Culture of life is built upon speaking truth

It has been nearly 40 years since Pope St. John Paul II, in his magnificent encyclical Evangelium Vitae, exhorted “all people of good will” to build a “culture of life” to counter the “culture of death” that was all too evident in the history of the 20th century. The recent Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is only a skirmish in a much larger war. Indeed, was it a victory at all? The immediate effect of Dobbs has been for states to adopt widely disparate laws on abortion, with some states all but banning it and others permitting abortion in nearly any circumstance. What does this say about the culture of life?

The lesson is one that John Paul II himself recognized and taught. The true battleground is culture, of which politics is merely a small part. The politics of a nation spring from the deeper wells of the people’s moral courage and spiritual formation. While there may be occasional political victories along the way, a diseased culture will produce odious politics.

We Americans pride ourselves on being rugged individualists with a “live and let live” philosophy. Until recently, that libertarian streak fostered polite tolerance; even if we disagreed with a person’s philosophical or political ruminations, it seemed impolite to impose our views on others. “Who am I to judge?” has always been the guiding ethos of the suburban cocktail party, where bonhomie is more important than getting to the truth on any subject, no matter how important.

We have reached a point, however, where our libertarian reflexes and eagerness for harmony threaten our nation’s culture. When rapid technological change is added to the mix, it feels as if the country is spinning out of control.

Consider some examples. The miracles of modern medicine have yielded longer life spans and, sometimes, excruciating ailments of old age. That same medical community also provides a “painless” solution – “assisted suicide,” which in one form or another is legal in some states. Another example is in vitro fertilization, a technology that permits couples who cannot conceive naturally to have children. As a result, “leftover” embryos often languish frozen in storage or are destroyed. Yet a third example is the use of sophisticated prenatal testing to detect potential birth defects to give parents the “choice” to “terminate” the pregnancy to spare the child a difficult life.

The common thread in these scenarios is the relief of pain, suffering, or disappointment. The only truth that seems to count is the miraculous technological ability to fulfill human desires and alleviate pain. In doing so, however, a human person dies, and the culture of death advances. We do not seem to discuss that consequence nearly enough.

There is an alternative – the culture of life. Such a culture must be built on the material truth of our world, as it exists today, but also “with reference to the fount of all truth” (in the words of Pope St. John Paul II), which brings us back to the beginning. There are truths about the human person, beginning with our inherent and infinite dignity, that are as inexorable as the laws of gravity. 

The Roman Catholic Church, with its flaws, is the protector and defender of those truths. We know what they are. We must build our culture of life by speaking truth rather than politely pretending it does not exist. History demonstrates that those who speak the truth often pay a steep price for doing so, but the cost of not doing so is infinitely greater and eternal.