Catholic Answers Radio program broadcast

The broadcast of Catholic Answers Live from the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on July 3, Idaho's 117th anniversary of statehood, was an interesting experience. It was a delight to meet Jerry Usher; and to see how little he needs to do the show; a laptop, microphone & switch, and a phone cable! Many thanks to Fr. Carmona for his support, the Thomas Moore Foundation which has made this program possible over the years in Boise, and KSPD radio which has carried the broadcast, often picking up a portion of the cost.



There was a question which the first speaker, Fr. John Trigilio, co-author of "Catholicism for Dummies" fielded a question in which the topic of abortion gave rise to discussion of slavery and the American Civil War, the Holocaust and World War II in Europe.

What was interesting about this is that it sort of crystalized for me a thought related to John's post on Dominican involvement in politics, er, I mean, Social Justice. John's call for an examination brough responses ranging from "personally opposed" to "abortion is adequately covered by others" (referring perhaps to the maybe 3 out of the 2600+ NGOs at the UN, of which dozens are the spawn of Planned Barrenhood?), to "we must work on the issues that are promoted by the UN" (????). Pardon my incredulity.

Anyway, listening to Father during the broadcast it really struck me that the hatred for life, life made in God's own image and created for eternal beatitude in His company, it occured to me that the attacks on life, be it slavery, extermination camps, or contraception and abortion, are but a step in the chain from sin->war; I do not know enough of philosophy to articulate it in terms of proximate/remote cause, or material/efficient/formal/final cause, but it seems to me that as the Civil War was not fought over slavery, but would not have been fought if the institution of slavery had been dismantled, and as WWII was not fought over the extermination camps, but if there had been no extermination camps there would have been no WWII, in like manner today's war on the image of God through contraception/abortion, in like manner to previous manifestations of this war, will have its price in blood to pay in a war that will not be ostensibly fought over the very cause which created it.

Now the Catholic in general, and Dominican in particular, is charged to promote and extend the kingdom of God, the only key to peace being friendship with God as offered exclusively by Jesus Christ. However, as we live in in a world of fallen men, granted it falls to some to work in the secular arena. That is why, if Catholics in general and Dominicans in particular are to be active in politics, they must seek peace first and formost by opposing the the attack against life itself. That attack, at it's core, is an attack against God directly (ie: against His person and His mystical body, the Church), and indirectly, against the very image of God in which we are made; and we have been promised that this war against God will continue to the end of time.

If there are a sufficent number of NGOs working for life at the UN, which is but a handful against an immensity, and this is considered justification for not engaging the fight, then what justification is there for joing the immense number of NGOs clammoring for the environment, women's purported development, or AIDS? The very argument put forth for not being involved in a fundamental issue negates any argument for being involved in any other issue at all.