Being pro life means recognizing and respecting the sacred dignity of every human person.

Being "pro life" means defending the lives of

the unborn 

and 

the sick 

the poor

the homeless

the aged

the mentally challenged

the inmate

the refugee

and the person or people you hate.

Being pro life means reverencing  

all human life.

Because it's all from God.

(James Martin, SJ)

The unborn are especially vulnerable and defenseless, so our duty to defend them is paramount. But this does not diminish our responsibility to defend all life. On the contrary, to be genuinely pro life is to be conscious of the interconnectedness of all life (and all of God’s creation, both visible and invisible).

Thomas Merton’s simple but powerful statement says it perfectly:

To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that Love is the reason for my existence, for God is love.

Every human person is an image of God. It’s true that we are all incomplete, often distorted, images of the Love who created us, but that does not take away from our dignity as God’s children. We are all created in God’s image and we are all destined to be one with God in a sacred communion of Love. Each of us has a part to play in the drama of our lives. We can refuse God’s love. We can insist on isolating ourselves from God and from humanity. But we remain worthy of respect and dignity—no matter who we are, where we came from or what we have done—simply because of who we are as members of God’s family.

Nothing is more important than this. Peace and justice, love and goodness, beauty and truth all flow from this magnificent source: God’s inexhaustible, unconditional love.

I will give you a new heart

and place a new spirit within you,

taking from your bodies your stony hearts

and giving you natural hearts. (Canticle of Ezekiel 36:24-28)

What would it be like to have a “new heart”? Not a new organ (a heart transplant) but a new attitude toward everything—myself, my family and friends, my work, the world I live in? What if my cynicism were replaced with humble gratitude? What if my selfishness gave way to charity and justice toward all? What if my words were perfectly aligned with my thoughts and actions? What if I were not a hypocrite but an honest and true man?

I am currently re-reading Charles Dickens’ novel Our Mutual Friend. It’s a complex, masterful set of interlocking stories which contrast honesty and simplicity with many different varieties of arrogance, falsehood and vanity. Some of Dickens’ characters are irredeemable—destined to come to a bad, and often bitter, end. But others experience forms of conversion and have their “stony hearts” replaced by new “natural hearts.” As always, the process of transformation is fascinating—never happening overnight, but always gradually with many obstacles to be overcome before the new hearts are firmly planted and take root. 

If I examine my conscience honestly, I have to admit that my own heart is partly stone and partly natural. I can be compassionate, but I can also be cruel. Depending on the issues (or persons) concerned, I can be fully engaged or totally disinterested. 

I ask the Lord to give me “a clean heart” and “a steadfast spirit” so that my stone-like heart will be replaced by one that is more consistently natural. I should be careful what I ask for. 

I’m so tired of all the negativity. We have bad news 24/7. And as if there wasn’t enough real bad news to talk about we have fake bad news and trumped up bad news all the time.

Can we please talk about our joys? I have a great wife and family, lots of really good friends, a great job. Why would I talk about my problems? I have them, of course, but they’re really not worth talking about.

I believe there are serious issues that reasonable people who are good citizens need to discuss. But these do not require name calling, character assassination or belitting those who thiink differently. This is now “ordinary” talk for media types, politicians and even folks like you and me who really should know better.

Let’s stop the screaming, the blaming and the outrage (whether actual or feigned). As my mother used to say, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Were we all to follow this very good advice, the silence would be overwhelming!

Helen Callaghan Conway, my mother, was born on January 16, 1925. She was the second daughter and third child of Anna May Bernet Callaghan and William D. Callaghan. She passed away on October 2, 1998, following more than 50 years of marriage to my father, John L (Jack) Conway. 

As I get older, numbers of years become overwhelming. Mom would be 95 today. She will be dead 20 years later this year. How is it possible? Where does the time go? More importantly, where is it taking us?

One of Mom’s favorite sayings was “Hope springs eternal.” She believed that the mystery of time is intimately connected to the virtue of hope. Although we cannot predict the future—or escape our past or control what happens to us in the present—there is reason to be confident in Love’s ability to overcome all obstacles and set us free. 

Mom was a poet, not a philosopher or theologian, but she had a keen understanding of the truth of things—visible and invisible. She could spot a phony a mile away, and she did not suffer fools gladly. She loved her husband, her children, her grandchildren and her many extended family members and friends. She loved to write, to teach and to engage in stimulating conversation. 

Happy Birthday, Mom. We miss you. 

Archbishop Charles Thompson on racism and violence using the thought of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

From “Christ the Cornerstone” Friday, January 12, 2018:

Dr. King’s vision, which inspired millions of people in our racially divided nation and throughout the world, was that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God. All of us, regardless of our differences, share equally in the rights and responsibilities given to us by a loving and merciful Father. This makes us all brothers and sisters called to love each other without exception and to cherish and defend the human and civil rights of all. 

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality,” Dr. King said. “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

In addition to his absolute conviction that racism is evil and must be overcome by “the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood,” Dr. King was determined that the revolution he advocated must be a nonviolent one. The temptation to respond to evil with force is great. Especially when a people has been oppressed, abused and denied basic human rights for generations, the pent-up anger and resentment must be enormous. It would be only natural to want to lash out with overwhelming force against those who have perpetrated (or tolerated) such unspeakable evil. 

But Dr. King knew that violence is not the way to universal peace and brotherhood. “Darkness cannot out drive out darkness; only light can do that,” he said. “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Only love can overcome the power of sin and death. Only love can unite people who are deeply divided by hatred, prejudice and a history of injustice. Only love can heal the festering wounds of racism and the physical, emotional and spiritual destruction caused by violence. 

Sadly, nearly 50 years after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., racism and violence are still dominant forces in the daily lives of Americans and our sisters and brothers throughout the world. In spite of the progress that has been made during the past five decades, we still have a lot to learn from Dr. King’s teaching that hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Every new year, our Holy Father Pope Francis appeals to world leaders, and all of us, to dedicate ourselves to peace. None of the world’s problems can be solved by war. The peace and brotherhood we seek must be obtained by forgiving past injuries and injustices and by resolving to “repair the world” through mutual respect and dialogue, as well as through the commitment to accept responsibility for one another as members of the human family equal in human rights and dignity. 

In his World Day of Peace message for this year, Pope Francis says, “Offering asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and victims of human trafficking an opportunity to find the peace they seek requires a strategy combining four actions: welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating.” Surely Dr. King would agree with this approach to peaceful social change!

As the new year begins, Catholics make a special appeal to Mary, Queen of Peace, asking her to unite us with all God’s children in the nonviolent struggle for justice and peace. May her intercession, and the witness of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., inspire us to reject “the starless midnight of racism and war” and dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to “the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood” that can only come from “unarmed truth and unconditional love”!