The Deadly Spiral of Choice
It was a talk on Confession (still available through EWTN) to a women’s group in the mid-1970s. Over fifty years of hearing the dreadful sins of penitents in the confessional had made Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen into a prophet:
“Just think, my dear ladies, of how many mentally disturbed women we are going to have in the United States in the next 10 or 15 years when the guilt of abortion begins to attack the mind and soul. For the present they justify it on the grounds that everyone is doing it and it’s only scar tissue anyway.
“As one doctor said to a girl who came in and [told him], ‘Well, it’s only little scar tissue.’….
“‘What did you intend to call the scar tissue?’
“So in years from now the guilt will come out in a peculiar way, though at present there may not be any.”
In a peculiar way. This talk was given in the mid-1970s; abortion had been legalized across the land in 1973 and there was still public discussion about limiting the depravity of slaying one’s own children.
But he had seen the evil building before the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled. The screaming women with unkempt hair taking over the streets, yelling out their demands for equal rights; the bra-burners who said men controlled them, even their wardrobes as they set fire to undergarments; women demanded total control, especially of their bodies through birth control and abortion because to them that was a sign of freedom from a subservience to men.
With the sexual revolution enveloping the country like a destructive hurricane, these protesters had drunk the wine of pleasure and given themselves to the god of choice. As they saw it, no “product of conception” should be allowed to interfere with their unfettered lives, married or unmarried.
In 1980, in a talk on the Sacraments, Fr. John Hardon, SJ, addressed this issue:
“Abortion: even if I’d like to think that at least some people are not fully guilty of the crime of abortion, the effects on the mother, on those who conspired to perform the abortion – those effects take place: a sense of guilt, a psychological trauma, the harm to society in our United States, the breakdown of respect for authority…. One reason that some people commit crime is because they see the authority committing crime. You cannot legalize abortion and expect the people to maintain the same respect for authority. So all those disastrous effects follow.”
— (Theology for the Laity: The Sacraments – Series 168, Talk 26; Sept. 1980 – Apr. 1981)
One evil leads to others in this mindset. There is no peace, no satisfaction, because evil is an unending obsession. And now, over fifty years later, what has been accomplished for the good of society? What respect is there for one another?
The strength of the devil is in the fact no one believes he and his minions exist – that’s just for the movies and grisly thriller books. Evil masquerading as good can easily overcome unwitting human minds one step at a time, or is it one sin at a time?
Think about it and how degraded life has become as vulgarity in conversation and actions among people abounds, sliding into political campaigns and even the halls of Congress; the lack of respect towards authority if one disagrees with law and order, or particular laws which create order – the violent protests around ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) actions are one stark example. The “No Kings” rallies, women protesters strangely reminiscent of the equal rights screamers, is another. Civility is absent. Then consider the people on social media – X, Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, et al. – who advocate evil, assassination, and mayhem. The lack of respect for authority reaches into every crevice of society, into classrooms, jobs, into homes, and even in churches.
It’s as if, when Michael challenged Lucifer in the heavenly battle and asked, “Who is like God?” man, when he stepped into existence, answered, “Me.”
You don’t need to read Malachi Martin’s book, Hostage to the Devil, to see how this works.
Why was Charlie Kirk shot dead last year? Was it a whisper of evil onto a mind already tuned in?
Why did the gunman at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis shoot into sacred space and destroy children’s lives?
Why did Maura Healey of Massachusetts sign a law allowing abortion of living unborn children until the moment of birth? And don’t forget her in-your-face announcement that she is a Catholic.
Why would Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey promote a law outlawing so-called intimidation at abortion clinics – a law which could conceivably be interpreted to ban prayer at clinics?
Choices made, death delivered. Evil is surrounding us. Are we on a continuous treadmill with no feel-good moment at the end, only souls writhing in the agony of choices made?
It is true what Fr. Hardon said, “One reason that some people commit crime is because they see the authority committing crime. You cannot legalize abortion and expect the people to maintain the same respect for authority. So all those disastrous effects follow.” And they continue to follow, one after another, piling up and obstructing the way to Heaven.
Is there a way to avoid this descent into hell?
Prayer, fasting, penance – do people believe in that anymore? Many parishes are returning to praying to St. Michael the Archangel after Masses. And at Fatima, Our Lady asked for the Rosary to be prayed for peace, surely in the world and in our hearts. When has that been broadcast from the pulpits? The Mother of the Divine asked us to pray the Rosary and there is silence on many fronts.
There is another action which could be taken. During the months of covid, some prelates stood on the steps of their cathedrals and with the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance, blessed those in the streets and buildings of their realm; they begged divine intervention and deliverance from the scourge of the virus which closed churches and schools and businesses. In other places, priests were assigned to this holy call for divine assistance.
However, in one diocese, a priest so assigned, said prayers of exorcism. Perhaps he was on to something. Perhaps he saw with the vision of Fulton Sheen and John Hardon where the snares of the devil would lead us.
Perhaps it is time for prelates and priests to follow his example, leave their offices and stacks of paperwork and take the Sacrament to the steps of the house of God and echo the words of Jesus Christ:
“Get thee behind Me, Satan!”
This article, The Deadly Spiral of Choice is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/the-deadly-spiral-of-choice/
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