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Dear Friends in Christ,

A few days ago, I sat down to watch TV after dinner, as millions of people do every night - mothers, fathers, children, and even bishops.

Suddenly, before I knew what was happening, I was seeing and hearing one of the most incredible advertisements I have ever experienced.

It was an ad for NARAL - the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. And the gist of the commercial was this: that the freedom of our country is based on one basic freedom above all - the freedom to choose abortion - that abortion is a right given by the Constitution and that it was always a part of American life. On the screen flashed pictures of men and women and children, all happy and safe, apparently, thanks to the legal protections that exist in this country, for a woman' right, a mother's right, to kill the baby in her womb. The conclusion was equally outrageous - that those who oppose abortion - us - that we are unpatriotic fanatics, traitors to our country, enemies of freedom.

I was dumbfounded - more than that, I was disgusted, nauseated. In my anger, I moved to turn off the TV set by hand, and I would swear, that from the screen I could smell a foul odor emanating - the odor of death and decay.

As I thought about this hypocritical attempt by NARAL to equate abortion with patriotism, to equate the corrupt decision known as Roe vs. Wade with the purity and honor of the Constitution as given us by the Founders of our country, as I reeled in my contempt for these lies, I recalled a comment of Mother Teresa's. She said:

America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation.

"Your decision," she said - not the Supreme Court's decision - but "your decision." Hard words, words of indictment - but Mother Teresa was beholden to no one on earth, and she never feared to speak the absolute truth. And though it breaks my heart to admit it, after seeing that NARAL commercial - after thinking that millions may have seen the same commercial, sitting with their children, eating their evening meal, and never noticed - after realizing the terrible apathy of so many when it comes to the deaths of millions and millions of children, in the womb, undefended, their murderers protected by law - after all this, how can it do otherwise, than break all our hearts, to admit that what Mother Teresa said was and is true - this once great nation, is deformed in its soul, deformed by its own decision, and will remain deformed, as long as abortion and abortionists ply their trade, and under the protection of law.

These same groups, like NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and the Abortion Rights League, throw up their hands, and raise a great cry when protest, and sometimes violent protest, greets them head on, in demonstrations, and at the doors of the death factories they so gladly support, and from which they reap considerable monetary profit. But who exactly is guilty of the greater violence in this struggle between life and death? And again, I recall words of Mother Teresa:

What is taking place in America is a war against the child. And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another. Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants.

Dear friends, I don't need to remind you that we must use every means at our disposal to fight the violence of abortion - every means short of violence itself. I don't need to remind you that when such ads like the one I saw from NARAL appear, that we must let the TV stations know that we will not accept such garbage brought into our living rooms. I don't need to remind you that we must write and call and e-mail our Senators and Congressmen, every time significant legislation comes up, to let them know where we stand on this issue. I know that you are committed, devoted to the cause of life, and that we will continue to oppose the culture of death in solidarity, no matter what our personal faiths might be.

But today, by being here, and in the future, by being public witnesses in this great battle of our time, the battle for life, and for life's protection - by being united, we are showing them - the enemy, the pro-abortion forces - and they are the enemy - we are showing them that we will not give up - that we will never give up - that we will go to our own deaths, perhaps, knowing that the finest act of our lives may have been what we did, to fight abortion, to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and to return this country to the good land that it once was, that it now fights with itself to become once again.

I think the tide is turning - I think we have reason for hope. The smell I imagined coming forth from the NARAL ad on TV was not pleasant - it sickened me. But there is an old saying among soldiers - that when the enemy is frightened, then you can smell the fear of defeat.

Let us stand our ground before this enemy, these agents of death. And let us implore God, that before too long, the final battle, the battle for this nation's honor and for this nation's soul may be fought. For we know, that when the battle is fought, life will be the final victor, and the victory will be ours. God bless you all, and God bless our cause.

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