Posts tagged as:

Abortion

These Stone Walls Returns to The Last Full Measure of Devotion

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on January 18, 2012 · 4 comments

These Stone Walls, Fr. Gordon J. MacRae. Martin Luther King, Supreme Court, George Santayana, Freedom of Religion, Civil Rights, Civil liberties, The Right to Life, pro-life, abortion

. . . As America remembers the call of Martin Luther King, Jr., to “Let Freedom Ring,” a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision did just that for freedom of religion. . . . As I considered what to write this week to help honor and remember Civil Rights in America, I cannot help feeling oppressed by some urgent unfinished business. I wrote about it at this time last year, and I urge you to mark this Civil Rights observance by reading this and passing a link along to others. There is a denial of basic human rights in our culture, and it’s a threat to the most basic human freedom: the right to exist. . . .

{ 4 comments }

Prophets on the Path to Peace

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on January 20, 2010 · 9 comments

JFK, John F. Kennedy, Civil Rights Movement, Civil Rights March, Selma Alabama, Roe v Wade, Abortion, Martin Luther King, MLK, Richard John Neuhaus, Fr John Crowley, Society of St Edmund, Beloved Community, Selma Times Journal, the Path to Peace in Selma, Dred Scott, Roger Taney, Missouri Compromise, Blackman,

. . . There is a natural abhorrence to such language today, and to such a decision from our Supreme Court. But in 1857 the Court went far beyond the simple ruling that Dred Scott did not possess the rights of a citizen to sue. The decision rendered the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional thereby throwing out the U.S. Congress’s right to make territory free of slavery. The decision held that the Missouri Compromise violated the Fifth Amendment by depriving Southerners of their right to private property, i.e., slaves. That decision sounds appalling to us, but it was cheered in its day by many. It caused some, however, to assert that there is a higher moral law than the Constitution, and a higher moral authority than the Supreme Court. These voices of conscience changed minds and hearts, and, in time, the Supreme Court’s decision. . . .

{ 9 comments }

The Day the Earth Stood Still

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on November 18, 2009 · 15 comments

Roe v Wade, Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Dissent, Gordon MacRae, Falsely Accused Priest, Abortion, Beatles, Timothy Leary, Peter Stravinskas, Be to Me a Father and Priest, Humanae Vitae, John Paul II, Seminary formation, George Weigel, Witness to Hope, Ronald Rychlak, Dealing with Dissent, After This Life, Benedict Groeschel, Tom Hoopes, A Reluctant Jubilee

. . . In the end, what was meant to be a sign of unity in the Church was transformed into an open battle in our seminary. The rector, a Sulpician, was a priest from my diocese. He was particularly incensed when I – the only seminarian from our diocese there – signed a petition challenging his authority to bar Catholic seminarians from attending a Mass with the Pope. On October 7, 1979, more than 200,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC to welcome the Holy Father and celebrate the Eucharist with him. . . . I was horrified at the way they were singled out and ostracized, and I wasn’t having it. On that day, I parted ways with the “trendy dissent” crowd. . . .

{ 15 comments }