Who Are the Real Fanatics?

On a recent afternoon I was working at Caring Families, a crisis pregnancy center in my town, when I noticed a young woman walking back and forth in front of our window. Soon I heard a tap on the door. The young woman stepped in timidly, shut the door, tried to smile, and began to cry. "I'm in trouble," she said. "I'm pregnant."

She certainly was in trouble. Her husband (or boyfriend) had learned she was pregnant and had taken off. The landlord had told her to get out but wouldn't let her take her few sticks of furniture because no rent had been paid. She had come downtown looking for help, but none of the three agencies she talked to could do anything that day.

I'm not a counselor, and none was present, but I offered to make an appointment with a counselor for the following day. She began to cry again. She had no money, the needle on her gas gauge was on empty, and she had no food in the apartment. We talked awhile; I gave her gas money, made up a box of food., and told her to come back for her appointment.

The young woman came back to Caring Families and talked with a counselor, who gave her what help she needed and made what arrangements were necessary. Later the counselor told me that the woman was surprised to learn that Caring Families is a Christian agency. "I didn't know Christians would help me," she told the counselor. "I thought they were all mean."

I was startled. How could she believe that all Christians are "mean"? But on second thought why should young people believe otherwise when their books give them a twisted version of history, and every day they see religious belief mocked and ridiculed on television sitcoms and news shows?

In America today, those who really help young women in trouble are the prolifers, those whom the proabortionists have trained the news media to call "anti-choice zealots" and "religious fanatics." I have known hundreds of these "fanatics," people who help troubled young women with problem pregnancies, who reach out to women who have had abortions to help them to reconciliation and healing, who pray daily for abortionists and their victims.

Caring Families is typical of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). There are over 3 000 in the United States, about twice as many as there are abortion mills preying on our wives and daughters. Most CPCs are manned by volunteers, though some, like ours, have one or two part-time paid workers. A few in large cities can afford full-time paid directors, though these also have volunteer staffs. I'm not aware of any centers that charge for their services, though most are small and perpetually underfunded. I'm also not aware of any abortion mills that do not charge for their "services."

Recently a young man denouncing prolife "fanatics" in a letter to the Hartford (Conn.) Courant wrote, "When it comes to sex, the Catholic Church doesn't have a clue." Normally, of course, I ignore such a sentiment, attributing it to cerebral deficiency. But that statement probably represents the presumption of a majority of our young people. So it might be worthwhile to consider who really "doesn't have a clue" - the prolife "fanatics? or the leaders of our culture of death.

In the U.S. today, half of all marriages end in divorce, and among those who have lived together before marriage divorce is three times as high as among those who haven't. On the other hand, among prolife "fanatics" divorce is rare. Indeed, among those who use Natural Family Planning instead of contraceptives, divorce is even rarer. According to Fr. Andrew Greeley, the sociologist with the odd penchant for fiction, studies have repeatedly shown that traditional Catholic married couples have more stable and satisfying marriages and more fulfilling sexual relationships than any other group in society. Perhaps after twenty centuries of experience the Church does have a clue.

But multitudes are clueless. Every day 33,000 Americans, mostly people in their teens and twenties, contract sexually transmitted diseases, which are now as common as the flu. Many of these diseases are incurable. Fifty million Americans are currently infected. Few of them are "anti-choice zealots." Perhaps we prolifers have a clue not only about sex and marriage but also about public health. In 1995 my wife and I joined two thousand other prolife workers at a Human Life international conference in Montreal. We always enjoy these conferences. The people are warm and friendly. Many are young and some bring their children. My son and his wife joined us with their child.

The conference opened with a Solemn High Mass in the stunningly beautiful Notre Dame Basilica (where Pavarotti sang his famous Christmas concert). The Mass was to be followed by a candlelight procession b@ to the hotel six blocks away. As the principal celebrant, an archbishop from Africa, finished the opening prayers, a priest walked to the pulpit and announced that the homily would be postponed and there would be buses parked behind the basilica for anyone who would prefer not to walk back in the procession after Mass. The announcement seemed odd, but we turned our attention back to the Mass.

At the end of Mass, candles were lighted and passed around, and we all turned to process out. As the front doors of the basilica opened, we sensed a strange atmosphere without knowing what it was. We could see glaring white lights and hear an uncanny roar of human voices. As we slowly processed out of the church, holding our candles and praying, we found ourselves walking through a crowd (estimated by the media to be about two thousand) of screaming, cursing, chanting proabortionists.

Many carried signs with rude epithets; some were spitting and making obscene gestures. Some had garishly painted faces, and a number were dressed in costumes - devils, nuns, popes. Things came flying at us from all directions. For six blocks we carried candles and prayed and sang hymns while these pitiable people traipsed along beside us shouting and cursing. Since the police protection was good, no one was seriously hurt, though a police car was demolished along the way.

In the abortion dispute, who are the real fanatics?

Joseph Collison is the Director of the Office of Pro-Life Activities for the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, and Chairman of the Board of Caring Families Pregnancy Services.