Originally published at National Catholic Register
Archbishop Sample’s harsh rebuke came two days after Kotek, a Democrat, signed a proclamation on March 10 establishing the new honor.
Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample condemned what he described as a “celebration of death” after Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed a proclamation to make March 10 an “appreciation day” for abortionists.
“There are moments when words fail,” Sample wrote in a March 13 letter that also offered a pastoral teaching about the sanctity of human life.
Those moments, he wrote, include “when the mind stares into the abyss and finds no bottom. When all that’s left is a kind of stunned silence — the kind you feel when you realize just how far a culture can drift from reality.”
Archbishop Sample wrote that Kotek’s creation of an “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day” is “one of those moments.”
“Not just the act of abortion itself, but the celebration of it,” he added. “The idea that those who make a living ending innocent, unborn life should be publicly honored. Thanked. Applauded.”
“This isn’t just moral confusion. It’s something deeper. A kind of spiritual blindness so thick that what should be self-evident — the sheer wonder and worth of a human life —
