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Updated: The dramatically important encyclical Evangelium Vitae was promulgated in 1995. It called for a Day for Life to be celebrated each year, in every country. The primary purpose of this annual day was to: ''foster in individual consciences, in families, in the Church and in civil society a recognition of the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition.'' The encyclical noted that particular attention, ''should be drawn to the seriousness of abortion and euthanasia, without neglecting other aspects of life which from time to time deserve to be given careful consideration, as occasion and circumstances demand (EV 85).''
Even though an abortion holocaust was raging and euthanasia was creeping in gradually, it took until around 2003 for the English and Welsh Bishops to develop a Day for Life here. We well remember the glossy literature from that first year, designed by committee and sent out to all parishes, with its fluffy and vague call for people to get involved in life. One of the handy suggestions we saw, invited folks to help tidy up the hymn books after Mass on Sunday... At the time we were giving pro-life presentations to high-school students and were in contact with a young man who was trying to get pro-life adverts into cinemas. We were all quite simply flabbergasted at the remarkable waste of time and money.
Things did not improve with time. In 2012, William Oddie wrote an article in the Catholic Herald which wondered why the bishops in these isles always seemed to go out of their way to undermine Pope John Paul II's vision for the Church. Mr. Oddie suggested that their lacklustre approach to Day for Life was: 'perhaps the most grotesque and cynical example of this phenomenon.' He concluded that the annual Day for Life in England and Wales, had been about anything but what the, then, Holy Father had intended it to be in 1995.
We wrote a piece about all this in 2010 in relation to the question of where the monies raised on Day for Life were being sent. The article was called LIFE and the Catholic £££.
A particular low point was reached in 2012, when the UK Day for Life went with an Olympic theme and played safe with a diluted message about happiness and health.
This year's costly literature - pictured top - has been put out by the Bishops of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Drawing on Pope Francis' speeches at World Youth Day in Rio, it speaks of ''heroic young people who are getting involved in the messiness of life,'' to help others. Although the literature follows Pope Francis in ''inviting everyone to get involved in caring for, nurturing and protecting life at every stage and in every condition,'' this is not anchored to any practical teaching on the core life issues of abortion and euthanasia. The literature does recall Donal Walsh, the young man from Kerry in Ireland who, suffering from terminal cancer, promoted an anti-suicide message to young people. All well and good, especially in light of the very high suicide rates among young people despairing in the twilight of this post-Christian culture. May God rest his soul.
However, in spite of this positive element, and references to the importance of family, and of caring for the vulnerable, the overall content of this year's Day for Life is more about 'fluff' than real teaching.
For example, there is no developed teaching on the true antidotes to the Culture of Death: Jesus Christ; grace; the Church; the sacraments; chastity; marriage; or the fact that the human person is made in the image and likeness of God. There is a broad message in the opening paragraph, telling young people: ''Don't be observers, but immerse yourself in the reality of life, as Jesus did.'' Although this statement is part of a call to young people to ''help the young, the weak, the elderly and the vulnerable,'' it needs development to avoid reducing Jesus to some kind of 'hip' role model; to make clear the divinity of Christ and the fact that His earthly life was salvific in nature; and to highlight the spiritual nature of our earthly vocations in relation to Him. These points are especially necessary when one considers that the majority of young Catholics have received years of limited and faulty catechesis.Â
There is absolutely no reference to the 600 babies who are slaughtered in the wombs of their mothers every single day in the UK.Â
There is not even a whisper of the recently progressed 'Assisted Suicide Bill' and its disasterous ramifications for the vulnerable in our society in the future.Â
Readers will have to seek elsewhere to discover the facts about the countless chemical abortions which are caused by most forms of contraception today. Or about the cryogenic Auschwitz of IVF.
There is no mention that the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin has sacrilegiously compromised with the Culture of Death to become a killing centre for preborn babies, without a public whimper from the local bishop.
Neither is there an engagement with the fact that so many teens are desperate because of the loss of family and religion caused by the contraceptive mentality, resultant marital breakdown and divorce, or an education system which teaches them that they are little more than upright apes in a morally neutral wilderness.
The Day for Life literature does include a helpful prayer to Our Lord and Our Lady. This prayer includes a petition to: 'Help us to reject all that contributes to a culture of death, and to work with others of goodwill in promoting a culture of life.' However, even this becomes incongruous when one considers the fact that the deputy director of the Catholic Education Service is a former MP with a long anti-life/anti-family/anti-purity voting record. This incongruity is only increased by calling to mind the flavoured condoms given to Catholic schoolgirls in classrooms and the countless school nurses dispensing abortifacient Morning-After-Pills in Catholic schools throughout the land - and all this without the consent of their parents.
It is always a mystery to us why good pro-life initiatives like Good Counsel Network, 40-Days for Life UK, Human Life International, Precious Life, SPUC and Sisters of the Gospel of Life are not publicly highlighted, promoted and supported by the hierarchy on Day for Life. (We've also noticed that a new pro-life counselling group has been launched in Dublin called Gianna Care).
The tag-line for this year's Day for Life event is: 'Let's all be builders of a better world and protect life.' Well yes, this is an excellent notion. If it is to be more than just a pretty sentiment on a high-gloss card, it will mean that the problems we have highlighted will need to be repented of, addressed and overcome. Urgently.Â
Otherwise many more thousands of babies will die, countless vulnerable people will be endangered, hundreds of marriages will fail, and Day for Life 2014 will go down as just Another Year, Same Fluff...Â
