I’m grateful to the Gazette for publishing the article “Saving lives and helping women” (Oct. 25). I’m also grateful for the Oct. 31 letters “Disappointed in newspaper’s report on diocese’s campaign,” which serves as the springboard for what I say here. Of late, much has been written in these pages, and indeed nationally, about Catholics vis-a-vis their stance on abortion. I write not so much to contribute to the polemics of the question, but to clarify a few fundamentals. The first point for clarification is this: Catholics do not oppose abortion for religious reasons. This may come as a surprise to both non-Catholics and Catholics alike. In fact, Catholic claims about abortion — and many other moral questions — are founded on natural law reasoning. Which is to say, a certain philosophical reflection about the way things are and about how the human person cooperates with all things real. When Catholics and others claim that abortion is always the wrong choice, we regard this as a truth “discovered,” not something arbitrarily enforced by some human preference or authority. That being the case, the question of conception follows a similar pattern. Catholics heed the discoveries of sound embryology when they claim that human life begins at conception. (After all, what does the word mean “except” that a new human life has come into existence?) That religious thinkers over the centuries and across traditions have answered the question differently does not directly concern the Catholic. Once again, human conception is a truth discovered, not imposed. Which is why, in conclusion, Catholics are not activists. For reasons already stated, neither are Catholics the only persons who recognize that abortion is not a good moral decision. Catholic communities are by no means naive to the myriad difficulties associated with motherhood. But what Catholics have discovered is that abortion is never the right answer, never a real form of support for mothers in need of our love and assistance. Obvious, indeed, that many disagree with this conclusion. And how much more could be said! But let it at least be understood where Catholic thinking begins on the matter.
Father Ryan Sliwa
Our Lady of the Valley, Easthampton