Leading Prayers for the Culture of Death, by Phil Lawler

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Aug 20, 2024

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org.

When Milwaukee’s Archbishop Jerome Listecki delivered the invocation for the Republican National Convention last month, he began with an appropriate challenge to all American politicians, reminding them: “Our Founding Fathers held the truth self-evident that all are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Thus, subtly but unmistakably, he put the right to life in the first paragraph of his prayer. He quickly added that “we have sustained this vision to guard the dignity of every life from conception to natural death.”

Unfortunately the Republican convention did not rise to the challenge, and the GOP platform for 2024 is missing the strong right-to-life language that previous conventions had adopted. But at least the archbishop had made an appeal to the consciences of the conventioneers. He had followed up, too, with a prayer for the protection of religious freedom: a prayer that sounds more pointed today, as Congress weighs legislation that would eliminate “conscience clause” protection for religious believers. …

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