Here is the text of this Pro-Life Homily that Fr. Shroff gave at Good Shepherd Parish, Ottawa, Canada:

In today’s Gospel, we see that when Jesus speaks, when He performs a miracle, when He teaches or acts in any manner, different people respond to His words or actions in different ways. Some see in Him a great prophet. Others see in Him a deceiver of the people. Yet others discover in Him the long-awaited for Messiah, promised by God to His people from the very beginning. His persecutors judge Him rashly, without giving Him a fair hearing. They interpret all things according to their pre-conceived notions and beliefs. The mere presence of Jesus causes division in their midst, and some go so far as to call for His arrest, and even for His death. This is a prophetic fulfillment that reminds us of the sombre prophecy uttered by the agèd Simeon when Joseph and Mary presented Jesus in the Temple on the 40th day after His birth. Recall what Simeon says to Joseph and Mary as he takes the Infant Jesus into his arms: “Behold, this Child is set for the rise and fall of many in Israel, for He will be a sign of contradiction to the people.” A sign of contradiction. A stumbling block. A man of folly. Saint Paul recognized that this is what Jesus would be to the world, for he wrote in his first epistle to the Corinthians: “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and a folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.” (I Cor. 1:23-24).

Today’s world does not treat Jesus Christ any differently. The only difference is that the way in which Jesus Himself was treated in the time of Simeon, is the way in which today the world treats His Church. The Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, the extension of Jesus Christ in the world. And as such, she is treated no differently than was her Lord. Remember what Jesus Himself said, “The disciple is not greater than the Master.” If the Master was scorned, ridiculed, mocked, is it really surprising to any of us that His Bride, the Church, would have to undergo the same fate?

Today, the Catholic Church is re-living the Passion of Christ. She is ridiculed for her dogmas and beliefs; she is mocked for her creeds and religious ceremonies; she is persecuted for her moral teachings and condemnation of sin and vice. One can almost hear Jesus Himself today crying out to the Father on behalf of His Church, as He did on the Cross on behalf of Himself, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The world has never really embraced the Gospel, and especially not the Mystery of the Cross. The world has never understood the Church’s doctrines or her Sacraments. But what the modern world, especially here in the west, especially cannot tolerate is the Church’s fidelity and teachings in the area of morality and ethics.

The Catholic Church is strongly pro-life. She is also pro-marriage, and pro-family. She believes neither that the unborn (conceived in their mother’s womb), nor the elderly (suffering in their old age) should be condemned to death. The Church believes that all life is sacred, from natural conception to natural death. This is why she also teaches that forms of artificial birth control, that close off the conjugal act to its inherent openness to life, are never morally permissible. For the Church, life is a gift from God, and no one has the right to terminate it prematurely or to prevents its conception and natural development. No one is God but God alone. No government, no organization, no individual or group has the right to play God.

In today’s society, more and more, this uncompromising position of the Catholic Church is mocked and ridiculed — just as Jesus Himself was in the Gospel. Public pressure, from all sides, is trying to get the Church to cave in, and to simply accept the culture of death. The culture of death’s primary mantra is “freedom”! In the name of freedom, anything and everything goes. And if anyone (including the Church) should tell someone that they cannot do X or Y or Z because it is immoral, then the hate-speech laws are invoked, to intimidate and silence those who dissent from the culture of death and of false freedom. Today’s culture, that prides itself in being so broad-minded and inclusive and accepting, accepts everything except the Truth. In the writings of the Prophet Isaiah, God warns His people about this as He says: “Woe to those who call good evil and evil good, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Is. 5:20). In other words, woe to those who call what is immoral good, and who mock and deride what is good and holy and true as if it were evil and perverse. Life, as a precious gift from God, is routinely seen as a “problem,” as something that needs to be eradicated if it comes in the way of one’s personal freedom; and death, in the case of euthanasia, is routinely presented as a good and a compassionate alternative. It is wrong to comfort and strengthen those who are suffering and in pain, and the “right thing” simply involves terminating their pain by terminating their existence. Killing is thus seen as an act of compassion and love, and if anyone dare to say otherwise, then that person is condemned as someone who lacks compassion, as if they were the source of the person’s suffering.

The Church responds to the culture of death by presenting life as the first and most fundamental right. All human beings have the right to live. No innocent human life can be suppressed at will, because God is the Author of life; it is He who decides when to give it and when to take it away.

This culture of death, though, is (very sadly) not just present in the secular world. There are some even within the Church who advocate it, and who simply do not understand that one cannot be a Catholic and not be pro-life. No Catholic can endorse policies that attack life, family, or Truth in general. Dissent from the Church’s moral teachings puts a Catholic outside the Church, and (sadly), there are so many Catholics today who prefer to follow the ways of the world rather than the Gospel Truths given to us by Jesus Himself through His Church. And so what we really need today is not just an evangelization of the secular world, but a re-evangelization from within the Church directed towards Catholics themselves. Many Catholics form their conscience from the secular culture in which they live — thus they have no problems with abortion, euthanasia, unnatural forms of marriage, etc. The New Evangelization necessarily will involve a reaching out to such Catholics. We must reach out to them — firmly but with great love — and help them to see that no one who claims to be a disciple of Jesus can live in a way that glorifies evil. “You are God’s children,” St. John tells us in his first epistle, “children of light. Walk therefore as children of the Light and put aside the works of darkness.”

Today, at this Mass, let us pray in particular for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, the One who leads us into the fullness of Truth. He is the One who will help us and the world today to cast aside its works of darkness and embrace fully and completely the Light of God. We will be celebrating that Light in a special way in just two weeks at the Easter Vigil. There, we will proclaim for the whole Church and the entire world the Truth by which we are all called to live in this world: the Truth that Christ is our Light, and to which we will all joyously reply, “Thanks be to God.” Thanks be to God for giving us Eternal, Divine Light in the Person of Jesus, who is “God from God [and] Light from Light.” May He enlighten us and help us to always choose Light over Darkness, and Life over Death.

In the Name + of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.