Greetings in Christ!
This week’s bulletin article is a bit more serious than usual, but it covers an exceptionally important issue for us as Catholics in the state of Michigan.
Our Bishop has sent a message to us priests to share with you, God’s People, in regard to a petition that is being circulated.
Planned Parenthood and the ACLU want to amend the constitution of our state to protect abortion as a fundamental right that cannot be restricted and thus allowed at any stage of pregnancy. For the constitution to be amended, they need to have this issue put on the ballot. For this to appear on our voting ballot, its supporters need to get 450,000 signatures on a petition titled “Reproductive Freedom for All.”
Please do not sign this petition.
As Catholics, we find such an effort to be morally grotesque. Do not be deceived: abortion is not health care. Health care does not eliminate a human life, it preserves human life. We who love Jesus must simply refuse to be a part of any effort that legalizes the taking of a human life.
Bishop Earl was very candid in his letter. He stated that signing this petition “is to place oneself in danger of grave or mortal sin because of this active and direct cooperation with evil.”
Brothers and sisters, I love you. I hope that that is clear. It is out of love that I send this message. I want all of us to stay close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and overt and direct support of abortion does not allow for that.
If you are reading this and have participated in an abortion in any way, please do not read a condemnation in my passion. We have all sinned, sometimes not even knowing we have sinned. We have all done things out of fear or desperation that we would not have done in normal days. Please, please remember that you are God’s child and He loves you more than you love anything. He wants to forgive you and draw you close to Him more than you want anything. Receive God’s mercy and know that God sees and will restore your beautiful, broken heart.
If you want to help us in our efforts to take care of women in crisis pregnancy, please go to:
https://www.newlukeprenatal.org and click the “donate” button if you are so moved. We don’t just say “no” to abortion, we stretch out our hand in love to help.
Thank you for reading this. If you are struggling with what I have written, please pray about it. Pray for me. Pray that we all get on the same page in what is undoubtedly the most pressing moral issue of our time.
I thank God for the joy of being your priest.
fjk