On this feast day of the Holy Innocents, I’d like to think just a bit about the “innocents”. I think our use of the term to refer to the millions of innocent children who are killed by abortionists with the permission of their mothers is not at all a misapplication, but it may be a bit narrow when we think of victims, and it may be a bit shallow when we think about the consequences of secularization.

The newly born Republic of France killed priests and religious—and the laypeople who were loyal to them—by the thousands. Napoleon kidnapped the Pope; he later forced the Pope to crown him emperor, then seized the crown from his hands and crowned himself. Why? It was Napoleon’s belief that religious law must support secular law. Secular law should take precedence over religious law. But only a few years later, after his attempt to wipe out her influence, he decided that the Church was needed after all because, without the Church, relying only on secular law, there was no morality. The secularists of our day also rely on law to enforce “morality”.

The notion that what is legal should define what is moral was not new even then. It was the situation in Judea at the time of Christ. It was what he condemned most severely in the Pharisees. The argument is an old one, not a new one.

For the sake of brevity, consider the following remarks of a young woman of my acquaintance who was being treated for clinical depression: “Yes, I’ve had three abortions, and no, I don’t feel any guilt about that. It’s legal, and therefore you have no right to condemn me. Only religious bigots condemn me. I reject your attempts to make me feel guilty. If it weren’t okay, it wouldn’t have been legal.”

On the back pages of the New Orleans Times-Picayune around the year 1982, there was an article reporting that chronic suicide attempts among a large group of young women had been found to be cyclical. They seemed to occur at the same time every year. Questions of the young women revealed that the attempts were made either on the anniversary of an abortion, or—how telling—what would have been the birthday of their aborted children. When they were asked if they felt guilty about their abortions, they all responded negatively; if it were wrong, it wouldn’t have been legal and acceptable.

Let us broaden our understanding of the (un)Holy Innocents, of the Secular Innocents, who have faith in their country and in her laws.

Happy Feast Day, St. Thomas a Becket. You knew well whereof you spoke.