“I want to say what I feel in my heart to do,” Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey told more than 500 pro-life advocates gathered for the 22nd Annual Celebration for Life at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center on Sept. 7.
“When we harden our hearts, when we live the life of transgression, we mar, we damage, we insult that image of God that is within us,” the bishop said.
The event is held annually to raise funds for pro-life organizations. This year support will go to Birthright of Corpus Christi, the Gabriel Project and Corpus Christi Hope House.
This year the event also honored three longtime pro-life activists who died this summer— Juanita Cortinas, Therese Perez and Cliff Zarsky. State Representative Todd Hunter was there and presented a resolution from the Texas Legislature honoring Perez.
“Cliff was the mind, Therese was the heart and Juanita was the soul of the pro-life movement,” Ray Reeves, Chairman of the Board of Corpus Christi Hope House, said.
It was indeed their minds, hearts and souls that Bishop Mulvey appealed pro-life supporters to use in advocating their cause.
Citing the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,” propagated by Pope Paul VI in 1965 towards the end of Vatican II, Bishop Mulvey listed the many sins that violate the sanctity of life.
“Whatever is opposed to life itself,” the report reads, “such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or willful self-destruction…” The report, however, does not stop there in defining violations against human life.
It continues, “whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons…”
The document decries that all these are “infamies” and “poison” society. “But they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator,” the document says.
It is this latter point that Bishop Mulvey focused on in an effort to save souls.
“We don’t always think of these in pro-life,” the bishop said. “As we promote life we must listen to God, to the voice of the church, to the Holy Spirit.”
Too often it seems, Bishop Mulvey said, that we are so involved in eradicating evil in the world, that we lose our own moral compass. The road that Jesus taught is not the most expedient.
The bishop alluded to the words on Matthew, in which Jesus said, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” What point is there “to eradicate evil and lose our own dignity, what good have we gained,” Bishop Mulvey said.
“In order to rebuild our society, to respect human life and justice, ‘dignity’ is another word that we must heed and we must live,” Bishop Mulvey said.
He told his audience that as they continued to stand up for life, as they continued to be vocal, in the political or personal realm, with family or community, or at abortion clinics, at meetings, “we cannot afford to be critical…what they see in our face should not be anger but love in wanting that person to change, to come to their own dignity.”
This forgiving and loving attitude in no way renders pro-life advocates indifferent to truth and goodness, he said. It is necessary to distinguish between their error and the person in error.
“God alone is the judge and searcher of hearts. He forbids us to make judgments about guilt of anyone. Let us do our ministry of pro-life as the children of God,” Bishop Mulvey said.
Bishop Mulvey offered four suggestions on how his listeners could arm themselves with the spirit of love and forgiveness to those who violate the sanctity of life.
First, he said, was interior silence. Take time to pray. Take time to listen to prayer. Prayer is where our freedom and the voice of life meet. It is crucial not to lose ones dignity.
“Turn off the motors, even of our cause. Find time to be quiet,” he said.
The second suggestion was love. “We’re not here to hate anyone, we are here to love. Let love be our calling card,” the bishop said.
Develop a spirit of forgiveness, was the bishop’s third suggestion. It will be hard to forgive someone that is aborting life daily, he said, but we must “Let mercy reign in our hearts.”
Bishop Mulvey’s fourth suggestion was to pay attention to the family. “Much of our ills in our society are because our families are falling apart. Build them up. Take time together. Build up the family. This will reach to the unborn,” Bishop Mulvey said.
“As we go into the battle of love and hate, we come with our honor, we are going to love you and forgive you into your own conversion,” Bishop Mulvey said.