Statement from Bishop Joseph E Strickland on the UK House of Commons Vote to Permit Abortion Up to Birth
With sorrowful indignation, I condemn the vote by the UK House of Commons to permit abortion up to the moment of birth—a decision so barbaric, so devoid of conscience, that it defies the very notion of civilization.
This is not legislation—it is legalized slaughter. It is the cold, calculated permission to tear innocent children from their mothers’ wombs at the threshold of life. What kind of nation, what kind of people, look upon a fully formed child and call her disposable? What kind of parliament declares open season on the most vulnerable and calls it “choice”?
Let us be absolutely clear: this is murder. Euphemisms cannot cleanse this evil. The vote in Westminster is a grave offense against Almighty God, a moral descent into depravity, and a sign of a society that has lost its soul.
Saint John Paul II warned us:
“The acceptance of abortion in the popular mind, in behavior and even in law itself, is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil.”
(Evangelium Vitae, no. 58)
And the prophet Isaiah cries out again in our day:
“Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness … that justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him.” (Isaiah 5:20, 23)
To the faithful in the UK: you must resist this with every spiritual and moral force at your disposal. To be silent now is to be complicit. To the priests and bishops: you must preach, you must act, you must protect the little ones! No excuse, no delay.
The measure of a nation is not its wealth, but its mercy. And a nation that slaughters its unborn on the altar of convenience has chosen death.
May God have mercy on the United Kingdom. May the Blood of these innocents cry out to Heaven—and may the faithful never cease to defend them, until this darkness is cast down.
Bishop Joseph E. Strickland
Dear Bishop Strickland,
Thank you! Thank you for saying clearly what needs to be said! I watched as Katherine Bennett of Catholic Unscripted stood outside Parliament speaking against what was about to happen. She asked all her viewers- in England, in India, in the United States- to pray. The vote is horrifying.
I want to tell the people of England: SPEAK UP! Write to the individual members of the House of Commons. Pray for them. Send them the essay, "Abortion," by Richard Selzer. Send them the speech, "We Shall not Weary, We Shall not Rest," by Richard John Neuhaus. Send them photos of what they have voted to allow, and dare them to be present at an actual late-term abortion.
Do not let this issue become an abstraction. The baby is flesh and blood- and so are the Members of Parliament.
God bless you, Bishop Strickland!
They are bent on self annihilation. May God have mercy on the people who supported that Luciferian measure.