GOD REMAINS A MAJORITY OF ONE
by Thomas A. Droleskey
July 9, 2001
When Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed solemnly the
doctrine of our Lady's Immaculate Conception, he was
doing much more than ratifying that which had always been
taught and believed. The Triune God knew from all
eternity that the solemn proclamation of this doctrine
would be needed at the beginning of the Third Millennium
more than it was needed at the end of the Second
Millennium. He knew that the proclamation of our Lady's
sinlessness from the first moment of her conception in
the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, was meant to remind
us in our own culture of death that a human being is a
person from the first moment of fertilization. A person,
moreover, made in the image and likeness of the Triune
God Himself in that each human being has a rational and
immortal soul from the very beginning of his existence as
a helpless embryo. No amount of sophistry and no
rationalistic exercises in political expediency can ever
deny the distinct, unrepeatable personhood of a
fertilized embryo, whether that fertilization takes place
in a mother's womb (as it should) or whether it takes
place in a Petrie dish in our brave new world of the
artificial conception of children (whether as a means of
undoing the sterilizing effects of contraception and
abortion or as a means of creating human cells to be
harvested for immoral experimentation and/or for use in
the bodies of other persons).
Our Lord's Incarnation in His Blessed Mother's
virginal and immaculate womb is yet another testimony to
the distinctive personhood of all children from the first
moment of their fertilization. Our Lord deigned to be
conceived as a helpless embryo in His Blessed Mother's
virginal and immaculate womb by the power of the Holy
Ghost. It was His Holy Will that He be united to the
entirety of the human experience, save for sin. Thus, He
is in solidarity with every child at the first moment of
his fertilization. Our Lord really meant it when He said,
"Whatsoever you do to the least of My brethren, that you
do unto Me." To do anything to a human person is to
attack the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man,
Jesus Christ, mystically. No, our Lord cannot suffer
again. He suffered once during His Passion and Death.
However, He *does* suffer mystically in the persons of
the members of His Mystical Body. He is absolutely united
with every human being from the first moment of
fertilization. This is a truth which is beyond question.
And truth of its nature is not subject to the vagaries of
public opinion and the exigencies of electoral politics
and public policy decision-making.
Catholics have been baptized to bear a visible,
tangible witness to the totality of our Lord's holy
truths, no matter what it might cost them in the midst of
this passing world. Sadly, many who call themselves pro-
life Catholics are permitting themselves to be led by the
political dictates of phony pro-life politicians, almost
all of whom support the slicing and dicing of little
babies in some cases (and are thus simply less pro-
abortion than other politicians, not unconditionally,
unqualifiedly pro-life). These well-intentioned but badly
misled people believe that it is not politic to use such
stark language as personhood to refer to a newly
fertilized embryo. Thus, the needless debate about the
licitness of the federal government's funding of
experimentation on and transplantation of the cells of
living human beings, each of whom has a unique
personality as a result of his having a rational,
immortal soul, centers around assisting a president who
believes that abortion is a "matter of opinion" and his
political appointees find some kind of "compromise" which
would satisfy establishment pro-life leaders and
draconian scientists and medical researchers intent on
playing God. We have forgotten that God is a majority of
one, that we can never compromise the sanctity and
inviolability of even one innocent human life.
The fact that the funding of stem-cell research is
even open to debate is a very telling commentary on the
state of things within "conservative pro-life" circles.
*Candidate* George W. Bush said last year that he was
opposed to such funding. However, *President-elect*
George W. Bush appointed a man who supported such funding
quite enthusiastically, Wisconsin Governor Tommy
Thompson, to be secretary of the United States Department
of Health and Human Services. President George W. Bush is
soliciting advice from individuals as to what to do,
backing off from his stand of last year, trying to find
some ground for compromise.
Bush is being aided in this process by "pro-life"
senators such as Utah's Orrin Hatch. If you will recall,
Hatch was the author of a proposed constitutional
amendment which would have given state legislatures the
right to prohibit, restrict or permit abortion as they
see fit, something beyond the authority of any human
institution; human institutions only have the authority
to determine what penalties will be imposed upon those
who do those things which are in contravention of the
binding, immutable precepts of the Divine positive law
and the natural law. Human institutions do not have the
authority to make exceptions to those binding, immutable
precepts. Hatch, however, does not realize that,
believing, as most careerist politicians do, that there
has to be some "reasonable" way to satisfy all sides.
Worse than the "compromise" offered by the Mormon
Orrin G. Hatch is that which has been "hatched," pun
intended, by Catholic conservatives, intent on aiding
their political savior, George W. Bush, navigate the
needlessly choppy waters of the funding of stem-cell
research. Three such conservatives -- Deal Hudson, Father
Michael Sirico, Robert George -- have said that they are
open to a plan that would allow the government to fund
certain medical experiments that use stem cells from
human embryos. A printed report, which ran in THE LOS
ANGELES TIMES on Sunday, July 8, 2001, indicated that
Princeton University professor Robert George has said
that the proposed compromise "might be regarded as
acceptable and consistent with church teachings if it
ensures that the government never pays for the
destruction of another embryo." CRISIS editor Deal Hudson
said that he was "open to" the compromise, stating that
it would be "a victory for those who want to use
embryonic stem cells" and "for the pro-life side, because
it ensures, for the time being, that there is no more
government support for the destruction of embryos for
their stem cells."
All of this is total sophistry. Note first of all
that each of the "Catholic" experts refers to fertilized
human beings in the impersonal mode as embryos, not human
beings (most of whom have been conceived artificially in
"fertility clinics" for artificial implantation in
mothers' wombs). Note second of all that each of these
alleged "experts" fails entirely to assert the simple
truth that no one has any authority to violate the
binding precepts of the Divine positive law and the
natural law. Thus, the issue before us should not be the
issue of federal funding for the extraction of stem cells
from human beings. No, the issue before us should be the
absolute prohibition of all in vitro fertilization and
the absolute prohibition of the destruction of fertilized
human beings effected by means of the extraction of their
stem cells. Period. This is not a "difficult" issue
whatsoever. This issue is as clear as abortion and
euthanasia. The destruction of living human beings for
the extraction of their stem cells is the exact same
thing as abortion and euthanasia: it is the killing of
innocent human life.
Alas, George, Sirico, and Hudson are using almost
the exact same sort of sophistry in this matter as was
used by Geraldine Ferraro when she ran for vice president
of the United States with former Vice President Walter
Mondale in 1984. Ferraro said at the time that there was
a "range of opinion within the Church about abortion,"
making it appear as though a person's rejection of
received teaching constitutes a legitimate position which
must be placed on a plane of equality with what God
Himself has revealed through His true Church. Well,
Robert George was quoted in THE LOST ANGELES TIMES as
saying, "Then they [the Bush administration] could say
there's a range of opinion and that this issue is not
like abortion or euthanasia." This is an abject lie, a
totally pathetic attempt to indemnify a man, Bush, who
believes that abortion is simply a matter of "opinion"
about which people of "good will" may disagree quite
legitimately. Isn't this the American way, after all?
Isn't everything a matter of opinion? Isn't everything
open to consensus and compromise and common ground?
Father Sirico and Robert George and Deal Hudson are
making the same tragic mistake as was made by many
Catholics, including some bishops and priests, in the
20th century. As it was the Democratic Party which became
the means of political socialization for Catholics in the
19th century, the lion's share of Catholics became
slavishly attached to the Democratic Party, viewing it as
the true secular church, the means of secular salvation.
It mattered little, then, in the 20th century when
Catholics did the bidding of the anti-Catholic Woodrow
Wilson (who supported the Masonic revolutionaries in
Mexico, going so far as to state that the slaughter of
Catholics in Mexico might produce the promotion of the
same "sort of liberal ideas" which flowed from the
bloodletting in the French Revolution) and Franklin
Roosevelt, whose New Deal policies were a direct
violation of the natural law principle of subsidiarity,
defended so ably by Pope Pius XI in QUADREGESIMO ANNO in
1931. The bishops of this country actually silenced
Father Charles Coughlin when the Detroit-based priest
used his radio program to criticize Roosevelt's policies.
And, of course, we have the recent history of inaction
against pro-abortion Catholic Democrats. Indeed, the late
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin devised his "consistent ethic
of life" in 1983 as a means of providing cover for pro-
abortion Catholic Democrats in the 1984 elections. Even
though it was wrong of them to support abortion,
Bernardin argued, abortion was but one issue in a
continuum of the seamless garment. A person who supported
"justice" for the poor should not be dismissed out of
hand just because he takes a mistaken "view" on abortion.
Well, this is exactly what some conservative
Catholic leaders are doing now. They have presented Bush
as a friend of life, which he is not. They shilled for
him during the election when he fudged on RU-486 and
repeatedly termed abortion a "matter of opinion." They
overlooked Bush's embrace for the slaughter of the unborn
in cases of rape, incest, and alleged threats to the life
of a mother. They ignored Bush's record of appointing
pro-aborts to the Texas State Supreme Court when he was
governor of Texas. They ignore the fact that the federal
government is supporting directly chemical abortions by
its funding of so-called "family planning programs" both
here and abroad. They have said not a word as pro-aborts
(Colin Powell, Andrew Card, Christine Todd Whitman, Mary
Matalin, Alberto Gonzales) have been given prominent
positions in the new administration. No, these
conservative Catholic leaders must enable *their* secular
hero much in the same manner as James Cardinal Gibbons,
the longtime Archbishop of Baltimore, did with Woodrow
Wilson and as a veritable army of bishops did with
Franklin Roosevelt. This is a cynical effort. Even the
American bishops, not exactly noted for consistency on
the life issue, have thus far held the line against the
destruction of fertilized human beings by the extraction
of their stem cells.
Well, God is not satisfied when His truths, which
are the only foundation for personal sanctity and hence
all social order, are compromised. Baptized Catholics
have an obligation to defend Christ's Holy Truths without
any compromise whatsoever. However, a country which
accepts uncritically the ethos of majoritarianism
believes that everything is negotiable, including the
words we use to describe the distinctive personhood which
every person has from the first moment of his
fertilization. The consequences are fatal for a society
when Catholics alleged to be orthodox start doing
intellectual gymnastics to subordinate the unchanging
truths of our Lord and Savior to the exigencies of a
civil leader. This leads to one of two things happening:
(1) the wrong decision being made; or (2) the right
decision being made for the wrong reasons. Let me
explain.
Although it appears as though some sort of illicit
compromise is in the works, presidential counselor Karl
Rove evidently has advised President Bush to ban the use
of federal funds for the experimentation and the
transplantation of the cells of living human persons. He
is doing so, however, for fear that a compromise of any
sort will anger President Bush's conservative, pro-life
base, not because such experimentation and
transplantation is evil, yes, evil, of its very nature.
As a political strategist, Rove is advising the president
on the basis of the exigencies of raw electoral politics
just as much as those who want Bush to compromise on the
issue (Hatch, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, Arizona
Senator John McCain) believe there is some electoral
advantaged to be gained by reaching some sort of
accommodation. How sad it is, therefore, that the
president "has to hear from us" in order for him to make
the right decision. A president who knew the nature of
fundamental justice founded in the splendor of Truth
Incarnate does not have to be lobbied on issues of life
death. Our problem, you see, is that the president is not
a man of the mind. He is a creature of the majoritarian
society from whence he sprang, a world in which those who
lobby the hardest get what they want. And this,
naturally, is one of the flaws of a world which has
overthrown the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ as it is
exercised through His true Church. Secularism winds up
trumping Catholicism, especially among pro-life
Catholics, who place their trust in bogus secular saviors
rather than in the ability of our Lord's grace to effect
the conversion of souls over the course of time.
We should be resolved, therefore, to speak in plain,
unmistakable terms about the life issues. We should refer
to the issue being debated at present as nothing other
than this: a decision to fund the willful, planned
execution of human persons under cover of law. Words
count. Words matter. Abortion is the killing of innocent
human life. It is the destruction of Jesus Christ
mystically in the person of unborn children. The
extraction of embryonic stem-cells from living human
persons is no less a destruction of Jesus Christ
mystically. And it will not be until we start thinking
and speaking in such direct terms that we have a chance
of making a true inroad in this culture of death. For it
will not be until we recognize that God is a majority of
One -- and that He has discharged His Mind in Holy Mother
Church -- that we will have a chance to call abject evils
by their proper names.
Our Lady, Mother of Life, pray for us.
May God have mercy on us all for failing to work for
the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ and the Queenship of
His Most Blessed Mother.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Addendum, 7/23/01
Although Father Sirico, Robert George and Deal Hudson
have issued a joint statement to indicate that they were
misquoted in Sunday's edition of The Los Angeles Times, the
reporter who wrote the story stands by his story and the
quotes contained therein. This is what happens when people
attempt to do the bidding of professional politicians
rather than simply state the fullness of the splendor of
Truth Incarnate without regard to any other consideration
than absolutely fidelity to Christ the King and Mary our
Queen through Holy Mother Church. You cannot fight
secularism with secularism. You can only fight the
multifacted evils of secularism with Catholicism.
We must always keep in mind the words of Pope Leo XIII,
contained in Immortale Dei in 1885. These words remind us of
what happens to a society not founded on right principles:
To exclude the Church, founded by God Himself,
from the business of life, from the power of making
laws, from the training of youth, from domestic
society, is a grave and fatal error. A State from
which religion is banished can never be well
regulated; and already perhaps more than is
desirable is known about the so-called civil
philosophy of life and morals. The Church of Christ
is the sole guardian of morals. She it is who
preserves in their purity the principles from which
duties flow, and by setting forth most urgent
reasons for virtuous life, bids us not only to curb
all movements of the mind that are opposed to
reason, even though they not be carried out in
action.
We need to work for the establishment of the Social Reign
of Christ the King and Mary our Queen as the only antidote
to the poisons coarsing through the veins of our society
and our world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Thomas Droleskey, speaker and lecturer, is a
professor of political science, the author of CHRIST IN
THE VOTING BOOTH and THERE IS NO CURE FOR THIS
CONDITION (www.hopeofstmonica.com), and editor of the
"Christ or Chaos" newsletter.
This column is distributed and archived by Griffin
Internet Syndicate, http://griffnews.com. All rights
reserved.
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