Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was honored with a Life Prize Jan. 23 for his ongoing efforts to protect the lives of the unborn. Doerflinger, who has been on the pro-life front at the USCCB for almost three decades, recently reflected on the movement's recent past and what looms ahead in the not-so-distant future with Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of National Review Online.
In the wide-ranging Q&A, Doerflinger said many things that anyone interested in or involved in the pro-life movement needs to hear, but if you read only one quote, this should be it:
"I wish people realized how many times the Catholic Church has been proved right in its predictions about various directions being bad for us as a society. We said the widespread distribution of contraception would increase temptations to abortion and divorce, mislead people into thinking they could have sex without consequences, and threaten to trivialize sexuality. Is it possible to deny this has happened? We said depersonalizing reproduction through technologies such as in vitro fertilization would lead us to experiment on human embryos and tempt us to try human cloning. We said embryonic-stem-cell research was not only immoral but was being used to make promises of “miracle cures” that people couldn’t keep. In a way it’s frustrating to be right so often in these dire predictions, especially when hardly anyone ever comes back later and says 'Gee, sorry, you Catholics were right.'"
To read the full interview with Doerflinger, click HERE.
