A Leak and an Earthquake

The whole country has been agitated by the publication of a leaked early draft, written by Justice Samuel Alito, concerning Roe v. Wade and the 1973 decision that found abortion to be a constitutional right. That draft, though certainly not final, points at least to a good possibility that the court will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, and return the question of abortion to the legislative branch of the government. For Catholics who have been fighting for the protection of the unborn for fifty years, this is very big news. But all parties should be clear about what such a decision, should it come about, would mean. Whatever one may think about the abortion issue itself, it has long been recognized even among many abortion advocates that Roe v. Wade was a seriously problematic bit of jurisprudence. Should Roe be overturned, it would not mean that abortion would no longer be legally available to Americans. It would mean that the questions surrounding the availability of abortion would be determined, not by the Supreme Court, but by elected legislative bodies.

Those who think abortion a serious moral wrong will not find their work ended. Those who favor a woman’s right to abortion will not find that they are silenced. But the argument will take place on a more even playing field. It is important to see that the court, should it overturn Roe v Wade, is not dogmatizing on the goodness or evil of the practice. It is rather undoing a serious judicial error by insisting that the question needs to be deliberated by the whole of the populace, rather than coerced by judicial fiat by a highly questionable court ruling.

Christians will be careful to view the question squarely in the light of eternal realities. The task of Christ’s disciples is to witness to the truth such that souls on trial can hear the voice of God and respond to it. We are not utopians trying to construct the perfect human society because we know that no society made up of fallen humans such as we are can never be perfect. Come what may, we will continue to speak and live the truth to the best of our abilities, and leave the consequences to an all-wise God. 

But however this plays out, we will be living through an earthquake in American social and political life.

The National Catholic Register presents a roundtable discussion on Justice Alito’s leaked opinion.

Kathryn Jean Lopez reflects on the joy of foster care and adoption: “Beyond politics, there is real joy.”

The ugliness that arises from our modern age’s tendency to “erase the sacred… dumbs down the imagination, softens the brain, and hardens the heart.” Francis X. Maier explains why we hunger for beauty.

What did G. K. Chesterton – whose writings have a “therapeutic effect on his readers’ common sense” – see in the Church?

In an age in which technology dominates our lives and reduces authentic human interaction, Samuel D. James offers helpful insights on how to maintain more humane practices.

Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver has written to the head of the German bishops’ conference, warning that their “Synodal Path” repudiates the deposit of faith.

Catholic physician and lay missionary Tom Catena is the only surgeon in the Nuba mountains, a contested region between Sudan and South Sudan with a population of one million. Each year, Dr. Catena performs thousands of surgeries and cares for tens of thousands of patients, offering many their first exposure to Christianity.

In South Sudan, a Catholic priest was among four people sentenced for the attempted assassination of Bishop Christian Carlassare.

While Pope Francis has said that he does not have plans to visit Ukraine, he has reached out to Vladimir Putin with the offer to meet with him in Moscow.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill’s recent denial that Russia attacked Ukraine – insisting rather that Russia merely defended its own borders – has put further strain on ecumenical relations between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox.