Reverend William Kosko is a voice in the desert, in more than one sense. Parish priest at Saint Henry in Buckeye, Arizona, he recently delivered a heart-rending homily on the sanctity of human life that has since gone viral.

Rev. Kosko begins his homily with a compelling story of a trip he took many years ago to visit the memorial in Auschwitz, Poland.

“How on earth could Auschwitz ever happen?” he recalls fellow travellers discussing after the visit. “How could those who knew about it have tolerated it?”

An answer to this question came 45 minutes later, he explains, when an altercation took place just outside the coach on which the group was travelling. Their coach driver had stopped to render aid in a volatile situation outside of a drinking tavern, when a group of intoxicated men began brutally assaulting the driver.

Reverend Kosko recalls rallying others from the bus to get out on the street and defend him. But of a coach full of fellow Americans, only two others were brave enough to join him and put their lives on the line to defend this helpless victim.

This, he says, is how Auschwitz could happen.

“You’ve just gotta do the right thing sometimes, whatever the cost,” Rev. Kosko pleads, after decrying those who were unwilling to that day in Poland.

Then the priest arrives at the heart of his message. He throws down the gauntlet on the issue of abortion, grieving that more children are killed in American wombs every year than in the half decade of horror at Auschwitz.

“How in the world did this happen?” he asks, leaving little time for reflection. “Because our bishops have been silent for sixty years through bad catechesis and cowardice.”

“God is the author of life,” Rev. Kosko adds. “We have no right to play with that, let alone end it.”

Rev. Kosko goes on to denounce the election of President Joe Biden, who was openly opposed to the sanctity of human life, biblical marriage and God’s design for gender, even as he campaigned.

Without flinching, Rev. Kosko explains that President Biden, though a member of the Catholic family, is absolutely opposed to the moral precepts of the Roman Catholic Church.

Were the President to visit Buckeye, the priest explains, he would be more than welcome to attend Saint Henry. But his views would not be welcome, and the leader of the free world would be refused communion at Saint Henry until he repented.

The homily ends with this heartfelt cry to the parishioners of Saint Henry:

Can’t you see? I am begging you. Don’t you get it?

I don’t want any of you young people to grow up to be abortionists. I do not want any of you girls to have abortions and to suffer from the trauma that they don’t want you to speak about that women who have had abortions are haunted with.

I don’t want any of you boys taking your girlfriends or paying for your wife or forcing you daughter to get an abortion. I don’t want any of you young people to grow up to be judges or lawyers and enact laws that will further the desecration of the sanctity of human life.

And I do not want you to vote for political candidates who tell you to your face that they’re in favour of killing the innocent.

You can watch the full homily here.