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Cardinal O'Connor
Has Optimistic Message
at Pro-Life Dinner
in Falls Church, Virginia
by Michael F. Flach,
Arlington Catholic Herald Editor
"I have a deep gratitude to all of you who are actively engaged in the ultimate cause - the cause of life," Cardinal O'Connor said. "What would we do without you?"
Some people questioned why Cardinal O'Connor would travel to Virginia for a brief appearance at a pro-life benefit dinner, while he had so many demands facing him in New York.
"It is a profound privilege to meet people like you and see the sacrificies you make," he said. "Please believe what a difference you make.
"You're not simply helping to save human life--an enormously noble goal and achievement. You are saving the very notion of life itself. You remind people of the value of life."
The cardinal's keynote address took place at the Fairview Park Marriott in Falls Church. Proceeds from the dinner will benefit A Woman's Choice, a crisis pregnancy center in Falls Church.
The clinic was established in 1985 as a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation. It provides free pregnancy testing, counseling and other support services such as maternity and baby items, referrals for housing, financial and medical assistance, employment information and referrals to licensed adoption agencies.
The idea for this unique pro-life event originated with Father David P. Meng, associate pastor of St. Theresa Parish in Ashburn. Father Meng is on the board of directors of A Woman's Choice and is past chaplain of the Springfield Council of the Knights of Columbus.
"I am proud to be called a single issue bishop," Cardinal O'Connor said. "I accept the allegation--if that's what it is--and I am happy to be so accused."
The cardinal said he understands the enormous pressure facing women to conform with society and culture. "I will never condemn or criticize a woman who has had an abortion or attempted to have an abortion," he said.
The law is a far greater teacher than the university or the Church, he said. Thanks to Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion, a whole generation of American society now considers abortion morally acceptable.
As Thomas Jefferson once said, "The first and only legitimate object of good government is the care of human life, not it destruction."
"Our own attorney general, Janet Reno, in a 1993 interview with Bill Moyers, is quoted as saying that the whole purpose of the law is to value human life," the cardinal said.
"In this culture of death--which legitimizes partial-birth abortion and physician-assisted suicide--are we actualizing the potential for these words?" he asked.
Cardinal O'Connor announced in October 1984, shortly after his installation as archbishop of New York, that any pregnant woman could come to him and receive free medical and legal care for herself and her unborn child. He has repeated this offer many times over the past 14 years, but he has said it has received little or no attention in the secular media.
"What is this fierce hostility toward human life that has developed in our land?" the cardinal asked. "People like you so often have to struggle to do good. It is so easy to do evil."
In addition to his offer of free medical care, 12 years ago the cardinal established a religious community known as the Sisters of Life.
"They are a contemplative apostolic, with a first priority of praying for pregnant women and their babies, and praying for people like you," he said. "They work side-by-side with people like you.
"I don't know how many lives they may have saved," the cardinal added. "But they are restoring a sense of the sacredness of human life, together with you."
He told the clinic volunteers not to get discouraged by their perceived "failures" on the front lines of the pro-life effort.
"You may say that you see 600 women in one year, but you don't know what the ripple effect of that is. You don't know how many people they've talked to. You don't know what you are doing by keeping the idea of life alive," the cardinal said.
"Don't count the numbers you think you may have lost," he said. "Save one human life, and God knows the impact of that baby."
"Young women today may go along with the culture on the outside, but they are confused on the inside," said Mary Ellen Bork.
"The counseling you provide at this critical point can open many doors for her in the future," she said. "Yours is a creative, not a destructive world."
"You're on the front line," said Senator Smith, who co-sponsored the Senate version of the partial-birth abortion ban, which was vetoed last year by President Clinton.
Copyright ©1998 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 23, No 17;
dated April 30, 1998, on the Front page.
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