If you needed an infusion of hope, the visit Pope Leo made to France was just that. I know, I know, many are more into the pope sending a prayerful greeting to his favorite baseball team, now (miraculously?) in the American League Division Series. But the videos of his time in France reminded me of when John Paul II went back to his native Poland, and the crowds insisted that they wanted God, not atheistic communism. There seemed to be something similar going on with a French twist with Leo.
The unforgettable image of his days there involved a ten-year-old girl in a blue dress named Marie-Garance. We did not need to know a thing about her to love her — and to see his love for her and the gift of her life.
This was during a remarkable popemobile parade down the Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde, lined with approximately 800,000 people, all of whom seemed in love, if a crowd can be described as such.
An Agence France-Presse photo of the encounter went viral.
“Marie-Garance was carried into the pope’s arms and looked at him with trust and a sense of surrender,” her adopted mother, Clotilde Noël, told reporters. “Carried by others, she represented that entire segment of humanity that is so often set aside because it is different, and particularly vulnerable.”
OSV News noted:
“This little girl was born anonymously, and that in itself is a miracle,” Noël continued. “I saw the pope’s blessing as a blessing for Marie-Garance’s biological parents as well. I pay tribute to them, because they chose to bring her into the world, despite all her disabilities. Through her, the pope’s blessing was for all courageous parents who face complicated, troubled lives, yet still decide to bring the children they carry into the world — even if other arms will eventually carry them, just as Marie-Garance was carried from hand to hand, all the way to the pope.”
Today, Clotilde and her husband, Nicolas, have 10 children, four of whom they have adopted — all their nonbiological children have disabilities.
JD Flynn at The Pillar wrote:
As Leo traveled the Champs-Elysees Saturday, he stopped to bless Marie-Garance Noel, a child with profound disabilities, adopted by a Catholic family, which has adopted other children with disabilities along the way.
The pope took Marie-Garance in his arms; he traced the cross on her forehead. A photo of the moment unfolds as a Pieta, the pontiff embracing a suffering Christ in the sufferings of Marie-Garance.
It may well become the most famous photo of the Leonine papacy, and deservedly so. When he embraced her, he seemed to embrace every sick and suffering person clinging to the heart of Jesus.
And, finally, Leo’s words. There were many, but here’s a blockbuster highlight from his extended time in Lourdes (which has a special place in the history of National Review magazine here and which I personally consider — and I’ve only been there once — one of the places on earth where the veil between heaven and earth is thinnest):
The human person is “worthy” simply by virtue of existing and of being destined for eternity. Our dignity cannot be measured or debated.
I know that for some of you, because of particular illnesses and, at times, terrible pain, your horizon may appear dark, uncertain and without hope. But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity. On the contrary, it is precisely in the name of this inalienable dignity of the human person that we must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion. It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral.
He added:
I urge you resolutely to develop structures for palliative care and research. At the same time, I urge you to accompany the sick with the tenderness that we see here in Lourdes, where doctors, nurses, stretcher-bearers, chaplains, pastoral teams serving the sick, and so many others live out their vocation in the service of the dignity of the human person, so that the world may have life. In caring for bodies, you also bind up wounded souls. To you, dear members of the hospitality groups, and to the healthcare workers who devote yourselves to serving your brothers and sisters, I express my deepest gratitude.
Just wait until he comes here for the World Series! I jest. That said: We’d better get ready for when the first American pope returns home. We need God to convert our hearts somewhat radically to prepare for the people who will come out of the woodwork to see what it is that he has that they feel drawn to.
FedEx as the New Abortion Clinic
It’s not rare for me to get a text prayer request from someone walking into a meeting. I don’t think Pia de Solenni would mind me mentioning this was the case on Monday as she was walking into a FedEx annual shareholders’ meeting. A theologian at IWP Capital, she was hoping hearts might be open to the proposal she was presenting regarding mail-order abortion pills.
That’s right. When you see your local FedEx truck, it may very likely include packages of abortion pills. As I have mentioned here before, I could very easily get abortion pills overnighted to me right now, despite the fact I’m beyond pregnancy years.
FedEx does prohibit items: switchblades, “seditious and treasonable matter,” and Kinder Surprise Eggs.
She noted that the Comstock Act prohibits “‘any express company or common carrier’ to transport drugs intended for producing abortion.”
And she also pointed out that:
More than 20 states restrict or prohibit abortion-inducing drugs within their borders.
Online pharmacies openly advertise that they use FedEx to ship abortion pills into those states.
FedEx didn’t change its policy, but the education/objection was raised.
I’m assuming Kinder Eggs because they might contain a choking hazard for kids. Which would be rich. If they happen to survive abortion, they will be protected from a candy killing them.
“If FedEx can prohibit Kinder Surprise Eggs, it can prohibit abortion pills that do irreparable harm to women and children,” Pia pointed out.
The more people become aware of how ridiculously easy it is to get abortion pills — pills that kill babies and harm women — the better. As I’ve said before, I’m certain most people don’t realize what a reckless Wild West of a business this is.
Also this week, the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana decided to sue California, New York, and Massachusetts over their shield laws keeping names of prescribing doctors off abortion pill bottles as they are shipped across state lines.
Liz Murrill, the attorney general of Louisiana, said there are at least 800 abortions happening in Louisiana a month. That, in a state where the unborn are supposed to be protected by law, where abortions are mostly prohibited.
I wrote a little about the AGs’ press conference here, highlighting the two elements of the legal complaints. I pray they are both legally successful and, again, serve to wake people up to the reality of abortion in the United States.
The Mercy of Welcoming Baby
When Anne Hathaway appeared on The Tonight Show this week to promote the new movie Verity, she was not only unmistakably pregnant — about to pop — she submitted to the full-on acknowledgment that there was not one guest sitting in the guest chair, but two.
“Oh my gosh, you’re ready! You’re ready!” Jimmy Fallon said to the actress.
“Hi, Baby! Welcome to The Tonight Show! So happy that you’re here. Can’t wait to meet you!”
“Me, too,” Hathaway replied.
For anyone who feels like we’ve been experiencing the fullness of her pregnancy — you only have to be half paying attention — she confirmed she knew she was pregnant when she appeared on the show in April for The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Obviously pregnant for months now, she’s a beautiful sight on the red carpets. (Has so much maternity gala-wear ever been made, never mind featured so prominently?)
She’s been criticized for being a new mom over 40, for which I defended (!) her here. The visuals of a pregnant Hathaway have been particularly striking because she had previously described abortion as a “mercy” on The View.
New life is hope and joy, and we’re seeing that. May it become contagious in a culture that has been known to snuff out that life and all the opportunities that come with it.
Other Things
George Weigel: A Terrible Coarsening
If the victor of D-Day, Dwight D. Eisenhower, could write of that bloodletting that “the loss of lives that could have been creatively lived scars the mind of the modern world,” what would Ike say about 65 million would-be Americans deliberately killed before they were born?
Please pray for one of New York’s finest advocates for the most vulnerable human life. The last time I saw Jason McGuire, president and CEO of the New York Families Foundation and New York Families Action, he welcomed me to the Albany statehouse for the final arguments on assisted suicide in New York. We lost. He has since been diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer (after an unjust ordeal inflicted upon him by the radical ideologue who runs the AG’s office in the Empire State — it involved jail time) and explains here why he will decline assisted suicide.
Emma Waters: Birth Tourism’s Next Evolution: Commissioned Citizenship: The international surrogacy industry is “a child-welfare catastrophe.”
Daniel McCarthy in the New York Post: Horrific killing of a Canadian grandma exposes Democrats’ euthanasia goal for the rest of us
The College Fix: California’s public campuses must offer abortions. None advertise prenatal care.
Nathanael Blake in World: Innovations in baby-selling: Why have so many conservatives been slow to see the evils of the IVF and surrogacy industries?
There is an unexpected story of Michael McDonald of Doobie Brothers fame: He recently met his biological son for the first time. From a local St. Louis news story:
McDonald and [Michael] Goessling’s biological mother has remained a close friend over the years. Over a FaceTime call, McDonald described the emotional weight of not knowing what happened to his son.
“We always talked about him. And it always came down to our greatest fear was, how did life treat him?” McDonald said. “I always carried that guilt with me. But just to know that he was okay and that he had a good life, and a life certainly that I wouldn’t have been able to afford him at that time, was a great reward. The real rock stars in this story are his adoptive parents.”
The two later met in person, embracing warmly.
“When he first saw me, he put his arms out, gave me a big old bear hug and told me he loved me, and I told him the same,” Goessling said.
Around National Review
Wesley J. Smith:
• Medical Conscience Is Under Assault at Home and Abroad
• Sacrificing Human Thriving on the Altar of Environmentalist Earth Religion
• Dave Yost: Doctors Didn’t Leave Idaho Because of Its Abortion Law
• Michael J. New: The Hyde Amendment Turns 50
• Christopher J. Scalia: My ‘Buddy’ System: The Nickname I Vowed Never to Call My Sons
• Caroline Downey: The Cornell Seven Case and the Perils of Sexual Liberation
• Charles C. W. Cooke: Am I Lying to Myself About the Death Penalty?
• Skyler Safriet: The Post-Roe Abortion Cause Is Still Finding Ways to Loosen the Law
Me:
• Fulton Sheen Was More Than an Influencer Saint
• Life vs. Death, States Edition
• The State Should Not Kill Bipolar People
• Saints of New York Podcast: Surrender to Jesus Christ: The Life of St. Rene Goupil, Martyr
Upcoming
There will be a Mass for the repose of the soul of Dovie Eisner — a reader of National Review and friend of many associated with us, who had become a voice against assisted suicide just before he lost his voice and ultimately died. It’s at St. Vincent Ferrer Church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which was the last place he went to confession and Mass, the night before the incident that put him in a long coma. The Mass will be October 8 at 9:30 a.m. Thanks to Father Peter Martyr, the pastor there, and the Tomaino family for organizing it.
October is Respect Life Month, and this Sunday is Respect Life Sunday. I had a recent conversation with Kat Talalas from the Catholic bishops’ conference about practical aspects of this — how it can ignite some real renewed resources for women and families — with a spotlight on the bishops’ Walking with Moms in Need initiative here.
October is also Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month; October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. There is also the Early Pregnancy Loss Association.
Let Heaven’s Gain be a resource.
The National Council for Adoption is looking for a director of advocacy and communications.
Please keep coming back. Praying for you. Please pray for us here at National Review, keeping the light for life on! Love, klopez@nationalreview.com.