The late cardinal of Chicago, Archbishop Joseph Bernardin, came to the conclusion near the end of his life that all pro-life issues are connected. He taught that if someone was concerned about the environment, logically he or she would have to take a consistent pro-life stance on war, for instance. He used a biblical image to show the cohesiveness of the many separate secular issues. He likened them to the seamless garment of Jesus which the soldiers of the execution squad did not want to divide up, as was their right. Better to throw dice and let one winner take all instead of destroying the cloth. It was all of a piece, not in pieces sewn together.
Even fellow bishops took issue with his all-or-nothing approach, let alone some of the Catholic laity. While the bishops were unanimous in their opposition to abortion on demand, nowhere near as many joined him in objecting to wars waged without sufficient reason, or not as a last resort, or with inadequate differentiation between civilians and combatants. A great deal more controversy seemed to color challenging our State Department and White House when it came to contesting the legitimacy of wars rather than abortion. For this reason, other bishops feared Catholics would jeopardize their position against abortion if they were to attack the seemingly far more secular moral crisis of war. Better to stick to sexual morality and to abortion.
A few months ago I was in the position of speaking to a Catholic and Jewish audience at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill. The subject was the morality of abortion. Another panelist claimed he did not see what difference it made that a newly conceived embryo had its own DNA, distinct from those genetic signatures of both parents. It seemed to me that if anything would argue to the brand new originality and individuality of a new person, this would be it. What more could you ask of something or someone so small?
Perhaps my rejoinder was not forceful enough because a woman in the audience said that social justice people like me argue against war well enough but are silent about abortion. I responded that I take my leadership from Rev. Daniel Berrigan, S.J. While he has unimpeachable credentials in the anti-war movement, perhaps she did not know that he opposes abortion as well. It is the seamless garment factor. How can one be credible in opposing death in one field but not in another? How can one protest Roe v Wade while supporting the death penalty?
Father Berrigan in turn is a disciple of Servant of God Dorothy Day, whose canonization proceeds in Rome. Of the many pro-life issues she said, “They all hang together.” She too opposed abortion, and in a way that no man could: she had had one, which she deeply lamented in later life. She gets the credit for initiating most Catholic opposition to the Vietnam war, a stance that came to fortify many U.S. bishops. They originally hesitated, fearing this issue was too secular for spiritual leaders. They also worried that Catholics would be seen as second-class immigrant citizens disloyal to the flag. Yet a surprising number of bishops in their youth had joined the Catholic Worker, the New York-based newspaper and movement of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin.
Day left no doubt about her position on Vietnam: she said, “Pack the jails with our young men. Pack the jails!” She wanted a flood of conscientious objectors to so clog the court system that resistance would bring down the war effort. While she faulted resisters like Father Berrigan for sabotage raids on draft offices to destroy files as happened first in Catonsville, Md., since violence could result, she wanted other civil disobedience. She practiced this by refusing to cooperate in citywide civil defense drills during the fifties. Authorities ordered New Yorkers to clear the streets by going down into the subways to rehearse in case of a missile attack by Moscow. She claimed this only enhanced the prospects of war by preparing for it.
So may a pro-life advocate pick and choose among the controversial pro-life issues as though at a salad bar? May she or he be a cafeteria crusader against abortion but ignore the many crimes of violence against women who become pregnant when abused? May one weep at the Sandy Hook savagery but defend the well disordered militia that presently is armed to the teeth?
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