Over 400 representatives of Catholic, Mormon, Islamic and Protestant Churches gathered at the Cathedral Hyland Center on Sunday, January 21, the eve of the sixth anniversary of U.S. Supreme Court decisions which abolished the abortion statues of Georgia and Texas, resulting in the availability of abortion on demand.

The program, “Family Night In Support Of Life,” was sponsored by the Archdiocesan Pro-Life Office and featured U.S. Congressman Henry J. Hyde of Illinois as keynote speaker.

In his homily during the interfaith service which preceded the Congressman’s address, Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan cited the U.S. Bishops’ pastoral “To Live In Jesus Christ: Pastoral Reflections on Moral Life” to draw attention to the ironical existence of legal abortion in a nation founded on and committed to the dignity and sanctity of the human person.

Archbishop Donnellan noted that in many U.S. cities the number of abortions far exceeds the number of live births. He commented that the fetus is “a human being without potential” rather than an “object with the potential for being human.”

Calling abortion “an unspeakable crime,” Archbishop Donnellan stated that the right to life must be protected and recognized by law. He asked for the help and support of those faced with problem pregnancies in order “to witness belief in the human dignity of mankind.”

“Each life is a sacred gift, created in the image of God,” the archbishop said. “Any discussion regarding life and death requires careful consideration. These principles must be weighed in light of God’s divine revelation, and for them society should be willing to make sacrifices.”

To recognize the dignity of human life, Archbishop Donnellan asked that the following be considered: the Supreme Court decisions legalizing abortion on demand and their educative effects on society; the use of government taxes to finance abortion, and the protection of freedom of conscience for those involved in medical fields.

In concluding, the archbishop challenged the audience “to stand up and be counted for their convictions” and added that “those seeking civil rights should be civil.”

“We owe charity to our opponents and to one another. There is no room for family fighting,” he said.

In his keynote address, Congressman Hyde, co-sponsor of a Human Life Amendment and author of an amendment to the HEW Appropriations Bill banning federal funding of abortion, began by stating, “I stand before you, a 652-month-old fetus!”

January 22, 1979, the Congressman said, marks six years since the Supreme Court recognized fetal life “as having less value than a blade of grass,” adding that he once considered such ideas animalistic until he realized that “animals are better thought of than the unborn.”

Abortion, said Hyde, is the major Civil Rights issue today. “It is not a Democratic or a Republican, a Catholic or a Protestant issue, but a human issue -- a matter of life and death.

“Abortion does not happen to a woman; it happens to a baby! First and foremost, society must look at the humanity of the unborn. As in every issue, the argument must be defined: ‘What is being aborted?’”

Hyde pointed out that medical science concurs that human life begins at conception with the formation of a new genetic package.

“Anyone who has ever felt the abdomen of a pregnant woman has felt life,” he said. “Any couple who has suffered a miscarriage knows they have lost a baby. Doctors know and have recognized the beginning of human life as being conception. Even Planned Parenthood, in one of its pamphlets, states that abortion kills a baby.”

Hyde called the audience’s attention to the “incredible semantic gymnastics society now engages in when speaking of abortion.” It is not a pleasant topic of conversation, being as it is the “ultimate in child abuse, he said. It is often referred to as “termination,” “post conceptive birth control,” and the accompanying philosophy is termed “pro-choice.” Hyde pointed out the ironical “choices” presented by “pro-choice” advocates to the fetus -- a dilatation and curettage, saline abortion, or hysteroto.

Hyde also said there is a little sense to the arguments most commonly used. “Abortion is a matter of privacy between a woman and her doctor. However, the law upon which this country was founded was established to protect the weak from the strong. When a pregnant woman, the natural protector of unborn life, becomes that life’s adversary, there exists the need for such legal protection.”

As far as federal financed abortions for the poor, Hyde pointed again to the irony of the argument. It is as if the government told the poor they must fight for all that most wanted society to do for them -- food, clothing, shelter -- but the killing of their unborn would be given to them.

To resounding applause, Hyde stated that abortion “isn’t a solution, but the failure to look for a solution. Furthermore, this human problem cries out for a human solution.”

As for those “personally opposed to abortion, but ...” Hyde said they fall prey to three problems. One, they oversimplify -- in order to eliminate poverty, eliminate poor people. Two, they succumb to crushing pessimism. They see no purpose, no reason for the life of the poor, the handicapped, the aged. They fail to see living as loving, as projecting, and as giving. And three, they suffer a failure of imagination. They do not realize the enormity of what abortion does, the immense wait of humanity.

Quoting Father Anthony Padavano, Hyde pointed out that being born is “nothing more than a change of address. And the tragedies of our lives are not as tragic as being without a heart tender enough to suffer.”

Hyde then noted the greatness in the pro-life movement as the people acting on their beliefs. “These are heroic people,” he said.

In closing the Congressman queried, “What is the least thing in the world? Not the poor, or the handicapped or the refugees, for they can run and love and live. The least are the unborn. What makes the pro-life movement powerful and great is the fact that these people are fighting for people they will never see.”

And finally, Hyde recalled the words of that man whose birth hailed the dignity and sanctity of human life: “Whatsoever you do to the least of mine, you do unto me.”

Local political figures attending the program included State Representatives Betty Jo Williams and Joe Burton and U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald. Participants in the program included the Cathedral Folk Group under the direction of Monsignor Jerry Hardy and the Reverend Alvin Dopson, who represented Bishop Joseph C. Coles of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.