Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
 

Recently, secularists developed a new strategy in an attempt to change the truth by how it is conveyed through language. We have seen it in language where abortion is used for the word “pro-choice.” There is little doubt that the pro-choice movement considers the pro-life movement their enemy. The opposite of pro-life would be pro-death. Of course, that’s too obvious for groups advocating a pro-choice position or even pro-abortion (advocating the taking of a human life after conception) vs. anti-abortion (advocating the right of a human being to exist). Secularists believe that if they can change the language, they can change reality. People can be convinced to ignore the ugly truth and instead accept the convenient self-interest approach that allows a number of options, as long as one doesn’t consider that human life is being destroyed.

American ethical understanding has been that any action is okay as long as it doesn’t harm another person. Now, that is not Catholic moral teaching or even Christian evangelical morality, but it does depict American pragmatism. Language needed to be changed so that it could fit into the political agenda of modern day secularists; if it’s not a human being then “no harm no foul.” However, the reality is that it is a human being and harm is being done.

Another recent example of the change of language was seen when the “Little Sisters of the Poor” were listed in “The Dirty 100,” published by the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.). Please correct me if I am wrong, but “dirty” means something “soiled.” Webster’s dictionary uses the words, defiled with dirt, smutty, base, sordid and despicable to express the term “dirty.” Why are the “Little Sisters of the Poor” listed on “The Dirty 100” list?  It’s simply because they are women who serve the poor and especially those who are elderly, often in hospice type settings. They dedicate their lives to fulfilling the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. What makes them dirty, sordid or smutty? Oh! I get it! They refuse to fund the taking of human life. These women who live their lives embodying the virtue of chastity are now smutty.

Wow, has my Catholic education been deficient. Living on the south side of Chicago, I can tell you that “dirty” was never synonymous with virtue, at least in my neighborhood. I’ll have to contact the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth who educated me and let them know of their error.

Soon the sisters will be dragged into court by the United States government. They will have to defend their goodness (the commitment to the teachings of the Church) and their virtue (living their lives dedicated to the evangelical counsels). Who would have ever imagined that in a country founded on religious freedom, the “Little Sisters of the Poor” would have to defend their religious beliefs? They have a right to be free from any government intrusion that would attempt to interpret for the sisters the religious teaching of the Catholic Church.

“But beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Mt.10: 17-20).

In the future when the Little Sisters of the Poor will have to appear before the ultimate judge of all life, I can assure you that they will be found guilty of following His command to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Note: This blog originally appeared as the July 15, 2014 "Love One Another" email sent to Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. If you are interested in signing up for these email messages, please click here.