From the Pastor’s Desk:
Many years ago Fr. Dave Hulshof and I got into a heated discussion concerning Capital Punishment. At that time I was stationed in a parish in the Cape Girardeau area. I strongly supported the death penalty. He gave me food for thought, but did not change my mind. However later that year the state of Illinois began to look intently at all of those on death row and with use of modern forensic data found that some 20 on death row were actually innocent, but without DNA evidence, would have been put to death. That would have meant that 20 innocent men would have legally been killed by the state. My view on Capital Punishment changed. The possibility of error is too great, one innocent life is too many. The harshest penalty should be life imprisonment with no parole.
I do not have the answers to many of the issues confronting our government today, but they need to be guided by God’s mercy and love. Slavery in the South was cruel and inhuman, as children born of slaves were sold and separated from parents. Black families today are still being separated due to violence, poverty, or drugs. Today children born in the US of illegal immigrants many times see their parents deported and they are left in the care of the government. In the past four years over 5,000 families were separated from their parents because of US immigration policies. The children were sent all over the US and there are still 550 children who are still separated from their parents who have been deported. This is not a recent policy of the 21st century. In 1875 the regulation of immigrants became a federal responsibility. Between 1890’s and the early years of the 20th century millions came into the country including my grandparents, before major policies on immigration became law. Those policies were put into place because some immigrants were seen as a danger to the idea of a pure “American Race”. Immigrants from “undesirable nations” were severely limited in number. This changed some over time, but has recently reanimated.
People complain that we cannot feed our American people, therefore we should not be allowing immigrants into the country or give food to third world countries until we meet the needs of the hungry here at home. The United States is the global leader in food waste. Americans discard an estimated 40 million tons of food waste each year. That is 30-40% of the US food supply. Food is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills, making up 22% of municipal solid waste (US Departments of Agriculture and the Environmental Agency). What we send to the landfills of our country as waste could feed the food insecure here, and in many other countries.
When people complain,” why haven’t God answered our prayers to end Cancer?”, my answer many times to questions like that has been, “He has, but the ‘answer-baby’ was aborted 30 years ago.”
My whole understanding of what it means to be Pro-Life has enlarged to include all of life from Conception to Death. To be truly Pro Life means that we hold all human life sacred: babies in the womb from the moment of conception, criminals in prison, the homeless on the street, and the refugees at our borders. All are made in the image and likeness of God. To be Pro Life, we cannot pick out only one group, all the above are human issues.