{"id":58221,"date":"2024-12-29T01:02:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T00:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=58221"},"modified":"2025-12-29T01:26:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:26:25","slug":"the-holy-innocents-and-an-elephant-in-the-middle-of-many-catholic-parishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/12\/29\/the-holy-innocents-and-an-elephant-in-the-middle-of-many-catholic-parishes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holy Innocents and an elephant in the middle of many Catholic parishes"},"content":{"rendered":"

First of all, I want to clarify that this photo is not real: no elephant has ever sneaked into any parish, as far as I know.<\/p>\n

Some reflexions of Saint John Paul II on abortion and the defense of life<\/a><\/rel>
\nSaint Teresa of Calcutta: her courageous speech telling great truths about abortion<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

I have generated this image with artificial intelligence to apply to many Catholic parishes a famous metaphorical expression, that of an elephant in the room<\/em><\/strong>, which is used when a group of people seem determined to ignore an obvious truth that is impossible to ignore. Something that happens too often in many Catholic parishes with one of the greatest scourges of our time: abortion<\/strong>, that is, the horrendous act of killing human beings in their prenatal age within the maternal Friday.<\/p>\n

Yesterday was the day of the Holy Innocents,<\/strong> on which the Catholic Church remembers the newborns that King Herod ordered to be killed in Bethlehem, in an attempt to kill Jesus. Today, this massacre is repeated daily in much greater numbers in abortion centers<\/strong>, and some are not only scandalized by it but also applaud it, calling this cowardly crime a \"right\"<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Today, the Catholic Church is the world's largest institution keeping alive the defense of unborn babies<\/strong>. Just a few months ago, referring to a pro-life demonstration held in Rome, Pope Francis praised the \"public witness in defense of human life from conception to natural death\"<\/em><\/a> and urged the organizers of the march to \"move forward with courage despite all adversity\"<\/em>, adding: \"What is at stake, namely the absolute dignity of human life, a gift from God the Creator,<\/strong> is too high to be the subject of concessions or mediation.\"<\/em><\/p>\n

I applaud Francis' words on abortion. At the same time, I have to regret that in many Catholic parishes this seems to have become a taboo subject that is never spoken about<\/strong>, not even on a day as appropriate for it as the day of the Holy Innocents. In my 49 years of life I have attended mass in different parishes and I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have heard references to abortion...<\/strong> and I would have fingers left over. This issue has become like an elephant in the middle of many parishes.<\/p>\n

The defense of the culture of life<\/strong>, as so well defined by a great pope like Saint John Paul II, should be one of the most important topics among those regularly discussed in many parishes, and not a topic to be avoided. Our pastors must be brave and address this issue without complexes<\/strong>, because we run the risk that many Catholics perceive the idea that it is better not to talk about this issue so as not to upset anyone, in case some pro-abortion person is offended. If someone is offended by the defense of life, it is their problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Church must unequivocally stand on the side of the most innocent and defenseless,<\/strong> even if that means being attacked and singled out. And of course, the Catholic faithful have the obligation to support the Church in this defense of life<\/strong> and the bishops and priests who are attacked for supporting this cause. May no priest ever be forced to remain silent because he does not find the necessary support among his faithful<\/strong> when he is attacked for doing something as noble and necessary as defending the culture of life.<\/p>\n

---<\/p>\n

Image: Grok.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First of all, I want to clarify that this photo is not real: no elephant has ever sneaked into any parish, as far as I know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,10712],"tags":[10430,10424,11753,10527],"class_list":["post-58221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-religion-eng","tag-abortion","tag-catholic-church","tag-pope-francis","tag-saint-john-paul-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}