The evil of abortion does not justify Fr. Frank Pavone.

bor­tion is an evil. Peri­od. Abor­tion­ists mur­der. Soci­ety must out­law it. End stop. But Fr. Frank Pavone does not get to use that fact in order to jus­ti­fy his own wrong actions.

Let us review. Over the week­end, Fr. Pavone filmed a video in which speaks in front of the body of abort­ed child. He had put the child upon the altar of sacrifice—naked, unwrapped, burned. Then Fr. Pavone post­ed the video on his sev­er­al Face­book pages as a polit­i­cal ad for Don­ald Trump. He wrote a cap­tion to the video, telling us in no uncer­tain terms that that the rea­son he made the video in the first place. Fr. Pavone has admit­ted this.

In doing this, as I point­ed out yes­ter­day, Fr. Pavone (among many oth­er things) broke Canon 1239, which states that priests are to use the altar “for divine wor­ship alone, to the exclu­sion of any sec­u­lar usage.”

But Fr. Pavone’s wrong goes well beyond that. In using a mur­dered child as a polit­i­cal prop in a pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, he has com­mit­ted a grave offense against the human dig­ni­ty of that poor child.

We must be absolute­ly clear about this: The fact that abor­tion is itself an offense against the child’s dig­ni­ty does not make what Fr. Pavone did any less of an offense.

And yet Fr. Pavone, shame­less and obsti­nate, attempts to use the evil of abor­tion as some sort of jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for his own actions. As Kei­th Michael Estra­da reports on his blog, Fr. Pavone said:

The issue is how the abor­tion­ists, sup­port­ed by the Democ­rats, are treat­ing these babies. What’s sac­ri­le­gious is abor­tion, and vot­ing for those who sup­port it. It’s time we get our heads screwed on straight about who the bad guys are.

No, Fr. Pavone. You do not get to jus­ti­fy your own actions based on the evil of oth­ers, and you do not get to once more attempt to make this a polit­i­cal ques­tion with a gra­tu­itous slam against the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. God will judge your actions on their own terms, not based upon the evil of oth­ers. The evil of abor­tion does not give you the right to use a child as a prop for Don­ald Trump.

The Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church specif­i­cal­ly states:

The bod­ies of the dead must be treat­ed with respect and char­i­ty, in faith and hope of the Res­ur­rec­tion. the bur­ial of the dead is a cor­po­ral work of mer­cy; it hon­ors the chil­dren of God, who are tem­ples of the Holy Spir­it. (2300)

When you used the naked, burned, uncov­ered body of an abort­ed child, when you placed that child on a Catholic altar which is reserved to the cel­e­bra­tion of the Mass, and when you filmed a video so that peo­ple would vote for Mr. Trump, you did not—N, O, T, not—treat that child, made in the image of God, whose worth is beyond mea­sure, with “respect and char­i­ty.” If you claim you did, you do no hon­or to the Holy Spir­it. You do no hon­or to turn a tem­ple of the Holy Spir­it into a polit­i­cal prop.

Who­ev­er does so com­mits a crime as great as abor­tion itself.

I reit­er­ate: Fr. Pavone’s bish­op needs to con­duct an imme­di­ate inquiry into this inci­dent, into the activ­i­ties of Priests for Life, and sus­pend Fr. Pavone’s fac­ul­ties as a priest. The fact that he is actu­al­ly defend­ing this inci­dent, that he points the fin­ger at oth­er evils, makes the whole ugly episode worse.

Fr. Pavone’s ordi­nary is Bish­op Patrick Zurek of the dio­cese of Amar­il­lo, Texas. Their num­ber is 806–383-2243. Give them a call or send an e‑mail.

It gives me no joy to have to write this.