Over the years faithful Catholics, especially those involved in pro-life work, have heard priests and laity discuss a “seamless garment” or “consistent life ethic” approach to upholding the dignity of human life. The term was made popular by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago in the early 1980s.
The seamless garment approach attempted to elevate non-priority social issues (poverty, discrimination, immigration, etc.) to the same level as direct attacks on innocent human life (abortion, contraception and euthanasia).
This approach, however, blurs the lines between the moral teachings that Catholics must believe and proclaim, and certain prudential or political issues for which Catholics can hold differing opinions based on the Church’s social teachings.
The Church’s authentic and expressed teaching gives priority to defending innocent human life over all of the other so-called “life issues.” St. John Paul II taught this in his apostolic exhortation “Christifideles Laici” (1988) and his encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (1995).
“The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, fínds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights – for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture – is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination…,” he wrote in “Christifideles Laici.”
And he wrote in “Evangelium Vitae”: “It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop. A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized. Only respect for life can be the foundation and guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society, such as democracy and peace.”
Turning a blind eye to the priority of protecting innocent human life can harm not only the body, but also the souls of many. As St. Teresa of Calcutta noted in her Feb. 3, 1994, speech to the National Prayer Breakfast, “abortion, which often follows from contraception, brings a people to be spiritually poor, and that is the worst poverty and the most difficult to overcome.”
Catholics can and should be wary of the “seamless garment” interpretation – equating the moral value of all social issues on the same level as defending innocent human life – because it takes the focus off moral matters essential to the salvation of souls and human dignity.
If Christians truly love their neighbor and desire to help alleviate their neighbor’s sufferings (material or spiritual), the greatest thing one can do next to prayer is work to end abortion and contraception – the root of today’s human sufferings.
As we mark Respect Life Month in October, C-PLAN encourages all Catholics to advocate the truth and priority of the Church’s beautiful, unchanging moral teachings on the sanctity of human life. Doing so will help protect families, restore moral order and build a just society.
To learn more about the Church’s approach to the dignity of human life, go online to www.prolifecharlotte.org/seamless-garment.
Sam Casey, Mike FitzGerald, Gretchen Filz, Brice Griffin, Diane Hoefling, Tammy Harris, Bob Hayes, Karina Hernandez, Andrea Hines, Kaitlyn Mason, Salvador Tolentino and Tina Witt are members of the Catholic Pro-Life Action Network of Charlotte.