Catholicism and the Seamless Garment
The Sanctity of all Human Life is Central to Church Moral Teaching
Christians believe that the sanctity of all human life is the central, core belief that dominates the “seamless garment” argument of the Catholic Church.
Human life is defined from the point of conception, going right to the heart of the abortion and pro-choice debate. For Catholics, the question of “viability” as enunciated in Roe v Wade (1973) is not an option. Respect for the sanctity of life and protecting life has always been part of Catholic moral teachings. Some believe that the seamless garment argument, however, is best supported by Biblical truth.
God as the Creator of all Life
All Christians believe that God created life. Although interpretations vary based on how literal Christians tend to be when reading Genesis, the fact remains that life and the very act of creation is attributed to God. Even Deists that rejected supernatural interpretations of the Bible saw God as the Creator.
For Christians, the act of creation is on-going in terms of the human time continuum. Thus, in Jeremiah 1.5 God says, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.” Christians that “buy into” the Bible, even on a superficial level, are confronted by the fact that a creator God who is beyond the limitations of human time is not only involved in the initial act of “creation,” but is involved in the creation of every soul conceived.
Other Biblical passages corroborate this. Further, only God can take a human life. Humans do not have the license to take another’s life. As theologian Karl Barth argued, capital punishment is not only an affront to creation, but seeks to take a life that was infused with the breath of God at the moment of man’s initial creation. Existentialists might argue that in killing another person, a person is actually killing himself because the human race is tied together by a life force.
The Principle of Life and Capital Punishment
In 1995 the film Dead Man Walking aroused interest in capital punishment. The movie was based on a book by Sister Helen Prejean, a nun with the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Sister Helen’s prison ministry demonstrated that even the vilest criminals by social standards were created in God’s image and deserving of repentance. The seamless garment, as defined by Chicago’s late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, applies to death row as it does to every situation where human life is taken out of God’s paradigm.
Marching for Life
Every January, hundreds of thousands converge on Washington, DC to participate in the March for Life. Most of the delegates are Catholics and many are young people, students at Catholic institutions. Although Roe v Wade may never be overturned — despite the fact that six of the nine Supreme Court Justices are Catholic — their demonstration of free speech and assembly is a vivid reminder.
Recent polls conducted by the Guttmacher Institute demonstrate that fewer women are having abortions in less developed and under-developed countries, primarily because of the availability of drugs and devices to prevent pregnancy. At the same time, however, acceptance of the pro-choice position in the United States has grown. This can be attributed to many factors.
The overriding concern for Catholics and pro-life Protestants, however, is the issue of life itself. It involves abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, and assisted suicide. It is this key issue that will, eventually, separate the “sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25).
All Human Life is Sacred
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