And how the world today has lost this Love and Sacrifice! With Election Day in the U.S. fast approaching, it is disheartening to see such disregard and even diabolical hatred for human life. The fact that so many Americans, perhaps even a majority, are determined to elect candidates who are strong supporters of the slaughtering of innocents in the womb speaks volumes about the state of this nation. Even worse is that so many of these candidates are elected because of the votes from American "Catholics". Catholics in America have consistently been voting in favor of the perverse Democratic party and have been the unfortunate "swing vote" in many elections.
There is certainly much need for proper catechesis here! The great anger of the Good God towards this sin that cries out to Heaven for vengeance was manifested through His great minister, Padre Pio. Being such a providential instrument on Earth allowed Padre Pio to realize in a unique way the mind of God, and in our case, in His vigorous condemnation of Abortion. These words of Padre Pio, as strong as they are, reflect just how great the evil that is Abortion.
From the April 2011 issue of The Angelus:
“ABORTION IS NOT ONLY HOMICIDE, BUT ALSO SUICIDE”
Many people, confronted with the sin of abortion, confuse the law of the Nation—that permits and assists the interruption of pregnancy—with the law of God, where provoked abortion is always a sin against the Fifth Commandment. “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13; Matthew 5:21-22) defends life independently of the human being’s age in years, months or days.
The interruption of pregnancy always creates trauma, a drama. It cannot be denied that what the woman lives through—who unfortunately doesn’t really want to be a mother—also concerns all those close to her, whose strong emotive reaction tends to justify such a great error. Confessors know those influences well, although they can never justify the suppression of a life.
PADRE PIO’S TESTIMONY
Padre Pellegrino asked St. Padre Pio one day, “Padre, this morning you denied absolution to a lady who confessed to an abortion. Why were you so rigorous with this poor unfortunate woman?”
Padre Pio answered, “The day people, frightened by the economic boom, physical damages or financial sacrifices, lose the horror of abortion will be the most terrible day for humanity. For, precisely on that day, they will have to show that they detest it.”
Then he took hold of his interlocutor’s habit with his right hand and put his left hand over his heart, as if he wanted to grab his heart, and said in an urgent tone, “Abortion is not only homicide but also suicide. And to these people we see on the point of committing two crimes...do we want to show our faith? Do we want to save them or not?”
“Why suicide?” asked Padre Pellegrino.
Full of holy anger, compensated by much sweetness and goodness, Padre Pio explained, “You would understand this suicide of the human race if with the eye of reason you could see the ‘beauty and joy’ of the earth populated by old men and depopulated by children, burnt as a desert. If you thought it over, then you would understand that abortion is even more serious. Abortion also mutilates the life of the parents. I would like to cover those parents with the ashes of their destroyed fetuses, to nail them with their responsibilities and stop the possibility of recurring to ignorance. The remains of a provoked abortion are not buried by false religiousness. It would be an abominable hypocrisy. Those ashes should be thrown at the murderous parents’ elegant faces. If I thought they were of good faith, I would not feel implicated in their crimes. You see, I am not a saint, but I never feel so close to sainthood as when I pronounce these words, undoubtedly a bit virulent, but just and useful, against those who commit this crime. I am certain that God approves of my rigor since, after those sorrowful struggles against evil, He always gives me—or rather let us say He imposes on me—moments of marvelous tranquility.”
Padre Pio observed to Padre Pellegrino that “if erroneous ideas are not eradicated from the minds of those who provoke abortions, it is useless to punish them with the rigors of the Church.” He argued, “By defending the arrival of children into the world, my rigor is always an act of faith and hope in our encounters with God on earth. Unfortunately, as time goes by, the battle gets tougher than we are. But we must fight anyway, because in spite of the certainty of a defeat on the map, our battle has the guarantee of a true victory: that of the new earth and the new heavens.”
Confronted with such considerations, what reasons could there be to justify such a great sin? It would also be a serious misdeed for the Church to cooperate with an abortion.
“GO AWAY, ANIMAL! GO AWAY!”
In the sacristy, in front of the confessional where Padre Pio received penitents, Mario Tentori waited for his turn seated on a bench. As he was examining his conscience, he heard Padre Pio shout, “Go away, animal, go away!” The Saint’s words were addressed to a man who had knelt at his feet to make his confession and who left the confessional humiliated, very moved and confused. The next day Mario got the train in Foggia to return to Milan. He sat in a compartment where there was only one other traveler, who began to look at him, visibly showing a desire to start a conversation. Finally he got the courage and asked him, “Weren’t you in the sacristy yesterday at San Giovanni Rotondo to go to confession to Padre Pio?”
“Yes, I was!” answered Tentori.
The other man continued, “We were seated on the same bench. My turn was just before yours. I am the one who Padre Pio threw out calling me an ‘animal.’ Do you remember that?”
“Yes,” Mario stated.
The traveling companion continued, “Being outside of the confessional, perhaps none of you heard the words that motivated the Padre’s reaction. Well, Padre Pio told me, and I quote, ‘Go away, animal, go away, because you have had abortions three times in agreement with your wife.’ Do you understand? Padre Pio told me, ‘You have aborted!’ He addressed me, because the initiative to abort always came from me.”
And he broke into sobbing, expressing his sorrow that way, as he himself asserted, and the will not to sin again with the firm determination to return and meet with Padre Pio to receive absolution and change his way of life.
Padre Pio’s rigor had saved the life of a father who, after denying life to three infants, was in danger of losing his own soul for all eternity.
RESPECT FOR THE PURPOSE OF MATRIMONY
What contributes to depopulating the earth, as our Saint says, which is “burnt like a desert” since children’s smiles are no longer seen there, is the decrease in the birth rate, chosen too often for selfish reasons or objective financial problems. Medical concerns also contribute to cause aging in the earth’s population.
One of Padre Pio’s spiritual children confessed to us, “During the second confession I made to him—he had sent me away the first time—after telling him my sins, the Padre asked me, “Anything else?” I said no. And looking me in the eye he asked me, “And in holy matrimony, have you done things right with your wife?”
“No, Father,” I answered, “because doctors forbid us to have more children.”
And he responded, “And what do doctors have to do with this?”
“They said we could procreate a monster,” I answered him.
“You would have deserved it!” shouted the Saint. And he kicked me out of the confessional again.
Taken from the Swiss District magazine Le Rocher, No. 53.
~ Steven C., "The Knight of Tradition"
