn.

If you want to make a parallel, say a friend is bent on going to a bar and getting sidewalk licking drunk, would you shun them or would you go with them so you could drive them home safely?

Not a relevant comparison in the least. First of all, by going with the person, you very well may be protecting innocent lives because you would prevent the person from driving drunk. Second of all, this person’s choice to get drunk does not involve killing a completely innocent, defenseless human life who cannot protect him/herself.

 

[MNathaniel]

So, what would posters here do if a friend called them and asked to be picked up at an abortion clinic after an abortion? How about if they were distraught?

Different question than the one the OP asked. I’d rather stay on topic.

(The OP specifically asked if it could be interpreted as “Christian charity” to “go with her so she is not alone during such a gruesome procedure and to care for her afterwards.”)

 

[PaulinVA]

Different question than the one the OP asked. I’d rather stay on topic.

Just wondering where the line is. What’s the difference with sitting inside versus picking up after?

I don’t think I would take someone, or even sit with them. Don’t think I would refuse a ride home, though.

 

[Psalm30]

So, what would posters here do if a friend called them and asked to be picked up at an abortion clinic after an abortion? How about if they were distraught?

I would pick them up. The act is already done. Picking someone up after it’s over won’t change that. I would talk to her about repentance and healing. That’s not the same as supporting someone while they’re committing a sin.

 

[27lw]

So, what would posters here do if a friend called them and asked to be picked up at an abortion clinic after an abortion? How about if they were distraught?

Wait - what?
Why would someone be distraught?

 

[MNathaniel]

Just wondering where the line is. What’s the difference with sitting inside versus picking up after?

I think knowing someone’s sitting there with me inside the murder-center, emotionally comforting and encouraging me to feel less unhappy as I prepare to murder my child, is the difference.

I do see after-care as different.

But during? No. There’s still a chance that the woman will reflect on why her friend wouldn’t agree to come with her, and just how serious that means her friend takes this, and maybe how seriously she should consider taking this too.

Human psychology. I think there’s a real risk that our very ‘comforting’ presence before and during this grave evil of murder, could constitute complicity in the murder by the very potential that our presence has to implant the idea into the woman’s mind that “Oh, in the end they don’t really think abortion is murder. After all, they’re here ‘supporting’ me now, and they wouldn’t ‘support’ me to kill my toddler, so clearly they don’t think it’s the same at all, and that was all just religious hysteria before, glad they got over it now and can see things as they really are, and understand that I’m the one who needs help here, not some fetus.”

Now if someone’s going to ‘accompany’ in the sense of persistently remind the woman right up until the last possible moment that this is murder, her baby is already alive and has a human right to life, please don’t kill her… then by all means. Walk right into that clinic and offer your friend that genuine support (towards love, not murder). But since chances are that’s not what someone has in mind when asking this question… no. We cannot make murder more comfortable for people.

 

[Psalm30]

I think knowing someone’s sitting there with me inside the murder-center, emotionally comforting and encouraging me to feel less unhappy as I prepare to murder my child, is the difference.

I do see after-care as different.

But during? No. There’s still a chance that the woman will reflect on why her friend wouldn’t agree to come with her, and just how serious that means her friend takes this, and maybe how seriously she should consider taking this too.

Human psychology. I think there’s a real risk that our very ‘comforting’ presence before and during this grave evil of murder, could constitute complicity in the murder by the very potential that our presence has to implant the idea into the woman’s mind that “ Oh, in the end they don’t really think abortion is murder. After all, they’re here ‘supporting’ me now, and they wouldn’t ‘support’ me to kill my toddler, so clearly they don’t think it’s the same at all, and that was all just religious hysteria before, glad they got over it now and can see things as they really are, and understand that I’m the one who needs help here, not some fetus .”

Excellent post!

 

[MarkRome]

Although brief, and covering only a view blocks, this was kidnapping.

“She agreed to the offer.”

Not kidnapping.

 

[MarkRome]

will go with her so she is not alone during such a gruesome procedure and to care for her afterwards.

Would you go to her house if you knew she was going to smother to death her 2 year old but wanted to be there to comfort her afterwards? Think about it.