The undercover Planned Parenthood videos recorded by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) provide a phenomenal opportunity for our bishops to accelerate the end of abortion in our country: yet, for the most part our bishops are ignoring all of it. There is tremendous coverage on the Internet as well as newspapers, social media and TV channels which do not promote abortion. With few exceptions, our bishops are not using these videos to defend preborn humans and to prevent the heartbreak and regret of the women and men who participate in this holocaust.

There are many Catholics on the frontlines fighting against abortion. This includes not only those unsung heroes of CMP, but Father Pavone of Priests for Life, Lila Rose of Live Action, Jack Ames of Defend Life,  the directors of Human Life International, Operation Rescue, Life Site news, and many, many others who have been speaking out against the abortion industry for years and on a regular basis. In addition, thousands of devoted sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors are in front of abortion clinics all over the country. Most are Catholic but included in their ranks are many devoted members of (mostly Evangelical) Protestant churches and even those with no church affiliation.

It is interesting to note that some members of mainline Protestant churches including Episcopalian, Lutheran and Methodist have left their churches over the abortion and sodomite issues and have become Evangelical Christians or Catholics. In a blog by a Protestant, Brian Fisher, President of Online for Life, he states,” When politicians are ahead of the Church on a moral issue, you know we have problems.” He bemoans the fact that churches make excuses for ignoring the very serious problem of abortion. Even having seen the explicit videos from CMP, they ignore them. As he says, “The Churches need to step up, use these videos as an opportunity to educate their congregations, and make enormous headway to cause abortion to become unthinkable and unavailable in our country, now is that time.”

Fisher goes on to say, “The typical excuses used by the Protestant clergy are “Abortion is a political issue. Churches shouldn’t talk about it; however abortion is a spiritual issue. It’s a decision to kill a precious, innocent human being who was created by God in His own image. The Church should be the primary, vocal, consistent, vehement protector and defender of preborn children.” Indeed the Church’s silence regarding the abortion holocaust has contributed to the death of 58 million preborn children in the United State since 1973. The total number of aborted babies in the world is over 1,300,000,000. Reference http://www.numberofabortions.com/.

The excuses of our Catholic Bishops are not much different. They use the excuse of the need to seek “Social Justice” and they think ignoring abortion and working at programs which are used to help the needy and the sick fulfills their obligation and, incidentally, does not endanger their tax-exempt status. Excellent programs, but they ignore the facts stated above. Human beings are being killed by the millions while the Bishops and our clergy are silent or nearly silent. They also ignore the fact that women who choose abortion may suffer from it physically, emotionally and spiritually. Many suffer the remainder of their lives. Eventually, they will realize they have killed a human being. Many men will also come to this inevitable conclusion, and either or both often struggle with substance abuse, divorce, spousal and child abuse, depression, suicide, and for women, even physical illness such as breast cancer and other after-effects. In other words, abortion also deals quite extensively with social justice. Why are the bishops ignoring this terrible tragedy? Why are they so afraid to speak out against it?

An excellent example of our bishop’s attitude is our diocesan paper. The most recent issue was published soon after the release of the seventh undercover video from CMP concerning Planned Parenthood. This video detailed how a Planned Parenthood abortionist removed the brain of a baby whose heart had begun to beat after the abortion. The brain was removed through the face of the baby – a live human being.    

Looking through the diocesan paper, consisting of 12 pages, the word abortion was not mentioned a single time, nor was there any mention of this video or any previous video. There was a half-page article concerning the bishop blessing a new parish kitchen and another half page article of the bishop blessing new apartments to provide affordable housing for families with members in nearby long-term care. Good projects, no doubt, but do they equate to the murder of 200 babies in the US during the time the bishop spent preparing for and blessing these facilities? How can our bishops continue to ignore the abortion holocaust? It is sad to see our politicians demonstrating more faith and courage than our bishops.

Read Proverbs 24:11-12.  Verse 11 basically tells us to rescue those being put to death. Verse 12 teaches us ignorance may not be used as an excuse for failure to save lives, and God will repay each one for our good deeds or lack thereof.

A number of saints and a least one pope have spoken out about how the bishops will be going to Hell due to their lack of good deeds and their moral cowardice. St. John Chrysostom is reported to have said, “The road to Hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lamp posts that light the path.”

Now is the time for our clergy to speak from the pulpit about the nature and perils of abortion, protecting the unborn, abortion as it relates to social justice, and the entirety of the gospel. The CMP videos of Planned Parenthood provide an easy method to begin this discussion. The public is now more aware of abortion than ever before. Also now is the time for us to reach out to our pastors, our bishops and our cardinals to spur them into action.  St. Thomas Aquinas has said, “It must be observed, however, that if the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly.”  Please contact your clergy and speak out. Nearly 700 babies died world-wide in the time it took you to read this.

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