Monday Musings - The Shameful Silence of Our Spiritual Shepherds

Watch out! The sheep are stirring - looking for their silent Shepherds to speak!

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Every day human lives are violently destroyed within the wombs of their mothers and harvested for their body parts. This is EVIL always and under all circumstances.

For the most part, the Catholic Bishops in this country remain unwilling as a group to publicly call out this evil by name with one unified voice and to demand the end of all public financial support for such barbaric, inhuman and sinful conduct.

Yet, these same silent shepherds, under the umbrella of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), rarely hesitate to immediately criticize the latest health care, immigration, or welfare reform proposals –  issues which are important concerns but about which reasonable people can disagree. None of those issues, however, are intrinsically evil as is the slaughter of innocent life and the trafficking in human body parts.

Harsh words? I think not. Truth often stings!

Bishop Frank J. Dewane, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development: recently announced: "The loss of affordable access for millions of people is simply unacceptable."

I am compelled to ask: “More important than ending the slaughter of innocent lives and the sale of their body parts?"

Certainly, we should address the health care needs of our citizens. But our Bishops’ primary duty is to stand up against EVIL and to save souls. To paraphrase Scripture: “What profits a man if he has government provided or subsidized health insurance, if he loses his soul? Of what value is health insurance to the human being whose life is violently snuffed out of his mother’s womb and whose body parts are sold?

Ponder the wisdom of Father Giovanni Salerno, the Founder of the Missionary Servants of the Poor: 

“When the missions of the Third World are spoken of, many think that the best way to help the poor is to address their material needs: clothing, medicine, food, etc. In my life as missionary, after forty-six years, I have realized that the greatest gift we can give the poor is God and His divine grace through the Sacraments of the Church”

Abortion and the selling of body parts are the sinful horrors of our time. These are the practices which must be unacceptable to our Bishops.  The USCCB has an obligation to devote all of its energy, resources and moral authority to end these evils.

At a minimum, it must follow the recent example of the Southern Baptist Conference (SBC) which “officially denounced” Planned Parenthood as “immoral” and “called on Congress to immediately and completely defund it.” 

According to an article published in the June 29, 2017 issue of The Wanderer, among the resolutions the SBC passed at its recent Congress, were the following:

“We denounce the immoral agenda and practices of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates, especially their role in the unjust killing each year of more than 300,000 precious unborn babies, its use of particularly gruesome illegal abortion methods, and its profiteering from harvesting of unborn babies’ tissue and organs…We urge the United States Congress to defund Planned Parenthood immediately and completely of all federal government support and that all state and local government funding that supports Planned Parenthood be withdrawn immediately and permanently.”

Why has the USCCB as an organization not made the same public demands? Why has it not declared an all-out war against these evils and their agents? Why has it not demanded that elected officials bring an end to these horrors and their financial support of organizations who propagate such evil? Why is the end of these evils and the public financing of them not its number one priority?

This is not the time for our Bishops to remain timid and silent. The USCCB must speak clearly with one voice and take decisive action to end these evils.  Now! Our heavenly Shepherd and King would expect nothing less from those to whom He has entrusted His Church and the souls of His creatures.

If I am wrong in reaching these conclusions, please tell me why.

Let us never stop praying for our Shepherds!