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USCCB spokeswoman:
Defending life begins at home
Published January 27, 2006 |
Deirdre McQuade in September 2005 became director of planning and information for the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She was in the Archdiocese of Detroit in December to appear on Cardinal Adam Maida's "Dialogue" talk show on the Catholic Television Network of Detroit. Here are excerpts from an interview with The Michigan Catholic reporter Joe Kohn:
You're the new spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop's pro-life secretariat what does the secretariat do?
The pro-life secretariat's mission is to defend and protect human life from conception to natural death, with a focus on the direct attacks against innocent human life. So our focus is on abortion, euthanasia and now also, of course, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, anything that would involve the manipulation or destruction of the human person at the very earliest stages.
When we write using the term "pro-life," we often receive letters stating out that the term should apply not just to abortion, but to a whole slew of issues being anti-war or fighting for better working conditions, for example. What's the bishop's perspective on the term "pro-life"?
There are many issues that address very basic human needs and concerns human rights. That doesn't put them all on the same kind of level or hierarchy. Without the fundamental right to life being protected, none of those other rights make any sense. But that isn't to say some people aren't distinctly called to work on having a better public transportation system, or working for the minimum wage, or working for better housing.
There are many gifts, you've heard, but the same spirit, right? There's no room for finger pointing and accusation in social justice, pro-life movements in terms of the good work people are doing to promote the dignity of human persons.
You mention abortion as a social justice issue. Can you talk about that?
Abortion really is a social justice question from at least two perspectives. Women who are desperate who find themselves willing to resort to something as unnatural and as violent as abortion must be doing that for some extreme reasons. The image that I use is that of the wolf that's been caught in a trap, and she reaches down and gnaws off her own leg to get out. That's desperate measures.
Abortion advocates would say that a woman would need access to abortion so she could get out of these traps. We say no. We can help you remove that trap so it's not a desperate situation in the first place, and help heal you to the point where you can be on your own. And we're committed to working so that those traps aren't there anymore. That's really where the social justice work comes in and the work of counselors, pastors and preachers and friends and relatives and people who surround women who find themselves in a situation where maybe she didn't expect to be pregnant.
The second way (abortion is a social justice question), it's discrimination against a whole class of human beings. Well, these people don't deserve to live because their parents are poor or because these children in utero are determined to be not as healthy as the children who preceded them. Think about it in no other area of our lives do we say 'Well, the poor don't deserve to live so let's just go in and kill them.' So it's a justice issue. It's a class issue.
When you (are) describing it that way, it's amazing how thoughtful people can be about the abortion question.
What can the average person in the pew do to foster the culture of life the person, say, with a spouse and a couple of kids who's against abortion but hasn't really given it much thought?
Like so much else, it starts at home. A respect for human life, if it's not inculcated in the relationships that are most intimate husband-wife, brother-sister, parents-children, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents this is another way to say we're living out our call to holiness. That call to holiness builds the culture of life.
So truly respecting each other, seeking out reconciliation when there's brokenness in relationships, parents helping children to understand that they're loved unconditionally, helping children love their younger brothers and sisters as they come into the family, caring for the sick if there is an elderly or sick person in the family, and really have an awareness of those who are weaker and maybe suffering
as Catholic Christians we have the sacraments. The sacramental basis of our life together as Christians is the ground on which we then go out and build the culture of life.
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