I read with deep concern the Oct. 12 letter to the editor penned by “Catholic Pro-Life Action Network of Charlotte.” In attempting to debunk the “seamless garment” or “consistent life ethic” approach to upholding the dignity of human life, the authors speciously state that to hold this view is to “elevate non-priority social issues (poverty, discrimination, immigration, etc. to the same level as direct attacks on human life (abortion, contraception and euthanasia).”
The authors then go on to buttress their argument with two quotes from the writings of St. John Paul II, both of which speak of the “inviolability of human life” and “the right to life” and neither of which mentions abortion, contraception or euthanasia.
I wonder whether the child who has been torn from his or her mother’s arms and is kept in brutal incarceration in a detention camp in Texas believes for one second that their plight is a “non-priority social issue.” I also have to wonder whether the thousands of women and children trafficked each year believe for one second that their situation is a “non-priority social issue.”
Indeed, each of us has to wonder whether the convicted inmate awaiting his execution thinks his fate is a “non-priority social issue.” Or the millions of us who live with threat of nuclear annihilation. Or the children, many of whom are now adults, who suffered sexual abuse by priests and bishops. Or the black, brown, yellow, red and white peoples who have been and continue to be beaten down, subjugated and eliminated by the hands of a “superior” people. “Non-priority social issue,” indeed!
At its very core, the “seamless garment” or “consistent life ethic” approach to upholding the dignity of life states that all life is sacred. That means lives still in the womb as well as lives already born.
In building on his predecessors’ teachings of the past 30-40 years, Pope Francis said on Sept. 30, 2013: “There is no human life more sacred than another, just as there is no human life qualitatively more significant than another.” And on Nov. 24 of the same year: “Yet this defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development.” And again on Jan. 8, 2018: “Defending the right to life also entails actively striving for peace, universally recognized as one of the supreme values to be sought and defended.”
With all humility, I cannot believe our Holy Father would place the adjective “non-priority” in front of nouns such as poverty, immigration, discrimination, capital punishment, the environment, human trafficking, sexual assault, nuclear proliferation and more. Unless we Catholic Christians come together and unite around all issues of life, unless we have a consistent ethic of life, we are doomed. Each life is sacred, one no more so than another. To think that way is likening our thinking to those who came up with the notion of the Final Solution. We have, sadly, been down this road and we know where it leads. Hopefully we will choose another, life-giving path.
Paul Kiley lives in High Point.