THE HOLOCAUST AND ABORTION

[MC Just]

THE HOLOCAUST AND ABORTION: AN APT COMPARISON

By Michael J. Gaynor
MichNews.com
Feb 22, 2005



In his latest book, Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums, to be officially released on February 23, Pope John Paul II emphasized that both abortion and the Holocaust came about when people decided to abrogate "the law of God."

The Pope pointed out that Germany's parliament had allowed Hitler to rise to power, and then explained: "We have to question the legal regulations that have been decided in the parliaments of present day democracies. The most direct association which comes to mind is the abortion laws."

The Pope's point is simple and sound: genocide and abortion are horrors inflicted by human beings on other human beings in blatant violation of natural law and no civil law sanction for either of them can change that ugly fact.

The number of souls lost in the Holocaust is a small fraction of the number lost to "legalized abortion," but the Pope was not minimizing the importance of abortion by comparing it to the Holocaust.

As the Pope has pointed out so many times, human life is sacred from conception to natural death.

And abortion and genocide are gravely sinful.

It may be pleasant for some to argue how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but it is not an important issue.

Likewise, it is not important whether a death by Holocaust was more or less gruesome than a death by "legalized" abortion.

What IS important is that all of those gruesome deaths were the result of abrogating "the law of God."

And the excuses of the Nazis about "purification" and the abortion crowd about a woman's "right to choose" do not justify that abrogation in the least.

Nevertheless, an upset Paul Spiegel, the head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, told Netzeitung, a newspaper, that the Pope's comments were similar to remarks made by Cardinal of Cologne Joachim Meisner in Germany last month that he had deemed "unacceptable."

And Germany's Greens parliamentarian, Volker Beck, actually condemned the Pope, declaiming: "For the pope to draw a comparison between abortion and the Holocaust shows a lack of moral and ethical direction."

During a sermon in his Cologne cathedral not long ago, Cardinal Meisner said: "First there was Herod, who ordered the children of Bethlehem to be killed, then there was Hitler and Stalin among others, and today unborn children are being killed in their millions."

Like Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Meisner was absolutely right.

And, like Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Meisner immediately was targeted by opportunists whose knee-jerk reaction is to condemn any and all who don't agree that the Holocaust was the worst horror ever perpetrated by man and absurdly insist that any comparison to it demeans it.

The overzealous Holocaust and abortion defenders should not be upset by Pope John Paul II comparing the legalization of abortion with the Holocaust.

Pope John Paul II is personally familiar with the evils of both Nazism and Communism and knew exactly what he was talking about when he wrote:

"Parliaments which create and promulgate such laws [as the laws facilitating the holocaust and abortion) must be aware that they are transgressing their powers and remain in open conflict with the law of God and the law of nature."

Mr. Spiegel foolishly charged that such statements show that the Catholic Church "has not understood or does not want to understand that there is a tremendous difference between factory-like genocide and what women do to their bodies."

Mr. Spiegel's euphemism for abortion--"what women do to their bodies"--calls to mind the Nazi's similarly appealing phrase, "the Final Solution."

But putting lipstick on a pig does not transform the pig into something else.

Calling abortion "what women do to their bodies" or "a medical procedure" masks its gruesome nature.

Like "the Final Solution" masked genocide.

But cunning labeling does not change the contents.

Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Meisner rightfully gave victims, including the innocent unborn, voice.

Because Hitler, Stalin and the abortion crowd each have the blood of millions on their hands by their own choice.

The abortion crowd's body count is much higher than either of the diabolical dictators.

And it continues to rise.

But NOT with the silent complicity of people like Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Meisner.

Edited February 26, 2005 by MC Just

[argent_paladin]

The prophets of the Old Testament warned against the practice of sacrificing children to Molech, the Canaanite god of fire. We sacrifie our children to the gods of ease, comfort, convenience and selfishness.

[argent_paladin]

I think that the holocause is one of the best comparisons, along with slavery because both were legal in their respective countries. One of the hardest things in trying to convey the horror of abortion is to break down the idea that everything that is legal is moral and that if it is so common (millions of times a year) then it cannot be that bad. However, as the Holocaust showed, something common and legal, the murder of Jews, can still be immoral. Slavery was legal since time began and there were millions of slaves in the US and the economy of the south depended on it. Still, morality and law are two different things.
Jews were considered sub-human and therefore not protected by law. Fetuses are today considered sub-human and not protected by law. Blacks were considered property of their owners. Fetuses are considered property of their owners as well. Jews and African-Americans should be the most against abortion, but unfortunately the opposite is true.

[MC Just]

bump

[Guest Eremite]

There is a necessary distinction between the Shoah and legalized abortion. The Nazis were seeking to destroy every single Jew from the face of the earth. There isn't any government seeking to destroy every unborn child from the face of the earth, but rather, governments are permitting women to kill their children they are inconvenient.

Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out that the Holy Father's point is not to compare systems of evil. Even though there is a difference between the methods of the two systems of evil, the end result is the same: the killing of innocent human life, which can never be tolerated, and must be spoken out against.

[Myles Domini]

[quote]There is a necessary distinction between the Shoah and legalized abortion...Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out that the Holy Father's point is not to compare systems of evil. Even though there is a difference between the methods of the two systems of evil, the end result is the same: the killing of innocent human life, which can never be tolerated, and must be spoken out against. [/quote]

Agreed, and the opposition to the Pope's right minded and--as per usual--correct sentiments that the abrogation of Divine Law results in great evils would to well to remember this. To my knowledge His Holiness has never used comparatives in speaking of great tragedies in history i.e. the Rwandan Genocide. However, why should we not draw out what's common to these events? The very fact that His Eminece Cardinal Ratzinger has to defend the Pope's words is symptomatic of what Alisdair MacIntyre has been saying for years about a culture of emotivists.
Whenever the word 'Holocaust' is uttered by a member of the Catholic hierarchy people fly off the handle start crying out against Pius XII and miss the entire point of what is being said. This latest incident simply illustrates how individualism has made men illogical in their thinking. Viewing the statement in context it is clear that the Pope is simply trying to draw parallels between instances in human history where civil law has attempted to ignore natural law. It certainly doesnt ring out with a lack of 'ethical direction' as the Green politico attempted to insinuate but is indeed inspired by it. The very fact that people are complaining (particularly non-Jews) shows that they simply dont want to be confronted with the gravity of the evil of legalised abortion. They shift the emphasis from semantics to terminolgy to try and obscure the fact that abortion is the legalised slaughter of human beings who cannot speak out in defence of themselves.

In the time of Manassah the King so defiled the land with the slaughter and sacrifice of infants that from that time onwards the place of his defiling rituals was shyed away from by all Jews. It was the ultimate place of defilement, where fire burnt constantly in order to try and purify it, the rubbish dump outside of Jerusalem that Our Lord uses to evoke the mental image of Hell: Gehenna. Our governments like Manassah are defiling the land with the slaughter of the innocent and this slaughter is turning our world into a haunt of demons.

[MC Just]

[quote name='Myles' date='Feb 27 2005, 05:41 PM']
In the time of Manassah the King so defiled the land with the slaughter and sacrifice of infants that from that time onwards the place of his defiling rituals was shyed away from by all Jews. It was the ultimate place of defilement, where fire burnt constantly in order to try and purify it, the rubbish dump outside of Jerusalem that Our Lord uses to evoke the mental image of Hell: Gehenna. Our governments like Manassah are defiling the land with the slaughter of the innocent and this slaughter is turning our world into a haunt of demons. [/quote]
whoa...so true.

[Phatmasser777]

Good Article. JPII has made a great comparison, of course the jews are gonna go nuts, but give me an example when they dont.

[argent_paladin]

My school is sponsoring an interesting lecture this Thursday. If you live in the Bay Area, check it out:
Mar 3
“Hitler’s Pope? Pius XII and the Jews - in defense of Pius XII, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope” - Lecture by Rabbi David Dalin. Thursday, March 3, 2005 -- 7:00 p.m. Bade Museum at PSR
GTU, Berkeley, CA

[God Conquers]

Wow... that sounds great! Too bad I live like 2500 miles away.