The prophet Isaiah, the great prophet of the rights of the downtrodden, proclaimed that God had “formed me as his servant from the womb” (Is 49: 5). This ties together the 2 moments of civil rights that we celebrate in the coming week.

On January 15, 1929, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was born. His work led to fundamental rights being recognized for a class of persons. 44 years and 1 week after his birth, the United States Supreme Court removed the fundamental right to life from another class of persons.

That Rev. Dr. King had a dream. I am another Rev. Dr. King. I have a nightmare.

My nightmare is this: that on the Day of Judgment, when I stand before the throne of God, the chilling voices of the 60 million unborn martyrs killed since Roe v. Wade will cheer me on to Hell, because while they were being slaughtered in the womb I did so little to save them.

January 19, 2014
Msgr. William J. King