Today we are surrounded by a host of forces, each pulling at us in a different direction, each with its own goal, each with its own agenda, different in appearance but common in origin. Our society, our nation, our community – each is being inundated by endless voices all espousing the same cause – saying the same thing in different ways to try to confuse us – but all of them champions of that Great Easy Way called humanism.

Don’t follow your conscience – if it feels good, do it!
 

Don’t follow your religion – that’s boring.
 

Don’t listen to family or friends – after all, what do THEY know!
 

Why do something that’s hard, when the Easy Way is so much more enjoyable!
 

After all, we live in the twenty first century. Let somebody else do it! Let the government fix it! Let the guy down the street worry about it! All you need do, those voices tell us, is “kick back and enjoy the ride.”
Well, here’s where that gets us…
 

If you let someone else do it, you give up control over your own destiny. If you depend on the government to fix every problem you encounter, you give up control over your own lifestyle. And if you let the guy down the street do it… well, you’d better know how he tends his own house before you consider letting him tend yours!
 

Wherever we look, anymore, we see invitation to sin, alluring in its attractiveness, drawing us in with promises of comfort and security. That same old message from the Tempter to Eve – no less beguiling, no less enticing, no less attractive – and every bit as much evil today as then. And nowhere is this more apparent than the messages our young people are getting concerning abortion. Now let’s not cloak this in pleasantry or euphemism, for it is not a pleasant topic, and euphemism only conceals the filth that lies beneath.

Abortion is murder. Yes, murder. No less murder than shooting your neighbor. Abortion murders an unborn child, a soul, a divine creation. Abortion is not an “easy way out.” It is, however, a very easy way in – to that place where we, as Catholic Christians do not want to go - eternal damnation.
 

If we tolerate it, if we “look the other way” and wait for the “other guy” to do the work needed to eliminate it, if we keep silent and just let it continue to happen, we are being every bit as much an accomplice as if we were there, holding the door for that poor misguided woman on her way to the killer’s knife. It is our responsibility, our duty, our God centered obligation, to do everything reasonably within our capability to end this monstrosity in our midst. To do less is to abandon our obligation to our Saviour. Let there be absolutely no mistake or misunderstanding on this. To partake in abortion is to partake in mortal sin. It is our duty to let everyone know, and to let everyone know that there are alternatives. Do not abort – consider adoption, or marriage, or even single-parenthood.  
 

There are, literally, hundreds of thousands of married couples in this nation that are childless and wanting of children. There are folks on adoption lists at every agency handling this that will never get a child. Not because they are found not fit, or financially incapable, or anything else other than there are not enough babies! Yet abortion goes on. The abortionist’s knife takes more human lives in this country than drunk drivers, criminal homicide, or accidental death. Yet abortion goes on.
 

Those women who have abortions all tell the same tale – of a conscience that simply won’t let go of the memory of that terrible deed and a life ruined by its constant memory. Yet abortion goes on. This is the challenge that confronts us today, as Catholics, as Christians, as Americans, and demands our response. We cannot look the other way; we cannot remain silent while those who would permit, enable or enhance access to abortion promote their views to the level of Law of the Land. We cannot sit idle; we cannot hope in silence that this abomination will stop. We must do our very best; make a loud noise; stand in the way; do what being right demands be done, and make these murders end. So to our men, look to our Guild of Saint Patrick to guide your way. Join them. Promote them. Help them. And to our loyal Guild members, I charge you today as the Church in ancient days charged the Knights of antiquity.
 

Yours shall be a battle. Not of arms but of the spirit. Not of the battlefield but for the mind and the soul. For the cause is no less urgent, the stakes no less high, the outcome no less vital than it was almost a millennium ago. And this shall be your goal, as it is ours – to do all that can be done to quash the evil that has reared its head once again in our midst. You shall be a light to the world in this time of spiritual peril. With Mary as your guide, with the Cross as your shield, go forth and take up this battle firm in the knowledge that you are in the right, that you are protecting those who cannot protect themselves, that you will truly be doing as Christ would have you do. And to our lay folk, to those not able for good cause or reason so to partake, do not despair.
 

There is a weapon we, as Catholics, can use. And we know it works. It is the same weapon that brought down the Soviet Union, the same weapon that stops armies in their tracks, the same weapon that repels the Adversary back to his infernal domain. And that weapon is prayer. And so I am directing that, in all our Churches, every Mass shall now end with a recitation of that Most Powerful Prayer commonly known as the “Hail, Holy Queen.” And at the end of the prayer, I direct that the celebrant or a lay leader shall say “Saviour of the World” to which I direct our congregations to respond “Save the Unborn!”  

The Church started doing this shortly after Our Lady appeared to the three children in Fatima and ordered such a prayer. Then the “target” was communist Russia. Today our target is no less evil and in many ways no less powerful. And that target, abortion, can and must be defeated. With the help of God, through intercession of the Blessed Mother, we can prevail. We must prevail. And we will prevail!

With the Blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, shall this letter be shared with all the Faithful in all the Churches upon its reception, commencing this Twenty Fifth day of January in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Nine.

Vincent A. Quaresima
     Servus Servorum Dei

Province of Our Lady of the Angels - Old Catholic Church