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How do you tell the difference between a rock and a seaweed? A rock and a seaweed have very different characteristics. And the rock is what it is even before humans gave it the name "rock". Same too for the seaweed, which existed on earth in the form that it is long before we started naming it "seaweed".
Our calling a rock "seaweed" does not change the substance of the rock into a seaweed. It remains as a rock, even as we call it "seaweed". Because this is the truth. When I hold a rock in one hand and a seaweed in the other, the truth remains that they are both different, distinct from each other. No one decided to fix this difference. It just is that way by nature. It is the truth.
Applying this to morality...
The Church does not set laws and impose them on the world. Rather, she fulfils her responsibility and duty to highlight, teach, explain and guide the world on what is morally right according to human reason.
That an act is morally right/wrong and it being easy/difficult to carry out are two separate issues. E.g. I may find it hard and perhaps even impossible to stop gossiping but this has nothing to do with and is a completely different thing altogether from the truth that gossiping is wrong for the consequences it brings and the effects it has on me as a person. A woman who was raped and is with child may find it difficult to keep the baby and cope with her emotions. And as compassionate beings, we can understand and empathise with her. But it is a separate thing from the moral truth that murder in abortion is wrong.
When we look at a situation that requires us to choose an action, we often allow the difficulty of the morally correct act to influence our perception of what is right and acceptable and what is not. So if something is very difficult to do, our hearts tend to pity the person or ourselves for having to do it anyway, like in this case of the raped victim. And then, even if the act is the right thing to do, like to keep the baby, we start to compromise, to say that maybe she can abort the baby so that she does not have to live with the trauma all her life. The more we compromise, the more diluted our conscience will become. But these two factors need to be seen apart.
To say that a baby should not be aborted in a case of rape is not the Church being unfeeling and rigid. The Church does not decide that murder is wrong. She does not have the authority to fix moral truths, nor to change moral truths. Murder is wrong with or without the Church, and it has been wrong even before the Church officially taught it to be wrong.
The Church upholds the moral truth that killing is wrong, and this truth cannot be changed no matter what form it takes, under what circumstances, regardless of the individual's moral inconsistencies. And it applies too to all other moral truths. What we can do is to offer all the support we have in our capacities to aid this victimised lady, be it in healing, prayers, counselling, befriending, financial assistance, etc etc...
And I'm so comforted and encouraged that Pope Francis gives us all a wonderful example. He shows us what being Church is, what community needs to do and be for one another - not to bend and twist, dilute or disregard moral truths to suit our circumstances and likings, and to make life easier and more convenient for us, but to extend the love of Christ to one another; to BE Christ to one another. That in the brokenness of our world and our lives, we remain with one another in truth, in solidarity.
Here's one example of Pope Francis giving Jesus to this broken world, one person at a time.
Praise and glory to God, from Whom all blessings flow.
Are there moral truths that you struggle with? Let us bring these to God in prayer, asking Him to shed His light of truth on these moral truths in our hearts.
Pope Francis Calls Rape Victim Alejandra Pereyra In Argentina To Offer Words Of Comfort
Posted: 08/29/2013 7:06 am EDT | Updated: 08/29/2013 3:38 pm EDT
Alejandra Pereyra was knitting at her home when she received a phone call from a stranger who knew her name. When she identified herself, he said, "It's Pope Francis."
Pereyra recounted the experience on Argentinean television, and after she picked up the phone, "I started crying. With an angelic voice, he told me to be calm and that he was calling because he had read my letter and my story struck him."
Pereyra wrote to Pope Francis in mid-August, recounting her tragic story. The mother of six said after months of police harassment, she was raped at gunpoint inside an officer's car.
The Pope called her at 3:50 local time on Sunday, August 25, and "when I heard the Pope's voice I felt like being touched by God," Pereyra said. Though her assailant has yet to be brought to justice, she said after her conversation with the Pope that, "He restored faith and peace in me and gave me strength to carry on fighting."
This isn't Pope Francis' first personal telephone call, and it appears to be far from his last, as Catholic News Service reported that he met today with the director of the Vatican telephone service.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/pope-francis-calls-rape-victim-alejandra-pereyra_n_3831500.html
