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.
During a recent homily, our parish’s deacon said this is a time in the history of the Church when many of us will be faced with the question: Do we stay or do we go? His homily was a penetrating look at the shame of sexual abuse and cover-up in the Church. It was the most direct acknowledgement of sex abuse I had ever heard during Mass in my 30-plus years as a Catholic – a plea for discussion, engagement and ultimately forgiveness for decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups within the Church. On behalf of all the ordained, he asked, forgive us this betrayal of trust.
Hearing this from the pulpit of my own church felt like a punch to the gut. It made the scandal more real than reading the newspaper articles or hearing about it on TV.
So when he asked for forgiveness, I have to say I’m not ready to give it.
How can we forgive when the highest ranks of the Church knew about these problems and let them persist? How can we forgive without knowing whether the appeal for forgiveness is genuine, and whether the Church will really take responsibility for this huge trespass? How can we entrust our children to this institution when leaders have been promising to clean things up for decades? How can we move on?
Our only way forward will be for us parishioners and parents to know the Church is serious about making things right, that there will be transparency. We entrust these men with our souls and come to them in the most vulnerable moments of our lives. They must be held to the highest standard. They have been given positions of great power and access and we need to ensure they are worthy of our trust. Anything less, and doubts will continue to fester in our souls and the light that the Church should be in our lives will be forever dimmed, if not extinguished altogether.
In his homily, the deacon said someone had asked, “Where is God in all of this?” The answer was, “God is in the purging.” If God is in the purging, then may all of us demand the purge. Demand that we hold the leadership of the Church and our local priests accountable. That those who have been part of this scandal – either as culprits, enablers, or those who covered up for others – speak out and accept the consequences. If they love the Church that they pledged their lives to, may they sacrifice their own security to allow the Church to live on.
We also need to ask questions of our parish leaders. How are we ensuring this doesn’t happen in our own parishes and schools? What safety measures are in place? Until we can see a time where this is not a sickness of our Church, it may be time to restrict priests from having access to our children. It makes me so sad to say these things, but trust has been broken. It needs to be built back from scratch.
I am not ready to forgive, but I am ready to witness. May the purge be thorough, comprehensive and final. Only then can we start the process of healing and forgiveness. And perhaps, and only then, can a new era of confidence and trust in the Church begin.
Erika Lopez lives in Charlotte.