The following is the first of a three-part series on the 2008 Elections. In the next two weeks we will deal with issues of Culture and Conscience.

Now that the election is over, we can separate the real Catholics from those who just act the part. Those still reeling from the results of the election can rest assured that they are in good company with the saints.

Those who have drawn a line in blood and made a decision to stand with the culture of death need a serious examination of conscience.

Now look at what we’ve done to ourselves. America has made her “choice” for maximum leader and it is not pretty. In fact, it is one of the most devastating blows to American civilization that we have ever undergone, and I do not speak in hyperbole. Even such a saintly figure as Mother Theresa said that “a nation that kills its children has no future;” likewise, an authority like Fr. Benedict Groeschel recently commented that we have entered into “the beginning of the twilight” of our country—dire words that touch on the reality of electing the most extreme, pro-abortion candidate America has ever had the misfortune of occupying the highest office of our land.

This has happened before though. When the prophet Samuel complained to God that the people of Israel were asking for a king, the Lord God replied that they were not rejecting Samuel but were in actual fact rejecting God Himself, His sovereignty and His authority over them (cf. 1 Sam, ch. 8). He also told Samuel that the people would have to accept the consequences of their wicked desire, and as we know, the craven need to be like the surrounding pagan nations was a bitter pill for them to swallow. The people of Israel echoed that rejection of their God more than a thousand years later when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords stood before them in Herod’s derisive purple robe and the people shouted, this time with vehemence: “We have no king but Caesar!” In essence, we have chosen a Barabbas over Christ—again.

And choices have consequences they say. The consequences of this election will be imprinted upon our national conscience for years to come, one of which is that, by electing abortion extremists to rule over us, both in the Presidency and in the Congress, we have now lost the blessing promised in Psalm 41:1-4—“Happy those concerned for the lowly and the poor; when misfortune strikes, the Lord delivers them. The Lord keeps and preserves them, makes them happy in the land, and does not betray them to their enemies. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed.” It is hard for Americans to imagine that a land so consecrated could be shriven of that blessing. Yet, we have made our sickbed and we must lie in it.

This did not happen, though, without dire and prolonged warnings about the institutionalization of evil. We can’t say we were not warned. When moral persuasion about the killing of innocents did not work, rational science was our witness. When science was ignored and then co-opted for the works of death, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases came to awaken people’s consciences, but these did little better. God then had to allow such an onslaught of terrorism, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes and tsunamis in the past decade that He surely thought we would wake up to the deadly reality of the culture of death and repent. When that didn’t happen, He hit us in the most sensitive spot on the human body: our wallets. The gas price hikes and the recent financial meltdown surely would do the trick, He thought, but apparently that did not work either because our people adamantly refused to be deterred at any price from our lust for abortion and put into office all those who would serve the interests of this unholy agenda for decades to come. Alas, we all need to get on our knees and repent from the very depths of our hearts for the plague that we have just invited onto our beloved nation.

At the same time, my friends, despite the dismal picture, this is a time to thank Almighty God for the gifts of life, love and family that we have been given. It is also the time to seriously engage in efforts to take the culture back so that eventually our politics will follow the growth of a new pro-life culture from the seeds we are planting today.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
www.HLI.org 

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer ( EYE-ten-our) became president of Human Life International in December of 2000. Human Life International is the world’s largest pro-life organization with affiliate offices and associates in eighty countries around the world. In seven years of service to this unique mission Fr. Euteneuer has traveled more than 900,000 miles as a pro-life missionary and visited fifty-five countries.

Fr. Euteneuer was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1962, the fourth of seven children born to Joseph and Marian Euteneuer. He has a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana as well as a Licentiate degree in Biblical Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. He is fluent in Spanish.

While in college, Fr. Euteneuer participated in the Marine Corps Officer Candidate Program, attended boot camp at Quantico, Virginia and graduated at the top of his Company. After discerning that the Lord was calling him to the priesthood rather than the military, he entered the seminary. After his ordination in 1988, Fr. Euteneuer served as a parish priest in five parishes of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida, secretary to the diocesan bishop, director of vocations, and spiritual moderator for the diocesan Respect Life Office.

His pro-life activity began in the early years of his priesthood with prayer vigils, pilgrimages, pickets at abortion mills, sidewalk counseling and the establishment of a crisis pregnancy center across the street from an abortion mill in 1999.

Since taking office at HLI, Fr. Euteneuer has spoken directly to tens of thousands of people all over the world spreading the Gospel of Life as well as making many appearances on EWTN and other media. He has been featured in Human Events and Envoy magazine and has appeared on local and national television many times. His now-famous Fox News interview with Sean Hannity on the subject of contraception has merited him both praise and criticism for his defense of Church teaching. He was awarded the John Cardinal O’Connor Award for Life from Legatus in 2005 and the “Soldier of the Church Militant” Award from the Brent Society in 2007.