Father Pavone’s words

While I was reading Father Pavone’s letter and then watching him give the homily yesterday, these words struck me:

One of the attacks they made was that a “spiritual person” like a priest
>>should be speaking words of compassion and understanding, instead of
>>venom. But compassion demands truth. A priest is also a prophet, and if he cannot cry out against evil, then he cannot bring about reconciliation. If there is going to be any healing between these families or in this nation,
>>it must start with repentance on the part of those who murdered Terri and
>>now try to cover it up with flowery language.
>>

It occurs to me that a lot of the people who have been so strong in their attacks against me don’t understand the part about compassion and truth. So a few months ago, when this blog and a few others were fighting so hard to save the life of an unborn child with a birth defect, we were viewed as uncompassionate – not because of the tone of our words, or our intentions, but simply because we would bring up the Catholic truth that inducing this child early was morally wrong. Same thing last week with blogging about the value of Terri Schiavo’s life, or on the immorality of artificial contraception, partial birth abortion – just about any other issue that the church teaches is wrong becuase it is incompatible with the culture of life. Glinda the good fairy could come down and deliver the message with harp music and sparkly fairy dust and she would still get dubbed as an evil bitch who thinks she is always right – simply for speaking the truth. I saw it happen with Father Pavone last week and I saw him standup to the criticism with honor, dignity, and not backing from the truth. It made an impression. I get it now. Thanks Father Pavone!

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