Here is distressing news from Pakistan:
At a morgue in Pakistan's largest city, five linen pouches -- each the size of a loaf of bread -- line the shelf of a walk-in freezer. Wrapped inside each small sack is the corpse of an infant. The babies are victims of what one relief agency calls Pakistan's worst unfolding tragedy: the killing and dumping of newborns.
"Sometimes they hang them, and sometimes they kill by the knife, and sometimes we find bodies which have been burned," said Anwar Kazmi, a manager at Edhi Foundation, Pakistan's largest privately run social service and relief agency.
Records at Edhi Foundation show that more than 1,200 newborns were killed and dumped in Pakistan last year, an increase of about 200 from the previous year. Families view many of these children as illegitimate in a culture that condemns those born outside of marriage.
In the US, we abort a little under a million babies annually. While years ago it was done out of shame about illegitimacy, that shame has since disappeared. Now the babies are usually killed either because they are inconvenient or have medical defects.
As horrifying as the Pakistani account it -- and we must admit that it's because of the sheer visible violence that cannot be hidden -- it differs from our domestic situation only in that our babies are slightly younger and can be disposed of more discreetly. Let it be remembered that the Catholic Church has always stood by the humanity of the unborn, and fearlessly, unwaveringly defended their right to life.
God forgive us for our murderous sins -- and may those who claim to honour God see Him in each of these little ones, who have done nothing wrong.