Kathryn Lopez, Dorothy Day and a Culture of Death

At National Review Online, Kathryn Lopez, writes an article entitled "Building a Culture Hospitable to Life."

She begins by quoting from Dorothy Day:

Three little pigs are crowded into a too-small cage, the case is brought to court, the judge’s findings in the case being that pigs should not be crowded the way subway riders are.”

The late Dorothy Day was writing (in House of Hospitality, recently reprinted by Our Sunday Visitor) about the contrast between how we treat animal life and human life sometimes. This certainly rang true last week as the news was dominated by the dual stories of the killing of Cecil the lion and the harvesting and selling of aborted children’s body parts.

Quoting from Day again:

God forgive us the sins of our youth! But as Zachariah sang out, ‘We have knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of our sins.’ I don’t think anyone recognizes the comfort of this text better than I do. 

Then Lopez adds:

She wrote this at 75 years old, in Commonweal. Despite a full life, one devoted to service; despite religious conversion and forgiveness; despite age, she still had a wound that needed tending from the abortion she had had in her youth.

Kathryn closes with:

We have the right instinct, being sensitive to our stewardship of animals. But human beings, especially when most innocent and vulnerable, are part of creation, too. And if we can’t see humanity always, we’ll be lost on all other fronts.

It is a good well written article and you should read it.