Pro-Life Wisconsin Banquet
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, Human Life International
September 30, 2005


Dear Friends:

I am happy to be here with you fellow “right-wing extremists,” all hated by NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin! I must confess that when they called me an “anti-freedom, anti-sex education extremist” in their press release a few weeks back I never felt so worthy! My favorite slam though was a few years ago when a newspaper in Florida didn’t know what to call me they labeled me an “anti-choice volunteer”! They didn’t realize that I’m not a volunteer—this is my calling—and I will do it until the Lord takes my last pro-life breath or until NARAL takes the last ounce of my pro-life blood for these babies! I’m sure all of us feel the same way.

Now, I have a lot to talk about and very few minutes in which to say it, so I will get right to it!

The ‘Specter’ of abortion stares us in the face
A few days ago the whole world witnessed a very powerful member of the U.S. Senate stand up in front of a candidate for the highest judicial office of our land and show him a very large, television-friendly, chart listing the 38 judicial re-affirmations of the most wicked Supreme Court decision ever to be handed down. His purpose was essentially to taunt and intimidate the candidate by boasting to him how strong the fortress is protecting that alleged “right” to kill babies. In doing so, Mr. Specter typified the arrogance and brutality of the abortion masters who conquered the judiciary three decades ago and refuse to yield an inch of ground. Specter was in effect saying to Judge Roberts: “I dare you to challenge this. Look at this impenetrable fortress that we have built block by block for the past 32 years. We will not surrender it willingly.”

The irony of this whole matter is that, while they are reaffirming that totally illegitimate decision, our judicial system is tearing the Ten Commandments out of public buildings and declaring the Pledge of Allegiance to be unconstitutional. In other words, in place of law written in stone we are subject to the mockery of 38 sacred precedents written on a piece of foam board—and that is exactly how substantial these decisions are. What we are witnessing is not the attempt to compete with divine law, but to mock it, to supplant it, to exterminate it, just as an army commander will not be content to just conquer a territory but will also plant his flag and substitute his government for theirs, etc.

On the other hand I believe that Arlen Specter is essentially correct on his assessment of the strength of their position. Humanly speaking there is very little chance that we will tear down that fortress. I have hope for the future but no hope for a wise and dispassionate re-evaluation of Roe. While many servants of God abound in this country, nevertheless, I am afraid that we are too few to change the culture on our own and that we generally lack sufficient conviction, resources, manpower, popular support—or all of the above—to do anything but chip away at the foundation of this fortress. It’s not enough! Worse yet, it is entirely possible for our society to settle for an unholy accommodation with evil on matters about which we simply cannot compromise as Christians.

Furthermore, I do not believe that we want to tear down those walls as much as a great leader like Ronald Reagan wanted to tear down the Berlin Wall. To do so would mean literally tearing down much of our own lifestyles. All this evil is now woven into the fabric of modern society and to try to uproot it would be to do damage to the present state of affairs. Most Americans are just unwilling to do that. Sandra Day O’Connor was not exactly wrong when she told us in Casey that we Americans have actually built our lives around abortion and contraception and that it would place an “undue burden” on us to change it. (Sandra Day O’Connor herself was an “undue burden” and we’re glad to finally be rid of her. But I digress…)

We are more likely to just complain how bad the culture of death is as long as we can feel sufficiently indignant about it. We really do not want to put this “New World Order” back to God’s World Order because to do so would require too much change.

What do we do about this? We turn to God.

“The gates of hell shall not prevail”
It is of the nature of evil to build fortresses, to wall up evil practices far away from any accountability to God or man. Evil always attempts to shut man off from the influence of the good in order to steal that one thing that really matters to him: his soul. The demonic forces of the world, be they the abortion industry, the pornography industry, or any other organized evil, all attempt to isolate the soul from God by sin and thus to enslave it for all eternity. Let me illustrate:

Some time ago I was authorized to perform a solemn exorcism on a man who had at least 15 distinct demons in him. This was the result of close family members practicing the occult and targeting him for destruction. One demon told me in the exorcism that the family members had made a pact with the devil to betray this man’s soul so that they could become rich. Not ironically, they did sell this man’s soul to the devil but they not become rich because the devil is a liar.

In the course of one of the exorcisms a distinct voice and personality spoke out of the man and several times screamed in frustration: “Why did you have to come? We were making such progress building our walls around him and you have destroyed all our work!” Those demons were in complete disarray and despair that all their handiwork had been destroyed by one exorcism. I hated to tell them that the awesome firepower that came against them that day consisted of just three people: one little priest, a retired Episcopalian couple and the Church’s exorcism ritual that I had downloaded from the Internet the day before! The key to their demise however was much more profound than that: it was the holiness of that wonderful couple, the fasting, loads of prayer support, and the unstoppable power of the Church. Those demons were literally powerless against the onslaught of good that came against them dressed up in all its simplicity and obedience, and they eventually had to leave on orders of the Church. That man was completely freed of the power of evil by the Church united against it. He is now like the rest of us who take our souls in our hands each day by the decisions we make for or against God.

Ecclesia Militante
In any case, the purpose of the story is only to reiterate a basic truth that we have heard many times: “The gates of hell shall not prevail [against the Church.]” This is as true today as it was when Our Lord first uttered these words to St. Peter at Caeserea Philippi, if only we would listen and learn to live up to our vocation as the Church Militant.

It is not the Church that walls itself up and has its walls battered down during an assault. This is contrary to Scripture. The gates are the gates of hell and the Church is the prevailing force against those gates. The Church has the Lord’s promise of guidance by the Holy Spirit throughout history. But if the Church is actually to prevail against evil, the Church has to go out to the gates, it has to engage them in battle! This is what we still call the Church Militant engaging in spiritual warfare. (Keep in mind that nothing I say about spiritual warfare is to be interpreted as advocating violence in any form. Our work is strictly spiritual.)

The gates of hell can stand very tall and haughty like that proud Senator with his flimsy list of new immutable commandments standing before us and arrogating to himself the authority over life and death. Yes, the gates of hell are intimidating and strong at times, but if the Church were really to decide to exorcise that devil from our midst, there truly would be no contest whatsoever.

What I am saying is that the Church is the only institution that can actually defeat the culture of death and all its power because the Church is perfectly equipped for battle. It may not seem like that at times, but that is only because the immense power and authority of the Church is not sufficiently wielded. Show me a hundred organizations that are out there fighting the culture of death and I will show you only one that has the power to bind them all together into an unstoppable spiritual force. The Church Militant is the only source of real hope against a seemingly impenetrable fortress of evil. Here is what I mean:

The Battle of Jericho
At the end of Joshua Chapter 5, Joshua receives a visit from a powerful spiritual being dressed in battle garb who describes himself as the “Captain of the Host of the Lord.” Yes, it was St. Michael. The angelic “Host of the Lord” is represented by Michael as if they were going into battle with the Israelites. This is literally true whenever the Church engages in battle: the Church is not just the visible body of believers on earth but the Mystical Body of Christ encompassing heaven, purgatory and earth. It also includes those awesome spiritual beings, the angels, who assist us on our way to salvation and assist us in battle itself.

Joshua is then ordered to have the Israelites line up in a battle formation. Joshua is at the head as their leader, the “picked troops” are arranged as the front and rear guards since they are trained for battle and will be most equipped for direct engagement with the enemy, seven priests blowing rams horns come next, then more priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy of Holies, and finally the entire people of Israel falls in behind the Presence of the Lord carried by the priests. This lineup is not exactly your standard military formation since civilians and clerics are not usually on the front lines of a battle. However, in spiritual warfare, all are needed and all must be united. All go into battle. It was the union of the whole people of Israel in strict obedience to their commander and to God that made this battle formation strong against their enemy Jericho.

As we know from the story, Joshua ordered the people to walk in this formation around the city for six days in silence except for the blowing of the horns, and then on the seventh day they were to walk seven times around and then shout at Joshua’s command. No one, not even Joshua, knew at that point that their action would destroy the entire walled city. However, they knew that God was fighting for them and the key to their success was not their own power but their obedience to God and their union with their commander and each other. God did the rest and to Him belonged the glory of the victory.

As a side note, some years ago archeologists unearthed the skeletons of babies in ceramic jars several levels down in the ruins of Jericho. This was evidence that ritual child sacrifice was practiced in the City of Jericho, an utter abomination to the Lord. The Lord never remains neutral when His children are being mercilessly offered in demon worship.

Spiritual warfare in modern times
The New Testament Church Militant also defends the rights of God and man but can only be effective in spiritual warfare if we are united in obedience and unity as a people of God like the Israelites. We are bound up in the same desire of God to destroy the strongholds of evil that are such an abomination to Him.

It goes without saying that you are the “picked troops” in this modern Jericho story. You, pro-life men and women, are the ones who are prepared for the confrontation with evil, and this is not a task to be taken lightly. You are both the front guard engaging in direct conflict with the enemy and the rear guard staving off any assaults from behind. It is a vocation to be part of this corps of picked troops, and you must thank God for it every day. However, without a strong spiritual life you cannot engage in this battle. St. Paul says to the Ephesians that “we are not fighting against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers of darkness.” Spiritually immature people are not equipped for battle no matter how intelligent or talented they may be. No human being is more intelligent or talented than a fallen angel.

In addition to a strong spiritual life nurtured by the Sacraments, I exhort you to remain strictly faithful to the teachings of the Church in union of mind and heart whether or not anyone in your family or society approves. Joshua’s strength was his obedience, and the people’s strength was their cooperation with him. In just the same way it is impossible to win this battle without fidelity to the Church. We have not been promised the keys of the Kingdom. St. Peter has, and we must remain faithful to his teaching if we are to be successful in restoring God’s World Order.

The Priesthood is the Key
The priests of the Church have two functions in this scenario. The first is the blowing of horns and the second is the carrying of the Holy of Holies into battle. The people of Jericho heard that warning horn for six days and had a chance to repent of their evil and to get out of the city before its demise. The people of Israel heard the horns and assembled for battle. That is the function of preaching. We priests are to admonish the sinner and encourage the faithful and rally them for the battle. This is primarily done by gathering them around the Ark of the Covenant and preaching to them!

The Virgin Mary was often referred to by the Fathers of the Church under the title of “Ark of the Covenant.” It is small wonder that at pro-life rallies we always see large and beautiful images of the Virgin Mary as sort of the rallying point of the whole event.

You know and I know that the lack of leadership on the part of the clergy and hierarchy and the lack of authentic preaching of the Gospel of Life from our pulpits is the main (but not the only) reason why our Church is not assaulting the culture of death effectively. We are shorn of good spiritual leaders. When I was in parish ministry in Florida years ago, I remember looking in the Catholic Directory to find out how many priests were in ministry in the State. There were over a thousand. But of all those priests I could count on one, maybe two hands, the number of them who had ever led a prayer vigil, gone to counsel at an abortion mill or rallied the troops in any significant way against the 80,000+ abortions that were being committed every year, sometimes against their own parishioners.

We must pray regularly for a renewal of the heart of the clergy and hierarchy that they may blow the prophetic horn of the Gospel in our culture, that they may be personally holy and that they may give us authentic leadership in the spiritual battle. Our prayers will prevail if we do not cease to pray.

Undoubtedly the picked troops will take direction and inspiration from their priests, and the people of God will follow that leadership when it is given. A fortress of evil cannot be defeated by individual effort. It must be a communal effort just like the taking of Jericho, and the priests and bishops really are the key to that victory.

Is it possible in today’s day and age to gain a victory this large? Is it possible with the present state of the Church? Let me count the ways!

We not only have biblical stories describing the victory of the Church Militant, but we have historical evidence of it up to our own day. In 1571 the Saracens were defeated at Lepanto by a Jericho formation of the Church Militant. The Turks were turned back at the gates of Vienna in 1683 by a Jericho formation. The walls of the evil communist empire for all practical purposes were shattered by a Jericho formation that began in Gdansk, Poland under the leadership of a Polish Joshua who did more than anyone I know to sound the horns and rally the troops for battle. We certainly have hope for a Jericho formation today if we continue to pray and remain united with our Church. We must never stop. Hope is one of the Theological Virtues that can be described by the more common term of “perseverance in prayer.”

Conclusion
My dear friends and companions in the Church Militant, let us enter more deeply into the Mystery of Christ in this year dedicated to the Eucharist. Let us pray that God will raise up for us more Joshuas, more picked troops and more priests to blow the horns of salvation in our society. Let us invite the Holy Spirit into our lives and ask Him to bind us together as a Church so that the gates of hell will not prevail against our conscientious actions and so that we may transform this culture of death totally and completely into a culture that welcomes and protects all life at all times!

 

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