The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today denounced Boston Mayor Marty Walsh for renaming the corner of Harrison Avenue and Worcester Square in the city’s South End as Dr. Kenneth C. Edelin Square.
Edelin, the infamous abortionist, was convicted in 1975 of manslaughter by a Suffolk County jury for suffocating a 24 week old infant after a failed saline abortion at Boston City Hospital. His conviction was overturned by the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth in 1976.
Edelin went on to become Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Boston University School of Medicine, and later, Chairman of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He would repeatedly accuse a mostly Irish American, Roman Catholic jury of racism and sectarian prejudice. “It was the religious climate; it was the racial climate…” and “They got a black physician…” Edelin said.
Mayor Walsh, a nominal Catholic, was joined City Councilors Annissa Essaibi George, Tito Jackson, and Ayanna Pressley, former governor Deval Patrick, and representatives of Planned Parenthood for the dedication ceremony on June 15th.
The Catholic Action League called the event “a depraved celebration of mass murder, a cynical whitewash of a serial killer, and a callous insult to faithful Catholics and all who believe in the sanctity of innocent human life.”
Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle made the following comment: “In a civilized society, this Mengelelike creature would have been punished for his hideous crimes. Instead, what was once the most Catholic city in America now commemorates him as a pioneer of so-called reproductive rights. Thursday’s event is further evidence of the collapse of Catholicism in Boston, its thorough de-Christianization, and its emergence as a secular, post-Catholic and anti-Catholic community.”
“Marty Walsh, who is running for re-election, has decided that he will not be outflanked on his left. He has adopted the most extreme margins of pro-abortion politics. Walsh has rallied to defend taxpayer subsidies of Planned Parenthood, accepted the ‘Men for Choice’ Award from NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, and has called for Boston to become a sanctuary city for abortions, should Roe v. Wade be overturned.”
“If there are any mitigating circumstances in the apostasy of Walsh, it is that he has never heard a word of reproof from his enablers and promoters in the Archdiocese of Boston, who can, reliably, be counted upon to remain silent in the face of this latest affront to Catholic principles and sensibilities.”
The man who preferred charges against Kenneth Edelin was Garrett H. Byrne (1897-1989), who was District Attorney of Suffolk County for 27 years, from 1952 to 1979. He is best remembered for his successful prosecution—begun one day before the expiration of the statute of limitations—of the perpetrators of the biggest robbery in American history, the Great Brinks Job.
Byrne was a thoroughly decent man, a dedicated prosecutor, a pious Catholic, and a public official of unimpeachable integrity. He was so profoundly affected by the heinous character of this monstrous physician’s ghastly crime, that his friends, like State Representative James J. Craven, actually worried about his health during the case.
As recounted by author David F. Pierre, Jr. in his book, Sins of the Press: The Untold Story of The Boston Globe’s Reporting on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church, Byrne’s early investigation of a pedophile ring earned him the opposition of The Boston Globe and the wrath of homosexual activists, hastening the end of his long career.
Neither the City of Boston nor the Catholic Church has ever named any place or erected any thing to preserve the memory of this good man, who may justly, be regarded as one of the proto-heroes of the pro-life movement.
Boston’s Mayor Marty Walsh, photo by David Parsons, derivative work: 12anonymoususer34 – Marty Walsh by David Parsons.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
