Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the West Philadelphia abortionist who was found guilty yesterday of the first-degree murder of three babies gave up his right to appeal in exchange for avoiding a possible death sentence.
He will reportedly be sentenced on the remaining charges, including the death of the third baby, on Wednesday.
So it looks like life imprisonment for Gosnell. He chose life imprisonment over death.
It’s time for me to do something I haven’t been able to bring myself to do yet. Pray for Kermit Gosnell. Pray that he invites the loving light of Jesus Christ into his heart and he seeks forgiveness for what he has done.
For his punishment on Earth Kermit Gosnell has chosen life over death. Now let’s pray he does the same with the hereafter.
May 15, 2013 at 8:49 pm
There's also Mark 10:18 – And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
Which I take as a warning about how we think of ourselves.
May 15, 2013 at 10:33 pm
One must be discreet and sensitive about making public announcements about who you are praying for.
Imagine telling a parent you are praying for the person who molested and murdered their child or announcing at a Holocaust memorial you are praying for the whole Nazi leadership.
You may wish to pray for these people but why tell anyone? Is there not the danger of being a a bit like a pharisee. I am such a good Christian I am praying for all these bad people. Are you not perhaps scandalising your brethren?
In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass this discretion is observed. At High Mass the Master of ceremonies retires from his position next to the celebrant for both the prayer for the living and for the dead lest he overhear the intention. No one knows who the priest is praying for.
I believe we should be similarly discreet.
May 15, 2013 at 10:44 pm
Anonymous – I think the discussion here has not been an announcement of "I'm so good I pray for x" as a reaction to a sense of "I hope he rots in hell" that we've seen among Christians. I doubt anyone here would be so indiscreet and unfeeling as to say the same things in an inappropriate situation. It's a discussion, and if ideas don't get kicked back and forth in a religious discussion we can't learn anything.
May 15, 2013 at 10:54 pm
….being patient with the peers,
The abortion drama is outrageous!
…finding out that this is "common" practise of the mainstream abortion industry has left many good people angry, shocked and shaken!
They're still in the midst of processing the horror!
…it was made worse, that providers and supporters acted with impunity and "NEVER" even hid their evil!
TALK ABOUT UNMITIGATED GALL!
Of course a human soul is a terrible thing to lose! Jesus said he would die for the glory of just one…;)
May 16, 2013 at 2:00 am
….by the way,
Gosnell is unrepentant,
Gosnell's lawyer says he didn't do anything wrong!
Oh brother! you sure make it hard!
Maybe when your assets and property are confiscated, looted or stolen maybe you"ll give humility a chance!
May 16, 2013 at 6:50 am
Since when does Gosnell's repentance depend on whether he is executed or imprisoned for life? I call to your attention the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, from Summa Contra Gentiles:
The fact that the evil, as long as they live, can be corrected from their errors does not prohibit the fact that they may be justly executed, for the danger which threatens from their way of life is greater and more certain than the good which may be expected from their improvement. They also have at that critical point of death the opportunity to be converted to God through repentance. And if they are so stubborn that even at the point of death their heart does not draw back from evil, it is possible to make a highly probable judgment that they would never come away from evil to the right use of their powers.
Moreover, God demands the exectuion of murderers. From Genesis 9: 5-6:
Murder is forbidden….Any person who murders must be killed. Yes, you must execute anyone who murders another person, for to kill a person is to kill a living being made in God’s image (New Living Translation).
akg41470, I sympathize with your opinion. One of the fundamental problems with Catholicism is a sentimentality toward sin that leads to equating the perpetrators of evil with the victims of evil. This is one reason, I believe, that church leaders did not vigorously protect the innocent from child-molesting priests (aside from blind corporate loyalty and institutional arrogance).
At the same time, however, God's only way of salvation is through Jesus Christ (not through the Catholic Church or any other religious institution). Nobody can generate enough righteousness on his own to meet God's standards. That's one reason why Christ died on the cross: to take the punishment for human sin that the human race deserved.
While it's true that God does not want anyone to perish, God made it clear through His Son that Jesus is the only way to Him — that anyone who tries to enter the sheepfold by any other means is a thief and a robber. Not everybody will embrace Jesus as Messiah.
May 16, 2013 at 6:56 am
By the way, hoping that Hitler is in Heaven is a waste of time. I'll tell you why, beyond the gratuitous evil he and his subordinates committed.
Before he committed suicide, Hitler dictated a will and political testament. Among his final wishes was that his successors "continue the struggle against international Jewry." That's a direct quote. We all know where that struggle led. Hitler then ordered three couriers to take copies to his successors. One of the couriers buried his copy in his backyard; that's the only way we know about the testament's existance.
Had Hitler truly repented, he would have issued orders countermanding his demand that the "struggle against international Jewry" be continued.
Repentance isn't merely saying, "I'm sorry." It's a complete re-orientation of one's life away from sinful behavior. It's something that "three Hail Marys, two Our Fathers and an Act of Contrition." can't really accomplish.
May 16, 2013 at 3:13 pm
It is good that the US judicial system still recognizes the right to life of babies who were born even if their parents' desired their death. It slaps down the sophism and wicked rationalization of Obama's legal doctrine about that subject. There is hope for the US as we have not yet been overcome by evil cloaked in law. The next thing now is to undo Roe.
May 16, 2013 at 3:16 pm
Anonymous said…One must be discreet and sensitive about making public announcements about who you are praying for.
You are right anonymous. I never thought that part of the sickening feeling I get is these people publicly taking the pharisee approach. After they walk into a room full of Americans of African descent and tell them all "I pray every day for every slave holder and I hope that they are heaven waiting for you." They are surprised when some of the people says "I do not."
What is pure evil, a form of attacking and trying to actually bring significant additional harm to the victim is when they follow their backhanded attack with "you are wrong, you are not Christian." Like they some how know the mind of God. Did God use Scott Roeder to save a soul in his wisdom he needed to come into the world. We do not know.
That is just sick. When Father Emmons lead his prayer group to pray primarily for 15 years outside Gosnell House of Horrors, praying for the un-baptized souls of the babies who Gosnell was killing, he, and exemplary man also prayed for Gosnell. What he asked for in his prayers he has never said. I assume he prayed that Gosnell stop. To the best of our knowledge he never did. But I would bet you a lunch that he did not force anyone else to pray for Gosnell.
How absolutely insulting, insensitive, arrogant to tell all Jews that you are praying for Hitler. I can only imagine the pain in a Jewish person heart to hear a bunch of so-called Christians publicly saying this.
I pray the all abortionists receive their just rewards sooner than later. I pray that the Lord does what he can to protect the babies scheduled to be murdered today, tomorrow and the next day.
I pray for the un-baptized victims of the child murders.
I pray for Scott Roeder that his burdens may be lifted, he may find peace in this world and the next.
I put a longer response here: http://charlescarrollsociety.com/2013/05/16/my-prayer-for-the-witch-doctor-gosnell/