Episode 261: Monica Migliorino Miller on the Personhood of the Pre-Born Human Being (June 14, 2023)

This week on The Open Door (June 14 th ), panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Valerie Niemeyer discuss the ongoing pro-life struggle. There’s much to consider. We’ll explore the role of nonviolent direct action. In addition, we’ll tackle the question of the personhood of the pre-born human being. Of late, Pope Francis has commented on this question. Our special guest is Monica Migliorino Miller. She has recently been released from jail; her “crime” was taking part in a Red Rose Rescue. Miller holds graduate degrees in Theology from Loyola University and Marquette University and teaches theology at SacredHeart Major Seminary in Detroit. She is the author of The Theology of the Passion of the Christ (Alba House), The Authority of Women in the Catholic Church (Emmaus Road), and Abandoned: The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars (St. Benedict Press). Miller’s article “It’s Time the Church Declared the Personhood of the Unborn” appears in the May issue of the New Oxford Review.1. Could you tell us about the Red Rose Rescue that landed you in jail?2. Does today’s widespread acceptance of abortion express what Hannah Arendt famously called “the banality of evil”?3. What is your message for people who are thinking about joining a rescue action?4. Pope Francis affirms that the unborn baby is a human being but seems hesitant aboutacknowledging that he or she is a person. Why?5. Just what is ensoulment?6. Could you comment on Boethius’s definition of a person as an individual substance of a rational kind?7. You note Vatican II’s teaching that abortion, among other grave wrongs, “violates theintegrity of the human person.” Has this language been forgotten?8. St. John Paul II, in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, teaches that “to kill a human being,”as abortion does, “in whom the image of God is present, is a particularly serious sin.” Heteaches as well that “Disregard for the right to life, precisely because it leads to thekilling of the person whom society exists to serve, is what most directly conflicts with the possibility of achieving the common good.” Is this teaching sufficiently authoritative to establish the personhood of the unborn?9. Isn’t every human being a person?10. What steps might we take to urge that the Church dogmatically recognize the personhood of the unborn human being?