(This is taken from an article that I published in October, 2009 and it is also taken from the text of a talk that I delivered in March, 2010. It is more important than ever because back then we were beginning to see the corruption of a key pro-life movement leader: Frank Pavone. At the time, he was a Catholic priest but in a news report from Saturday, December 17, 2022, the Vatican defrocked him for a number of reasons not the least of which was reported that he committed blasphemy in numerous instances.
I met Pavone a number of times and he wrote the introduction to a book that I edited with Kevin Burke about men and abortion and entitled Redeeming a Father’s Heart: Men Share Powerful Stories of Abortion Loss and Recovery. On a personal note, he was polite and generally soft-spoken. I also found him to be a small man with dreams of being a big guy, and he was given to speaking and acting dramatically all as part of a carefully crafted public persona.
Nothing in this article is meant to demean the rank and file pro-lifers or to diminish their work. They are well-meaning, trusting, and hard-working. The problem is their leadership – like Pavone – who are corrupted by the Liberal Order and see the cause as a way to fame if not also fortune. With this kind of leadership, real change cannot occur in society and the pro-lifers will just be dealing with the symptoms of the problem while being used to fuel the ambitions of a few politicians. All the while – and with the pro-lifers’ well-intentioned involvement in the system — the plutocracy will keep their power and the system that denies Christ will exist and even prosper bringing disorder around the globe. The pro-lifers deserve new and better leadership — a leadership that will convert the plutocrats and work for effective, fundamental change in the form of establishing the Catholic Confessional State.)
PRO-LIFE LEADERS: KEEPING THE BONDAGE GOING
The leaders of the pro-life movement are working within the paradigm set up by Americanists. These leaders channel the fury people have at the very obvious injustice of abortion into activities that do not harm the political and social status quo in America but instead harms the Church. These leaders do not go to the root of abortion which are the foundational errors of America, and these leaders offer no other alternative consistent principle for social-economic-cultural-political organization. These leaders keep alive the fiction that America represents the best and greatest achievement of humanity and they ignore the apostasy that lies at the heart of it.
PAVONE
During the 2008 presidential election, a “prayer” was circulated by Fr. Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for Life. Here’s the prayer:
“Oh 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….”(Emphasis Added)
This prayer, sent to millions in the weeks leading up to the 2008 presidential election, is a political prayer. Its real meaning is understandable on two levels.
The first is loyalty to a political party (Republican). It is a not so subtle attempt to keep pro-lifers, and Catholics in particular, in line and loyal to the Republican Party. Abortion and same sex marriage have been the top political issues for Catholics, as well as white evangelicals, noted Jeff Diamant of Religion News Service. Bill Berkowitz in a September 23, 2007 article for Media Transparency noted that the GOP had spent years organizing and wooing the Catholic vote and used “allies” like Michael Novak, Deal Hudson, Fr. Richard Neuhaus, and Ralph McInerny to corral the Catholic voters for the Republican party.[1] However, loyalty to the abortion and same sex marriage issues, and the power of the “allies” seemed to wane amongst Catholics commencing with the 2006 election. Berkowitz noted that in 2000 Bush had received only 47 % of the Catholic vote but in 2004 he got about 52 % of the Catholics. By 2006, Catholics favored Democrats over Republicans by 55 % to 45 % thereby revealing a very troubling change in electoral dynamics for the GOP. Something had to be done.
During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Karl Rove encouraged Republican donors with strong pro-life positions to give money to the National Right to Life Committee as part of an effort to elect conservatives. The Washington Times in a September 1, 2008 piece noted that in response to these comments by Rove “the National Right to Life Committee…declined to comment.” The Republicans have given money to the National Right to Life Committee for many years, though. Cynthia Cooper, a correspondent for Women’s E News in an article posted March 18, 2003 quoted Deborah Goldberg, the acting Director of the Democracy Program of the Brennan Center for Justice in New York City as saying that “We know that the Republican Party gives money to the right to life groups.”[2] She cited to an affidavit filed in a Federal Court in October, 2002 by David N. O’Steen Executive Director of the National Right to Life Committee (“NRLC”) that stated the NRLC “has received donations from political parties or committees” and that “persons associated with political parties” assisted in the raising of funds for the NRLC.[3] The article proceeds to detail how a Congressional report released in 1998 by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on campaign finance showed that the Republican National Committee contributed $ 650,000 to the NRLC.[4] Additionally, GOP Representative Chris Shays gave $ 250,000 to the NRLC in 1999, and in 1994 the Republican Senatorial Committee contributed $ 175,000 to the NRLC.[5] A Los Angeles Times article by Ruth Marcus published October 23, 1997 documented how Deputy Finance Director Jo-Anne Coe and RNC chairman Haley Barbour “tapped big GOP donors to make large contributions to the outside groups” to include NRLC.[6] Marcus wrote that “Coe passed on checks for $ 100,000 each to the Right to Life Committee and Americans for Tax Reform from Carl Lindner of the American Financial Group, a major donor to both parties.”[7]
OpenSecrets.org calls itself the “Center for Responsible Politics” and it keeps records of contributions by various organizations to different candidates. It tallied the money given by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) to Democrats and Republicans for the 2006 and 2008 elections and found the following: In 2006, the NRLC gave $ 3,436,285 to Republican candidates and only $ 1,633 for Democrat candidates. In 2008, the NRLC funded GOP candidates to the tune of $ 2,607,048 and Democrat candidates only $ 38,876.[8]
Brian Rohrbaugh is the President of American Right to Life, and according to their website Rohrbaugh “became active in the fight to end our culture of death” after his son, Danny, was murdered at Columbine High School in 1999.[9] Rohrbaugh wrote a commentary piece entitled “The Legacy of Judas: National Right to Life” in which he excoriated the NRLC for opposing the efforts of South Dakota legislatures to conduct a referendum on a ban on abortions and opposing efforts in Colorado to grant personhood to the unborn. Rohrbaugh writes that while NRLC attorney James Bopp praised the Gonzalez v. Carhart decision by the United States Supreme Court banning partial birth abortions, scholars like Dr. Charles Rice of Notre Dame, and activists like Judie Brown of American Life League, and Fr. Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International, condemned the decision as not saving a single human life. Indeed, Rohrbaugh noted that Dr. Rice opined that “not one of the US Supreme Court justices, which includes those supported by NRLC, has ever affirmed personhood and the right to life for the unborn.”[10]
Second, the Pavone prayer is a celebration of America. It unites loving and serving God with loyalty to the State, its political processes, and the very political system that brought abortion. The prayer does not criticize the fundamental principles of the society, but seems to elevate them, and this is in keeping with the error of Americanism. Pope Leo XIII in the encyclical, Immortale Dei (“On the Christian Constitution of States”) (1885) taught: “every body politic must have a ruling authority, and this authority, no less than society itself, has its source in nature, and has, consequently, God for its Author. Hence, it follows that all public power must proceed from God. For God Alone is the true and supreme Lord of the world. Everything, without exception, must be subject to Him, and must serve Him so that whosoever holds the right to govern holds it from one sole and single source, namely, God, the sovereign Ruler of all.” (para. 3.) Pope Leo XIII also cited to Romans 13:1 in which St. Paul wrote “There is no power but from God.”
For a government of a country to be legitimate, the first principle is that there must be public recognition that its power comes from God. Closely and logically allied to this is that the government must also publicly accept the proper purpose of human life, it must assist citizens to achieve this ultimate purpose, and it must acknowledge and accept the proper role of the Roman Catholic Church. These factors are essential for establishing a sound societal foundation for the material, emotional, psychological, and spiritual health of the people, and these principles are required by God for any government to be morally legitimate. The United States has never officially recognized that its power comes from God, nor has it ever given pre-eminence to the Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Faith, which is the One, True Faith and Christ’s own Church. Instead, the Declaration of Independence holds that “Government’s are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” In other words, numbers are what matters, and those who can get the most numbers, can wield the most power and can rule. It is this error that logically leads to the legalization of abortion, euthanasia, and the culture of death because power, not truth, becomes the organizing and operative principle of the society and its political processes.
The United States and the society known as America did not come with instruction manuals or with a reliable, credible, and independent referee as did the countries of Europe. Europe had the Faith and the Church, but America had neither. And, without an agreed upon way to interpret the meaning of the foundational documents of the United States, each person reads into the Constitution what he or she wants. With religious liberty, or freedom, indifferentism (a heresy defined by Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos) takes over and the loss of faith in any religion results. A practical effect is that there is no unified view of the world by the inhabitants of the land. This is disunity in the most basic of things for a group of people, or country, spells trouble and it belies the “United” in “United States.” And so Americans had to make it up as they went along. Logically, the powerful would be presented with an unprecedented opportunity to control when one also considers that revolutionary ideas characterized the founding of the political entity. When the questions arose as to whether contraception or abortion are fundamental rights guaranteed by the fundamental law of the land – the Constitution – the deck was stacked against doing God’s will. The sexual revolution was bound to win with the beneficiaries of it all being the elites.
Pavone’s prayer is also a reflection of the soul of its promoter. “Fr. Frank” as he is known, is revered by most in the “pro-life” movement as the example of what a Catholic priest should be like. Some hang on to his every word, many consider him a great man, and hundreds will crowd into a room to just be near or catch a glimpse of the man. He garnered a number of awards and recognition early on in his career at Priests for Life to include being named among the Top 100 Catholics of the Century in 1999 and the National Right to Life Committee’s Proudly Pro-Life Award in 2001.[11] He traveled around the country and internationally, and he became a spokesman for the pro-life movement with regular appearances on the O’Reilly Factor, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, EWTN and more.[12] Regularly quoted in major newspapers, Pavone rose to be President of the National Pro-Life Religious Council.[13] And, he is credited with growing Priests for Life from a small organization staffed by unpaid volunteers to one having 40 full time employees and an extensive headquarters in Staten Island.[14]
A visit to the offices of Priests for Life several years ago showed just how appreciated Fr. Frank is. In the hallway around the building are photographs of him visiting or speaking with a number of people. One gets the sense, after having seen that and the website of Priests for Life, that an important part of the work of Priests for Life is to promote Fr. Frank Pavone.
“Fr. Frank” is undoubtedly a key leader of the pro-life movement, and so his soul is reflected in the movement, and his soul is a reflection of America. Though a priest, “Fr. Frank” could very well be a real American with dreams of personal glory. A biography of him by Daily Catholic allows us a glimpse into this man who as a teenager had written a personal letter to then “President Richard Nixon requesting the opportunity to go along on one of the space shuttles.”[15] He studied at the St. Joseph’s Theological Seminary beginning in 1984 and studied under the likes of the late Monsignor William Smith, Father Andrew Apostoli (an EWTN personality), Monsignor Eugene Clark (ultimately accused of sexual scandal with a secretary) and Father Benedict Groeschel (an EWTN personality).[16] Fr. Frank was ordained a priest by Cardinal John O’Connor who appointed him national director of Priests for Life, and who, from all indications, was supportive of Fr. Frank’s pro-life work.[17]
Just days before 9/11, Greg Cunningham, President of the Center for Biothecal Research and an advisor to Pavone’s Priests for Life, told the author of this article that there was an effort afoot to remove Fr. Pavone from Priests for Life.[18] What he did not say is that Pavone’s superior, Cardinal Edward Egan, exercising his episcopal powers granted him by the Roman Catholic Church, was ordering Pavone, who was bound by a vow of obedience, to “resume full-time work within the Archdiocese of New York and leave his present position with Priests for Life.”[19] According to the Priests for Life Press Release and a posting on Free Republic, “The reason for the decision is the need for parish priests in New York, and is consistent with similar decisions of the Cardinal to call back many other New York priests who are on a special assignment.”[20]
Anthony DeStefano, the Executive Director of Priests for Life, and a long-time associate of Pavone, stated “We are shocked at what has happened and frankly can’t make heads or tails of it.”[21] DeStefano, who according to the latest Priests for Life Form 990 filed in November, 2008, makes about $ 199,000 per year, went on to say that Pavone had transferred the leadership of Priests for Life to DeStefano in September, 2001 but that Pavone was “continuing to negotiate with the Cardinal through all proper channels”.[22] (emphasis added) From these and other indications, Pavone did not readily comply with the Cardinal’s order. A review of the biography of Fr. Pavone of the Priests for Life website reveals the following comment: “In 1993, with the permission of Cardinal OConnor [sic], he became the National Director of Priests for Life.”[23] There is no mention that he stepped down in 2001 pursuant to Cardinal Egan’s direction, and so one is left to conclude that he has remained the leader of Priests for Life without interruption since 1993.
A number of reports from the Autumn of 2001 indicate some sort of negotiation was ongoing between Pavone and the Archdiocese. A press release from the Institute for Democracy Studies dated November 9, 2001 quoted from a letter Pavone wrote to New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman in which Pavone said “if in fact I am in a different assignment….then I will be free of the restrictions that sometimes accompany such a position of leadership, and more capable of doing various types of pro-life activism. This, of course, includes political activity.”[24] A story published by Life Site News.com on November 29, 2001 quoted Pavone as saying in a talk to Civitas Dei, a Catholic business group in Indianapolis, Indiana, that “his parish assignment in the diocese of New York `will be compatible’ with continuing his `pro-life leadership’”.[25] On December 14, 2001, Pro-Life Infonet released a story entitled “Father Frank Pavone Will Continute [sic] Pro-Life Work”, in which Fr. Pavone is quoted as saying that Cardinal Egan had assigned him to “assist the pastor of a small parish near the Priests for Life headquarters.”[26] This would allow him to continue Pavone’s “pro-life work, both with Priests for Life and with the many other pro-life projects in which he is involved nationwide.”[27]
Pavone, who had been incardinated in the Archdiocese of New York in 1988, was re-incardinated into the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas. Bishop Yanta of Amarillo, listed as an episcopal advisor of Priests for Life since 1998, allowed Pavone to become one of his diocesan priests in 2004. It was shortly thereafter, in March, 2005, that Fr. Pavone announced that Bishop Yanta granted Pavone permission to establish a new community of priests “permanently dedicated to full time pro-life work”[28] and to be named the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life. This was quite a grand scheme, and a different one too, when compared with the stated purpose or mission of Priests for Life which is to “help priests around the world spread the Gospel of Life to their people” and to “unite and encourage all clergy to live special emphasis to the life issues in their ministry.”[29]
As part of the establishment of a new community of priests dedicated to advancing one teaching of the Church, the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life broke ground in August, 2006 on an $ 11 million dollar “gothic seminary” that would be the start of a large campus in Amarillo. According to an Amarillo Globe-News article of February 25, 2007 by Karen Smith Welch, Pavone planned to spend $ 70 million to $ 130 million in building the complex on 60 acres east of St. Laurence Cathedral.[30] Welch documented how politically active Pavone had been in the pro-life movement to include attending a Christmas Party in 2006 at the White House where he thanked President Bush “for his stand on behalf of unborn children.”[31] Additionally, in January, 2007, Pavone personally endorsed Sam Brownback for president and served in a “personal capacity” on Brownback’s campaign committee.[32]
By September, 2008, plans for the complex and for the Missionaries were scrapped. Pavone threw out the idea of a separate apostolic and priestly society within a few short years of conceiving the idea. According to The Washington Post on September 27, 2008, the religious community was “diverting attention and resources from his primary goal: ending abortion.”[33] The Catholic Key, the diocesan newspaper for the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, reported that Pavone had “decided not to seek church recognition as a society of apostolic life that would accept and ordain its own seminarians.” Instead, in a joint communiqué from Priests for Life and the Diocese of Amarillo, the Missionaries and Priests for Life would be one entity, and the nine studying at Pavone’s headquarters would be sent home. Pavone wrote in a commentary for the National Catholic Register posted on September 23, 2008 that “Forming a community and training men for ordination is a long-term process, and there is an inherent urgency to the mission of defending the unborn and vulnerable, and that goal is within reach now.”(emphasis in original)[34] He described how Priests for Life “has met with significant success within the bounds of its current structure, activities and assets” and that “Priests for Life makes extensive use of media, therefore making a specific geographical locale less necessary.”[35] And, he compared the pro-life movement to “the abolitionist movement and the civil rights movement.”[36] Certainly, neither St. Francis, nor St. Dominic, nor St. Ignatius Loyola quit the plans for creating their respective religious communities to engage in social and political activism.
Pavone is not the only Catholic pro-life leader who seems to have a yearning for the spotlight. Randall Terry came to Notre Dame in the Spring of 2009 to protest the Obama invitation and award, and he publicly denounced Bishop John D’Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend for asking the Faithful on April 11 “to stay away from unseemly and unhelpful demonstrations against our nation’s President or Notre Dame or Father John I. Jenkins, C.S.C…” In an editorial published April 14 in Fort Wayne’s Journal Gazette, Terry wrote “D’Arcy has stepped far beyond his canonical authority by urging the faithful to abandon the babies – and thereby abandon Christ – and to honor Obama and Jenkins with our silent cooperation. We do not deny D’Arcy’s right to question certain tactics, but he has gone far beyond that. He has asked us to commit the sins of omission and silence. Respectfully, we will not.”[37]
Terry’s attack on the Bishop is evidence of a revolutionary spirit. Bryan Brown, an attorney and former activist who participated in the Terry led Operation Rescue efforts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, described Terry in a posting on the website for ArchAngel Institute. Brown recounted how Terry ran from the Federal Judge in Wichita, Kansas who had ordered Terry’s arrest, along with the arrest of other leaders of Operation Rescue. Terry, according to World Magazine abandoned his wife, Cindy, and their minor children for a younger woman – his secretary/babysitter.[38] These accounts can only lead one to conclude that Terry is always the revolutionary who, like others, has found a home in the secular endeavor known as the pro-life movement.
Disordered souls will spread disorder and so cannot be expected to effect lasting, fundamental, and positive change. These souls will keep the status quo of America. The day after the disastrous 2008 election, Pavone hosted a telephone/internet conference (which this author attended on line) to discuss the state of the pro-life movement. It was a polite call. There was no name-calling, no finger-pointing, no trying to figure out why the pro-life banner went down in defeat – along with the Republican banner. There were no questions about the apparently indissoluble union of the “pro-life” cause with the Republican Party. What was discussed was a Plan to End Abortion. The plan was light on euthanasia, the growing, silent killer given the closely intertwined demographic and economic collapse. Instead, the Plan seemed mostly to be a re-iteration of the same failed mantra for stopping abortion: education, finding alternatives to abortion, and, oh yes, getting ready for the next round of elections.
[1] “Neocon Catholic leaders nurtured by GOP and Conservative Philanthropy on their heels” by Bill Berkowitz, September 23, 2007.
[2] “Part 2: Republican Party Donates to Right to Life” by Cynthia L. Cooper, March 18, 2003.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] “RNC Funded Outside Groups, Records Show” by Ruth Marcus, October 23, 1997, Los Angeles Times.
[7] Id.
[8] Opensecrets.org, as of April 12, 2009.
[9] http://www.americanrighttolife.org/us as of August 22, 2009.
[10] “Legacy of Judas: Response to Bopp”, http://www.americanrighttolife.org/news/legacy-judas-response-bopp
[11] “`How Political Should Faithful Catholics Be?’ by Rev. Frank Pavone, Founder of Priests for Life”, catholiccitizens.org September 22, 2007.
[12] Priests for Life website, Biography of Fr. Frank Pavone, as of April 12, 2009.
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] “Father Frank Pavone”, Daily Catholic as of April 18, 2009.
[16] Id.
[17] Id.
[18] Telephone conversation between David Wemhoff and Greg Cunningham, September 6, 2001.
[19] Priests for Life Press Release, September 10, 2001, posted on Free Republic
[20] Id.
[21] Id.
[22] Id.
[23] Priests for Life Website as of April 18, 2009.
[24] “Anti-choice Group Takes Campaign To `Larry King Live’”, November 9, 2001, www. Institutefordemocracy.org/pr_110901.html as of April 18, 2009.
[25] Pro-life Infonet December 13, 2001
[26] Id.
[27] Id.
[28] Catholic Citizens of Illinois announcement for Catholic Citizens of Illinois Annual Awards Banquet on September 22, 2007.
[29] www.priestsforlife.org “What is the Purpose of Priests for Life?”
[30] “Crusade Makes Amarillo Its Headquarters for Seminary,” by Karen Smith Welch, Amarillo Globe-News, February 25, 2007.
[31] Id.
[32] Id.
[33] “Fighting Abortion: Priest Scraps Plans to Form Dedicated Society”, The Washington Post, September 27, 2008.
[34] “New Plan at Priests for Life: A Thrust to Victory” by Father Frank Pavone, National Catholic Register, September 28-October 4, 2008 Issue, posted 9/23/08 10:45 a.m.
[35] Id.
[36] Id.
[37] “Darcy Should Fight Harder Against Speech”, by Randall Terry, journalgazette.net, April 14, 2009.
[38] www.archangelinstitute.org “Open Mouth and Remove All Doubt Post 2” http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:33DjiqDO458J:www.archangelinstitute.org/category/articles/+archangel+institute+%2B+randall+terry+%2B+cindy&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us