Catholic apologist and best-selling author Patrick Madrid gave a powerful response to a woman considering an abortion who called into his show on Relevant Radio.
“….Imagine yourself a year from now, two years from now, looking into that face of the little baby boy or girl that you’re carrying inside you right now, and just trying to imagine, “What would it be like without you?” And you’ll never have to wonder about that because you’ll have that baby if you make that decision to give life to your child.
“Imagine when he or she is graduating from high school or getting married, and you’re looking with so much love at that son or daughter of yours and thinking of all the love and all the happiness and all the relationships and everything else that God has planned for you and your child.
“All that would go away if you were to go through with this,” he said. “I really hope you won’t.”
Having thought about it, Alicia told Madrid: “I don’t think I will. Thank you.”
She noted that she had never heard of Madrid’s radio show before. “I was looking for a sign … and I wasn’t expecting to find you today,” she said.
“I’m really glad you did,” Madrid replied. “I’m really glad that God had our paths cross this way.”
He referred Alicia to a Pregnancy Resource Center in her area that could help her prepare for the birth of her child.
“Thank you so much. I really needed this,” she said. “You really changed my heart, and changed my mind, and gave me what I needed to hear.”
“Thanks be to God,” Madrid said.
From CatholicVote.org
“We are little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls against the storm of dissolution and madness, in which we flicker and sometimes almost go out.” – Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
Praise God.
That’s the title of Pope Francis’ new apostolic exhortation.
Speaking truth to abortion minded women is an act of love for one’s neighbor. Patrick Madrid spoke with charity and clarity, showing us all what a pro life response looks like.
If a woman, in the concrete circumstance of her life, discerns that having an abortion is the best that God is asking of her right here, right now, who are we to judge? Perhaps the church could bless women who have chosen to have an abortion before they go in for their appointments. That seems the pastoral thing to do. There are no “yes” or “no” answers in the complexity of life. Of course, the church has clear teachings against abortion, and any blessing given to women who have decided to have an abortion would have to avoid communicating that the church’s doctrine is different from what it is. But if there is a way to bless one or more persons without causing such confusion, the church should be mindful that it cannot just condemn people.
Expect that to be a response to a dubia about whether the church’s teaching that abortion is always gravely immoral still applies.
Most clever. Since there are Christian denominations that would buy into this stance, we should never suppose this kind of thinking couldn’t infect the Catholic Church.
Catholic Radio at its most immediate best.
Now here is one of the people (Patrick Madrid) whose patience I admire (envy).