Fr. Charlie Goraieb, pastor of St. Timothy Parish in Mesa, addressed the ongoing criminal trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who is on charged with murdering seven babies and one mother.
Gosnell, who cut newborns’ spinal cords to kill them, face the death penalty. His clinic, dubbed the “House of Horrors,” was closed after a 2010 raid. The mother died from an overdose of pre-abortion drugs.
“This case illuminates the bizarre pro-abortion politics in our country,” Fr. Goraieb wrote in the April 14 parish bulletin. “Most major media outlets have ignored this news or have made attempts to explain it away.”
The government-run Women’s Medical Society at 38th Street and Lancaster Avenue in Philadelphia has gone without inspection for years. Pennsylvania does not allow abortions after 24 weeks.
“What is particularly disturbing for me is the way this case shows how far down the slippery slope society has fallen,” Fr. Goraieb wrote. “Gosnell and nine members of his staff are being charged with murder — infanticide to be more precise — because these children were born alive before he cut their spinal cords. But the distinction between the killing of a child while still in utero and killing that child as soon as it is born is simply a legal fiction.”
While it is good that Gosnell is being charged with such atrocities, “just how does killing these newly-born children really differ from killing an unborn?” Fr. Goraieb encouraged parishioners to ask pray for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe “for all of the unborn and for their mothers.”
The Catholic Church teaches that human life must be protected and respected absolutely from the moment of conception (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2270).
“God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes” (Gaudium et Spes, 51 §3).
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said in a 2011 statement: “The repeated actions of Dr. Gosnell and his staff were abhorrent and intrinsically evil in their disregard for the lives of the unborn and the welfare of the women who sought their services. The charges filed by the District Attorney’s Office today bear witness to these facts.”
RELATED: Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortionist, on trial for murder
