Dear Editor: After reading the comments of Mary Geraghty (May 26 ), it seems that being a prophet today has changed from the past. Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable seems to mean seeking and preserving the good opinion of modern group think liberals.
Leaving abortion off the list of contemporary prophetic duties, certainly comforts those liberals who, despite continuous chest thumping pretentions to a moral high ground, might have to suffer being afflicted by having to face the reality of having been involved in upholding the greatest evil in history, among others.
In one of history’s saddest events, Ireland’s recent rejection of the humanity of unwanted babies, big moneyed liberals purchased votes, suppressed the free speech activities of pro-lifers, including hiring thugs to physically disrupt their peaceful demonstrations, and for the referendum day, rented and provided “safe zones,” complete with milk and cookies, where young pro-abortion voters could overcome their potential hysteria and trauma from the stresses of having to contemplate the very possibility of an Ireland where the killing of unwanted babies would not be so convenient. Liberals can be so burdened and afflicted by a nagging conscience. What’s a meet-them-where-they-are modern prophet to do? Maybe bake “welcoming cookies” for pro-aborts?
Geraghty mentions some of the usual distinction-free liberal talking points. Immigration that doesn’t differentiate between innocent seekers and criminal invaders might seem like we are reminded to exercise Christian love for criminals too, but it remains a mystery why modern prophesy can’t acknowledge comforting the real victims of criminal invaders like sex slaves, drug addicts, murdered border patrol agents, and other immigrants who are also murdered by the invaders.
It is commendably true, however, that Geraghty’s thoughtful points describe how the nature of Catholic witness in the modern world involves personal action, an understanding notably fostered by Catholic luminaries like Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, and personalist Catholic philosophers like Henri Bergson and Jacques Maritain.
DWAYNE AYERS
Hollis