By Marc Massery
Did St. Faustina ever have anything to say about abortion? She sure did. She once wrote:
… I saw this sign of divine wrath which was about to strike the earth, and in particular a certain place. (474)
According to St. Faustina’s spiritual director, Blessed Michael Sopocko, the reason for this chastisement was “especially for the killing of infants not yet born, the most grievous crime of all.”
As it turns out, many abortions were performed in Warsaw in the 1930s. Father Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, the vice-postulator of the cause for the canonization of St. Faustina, explained, “[B]etween the First and Second World Wars, the city of Warsaw, which as the capital of Poland, was also one of the great capitals of abortion in the world!”
As long as St. Faustina was alive and praying for her native land, though, God’s wrath did not strike Poland. She wrote:
I found myself pleading with God for the world with words heard interiorly. As I was praying in this manner, I saw the Angel’s helplessness: he could not carry out the just punishment which was rightly due for sins. (474)
Less than a year after St. Faustina’s death, however, Germany invaded Poland, and by the end of World War II, Warsaw was almost completely destroyed.
There must be enough faithful souls praying and sacrificing for the United States. Jan. 22 marks the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Since that landmark decision, more than 60 million abortions have taken place in the United States alone.
Now, we don’t condemn anyone — including those who have been party to an abortion. We can, however, judge actions, and there’s never a reason to take an innocent human life. We’ll never be able to fathom the trauma 60 million abortions can inflict upon a society. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops put it this way:
The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed.
Abortion not only destroys the life of an innocent child, it wreaks havoc on the souls of those who participated in it. So if we’re to stand up to any evil, we need to stand up to defend innocent human life. We need to pray to the Lord and offer sacrifices for our country, as St. Faustina did. We need to pray that hearts and minds will be changed, and abortion will come to an end.
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
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