Two nuns called “Deirdre” and how one defines pro-life

I wasn’t quite sure where Sr. Deirdre (‘Dede’) Byrne’s prayer at the Republican National Convention was going and was pleasantly surprised to hear her acknowledge:

… those fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries all around the world. Those refugees all share a common experience. They have all been marginalized, viewed as insignificant, powerless and voiceless.

For a moment, given her admirable dedication and service, I thought I might hear a prophetic statement that aimed to call the 45th President of the United States to account for his legacy of denigrating and marginalizing the very people she was praying for. 

Sr. Dede mentions only refugees, but I am sure she was not forgetting migrants because I was thinking of Mexican migrants and immigrants whom POTUS45 famously branded as not their country’s best, comprising mainly drug dealers, criminals and rapists.

Sr. Deirdre informed us that having entered religious life in 2002, she had served the poor and the sick in Haiti and African countries, but she made no reference to their description as ‘shitholes’ by President Trump, earning resounding rebukes from the United Nations and the African Union.

Despite her admirable dedication and service to the poor, Sr. Byrne, however, remained silent beyond prayerful platitudes and instead, immediately transitioned into the vexed issue of abortion:

… while we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. They are the unborn.

Who the ‘we’ are that Sr. Deirdre referred to, I do not know.

But I can assure her that many religious Sisters would not subscribe to the notion of the marginalized ‘living beyond our borders,’ because we deal with them in every town and city where we serve across the United States. Some are white, but most are black, Hispanic, and indigenous.

Like Sr. Byrne, I too consider myself pro-life, but I am deeply disturbed by her assuming the high moral ground of the unborn to proclaim an indubitable endorsement for a Trump-Pence second-term, proclaiming: 

Donald Trump is the most pro-life president this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics.

President Trump will stand up against Biden/Harris, who are the most anti-life presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide.

Because of his courage and conviction, President Trump has earned the support of America’s pro-life community. Moreover, he has a nationwide of religious standing behind him.

As a woman religious, I feel duty-bound and an urgency to respond to the claim that “Donald Trump is the most pro-life president this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages.” 

Really?

Furthermore, despite her stated religious foundation of humility, Sr. Deirdre assumes the right to speak on behalf of America’s “pro-life community”, stating that Trump has earned its support and has “a nationwide of religious standing behind him.” 

This is patently untrue.

Like Sister Deirdre, I too have had wide and varied experiences working globally with the marginalized. 

Over the past four years, I have listened carefully to the public utterances of President Trump and have not found in him a President who seeks to embody the sacred motto of our nation, emblazoned on the seal of the President of the United States of America – E pluribus unum. 

Instead, I have heard a man who speaks only to his base, who has abused the hallowed environs of the White House for purely partisan politics and who has sought to demonize and denigrate those with whom he disagrees.

I have seen a President who has damaged strategic relationships with our allies and undermined international bodies such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization, all the while lauding dictators such as Putin, Kim Jong-un, Bolsonaro and bin Salman, with little care for the illegal annexing of Crimea, the placing of bounties on the heads of American servicemen and women, the undermining of our democratic process, human rights violations, the destruction of the Amazon or the murder and mutilation of esteemed journalists.

To reduce the crisis to the single issue of abortion, especially lauding a President who, in a previous life, categorically stated, “I am pro-choice in every respect,” is misleading and dishonest. 

Are we to believe that Donald Trump underwent a Damascus conversion? Or is his current position one of political expediency that, chameleon-like, can change color again should he see an advantage? 

As a teacher, I know that words matter. I also know that words can be cheap. 

In the Letter of St. James 2:18 we are told: “But someone may say: So you have faith and I have good deeds? Show me this faith of yours without deeds, then! It is by my deeds that I will show you my faith.”

Jesus Christ, puts it more succinctly when he tells us in Matthew 7:16: “You will be able to tell them by their fruits.”

What lessons are our children learning? That it’s okay to lie, and the bigger the lie the better? That hiding one’s tax returns is acceptable? That a female body is an object? That empathy and compassion are for ‘losers’? 

That disdain for poor and struggling countries is okay? That alliances with dictators are desirable? That democracy and civil rights are a movable feast? That white supremacists are ‘good people’ despite their vile and malignant worldview? That neo-nationalism is a virtue? 

And, even though the first words of the Bible the President held aloft outside St. John’s Episcopal Church tell us that God created the Earth for everyone, only America matters? That all of the above is okay and excusable, so long as we say we are pro-life?

Unlike Sr. Deirdre Byrne, I am not going to use this forum to tell anyone how they should vote in the November presidential election.

But I do take issue with using the unborn to promote and defend a President who is, in my opinion, the antithesis of “… the most pro-life president this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages.” And whose “belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics.”

Deirdre Mullan is a Religious Sister of Mercy (RSM) from Ireland who served as the executive director of Mercy Global Concern at the United Nations for more than 10 years. After teaching in Ireland for more than 20 years, she received her doctorate in 1994 in Feminization of Poverty. She currently lives in New York.