MOST CATHOLICS ARE WRONG ON ABORTION

MOST CATHOLICS ARE WRONG ON ABORTION
by
Julio Gonzalez, M.D., J.D.
 
For the past two thousand years, Christianity, and more specifically, Catholicism, has served as the moral beacon directing the relations between men and between government and the governed.  Jesus Christ, the Savior first and a Jewish rabbi second, when confronted by the Pharisees on the topic of taxes, taught that one should give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.  But the reality is that in both the Jewish and Christian traditions where the entirety of the universe is subject to the rule of God, everything belongs to God.  Thus, in giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, one cannot provide him anything that goes against the Law of God.  
 
Indeed, the supremacy of God's laws is the foundation to every human right.  It is only because of the dignity afforded to man by God when He created him in His likeness that man also come to possess his dominance over government.  Because of the dogma expressed by Jesus Christ and repeated by the church fathers, government exists to serve the people and not the other way around.  
 
And what is the most important law laid down by God?  Jesus Christ expressly answered this question as well.  We are to love God with all our might and our neighbors as we do ourselves.  It follows from this rule and from our divinity that certain rights must therefore reign supreme, namely the right to life, the right to religion and worship, and the right to raise a family.  No law made by man can ever intrude upon these the greatest laws of nature and God.  If none of us would profess a right to kill an innocent neighbor, how then can we profess a right to kill one so innocent that he or she has not yet even been born?
 
Regarding man's law, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that one "is obliged to obey. . . insofar as it is required by the order of justice."  Alternatively, he espoused, that one is not obliged to abide by an immoral law.  In keeping with that philosophy, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church states, "It is a grave duty of conscience not to cooperate, not even formally, in practices which, although permitted by civil legislation, are contrary to the Law of God." 
 
What civil legislation can be more contrary to the Law of God than the killing of a neighbor who has yet to be born?  
 
We cannot give to Caesar what does not belong to him.  
 
Enter a Pew Research Center report finding that 58% of U.S. Catholics favor legalized abortion "in all or most cases," and 68% oppose overturning Roe v. Wade.  By contrast, 67% of those who regularly attend mass are of the opinion that abortions should be illegal.  
 
But here's the most nonsensical part of the surveyed Catholics' answers.  Fifty-seven percent indicated abortion was morally wrong.  
 
If abortion is morally wrong, it is because it goes against the Law of God who is the source of morality and the One who demands unbridled compliance with it.  And if the action being allowed by civil law is immoral and contrary to His law, then how can such a law even exist?  

We cannot give to Caesar what does not belong to him.
 
The fact is that a law allowing for abortion is inherently void because it goes against the most basic tenet of the love we are to show to our neighbor who happens to be busy growing in a womb.  Indeed, we cannot give to Caesar what does not belong to him, and the life of an unborn soul is the cornerstone of such a prohibition.

That so many Catholics would miss this fundamental question regarding their beliefs frightfully demonstrates the dreadful inroads secularism and lawlessness has made into our lives and into our faiths; a problem we desperately must work to cure.  Our societies and our very existence depend on it.
 
 
Dr. Julio Gonzalez is an orthopaedic surgeon and lawyer living in Venice, Florida.  He served in the Florida House of Representatives.  He is the author of numerous books including The Federalist Pages, The Case for Free Market Healthcare, and Coronalessons.  He is available for appearances and book signings, and can be reached through www.thefederalistpages.com.

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