National Right to Life convention has strong Catholic presence

A Catholic congressman, the founder of Priests for Life and a leading priest–ethicist were among the speakers and workshop presenters at the National Right to Life convention June 18–20 in Charlotte.

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

Posted: 06.26.09

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CNS) | The convention, with the theme “Stop the Abortion Agenda,” drew nearly 1,000 participants from 48 states and covered a wide range of topics affecting human life, including concerns raised by the proposed national health reform.

“If this so–called reform bill isn’t ‘reformed’ to explicitly exclude abortion, we absolutely need to put it on the fast track to the dustbin of history,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R–N.J., a Catholic who is co–chairman of the House Pro–Life Caucus, in a June 20 keynote talk.

“Apart from the estimated $1.6 trillion price tag and a virtual cornucopia of untested policy proposals cobbled together in secret, absent any meaningful scrutiny, the legislation poses huge catastrophic risks for unborn children,” Smith added.

Although there are a half–dozen health–reform proposals before Congress, none specifically from the administration of President Barack Obama, Smith said the “Obama/Kennedy/Waxman legislation creates a benefits advisory council picked by Obama that will mandate services after the bill becomes law.”

Separate but similar health reform proposals have been offered by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D–Mass., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Rep. Henry Waxman, D–Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the chairmen of two other House committees.

Smith said the pro–life movement had “suffered a string of setbacks” since Obama took office but could take encouragement from the fact that recent public opinion polls show that more Americans describe themselves as “pro–life” than “pro–choice” on abortion.

“Your educational initiatives and ultrasound breakthroughs are having a positive impact,” he said.

“We are here in Charlotte today ... because we know that if the children and at–risk persons in the America and the world are to survive the newest aggression against their lives, you and I have no other option but to fight,” he added.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center, kicked off the convention with a presentation on “The Science and Ethics of Stem Cells and Cloning.” He holds a doctorate in neuroscience from Yale University and did postdoctoral research at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

“There are seductive arguments regarding embryonic stem–cell research, like ‘These embryos are all going to be thrown away anyway,’ but can we ever throw away another human being? This is not how we treat one another,” said the priest.

There have been no medical cures or therapies yet using human embryonic stem cells, while there are a myriad of cures and therapies using the ethically obtained adult stem cells. Failing to emphasize this key distinction to the general public is “unjust,” according to Father Pacholczyk, who said the importance of keeping ethics in modern science cannot be overstated.

Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life was part of a panel discussion on “The Church, the Media and the State.”

“When we looked at what the church has to say about the state and about the media, you realize the church’s message is one of engagement, not disengagement,” he said. “It is an approach of engagement rooted in the fact that Jesus Christ’s approach was one of engagement with the people to whom he preached and with the sinners and tax collectors with whom he ate.”

Calling the media an information–eating machine, he challenged his audience to get educated, write stories and be available to share the truth with the media so they can do their job in challenging the state.

In the second panel titled “We Are the Sheep ... Where Are the Shepherds,” Father Pavone joined pro–life leaders from several large Christian denominations, each with unique challenges promoting the sanctity of life in their particular faith community.

“We know we have one shepherd and his name is Jesus Christ and in this cause of life the lord Jesus Christ unites us across denominational lines,” said Father Pavone.

He said that nowhere in the mission of the church in the modern world is the power of authentic Christian unity expressing itself more visibly, powerfully and practically than in the pro–life work.

Among the other topics addressed at the convention were U.S. funding of domestic and international abortions and the suppression of research regarding the harmful effects of abortion.

“This convention not only taught me more about abortion, but it also opened my eyes to the fact that people from all over the country are united to stop this terrible crime,” said 19–year–old journalism student Brian Crenwelge from West Virginia University, who volunteers at a crisis pregnancy center and does sidewalk counseling.

“I was surprised at the number of young people and I realized that it is now up to us to carry on the work of the pro–life cause,” said Amy Evon, an 18–year–old student from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio who is working as a summer intern at a crisis pregnancy center in New York.

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