Cardinal urges marchers to join postcard campaign effort to keep limits on abortionPosted: 01.29.09 WASHINGTON | In his homily during the vigil Mass Jan. 21, the night before the 36th annual March for Life, Cardinal Justin Rigali announced the U.S. bishops had authorized a massive postcard campaign to Congress to “protect the modest laws that have reduced abortions and prevented government funding and promotion of abortion.” The “million-postcard campaign” to be conducted through dioceses and parishes throughout the country over the next few weeks invites Catholics to send a postcard to each of their two state senators and U.S. congressional representative with cards supplied by the campaign. “These laws must not be swept away – neither all at once, through comprehensive measures like the Freedom of Choice Act, nor one at a time,” the cardinal told an overflow crowd at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. “We must urge Congress not to start down this destructive path, but to serve the life, health and well-being of all Americans, beginning with the most vulnerable: the child in the womb.” However, just two days later, the pro-life movement was handed its first setback by the new administration of Barack Obama when the new president, with little fanfare, signed an executive order Jan. 23 reversing the Mexico City policy that banned U.S. taxpayer money, usually in the form of funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development, from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion. Cardinal Rigali immediately called the president’s decision “very disappointing” adding, “An administration that wants to reduce abortions should not divert U.S. funds to groups that promote abortions.” During his homily Jan. 21, he called attention to the trauma left behind by abortion. “People greatly loved by God are being deceived into thinking that abortion is a simple procedure with no consequences for their physical, emotional, spiritual and eternal well-being. But we know that the consequences of abortion can be devastating and eternal.” He reminded the congregation that God is waiting to extend his healing mercy “on all who have sorrow for their involvement in an abortion” and suggested a call to a local Project Rachel office to begin the healing process. Project Rachel offers priests and lay counselors who assist women and men who have been involved in an abortion and who need help dealing with the aftermath. (Statewide in Florida, call 1-877-908-1212 or visit www.hopeafterabortion.com for more information and local resources.) At a briefing with Catholic journalists Jan. 22 before the March for Life kicked off on the National Mall, Cardinal Rigali said that while he worked at the Vatican, one of his duties was to help handle English-language mail addressed to the pope. He recalled one particular letter from a woman who had had an abortion many years earlier and was still experiencing the effects years later. She made a plea to the pope to help her with her pain. The cardinal said such realizations of trauma eventually can lead people on a journey of healing to find the strength to witness to others, as some would do later in the day. At the end of the March for Life, women who had abortions would stand on the steps of the Supreme Court and tell their stories and say, “I regret my abortion.” Men whose children had been aborted would do the same, and say, “I regret my lost fatherhood.” “Little by little, we are making a difference,” Cardinal Rigali said. Also at the briefing, officials of the bishops’ Office of Pro-Life Activities detailed their hopes for the postcard campaign to Congress. The two primary goals are to ask the legislators to oppose the Freedom of Choice Act or any similar measure that would eliminate restrictions on abortion in a sweeping fashion, and to retain any current measures that restrict abortion or funding of abortions. Dierdre McQuade, assistant director for policy and communications for the office, said the Democratic platform affirms the right to choose regardless of ability to pay, so restrictions on federal funding could be at risk. Conscience rights that allow health care professionals to opt out of providing abortions, morning-after pills or contraceptives might also be threatened. Although there is a Democratic majority, “We have friends in the Democratic Party who are bravely voting against them,” but it’s still a close margin. “These are ways that pieces of FOCA could be achieved piecemeal. It will be a season of vigilance,” she said. The office’s associate director, Richard Doerflinger, said it is not inconsistent to ask Catholics who voted for Obama to participate in the postcard campaign, especially since a reported 54 percent of Catholics who voted in 2008 voted for the new president. “I think many Catholics who voted for President Obama voted for him in spite of it or thinking he really wouldn’t carry it out,” Doerflinger said, adding that those voters are in a position to call the new president to be responsible. “For my friends in my parish who think he’s going to be doing some really good things, this (the postcard campaign) is their penance. If you did vote for him, you can say, this is not what I called for. If you didn’t vote for him, you can say, this is one of the reasons I didn’t vote for you.” McQuade added that Catholic voters must be engaged in the political arena year-round. “Our faithful citizenship doesn’t end in the voting booth.”
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