Prolife: Winning a Battle but Losing the War.
The poor auld media didn't know what to make of the pro-life rally held on Saturday last in Dublin. The usual ploy of under reporting the size of the crowd present didn't really work, the photos showed it was a huge gathering. The Irish Times (God loves a trier!) had an opinion piece insinuating that the rally was too slick and too well managed, as if this was proof of the futility of their cause??
No the organisers are probably suffering from dislocated shoulders at the self congratulatory back slapping that is currently being practiced and no doubt it has given some politicains food for thought, but ultimately is this all in vain? The answer I think is yes.
Noticeable to many of the participants who braved the cold of Merrion Square was an underlying theme that is both depressing and deeply worrying for the future. God wasn't there.
Only officially pre-approved posters were allowed to be displayed. Some of the stewards were instructed by organisers to ask those who brought religious pictures and icons to put them away. Only one of the speakers ( Bernie Smith) even mentioned God. NO public form of prayer or worship was permitted to sully the proceedings. This is not new there have been rumblings before about the reluctance of the prolife committes to allow public expressions of faith. This is simply a recipe for disaster.
"The branch that does not live on in the vine can yield no fruit of itself; no more can you, if you do not live on in me. I am the vine, you are its branches; if a man lives on in me, and I in him, then he will yield abundant fruit; seperated from me, you have no power to do anything. If a man does not live on in me, he can only be like the branch that is cast off and withers away; such a branch is picked up and thrown into the fire, to burn there. As long as you live on in me, and my words live on in you, you will be able to make what request you will, and have it granted." John 15: 4-7
To lose sight of the "raison d'etre" of your mission is fatal. Abortion is an intrinsic evil. Abortion flies in the face of Natural Law. Abortion is a crime against God's creation.
Most of the people who oppose the abortion agenda do so from a sense of moral outrage which has been formed by their faith, and in Ireland this means Catholic faith. To somehow try to hide this or lessen its presence leaves many disillusioned or bitter. It does nothing to stem the the growing disconnect between private and public faith, abortion for many Catholics has become the hot button issue (wrongly, all aspects of life are Catholic) the thing that identifies them as Catholics. Remove that and what's the point?
Trying to be inclusive? Well yes there were probably a proportionately small number of people present at the rally who were not Catholic or Christian. So what? Where they going to be offended at the realisation that the vast majority were making a stand because of their faith? Perhaps it was to hoodwink the media into believing that all cross sections of Irish society are united in this crusade? Please give me a break! They know fine rightly that the Catholics are the movers and shakers behind it, so what if you are called right wing reactionary cleric ridden dupes? What's new? Don't tell me you are ashamed to be thought of as Catholic.
Lastly simply banging on about the rights of the child is fighting on the enemy's turf. Dialogue with society at this level ( again one of those lovely fruits of Vatican II), is a mugs game. Entering into any discussion that is based solely on human rights in this context is flawed. I can only surmise that the rationale is to have a logical, reasoned argument ( a la Senator Ronan Mullen) and to blind the opposition by the sheer brilliance of your intellect. Wrong! Any dog in the street knows that in this war it is the side that can shout the loudest ( the liberal media) and who can emote the most, churning out as many heart wrenching tales as possible who will emerge victorious. It degenerates into a subjective tit for tat, point scoring on the heart strings and in this the prolife side is on a hiding to nothing.
It is time for those leading the campaign and those churchmen brave enough to face the media to state clearly and categorically the reasons why Catholics may not support any form of abortion in Ireland, that this is a moral and faith based stand. By the way an auld decade of the rosary in the street would do no harm either!
