I couldn’t believe the e-mail that I recently received from a pro-life friend living in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She told me about a letter written by a nun to the archdiocese.
My friend told me she was “disturbed” to read this letter. She said, “I cannot fathom how a religious sister could not only advocate abortion, but also place her pathetic, misguided ideas into print! What a disgrace! And why would our archdiocesan newspaper even print such garbage?”
The Milwaukee archdiocese published this letter in its newspaper, The Catholic Herald. I also answered my pro-life friend on the EWTN web site.
GOD IS PRO-CHOICE
Even though Catholic bishops are already pressing President-elect Barack Obama on the issue of abortion, it is time they begin to realize that 54% of Catholics who voted for him do not agree with the bishops telling people how to vote.
Obama may be pro-choice, but so is God. God gave everyone a free will and he does not pressure people into using that free will to do what is right. Obama promised to do what he can to prevent abortion. What more need he do when so many other pressures to make changes are upon him?
Yes, abortion is the killing of an innocent life. So is war and violent killing on the street. I have often seen many starving babies in hospitals in Honduras and witnessed their pain. In these cases, abortion might have been the lesser of two evils, and even the most merciful alternative.
I challenge our bishops to dwell more on unjust economic issues that both create and perpetuate the need for children to die of starvation, and for women to choose abortion. It would be better to aim at eliminating poverty rather than focus only on abortion. Poverty in our country and the world at large is a disgrace that cries to heaven for vengeance.
Sr. Arlene Welding, SSSF; Campellsport, WI
Well, I am as upset by this as anyone who reads it should be, and on several levels, it contributes to the ongoing confusion that reigns within Catholic circles across this nation. The first and perhaps most obvious problem with this nun’s letter is that she is clearly not only pro-abortion but feels fine attributing her views to God, the Author of Life!
To suggest to the readers of a Catholic newspaper that the Catholic bishops are out of line for standing up for the innocent preborn child is ludicrous. But it certainly is not as ludicrous as her comments about the number of Catholics who voted for Barack Obama, as opposed to the opinions bishops might have on the direct murder of preborn children by abortion!
To equate the direct murder of a preborn baby with the “lesser of two evils,” thus suggesting that some preborn children would be better off dead than to have to be born into poverty, is about as misguided and ill-conceived a notion as I have ever seen in print. It tops many of the comments I have seen from pro-abortion leaders.
It is astounding to me that a Catholic newspaper would print such garbage and expect silence from all those in the Catholic community who know the truth, defend the truth, and expect to read the truth in a newspaper labeled Catholic! So here is an assignment for you.
First: contact Sister Arlene Welding’s religious congregation and demand an apology from them for her public dissent from the truth of Catholic magisterial teaching.
School Sisters of St. Francis
http://www.sssf.org/
Central Offices of the U.S. Province
1501 S. Layton Boulevard
Milwaukee, WI 53215
You can also e-mail, though I think letters are best. The e-mail address is generalate@sssf.org.
The phone number is (414) 384-4105
Second, please contact the Executive Editor/General Manager of the archdiocesan newspaper and let him know how shocked you were to read this screed in his newspaper.
Brian T. Olszewski
The Catholic Herald
3501 S. Lake Dr.
Milwaukee, WI 53235-0913
The phone number is (414) 769-3466
Mr. Olszewski’s e-mail address is olszewskib@archmil.org.
Finally, it would be a very good idea to send copies of your e-mails and/or your letters to the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, whom I honestly believe would be as shocked as you and I about what was published in his newspaper.
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
3501 S. Lake Dr.
P.O. Box 070912
Milwaukee, WI 53207-0912
Phone: (414) 769-3497
Email: archbishopdolan@archmil.org
May you find peace of mind and joy of soul by writing your messages, and feel comfort in knowing that no matter how clearly wrong some things are, even when labeled Catholic, they are all a part of living in a world steeped in the culture of death. Be of good heart, for we are assured of God’s love, regardless of the muck in our midst.
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:29 am
This is unbelievable. I can guarantee that she’s one of those nuns (like those in our diocese) who don’t wear habits.
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:43 am
You know, the smoke of Satan has really blinded way too many folks - but, even those married to Christ?
Before I would assign any thought of mine to God, I have to think that the thought had been planted there by several passages of His revelation in Scripture and homilies from our Tradition. The thought that ‘my free will purifies me in God’s graces’ just has never occurred to me, no matter how much I have considered 1. my free will and 2. grace.
And, Christ did testify that poverty of material need would always be with us, and of our Christianity a call to aid and support. He relished that poverty of spirit that would ‘give it away and follow Me’. Though, there may be a whole suburb near heaven’s center that has the mansions of those who in their material poverty took faith and peace and even joy in finding spiritual poverty.
Nor did our Christ ever mention that ‘whatever 54% of you vote for in My Name - or, whoever’s name - is Gospel’. Nor, did He tell Peter ‘You are Rock upon which I will build My Church – umm – until the Church militant vote in a new Rock’.
Maybe Sr. Eileen is a refugee from some journalism school? There is a similarity of intellectual capacity (as in, rather a small capacity) coupled with usual citations of evidence (that is: NONE). To assign what is clearly a dearth of catechesis as fount of truth is delirium or heresy; and from a School Sister of Saint Francis, no less. I’ll opt for delirium.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:49 am
“God gave everyone a free will and he does not pressure people into using that free will to do what is right.”
Sooo…this nun believes that if you have free will, then not only can you do what is Right, but you can do what is wrong and it will somehow be made right?
An act is called either GOOD or EVIL for a reason; it can never be both. Somebody failed their elementary logic classes, not to mention third-grade theology.
What makes me really irritated about this kind of stuff is that the Church faithful have to treat these attacks as a serious threat, or risk a flurry of more of them.
What we have here are the half-insane rantings of a “liberated nun” which can be proved to be glaringly illogical after about two minutes of serious thought by a ten-year-old with a Baltimore Catechism. And yet such people are the “scholars” used as sources for every anti-Catholic hate organization on the planet. It’s practically equivalent to hunting mosquitoes with the twelve-inch guns of a battleship. I simply cannot see how anyone can thake them seriously, and yet we must because others do.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Jesus was born into poverty…
So by Sisters reasoning…….
o.O
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:10 am
Jesus was born into poverty…
So by Sisters reasoning……she would have had Mary have an abortion?
There have been times my husband and I were living in poverty, barely able to feed our children, yet I never ever considered it be better my children die then be poor. Such reasoning leads to the despair the likes of ‘Andrea Yates’.
God is good. We as Christians must know that. That defines us.
And it was in poverty I would be most aware of his love for me. I shudder think that if Mother Theresa had ever succumbed to such thoughts, the world would have lost great light.
Sisters light has gone out.
The only ‘god’ that approved of killing infants and fetus’ was moloch.
I’m praying for Sister, who is obviously very misguided and confused, and perhaps needs a long vacation, that she rediscovers the God of life and light.
Blessed Mother Theresa, pray for her, pray for us all.
mmi.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:57 am
Sister seems to believe it might be better to “play” God rather than worship Him. A sadly tainted view of not only this world … but the next.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Logic! Logic! Has reason abandoned us completely? I am appalled at the lack fo basic reason in our country today. Think folks, think!
“I have often seen many starving babies in hospitals in Honduras and witnessed their pain. In these cases, abortion might have been the lesser of two evils, and even the most merciful alternative.”
If the problem is starving babies, isn’t the logical and reasonable solution to FEED THEM? Granted killing someone prevents them from being hungry, but Jesus always FED the poor, not killed them.
Whenever my young children stub their toe or other minor bruise I sometimes joke with them that I could amputate their foot to solve the problem. They of course immediately see that as a stupid solution to the problem. Why is it that grownups can think that killing someone is a reasonable way to keep them from being hungry?
December 4th, 2008 at 7:28 am
I just read their statement posted on their website on 12/3 that “We do not condone or support abortion. We adhere to the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ teaching that human life needs protection in all its phases.” However the damage that has been done by Sister Arlene commands a like response in the newspaper distributed to the Catholics of Milwaukee.
Sister Arlene may be commended on her work for the poor but her compassion for the unborn is severely lacking. To state: “In these cases, abortion might have been the lesser of two evils, and even the most merciful alternative” is completely false and against all teaching of the Catholic church. How did she come to this decision? Does their congregation read any of the encyclicals, especially Humanae Vitae? One of the 10 commandments is very explicit: Thou shall not kill. Sister has apparently put a caveat in there to say: “Thou shall not kill unless the mother is unable to feed her infant or it would cause undue pressure on her lifestyle.” DEATH is the worst form of abuse on a human being. Does sister actually know HOW an abortion is done? Does she know the procedure rips apart the baby piece by piece? How is that more humane than lack of food? Can a mother’s love and concern for her child bring out a more humanitarian response from the rest of us than to say: “It is better that you kill your child than for ME to help you feed it?” The denial of life is worse than denial of food, clothing and shelter. Jesus Christ himself was born into an extremely poor family. What has sister learned from Our Lord Himself? HER work has obscured HIS work and I ask that she go on a long retreat and reflect on this statement: “The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights - for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture - is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.” Pope John Paul II, Christifideles Laici.
I pray for God to change the hearts of their community and see that no work for the poor can be given with love unless we DEFEND the lives of the least of God’s family: the unborn.