Sister Deirdre Byrne spoke passionately about the sanctity of life at the RNC saying, "While we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. They are the unborn."
Quoting further from the National Catholic Register [2]:
Good evening. I am Sister Dede Byrne, and I belong to the Community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Last Fourth of July, I was honored to be one of the president's guests at his Salute to America celebration. I must confess that I recently prayed while in chapel, begging God to allow me to be a voice, an instrument for human life. And now here I am, speaking at the Republican National Convention. I guess you’d better be careful what you pray for.
It seems like Deirdre Byrne already had a voice, loud enough to be noticed by an American president to be invited to a July 4th celebration. Was it really her prayer that was answered? Or was it part of a party's political plan to use her as a prop in the way she used God for her political agenda?
When she "recently prayed" did she in the back of her mind wished that she would be invited to be a speaker at the political convention knowing that it was scheduled to take place soon?
If she had such a close connection to God, why did she not simply pray for all the women seeking to abort their unborn to turn to God asking God to change their minds and give birth? Would that not be a better miracle than the one she believed in, one that God, rather than political operatives, arranged for her to stand in the political limelight and give a speech?
Where is her humility in all of this? In her speech, she said: "Humility is at the foundation of our order, which makes it very difficult to talk about myself." [3] Yet, she did in a previous paragraph, as if she wanted public acknowledge- ment with seemingly a degree of humble bragging.
Why is it necessary to involve God in the making her political speech, and worse, making public her private prayer to God?
Even though Section 2442 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoted below without references, does not apply specifically to a nun, its implication seems to reach beyond that of a pastor based on the wording of the second sentence [4]:
2442 It is not the role of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political structuring and organization of social life. This task is part of the vocation of the lay faithful, acting on their own initiative with their fellow citizens. Social action can assume various concrete forms. It should always have the common good in view and be in conformity with the message of the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. It is the role of the laity "to animate temporal realities with Christian commitment, by which they show that they are witnesses and agents of peace and justice." [Emphasis added.]
Nunhood is not "the vocation of the lay faithful." [5]
On a positive note, God still keeps His promise of the gift of Free Will. Anyone, including nuns and clerics, can choose freely what they want to do and not do, and what they want to believe in and not believe in. Like anyone else, they too, will one day have to face up to the truth and answer to God Almighty.
UPDATED: 28 August 2020
Quoted from Catholic Culture.org [6]:
The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life has argued against any tendency to ‘instrumentalize some topic for political ends,” in an apparent response to President Trump’s emphasis on the abortion issue. In an interview with Crux, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia said: “It would do great harm if some topic of bioethics is extracted from its general context and put toward ideological strategies.”
[1] https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/full-text-sister-dede-byrnes-speech-at-the-2020-republican-national-convent
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a7.htm, Section 2442.
[5] Ibid.
[6] https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=47676
No comments:
Post a Comment