The cardinal did not waste any time: he submitted the bill to lawyers and medical doctors who reported back to him the highlights of the Bill. As soon as he had “digested” all the nuances of the Bill, he wrote a Pastoral Letter to all parishes, chaplaincies, religious communities, all Christians and people of good will of the Archdioceses on the subject. He begins the letter by recognizing and thanking all for “the good work and activities of evangelization and human development that you are undertaking in this beloved nation Kenya.” But the work is not completed, and so “your voices and witness” are needed to “move ahead preaching the Risen Lord with confidence”. Against this background of Hope, there still remains another one of hopelessness which we ought not to forget. “As you may recall, we have gone through tough moments when our country turned into a battleground and in weeks was torn apart by violence. Thanks God and our spirit of reconciliation, sanity is slowly returning”. But also madness is returning. “Another disturbing issue is slowly arising in our midst, and that is the parliamentary bill of legalizing abortion”.
In a few synthetic, but very strong sentences, His Eminence describes the evil of abortion: “Say it, and shout it out loud: ‘Abortion is the deliberate termination of a pregnancy, by killing the unborn and defenceless child …. Abortion is killing an innocent person, and God says, “You shall not kill”…. The womb of the mother is supposed to be the safest place where the child, even just conceived, should feel most secure and loved”. After having developed these concepts and realities, the Cardinal turns towards special groups of people to remind them of their responsibility in this area.
He turns to the persons in politics and he calls their role a “difficult but noble art”. He is aware of the “enormous pressures on those who serve the people in the midst of constantly shifting political winds and demands of certain constituencies … completely irreconcilable with the law of God and the teachings of the Church ….However all political office holders, and candidates for public office, should make clear their commitment to work against legislation supporting abortion, and even to accept defeat, should such be the result, rather than sacrifice human life”
Then the Cardinal turns to all Catholics and people of good will to “constructively enter the public debate. Be informed, argue rationally, show respect for those who have differing opinions, while, at the same time, evidencing the unwavering conviction that every unborn child has the right to live”. Finally, the Cardinal insists that the ultimate answer to abortion is an understanding of love…. When we live in love, we outgrow our selfishness and we are always ready to give…. If we teach a true love of life, the life of the unborn, the aged, the disabled, the blind, the deaf and retarded, if we teach that God loves every life He creates, we would go a long way towards ending abortion”
But how to stop the Parliamentary Bill, before it reaches the House of representatives? The Cardinal asks for millions of signatures “to resist illegal legislation. We will submit them and move the petition to the competent authority to stop this campaign of discussing how to kill the unborn babies. This is our non-stop baby defending crusade for the next couple of months….. and then we will keep you informed about our way forward”.
The past two Sundays, outside all the Catholic Churches, other churches and religious places of worship, there were volunteers with sheets of papers for people to sign. Young persons going around shouting: Stop abortion, others inviting people to sign the petition to stop the bill before it is too late, and others distributing prayer cards for the support to life. Adults asking for sheet of papers to sign, so they could take them to the offices and places of work, where their friends could write their signature for the purpose of defending life and not getting rid of it.
