November 5, 2004

Thirty-five years ago, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen warned of a slow, steady moral erosion in America, comparing America’s moral condition to a frog in a pot of lukewarm water. Unlike a frog put into boiling water, this frog will not jump out even if the heat is raised very slightly each day until he cooks to death. Little did Bishop Sheen’s audience suspect then that, in only four years, existing abortion laws in all 50 states would suddenly disappear, costing the lives of 43 million unborn children over the next 35 years. A host of other legal changes would soon follow, erasing many other moral and spiritual re-enforcements in law that people thought would never change.

No President or member of Congress campaigned to introduce unlimited abortions or the other moral erosion. All these changes came when Supreme Court Justices appointed by Presidents read their particular philosophy of life into the Constitution. Similar misuse of Supreme Court power happened at other times in our history with disastrous results. For example, a majority of Justices helped spark the Civil War by imposing their pro-slavery philosophy on all states in the infamous Dred Scott decision. Also, half a century later, another Court majority said that people have no right to restrict child labor and the other workplace abuses; a later Court majority overturned this, despite the prior majority’s claim that the Constitution required their decisions. As with legalized abortion, the Constitution never said anything of the kind!

Today, 48% of American Catholics still vote for politicians who perpetuate moral evils. Like some of you perhaps, my own voting patterns once did so, even though, as former NJ Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights, law school professor and author of a guide for women’s rights for the principal women voters’ organization in America, I considered myself to be pro-life. Much still must be done: without a few more pro-life US Senators, good Presidential nominees to the Court can still be blocked. Yet such goals, no matter how adeptly executed, will fail unless we truly depend on the Lord. Let us turn to Him now in prayer and fasting.

Br. Thomas More Noble, CFR
Residing at St. Felix Friary in Yonkers
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