By Mary Frances McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 3/18/04)

Following Mass Saturday morning, about 50 people, including pro-life leaders from more than 14 parishes, gathered at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Clifton to participate in the semi-annual Respect Life Conference sponsored by the diocesan Family Life Office. Speakers included Bob Laird, director of Family Life; Father Jerome Fasano, pastor of St. Andrew; and Cathy Cleaver Ruse, director of planning and information for the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

Laird began the conference giving a statement on the state of the Va. General Assembly. Although there was not much good news to deliver, Laird said, "Miracles do happen. We need to pray and we need to advocate." Laird expressed how lucky St. Andrew Parish is because three members of the Virginia Assembly, Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-37; Sen. Jay O’Brien, R-39; and Rep. Timothy Hugo, R-40, are all members of the parish.

"All three are among a small but vocal Catholic coalition," Laird said. "When you speak to any of these, their faith is very prominent in their work."

Father Fasano discussed pro-life issues from a pastor’s perspective. He looked to the Catechism of the Catholic Church to support many of his statements.

According the Fifth Commandment, the Catechism says, "Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. … No one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being" (2258).

Abortion is a black and white issue, he explained. There are no shades of gray. "Abortion is absolute. It doesn’t matter how many Catholics dissent from this teaching, it is unchanging." The Catechism says, "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable" (2271).

Referring to people who say they are Catholic but pick and chose what Church teachings to follow, Father Fasano said, "This ‘I am Catholic, but …’ mentality is deplorable. All of these Catholics are going to go to hell on their ‘but’s."

While the United States is a nation that has preached the separation of Church and State, morality does not have to be absent from politics, Father Fasano said. While some politicians claim they have to keep their religion separate from their job so as not to impose their own morals on others, "Thank God we had someone impose their morality or we’d still have slaves and the Jews would probably be wiped out," he said.

The argument most often used by feminists is that, "This is my body." How ironic, Father Fasano explained, that these words, when said by a priest over unleavened bread brings the presence of Jesus and everlasting life. But "the feminist says it over the unborn child and it becomes dead."

Anyone claiming to be Christian, anyone who believes the Word of God must be pro-life, Father Fasano said. He cited the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke to support this. When Mary greets Elizabeth and "the baby leapt in her womb," the person of John the Baptist, in his mother’s womb, responds and reacts. Elizabeth said, "And who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" According to this passage, motherhood began at the moment of conception, not on Dec. 25. Elizabeth acknowledged Mary as a mother only days into her pregnancy.

In order for the Gospel of Life to be spread, Father Fasano said, "We need weapons, weapons of mass construction." The most constructive weapon, he said, is the rosary. He also suggested that, "When you vote, carry a crucifix in one hand so that you do not betray Him with one hand whom you hold in the other."

"Father Fasano is a great voice for the pro-life movement and life itself," said Rickey Dean, a parishioner at St. Andrew. "Other than the HERALD and meetings like this, in the everyday news media, we’re not getting fair and balanced reporting."

While Father Fasano spoke about the theological reasons why abortion is intolerable, Cleaver Ruse focused on the pro-life cause in the news and the future of the movement.

In the secular media, there is "very little reporting about (the March for Life) in the news," she said. Hopefully historians will see it’s an annual, peaceful protest that is very young and distinctly Catholic."

Cleaver Ruse cited a statistic published by columnist Michael Novak, that more Americans have marched in this march, for this cause, than any other in history.

What causes so many Americans to fight for life?

"Roe v. Wade is a social experiment on the lives of women and children," Cleaver Ruse said. "It is an unchecked, unmeasured experiment."

The next challenge of the pro-life movement is to convey to the country that not only does abortion take a human life; it could destroy the lives of women.

One of the greatest gains in the pro-life cause is that the pro-life movement is getting younger and abortion supporters are aging. Cleaver Ruse said the average age of Planned Parenthood supporters is 50. "There’s an army of post menopausal women fighting for pregnancies they’ll never face," she said.

The Center for Disease Control, while it does compile statistics on abortion, does not require abortion facilities to send in reports. A CDC survey last year found that multiple abortions are the norm and at least 14 women died from legal abortions in the United States, Cleaver Ruse said. Since Roe V. Wade, there have been 327 reports of maternal deaths, but there is no way to know how many went unreported.

"We don’t know how many women have had abortions in this country," Ruse said. "How are they doing? That truth is so painful. There is hope; there is forgiveness possible for them."

All the speakers at the conference emphasized that pro-life supporters are not rabble rousers who gather outside abortion clinics and threaten people who enter them. The pro-life movement in the Diocese or Arlington is made of up the people at this conference who have expressed that they care not only about unborn babies, but also their mothers. These are the people who peacefully pray the rosary outside abortion clinics. They are the same people who run local Gabriel Projects, people who help complete strangers with the material, spiritual and emotional stress of unplanned pregnancies.

Frank Romance, leader of the Human Life Committee at St. Luke Parish in McLean, said "No matter what other ministry a person is involved in, somehow the pro-life ministry touches and is infused in everything we do. The Good News, the Gospel of Life, has got to be proclaimed."

The Office for Family

For information on the diocesan Family Life Office and how they can help your parish spread the pro-life message, call Pam Fitzgibbons or Andrea Albanese at 703/841-2550. The Office for Family Life is supported financially through the Annual Bishop’s Lenten Appeal (BLA).