Fr. Horan, no one is claiming that all life isn’t equally sacred. No one. What we ARE claiming is that it isn’t equally threatened. There is only one group of innocent people in our society who can legally be killed for no reason whatsoever...the unborn. https://twitter.com/danhoranofm/status/1308757418084651019

If there were a candidate for public office saying that it should be legal to kill ___ (blacks, Hispanics, LGBTQ, whoever), I would speak up just as vociferously against such a candidate. Thank God there isn’t one, at least AFAIK.

Conflating these various matters does a disservice to people. Here’s an example. The Church is clear that people have a right to health care. No argument from me there. But the Church doesn’t say, “The ACA is the best (or even only) way to provide this.” She can’t.

There could be any number of ways to ensure people receive adequate health care. The ACA could be one. So could other ideas. But no one is running around saying someone ought to be denied health care coverage.

The Church is also clear that people have a right to emigrate, and that refugees have a right to seek asylum. Again, no argument from me. But the Church also teaches that a country has a right to regulate its borders.

She leaves it to the citizenry and elected officials to determine how best to meet the right of persons to migrate. But the Church is clear in the inviolability of human life. There’s never a situation when the intentional destruction of innocent human life can be justified.

Thus, there’s never a situation where it can licitly be codified in positive law, as it directly violates natural law, which Aquinas says is man’s rational participation in the Divine Law.

Advocating that it should be legal to kill unborn children places one at odds with both natural law and by extension Divine Law. Thus, there IS a hierarchy of values. Conflating all of these matters does nothing but confuse the faithful.