“There are two laws, then?”
“There is certainly a sacred law, which does not change. And there is secular law, which changes with each new election.” Stockard spoke ironically.
“‘Father Stockard’—isn’t it true, you are sometimes—still—called ‘Father’?”
“N-No . . . Not often.”
“But sometimes?”
“I don’t encourage it . . .”
“Why would an individual call you ‘Father Stockard’?”
“Well, likely it would be a younger person . . . Or someone who’d known me in my parish years ago.”
“But you don’t encourage the usage?”
“No.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I am no longer a priest. I am ‘defrocked.’”
“Yet it was your own choice, you say? To be ‘defrocked’?”
“‘Defrocked’ is meant to be ironic. I applied to be released from the priesthood, and this was granted to me, after some years of effort. But I remain a Catholic, and will all of my life.”
“You were not ‘excommunicated’ from the Church.”
“Of course not! That would never be.”
“Are you a member of the American Coalition of Life Activists?”
“Y-Yes . . .”
“And you’ve signed their public statement supporting the ‘justifiable homicide’ of abortion providers?”
“I—I may have signed the statement . . .”
“You do believe in ‘justifiable homicide’ of abortion providers?”
“That would depend upon the circumstances.”
“What do you mean—‘circumstances’?”
“Homicide is ‘justifiable’ in defense of others’ lives. You are allowed to defend yourself, for instance. And you are allowed to defend others.”
“Homicide—murder—is ‘justifiable’ depending upon circumstances of your own interpretation?”
“We all believe in a higher law . . .”
“Are you a member of the secret organization Operation Rescue?”
“No.”
“Do you know anything about Operation Rescue?”
“No . . .”
“Really, no?”
“I have read some things . . .”
“Were you aware that Luther Dunphy was a member of Operation Rescue?”
“No.”
“You know, Mr. Stockard, the penalty for perjury can be years in prison. ‘Lying under oath . . .’”
“I did not know that Luther Dunphy belonged to Operation Rescue until I read about it in the newspaper.”
“You were a Catholic priest from 1974 to 1996, is this correct?”
“Yes.”
“At the start of our exchange you’d said that you had voluntarily left the Church, and not because parishioners had complained of you proselytizing for the Right-to-Life movement, and not because the bishop had ‘terminated’ you.”
“Yes . . .”
“Isn’t it the case, Mr. Stockard, that you were several times arrested in anti-abortion protests in the early and mid-1990s, in Madison, Wisconsin?—in Minneapolis-St. Paul?—in Columbus, Youngstown, and Cincinnati, as recently as spring 1999?”
“That might be. You seem to know.”
“Would you describe yourself as a militant anti-abortionist, Mr. Stockard?”
“‘Militant’?—no.”
“No?”
“I am not a militant. I am an activist in the cause, but my commitment is to active non-violence.”
“Yet you’ve supported militancy in the anti-abortion movement?”
“Yes I have supported militancy, if it is another’s genuine belief.”
“Not for yourself but for another? Militancy—violence?”
“It is not for me to judge others in this struggle. It is a war against abortion which is the murder of the defenseless and it is a war against the forces that have inspired to support and protect abortion, and in this struggle we have differing stratagems.”
“What do you think—personally—of the ‘stratagem’ of Luther Dunphy?”
“Luther Dunphy is a soldier of God who has put his life on the line for his beliefs. The rest of us bear witness—we but ‘stand and wait.’”
“You admire Luther Dunphy, then?”
“Yes. I admire Luther Dunphy.”
“You consider Luther Dunphy’s act of premeditated, cold-blooded murder of two defenseless persons ‘admirable’?”
“I’ve said—I do not in any way condone violence. And especially against Timothy Barron who was not an imminent threat to any baby or baby’s mother.”
“But you admire Dunphy for shooting Voorhees?”
“Voorhees was an abortion doctor. There is no question that, if he had not been stopped, he would have killed babies that day, as he’d killed hundreds of babies over the years with impunity.”
“You believe that homicide is ‘justifiable’ under these circumstances?”
“Don’t you, sir? Doesn’t everyone?”
“I am asking you, Mr. Stockard. ‘Everyone’ is not involved here.”
“If infants’ lives are at immediate risk, the abortionist must be stopped.”
“Must be stopped. And this includes—murder?”
“It is not murder but self-defense.”
“Self-defense?”