Abortion Tests National Character

Editor's note. The following are excerpts from Pope John Paul II's initial remarks delivered in St. Louis, January 26. [Emphasis in original.]

There are times of trial, tests of national character, in the history of every country. America has not been immune to them. One such time of trial is closely connected with St. Louis. Here, the famous Dred Scott case was heard. And in that case the Supreme Court of the United States subsequently declared an entire class of human beings - - people of African descent - - outside the boundaries of the national community and the Constitution's protection.

After untold suffering and with enormous effort that situation has, at least in part, been reversed.

America faces a similar time of trial today. Today, the conflict is between a culture that affirms, cherishes, and celebrates the gift of life, and a culture that seeks to declare entire groups of human beings - - the unborn, the terminally ill, the handicapped, and others considered "unuseful" - - to be outside the boundaries of legal protection. Because of the seriousness of the issues involved, and because of America's great impact on the world as a whole, the resolution of this new time of testing will have profound consequences for the century whose threshold we are about to cross. My fervent prayer is that through the grace of God at work in the lives of Americans of every race, ethnic group, economic condition and creed, America will resist the culture of death and choose to stand steadfastly on the side of life. ... Only a higher moral vision can motivate the choice for life.