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Father Guillaume Loddé's Sermon On Abortion

Father Guillaume Loddé

Here is the sermon [Sermon de l'abbé Loddé sur l'avortement] made by Fr. Guillaume Loddé in the Saint-Zéphirin-de-Stadacona church, Sunday June 27, 2010.

Dear faithful,

Cardinal Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec, was complaining a few weeks ago of the lack of support from his priests during the great media storm. In order to answer this expectation, I would like to broach a sensitive topic. Sensitive for the media, not for Catholics, at least I hope so, since the Church's doctrine has never varied on that subject: abortion. Just as much as we can say that on certain points, the Church's teachings has sometimes been a bit played down, very played down, we can also observe that on abortion, recent Popes like Paul VI, John Paul II and now Benedict XVI have not given up any ground!

The reason is quite simple: whether we are Catholics or not, the Natural Law written in our hearts formally forbids to kill an innocent, especially a child. Even hidden in his mother's womb, the child remains a being fully distinct from his mother's body. Moreover he eats, he moves, he grows: he has a true particuliar life. Our great intellectuals want to make us believe that the embryo is not a human being! Excessive thinking has cut them off from reality, as it were. Even the farmer in his field knows full well that what is hidden in his spouse's belly will not become a calf or a plant, but a human being. We too, before being 5 feet, 6 feet tall, we were as small as a pin head! And if, God forbid, our dear mothers had listened to the lies of modern society, we wouldn't be here to listen to Mass.

"Abortion is an abominable crime"! I'm not making this up, I'm just quoting... the Vatican II Council. In this difficult debate, the Church doesn't turn away from these unfortunate women. But the Church has always defended the weakest, and in this case it's the child that is killed. The Church certainly wages war against modern society which wants to trivialize such an act. Anyway, all those who encourage abortion, from the Members of Parliament who vote for it, up to the parents who insist, to the physicians who do it... and even up to the priests who sadly sometimes advise it, all are touched by the most severe of the Church's spiritual penalties: automatic excommunication! The Code of Canon Law which governs the Church says so explicitely!

So what does the Church do for these unfortunate young women pressured into committing such an act? The first thing She does is to warn them: killing your child is serious! For a mother who's body and nature are made to give life, the post-abortion trauma is very real. The truth will set you free, says the holy Gospel, and in these matters even more so. Moreover, the Church has set up associations to help these young women, to help them materially, morally, spiritually, so they may welcome their child like a beautiful gift from Heaven... and adoption by another family is always a solution, less bad than the first. We all have in mind the image of Saint Vincent de Paul who would receive babies at the doorstep of his church before entrusting them.

Such is the Church's postion; it has never changed and will never change. The principle "Thou shalt not kill" applies more than ever in this matter. Even if society is becoming more and more barbaric, Catholics cannot keep quiet before such an serious subject. And Cardinal Ouellet is finally only doing his duty, duty which he accepted when receiving the red habit, red like martyrdom.

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