Americans Uncomfortable with Pro-Death Culture, Says Father Richard Hogan of Priests for Life
By Michael F. Flach
|
A few years ago I attended a conference
at St. Lawrence Church in Alexandria. The topic was
euthanasia. The priest said there were many similarities
between the early abortion movement (with people like Dr.
Bernard Nathanson) and the euthanasia movement today. Do
you think euthanasia will be an inevitable part of
legislation in our society in the next few years?Fr. Richard Hogan, Priests for Life |
It certainly is true that they are pushing euthanasia the same way they pushed abortion in the late 1960s and 1970s. Almost every evening there are one or two shows in prime time that have sickness and terminal illness as a theme. What do we do with these poor people? Wouldn’t it be more merciful to end their lives? Clearly, the media and entertainment industry are somewhat influenced by this agenda. They are trying to promote the idea that it’s a painful life, especially if it ends in suffering. So it’s the same theme: let’s end suffering by death.
Now, whether or not we’re going to have euthanasia is another matter. Maybe I’m a little too optimistic, but it seems to me that with this whole abortion movement and the response from pro-lifers, there’s a growing awareness that as a society we have to stop dealing death. We’re a long way away from reversing Roe vs. Wade. On the other hand, this partial-birth abortion debate and a number of other things (assisted suicide laws in Oregon) have brought up in a very graphic way that we really are on the verge of a major change. We revert to a pre-Christian barbaric attitude or we treasure life. I think most people today want to pull back a little bit. They don’t stand with me and the Church, saying you can never take innocent human life. On the other hand, they are very uncomfortable with the 1.3 million babies being killed each year, and they’re even more uncomfortable with the idea of killing people in hospitals.
One way to think about it is to say "pro-death" is like a locomotive. We have slowed it down and stopped it. We may be pushing it back just a bit, but not as far as we want. It’s still a long way from the station, but I think it’s stopped.
We talked earlier about some positive pro-life signs in society, one of them being natural family planning. It’s something that the Catholic Church promotes because it creates virtue and discipline within marriage. Could you expound upon this point?
The Church is constantly accused of saying "no" to things — no to contraception, no to abortion, no to divorce. This is the positive side. Natural family planning is a way of spacing children which actually works. Scientists and doctors really understand a great deal about human anatomy and the procreative powers of men and women. They know there are certain signs in every woman who is ovulating. There are certain signs that can be noticed, graphed and understood. A married couple can know when they are fertile. A lot of people don’t know that a woman is infertile for most of her life. They estimate about one year of total fertility during a woman’s lifetime. There are only 365 days that children are even possible. That’s just an estimate for an average woman.
It’s the man, when healthy, who is fertile all the time. Probably from age 14 or 15 until the day he dies. It’s the woman who is infertile most of the time. So if you can figure out when she’s fertile, you can decide if you want to have a child or not have a child by waiting until the time is right.
Obviously, you have to communicate with each other on intimate issues, which is healthy for a marriage. That’s what marriage is about. That, in itself, is an incredible boon. That keeps marriages together. Secondly, if a couple decides that this particular time is not the right time for a child, for whatever reason, one has to be disciplined enough to avoid the fertile time. That does take a bit of commitment to each other.
Natural family planning builds virtue. It develops communication. It develops a loving attitude toward each other and an acceptance of each other’s fertility. A contraceptive attitude ultimately leads to abortion. It doesn’t accept the other person’s fertility. It doesn’t accept the other person the way God made him or her. It says, "You threaten me with your fertility." That’s not a very good attitude to have toward your spouse. The basis of love is acceptance of the person the way God made him or her.
Jan. 22, 1998, will mark the 25th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. Did you ever think that we would be so far removed from such a dramatic decision? What do you think are the social consequences since this decision was handed down?
The most serious impact is the impact on family life, society and individuals. We’ve had 35 million abortions; 1.5 million per year up until a few years ago, when the number dropped by 200,000. That’s just a ballpark figure. In every single one of these abortions, obviously, we have the baby as a victim. So we have one-third of all those age 24 and under who are not here. This has a tremendous social and economic impact. I sometimes say to high school kids, every third chair should be vacant. That’s what we are talking about.
In addition to the child victims, we have the mothers. There are probably fewer mothers who are victims because there are many multiple abortions. In many cases, it is the same woman who has aborted several times. We know of one woman who has aborted 22 times. How can you feel good about yourself when you know that you’ve killed your child? They don’t. That’s part of the reason why there are repeats. They want to feel good about themselves so they have a sexual encounter which gives them a brief high — which is really all it is — outside of marriage. They get pregnant again. It’s a strange psychology.
Then we have the fathers. People forget about the fathers. The victims of abortion include the fathers. Then there are the brothers and sisters of the aborted child. If mom goes on to have other children, and they find out about it, they start thinking, "Does mom really want me?"
The impact here psychologically and spiritually is unbelievable. The whole society suffers from it. The more abortions you have, the worse the damage gets. It’s more and more difficult to get out of it, because so many people have a vested interest in continuing it.
We were talking about how many national women’s organizations support abortion and contraception as women’s rights, when in reality they are really safety nets for the men and an abuse of women.
That’s right. Men can play without any cost. There is no responsibility. It might bring short-term highs, but it doesn’t bring the abiding joy that we’re called to. It does allow men to have whatever they want, without any cost or responsibility.
The other thing is an extremely misguided feminism. They try to masculinize women. The argument is: you guys can play without consequences, so we can to. We’re going to be the same as you. We’re going to indulge in sex for pure pleasure, for no other reason. We’re going to get rid of responsibility for children. If a child does develop, we’re going to kill it. That way, we’re just like you. We won’t have to worry about that consequence.
It’s a terrible deprivation of society because men need women to be women, and women need men to be men. When you try to make women into men, or vice versa, you get a society which is really warped. Nothing works properly. There’s this very extreme feminism which says women need to be just like the men. It would be much healthier for everybody if they just tried to be feminine and not masculine.
