President Bush’s Pro-Life Sleight of Hand


Dear Catholic Exchange,

On July 31, 2002, Mr. David Limbaugh wrote a brief article entitled Valuing Life and Liberty. In it, he praises President Bush for, “drawing the line [and signaling] that he is aware that the culture war is raging, that the value of human life is its pivotal battle and that nothing less than our liberty is at stake.” I agree that the value of human life is of tantamount importance and that our liberty is at stake, but I am afraid that President Bush has not drawn the lines in favor of life.

In the past week, praises for Bush’s decision to defund the United Nations for their participation in forced abortions and sterilizations in China have filled the pro-life press. Unfortunately, few have cared to follow where the famous $34 million has gone. This $34 is tagged as family planning money. Family planning means “abortion.” It will be going to the USAID Child Survival and Health Program Fund to (in the words of the USAID Child Survival and Health Budget Categories), “forecast, purchase, and supply contraceptive commodities and other materials necessary for reproductive health programs.” These funds will go toward providing the oral contraceptive pill, the IUD, Norplant, sterilizations and all other manner of abortion-inducing chemicals and crimes against God’s blessing of fertility. The only difference is that this is an American government program instead of a United Nations program.

So President Bush, instead of de-funding abortion, has, in reality, just pulled a smart political move. He has all of us pro-lifers to stand around and cheer him on as we look the other way and remain silent about the countless children whose deaths are paid for by the USAID Child Survival and Health Reproductive Health/ Family Planning Fund. Bush has certainly drawn a line, but I am not on his side.

Sincerely,

Danielle Blosser

Assistant Director World Life League

American Life League

PO Box 1350

Stafford, VA 22555

540/659-4171



Editor's Note: To contact Catholic Exchange, please refer to our Contact Us page.

Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.



School Vouchers and the Coming Persecutions

Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick:

With all due respect, it seems to me that the consequences of school vouchers are not as distressing as you fear. Tax dollars would constitute only a very small percentage of the funding of Muslim schools (and mosques) in the USA. Saudi Arabia has been doing some serious financing of the American-based mosques, which is likely to continue.

As to the Mexican reclaim of SW lands … whatever. If they are good Catholics, good Catholics on our shores are preferable to barbarians who will enjoy the persecution of Catholics (i.e., a perhaps inevitable Chinese takeover — or worse — of US lands). The important thing, I think, is for Catholics to be well educated in their faith. We will probably not escape the persecution our brothers and sisters in non-Catholic countries are now facing, and so it is especially important to know WHO one is suffering for.

Keep the Faith!

Robyn Marie Pio

Dear Ms. Pio,

I guess we will have to agree to disagree about the implications of Mexican irredentism. My nationalistic sentiments remain strong, and I do not see them in conflict with my Catholicism. But I get your point.

Thanks for your interest in my columns.

Sincerely,

James Fitzpatrick



Christ's Human Knowledge

Dear Sir or Madam:

I just finished reading the exchange between Tony Esquillon and Monsignor Dennis Clark. Monsignor Clark asserts “Catholic theology maintains that Jesus's human knowledge developed as ours does, starting from nothing, a tabula rasa.” But this is used in the context of Jesus coming to know His mission, which is the will of the Father. It would seem to me that Jesus would have known His mission before coming to us during the Incarnation. Given this context, I must admit that just like Mr. Esquillon, I too am confused. This subject may be confusing to many, and it may be beneficial to discuss this in an upcoming article on your web site.

Sincerely,

David Rodriguez

Colorado Springs, CO

Dear Mr. Rodriguez,

Greetings in Christ our Lord! You ask about a statement by Msgr. Clark to the effect that Jesus did not fully understand His own mission from the beginning, but instead His knowledge of it developed gradually. Inasmuch as He is God, would He not have known His mission fully prior to the Incarnation?

It is true that, as God, Jesus knows all things perfectly and immediately. The question is how Jesus experienced knowledge in His human nature while on earth. At the Incarnation, Christ assumed a human nature. His humanity was not absorbed, fused or in any way confused with His divine nature (cf. Catechism, no. 470). Hence, Christ, who is one divine person, has two natures, one divine and one human.

Because the two natures are not confused, the human intellect of Jesus did not have all of His divine knowledge “infused” into it, but “it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time” (Catechism, no. 472). The Catechism quotes Luke 2:52 that says that, as a boy, Jesus grew in wisdom and stature. Hebrews 5:8-9 notes that Jesus “learned obedience” in His suffering and that He was “made perfect.” Jesus was never disobedient, nor was He flawed in any way. Yet, in His humanity, He experienced these things in a human way. Though He, as God, had the right and the power to exercise the prerogatives of deity, He “emptied Himself…being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7).

Therefore, though Jesus in His divine nature would certainly know the fullness of His Father’s mission for Him, in His human nature this knowledge was developed after the fashion of a human intellect. An important point is that Msgr. Clark seems to be saying that Jesus’ understanding of His vocation developed. There is no indication that Msgr. Clark holds that Jesus did not know who He was or what His mission was, but that His human knowledge of that mission developed.

Finally, though His human knowledge was not infused with knowledge from His divine nature, it is right to say that His human nature was “informed” by the union of His two natures. Catechism, no. 474, teaches:

By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal. What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal.

Catechism, nos. 470-83, provides important teaching on Christ’s humanity. For additional reading, you might find our our Faith Fact “The Human Knowledge of Jesus” helpful. If you have further questions on this or any other subject or would like more information about Catholics United for the Faith, please call us at 1-800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484).

United in the Faith,

David E. Utsler

Catholics United for the Faith

827 North Fourth Street

Steubenville, OH 43952

800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

Subscribe to CE
(It's free)

Go to Catholic Exchange homepage

MENU