There is no question I receive more often than, "Why don't our priests
speak out more about abortion?"
Having directed the Priests for Life movement for the last eight years and
spoken every weekend in a
different parish on the subject of abortion, I have had more opportunity
than most to directly observe how
people in the pews respond to the Church's pro-life message. I have also
had more opportunity than most to
speak to my brother priests about it.
One of the questions that many priests (and others who have a ministry in
the Church) wrestle with is, "How
can I be compassionate to my people and also forthright with them about
the truth?"
The answer to this contains much of the answer to the question about
preaching on abortion. The abortion
issue involves pain -- not only the pain experienced by those who have
been directly responsible for one or
more abortions, but also the pain of those who, watching abortion from a
distance, know that they should
do more to help stop it, but don't want to pay the price. That's a pain we
all share.
So how do you balance truth and compassion?
You start by realizing that they are not things that have to be
"balanced," as though they have some
intrinsic opposition to each other. Rather, truth and compassion are
aspects of the very same reality. God,
Who is One, is both Truth and Compassion. To represent God, to speak for
Him, to somehow mediate Him, is
to respond to the values of truth and compassion precisely as aspects of
each other.
In other words, to have compassion for another human being is precisely to
bear witness to the truth of Who
God is and who that person is. A failure in compassion is essentially
false witness against our neighbor,
because such a failure eclipses the infinite tenderness and mercy of the
Lord.
At the same time, to withhold truth is to fail in compassion. It is to
fail to meet a human need which is as real
as food and shelter. Truth nourishes. Truth sets us free. A witness to
truth truly ministers to his brothers
and sisters.
We can err in the way we extend both truth and compassion. Truth is
sometimes spoken harshly, and with a
tunnel-vision that fails to understand where our audience really stands.
Compassion is sometimes bestowed
carelessly, failing to challenge the one we love to become all he or she
is called to be, and failing to
distinguish mercy from permission.
A key to more effective ministry regarding abortion, therefore, is more
understanding about the relationship
between truth and compassion, and a deeper examination of conscience
regarding how we fail in bearing
witness to both. The heart of the Christian, and in particular of the
priest, must be the meeting place of a
clear and prophetic stand against injustice, and a profound tenderness to
those who have committed it.