It’s flippant and disgusting to refer to a human person by the name of the means of their unjust and violent death. I will hereinafter refer to the baby, who is apparently female, as Jane Doe. Jane Doe is the traditional name given to anonymous murder victims, which is what she is.
We cannot absolutely rule out the possibility that Pavone has had in his possession multiple completely intact female babies aborted at around 20 weeks, with those exact black burn markings on the exact same place on the skin, consistent with the saline abortion technique which has increasingly fallen out of favor since the 70s and is rarely used anymore. But it is so unlikely as to be incredible. The weight of evidence suggests instead that there has been only one Jane Doe, that Jane Doe passed away from a saline abortion in or before 1985, that she was “buried” by being immersed in formaldehyde and kept in a so-called “shrine” in Staten Island instead of being buried in the ground or properly cremated,that she has been exhumed whenever Pavone needs a dead baby for a photo prop or publicity stunt ever since, and that when Pavone claimed this week that she had been buried, he was referring to putting her back in the formaldehyde.
I am currently unsure whether, according to New York law, baby Jane Doe is considered a human corpse or, tragically, medical waste. Armstrong’s blog post seems to imply that Pavone obtained permission to have the baby buried on Priests For Life’s property in Staten Island instead of in a cemetery. Regardless, I doubt that it’s legal to keep disinterring the body and carrying it from state to state on a whim, and with good reason.
And before anyone makes the comparison—no, this is nothing like exhuming the relics of a martyr for veneration at a church or shrine. First of all because Jane Doe, while a martyr of sorts, is not a canonized saint. Canon law 1187 forbids the public veneration of a person who has not been held up by the Church for veneration by beatification or canonization. Secondly, the body is not being exhumed under the supervision of the local ordinary and being displayed in a reliquary or specialized coffin whose location is known at all times; she is being taken out of a jar of formaldehyde and flopped naked onto an altar for photo shoots, carried around the country for pro-life demonstrations and so forth. Canon Law strongly recommends burial of bodies and permits cremation under some circumstances; it does not say a word about sinking a body in embalming fluids and taking it out for jaunts when convenient. Thirdly, and most important, she is not being held up for veneration, but rather used as a political prop. Days ago, she was thrown onto a white sheet on an altar, naked and dirty, and used as an advertisement for Donald Trump, a politician who has expressed his support of Planned Parenthood, and who promised Father Pavone a seat on his Catholic Advisory Board if he was elected. Father Pavone was shilling for a politician who offered him a position of power and influence and using Jane Doe to desecrate an altar as part of his shill.
I would like all my readers to join me in a public appeal to the archdiocese of New York to investigate the practices at the chapel of Priests For Life’s headquarters, as a chapel where Catholic Masses are held is within the archdiocese’s jurisdiction. I am asking them to remove any human remains found there and to have them buried in a proper cemetery plot where they can be certain that Jane Doe will not be disinterred for a political stunt again.
This is a grave exploitation of a child who already suffered a violent death, and it needs to be stopped at once.
(image via Pixabay)
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