Pacifying Prolifers
In the “Of Many Things” column in America (May 7), Associate Editor David S. Toolan, S.J., celebrates a dialogue between three prominent Catholic prolifers and three leading “prochoicers” in the Boston area. A result of the dialogue was that “inflammatory rhetoric” was dropped — thus the prolifers gagged themselves, ceasing to call the pro-abortionists “baby-killers” and such.
Toolan says he was “very moved to see the last paragraph the Catholic participants appended to their statements of position: ‘…It is an utter failure of love and community for a pregnant woman to feel that abortion is her only choice.'”
Sorry, dear, but killing you is my only choice.
Toolan adds: “In my own experience dealing with women who have had abortions, I must say that I have almost never encountered one who was not in some way forced to that choice…” (italics added).
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The path of explaining -- let alone implementing -- Catholic wisdom as applied to societal matters is a long and complicated one. It helps to have authentic lay Catholics in high offices.