Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 14, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).
Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample condemned what he described as a “celebration of death” after Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed a proclamation to make March 10 an “appreciation day” for abortionists.
“There are moments when words fail,” Sample wrote in a March 13 letter that also offered a pastoral teaching about the sanctity of human life.
Those moments, he wrote, include “when the mind stares into the abyss and finds no bottom. When all that’s left is a kind of stunned silence — the kind you feel when you realize just how far a culture can drift from reality.”
Sample wrote that Kotek’s creation of an “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day” is “one of those moments.”
“Not just the act of abortion itself, but the celebration of it,” he added. “The idea that those who make a living ending innocent, unborn life should be publicly honored. Thanked. Applauded.”
“This isn’t just moral confusion. It’s something deeper. A kind of spiritual blindness so thick that what should be self-evident — the sheer wonder and worth of a human life — is obscured entirely.”
Sample’s harsh rebuke came two days after Kotek, a Democrat, signed a proclamation on March 10 establishing the new honor.
The governor said she “appreciated” the work of abortionists. She cited the rising number of abortions in Oregon performed on women from other states. In a statement she told abortionists and women seeking abortion: “I continue to have your back.”
The increased number of out-of-state abortions in Oregon comes as some states, including neighboring Idaho, pass laws to adopt pro-life protections for unborn children that restrict abortions.
‘Deep down, we know’
Sample wrote that pro-abortionist ideology constantly relies on “euphemism.”
Instead of saying “killing,” he wrote that advocates hail “choice.” Rather than acknowledging that abortionists are “ending a life,” they invoke the phrase “reproductive freedom.” The archbishop said the language is “carefully chosen … not to tell the truth, but to make the truth more palatable.”
“Because deep down, we know,” the archbishop stated. “We know what abortion is. We know what it does. And we know that no amount of slogans or legal jargon can make a wrong thing right. And yet, modern culture insists on turning tragedy into triumph. It demands not just tolerance for abortion, not just legal protection, but celebration. It must be honored, enshrined.”
Within this ideological framework, Sample said human life is treated as “an obstacle, a burden, a problem to be solved,” rather than “a gift.”
“This is what happens when a culture loses its sense of the sacred,” the archbishop warned. “When it stops seeing existence as a miracle, as something given, something to be received with gratitude. Instead, life is reduced to a transaction. A commodity to be managed. And, when necessary, discarded.”
The promotion and celebration of abortion, according to Sample, is “a spiritual issue” and “is not just about politics or law or even ethics.” Rather, the debate around abortion, he said, “is about how we see reality itself” and whether life is “a gift” or “an accident” and whether “a baby is something to be received with awe” or “something to be discarded at will.”
“Is love the foundation of the universe? Or is it simply power?” the archbishop wrote. “Modernity has chosen the latter. It has built an entire system — legal, medical, ideological — on the premise that some lives matter more than others. That some are expendable. That the strong can dictate the terms of existence.”
In spite of the persistence of abortion proponents, Sample said “something feels off” and that “the need to frame it as a social good, as a moral necessity, reveals the guilt just beneath the surface.”
On a more hopeful note, the archbishop reminded the faithful that darkness “doesn’t get the final word” and that the Gospel “is not about condemnation” but is rather an invitation “even for those who have celebrated abortion [and] even for those who have profited from it.”
The prelate said that “grace is still available” and “forgiveness is still possible” for all people.
“The truth lingers,” Sample said. “It cannot be fully erased. The unborn child is not just tissue. Not just an inconvenience. But a presence. A reality. A life.”
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Seems to me that we have here a bishop who’s a follower of Jesus Christ
Please publicize this video in youtube from Dr. Anthony Levatino M.D. Gynecologist Obstetrician and former abortionist detailing the horrors of abortion procedures at the different stages of pregnancy. Show it especially to young women who are not told in school the true details of abortion at the different stages; in this video age this is a most effective way to combat the killings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hqoLEhrGmQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFZDhM5Gwhk&t=269s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFZDhM5Gwhk&t=269s
A model bishop for sure.
Speaking into the abyss.
Our thanks and prayers must go to this true Disciple of Christ, Archbishop Sample. But, that is not enough. We must cut this news article out wherever we see it — local newspaper, Catholic World Report, etc. — and mail it to our own local Ordinary [Cardinal or Bishop.] Ask them to be strengthened by what true discipleship looks like. If theirs is lacking or insufficient or invisible, ask them to be strengthened by the knowledge that speaking the truth is a requirement for good Shepherds, if they are to be true shepherds and not just wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Today, I asked a priest to bless some religious articles. He was leading a tour group. I said: “Thank you, especially for your priesthood.” He blushed, looked so happy, squeezed my hand and smiled.
We should do this more often for our wonderful clergy.
So, to Archbishop Sample: Thank you for speaking the truth in love for our unborn brothers and sisters. Thank you for your priesthood and saying Yes to lead us as a Bishop.
Amen.
Sick sick sick!
2 people enter an abortion clinic, one exits.
Enough said.
Oregon was one of the very last states still practicing eugenic sterilizations. I believe back when Oregon became a state it was set up to exclude people of colour and some Oregon communities had a reputation as Sundown towns.
Oregon had a long history voting GOP.
Human rights violations seem to come from the same inspirations no matter which political label is applied.
Let’s see if any other clergy speak up in his defense, because there will surely be those who attack him.
Oregon’s most recent governors, Brown and Kotek, are enough to make anyone vomit. The both of them are a prime example of why liberal policies ruin everything. Sort of like the Midas Touch, except they turn everything into human blood instead of gold.
While glancing at “The Cardinal Newman Society” website, it stated that, “While too many of America’s schools and colleges, including much of Catholic education, have become battlegrounds for today’s culture wars, causing as many as 85 percent of Catholic youth to lose their faith by adulthood.”
After reading the above, I took a peek at where Gov. Kotek received some of her schooling. Lo and behold, it did not surprise me to learn that she spent time as a student at Georgetown University. Need I say more.
As it is probably unfair to cite only one institution of higher learning, allow me to mention one that is closer to where I reside and that being, the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.
U.S. Senator Peter Welch, a 1969 graduate of Holy Cross College, delivered the 2023 Holy Cross commencement address and was also given an honorary degree.
In presenting that degree to Sen. Welch, Vincent D. Rougeau, president of Holy Coss stated: “We are thrilled to present an honorary degree to Senator Welch. Senator Welch has championed many causes that are aligned with our College’s core values-making higher education accessible to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, stewarding our environment and engaging in constructive dialogue across differences. We are proud to count him among our alumni.” After hearing that, one could rightfully assume that Senator Walsh must be a wonderful senator well worthy of the accolades heaped upon him by Holy Cross. I wondered what other wonderful deeds Senator Walsh was instrumental in promoting and this is what I learned.
“With the Supreme Court overturning Roe, Peter has consistently supported legislation to protect and expand the right to abortion. He cosponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would create federal protection for abortion. He also supports fully funding Planned Parenthood and has fought to ensure veterans can access reproductive care regardless of where they live.”
All of a sudden, I’m beginning to wonder, could certain factions within our Catholic community believe that we are pointing our fingers at the wrong culprits? Could they believe that too many of us see evil where there isn’t any and that those who have a profound respect for life are full of malarkey? It would not shock me if many in our midst feel that abortion provider appreciation day is a wonderful thing and that it should be promoted by the Catholic Church. They probably already have designs on a request for the speedy canonization of the late Rev. Robert F. Drinan, S.J. as his strong support of abortion rights would more than make him worthy of being chosen patron saint of the day.
As March 10 is already designated as “ABORTION PROVDER APPRECIATION DAY” and like I reported in my opening paragraph, that “as many as 85 percent of Catholic youth to lose their faith by adulthood” would it be too far-fetched to imagine that some in authority would want March 10 designated as a “Holy Day of Obligation” in honor of those abortion providers.
May God help us.
“The need to frame it as a social good, as a moral necessity, reveals the guilt just beneath the surface” as worded by Archbishop Sample correctly frames the inviolability of conscience in the negative rather than positive. That is to say, it’s not that one’s viewpoint is inviolable, rather it’s the violation of what conscience informs the abortion purveyor is a serious sin.
Beneath the surface of the celebration of intrinsic evil, the killing of infants in the womb is what conscience condemns. This dynamic stems from the Natural Law Within, what is written on the hearts of men, the inherent knowledge of good and of evil. Which is why murder, false witness can never be justified by rational argument. Our inherent knowledge of good and evil serves as the rule for reason, the measure of the rule.
While overly brief, but clearly reaffirmed in Gaudium et Spes, is this:
“…the Council wishes to recall first of all the permanent binding force of universal natural law and its all-embracing principles. Man’s conscience itself gives ever more emphatic voice to these principles. Therefore, actions which deliberately conflict with these same principles, as well as orders commanding such actions, are criminal. Blind obedience cannot excuse those who yield to them” (ibid., n. 79).