SUNLIT UPLANDS: Eugenics

A Weekly Column by Father George Rutler

In the 1940's, totalitarian regimes tried to silence the Church. Entire sections were reserved for priests in Dachau and Auschwitz, where St. Maximilian Kolbe was injected with carbolic acid. In Yugoslavia, Bishop Mišic of Mostar was threatened for decrying the massacre of women and children. The Greek Archbishop of Athens risked his life when he solemnly cursed the German plenipotentiary. The newspapers mocked Cardinal van Roey, Primate of Belgium, for repudiating Nazi eugenics. When Cardinal Hinsley of Westminster spoke out after 120 Salesian priests were slaughtered in Poland, European journalists accused him of "bad faith." A Fascist propagandist, Robert Farinacci, tried to block the Vatican Radio, and in response the Holy See increased its medium-wave broadcasts "so that the Holy Father's voice can be heard in all parts of the globe."

As the nation anticipates the annual March for Life on January 24, we may expect the customary denials by much of the media establishment. Eugenics today is on a wider scale than in the dark war years, and when Church leaders speak out they are told, as in the 1940's, that they should be silent. The Planned Parenthood organization has unsuccessfully tried to stop publication of a new book, Unplanned, exposing its inner workings. On January 6, our archbishop lamented the fact that 41% of all unborn infants in New York City are aborted. In 2009, 87,273 infants were destroyed in our city. Now marriage itself is under assault, and the U.S. State Department tried to eliminate the terms "mother" and "father" on passport applications, as if they were nothing more than legal constructs. A British couple has been congratulated in the press for aborting their twin boys, because they wanted a girl. Our archdiocese hopes to reform this with the help of the Sisters of Life, the World Youth Alliance, Expectant Mother Care, and instruction on chastity, in the hope that we may yet be saved from becoming a demographic wasteland like much of Europe.

Elizabeth Anscombe

It was a pleasant surprise to read a tribute to Elizabeth Anscombe in the New York Times on January 8, marking the tenth anniversary of the death of one of the greatest modern philosophers. She was a generous mentor when I was a graduate student. There is a revival of interest in her in many universities around the world. She was ridiculed for celebrating with champagne the prophetic encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae. She also was arrested for protesting outside an abortion "clinic." For those who broadcast the truth, champagne and censure go together. Anscombe wrote:

"Those who try to make room for sex as mere casual enjoyment pay the penalty: they become shallow. At any rate the talk that reflects and commends this attitude is always shallow. They dishonour their own bodies; holding cheap what is naturally connected with the origination of human life."

Fr. George W. Rutler is the pastor of the Church of our Saviour in New York City. His latest book, Coincidentally: Unserious Reflections on Trivial Connections, is available from Crossroads Publishing.