It is a story which diminishes the human characteristics, the image of God within us. It elevates animal appetites like sexual desires over Christian virtues like committed, faithful marriage. It replaces the desire for truth with the mere concern for relevance. It destroys our capacity to plan. It turns virtue into technique and so we have the professionalization of charity.
Individual desire is elevated over any idea of public good.
Abortion and post abortion syndrome must be understood as merely part of this process, the logical consequences of the loss of the Christian story so that, although we must continue to protect, we must also start to educate. Our children must learn the stories again. The dining room table must be released from the thrall of television so that the stories may be told. Television should be banished from our houses and replaced with books. John Patrick, M.B., B.S., M.R.C.P., M.D., is a professor of Biochemistry and Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa, Canada.