Bp. Robert Vasa: "White supremacists, abortion backers alike in key ways"

Writing from the beautiful town of Bend, Oregon, just a couple of hours to the east of me, Bishop Vasa lets loose:

The reaction of the people to the Aryan Nation is most interesting from a moral relativism point of view. I would presume that the organization is legally recognized and that it is very likely incorporated. As far as I know it is not illegal for someone to belong to the Aryan Nation and to espouse its beliefs. While I do find that the tenets of white supremacy to be erroneous, biased and bigoted, the members obviously do not. I do believe that racism, however manifested, is unacceptable. In this I am in agreement with the people of John Day and with the Catholic Church: “The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights which flow from it: Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design.” (CCC, paragraph 1936, citing Gaudium et Spes, 29)

I am, however, confused that many pro-abortion Catholics are not rising up in defense of the Aryan Nation and defending their right to freedom of conscience. It seems to me that there is little difference between defending the freedom and right of “conscience” for someone to have an abortion and defending the freedom and right of “conscience” for someone to espouse racist sentiments. In fact, defending the right of someone to kill their baby because they do not believe that the baby has meaning or value is infinitely worse than defending a white supremacist who holds aberrant views but who, in all likelihood, would never actually kill anyone. Because freedom of conscience is used to defend abortion then it can also be used to defend racism. We do not, after all, according to those who misrepresent the notion of conscience, want to “impose” our moral views on others. The only thing, it seems to me, that they could say to the outraged residents of John Day, would be “Shame on you for seeking to impose your narrow moral views on those who see things differently!”

<snip>

Racism is an evil we cannot condone regardless of the conviction of the conscience of the racist. Abortion is an evil we cannot condone regardless of the conviction of the conscience of the abortionist or the woman. A legal right does not guarantee a moral good. A legal right does not entitle persons to impose their moral views on others. A legal right does not entitle persons to demand cooperation from others or coerce them to support and promote their evil.

This is true of racism. This is true of abortion. This is true of sterilization. This is true for Catholic parishes. This is true for Catholic hospitals.

Read the entire column, in the today's edition of The Catholic Sentinel. I took up a similar vein of argumentation in comparing abortion and slavery in this Insight Scoop post, "Pro-choice" vs. "Pro-abortion"? Or, "Pro-choice" = "Pro-abortion"? (October 9, 2008).

Comments

[John Quinn]

Bishop Vasa is very quickly ranking up there as one of the most courageous bishops we have. I just posted where he called the health care bill "positively evil."

God bless our bishops!

[Alexander MacDonald]

I 100% percent agree with Bishop Vassa. It is obvious that racist and pro-abortion supporters share the same philosophical view points based on the meaning and value of one's life. Yet as he stated an abortion supporter goes one step further in every case, because their stance always ends with the death to a poor innocent child. Well said Bishop Vassa..you forever have my ear!

[William H. Phelan]

Dear Bishop Vasa: Let me play "the devil's advocate". Many of the Aryan Nation members join while they are in prison in order to protect themselves from rape, as many/most of the prisoners are minorities. Hispanics,blacks also join similar groups for the same reason(s). Abortion in the U.S. probably does have a racial emphasis as the published illegitimacy rate among blacks is 70%. The thinking among many Catholic spokemen,including Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. and others,is pragmatism/utilitarianism which means if this child does not stand a chance in the modern U.S. society, other than a lifetime in prison, then the decent thing is to spare him/her the necessity of having to drag themselves through a life they were never suited for. If the parents did not really want them, why should the government (with our taxes) be responsible for caring for them?

[Randy]

So how do you know a "child does not stand a chance in the modern U.S. society, other than a lifetime in prison?" I can't tell before birth. Even if this was the reason does that mean all the upper middle class women who have abortions are doing evil while the poor are OK? How poor do you have to be? It does not seem like a well thought out position. It is more like do good unless it gets hard then don't bother. That is the very opposite of taking up your cross and following Jesus.

[David wendell]

Let's suppose we meet up with the baby who was killed (through abortion)when we get to heaven. Do we say "we decided it was ok to kill you because your mother was a poor black woman and you didn't stand a chance in the modern U.S. society". What would be the baby's response? In the previous comment the words "devils advocate" and "utilitarianism" were spot on.

David Wendell

[Chas Morgan]

If families in dire straits tried to solve their problems by killing their offspring, Alexander Hamilton (out of wed lock), Beethoven (crushing poverty), Don Juan of Austria (out of wed lock), and many others would never have been born. In 1977 my parents had a suprise pregnancy (they are protestants, and discovered that contracetion doesn't always work), and we were pretty much dirt poor as a family of five in a small run down house. I'm very glad that they didn't "take care" of the problem by an abortion. If my cross to bear for suffering her birth into the family was not to take the normal trip to Disney Land, to wear hand me down clothes, take peanut butter sandwiches to school, help my dad mow lawns for extra money, have to put myself through college with no help from my parents, and not have a pair of Nike shoes in high school, well what a pathetic little cross.

It is never right to do wrong so that good may come of it, and besdies, to paraphrase Uncle Screwtape: the Devil doesn't make fair deals, he doesn't trade something for something, he takes something of supreme value and gives nothing. As it is, my parents had a change in fortunes and retired debt free, three of us graduated from college and have good jobs and the fourth is a stay at home mom by choice. What would we have traded my little sister for? For some fancy vacations that would be distant memories, for some material goods that would by now be rotting in a landfill alongside her aborted corpse?