by Fr. Benedict Groeschel

I knew it would be a moving scene-and it was. They sat quietly praying the
rosary in the middle of the wide driveway. The elderly bishop looked like he
came out of a Norman Rockwell painting, while the young friar with him
resembled a figure in a Giotto fresco in the medieval Basilica of St. Francis.
Every demonstration has a sense of drama – a clash of ideas-people dedicated
to opposing points of view and holding them with real emotion.
The thought occurred to me: Today there was no way that the opposition to
life was going to be able to match these two men willing, as they were, to
take on the whole federal government if necessary in their opposition to
infanticide. Congress and the courts had made it clear that they might have
to take on the federal government in their effort to stand up for the
sanctity of life.

Both of these prolife witnesses knew what they were doing. Bishop George
Lynch, the retired auxiliary bishop of Raleigh, N.C., and Brother Fidelis
Moscinsid, a student friar of the Franciscans of the
Renewal, had been arrested many times before. Both had spent extended time
in jail. Both were well aware of the possible consequences of their actions,
a form of civil disobedience to an unjust law that
permits and even encourages the destruction of human life for personal
convenience. They are both soft-spoken, gentle people, not the type to
enjoy such confrontation.

Aware of the absurdity of being arrested for defending babies from
destruction, they were both calmly serious about their witness, which is, in
itself, a profoundly serious act of Christian discipleship. Bishop Lynch has
been to jail more than 20 times. Recently he was taken from Westchester
County Jail to his doctor in handcuffs. This was, no doubt, to fulfill some
regulation lest he run away. He had
told demonstrators protesting his imprisonment: “Don’t be upset. The rest of
the people in here don’t want to be here. I want to be in jail.”

Brother Fidelis, for all his youthful appearance, has been a jailbird too.
Before joining the friars he had to drop out of his Rutgers University class
to spend two months in the same county jail. Like many in the prolife
movement, he’s convinced that the protection of human life is the greatest
single moral challenge facing our society, requiring religious groups to act
as a conscience for the nation.

This picture is incomplete, though, without mentioning the 30 other people
who showed up that early Saturday morning. These prolife demonstrators were
old hands at anti-abortion protests and knew the rules of engagement.
They kept moving as they prayed the rosary, lest they
be accused of loitering. Three so called “pro choice” pickets were also
experienced demonstrators, but none of them had done jail time for their
convictions. This morning they were not only outnumbered but outclassed.
Jenny shows up first and spends her time shouting “prochoice” in an obvious
but futile attempt to interrupt the rosary. Then there’s Bob who refers to
me as “mister monk” and once told me to go back to my “comfortable life.” We
don’t answer such provocations but I was really tempted to invite Bob to
accompany me on my daily routine. Bob’s specialty is telling us that we are
“crazy, wicked, hell itself.” Bob’s no dope, though, and when he observed the
dignity of the old bishop and the young friar blocking the gate, he
retreated to the other side of the street and focused his attentions on the
police who quietly went about their embarrassing task.

Then there was Judy. She’s openly, almost violently antiCatholic. Since most
of the weekly demonstrators at the abortion clinic in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., are
Catholics, she tends to forget that millions of Protestants, Eastern
Orthodox Christians, Jews, Moslems and Buddhists are equally opposed to
abortion on demand. Judy’s shouted remarks are so anti-Catholic that they
technically constitute a disturbance of the peace-a common enough activity
for pro-abortion demonstrators, but one I’ve never witnessed once with
prolife people. About the noisiest thing we do is sing hymns. Suddenly, in
the midst of all this, the manager of the clinic arrived and drove up to the
gate so quickly that she came to a breathtaking stop a few feet from Brother
Fidelis. A police officer pointedly asked her if she was trying to hit him.
I’m told that this lady’s name is Ruby and she works for the abortion
doctor, Stephen Kali.

I keep them all in my distracted prayers because I fear for their eternal
judgment and I fervently hope that they have a change of heart someday and
join us in campaigning for life. The three noisy
demonstrators, Judy, Bob and Jenny, don’t appear to be paid clinic
employees, although they could be. Unlike the directors and employees of the
place they don’t seem to be profiting from this shedding of blood. Even some
of those who have made a living off abortion have been converted and are
well known prolife activists today. We all prayed for the opposition-paid
and unpaid-outside that abominable death house.

There are some other members of the cast who should be mentioned. The Dobbs
Ferry Police went about their task in a quiet, professional way. They
appeared to be embarrassed when they had to drag the old bishop off to the
side in handcuffs. I don’t think that the officers ever thought that
enforcing the law would require them to drag a 78-year-old bishop off to
jail for doing something holy. Surely the greater sin is on those who’ve
passed the unjust laws which demand such a response.

We cannot leave out the judge who ordinarily handles these cases. Judge Luba
Iler is known for dealing with prolife demonstrators with a serene
objectivity-touched at times with severity. She’s sent
prolifers to jail, Bishop Lynch and Brother Fidelis among them.

Today’s charge was not so bad, disorderly conduct. Except that the whole
thing is a travesty of justice-something like the trial of St. Thomas More.
Is it really “disorderly” to pray at the entrance to a place of death? The
law has gone mad since Roe vs. Wade.

We were all appalled when 19 children were killed in a federal building in
Oklahoma City by a mad bomber. But that many children are killed every
Saturday in Dobbs Ferry under the protective mantle of the courts and
Congress. Mother Teresa is certainly right when she says that abortion is
the greatest threat to world peace. Whose conduct is disorderly? That
Saturday morning in Dobbs Ferry, the disorderly conduct of Bishop Lynch and
Brother Fidelis, in fact, had a marvelous result: Two women who came for
abortions turned around and did not kill their children.

Some people tell me that they don’t like to demonstrate, although Pope John
Paul has called upon us to use conscientious objection and protest to lift
the conscience of a nation in his encyclical, “The Gospel of Life.” If
demonstrating is not your “thing”-then what are you doing for life? I
believe we who live in this dreadful time will be asked that question on
judgment day.

I do not think that American Catholics can feel that they have responded to
the Gospel of Life until there’s a quiet group of Christians praying every
morning outside every abortion clinic in our country. Then the ultimate
“disorderly conduct,” the murder of the innocent and defenseless, will come
to an end and the curse will be taken off our land.

Father Benedict J. Groeschel, C.FR., is a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal
and a spiritual writer.

Taken from the “National Catholic Register,” July 16, 1995. For
subscriptions contact the “National Catholic Register”, P.O. Box 260380,
Encino, CA 91426-0380, (800) 421-3230.

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