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October 2000
LettersCapital punishment I
Re: Stockwell Day and the letter from Mrs. Alessandra Racco of Bolton, Ont. in your July issue. Let me quote what Dr. James I. Lamb, executive director of Lutherans For Life (Nevada, Iowa) has to say concerning the relationship between capital punishment and abortion. (He is a member of the conservative Missouri Synod Lutherans). In the July 2000 issue of The Reporter, a newspaper published by the Missouri Synod, he answers someone who saw an inconsistency, as many do, when the death penalty is not opposed with the same zeal as abortion. Here's his answer:
"The two are markedly different. Because of the God-given sacredness of human life created in His image, God commands the death penalty in the Old Testament (Gen. 9:6). This is not contradicted by the Fifth Commandment, which prohibits murder, the killing of innocent human life. Words other than ‘murder' - most commonly, ‘put to death' - are used when discussing capital punishment.
"In the Kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, God's New Testament people are no longer commanded to carry out capital punishment. That authority is given to the government (Rom. 13:1-5). The government may misuse this authority, make mistakes, and even put to death innocent people. Christians may oppose capital punishment for such reasons. However, it cannot be opposed using the argument that Scripture prohibits it.
"Scripture does prohibit abortion because abortion falls under the Fifth Commandment. Abortion destroys the life of a vulnerable preborn human being without due process. Indeed, Roe vs. Wade allows a woman to end the life of her baby for no reason whatsoever, or for any reason whatsoever, and in all nine months of pregnancy. The methods of killing are painful and cruel. It happens nearly 4,000 times each day.
"Christians are free to voice their opinions about the death penalty. Christians are compelled by God's truth to defend preborn human life, to ‘speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.'"
The inconsistency that I see is: upholding the sacredness of life by opposing abortion and yet at the same time trying to uphold the sacredness of life by opposing capital punishment. I believe that I truly uphold the sacredness of life by advocating the execution of people such as Paul Bernardo and others whom we are certain to be premeditated murderers. We ought not think that we are wiser than God Himself who in the Scriptures permits capital punishment.
John S. Obeda
Retired Lutheran clergyman
London, Ont.
Capital punishment II
Re: letters in the July issue arguing that the Canadian Alliance, and in particular, Mr. Day, might not be so pro-life in view of the latter's support of the death penalty in certain circumstances.
We would like to think the majority of Canadians would vote to protect the unborn. Perhaps they would, if given a chance. After all, 60 to 70 per cent of Canadians support some use of the death penalty. That means that those people believe that innocent lives are sacred and that murderers disentitle themselves to life.
If it is always wrong to take a life, police should never be armed and no murderer executed, no matter how many innocent lives must be sacrificed in order to preserve him. What we end up with is the perverted notion of the sanctity of life that now prevails in Canada, namely that the only truly sacred life is that of the murderer. No effort will be spared to keep him alive. Others are fair game, but he must be preserved at all costs. The pro-abortion forces have said we need to get over our "love affair with the fetus." I think we may respond that they, and government in general need to get over their love affair with murder and murderers.
Sometimes we hear appeals to "Thou shalt not kill (murder)." That is what we are to live by. But people do not always follow it. What then? Should there be a consequence, and if so, what? The covenant given to Noah states that if "man sheds blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Human government has a duty under God to execute murderers. In short, the murderer forfeits his right to life.
That is why in Canada we had capital punishment and respect for unborn lives up until the 1960s. When one went, the other went right behind it, because whether we like it or not, executing murderers is an essential element of a sustainable system of laws to protect innocent lives, either before or after birth.
Robin D. Wilcox
Grand Manan, N.B.
Capital punishment III
Re: Mr. Fohr's letter in the July issue concerning capital punishment. As a Christian who belongs to a Protestant Church that supports capital punishment for the hardened criminal (one who shows no sign of remorse or penance), I take exception to these remarks and feel they must be addressed.
There are many sensitive issues that are a point of contention between Christian pro-lifers. Many Protestants do not share all that Catholics in the pro-life movement stand for; however, we still are working very hard for the pro-life cause. In addition to capital punishment, birth control, involvement in social matters, and fund-raising are issues that non-Catholics have difficulty dealing with. These are very divisive and some have caused serious problems in the past, even threatening to splinter the pro-life movement.
We must rise above these differences if our main goal is the protection of the unborn, the elderly and the handicapped. To threaten to stop supporting pro-life as suggested by the above writer is to force everyone to think alike. God's children come in many different flavors, and divergent views will always be present. We certainly cannot think along denominational lines if we are to succeed. We are not cookie-cutter Christians.
We as Christians must do all we can to stop the most hideous social injustice that has occurred in the last one hundred years. It is escalating, and more and more of society's helpless are falling prey to the culture of death. I pray for more understanding and cooperation among us all, and less idealism. God bless all who support and work for pro-life.
Cliff Pyle
Regina, Sask.
March of Women
In his letter on the dispute about the CWL's participation in the March of Women (September 2000), Msgr. McCloskey argues that, since the Vatican participated in population conferences in Cairo and Beijing, even though it did not agree with the whole agenda, it is desirable for the CWL to participate in the March of Women too. There is a major difference, however.
The Vatican and its allies were able to bracket statements in the UN documents; the extreme proposals of population control advocates were not accepted. In a pamphlet describing the March of Women, its organizers take great delight in having a number of bishops on their side, including the present chairman of the CCCB. But they have resolutely rejected the possibility of having a pro-life presence in their activities. Their aims and objectives include the so-called pro-choice position on abortion, so that they are resolutely pro-death.
Msgr. McCloskey says that their main objectives are "to combat poverty and violence to women, which are often underlying causes of abortion." The Toronto March for Women committee makes four demands, printed in bold type in their pamphlet. The third is, "No roll back of reproductive rights. We support a woman's right to choose on abortion and full access to free abortion." The fourth is, "Full rights for lesbians."
There is nothing to suggest that these are only secondary demands, and that the CWL is right to think that combating violence to women and poverty are what the organization is all about. It is very unfortunate that Bishop John Sherlock, Archbishop Marcel Gervais, Bishop Gerald Weisner and other members of the hierarchy let themselves be manipulated by this virulently anti-Catholic organization.
D.J. Dooley
Oakville, Ont.
Murder in China
Surprisingly, the story of the cold-blooded murder of an innocent and defenceless newborn child in front of its parents by family-planning officials in the People's Republic of China found its way into news media across the world.
The Communist family planners intend to prevent the birth of those who are deemed of inferior quality and who will not improve the quality of the Chinese population. That is to say, they will prevent conception of the unwanted, destroy them if they are conceived or kill those already born but deemed inferior. Legislation will label such as "abnormal births."
Chinese officials are defending their policy against charges that is what Hitler did. by saying their actions are not racist, yet it is clear that the Nazis used the same excuse of abnormality and inferiority. Is there anything redeeming to using the criteria of disability, sickness or abnormality? Hitler hated Jews, gypsies, Poles and others because he saw them as inferior. We know from Mein Kampf that it was inferiority and abnormality that he saw when he looked at such people and it was the argument of inferiority that he used to justify what he did to them. They looked barely human, he said.
When a nation bows to the desire to prevent or get rid of its "unwanted," it is bound to offer the excuse that such are inferior, abnormal and a burden to the "perfect." That is in effect what we have done here by the Canadian Supreme Court abortion decision,, though not as openly as has been done in Communist China. Infanticide and abortions here are done by legal permission, in China, they are done by legal demand. The difference is nil considered in the context of decency, morality, nobility and justice.
China is merely putting into practice what many in the West have approved and fostered in the realm of theory. It is a dream come true for eugenicists, among whom was the late Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood.
Of course, it is actually a nightmare come to reality. We ourselves are not far from waking up to find the same nightmare made real by law and public policy here in Canada.
Leo F. Coyle
Gibbons, Alta.
In Memoriam
As each new Interim arrives at my home, I eagerly read through it, scanning each page and mentally marking longer articles to read thoroughly later in the day. The newspaper is excellent.
The "In Memoriam" column is one I am particularly thankful for. As I read the names of all the deceased pro-lifers, family and friends, I pray for each of them and ask them to pray for those of us who are still struggling in the Church Militant. The Communion of Saints needs to be remembered as we read this column and understand what an army of prayerful supporters we have in those who have gone ahead of us.
I come to my mother's name, Mary Agnes Lunman. On earth, she was one of those saintly pro-lifers who served by active participation in all pro-life events. She also sent a small gift to Campaign Life Coalition when she could - "Jim (Hughes) needs the money," she would say. (He still does.) She painted picket signs, stood in the freezing cold outside Kingston General Hospital protesting the killing of the preborn and never refused any pro-life request I made of her. But her greatest sacrifice for the pro-life movement was stepping into my responsibilities with my young children so that I could be more active. I could never have been involved without my loving supportive husband and my terrific Mom. And now I feel her loving, eternal support as she prays, especially for me, her baby, but also for all of us.
I come to Joan Jackson's name. My dear friend Joan died suddenly last October at the age of 56. Joan was the mother of eight children, served on the Kingston executive of CLC for almost 20 years, organized perpetual adoration at St. Mary's Cathedral in Kingston, served on the separate school board for five years and ran for the Family Coalition Party. In all the years we worked together, Joan never once refused to take on the activity she was asked to perform. Pray for us, my faithful friend.
I mention only two of the many people who personally blessed my life with their friendship and pro-life commitment. I wonder if The Interim would consider highlighting some of these individuals each month, so that all of us can come to know them better and be reminded to pray for them and to ask their prayers for all of us and the pro-life cause?
We are in need of a great influx of new pro-lifers to learn from the seasoned veterans and to continue on with this noble, God-given work. We are also very much in need of financial assistance. I know that the prayers of the blessed in heaven, the souls in purgatory and the faithful on earth, raised to God in a humble request for more people to be moved to join the pro-life cause and generously contribute to finance our temporal needs, will be answered.
Mary Ellen Douglas
National organizer, Campaign Life Coalition
Kingston, Ont.
The Blood of Christ
I have been searching for a prayer to be said on behalf of the unborn, to stop the spilling of their most innocent blood. I saw a reference in a publication of Human Life International to Fr. John Mole, OMI, regarding the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ as the most powerful weapon to save the lives of preborn babies. I then recalled that years ago I had the privilege of sitting next to Fr. Mole at a pro-life banquet. He told me that he was promoting the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and that someday it would save our world.
I am enclosing a chaplet that has come to me, which I believe would be most efficacious in stopping the spilling of the blood of our unborn babies through the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is short and easy to say and could be said many times a day.
I would like to share this prayer with all pro-life groups. God willing, the bishops of Canada, members of the Catholic Women's League, Knights of Columbus will join with us in the crusade to stop the killing of God's masterpieces, our preborn babies.
Mary Berscheid
Muenster, Sask.
Chaplet of the Most Precious Blood
Large Bead: Eternal Father, I offer Thee, the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in union with all the Holy Sacrifices of the Mass said today, that we may elect a pro-life leader, and stop the spilling of the blood of our unborn babies.
Ten small beads: My Jesus, pardon and mercy, through the merits of Thy Most Precious Blood.
Repeat five times, and end with: Holy God, Holy and Almighty God, Holy and Immortal God, have mercy on us through the merits of Thy Most Precious Blood.
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