From Archbishop Donoghue

Mass for the unborn
January 22, 2000
Shrine of The Immaculate Conception
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[See Georgia Bulletin account]

Dear Friends in Christ,

No matter what kind of face we may put on today, no matter how strong our hopes for the future, and our faith in the ultimate victory of God, we must admit, that at the heart of our celebration today is not found the joy that we would rather revel in - but instead, a sorrow, a sorrow that follows us in our daily steps, and cries out to us, inconsolably, like the voice of Rachel, mourning her children who are no more.

This is not itself a funeral Mass, for at the end, we must have hope, and we must believe in the power of good to overcome, and the power of Divine love to redeem all that has been lost. And yet, in a real sense, it is a day of funeral remembrance - remembrance of all infants who have died under the knife of the abortionist, especially those who have died in the year since we last gathered, and especially for those who have died near to us, in and around this part of Georgia that we call our home.

And as we express our sorrow and the pain of our hearts over these little souls, who left little to recommend them to our memories other than their pure and holy innocence, we also let rise a wailing from our hearts over the sins and transgressions of our country, of our people, and of those who among us are sworn to save life, but who for expedience and for money, do not hesitate to take life, and to throw it away, in the nearest and most convenient trash-heap - for whatever you might call abortion clinics, or hospital facilities that provide abortions, or the people who pretend to work in them for the sake of someone's right to choose death - to them, life is cheap, an unwanted baby clinical garbage, and the final solution to the problem, evacuation and disposal.

Not only the voice of Rachel, not only the voice of the Faithful, but the voices of the angels themselves rise up in mourning for these children, and the same voices also rise up in an outraged cry, against this terrible evil, that shuns the gaze of a loving just people, and hides its terrible work, behind webs of legal , and veils of misleading language.

But to those dedicated and baptized in truth, there is no successful deceit in terms like reproductive freedom, or a woman's right to choose, or "planned parenthood." We might as well call murder pleasant, or death inviting, or pain refreshing - but whatever evil and death might be called, they are still evil and death, and God will not, in the end, suffer evil to exist, nor invite to the heavenly banquet, any who have stolen His right, and His alone, to judge when the end should come for any of us.

It is this hope, to see justice, and to see the vindication of our own efforts, that we bring before God today - it is this hope, that a difference may be made in the world around us, that enlivens once again our personal, individual, and collective dedication to the cause of life, and to the cause of ending those evils in our society which profane life - abortion, murder, suicide, and euthanasia - it is this hope, that we both give now to God, and that we receive back from Him in increased measure, that makes us attentive to the words of Scripture, to the words which turn us around in our sorrow, and tell us of a light to follow, a light that will bring us eventually to the Kingdom of Christ's love, and the eternal world of His peace. For "Thus says the Lord:

Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward.

Dear friends, let us mourn as our hearts bid us mourn, for not to mourn the innocents that have been sacrificed, would be callous and unworthy of Catholic life. Do we believe for a moment that Mary, our Lady and Mother, did not mourn when she heard the prophecies of Simeon about her own trials, or do we think that, burdened with the necessity for taking flight from her home into the distant and uninviting land of Egypt, she did not sorrow for the friends and family that were left behind, or can any of us envision that her sorrow at the foot of the cross was not sorrow of the deepest, most profound, most anguished type?

I think not - I think that we can know too well the depth of maternal pain that more than once, clinched and held the heart of our dear Blessed Mother. But I also think that we can see in her life, persistent hope in her Son, persistent hope in the salvation he was sent to bring. For all her sorrow and fear, and the sorrow and fear of her chaste spouse, St. Joseph, she still accepted the message of the angels, who told her: "Your child will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. . . and of his kingdom there will be no end." And who told St. Joseph, in their exile: "Rise, take the child and his mother and to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead."

Dear friends, we do not wish the death of anyone, we who gather here in the Lord's presence, to mourn the many children innocently slaughtered - we do not pray to God for the deliverance of anyone unto death, but rather, deliverance into life, into love, and into the chance for salvation that is the birthright of every human being, however conceived. But we do know, that death stalks the footsteps of those who deal in death, and we believe what the Lord has taught, that those who live by violence, will die by violence, in their bodies, and in their souls. God help them, and help us to overcome the evil that they do, so that perhaps, one day, sooner than later, we may all experience together, the comfort of God's promise:

They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, that none shall stumble.

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