July 2025 Newsletter
Featured article: "The Perspective of the Individual"
Annabella Salvucci
Have you ever felt like the pro-life movement, as great as it is, lacks the burning fire that calls people to do something? Well, it’s true! Imagine feeling bad, individually, for the millions of babies who have died. Overwhelming, no? Let me explain. No, that’ll take too long. Let me sum up.
Humans are fine-tuned to feel sympathy for individuals. You may cry at the death of book characters, but not of faraway groups of people dying in war. This is human nature, and cannot be changed. You can only love someone you know. If you think of some faraway person that is in distress as a true person with dreams, pain, and grief, their situation appears much sadder. Why? Because souls. We care about souls more than bodies, like how we care less for animals who die that have lesser souls than us (unless you’re vegan, I guess). Only individuals can have souls. There is no “soul of people dying in Israel," just multiple souls per person (but let’s not get into politics here). Only an individual can be felt sympathy for, and we can’t change that.
On the flip side, when we speak of a group, although there may be mild pity for the group, there is no actual emotional pain. They seem so far away, the group together has no soul for us to pity, they’re like a machine full of individuals but together is nothing that the human mind can feel for. Not that that’s necessarily a good thing, it just is. No compassion for groups, and more so for the larger ones.
Perhaps you see where I’m going with this. The unborn babies are a massive group, and because we never get to know them if they are, like their title, unborn; it’s very difficult to feel compassion for them. And without compassion there is no driving fire to call us to action. Well, that sucks for them. It is impossible to discover the individual, and without the individual we feel less inclined to fight. What now?
When I was at summer camp, two girls at the talent show performed the same pro-life song that Emily put in the last newsletter. In case you didn’t listen to it (shame on you, it’s great) it’s about an unborn girl who got aborted, and this girl was singing the song from her perspective, talking about all her dreams that never came true. When I heard it for the first time at camp, I nearly cried. Same with the other one hundred girls there, many dabbing their eyes on their shirts. I had never felt so bad for unborn babies until that moment. Because, all of the sudden, the unborn baby was posed, if not as an individual, as a character. A character with a soul. Suddenly, someone had created empathy for someone impossible to feel empathy before.
All in all, perhaps in the pro-life movement we’d have better luck if we talk more about characters than groups. Doesn’t matter if the character is fictional, haven’t you ever cried when your favorite book character died? Well, maybe that’s more of a girl thing. But telling stories, real or not, is more inspiring than saying “the unborn.” Talk about the individual, not the group.
And now leave with a fun little story from who knows where.
A man was walking along the beach, and scattered along the beach were thousands of dying starfish baking in the sun. A kid on the beach picked up one of the starfish and flung it back into the ocean, saving his life.
“Why are you doing that?” the man asked, flabbergasted. “There is no way you can save all the starfish on the beach!”
“No,” the kid replied. “But I can save that one.”
A Story
This is a story that actually happened in the 600's-ish B.C., and it has always reminded me of the pro-life movement. Thought it may be fun to share! (if you want to read the primary source, it’s Herodotus Book 1, paragraph 107)
It is Persia during the reign of Astyages. The king’s daughter had recently married Cambyses, who was a fairly low ranking man. Astyages had a dream that his daughter, Mandane, would have a child that would overtake his throne. In a panic, Astyages had Mandane locked away, and when her child, Cyrus, was born he ordered his steward, Harpagus, to kill it. Once he promised to do it, Cyrus was handed to him. Crying the whole way, Harpagus took the child home.
Harpagus told his wife all that happened, and swore that “no matter how lunatic his tirades become I refuse to go along with his scheme. Me, the instrument of such a murder? Never!” Unable to do the deed, Harpagus summoned Mithridates, one of Astyages’s cowherds, and gave him the baby to kill. He told Mithridates to leave the baby on the mountainside and let it die, and then he’d come to make sure it was dead.
Mithridates went home, and described to his wife that the whole household of Harpagus was weeping, and how he must kill him. He showed the baby to his wife, who was so moved by the sight of him that she begged on her knees to spare his life. Mithridates saw no alternative to leaving Cyrus to die, but his wife had an idea.
Her own child had just been born dead, so they could raise Cyrus as their own and give Harpagus their boy instead. Mithridates loved the idea, and so switched their clothes and fooled Harpagus.
After growing up under a different name, Cyrus was eventually discovered to be the prince’s son. And he did, indeed, take over the throne and change the course of history. Without him, the chain of history would be broken and for all we know America may never have been found without him. We may owe our existence to the fact that Harpagus didn’t kill Cyrus, although Astyages did trick him into eating his own son as punishment which is just disgusting. And then Harpagus and Cyrus revolted against Astyages a few decades later, but I digress.
Moral of the story: wanna keep the throne? Don’t kill your baby! (just kidding guys, just kidding)
– Annabella Salvucci
Prayers
Psalm CXL
Lord, let my prayers be directed like incense in thy sight
The lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice
Set a watch, O Lord, about my mouth
And a door round about my lips
So that my heart may not incline to evil words
And seek excuses in sins.
Quotes
“The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or sovereign.” – St. Teresa of Calcutta
"Give us the grace - When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, to stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life." – Saint Pope John Paul II, HSC SFL's patron Saint
"Given the breakdown in family life, the wholesale attack on innocent and defenseless human lives, and the violation of the integrity of the union of marriage in our society, the call to the martyrdom of witness is ever more urgent." – Cardinal Burke
Memes
News
Annabella Salvucci
A New Way of Taking Videos of Embryos Proves That Unborn Babies Are Alive
Embryoscopy is a way of taking videos of an embryo, and it’s brand new. This method has discovered proofs of life like a heartbeat and movement in the earliest stages of development, and by early I mean 22 days after conception! These videos debunk the pro-choice claim that unborn babies are not alive, and besides that it’s just fun to see cute babies growing in their early stages :)
Upcoming Events
Rosary for Life: August 5th @ 7pm
Apologetics Night: August 12th @ 7pm
Monthly Meeting: August 18th @ 7pm
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