Catholics cannot downplay the sex and drugs culture and be authentically pro-life

Nein!

They can't.  At the end of 2016, over 35 million souls have died of HIV.  Over twice that many have been infected.  In the United States, well over a half million have died of AIDS, with over 1,200,000 living with HIV in the US.  In 2012, almost 14,000 people died of HIV/AIDS.  That's as many as are murdered by guns in the US every year.  Compare the coverage and focus by our media and church leaders.

And that is just HIV/AIDS (which, it should be added, has been on the rise over the last decade here in the US).  This doesn't count the plethora of STDs, some of which can be serious and incurable.  STDs, it should be added, are also on the rise.

This doesn't get into the emotional and psychological impact of our sex culture, the impact on children that results from cohabitation and divorce, and the burden that is placed on society by broken families and single motherhood.  Sorry, but stats - which admittedly can be manipulated - are in universal agreement, even when it's clear they don't want to be.  Our divorce culture, which is necessary to sustain our sex culture, is a wrecking ball on society and individuals.  And it exists largely to accommodate a population weaned on the pleasures of sex and narcissism without accountability.

We haven't even gotten into the drugs part.  There is no way I've found to count the millions of lives that have been lost and ruined from illegal drug use.  And that's not counting today.  By all accounts, the drug pandemic that has exploded over the last several years is claiming more lives than guns, auto accidents, or Donald Trump.

It's that bad.  So even with a sympathetic, pro-drugs and sex culture spin, we can say that the 20th Century's emphasis on all things hedonism has claimed far more in America than all the wars ever fought in US history.  And that's just America.  Add to that the global body count and we're in the tens of millions.

This doesn't include abortion.  Despite the New Pro-Life Movement's insistence that abortion is largely the result of women given no choice but to abort babies because of male chauvinism and capitalism, there is reason to believe that legalized abortion is there largely as a giant safety net to sustain our obsession with libidos above all things,

In light of all this, we're told: mercy, which is then used to sweep the entire issue under the carpet by Church leadership.  I seldom hear this spoken of at all.  I can't remember the last time I heard a homily (that's sermon to you Evangelicals out there) mentioning it.  And across the once vaunted St. Blogs, most NPLM advocates spend nary a day once a year bemoaning it.  And that's when they're not blowing beer out their noses and celebrating the latest pop culture contribution to sustaining all things debauch.

Sorry.  To downplay, dismiss, or - worse - indulge in this culture of death, suffering, misery, oppression and slavery to our basest passions in order to excuse a noticeable swing to the Left cancels out all pro-life bona fides.  It's time for some repentance, and stepping away from those who have buried the tens of millions of carcasses sacrificed on our society's collective libidos.  Wanting to be accepted is just not enough reason to ally with such a human travesty that will no doubt be judged brutally in generations to come.