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From Archbishop Donoghue
Pro-Life Rally, 30th Anniversary of "Roe vs. Wade"
January 22, 2003
State Capitol
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PRAYER
Heavenly Father, we know that you have designed men and women to reflect your goodness. We know that anything that causes the innocent to suffer and to die cannot be good. We ask you to look down upon the people who cry out to you today for justice, and to make the force of their cry melt the hearts of those who are sunk in evil ways. We ask you to move the hearts of our lawmakers to return to that time, when our countryÕs laws protected innocent life, and punished anyone who would harm a child in the womb. We ask you to protect our President and give him the wisdom needed to appoint the right judges to our courts Ð judges who understand your law, and who will rule so we may live in accord with your law. And we ask you to bring the power of the pro-life movement such strength, such power, such force of persuasion, that the decision Roe vs.Wade may soon be reversed, and the evil stain of abortion washed away from the life of our beloved country. Grant these our prayers, Father in Heaven, and grant them quickly, for we have waited long to see your justice, and we truly believe, that the dawn of your truth is soon to rise. Amen.
Dear Friends,
We come here today as citizens, citizens who believe in and respect the laws of our land. But we also come here as believers, who know there is a law which precedes the laws of the land - a law written in the human heart, which cannot be denied. And we know that when any law of our land is against the law in our hearts, the natural law, the law of God, then the result is and can only be - violence.
The abortion of millions of unborn children in our country is violence pure and simple - anyone capable of rational judgement claiming otherwise is a liar. And since it is a law, a man-made law which protects this violence, then we can only arrive at one conclusion Ð the law protecting abortion is evil, it is a failure - and its makers have failed this country worse than any other failure in our history.
It is a failure because it is founded on a sham, on a deception, on a lie Ð a lie that says the matter of abortion is a matter of privacy - a privacy said to be guaranteed by the Constitution.
But I say - is the stealing of money behind closed doors not theft because it is done in secret? Is the beating of a wife not assault because it is carried out in the privacy of a man's home? Is the rape of a child no less a rape, because it happens unseen, in a dark alley? Is the killing of a rival in business not murder, because it is committed surreptitiously, by a professional assassin? And can anyone seriously say, and believe, that the willful ripping of millions of unborn children from their mothers' wombs is not massacre, because it is concealed behind the white-washed doors of clinics and hospitals?
Today, and every day, we call on America to wake up to the truth - to stop deceiving herself Ð to stop hiding her conscience behind the veil of secrecy and privacy. We call on men and women to admit the truth - that selfishness is selfishness Ð that evil is evil - and that to kill an infant in the womb for convenience sake is selfishness turned to self-hatred turned to pure, and hideous evil. We call on America to admit that it is violence which is perpetrated behind the fraud of the so-called right to privacy. And we call on America to heal her law - to send men and women to Washington who will make a difference in the law, and who will support President Bush as he seeks to put judges on our benches who understand the difference between right and wrong, and who will work to oppose this legalized murder, this legalized insanity, which sickens the body politic, and seethes at the heart of all that is sick in our beautiful, but stricken nation.
We Ð we who gather here today, and all friends of the pro-life cause Ð we can make a difference. At this last November's election, the pro-life voters in almost every contest, made a huge difference Ð in 64 of 82 critical races, we were the winners. With only a fraction of the money, we still made a colossal change in the way things will be decided Ð with a fraction of the money, but with an overwhelming portion of the good will of honest and true and God-fearing and life-loving Americans.
Now, starting today, we must write these new senators, these new representatives, and the old ones too! Ð we must call them, and send them e-mails. We must insist that they support pro-life legislation, especially the partial birth abortion ban, and the unborn victims of violence act. These are single initiatives, but they add up, as they have over the years. For little by little, we are building a legal juggernaut that will eventually roll over and crush the pro-death, pro-abortion demagogues and reduce to rubble, the bogus right to privacy and the insidious freedom to reproductive choice.
Dear friends, time has proven that it will not be one colossal assault that we will turn this country around and put her back on the right track. Rather, it will be by facing the challenges one at a time, by applying all our strength and force against these challenges one at a time, and by closing down the abortion clinics and whittling away at the laws which protect them, one at a time. Only by this single-minded and persistent kind of warfare against abortion will we be ultimately victorious.
And though we applaud and support the efforts of all our advocacy groups, it is still as individuals that we will make the difference - individuals writing and calling Congressmen, individuals walking the picket lines, individuals on their knees praying for the help of God - because in the end, it will be one individual, one judge on the Supreme Court, who will finally decide that the day has come for the foolishness to end - one judge on the Supreme Court who will cast that glorious vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade. But believe me, it is the hand of every individual working now, in these ways I have mentioned, who will be tapping that judge on the shoulder, forcefully, and urging him to do the right thing.
And so, dear friends and fellow-fighters, let us go forth from this rally with our determination stronger than it has ever been before - not because we imagine it to be so - but because it is so, and because we know, that with GodÕs help, and because it is His unstoppable will, we will overcome His enemies Ð we will win the battle for life.
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