Building a Civilization of Truth and Love.

In Canada, abortion was legalized in 1969. Thirty years and two million abortions later, we need to examine how the acceptance of abortion has shaped our country.

We weep when high school students shoot their classmates and we wonder why there is so much violence in our society. On the 6 o'clock news the media hunts for answers, looking for clues which would explain the slaughter of innocents.

But when it comes to reporting the story of the 106,000 unborn children lost to abortion each year in Canada there are no screaming headlines, no exposés and no cries of outraged protest. There is just silence. Some people welcome this absence of truth. For them, it is better to ignore the fact that abortion is legal throughout all nine months of pregnancy.

Abortion is a fundamental test of society because the circumstances are sometimes complex and confusing and the solutions can be difficult and demanding. Without abortion we would have to be generous towards everyone and share our life and our resources with women in crisis pregnancies.

The prebom have been robbed of their humanity. They are called fetuses, globs of cells, embryos, uterine contents, fertilized ova, products of conception, potential persons. Only in rare circumstances are they granted the status of human persons or baby or child. All around us we see a new ethic emerging - namely, that individuals and groups are deciding when human life begins or ends and that human life is valuable only if it is "wanted". As a result of this ethic we are numbed into accepting over 100,000 abortions per year even though we know that women who choose abortion will be scarred for life.

Over and over again young women discover that they are pregnant unexpectedly. Desperate to escape this difficult situation, the frightened young woman tums to her community for help and support. Rather than receiving true support in the form of a soft shoulder and encouraging words she is advised to eliminate the problem by eliminating her baby. Even though most women know that abortion is wrong they will give up without practical help. Death has become the solution of choice for many of our problems; our panacea for personal and social woes.

This ethic's influence is not limited to the abortion issue. Once invited in, death leaves its muddy footprints everywhere. We are increasingly buying into the rhetoric of the euthanasia activists. They are allowing terms such as self-deliverance, assisted dying, planned death, death with dignity, mercy killing, death by choice, physician-assisted suicide and gentle death to put a happy face on killing off the ill, the dying, the mentally and physically disabled, the depressed, the elderly, the despairing. Anyone deemed not worthy of life, anyone who becomes unwanted, a burden to friends, family or society, or is made to feel like an undesirable - these are the ones who become the targets. Rather than help people through their pain, we offer to end their lives. Rather than work through our own pain over a loved one's agony, we end our pain by eliminating its source.

We have rejected the right to life and put in its place the right to die even though we know that civilized societies do not advocate the killing of their most vulnerable members. Societies that do, lose their right to call themselves civilized. It is time to recommit ourselves to each other and to life.

What can we do to turn the tide?
Pope John Paul II says we are called "to bring the Gospel of Life to the heart of every man and woman and to make it penetrate every part of society" (Evangelium Vitae, 80). He described our duty a decade ago: "To rediscover and make others rediscover the inviolable dignity of every human person makes up the essential task,...the central and unifying...service which the Church, and the lay faithful in her, are called to render to the human family" (Christifidelis Laici, 37). This is what God expects of us. Nothing less.

To be pro-life is to care about people, from the tiniest unborn baby to the frailest senior citizen. When we reach out to others in need with true compassion we can make a difference. If we help a person live their life with dignity, when it is time to die, they will die with dignity, too.

Remember: one candle glows in the darkness but a thousand candles can light the world. Working together, we can make the difference in someone's life.

AMessage From Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais.

It is not that people have stopped caring about life. People do care about life and it shows through their many commitments to family, friends and good works. However, we sometimes allow our judgment to be clouded and we do not always see issues as they really are, in all their complexity. As a result, for example, it becomes a "right" to decide what to do about an unwanted pregnancy instead of welcoming this child as a gift from God; persons are deemed "useless" just because they cannot do everything they used to do, and slowly but surely our passion for life in all its forms is eroded. When people are conscious of the consequences of their choices, they often change their behaviour. Hopefully, the new millennium will provide us with an opportunity to renew our commitment to life, remembering that a commitment to life involves a lot of hard work.

On the one hand, we need to open our hearts to God in prayer, to re-examine our attitudes towards life and to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us. On the other hand, we need to take concrete steps to protect and foster life around us, in our society and in our world.

It is not a simple challenge, it is the fight of a lifetime, but we should not allow ourselves to become discouraged. As a community, the need to support each other, so that, like the apostle Paul, we are able to say that we have "fought the good fight". (2 Tim of 4:7).

A Message from Dr. DarrelReid, President Focus on the Family Canada.

The halls were virtually deserted as my wife and I paced the floor of Toronto General Hospital in the wee hours of the morning, June 1985. Barb was in labour, and soon our first daughter Sarah would make her way into the world. All around us the building pulsated with the sound of life-saving equipment, waiting to be used when needed.

I remember wondering how it could be that just one floor above this place of hope and joy was different equipment equally dedicated to destroying innocent, unborn children much like the one whose arrival we eagerly anticipated.

Today in Canada one in four unborn children are destroyed before they see the light of a day. Their stories are not told by our media. Their cases are not taken up by our courts, our social welfare institutions, or even by our churches.

Yet our God, He who created the universe, watches and cares. For each little one is known to Him. The writer of Psalm 139 marvels at this fact: "You created my inmost being: you knit me together in my mother's womb."

And we who proclaimed His name, must watch and care too. For we are His hands and feet for the frightened, pregnant teenager; for the young mother; for the unwanted baby; for the young girl used and cast off by the abortion industry.

As we enter the third millennium, let's ask God to grant us a spirit of Love, compassion and service as we proclaim His gospel - the gospel of life.