The following are the remarks Father Frank Pavone gave to tens of thousands of pro-life advocates at the Walk for Life West Coast:
Thank you, Dolores and Eva! I have been coming to this walk from just about the beginning, and will continue coming with you each year until the end, and the end will be victory!
I bring greetings from Janet Morana, Executive Director of Priests for Life and co-founder of Silent No More. You see her on EWTN. I bring greetings from our other fulltime Priests for Life ministry leaders Bryan Kemper of our Youth Outreach, here today, Marie Smith, wife of Cong. Chris Smith, Dr. Theresa and Kevin Burke, founders of Rachel’s Vineyard, Fr. Denis Wilde and Evangelist Alveda King, along with the other 45 fulltime members of our team!
We are here today to raise our voices about abortion!
You know, when we talk about it in the Churches, we’re told we’re too political
When we talk about it in politics, we’re told we’re too religious
In the media, it’s too disturbing
In business, it’s too distracting
In education, it’s too controversial
In the streets, it’s too disruptive.
So if abortion is wrong, where do we go to say so?
We go into the Churches, we go into politics, into the media, into business, into education, and into the streets!
And today I want to focus on bringing it into politics.
It’s an election year, and if God’s people vote pro-life, then one year from today, we could see Planned Parenthood completely de-funded.
We can see the Supreme Court more solidly pro-life than it is now
we can see babies in the womb fully protected from dismemberment abortion and from other painful late-term abortion procedures
ONE YEAR FROM TODAY.
But that is only if we elect public servants who can tell the difference between serving the public and killing the public
and those who can’t DO NOT BELONG IN PUBLIC OFFICE!
In 2020, the momentum is on our side, and never has the political divide been wider.
We have the most pro-life President in American history.
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And we have the most extreme pro-abortion political opponents in our history.
Jeremiah 18 says we are like the clay in the potter’s hand, but that he, the potter, will take his cue from us as to how he will shape us. If we do good, he will relent in punishing. If we persist in evil, he will relent in blessing.
We get the public officials we deserve.
And there’s nothing more basic to the virtue they need to have than realizing that you NEVER kill a baby.
If a politician can’t respect the life of a little baby, how can he or she respect yours?
NOTHING is more basic than this; that is why the US bishops and the Pope recently reaffirmed that among all the issues that are important, abortion is pre-eminent.
First of all, nothing takes more life.
Second, no victims are more defenseless.
And third, no right is more fundamental than life. Take away a baby’s life, and you’ve taken away her education, health care, voting rights, and right to immigrate.
The debate in this election cannot be about personalities, or whether we like somebody, or what we think about their private virtues or vices.
It is not about what we personally like. It is about the COMMON GOOD.
It is not about private virtue, it is about PUBLIC VIRTUE.
What virtue, or vice, will they write into the law and into the courts?
Where will THEIR ACTIONS TODAY lead our country tomorrow; how will their decisions now will impact our children, our grandchildren, and theirs?
Look at the Supreme Court. There are five conservative judges and four left-wing extremists. The two oldest on the Court are of the leftist wing. Justice Breyer is 81; and in a few weeks, Justice Ginsburg turns 87.
With a pro-life President and Senate to replace them, we could have, in a very short time, a Supreme Court with a pro-life majority of 7 to 2!
But without a successful 2020 election, it is absolutely impossible.
The President and Senate have placed 185 federal judges, and counting, on the other courts, who will serve lifetime terms!
Don’t let anyone tell you we have not made progress. Your pro-life votes in the past have paid off. Billions of dollars have been diverted from the abortion industry. Freedom of conscience has more protection than ever, much of the research using aborted babies has been stopped, Congress has been urged to end late-term abortion, and we have an Administration that, along with saying Merry Christmas, says clearly that ripping babies from the womb is not OK.
More progress is needed, but it’s not because those we elected aren’t doing their jobs. It’s because we need more of them.
Remember because of how the US Senate works, we need not just a majority of pro-life votes, but 60. We would have defunded Planned Parenthood already, and passed numerous other pro-life laws, if we had about 7 more reliable pro-life votes.
Pro-life progress in the law happens when we have a pro-life President, a pro-life House, and 60 pro-life votes in the Senate. It’s as simple as that.
We started the job in 2016; let’s finish it in 2020.
If pro abortion forces win, not only will abortion continue, but we will be forced to support it. Not only will Planned Parenthood be funded; it will become an agency of the federal government.
We will not let this happen – and to stop it, we must vote, and vote pro-life.
So many elections are won by just a few percentage points. Gallup found last year that 29 % of voters only choose candidates that agree with their position on abortion. And pro-life voters win among that group by a nine-point margin! Pro-life is a winning issue!
Elections are a numbers game; So today we have a Voter Registration table at the Info Faire. Register to vote. Remember, you may have to update your registration if you’ve moved, or had a name change. ProLifeVoterRegistration.com is a special site we have set up. And all of your pro-life events this year should have voter registration!
What is at stake in 2020 is bigger than we all realize.
The unborn are on the line; America is on the line; Western Civilization is on the line.
This is not just a choice; it’s a war. And only one side will win.
We will end up either with
Mob rule or the rule of law
Collectivism or individual rights
Socialism or capitalism
Strengthening bureaucracy or strengthening the family
A culture of death or a culture of life.
Our pro-life movement and our Church must throw aside the fear of being politically involved and politically vocal.
Our concern must not be that we avoid division; but that we stand on the right side of that division.
Our concern must not be that our Church or our movement is being too political, but that our politics have become too pagan,
We must rise up, speak up, and take hold once again of the reins of leadership, which do not belong to corrupt politicians, but to We the People.
I invite you all to pray with me now, and to say this prayer each day. You can find it in English and Spanish at ElectionPrayer.com. Churches, organizations, families, please use this prayer to prepare for the election. The cards have been handed out; let us now pray it together.
O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord,
Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments.
We thank you for the privilege
Of being able to organize ourselves politically
And of knowing that political loyalty
Does not have to mean disloyalty to you.
We thank you for your law,
Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged
And recognized as higher than any human law.
We thank you for the opportunity that this election year puts before us,
To exercise our solemn duty not only to vote,
But to influence countless others to vote,
And to vote correctly.
Lord, we pray that your people may be awakened.
Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation,
Their response to you requires that they be politically active.
Awaken your people to know that they are not called to be a sect fleeing the world
But rather a community of faith renewing the world.
Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to you in prayer
Are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth;
That the same eyes that read your Word
Are the eyes that read the names on the ballot,
And that they do not cease to be Christians
When they enter the voting booth.
Awaken your people to a commitment to justice
To the sanctity of marriage and the family,
To the dignity of each individual human life,
And to the truth that human rights begin when human lives begin,
And not one moment later.
Lord, we rejoice today
That we are citizens of your kingdom.
May that make us all the more committed
To being faithful citizens on earth.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
