February 6, 2009
Bishop urges ‘boldness to speak for dignity
of the unborn’
By Herald staff
A young girl holds up a pro-life sign in the midst of the Walk for Life West Coast. The walk began at Justin Hermann Plaza in San Francisco and ended at the Marina Green. Jose Luis Aguirre/El Heraldo Católico photo
Jesus’ love gives people “the boldness to speak for the dignity of the unborn and the sanctity of our relationship to them and every human person,” Bishop Jaime Soto said during the annual pro-life Mass Jan. 22 in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento.
“One’s right is not the rival of another’s,” said the bishop, who presided at the Mass. “Under the gaze of God we share a common dignity and we are all ennobled when we build that kingdom of truth and life where the fabric of mutual reverence and respect embraces all of God’s children.”
Several hundred people attended the Mass, which was held on the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions that legalized abortion.
Thirty-seven years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion, the “misguided logic” of the court proposed to “uphold human dignity by ignoring the precious dignity of human life,” Bishop Soto said in his homily.
“It denied the social character of the human person by ignoring the most fundamental personal relationship that claims justice and mutual respect — the relationship between child and mother,” he said. “In the very act of conception, a person is created and is so created in relationship. From the very moment of conception a social relationship is established that bestows on both the child and the mother dignity and respect.”
The Supreme Court’s “contrived delusion” to protect the right of one against the other, destroyed not only one life, the bishop contended.
“The decision deplored both and distorted the true nature of all of human life. The law failed in its most essential purpose to protect the dignity of the human person in all social relationships, but more particularly in the most vulnerable.”
The bishop added, “The devious notion that one’s dignity requires severing the relationship with another, though weak and voiceless, has become a flawed paradigm for a tattered social fabric. For this reason, the relationship of mother and child torn asunder by Roe v. Wade must be restored. For this reason we should carefully consider how to restore and renew the virtue of solidarity with those who are often lost or ignored on the margins of society.”
Referring to the day’s Gospel reading of Mark 3:13-19, where Jesus calls his Twelve Apostles together to follow him to build up God’s kingdom, Bishop Soto noted that Jesus chose to build up the kingdom “by reverential love and respectful regard for each person, especially the poor and the weak.”
“He saved humanity by choosing to be in relationship with each one, even those who would later threaten him with the cross…The call of Jesus to join in this social mission continues. He calls each of us personally. He calls each of us to do the work of the kingdom with reverence and love for each person.”
The bishop had invited Catholics in the diocese to observe Jan. 22 as a day of fasting, abstinence, prayer and works of charity in penance for violations to the dignity of the human person and prayer for the full restoration of the right to life.
