January 28, 2003
Mr. Peter Crary
Attorney-Counselor at Law
1201 12th Ave. N.
Fargo, ND 58102-3530
Dear Mr. Crary,
Thank you for your
letter of January 8th in regard to the letters you exchanged with
Christopher T. Dodson, Executive Director of the North Dakota Catholic
Conference. Mr. Dodson has represented the views of both Bishop Zipfel
and myself concerning the proposed House bill making it a felony for a
woman to obtain an abortion.
I do want to make
clear to you that I fully support the overturn of Roe v. Wade and the
protection of human life from the time of conception through natural
death. In consulting with the Pro-Life Secretariat of the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops, they shared with me the
enclosed materials which were put together in 1988. The Holy Father,
Pope John Paul II, in his 1988 letter Mulieris Dignitatem
speaks to the manner in which we see women who have had abortions. He
reflects on the Gospel passage and then states:
"In
the end Jesus says to her: 'Do not sin again,' but first he evokes
an awareness of sin in the men who accuse her...Jesus seems to say
to the accusers' Is not this woman, for all her sin, above all a
confirmation of your own transgressions?...The episode recorded in
the Gospel of John is repeated in countless similar situations in
every period of history. . .How often,...the woman pays for her own
sin .... but she alone pays and she pays alone! How often is she
abandoned in her pregnancy, when the man, the child's father, is
unwilling to accept responsibility for it?...we must also consider
all those who, as a result of various pressures, even on the part of
the guilty man, very often 'get rid' of the child before it is born.
'They get rid of it': but at what price? Public opinion today tries
in various ways to 'abolish' the evil of this sin. Normally a
woman's conscience does not let her forget that she has taken the
life of her own child, for she cannot destroy that readiness to
accept life which marks her 'ethos' from the 'beginning.'"
The
criminalization of the woman only further victimizes her and does not
get at the heart and root of the problem of abortion, which is
primarily the conversion of both men and women and their respect for
the gift and dignity of both human life and human sexuality. I have
enclosed for you the pertinent paragraphs of the document,
Mulieris Dignitatem.
While we may
disagree on the bill proposed, we both certainly agree on the need to
overturn Roe v. Wade and the importance to work for the dignity of all
human life.
Sincerely yours in
Christ,
Most Rev. Samuel J.
Aquila
Bishop of Fargo
Cc: Christopher
Dodson, Executive Director, North Dakota Catholic Conference
Gail Quinn, Executive Director, USCCB Pro-Life Office
Rachelle Sauvageau, Diocese of Fargo Director, Office for Pro-Life
Enclosures