Abortion and Young People:
God's Call to Solidarity & Our Response

    "The greatest destroyer of peace in the world today is abortion."
    -- Mother Teresa.

    It is hard to fathom just how widespread and destructive is this massive evil we call abortion. Much harder to imagine is how we can possibly respond. But Christians who call the preborn child their brother or sister know that God is calling them to respond, as individuals, as a movement and as a Church.

    Young people know this call even more intimately, whose very lives were at risk while in the sanctuary of their mothers' wombs. In these bloody times, prayer is the primary step to realize and live out God's will. But discerning God's call to respond to the plight of our preborn brothers and sisters additionally requires us to consult the wisdom of the Church, to soberly assess the problem, and to respond with a coherent strategy.

    The problem of abortion is massive and global, yet familial and individual. In the last thirty years over 1.5 billion children have been killed by surgical abortion alone. When we include children killed by birth control drugs and devices, the total bloodshed surpasses that of all violence ever, beginning with Cain's killing of Abel. We know that abortion is a destruction of family relationships, damaging each person involved. Further, abortion is the killing of an individual child, a brother or sister, whom the Lord entrusted to us. And the evil of abortion is supported by structures of sin; it is a social evil composed of many individual sins of which we all are complicit.

    In the last 25 years, our overall response to abortion has been education, crisis pregnancy work, and legislative efforts. CPC work is laudable and necessary, and must continue. However, offering an alternative to the woman is pro-alternative, pro-choice. It is truly pro-choice, but it is only pro-choice. By itself, it is not an adequate response to the violent deaths of millions of children, though it is essential to a comprehensive strategy. Likewise, revealing the true nature of abortion through education is needed. But education on the horror of abortion must be accompanied with action and witness to the unacceptability of such horror. Moreover, many have put trust in the strategy of ending abortion by changing the law. Again, the political sphere cannot be abandoned, but a change in law is more a declaration of victory than a means to victory. Despite this total combined pro-life response in America for the last 25 years, the preborn body count from chemical and surgical abortion has not changed. Altogether, our response to abortion has been missing something: the simple, sacrificial witness of adults that the preborn are our brothers and sisters.

    We need to answer God's call to respond to abortion not only as individuals, but also collectively, taking into account the situation of abortion in the world, and fitting our response into a strategy that can adequately address the problem. Doing so we will see that such a strategy must be personal and penitential, massive but peaceful. Our strategy must be personal, a response to the individual child in danger, and to the parents of that child. It must be penitential, restoring family relationships and obeying our Lord in his command to "love thine enemy." We must recognize that we are sinners, in need of reparation for ourselves and for the world.

    The strategy to end abortion must be massive and universal. Abortion is a global problem. In the history of the world, massive, entrenched social evils such as abortion have been ended in only one of two ways: either by war, or by a campaign of nonviolence. History teaches no third option. But our response to abortion must be peaceful. A family struggle cannot be resolved with a bomb. Further, we who exist in a "culture of death" are not ourselves free from the sin of abortion. If we respond violently and proportionately to punish all those guilty of abortion, everyone dies. We desperately need to call upon the power of God's mercy.

    In discerning God's call we must look at what scripture and Church tradition teach us. Proverbs 24:10-12 is clear, "Rescue those who are being dragged to death." More particularly, Pope John Paul II in recent encyclicals has talked to us about social evils, and has told us that the route to freedom from social evil is solidarity with the victims of the oppression. Another name for solidarity is nonviolence. There can be many forms of solidarity with the victims of an evil, but the most basic and obvious form is to be present with them at the time of their greatest danger. Christian solidarity is the response that the Pope gives us in our task to rebuild a civilization and a culture of life.

    What are the dynamics of this Christian response of solidarity or nonviolence? They are to enter an endless cycle of violence, like abortion, and end that cycle by absorbing the violence. Solidarity is sharing in the vulnerability of the victim of oppression. It presumes the willingness to suffer for the sake of our own sins and those of the oppressor. And solidarity is an offering of one's entire self to God.

    The guiding principles of nonviolence are laid out in the Sermon on the Mount: love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you, be willing to submit to God's will if you should face persecution. Those who seek solidarity with the preborn pray that the sufferings of the children and the mothers would fall upon them instead, and that God would use it to convert hearts. The Christian who acts in solidarity is open to bear pains for the sake of the oppressor, recognizing the damage sin does to the one who commits it. He prays that God will bless his suffering with redeeming and converting value.

    Whereas in war or violence an end is sought through the use of one's "strong right arm," nonviolence strives instead to make use of a humble, contrite heart. A Christian acting in solidarity recognizes his powerless- ness before the evil that faces him, and his poverty before God. He offers what he has, only his life, so that as St. Paul he can rejoice in his weakness and therein find strength.

    Ultimately, Christian solidarity is no more than the imitation of Jesus Christ on the cross, and His Holy Mother at His feet. Mary is the model for Christian solidarity: her ability to be present with her son, to share in his suffering, her offering of Jesus and her offering of herself united to Jesus' offering. Christian solidarity seeks to imitate the Blessed Mother who was present at Calvary by being present in the same way at the modern day Calvary, the abortion center, where innocent blood is shed. We imitate Mary whose perfect offering, united with Christ on the cross, gained redemptive value for mankind and participated in the salvific power of God's immense love for us.

    Christian solidarity is a suitable response to abortion. It is personal, standing directly with the child and the mother. It responds to the social evil of abortion, seeking brotherhood with the victim and the oppressor. And solidarity has the power to change the world, shown to us in this century through the work of Gandhi and King, and also in Poland and the Philippines. The power of Christian solidarity is the same that St. Maximillian Kolbe called upon at Auchwitz. It is the same of Mary and John at Calvary. And it is the power that our Lord called upon when he mounted the cross for us, the power that created and redeemed the world.

    The problem of abortion is immense, yet the need to respond is ever more present. Our response must take the nature of the problem into account, and form a strategy that can overcome it. That strategy is Christian solidarity, or nonviolence. A campaign of nonviolence will involve many efforts, some that we know now and some that will be transformed in Christ. But the heart of our work must be the willingness of some to share the vulnerability of the children, to suffer with them and instead of them, and to make a complete and holy offering of their lives to God. The pro-life effort must be guided by the Holy Spirit and be a response of the whole Church, under the intercession, protection, and guidance of the Blessed Virgin Mary who shall bring all of her children into one.

    The decision to share the vulnerability of those condemned to death can be risky. Those able to take such risks are mainly the retired, and college students, the young people. Ask God now, has He not placed you in today's situation for such a time as this? God is calling his children to respond to the killing of the preborn with immense love and immense sacrifice. We who may be called to act in solidarity with our preborn brothers and sisters need to draw away, seek God's face, and prepare ourselves to make a complete offering to God, whose love and grace are enough for us. Our life and hope must always be rooted in Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who is forever Emmanuel, God with us.

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