Respect Life Month and the World Day of Migrants and Refugees in conjunction with the Jubilee of Migrants in Rome are separate observances, but each offers the same fundamental message. That message is the Gospel of Life which proclaims the incomparable value and dignity of every human person.
The threats to human life and dignity – direct and indirect – are as grave as ever. Among them are:
“Whatever is opposed to life itself…whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as…torments inflicted on body or mind…; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation…; all these things and others like them are infamies indeed. They poison human society [and] are a supreme dishonor to the Creator.” (Gaudium et Spes, 27).
In this recitation, we can recognize of course direct threats such as abortion, medicalized death, and unjust capital punishment, but also the recent treatment of migrants and refugees throughout the world. The question for us is: What are we going to do about it?
While some say these are matters of politics and the Church should stay out of it, “every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church's very heart,” as Pope John Paul II affirmed in his monumental encyclical Evangelium Vitae 30 years ago (3).
Besides, he said, every person sincerely open to truth and goodness can recognize the sacred value of human life from its very beginning until its end, as well as the right of every human being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree (Id., 2).
Accordingly, this saintly pope continued, whenever any category of persons is being oppressed in the fundamental right to life and other human rights, the Church feels in duty bound to speak out with courage, especially on behalf of those who have no real voice (Id., 5).
In both Maryland and the District of Columbia, the civil law permits the slaughter of babies in the womb throughout all nine months of pregnancy despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision a few years ago overturning a prior case that had declared abortion to be a fundamental right. It is also legal in the District for doctors to dispense lethal drugs for some patients to kill themselves. Advocates are also expected to attempt to legalize such physician-assisted suicide or “medical aid in dying” (MAID) in Maryland next year.
Pope Leo has recently spoken of a “globalization of powerlessness, in which we risk becoming immobile, silent, perhaps sad, thinking that nothing can be done when we are faced with innocent suffering.”
While it may be true that the secular cultures of both D.C. and Maryland are pervasively pro-abortion and may be open to the lies of those who suggest that “ending it all” is the answer for those who are ill or infirm, the Church – meaning not only the bishops and priests, but you too and all the faithful – cannot sit on the sidelines any more than we could do nothing about the social injustices of the past.
This is a task appointed to us all, but I would like to particularly address my Hispanic sisters and brothers about our pro-life engagement. Within our community, are each of us praying and working for life-affirming responses to women at risk of considering abortion, and to men who might be encouraging or pressuring them to end the life growing within them? What more can we do to help pregnant women, so they do not feel they have to choose between life for their babies or school or work? How can we better help new mothers and families? How also can we better care for the elderly and others who are at the end-of-life, offering them hope and love instead of a suicide pill?
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” We all already know the right answer to this question from Cain which Pope John Paul cites at the beginning of his reflections in Evangelium Vitae. “Cain does not wish to think about his brother and refuses to accept the responsibility which every person has towards others.” In our time, His Holiness continued, the modern attitude of Cain includes a lack of solidarity toward society’s weakest members, such as immigrants, among others (Id., 8).
It is estimated that over 100 million women, men, and children are affected by migration and displacement worldwide. Joining with his predecessor pontiffs, Pope Leo at the Jubilee of Migrants again affirmed that “no one should be forced to flee, nor exploited or mistreated because of their situation as foreigners or people in need! Human dignity must always come first.”
The problem is that all too often, respect for human dignity is entirely lacking when it comes to treatment of people from other lands. The actions taken now against migrants and immigrants, while have not (yet) involved direct murder, are still acts of egregious violence against our brothers and sisters – violence which is increasingly physical, but which is always aimed at intimidation and terrorizing, as public officials themselves admit.
But, again, the people who are being targeted should know that the Church is not indifferent to their suffering. Recently, I joined a large multitude of pilgrims who walked in public procession through the streets of our nation’s capital to show solidarity with the migrant community. Just as Jesus walked with and uplifted the saddened men from Emmaus, we brought Christ and His hope and encouragement into neighborhoods where some are experiencing anxiety and despair.
The present evil is causing much harm and human suffering, but it will not have the last word, just at the Cross did not have the last word. We have the assurance of “a new possibility of life and salvation that comes from faith,” Pope Leo says, “because it not only helps us to resist evil and to persevere in doing good, but it transforms our lives so as to make of them an instrument of the salvation that even today God wishes to bring about in the world” by our caring for our brothers and sisters and promoting a new culture of fraternity.
In this precious service, let us entrust ourselves to Mary, bright dawn of a new world and Mother of the living. May she sustain us so that each of us may be pilgrims and missionaries of the Gospel of life and builders of the city of love, justice, and peace.
(Bishop Evelio Menjivar in an auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.)
