Life Beyond Roe; me on the radio tomorrow morning

Friends, I will join John and Glen tomorrow morning at 7:25 am eastern to discuss my recommendations on what every person needs to do to support the much-needed culture of life (spoiler alert: you don’t have even have to volunteer anywhere. Though, that would be a great thing to do!). You can find your station here or simply open the live player and listen here.

Also, if you are like me, you are still wanting to understand what exactly is the next thing coming, post-Roe. I just signed up for Life Beyond Roe, a webinar happening Wednesday night this week, at 8 pm eastern. See more here. All the big names in the pro-life movement will be there. Also, I realize that many of the “big names” are people who have been at it for ages. This really has been a years-long, multigenerational fight.

By the way, I put. my money where my mouth is on these recommendations. I have emailed my church’s pro-life coordinator, and just donated to my local pregnancy center. It starts with each one of us!

See you on the radio.

Roe is gone. Now what?

With Roe v. Wade overturned, and the so-called right to abortion deemed nonexistent, it may seem that the pro-life movement’s work is done. To the contrary! We’re just getting started.

Now, I realize not everyone in the Catholic Church up to this point has felt personally called to serve in pro-life work or is interested in following the state and national politics and policy involved. Or, maybe with this historic ruling, you are only now coming to see that maybe it’s time you did have a role in creating a culture of life.

And it’s true - you do! The biggest answer to the “what comes after Roe” question really is, “Now we create a true culture of life.” One that supports every human from birth to natural death, from the children and mothers in difficult situations, to disabled humans viewed by society as an annoyance, to the elderly looking for someone to help them find meaning at the end of life. And when we talk about babies and mothers, there are so many pregnancy centers and other resources that exist, which would flourish with the addition of new supporters’ gifts.

Here are a few things you can do to effect the culture of life right where you live.

1. Donate. This one is easy. If you don’t have the time, talent, or interest to volunteer with a pregnancy center, find the closest one and set up a monthly recurring donation. Even $5 a month would help. You could, as Ryan Anderson suggested, donate $6.24, $62.40, or $624 (or more) in honor of the June 24 date that Roe was overturned. You can find your local pregnancy center here.

2. Volunteer. Bring your parish, your neighborhood friends, your girlfriends, your kids, whoever - and dedicate your volunteer work to your closest pregnancy center. They need volunteers for everything from manning the front desk and organizing donations, to finding volunteers who can provide career counseling to expectant and new moms.

3. Connect with your parish’s pro-life committee, or if there isn’t one, start one. These committees are typically responsible for setting up fundraisers or charity drives, especially around the holidays, to support and pray for pro-life work. They also support post-abortive healing ministries like Project Rachel.

4. Learn. Read and learn about why the sanctity of life from conception is such a big deal, to the Catholic Church, but as a basic human reality. Live Action, the March for Life, Charlotte Lozier Institute, and the numerous pro-life organizations in this country have tons of resources.

5. Think beyond crisis pregnancy centers and apply all of the above - especially donations of time and talent - to foster care organizations, and homes for single mothers. Are you aware of homes for single mothers in crisis pregnancies? Many women end up in a crisis pregnancy because the child’s father is abusive, their own family rejects them, they are being trafficked, and so on. They have no one, and nowhere to go. What happens to the little family after the child is born must be equally life-affirming as the care the mother receives before birth. Similarly, the removal of abortion as an on-demand form of birth control in many states will have an impact on men. I am still researching it, but I know there are organizations dedicated to helping men step up and understand how to be fathers. Again, apply all of the above to these worthy organizations helping rid our country of a crisis of fatherlessness.

6. Pray. Pray that life will continue to be protected, that society will move in such a way to provide the needed safety nets for mother and children, that we may have hearts like Jesus’s to love those who disagree with us, and that their own hearts would be moved to recognize abortion is not the solution to the problem.

So - get ready. The country is getting ready to change, including in ways we will not even potentially understand for another generation. And I sincerely believe that we as a country and society will be called to respond with greater generosity in many ways. Indeed, as children of the Church, I am realizing how it really is all of our duty to create this “culture of life.” We are God’s tools here on earth to make his dream for humanity a reality.

The Sacred Heart and Roe Overturned

Courtesy of The Pillar

After Mass today, we prayed the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. My favorite line is this:

Heart of Jesus, desire of the eternal hills, pray for us

This was during adoration - I am lucky to have this offered every Friday at my church - but the prayer had a special significance with today being the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I like that line because it represents, to me, God’s very creation calling out to him in love. It is even more intimate than St. Anthony preaching to the fishes (and them listening). The hills can’t talk, walk, or even move toward Jesus - they just wait, with all their being-ness, for the One who created him.

And it was, of course, also special for contemplating the mercy contained in Jesus’s sacred heart, on this day when, after 49 years, Roe v. Wade was found to be unconstitutional, and overturned. Think of the sheer number of prayers, the hours of fasting, that led to this point. It is unfathomable. God truly works outside of time, and scoops all that up, and just like that, the world is changed.

It is surreal to read this:

Held: The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.

There are many angles to consider - how each state will now outlaw or enshrine abortion in their own laws or constitution; the work ahead of pregnancy centers in supporting women; the need to create a real culture of life (and come now, what does that really mean?); the federal response; and I even wondered, how will this affect our population?

Think about it: all these years - 63 million aborted children later - we are missing people. You are missing cousins, siblings, neighbors, colleagues, you never met. And yes, our world is missing the artists, the engineers, the peacemakers, the scientists, the authors, the teachers, the coaches, the leaders, the interpreters who would have been - all lives, interrupted. And then, the surrounding lives interrupted. It is like fabric tearing, dominoes falling, as each life is connected to others.

As for me, I want there to be more Americans. This was my sincere thought today! How cool, that we are now in a time when our world will be gifted with these lives that would not have been otherwise. Can you imagine? Human lives saved and gifted directly into the world. It is no small thing.

There are a lot of things that need prayer right now, the most obvious being the further protection of life at the state level, and for pregnancy centers to have the resources they need, yes. But more: what about all the women who are scared? Those that are crying at the Supreme Court today because they genuinely believe, because of this culture’s lies, that their lives are in danger? What about the great change of heart that needs to happen so that we do genuinely value life as a society, and where does that begin? Praise God as you read about the abortion clinics closing, but pray for the women who truly believe that was their only way out. Pray there will be more of a coming together between both these sides.

This is only the beginning of something, the first right step, an opening of light into our world, there is no doubt about that.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us!