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Culture Of Death Is Demonic, International, Says Priest

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer recalled a time when, at a prayer vigil outside an abortion clinic, he spoke to a man waiting there, smoking a cigarette.

“I said, ‘You shouldn’t be out here.  Your child is being killed in there.’”

“I know,” the man replied nonchalantly.

“Doesn’t that bother your conscience?” Father countered.

No, it didn’t, the man said:  “I’ve been here before.”

His wife had had an abortion there a few weeks ago, he told the priest.  When she subsequently suffered some pain,  the doctor had informed her that she had been carrying twins; she still had one of the babies inside her.

“So we’re here to finish it off,” he explained coolly.

Father Euteneuer could only say, “I’ll pray for you.”

He told this story to his audience at St. Paul’s Church in Damascus September 16 to illustrate how firmly entrenched the Culture of Death has become in society.

The roots of the Culture of Death can be seen in the imagery of the Book of Revelation, which portrays the dynamic of the fight for life on a macro level, he said.

In a celestial battle, the woman “clothed with the sun” is pursued by the dragon, Satan, who wants to devour her child.  

But Satan is cast out of heaven to earth, where, unable to fight God directly, he wages war against the woman and the rest of her offspring, who are created in the image and likeness of God.

Thus, the Culture of Death is a demonic, international conspiracy against life, said Enteneuer.

As director of Human Life International, founded by Fr. Paul Marx in 1981, he said, “I have the privilege to work in the international pro-life movement.”

Some countries have no organized pro-life movement at all, he noted.  

“They have some good people who work as individuals, but in some places, HLI is the only pro-life organization in the country.”

Father emphasized that the pro-life movement must fight not just abortion, but “to pull the Culture of Death out by its roots,” it must fight  contraception and sex education, as well.

“It goes this way:  if you sow contraception, you reap abortion.  Anti-life groups always start out with contraception.  Contraception, for them, is a tool of cultural change.

“When they can brainwash young people to accept contraception as a lifestyle, it changes people’s concepts.  Then, necessarily, abortion will be legalized down the road.”

Sex education, of course, is a necessary tool to teach children to accept contraception, he said.

Whenever contraception infiltrates a culture, it increases adultery, fornication and unwanted pregnancies, said Father.

“If a couple is generous with God, they will be open to having children.  But contraception teaches people to be selfish; they cease to see their marital relationship in terms of their relationship with God.”

Pro-lifers must keep in mind that, as important as all of their activist work is, “The most important thing to do is to get down on our knees and ask God to change this.”

Pro-life work and prayer “is spiritual warfare at its finest,” he said.