Letters

Abortion (letter)

Maryse Usher

Contents - Dec 2004 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Religious literacy: why not a national inquiry? - Michael Gilchrist US and Australian election results: the cultural revolution challenged - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Gone fishing: Catholic Earthcare Australia adopts discredited Green agenda - Pat Byrne Administration: Cardinal Pell: Church administrators must put Christ's mission first - Cardinal George Pell English language: Will Rome ensure the completion of an improved Mass translation? - William Oddie Liturgy: Redemptionis Sacramentum on the liturgical rights of the faithful - CDF New Evangelisation: Rebuilding a lost Faith - Fr John Walter Archbishop Fulton Sheen: 25th anniversary - Martin Tobin Society: American surveys show advantages of sexual abstinence education Letters: Orthodoxy succeeds (letter) - Fr Adrian Head Letters: Seminary reforms (letter) - Fr Peter Thompson CM Letters: Election result (letter) - Maureen Federico Letters: Liturgical development (letter) - Msgr Peter J. Elliott Letters: Catholic youth (letter) - Robert Denahy Letters: Graham Greene a Catholic? (letter) - Malcolm Mackinnon Letters: Mass translation (letter) - Leo McManus Letters: 'Fem-speak' (letter) - C.V.Phillips Letters: Misunderstanding over 'Come As You Are' (letter) - Peter Hannigan Letters: Call to holiness (letter) - Mark Calleja Letters: Abortion (letter) - Maryse Usher Letters: Nihilism (letter) - Robert Prinzen-Wood Poetry: The Salami Treatment - Bruce Dawe Books: Decoding Da Vinci, by Amy Welborn - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: Theology of the Church, by Cardinal Charles Journet - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Making Sense of Private Revelations, by Fr Paul Newton - Msgr Peter J. Elliott Books: Architects of the Culture of Death, by Donald DeMarco and Benjamin Wiker - Jodie Brown (reviewer) Books: Inspiring Christmas Gifts Reflection: Today is born to us a Saviour of the world - Pope John Paul II

Anne Lastman is not exaggerating when she describes 50 million abortions a year worldwide as the "annihilation of nations" predicted by Our Lady at Fatima (October AD2000).

An entire primary school (400 children) is killed by surgical abortion every day in Australia. God only knows how many embryos are poisoned by the abortifacient effect of the contraceptive pill.

Health Minister Tony Abbott seems to be pleading for Catholics to write to him demanding an end to taxpayer-funded destruction of young Australians. But so far the vast majority of Catholics - including even some bishops - have responded to him with a deafening silence.

Parish priests have told me that they are reluctant to preach against abortion (which includes the Pill) for fear of upsetting female parishioners.

Yet counsellors on the Pregnancy Counselling Australia 24/7 phoneline (1300 737 732 or 1300 RESPECT) know from experience that telling callers the truth about abortion saves the lives of unborn children and the health of their mothers. The truth also begins to liberate post-aborted women:

* Abortion is a great evil; there are many contributors to each abortion; parents need to seek their forgiveness from God, their child and to forgive themselves.

* It is natural and normal for men and women to experience myriad distressing reactions after an abortion. The relief of callers when they hear this statement is palpable.

* The mercy of God is available to anyone repentant, but how can Catholics convey mercy and hope to those wounded by abortion when they deny the evil of it?

And another thing: as a new parishioner in an indult Latin Mass congregation, not only have I found peace, beauty, heavenly Gregorian Chant and blessed periods of silence after Communion, but Latin Mass- goers all seem to be unashamedly and naturally pro-life.

MARYSE USHER
East St Kilda, Vic

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 17 No 11 (December 2004 - January 2005), p. 16