COLD COMFORT AT CHURCH FOR RACHELS IN MOURNING

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"And to the mourner comfort bring."

Rachel weeping for her children

 How many women sitting in Catholic church pews in New Zealand today were mourning the loss of their own child or children, grandchild or grandchildren, by abortion? 

Since abortion was legalised in 1977, more than 500,000 babies have lost their lives by abortion. One in five NZ women is now living with the consequences. 

Rachel is the image of Jerusalem. She cries because some among her sons died by the sword, others from hunger, others from the plague and many others were torn and led into exile to Babylon. https://www.movimentoapostolico.org/rachel-weeping-for-her-children-3/

Today, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the hymn for the Divine Office sings: 

                            The Spirit of the Lord comes down,

Anoints the Christ to suffering,

To preach the word, to free the bound,

And to the mourner comfort bring.

Before Christ by His Ascension into Heaven left us to our own devices, He instituted His Church to continue His mission of preaching the word of forgiveness and healing, of freeing the bound through the Sacrament of Penance, and bringing comfort to the mourner through His continued Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

So why does the Church seemingly ignore and abandon these bereft mothers (and fathers) who mourn the babies they've lost - by their own choice, which only aggravates their grief - through induced abortion? Because whether or not they admit it, at some level of consciousness those parents and grandparents and whanau, and our society, suffer grievously. 

But it's almost as if women who've had abortions are moral lepers, with their sickness -  sometimes mortal, leading to suicide - banished from the public square. In the silence which surrounds the issue, especially in the Church, one can hear the tolling of their bells: "Unclean, unclean!"  

The suicide rate of women who had abortions was more than double the suicide rate of women who gave birth. The maternal suicide rate among women who suffered miscarriages was also stunningly high, highlighting the need to support mothers grieving from the loss of a baby..https://lozierinstitute.org/new-study-elevated-suicide-rates-among-mothers-after-abortion/ 

(Incidentally, we may note that the leper had to cover his mouth with a cloth: He shall have his clothes hanging loose, his head bare, his mouth covered with a cloth, and he shall cry out that he is defiled and unclean.(Lev 13:45). 

Seems like in these days of CovidMania the medical 'science' which insists on mask-wearing, even in perfectly healthy individuals, hasn't advanced much since the days of Leviticus.

Just to cheer us up

• Project Rachel, "a confidential ministry for anyone who desires healing after being impacted by abortion" is no longer to be found on Google. 
• P.A.T.H.S. (Post Abortion Trauma Healing Service), "an independent, non-political, non-denominational organisation which is committed to upholding Christian values and attitudes including respect for the dignity and worth of all persons from their earliest beginnings, and all those involved in an abortion scenario" likewise seems to have faded away. 
• Then there's 'Pregnancy Help', which has refused to give an assurance that they do not refer women for abortions. Presumably, Pregnancy Help's 'help' in pregnancy can sometimes mean ending a pregnancy not with new life, but with death.
• As for the Nathaniel Centre, the pro-life showpony for the Catholic Church in New Zealand, this is the sort of rhetoric it produced on the subject of Election 2020's referenda on cannabis use and euthanasia: "The choices we make continually affect and shape the world in which we live, and those choices speak of who we are, what we value, and what our lives are about. Although the relentless and insidious narrative of individualism attempts to permeate all aspects of life, the choices we make can challenge this narrative, enabling us to live in ways that are cognisant of our existence as social beings." Electrifying, what? 
• John Kleinsman, the Nathaniel Centre's director, opines that "These days any single mother who decides to keep her baby is a heroine … even a saint. Ironically, for those who identify as Catholic, greater courage may be required ..." http://www.nathaniel.org.nz/images/files/Nathaniel_Report_Issue_61.pdf  
  
  
  

In these days of increasing infertility (often due to abortions) - and especially on this day which is celebrated in the Latin Mass calendar as the Feast of the Holy Family - one might well say that it's the single mother who decides to offer her baby for adoption to married (hetero) parents unable to conceive who is truly the heroine or saint. 

So why are New Zealand's Rachels, those women who grieve for children lost by abortion, not supported by Mother Church? Bishop Athanasius Schneider gives the fundamental reason: https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/bishop-schneider-today-the-church-of-rome-finds-herself-inspiritual-collapse

“Today the Church of Rome finds herself in a ... situation of spiritual collapse, due to the spiritual torpor of a majority of the Shepherds of the Church, the excessive absorption of the Pope himself in temporal affairs, and his efforts to bring about the rebirth of a universal aspiration to a this-worldly and naturalistic fraternity.  

If Church leaders in our day are content with the brotherhood of flesh and blood, with “fratelli tutti” in flesh and blood, they are neglecting God’s commandment in the Gospel, i.e. the commandment to make the members of all nations and religions disciples of Christ, sons in the Only begotten Son of God, brothers in Christ, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded (see Mt 25:19-20).

 

Such zeal is, for a Christian soul, the deepest expression of love of neighbor: to love him as you love yourself. If your Divine sonship in Christ represents for you the greatest conceivable gift of God — which it truly is — then you lack the true love and charity for your neighbor if you do not burn with the desire to  communicate this gift to him, of course with delicacy and respect.  

 

Bergoglio hits another front cover
- it beats appointing bishops

The new encyclical (Fratelli Tutti) aggravates the naturalism reigning in the Church today, which can be described as a lack of love for the Cross of Christ, for prayer, a lack of awareness of the grievousness of sin and the necessity of reparation. 

• How needed and beneficial it would have been, for the whole of humanity, had Pope Francis proclaimed in this, his social encyclical, what all the Apostles, Church Fathers and Popes had done, declaring to men of all nations and religions this truth:

 “The greatest benefit and happiness is to accept Jesus Christ, God and man, the only Savior and to believe in Him.”  

Christ Blessing - The Saviour of the World
El Greco