BLESSED MARGARET POLE - MAY 28 - MARTYRED AT THE CONFLUENCE OF CHURCH AND STATE

 

Blessed Margaret Plantagenet Pole,

Countess of Salisbury

Martyr

14 August 1473 - 28 May 1541

MY COUSIN, BLESSED MARGARET POLE

Blessed Margaret Plantagenet Pole is my 6th cousin, 17 times removed. We share a common ancestor, who is Edward I "Longshanks," King of England, my 24th great grandfather. She was put to death in the Tower of London on the order of Henry VIII because she was Catholic, essentially and because Henry VIII was a brutal, maniacal ruler who did not want to follow the rule of the Pope with regard to his multiple marriages and his moral failings.

Henry had made himself the ruler of The Church in England, breaking off from the Catholic hierarchy and creating a new organization. Anyone who did not express absolute loyalty to him and his new church was in danger of losing their heads. Even the accidents of birth and relationship were enough to convict someone,  absent any other proof whatsoever.  

SHE WAS DEVOTED TO THE WRONG RELIGION

Margaret was given no trial and did not even know that she was going to be executed until an hour beforehand.  It was done so quickly, with so little advance notice, that many people doubted it had happened at all. The executioner was a young man with very little experience and, instead of a clean and swift chop, Margaret was hacked to death with multiple blows of the axe to her head and shoulders.

She was 68 years old - the same age I will be in a few months.

ENGLISH FLEE TO THE NEW CONTINENT

About 100 years later, the English nobility have sent their "second sons" to the new continent to grab land and create wealth from the natural resources. Those who chafed under the tyranny of official state religion escaped here for religious freedom. When the yoke of the British had been thrown off in another few hundred years, the separation of church and state was a primary principle. No more would the citizens suffer under the religious declarations issued from the seat of government.

2022 - A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL BLACKMAILED BY A BISHOP

I did not become Catholic so I could spend time arguing about POLITICS. I was attracted to the faith because of the experience of the mystics, most of whom were monastics of one stripe or another. I was warned by a mother superior of a modern convent that I would not find that mystical life in the parishes, and she was right. 

This obsession with trying to make abortion illegal again has gotten on my ninth nerve. There is a huge movement in the Catholic Church at the moment and they call themselves "Pro-Life" but most of them that I encounter on social media only seem to be interested in one political method that supposedly addresses ONE issue (abortion) but that method never worked in the past. So it is neither logical nor inclusive of the myriad ways in which life needs to be supported from conception until natural death. I have friends who have a more global perspective so I am obviously not talking about everyone in that movement. It is the PUBLIC face of the movement that is the problem.

Anyway, I did not leave the Hindu convent to get furiously involved in political life, but today we are deluged with news items about Nancy Pelosi and how her Bishop has publicly shamed her by denying her communion in light of a position she has taken in her government job, and I find it hypocritical and upsetting on many levels.

I myself am Catholic and I LOVE the faith, but I am not in favor of forcing it on anyone else. It would be a LOT more comfortable if everyone around me was Catholic. That would be super! But you can't make someone behave as if they belong to your faith and believe as you do. It just doesn't work and it isn't what Jesus had in mind when he sent out the evangelists, I am sure of it. Nowhere did he say that Christians should dominate the government and force non-Catholics to adhere to its views. 

Criminalizing abortion did not stop them before, and Pelosi knows this. I remember 1973 when the result of Roe v. Wade was announced. It made NO impression on me or any of my contemporaries because abortions were already widely available. There were people who were relieved that abortions would thereafter be SAFER, since they could be done in a medical setting, but that was the only change that we talked about when we learned that abortion was legal.

In fact, I was pregnant at the time. I was only 18, newly married, and I was glad that I was too far into my pregnancy for my new husband to pressure me to get an abortion because we REALLY could not afford to have a child. We were Scientologists, living in the Sea Organization, and the Scientology hierarchy ended up refusing to pay the hospital bill (after promising that all medical bills would be paid if we joined.)  In fact, I only saw a doctor ONCE while I was in the Sea Org, and they never did pay that bill, as far as I know.

Prior to Roe v. Wade, I could have gotten an abortion but I personally did not want one, and the fact that it was illegal was another tool in my arsenal of defending myself against pressure to abort. I could say they were dangerous, which was true, and illegal, etc. But anyone who wanted an abortion could GET one. They are always available to anyone determined to have one. I just wasn't one of those people.

If the hard right has its way and abortion is criminalized again, I am assuming it will go back into the alley it came from and a lot of women will die, along with their babies, in botched back-alley abortions. So I am wondering what the "pro life" crowd is accomplishing by making it illegal instead of addressing the CAUSES behind the high numbers of abortions in our country.

THE HYPOCRISY OF UNEVEN APPLICATION

I don't see anyone getting publicly shamed and refused communion for supporting capital punishment executions. 

Nor is anyone being denied communion for advocating for the free sale of military style rifles in the wake of all these mass murders that are endemic to the U.S. and unknown elsewhere. 

Some types of contraceptives are considered abortifacient by The Church, but no one is being banned from communion for speaking out in favor of them.

In the Catechism, vasectomies are considered equally as evil as abortion, but there is no one trying to criminalize them and I do not see any bishop publicly naming every man who has ever had one and telling them they are banned from receiving communion until their vasectomy is surgically reversed!

THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS

First of all, Pelosi is not having abortions or encouraging people to have them. She has a job in a secular government that is founded on a first principle of separation of church and state.

She is also aware of the fact that abortions continue at a fair clip regardless of whether or not they are legal. Fewer women die in abortions when they are legal. That seems to be the only difference I can ascertain.

Criminalizing abortion will do little to stem the tide of abortions because abortions are not CAUSED by a law approving them. Most women cite financial reasons for having them. Some people will not be able to afford them, so we will have more poor women with fatherless children on our hands. Is THAT "pro life?"

On the other hand, if the causes of abortion were addressed, you could have an abortuary on every corner and every operating room would be silent and empty.

I DON'T HAVE A DOG IN THIS FIGHT

I am too old to have an abortion myself and I would do my best to discourage anyone I know from having one. But many years ago I realized that there is a very easy way to avoid having to deal with this issue at all, and that is to not have sex with anyone to whom I am not married. 

Now, I have very strong monastic leanings, so I am going to assume that avoiding sex outside of marriage may be harder for some other women to do, given the strength and power of hormones, etc. But STILL.... you have to admit that the choice to have sex IS, at least, the FIRST choice in matters having to do with this topic. So, if you are going to talk about "choice," I think it is disingenuous to ignore the opportunities for choice prior to finding oneself pregnant. There were a few choices made BEFORE the pregnancy that would have derailed getting pregnant to begin with. (Obviously I am not talking about rape, which is a violation of all a woman's choices.)

Even so - I would not legislate sex outside of marriage as a criminal act any more than i would criminalize contraceptives, etc.

The Tower of London

where Lady Margaret Pole lived

the last two years of her life

THE CARROT VERSUS THE STICK

There is a strong faction speaking loudly into the public space that is advocating for shame, force and punishment. This is a negative approach that does not work because it causes a lot of "unintended" consequences. Personally, I think that attracting someone to something POSITIVE is a lot more helpful to society than public shaming, forcing behavior to mimic moral belief systems and punishing people who don't get in line with them.

If we really want to be a society that is pro-life and pro-family, these positive measures would do more to limit abortions than the "shame, force and punishment" method:

1. Government provided maternity and paternity leave for the first year after a child is born.

2. Government provided childcare options through age 12 or 13.

3. A decent "living wage" that allows for the support of children. CEOs are actually taking vacations IN OUTER SPACE because they have more money than they know what to do with, while their employees can't afford proper food, housing and medical care. It is a sacrilege!

4. Universal health insurance for all Americans.

5.  Make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. The degree to which one benefits by conducting business in the United States is the degree to which one should pay for the privilege.

6. Abolish capital punishment.

7. Outlaw military style assault weapons and enact other laws around ensuring the safety of all citizens against being murdered by guns.

8. Provide education through 4 years of college. An educated population is a healthier, more productive population - which is good for everyone.

I am sure there are more I would agree with, but you will notice that I am in favor of the carrot, rather than the stick. In my experience, force and punishment do NOTHING to convert anyone to a point of view.  

Besides which, I believe we need to stop acting like we hate one another and that we are all in competition with one another for limited resources so that only a small handful can arrive at the top of the survival pyramid. It is toxic and UNTRUE. We are the most wealthy nation in the world and we do not suffer from limited resources. OTHER countries with far less money manage to support their citizens with the benefits I have outlined, above, and there is no reason we cannot do it as well.

OTHER BISHOPS DISAGREE WITH CORDILEONE

Calling out a parishioner publicly and publicly announcing their sin and that you are banning them from receiving communion is hardly a positive pastoral approach! If my bishop doesn't talk to me but instead issues a public shaming, I would not take it well.

Here is a letter from the bishop of Dubuque, Iowa with his thoughts about this topic. You may have to fiddle with your zoom function to read it. Let me know if you have a problem and I will try to get you a copy.

SATAN IS THE FATHER OF ALL LIES, NO MATTER WHAT SIDE YOU ARE ON

It makes me sad to see each side lying about the other. "Pro-choice" people claim that the opposing side "just wants to control women," when the fact is that Catholics and other Christians believe that people must be open to the grace of God and be receptive to life which begins at conception and ends at natural death. 

On the other side, "Pro-life" people claim that "pro-choice" people are "pro-abortion." NO ONE is happy to have an abortion. Pro-choice people believe that a woman must be free to choose what happens to her body and what children she will have. They are not seeing MY point - that the choice was made when they chose to have sex - but I am regularly laughed out of conversations when I posit this solution. It isn't something that even Catholics are willing to take seriously.

Each side lies to make their side sound better and few people are trying to see the point that the other side is actually making. How can any progress be made under these circumstances?

You can fool yourself into thinking you have made progress by forcing people to do what you want with laws and punishments, but it isn't going to work because you have not evangelized.

Or you could fool yourself into thinking that all you have to do is keep abortion legal and then the "problem" is solved.

"The problem" is not that abortions are legal. "The problem" is that people want them or think they need them. A law that criminalizes abortions is not going to fix that. It did not work before. It won't work now.

Instead of continuing this fight into the next few decades, we need to change our approach.

But, like I said, I do not have a dog in this fight. I am going to go back to prayer and meditation, writing and painting, and hope that the movers and shakers in charge of the world will somehow get it right.....and I hope to God I don't have to talk about this topic any more because I am just sick of it.

God bless us all.

Silver "Rose"