Unfortunately for human beings, we never seem to learn even the most basic lessons from the animals on how to protect our own species.
Newsroom (24/04/2022 13:40, Gaudium Press) The historical period we now live in, since the end of the 1950’s, is characterized as the ‘information age’. In recent years, however, with the growth of the Internet and the speed and amount of information reaching us, it has become almost impossible for this information to take a solid form. Information simply passes us by and, supplemented by the increase in ‘fake news’, places us at the centre of the age of disinformation, which causes us to be people who have forgotten.
April is the month of the elections in France. In October, it will be the time of the elections in Brazil, a time characterized by the greatest bombardment of information and lies to which the citizens of a nation, anywhere in the world, are subjected.
In the electoral period and campaign stage, we see everything: opponents who become allies; enemies who become tighter than Siamese twins; atheists who become religious, and two-faced Christians professing two religions at the same time – although the practice of one hurts the principles of the other and vice versa – to guarantee votes for both sides, since, even in a secular state, the bulk of the electorate is still Christian. And the attachment to power is so great that, with qualities somewhere between a mass movement and a cult, no one should be surprised to see the same candidate making an appeal to the ‘gods’ to help him achieve his ends, because the most important thing is to win the election.
The Catholic flag
We must always be attentive; but in election time, we must be much more attentive than in any other period, filtering everything that is presented to us as clearly as we can, comparing the statements – and then denials – of politicians, who present themselves with a clean face and no shame. Above all, we must be clear that it is their war – not ours – and so we do not wear shirts and raise flags of this or that candidate, provoking friction and disagreements with family, friends, co-workers, neighbours, members of religious communities, and sports and cultural associations that we frequent.
Christians should not wear red, yellow, blue or multicolored shirts or raise flags of this one or that one who fights for power, because they who seek power continually change their colours and do not have the slightest shame in sporting the colour of yesterday’s opponent. They do not even bother to wash away the stench and sweat of the enemy, if that opponent can provide support in exchange for a few advantages. Everyone does this, even those who say that they would never do it. The only shirt that a Christian should ever wear is the white shirt of party neutrality, by which he passes through the electoral process and thus always maintaining the defense of peace.
If you must raise a flag, let it be the banner of the Cross, and not demagogic flags of Party A, B, or C. If you raise the flag of a candidate today, before you put it down, your candidate may have already made agreements and changed flags, going to the side that better suits his conveniences, and you will be the fool! The only “holy cards” you should hand out and carry in your wallet are the images of the Saints of your devotion and, as far as we know, there are no politicians among them.
Voting is an imposition of the law and we must fulfill our obligation; Christ himself guided us: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” (Mt 22:21). Do your duty and be honoured by it. But do your duty in silence; the vote is secret to defend those who vote, so make use of this small privilege that the law grants you and do not get into unnecessary quarrels and friction over politics.
The Saints that a Catholic Christian should venerate are on the altars of the churches and the only God that we should worship is in Heaven. Having a place of command does not erase mistakes committed and much less prevents others from being committed, even worse ones. Wearing sheep’s skin to overpower sheep does not turn a wolf into a sheep, something he obviously is not.
It saddens me when I see religious people fighting over politics, or wearing the shirts of candidates who may please them, but who truly do not represent them or care about them. Religious people need to be in the world and make choices that allow the world to function, but they cannot lose sight of the fact that they do not belong to this world and therefore cannot commit themselves to anyone who exclusively represents the interests of the world.
A Catholic cannot say “my candidate”, because a Catholic has no candidates. He must only choose a candidate to give his vote, but not make any candidate his idol, because a legitimate Christian has no idols, he has God.
Above all, it is important that we do not deceive ourselves with the existence of good candidates, as we will only have fair governments when Our Lord Jesus Christ returns to Earth and assumes, Himself, the government of all nations, or designate His Celestial Ministers for this function.
A few days ago I watched a video of a history professor on a Catholic channel and he said one of the most interesting things I have ever heard about elections: “(Choosing Among) Lucifer, Beelzebub and Satan does not necessarily mean having a choice.” I also heard, many years ago, an excellent response from a holy man whom I greatly admire – and whom many of you who read me certainly admire as well. To a young woman who asked for advice about which candidate was best in the upcoming election he replied, “Nihil.” While we all wish we could vote for a good candidate, unfortunately, our choice falls between the bad and the not as bad.
That is where our exercise of memory comes in; and I, who for decades have been a supporter of Nihil, meaning none, will use this space to recall a recent speech which the media machine has already tried to dilute and cover with the cloak of invisibility and oblivion, alleging that “it is not quite right, that is not quite what the candidate meant“. But it was. He said it and we, as Christians, even if we decide to vote for him, should not forget it.
In this specific case, it was not the cunning of the adversary, nor someone reporting that he said it; he said it himself and, as defenders of life, we have the moral obligation not to forget. Before the Divine Court, we will not be able to claim that we did not understand correctly or that we forgot, because we will be accomplices to whatever comes to pass.
Abortion is not a public health issue!
We must be clear that abortion is not a matter of public health; perhaps it is more a matter of public security because it is murder, with the aggravating factor of killing a being absolutely incapable of defending himself. In the speech in which the candidate put himself as a defender of the legalization of abortion, he also said things that are true, about family and education of children, but he accused the other candidate, demanding examples that he himself does not provide.
I repeat again: there is no good in this dispute. However, to proclaim the practice of abortion as a matter of public health and a solution for the lives of poor women is a matter of absolute gravity, even if, after realizing that their statement did not look good, the person steps back from his previous views. No one changes their convictions; they can pretend to change to garner votes, but once in power they will act in accordance with what they believe in.
Yes, poor women die by having abortions in clandestine clinics, but rich or poor women can also die by having them done in hospitals where the practice is legal. An example of this is the death of a young 23-year-old Argentine woman. María del Valle González López died on 11 April 2021, when she underwent a legal abortion in a public hospital in Argentina. This story is back in the news in recent days due to the authorization of the investigation of the case by the Argentine Justice.
The brother of the young woman declared that, like her family members, she had been pro-life but that she changed her opinion when she entered university. At this point she became an activist and started to defend the legalization of abortion in the country, as President of the Radical Youth of La Paz of Mendoza Province.
Legal or illegal, the result of an abortion is always the same!
Participating in a demonstration with the slogan “Legal or illegal, abortion kills equally“, the young woman’s mother lamented: “I lost my daughter and my grandson because of a safe, legal and free abortion, because my daughter believed in safety, legality and cost-free. And there is no safety; it cannot and should not be legal; and it is not free because you pay with your life.”
And this is just one example among many. Legalizing or decriminalizing the practice of abortion does not diminish this crime. There is only one way that is legal, safe and in conformity with God’s will with regard to not having children: to maintain chastity and purity. Anything other than that is usurpation of the right to life and disobedience to God’s laws.
At the end of an abortion, whether legal or not, whether in a sophisticated clinic or in the silence of the home or elsewhere, there will always be two deaths: that of the fetus and that of the mother. The defenseless child will suffer physical death, and the mother, spiritual death. Let the priests speak about the sufferings revealed in the confessional by women who have had abortions, of the damage it has done to their souls. Let the psychologists speak about the mental unbalance of their clients who have had abortions. It is a mark that cannot be erased and which remains stuck in the body, in the mind and in the spirit of the one who has chosen it.
Babies, bats and turtle eggs
So far, it may seem that this article does not match its title; let us continue. In December 2005, the jurist Ives Gandra Martins wrote an article entitled “The Tamar Project” in which he discusses the Environmental Crimes Law, making a comparison between the discrepancy existing between the defense of the legalization of abortion and the defense of flora and fauna in our country, where “whoever destroys a single turtle egg commits a crime against fauna and may go to jail“, but killing human beings is seen as a legal issue and a women’s right.
This week I discovered that the noise I have been hearing under my roof lining is not made by birds, but by bats. And I also discovered that I will need to spend a fortune for the safe removal of the visiting intruders and the placement of foams, screens and other means of sealing that will prevent the entry of the bats that – although they look like it, are not winged rats – but are mammals of the Order Chiroptera, legally protected by Law 9.605/98 which decrees that killing bats constitutes an environmental crime. The same happens with snakes, turtle eggs and other animals that are under the protection of the law.
Just like Dr. Gandra, I do not disrespect the law and much less the Tamar Project, which contributes to the maintenance of life and reproduction of many marine species threatened with extinction. These are praiseworthy attitudes. What Dr. Gandra perhaps does not understand, and much less I, who do not belong to the legal area, is why so much money is spent, so many campaigns are conducted and the defense of plants and animals is taken so seriously, while human life is treated with such banality.
Recently, this site published a precious article on abortion, I recommend that those who have not read it should read it (https://gaudiumpress.org/content/todo-aborto-e-assassinato-de-um-inocente/). Fetuses are not abscesses, are not tumors, ingrown toenails, are not things that should be removed from inside a body to defend its health. They are human beings, created by God within the biological and natural laws of reproduction. Even in the first weeks of life, they already have all the physical constitution and organs of an adult human being. They have the right to life, they have a soul, they are created in the image and likeness of God and there is no right to freedom of choice that justifies their murder.
Article 29 of the Environmental Protection Law stipulates a penalty of fine and imprisonment from six months to one year for anyone who “kills, pursues, hunts, catches, uses specimens of wild fauna, native or on a migratory route“, anyone who “impedes the procreation of fauna” and anyone who “modifies, damages or destroys a nest, shelter or natural breeding ground”.
Article 32 determines similar punishment to those who “practice acts of abuse, mistreatment, injury or mutilation of wild, domestic or domesticated animals. And, when the mistreatments refer to dogs and cats – those of which we were once owners, but have now become teachers and “parents”, spending part of our income for the benefit of their comfort and welfare – “the penalty will be imprisonment for two to five years, fine and prohibition of the guard”.
I like animals and I have several, but what I can say about this is that turtles can hide their eggs, some fish can swim on the run, bats and snakes manage very well without humans, cats scratch and dogs bite. In other words, however much risk the predatory attitude of human beings may offer, these animals have been endowed by nature with a defense system. And, above all, none of them destroys its own offspring, on the contrary, they protect them in every way.
However, human beings, unfortunately, prefer to protect poisonous snakes, bats that transmit rabies, innocuous turtle eggs and dogs that suffer ill-treatment, but they do not learn from animals how to defend their own species.
I imagine that God must water with a tear each human life that He creates, because He knows that that life may not survive and will be threatened by its own species, especially by its mother, who may choose to eliminate it just to continue flying the flag of freedom and the right to decide.
By Afonso Pessoa
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
