By Bishop James Conley
The following is the text of the bishop’s opening remarks presented at the Sept. 23 Pro-life Banquet in Lincoln. Video is available at youtube.com/c/CatholicDioceseofLincoln.
When I was a young priest, only two years ordained, my bishop in the Diocese of Wichita, Bishop Eugene Gerber, appointed me Director of the Pro-Life Office, in addition to my first priestly assignment as a Parochial Vicar at a Wichita parish. I had gone to a few pro-life conferences during my seminary years, but I had not really been that involved in the pro-life movement.
About the time I received this new appointment, the national pro-life movement Operation Rescue was just beginning. For those of you unfamiliar with Operation Rescue, this was a grassroots movement comprised of Catholics and Protestants, a truly ecumenical movement. Operation Rescue would gather people in front of local abortion clinics, who would then prayerfully and peacefully lay their bodies down in front of the entrances to abortion clinics, effectively blocking entry into the facilities. This non-violent demonstration of civil disobedience was patterned after the many nationwide demonstrations during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
The goal of Operation Rescue was to save babies and spare women the trauma of abortion. These demonstrations would effectively close the abortion clinic down, allowing enough time for sidewalk counselors to provide alternatives for women and their babies who showed up at the clinic for their scheduled appointments that day. Once the police arrived at the clinic site, they would begin removing people one by one. The protestors would remain limp, so the police officers would have to carry each individual person to the paddy wagon.
Because these demonstrations would usually draw upwards of a hundred people, it would take most of the day to remove all the individuals. Planned Parenthood’s own research wing, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, reports that if a woman has to reschedule her abortion, there is more than a 50% chance she will decide to carry her child to term. With the permission of my bishop, I became very involved in Operation Rescue and was arrested on many occasions. Yes, I confess to be a serial loiterer and I have a record!
On one occasion, the police officer who was assisting me knelt down and said: “Father, please don’t make me do this. I am a Catholic and I have never arrested a priest before.” I smiled and said, “Officer, you have to do your duty, and I have to do mine. God will understand.” He then said, “Father, something is terribly wrong with our country.”
That was over 30 years ago. I have often thought of how many 30 year-olds are alive today, because of Operation Rescue, and how many women did not have to carry around the wound of aborting their child.
I have always believed, very firmly, that Roe vs. Wade would one day be overturned. I just never thought it would happen in my lifetime. I even said those exact words to our youth gathered in Washington, D.C., last January for the National Right to Life. But I was wrong.
We all know that this summer, on June 24th, not only did we celebrate on the Catholic liturgical calendar the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist who leapt in his mother Elizabeth’s womb at being in the presence of Christ, but also we witnessed five baptized Catholics on the U.S. Supreme Court, issue Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health which overturned Roe v. Wade and returned to state legislatures the legal battle for life. How about that for a little Catholic moment in politics? Praise God for His Providence!
And while there is much to celebrate in this historic moment, we also should not fool ourselves: the road ahead is an arduous and daunting one. In the words of Father Richard John Neuhaus, in perhaps one of the most famous pro-life speeches back in 2008, “It has been a long journey, and there are still miles and miles to go.” Those words are still true today.
For nearly 50 years, Roe v. Wade took the lives of over 60 million American babies and caused psychological, physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma to so many more moms and dads. But the damage does not end there. Roe also damaged the very soul of America.
During the years of Roe’s reign, millions upon millions of Americans have been miseducated and ill-informed about the sacred and inviolable dignity of the human person. And though Roe has been rendered dead in the law, it continues to have significant influence in the hearts and minds of many across this state and nation.
But this challenge should not discourage us. As Father Neuhaus reminded those pro-lifers in 2008: “We are the stronger because we are unburdened by delusions. We know that in a sinful world, far short of the promised Kingdom of God, there will always be great evils. The principalities and powers will continue to rage, but they will not prevail.”
Instead, we each can find ourselves something like the hero Frodo, in the Lord of the Rings. We are being called along the way for an adventure and a journey. We are called out of the creature comforts of our homes and livelihoods for a greater mission.
This mission is, of course, living out the Gospel of Life which our Lord Jesus Christ has so perfectly presented to us. It is a mission that entails suffering and sacrifice, but it is a mission that ends in complete victory and eternal happiness! We were made for these very times.
The road ahead of us is why this year’s conference draws our attention, once again, to Christ Himself with the Scriptural theme: “And the Word Became Flesh.” When our Lord became man, He shared the Good News in word and action. He met sinners where they were and knew how to communicate to their hearts and minds for conversion. All of us, but especially the laity as they go out into the day-to-day of the world, must be equipped to imitate Christ more perfectly to meet the challenges of our cultural moment.
We live in a digital age that also finds itself in a post-Christian era. And while Christ is “the same yesterday, today, and forever,” the truths and methods of yesterday need to be transformed in order to reach the hearts and minds of today’s audiences, so that we can bring souls to that saving message which lives on forever. The hopeful prayer of the bishops and the staff of the Nebraska Catholic Conference is that this weekend will encourage contemporary, data-driven pro-life messaging and media in this digital age, and in doing so help each of us become more effective in our pro-life witness to a world so desperately in need of Christ.
In a special way, I want to welcome you all and thank you for coming to this year’s banquet and conference. I want to thank our elected officials and candidates running for public office for being here; your courage to bear the light of Christ in the public square is truly a light in the darkness.
I want to thank the numerous pro-life warriors with us tonight; your witness in the trenches of the movement is the stuff of which saints are made. I want to thank all the moms and dad, grandmas and grandpas, out there this evening; your many hidden sacrifices for your children and grandchildren are a true sign of the undying love of Jesus Christ.
And last but certainly not least, I want to thank our religious sisters and brothers, priests, and bishops in attendance; your witness and spiritual leadership is a beacon of light burning bright as you lead souls to Heaven.
As all of us together gather for this year’s Bishops’ pro-life banquet and conference, I echo those opening words of Father Neuhaus’ great speech: This gathering “is partly a reunion of veterans from battles past and partly a youth rally of those recruited for the battles to come. And that is just what it should be. The pro-life movement that began in the twentieth century laid the foundation for the pro-life movement of the twenty-first century. We have been at this a long time, and we are just getting started. All that has been and all that will be is prelude to, and anticipation of, an indomitable hope. All that has been and all that will be is premised upon the promise of Our Lord’s return in glory when, as we read in the Book of Revelation, ‘he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be sorrow nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.’ And all things will be new.”
We are poised at a pivotal moment in the pro-life movement. Here in Nebraska, we have an opportunity to make Nebraska a sanctuary state. We have an opportunity, as we approach the November elections, to elect state leaders who will enact laws on behalf of we the citizens, that will make our state a safe haven for unborn children and their mothers. To make Nebraska a state where woman are truly loved, cared for, protected and given everything they need to choose life for themselves and for their babies.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let this night’s celebration and tomorrow’s formation be just one of the many stepping stones we take in the monumental task ahead of us to build a culture of life. And as we make this great pilgrimage of love, I leave you with these memorable words of Father Neuhaus that I pray you take to heart: “We shall not weary, we shall not rest, until every unborn child is protected in law and welcomed in life. We shall not weary, we shall not rest, until all the elderly who have run life’s course are protected against despair and abandonment, protected by the rule of law and the bonds of love. We shall not weary, we shall not rest, until every young woman is given the help she needs to recognize the problem of pregnancy as a gift of life. We shall not weary, we shall not rest, as we stand guard at the entrance gates and the exit gates of life, and at every step along the way of life, bearing witness in word and deed to the dignity of the human person—of every human person.”
God bless each and every one of you!
