By Tim Rohr
The following was sent to the Pacific Daily News as a Letter to the Editor. It has not yet been published. Given that the subject bill is expected to come up on the floor of the legislature this week for a vote, JW chooses to make the letter public via this forum now - with supporting links and references. Note: the Letter was published by the Pacific Daily News on Dec. 5, 2022.
Per a recent news story in the Pacific Daily News, the Archdiocese of Agana, specifically its vicar general, Father Romeo Convocar, has called on Vice-Speaker Barnes to place the Guam "Heartbeat Bill" on its session agenda.
Unfortunately, Fr. Convocar's support of the "Heartbeat Bill" inadvertently implies that killing a child in the womb is okay up until a fetal heartbeat is detected. This is in direct contradiction to universal Catholic teaching which holds that life begins at conception and that the direct killing of an innocent, defenseless human being is always intrinsically evil.
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.
Prior to the Dobbs decision overturning Roe, incremental pro-life legislation like the "Heartbeat Bill" was the best that could be hoped for, and advocating for such legislation was even officially encouraged by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, Evangelium Vitae.
"...when it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects." - Evangelium Vitae 73 Note: Between 2008 and 2018, the Esperansa Project did precisely this in backing eight pro-life bills into law and functionally shutting down Guam's abortion clinics in 2018.
However, since the Dobbs decision has opened the door for a full, legal ban on abortion, Fr. Convocar would have better served the church he represents by writing a letter of support to Attorney General-elect, Douglas Moylan, who has stated his intent to dissolve the injunction placed on Guam’s 1990 abortion ban.
Fr. Convocar’s letter to Vice-Speaker Barnes is yet another example of Guam’s Catholic Church leadership continually stepping on itself when it wanders into the public arena - usually after being baited - and without proper counsel. Unfortunately, as recent history has demonstrated, said leadership’s public missteps are not paid for by the Catholics on the altar, but by the Catholics in the pews.
Blogger Tim Rohr accused of abusing his wife, children
ReplyDeleteNO COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Plenty of comments. It's all in the public record at the court. Go ahead and get it if you want. The only reason I'm not defending myself here is because I don't need to. I defended myself in court where it belongs.
DeleteStill in Barrigada. :)
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