May 19, 2007

Freedom of Choice

Hat tip to Fran Warner and Tom Lewis. They covered their artwork at the 13th Biennial Exhibition at the ARTSWorcester Aurora Gallery at 660 Main St(May 11-June 22, free and open to the public) when abortion industry giant Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts held a fund-raiser there last night. See Catholic Free Press 5/17.

Said Warner, "I plan on covering my work with a cloth in protest against the use of a 'free exhibit' to raise funds for something I am morally opposed to."

Warner's written plea to reconsider the Abortion Clinic Fundraiser was dismissed by ARTSWorcester executive director Janice Seymour, who said "The board's [ARTSWorcester] response was that they were dismayed Fran felt that way.". In a great Editorial, the CFP called Seymour's response "troubling, though typical."

As the CFP editorial saliently put it, ARTSWorcester and Seymour were "[n]ot dismayed to learn something new and terrible about the mistreatment of fellow human beings, but apparently dismayed that an associate felt bad about that. Such a response, however it is intended, smacks of the very narrow-minded paternalism that those who pride themselves on being open-minded condemn in others."

We've noticed this double standard in the Abortion Industry for years.

As Warner wrote in his letter to ARTSWorcester's Seymour, "Artists are supposed to be the people that help others to see the things that they would not normally see...We reflect on the beauty of life and sometimes the ugliness of the things that are diametrically opposed to beauty, life and truth."

Perhaps Seymour is really dismayed that Fran was being an Artist.

1 comment :

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

"We serve our laity best when we make every effort to provide for them, and in collaboration with them, a comprehensive and solid program of catechesis with the aim of 'maturing the initial faith and of educating the true disciple of Christ by means of a deeper and more systematic knowledge of the person and the message of our Lord Jesus Christ' (Catechesi Tradendae, 19). Such a program will also assist them in developing that habit of discernment which can distinguish the spirit of the world from the Spirit of God, and which can distinguish authentic culture from elements that degrade human dignity..." (Johannes Paulus II, Meeting with the American Bishops, September 16, 1987).