O’Malley’s pro-life guidance

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, delivered a provocative sermon at the Vigil Mass before Wednesday’s annual March for Life, writes Michael Sean Winters.

“The Church with the candour of a child must call out the uncomfortable truth. Abortion is wrong. Thou shall not kill,” he said. He then dedicated a large part of his sermon to the need to  support women who face crisis pregnancies. Preaching on the gospel text of the woman caught in the act of adultery, O’Malley said: “The feelings of the woman in the gospel must be like the young woman caught in a crisis situation of an unwanted pregnancy. She feels overwhelmed, alone, afraid, confused. We must never allow that woman to perceive the pro-life movement as self-righteous Pharisees with stones in their hands, looking down on her and judging her.”

Cardinal O’Malley invoked Pope Francis in urging the pro-life movement to reflect the merciful face of God. “Pope Francis urges us to practise ‘the art of accompaniment’ which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other, in this case, the woman in crisis,” he said. Some Catholics have criticised pro-life Democrats for linking the incidence of abortion with poverty, but the cardinal affirmed that link. “The majority of women who succumb to abortion are poor. Poverty is a dehumanising force that leads people to feel trapped and make this horrible choice,” he said.