Proper Nomenclature
Note – see our recent coverage on this matter starting with the most recent post:
–Priests for Life’s Fr. Stephen Imbarrato joins Fr. Pavone in criticizing bishops and those who have disagreed with Father Pavone’s actions, rejects condemnation of Father Pavone’s actions. (Update: Fr. Imbarrato feels ‘attacked’.) Click here for more.
– Victory or deceit: Father Frank Pavone Removes 1 of 2 Videos of Dead Baby on Altar for Trump – also removed his ‘apology’ video. Update: All videos have been removed! Click here for more.
– Fr. Frank Pavone: Thank me, for “today is a great day for America and the Church”; Rebukes Bishop. (Statement by Priests for Life) Click here for more.
– Diocese of Amarillo Slams Father Frank Pavone and Priests for Life, Opens Investigation (Statement) Click here for more.
– Father Pavone’s action was so ridiculous, Snopes.com was asked to verify it. Have they stored Baby Choice for years? We believe so. Click here for more.
– In qualified apology, Father Pavone asks us to reach out – we did and didn’t hear back… – Oh, and the videos are still up. Update: the first video and apology have been removed! Click here for more.
– Breaking: Fr. Frank Pavone defends sacrilege: “The issue is not how I’m treating a baby.” Click here for more.
– Adoring Trump: Fr. Frank Pavone uploads second video with body used as prop. Click here for more.
– Did Father Frank use a dead body or a crafty image of one? Priests for Life responds. Click here for more.
– “Father Frank, Live!” on Facebook: Using the Dead to Elect Trump? Going too far? (Disturbing images; Update on body, Priests for Life.) Click here for more.
Father Frank Pavone had us believe the child exploited in his pro-Trump “Father Frank, Live!” video had a funeral and was laid to rest – after all, the baby was entrusted to him for a funeral and a burial. One week later, Father Frank says he doesn’t know when the baby will be buried and is no longer in possession of the body.
The saga continues.
On November 6, 2016, Father Pavone told viewers on his “Father Frank, Live!” show that he was displaying a baby on an altar in honor of Trump, “a baby whose body was entrusted to us for burial.”
The baby was entrusted to you for burial?
The morning of November 8, in his qualified apology video (since removed from his Facebook) Father Frank said:
“I’ve already celebrated that baby’s funeral, that baby is, is already, uh, laid to rest” (4:25).
Later on November 8, Father Frank told the Daily Mail:
While he claimed he was planning to hold a funeral service for the deceased child, Pavone said he felt compelled to show the reality of abortion, ‘because in this election we have to decide if we will allow this child killing to continue in America or not.’
He said that once the fetuses arrived in the hands of Priests for Life, they would hold a funeral service and a burial.
‘But not in a hush, hush kind of way,’ he added. ‘We want to shine a bright light on this. We want to show it and honor their bodies.’He added that the funerals were done ‘in conjunction with funeral homes’ and under the guidance of attorneys, but ‘we have never even had the slightest problem with (the law).
@frfrankpavone : Desecrated the altar -Offended the dignity of this person -Did not act as Catholic https://t.co/5tN2TKNwN4 / @keithmestrada pic.twitter.com/06Oy3YvVwu
— Mr. Keith M Estrada (@keithmestrada) November 9, 2016
The National Catholic Register is reporting this morning on the source of the child’s body and Father’s current lack of knowledge concerning when the body will be buried:
Father Pavone told the Register that the baby was temporarily entrusted to Priests for Life “through a Protestant pastor who obtained it through a pathologist who obtained it from an abortion facility.”
He said the pastor came to him to arrange for a burial service to be held, where people could see what had been done to the baby — just as people saw the body of 14-year-old Emmett Till, whose mother insisted he have an open-casket funeral so people could see how the African-American teenager had been tortured and killed by Mississippi white supremacists in 1955.
According to Father Pavone, he put the pastor in touch with a funeral home for burial. But the baby’s body had not been laid to rest after the service, as Father Pavone revealed the minister reached out to him some time later.
“As the election proceeded and intensified, he indicated to me that the baby was still under his auspices, so to speak; he had access to the body,” Father Pavone continued. “We talked again about showing people again the reality of the aborted child, and so we did that.”
Father Pavone did not identify the pastor, and he declined to provide a general time frame that would indicate when these conservations took place, which he felt might identify him.
On the videos, Father Pavone said the pathologist “entrusted [the baby’s body] to us for burial.” However, Father Pavone told the Register he did not know when the baby would be buried. He said the body was out of his hands and back with the Protestant minister.
The baby was entrusted to you by a pathologist for a funeral and burial. No. The baby was entrusted to a Protestant minister for funeral and burial. Instead of a prompt funeral and burial, the baby was used for display somewhere? After this, you directed the minister somewhere else for a funeral and burial? Wait. The Protestant minister held on to the baby, after the body was displayed, and then displayed again by you – we don’t know how long after – in honor of Donald Trump? In your apology video, you said the funeral was already said and the baby laid to rest. No! Now you say you do not know when the baby will be buried?
God help us.
The National Catholic Register notes many troubles Father Pavone may face for this exploitation of a child’s body, offending of human dignity, and desecration of sacred spaces. This is important, surely, but how about some justice for the children’s bodily remains, how about some truth, once and for all, on these matters?
Wow – “Baby Choice” is a sad name to have, but this exploitation, dishonesty, and carelessness might lead one to believe that the child was reduced to being Father Pavone’s object, commodity, and “choice.”
As noted last week, the Bishop of Amarillo has opened an investigation into Father Pavone’s actions.
Of course, we’ll keep you up to date.
Keith Michael Estrada
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