To Give a Defense
On Twitter, Fr. Frank Pavone—who, to my knowledge, has neither repented nor been disciplined for putting a dead fetus on an altar and filming a propaganda video for Donald Trump—wrote this: “There is an immigration crisis, the 1st immigrant is the unborn child. There is a #Crisis at the border of the womb. They are not being detained or deported, they’re being #dismembered. We’re not going to be able to welcome an immigrant when we can’t welcome our own children.”
No, excuse me. This is exactly why people say that those who are pro-life care only about the unborn, not about the born. Exhibit 1 is the odious Frank “Coughlin” Pavone, who here pits the unborn child against the migrant child. Unless we stop abortion first, then the migrant child can go hang.
But what happened to “save them both”? That’s what we constantly hear from the Old Pro Life folks. Someone objects, “Hey, what about when the mother’s life is in danger?” and the pro-lifer replies, “Save them both!”
So tell me, Fr. Pavone: Why can’t we “save them both” in this case too? Why can’t I advocate for both the unborn and the migrant?
Because you see, Fr. Pavone, all that people like you are interested in is trying to portray those who defend the migrants as hypocrites. Why do they care about the migrants, but not the unborn? I hear it all the time. But no, I’m not going to let you get away with it: I defend both. You will find plenty of articles on this blog about the evil of abortion. No, sir: Why do you defend the unborn but not the migrants? Why do you use the unborn as a weapon against the migrants? That’s the question that matters. Until you discover consistency, I don’t want to hear any talk from you about hypocrisy.
Because the condition of migrants is a pro-life issue; and I know this because Pope St. John Paul II says so in Evangelium Vitae. It’s in §8. JP2 has been discussing Cain’s murder of Abel as the original sin against the right to life. Specifically, he mentions Cain’s retort to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The pope says that human beings still ask that question, even today. With it, he says, we “try to justify and disguise the most atrocious crimes against human beings.” With it, we “refuse to accept the responsibility which every person has towards others.” And the pope continues:
Symptoms of this trend include the lack of solidarity towards society’s weakest members—such as the elderly, the infirm, immigrants, children—and the indifference frequently found in relations between the world’s peoples even when basic values such as survival, freedom and peace are involved.
Injustice toward immigrants (or refugees, or migrants) is a symptom of what John Paul II calls (also in EV) the “culture of death.” He defines that, in §12, as “a culture which denies solidarity.”
Thus in his denial of solidarity with the migrant, Fr. Pavone makes himself part of the culture of death. He stains the Catholic priesthood with this nonsense.
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