Dec 28, 2006

The Holy Innocents and us

As we know, today, December 28, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

Why don't the officials of today's Archdiocese of Los Angeles hold pro-life public witness on this date? The Archdiocese always used to support the annual December 28 nighttime pro-life procession in Hollywood that Kenneth Fisher's Holy Innocents Reparation Committee held in the Seventies and Eighties.

In the meantime, though, we can do our own pro-life observances today, such as Mass and some pro-life effort. And Holy Mother Church backs us up on this. Here is the proof, in the following excerpt from an official document from the Vatican:

The Feast of the Holy Innocents

113. Since the sixth century, on 28 December, the Church has celebrated the memory of those children killed because of Herod's rage against Christ (cf. Mt 2, 16-17). Liturgical tradition refers to them as the "Holy Innocents" and regards them as martyrs. Throughout the centuries Christian art, poetry and popular piety have enfolded the memory of the "tender flock of lambs"(125) with sentiments of tenderness and sympathy. These sentiments are also accompanied by a note of indignation against the violence with which they were taken from their mothers' arms and killed.

In our own times, children suffer innumerable forms of violence which threaten their lives, dignity and right to education. On this day, it is appropriate to recall the vast host of children not yet born who have been killed under the cover of laws permitting abortion, which is an abominable crime. Mindful of these specific problems, popular piety in many places has inspired acts of worship as well as displays of charity which provide assistance to pregnant mothers, encourage adoption and the promotion of the education of children.

Source:
DIRECTORY ON POPULAR PIETY AND THE
LITURGY -- PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES
Congregation for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of the Sacraments
Vatican City, December 2001
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20020513_vers-direttorio_en.html

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