A court in Poland has ordered a priest, Father Marek Gancarczyk, to pay a fine of $11,000 because the Catholic paper, of which he is editor, described a woman seeking an abortion as “wanting to kill her child”.

He has refused to pay.

The judge, in passing the sentence, treated Fr Gancarczyk to a lecture on theology. “Christianity is a religion of love and this is what the language used by Catholic press should be like,” she said.

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Polish law permits abortion only in cases of rape, serious handicap in the baby, or serious health risk to the mother. In this case, the mother had an eye condition. She was denied an abortion because her doctors decided the pregnancy would not seriously damage her health.

The local archbishop, Father Damian Zimon, said, “No state law can undermine God’s commandment and the order of Jesus Christ . . . . Recall the words of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta: ‘The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion . . . if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?’ ”

The Catholic Association of Journalists in Poland commented, “We consider this verdict an attempt to gag Catholic media, also directed against freedom of speech in the wider sense . . . .We call on all journalists who hold Christian values not to be afraid to write the truth about abortion, about abortionists and about the supporters of this Holocaust of the 21st century.”

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Two points that Australians might ask themselves:

(1) is our law permitting any woman, any time, to have an abortion, simply by telling her doctor she wants one, good enough?

(2) at least one priest, somewhere, is willing to suffer imprisonment, or whatever the court comes up next time, rather than compromise the Church’s teaching of love and respect for all human life, including the unborn babies.

Father Marek Gancarczyk

On 25 February 2009, the media announced that doctors in Recife, Brazil, were planning to abort a nine-year old girl made pregnant with twins by her step-father.

On 3 March, the bishop of Recife, Archbishop Sobrinho, warned that if the abortion was done, all medical staff involved would be excommunicated from the Church, as per canon 1398 of Catholic Church law.

On 4 March, the abortion was performed.

On 15 March, Archbishop Fisichella, head of the Pope’s “Academy for Life” (PAV), published an article in the Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano, condemning Archbishop Sobrinho, saying that the abortion was justified as a means of saving the young mother’s life.

On 16 March, a number of Sobrinho’s fellow bishops issued a letter defending Sobrinho’s action, describing the compassionate help the girl and her family had received, behind the scenes, from her parish priest and bishop — and how the warning regarding excommunication had been delayed until other methods of persuasion had failed.  They also quoted the Chief of Obstetrics at a Rio de Janeiro hospital, who, in 35 years coping with difficult pregnancies, had never found it necessary to resort to abortion “to save lives”.

On 4 April, a majority (but not all) of the members of the PAV wrote to Archbishop Fisichella, explaining why his Osservatore Romano article was wrong, and asking him to withdraw his condemnation of Archbishop Sobrinho. Fisichella refused to do so.

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The PAV members then approached Pope Benedict himself.

On 7 July, an article of “clarification” appeared in Osservatore Romano, reversing what the Fisichella article had said, and declaring that Archbishop Sobrinho had been right in his actions, and reiterating that “formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offence. The Church punishes this crime against human life with the canonical penalty of excommunication.”

February 2010: The latest news is that the PAV itself, having had its credibility ruined, may be dismantled. (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10020802.html)

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Excommunication is an excellent part of the Church’s way of doing things. A warning of likely excommunication can do good in convincing a Catholic to avoid serious sin.

For the Church not to do so would be unjust to that sinner — and harmful to the Church’s witness to God’s love and holiness.

Here are the lyrics of a song recorded by Seals and Croft:

Oh little baby, you’ll never cry, Nor will you hear a sweet lullaby.

Oh unborn child, if you only knew just what your mama was planning to do.
You’re still a-clinging to the tree of life, but soon you’ll be cut off before you get ripe.
Oh unborn child, beginning to grow inside your mama, but you’ll never know.
Oh tiny bud, that grows in the womb, only to be crushed before you can bloom.

Mama stop! Turn around. Go back. Think it over.
Now stop, turn around. Go back. Think it over.
Stop, turn around. Go back. Think it over.

Oh no mama, just let it be. You’ll never regret it, just wait and see.
Think of all the great ones who gave everything
That we might have life here, so please bear the pain.

Mama stop! Turn around. Go back. Think it over.
Now stop, turn around. Go back. Think it over.
Stop, turn around. Go back. Think it over.

* * *

You can access it at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys7vNUSCsAs

It was the title song of an album which was considered controversial and there were protests by pro-abortion activists at their concerts for a while.

But was their message right?

God knows.

Yes, all children, including unborn children, are God’s children.

The New York-based Guttmacher Institute has just released new statistics on worldwide abortion rates. (Associated Press, 15 October 2009)

They say over 40 million babies are aborted per year — about half being done in unsafe circumstances (either self-induced or by non-expert practitioners using unsterile equipment)

And that 70,000 women die each year as a result of such procedures.

Their solution to the problem? They want abortion made legal everywhere.

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What groups like the Guttmacher Institute never discuss is what abortion is.

The death rate among the babies of aborted women is 100 percent – 40 million dead babies a year.

Opponents of abortion want the efforts of mankind directed to making abortion unnecessary by supporting women with unplanned pregnancies as they continue their pregnancy.

They want women to know what is going on inside them — e.g. that, from conception, there is a real live, unique, unrepeatable, human being in there — not just a blob of tissue or an extension of mum’s body.

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A report by LifeSiteNews confirms just how human the unborn baby is – using the famous photography of Lennart Nilsson.

Pro-abortionists don’t like Nilsson’s photos;  interesting that it’s pro-lifers who call attention to advances in foetal development research — not pro-abortionists, who prefer to deny the humanity of the unborn.

Here is a video which shows in real time what un-aborted unborn babies are like:

An evangelical church pastor, who blamed the Victorian bushfire tragedy on the state’s abortion laws, has been given the “Ernie Award” for “sexist comments”. (ABC News, 1/10/2009)

The Ernie Award is presented annually by a self-appointed group of women, answerable to nobody. The media like them, however, because they are anti-Christian.

The media dis-like Pastor Nalliah, having the impression that he is a Christian — debatable, considering his group doesn’t celebrate the traditional centuries-old Christian Sacraments, doing, instead, their own thing since setting themselves up in 1997.

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The media don’t mention that Mr Nalliah’s group didn’t only comment on the fires — they also did practical work helping bushfire victims, providing four trucks to help to distribute relief items in cooperation with the Salvation Army.

* * *

Nor will the media mention the vital question: “May Mr Nalliah, in fact, be right?”  That question would involve logical thought — something our media doesn’t generally encourage.

Why do we consider the bushfires a “tragedy”?  Is it because human life has an intrinsic value and sacredness? Who says the lives of little, unborn, defenceless (aborted) babies have no intrinsic value?

Everyone knows that an arsonist starting a fire which kills people does something bad. What about a government passing laws to facilitate killing human beings?

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Even Mr Nalliah, doubtful value as he may be in many regards, cannot get everything wrong every time he speaks.

His remarks about the fires and abortion — tactless and ill-timed as they may have been –raise issues that we should seek the fortitude to face.

A few weeks ago, a NSW doctor was charged with manslaughter after procuring an unlawful abortion, having terminated a pregnancy after 21 weeks.

Australian Medical Association president, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, comments that this prosecution has “huge repercussions” for Australian women and for doctors and the broader community.

“This case creates great uncertainty and confusion — and fear,” he is quoted as saying.

“All the State and Territory Governments must clarify their laws on abortion in consultation the AMA, the whole medical profession and the public. There is a leadership role for the Federal Government, too, given its recent efforts in stirring up the abortion debate.

“The AMA is concerned that a situation could arise where doctors could be compromising patient care for fear of legal repercussions.

“Any decision on abortion is between the doctor and patient. There is no place for third parties — governments, over-zealous politicians and lawyers, hospital committees, or even the spectre of legal action.”

* * *

So there you have it. Australia’s medical profession wants abortion treated like any other operation. The doctor recommends it, the mum agrees to it. The baby is exterminated. The law has nothing to say.

That’s the bright, golden future for which Australia’s doctors seem to hope.

Doctor Haikerwal is right, of course, that the laws about abortion should be uniform throughout Australia.

The question is what those laws should be.

Dr Haikerwal wants the laws to be uniform — so uniform, in fact, that the laws governing abortion of human babies will be uniform with the laws governing vets deciding to put down an animal.

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Sorry, I cannot quote you anything that Blessed Mary MacKillop had to say about abortion.

As far as I know she never spoke about the subject.

Mary MacKillop lived in an era when, not only the Catholic Church, but all people of goodwill, were committed to the sanctity of human life, born or unborn.

The idea of abortion being OK so long as the doctor and the mother think it’s OK – such a mentality was something she never encountered.

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