Dear Bishop Zipfel;
My name is Lawrence F. Reves. I was a student of yours at St.
Thomas Aquinas High School in the Florissant, Mo. area, during my
Freshman and Sophomore years (1967-68 and 1968-69). I was glad to
hear of your appointment as Bishop of Bismark.
My gladness has turned to sorrow over your failure to back
legislation currently in the North Dakota legislature that would
again make it a criminal act when someone intentionally "destroys
or terminates the life of a preborn child."
I have been involved in the pro-life movement as a rescuer,
counselor, intercessor and adoptive parent since 1989. I was
honored to be a member of the Lambs of Christ during the Fargo
rescue of 1991. I have dedicated all that I have to doing what I
can, nonviolently, to end this scourge on our nation. Although I
have not been a member of the Catholic church for years (I am
now an Evangelical Christian), I fully credit my early Catholic
upbringing with giving me the proper perspective to know that I
must stand up against this terrible blight.
I can understand that you would not want to have a mother
criminalized for procuring an abortion. I do not, however,
understand why this piece of legislation would not be acceptable
to you if there was judicial protection for the mother. As stated
by your own Mr. Christopher Dodson, " . . . even were the proposed
legislation to grant the mother legal immunity for killing her own
child, it still would not pass muster with the Catholic Bishops of
North Dakota because it lacked 'a realistic possibility of
withstanding constitutional scrutiny.'"
If that criteria was to be your measuring stick, then Roe
v. Wade itself would never have come into being. To have this
opportunity and not even try does not seem to be the action of a
good shepherd. To continue the analogy, if you were in the field,
tending your flock, when a pack of wolves came to help themselves
to some of your sheep, would you do nothing because there were
several, figuring you had no chance of success? I believe that
you would search for any way, any weapon, that would help you to
drive the pack away and that you would fight to spare your flock
in whatever manner possible.
When the Israelites entered into the Promised Land, they were
commanded to wipe out the inhabitants of the land. This was due to
the inhabitants continuing sin of idolatry. Chief among the
manifestations of that idolatry was child sacrifice to Moloch and
the gods of fertility. God judged the nation of Israel by how
well they held to His commands. Later generations of Israelites
took up the idol worship of the previous inhabitants and like them
sacrificed children in the fires of Moloch, the younger the
better. It was this slaughter that is referred to throughout the
Old Testament, especially in Jeremiah 18 and 19.
The Lord sent the children of Israel into captivity for their
disobedience in not stopping the slaughter. Why would it be any
different for us, now?
I beseech you to seek Godly counsel. Please do not listen to
people who may have a secret agenda. Rather, seek God's own face
in this, of all things.
May the Peace of Christ disturb you,
Lawrence F. Reves
Palm Bay, FL 32909