Abortion, assisted suicide addressed at MCFL Assembly for Life

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Pro-life movement leaders expressed hope for building on a new momentum as they spoke at an interfaith conference Sunday. Their hope was engendered partly by President Donald Trump and last Friday’s March for Life.
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, was a key speaker at the Massachusetts Citizens for Life 45th Assembly for Life, held at Mechanics Hall.
He said he’d been told that if Mr. Trump won the presidential election, he would do more than other pro-life presidents.
“And he’s fulfilling that promise,” Father Pavone said, to applause. “We’ve got to keep this progress going.”
He also called for taking advantage of the momentum in the wake of the 45th annual March for Life, which he called of the most successful. He spoke of “people newly awakened to the pro-life call.”
 MCFL president Anne Fox said the march was bigger, more diverse and younger that ever, and the speeches by President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence really showed a commitment to life issues.
She also found encouragement in changes in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It removed most ways that “Obamacare” forced people to subsidize abortion in their insurance plans, she said. It gave states rights to chose which healthcare providers to fund, so priority can be given to those not performing abortions.
Assembly speakers included Matthew Valliere, executive director of Patients’ Rights Action Fund, who told of problems with physician assisted suicide, and Don Feder, a former Boston Herald columnist, who gave a Jewish pro-life perspective.
Father John Daly, pastor of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Southbridge, who works in the Worcester Diocese’s Catholic Schools Office, offered the opening prayer. Used in the Orthodox Church in America on Sanctity of Life Sunday, it says, in part, “We ask you to enlighten the minds and hearts of those blinded to the truth that life begins at conception and that the unborn … are already adorned with your image and likeness.”   
Bishop McManus offered a closing prayer, asking God to “transform our selfishness and sin to build up a culture of life and love,” and reiterated points from his homily at the March for Life send-off Mass here Jan. 18.
Father Pavone, who received applause during his talk and two standing ovations as he wrapped it up, mentioned various human rights issues, but honed in on abortion.
“Non-violence is not non-violence if we tolerate some violence,” he said. He said a society that protects the guilty from capital punishment can’t be built without protecting the innocent. And “if we can’t help children cross the border of the womb,” how can immigrants be helped?
“The enjoyment of every other right,” depends on the right to life, he said.
“Every group has its own vocation,” Father Pavone said, but told listeners they should never apologize when called to work in the pro-life movement.    
“Our goal … is to … end every abortion,” but that will require steps, he said. One of those is supporting legislation to protect pain-capable unborn children from 20 weeks of development on. The House passed a bill and the president said he will sign it, and it’s in the Senate’s hands, he said.
“On this we can mobilize pro-choice people too,” he said; many oppose late term abortions.
Abortionists “are not our enemies,” he said. “They are captive to the enemy. Our goal … is to set them free. It is Jesus Christ who sets us free … through his living body, the Church.”
Mr. Feder, a political/communications consultant, looked back to his Jewish forebears in the Old Testament. He talked about human sacrifice in ancient times and said that, with God’s giving of the Torah on Sinai, the concept of human rights appeared.
He said God’s attributes include justice and mercy and asked if abortion is just and merciful, or a sacrifice to the idol called “choice.”
“The only ancient people that are still around are my people,” those who introduced the world to Sinai, he said. Those who choose death get death, he said, mentioning abortion, euthanasia and a dropping fertility rate.
Mr. Valliere told how his friend J.J. Hanson, president of Patient’s Rights Action Fund, chose life instead of physician assisted suicide. He was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in May 2014 and given four months to live. He died Dec. 30, 2017.
Assisted suicide proposals allow any doctor to prescribe a lethal dose and do not require psychological evaluations for patients, Mr. Valliere noted. He said Mr. Hanson experienced depression five months after his diagnosis, and later said, “If the pills had been on my dresser during that time, I might not be here today.”
In a video Mr. Valliere played, Mr. Hanson said, “Every single day is a gift, and you can’t let that go.”
The video “moved you to tears” said assembly attendee Joy Pelc, of Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in Turners Falls. “It was a testimony to hold out and not give up.”
She said Father Pavone “was such a dynamic speaker” that you wanted to work against abortion in some way.
“He touched on so many different things … that you don’t usually think of … maybe different areas that you could help the cause,” said Brian O’Malley, pro-life chairman of the Knights of Columbus Council at St. Joan of Arc Parish, and a member of St. John Parish, both in Worcester.
Emilia Gordon, of St. Bridget Parish in Framingham, said Father Pavone’s talk struck her – the mission to save babies is real.
“If you don’t save the baby’s life … if you eliminate the baby, you eliminate whatever cause you’re working on,” she said. “It’s non-negotiable.… Now I’m going to learn more.” And she bought one of Father Pavone’s books for her priest.