I belong to a Godfathers’ Circle. It may sound like a meeting of mafia chieftains, but it’s not. We’re a small group of old guys who get together once a month for prayer, a reading of the daily passage in the Gospel,  reflection, meditation, and a little socializing over coffee and pastries. We rarely discuss politics.

I don’t know if my fellow godfathers are Democrats, Republicans or Independents. But a few days ago, we found ourselves talking about the President’s health care plan, now reaching the final stages of deliberation in Congress. We found that we were all concerned about how the various proposals would affect the use of federal funds to pay for abortion. That our tax dollars could be used to pay for a morally repugnant procedure dismayed us all.

Personally, I believe that everyone does have a right to receive medical care. I’ll leave it to the constitutional lawyers to argue about whether such a right is in the Constitution or not. But the use of tax dollars to pay for infanticide has nothing to do with medical care. “Do no harm” is medicine’s first principle. “You shall not kill” precedes even that.

IN THIS VALLEY OF THE SLAIN…

In this Valley of the Slain
Where King Manasseh’s limbs and twigs
Stoke the fire in Moloch’s belly
With unborn babies’ flesh and bones

How fragile has our state become
Of  human love and human faith
In this land of stupid shadows

On Jehoshaphat outspreads
The wing of mercy, wing of judgment
 Above the living and the dead

Still, I heard a mother say
With patient sweetness and content
And gentle courtesy
We’ve left your backpack in the library,
Let’s go back again –
This love if it remains
May purify the charnel in the Valley of the Slain