"Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary."
- Pope Benedict XVI
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Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Blessed Mother Teresa on Abortion
Blessed Mother Teresa on Abortion
"...But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.
By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems...Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today — abortion which brings people to such blindness...
...I will tell you something beautiful. We are fighting abortion by adoption — by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: “Please don’t destroy the child; we will take the child.” So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: “Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child.” And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child...
...Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child. From our children’s home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.
...Let us make that one point — that no child will be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, or killed and thrown away. And give until it hurts — with a smile...
...If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world. From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak — the unborn child — must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!"
"...But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.
By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems...Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today — abortion which brings people to such blindness...
...I will tell you something beautiful. We are fighting abortion by adoption — by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: “Please don’t destroy the child; we will take the child.” So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: “Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child.” And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child...
...Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child. From our children’s home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.
...Let us make that one point — that no child will be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, or killed and thrown away. And give until it hurts — with a smile...
...If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world. From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak — the unborn child — must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!"
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The Samaritan woman
Fr. Jim Whalen was the previous National Director of Priests for Life Canada. He died on Sunday, February 24, 2008.
Here is his last talk. It begins:
"Jesus creates a crisis in His public ministry, a moment of truth, a moment of decision, to an anonymous Samaritan woman. She has to decide to say "yes" or "no" to Jesus and to what He offers her. She has to decide to reject or accept the offer of living water - the truth. If she rejects the living water and continues with well water, her life will not change. She will continue in her old ways of changing husbands and lovers every so often, running, hiding, and paying lip service to her faith. If she accepts the living water, she will be a changed woman, a new woman, a born again woman, and a new creation. She must decide to reject or accept the truth.
The ministry of Jesus continues today in our world. The woman at the well is the woman seeking lethal services at the local abortion clinic. She is running from a mistake, an error, a sin. She is running from a future with a child, trying to escape from a troublesome relationship, abandoned by her husband or a current lover. This is the woman at the well today, a woman in need of the truth, a woman in need of the Church, a woman in need of you and me. She has been misled or misinformed about the truth of abortion. Jesus wants us to be there for the woman at the well today, offering her support, offering her the truth, and helping her to decide to save, not to take the life, of the little one within her as well as her own immortal soul..."
Here is his last talk. It begins:
"Jesus creates a crisis in His public ministry, a moment of truth, a moment of decision, to an anonymous Samaritan woman. She has to decide to say "yes" or "no" to Jesus and to what He offers her. She has to decide to reject or accept the offer of living water - the truth. If she rejects the living water and continues with well water, her life will not change. She will continue in her old ways of changing husbands and lovers every so often, running, hiding, and paying lip service to her faith. If she accepts the living water, she will be a changed woman, a new woman, a born again woman, and a new creation. She must decide to reject or accept the truth.
The ministry of Jesus continues today in our world. The woman at the well is the woman seeking lethal services at the local abortion clinic. She is running from a mistake, an error, a sin. She is running from a future with a child, trying to escape from a troublesome relationship, abandoned by her husband or a current lover. This is the woman at the well today, a woman in need of the truth, a woman in need of the Church, a woman in need of you and me. She has been misled or misinformed about the truth of abortion. Jesus wants us to be there for the woman at the well today, offering her support, offering her the truth, and helping her to decide to save, not to take the life, of the little one within her as well as her own immortal soul..."
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thorns and thistles
"Alas for the soul which is without Christ to cultivate it so that it will bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. When it is deserted it becomes full of thorns and thistles..."
- St. Macarius
- St. Macarius
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Truth and Love
"It is necessary that each person freely accept the truth of the love of God. He is Love and Truth, and love as well as truth never imposes themselves. They knock on the door of the heart and mind, and where they enter, bring peace and joy. This is the way God reigns; this is his plan for salvation..."
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Friday, August 13, 2010
"I chose to be blind"
This audio file from Father Benedict Groeschel is from the third section on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, from the Living in Christ series. This series looks at the commandments, at morality, and ethics and at what God demands of us. I have transcribed most of it below:
28. Our Call to Seek God 9430.mp3
"We live in a time that has forgotten the revelation of God. For centuries most of European civilization was based on the Bible. This was the foundation of that society.
About four hundred years ago, these foundations began to crumble. There was the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Some people like Machiavelli, etc., began to undermine purposefully in the name of humanism the religious and spiritual foundations of society. As time went on, a whole group of people called the rationalists began to throw out things they had accepted from the traditions of Europe. This is terribly important to know. Gradually by using their own mind, they began to reject scripture, the Old Testament, then the New Testament, then the Divinity of Christ, then the miracles of Christ, so Christ emerged to some very important people of democracy, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, etc.--Christ emerged as a moral philosopher. Now quite honestly if you read the New Testament, you can't see him as moral philosopher. He doesn't sound like Plato or Socrates. He works miracles. He heals the sick. Well they decided they didn't believe that the miracles had happened. He speaks about the last Judgement frequently in his parables. They decided there was no last Judgement. He promised eternal life. Well they didn't think there was any eternal life. None the less, they held on to an image of Christ.
About a hundred years ago a very very strange man, a man who ended his life in a psychiatric facility, a brilliant philosopher, told them all in Europe they were all being very very unrealistic. That if they had taken away the foundations of faith, if they had taken away the old testament, and the new testament, if they had taken away Moses and the prophets, John the Baptist and Paul, and most of all if they had taken away Jesus Christ, then Europe would change. Its civilization would be very different. This man's name--he was an enemy of religion, he was one of those enemies who told what it would be like without faith--was Friedrich Nietzsche. He was the favourite philosopher of among other people, Adolf Hitler. I don't blame Nietzsche for what Adolf Hitler did.
Nietzsche announced that God is dead. Ring the bells, light the candles, get the altar boys, we're going to have a funeral. God is dead and he warned European civilization that it had little or no idea what it would be like without God. They had given up God, but they held on to the moral system which belief in God had made possible. Monsignor Romano Guardini, a distinguished theologian in Germany, in his book, the End of the Modern World, published in the late 40's, was a great book, a brief book. He had worked on it during house arrest, during the Second World War. He said that Nietzsche alone had warned Europe, what it would be like when God was dead. When people would no longer be persons because they were not real to God, because there was no God, when people would be the chattel, the pawns of the state. When certain people would decide what was good for everybody else, and if anybody got in the way, they would kill them.
And Hitler and Stalin and Mao Tse-tung all did. They did this on the basis of a materialistic philosophy, a conviction that the human being is nothing more than chemicals, a creature like a white rat, or a pigeon and that they can be deprived of life simply at the will of the state if they are expendable. If they are not convenient. And all three of these men with their henchmen…like Khrushchev in Russia who had much blood on his hands, ran the Ukrainian holocaust of 1938 when 11 million people were starved to death, Mao Tse-Tung and his terrible purges, Hitler and his Holocaust, and all of his buddies--all of these people had a philosophy, they have a moral system. We're all going to make the perfect world, and if anybody gets in the way, or if anybody disagrees with us--we crush, we kill them. But that's not nice. Hitler used an expression, an ominous terrible expression, the final solution.
Nietzsche had warned people what a world without God, without commandments, would be like. And that's where we begin our discussion.
This network is on the air and is visible or hearable to you but it competes with a gigantic media which is absolutely anti-human. It wouldn't admit that. But it celebrates murder, death, it militantly teaches, abortion, euthanasia. It drags the most sacred parts of human existence through the mud in forms of cheap and revolting forms of entertainment. Sexuality, family life--it undercuts it all. Believe me--in most of the media of the United States, God is dead. The true God is not dead. But the image of God that the creature ought to have, that a human being ought to have, by reason of the fact that he is made in the image and likeness of God. By reason of the fact that every man, woman and child in the world is called to a destiny with God after this life, that is forgotten...
In the face of all this, religion in general, the Judeo Christian religion, founded on Sacred Scripture, the Christian denominations, and the Catholic church which is the largest of all of them, should be in awe to some degree, endeavouring to remind human beings that we are not badly behaved apes...Brother Felix said an animal cannot do wrong...but we can do much wrong. On the other side is something marvellous. There is the hope of everlasting life. This hope is in the human race. Some people will say that's some Christian thing. Cut it out. That's full of baloney. That it's only a Christian idea that the Christians invented life after death. The oldest ruins on the face of the Earth are tombs. They are 15 thousand years old. and you can see then in Burren in County Clare Ireland. They are made with prodigious expenditure of energy without any machinery, great stone lifted into primitive arches, to give a home for the dead. The largest and intact buildings on the face of the Earth are magnificent tributes to the human hope and expectation that this life is not the end. Those buildings of course are called the pyramids in Egypt. Incredible monuments soaring into the sky, the hope of human beings that they pass from this world to a better world where their real hopes and expectations will be fulfilled by the God who made them.
I've had people tell me that in the old testament there is no witness of eternal life. What do they mean when they say "and he was gathered to his father"--the Father of Abraham, Isaac and, Jacob they were dead. As Jesus said to the Sadducees "It's not the God of the dead it's the God of the living."
(Father Groeschel then goes through some examples of eternal life:Daniel Chapter 12, Maccabees 7, and John 14 1:4 "Let not your heart be troubled or be afraid")
If you're listening to this program and you don't know what's coming, if you don't know what life is all about, keep this in mind because everyone hopes that by obeying the commandments of God, they may have eternal life.
Unfortunately we live in a sad and sorrowful time when our public leaders, the leaders of the 20th century, politicians, they do not ask the question, what is right or wrong, but what is expedient. Or what will sell. Sometimes they refuse to see the most obvious fact in the world.
The commandment says: Thou shalt not kill. I am going to get around to all the commandments, of the natural law of revealed religions of the bible, the commandments of Christ. But just this one commandment, thou shalt not kill--have religious people killed? Of course they have. Have religious people betrayed God? Certainly.
The fact is, it is objectively wrong to kill. There may be an excuse to stop someone whose trying to kill you or an innocent person but otherwise the commandment is there: Thou shalt not kill. The commandment of justice. Unfortunately the leaders of nations in the 20th century, even the better ones, have been very expedient, about killing people. We like to think that our side, the allies, in the war didn't kill people unnecessarily but we most certainly did. Those commandments were broken. And what about those who did hideous things? What about Albert Speer, the devil's architect, Hitler's architect? He pleaded at Nuremberg when he was tried on the natural law of philosophy and theology. And he pleaded, "I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know we had slave labourers, I didn't know we were killing people arbitrarily." He got away with it. He got 20 years. When Speer was dying in a recent biography, Speer said, "I chose to be blind". What terrible terrifying words. I'm sorry to tell you this brothers and sisters, but as we begin to discuss in these 13 segments, the Law of God, I'm sorry to tell you, that religion in the United States is nothing to write home to St. Paul about.
I tell you this very sadly. But recently we had a hideous thing in public life. A partial birth abortion. A partial birth abortion! That's not abortion, that's murder. And I am horrified to tell you, that a professor at George Town University, and a member of an organization that vows to defend the teachings of the Church, a Jesuit, in the New York Times, supported the veto of the Legislation outlawing that horrible procedure.
Brothers and Sisters don't be part of the confusion of this time. Don't be part of it. In the new Catechism we have a wonderful teaching, a marvellous teaching on morality. The Catechism calls it a Catechisis. That's a religious teaching. The Holy Spirit who is the interior master of our lives according to Jesus, and the teaching about grace and how you and I can get the help, that despite our weakness, to do God's will and I can tell you in this series of people who have overcome incredible weakness. People in the 12 step program. The teaching on the Beatitudes. of blessed peace in this life. Of the Catechis of sin and forgiveness. Of virtue. Of human virtue and the great virtues that come from God alone: Faith Hope and Charity. The Catechisis of the Commandments. That prepares us to live the way Christ taught in Mathew 25. "I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me."
Don't let anybody tell you that that is not about judgement. That is Christ's description of the Last Judgement. St Augustine tells us, "If they came to you with open hands, hungry and naked and in need and you responded you gave to Christ. And if you didn't, you call upon yourself a judgement."
This series may not be what a lot of people would like to call the Good News. It's about the moral teaching of the natural law of Sacred Scripture, of Jesus Christ, and the teacher that he left to the world, when he said to the Apostles, "he who hears you, hears me". The teaching of the Church. It may not be pleasant for a lot of people to hear it. But it is absolutely necessary if we are going to make something beautiful out of our lives. Our lives are a transition to a fuller more perfect life. Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments."
28. Our Call to Seek God 9430.mp3
"We live in a time that has forgotten the revelation of God. For centuries most of European civilization was based on the Bible. This was the foundation of that society.
About four hundred years ago, these foundations began to crumble. There was the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Some people like Machiavelli, etc., began to undermine purposefully in the name of humanism the religious and spiritual foundations of society. As time went on, a whole group of people called the rationalists began to throw out things they had accepted from the traditions of Europe. This is terribly important to know. Gradually by using their own mind, they began to reject scripture, the Old Testament, then the New Testament, then the Divinity of Christ, then the miracles of Christ, so Christ emerged to some very important people of democracy, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, etc.--Christ emerged as a moral philosopher. Now quite honestly if you read the New Testament, you can't see him as moral philosopher. He doesn't sound like Plato or Socrates. He works miracles. He heals the sick. Well they decided they didn't believe that the miracles had happened. He speaks about the last Judgement frequently in his parables. They decided there was no last Judgement. He promised eternal life. Well they didn't think there was any eternal life. None the less, they held on to an image of Christ.
About a hundred years ago a very very strange man, a man who ended his life in a psychiatric facility, a brilliant philosopher, told them all in Europe they were all being very very unrealistic. That if they had taken away the foundations of faith, if they had taken away the old testament, and the new testament, if they had taken away Moses and the prophets, John the Baptist and Paul, and most of all if they had taken away Jesus Christ, then Europe would change. Its civilization would be very different. This man's name--he was an enemy of religion, he was one of those enemies who told what it would be like without faith--was Friedrich Nietzsche. He was the favourite philosopher of among other people, Adolf Hitler. I don't blame Nietzsche for what Adolf Hitler did.
Nietzsche announced that God is dead. Ring the bells, light the candles, get the altar boys, we're going to have a funeral. God is dead and he warned European civilization that it had little or no idea what it would be like without God. They had given up God, but they held on to the moral system which belief in God had made possible. Monsignor Romano Guardini, a distinguished theologian in Germany, in his book, the End of the Modern World, published in the late 40's, was a great book, a brief book. He had worked on it during house arrest, during the Second World War. He said that Nietzsche alone had warned Europe, what it would be like when God was dead. When people would no longer be persons because they were not real to God, because there was no God, when people would be the chattel, the pawns of the state. When certain people would decide what was good for everybody else, and if anybody got in the way, they would kill them.
And Hitler and Stalin and Mao Tse-tung all did. They did this on the basis of a materialistic philosophy, a conviction that the human being is nothing more than chemicals, a creature like a white rat, or a pigeon and that they can be deprived of life simply at the will of the state if they are expendable. If they are not convenient. And all three of these men with their henchmen…like Khrushchev in Russia who had much blood on his hands, ran the Ukrainian holocaust of 1938 when 11 million people were starved to death, Mao Tse-Tung and his terrible purges, Hitler and his Holocaust, and all of his buddies--all of these people had a philosophy, they have a moral system. We're all going to make the perfect world, and if anybody gets in the way, or if anybody disagrees with us--we crush, we kill them. But that's not nice. Hitler used an expression, an ominous terrible expression, the final solution.
Nietzsche had warned people what a world without God, without commandments, would be like. And that's where we begin our discussion.
This network is on the air and is visible or hearable to you but it competes with a gigantic media which is absolutely anti-human. It wouldn't admit that. But it celebrates murder, death, it militantly teaches, abortion, euthanasia. It drags the most sacred parts of human existence through the mud in forms of cheap and revolting forms of entertainment. Sexuality, family life--it undercuts it all. Believe me--in most of the media of the United States, God is dead. The true God is not dead. But the image of God that the creature ought to have, that a human being ought to have, by reason of the fact that he is made in the image and likeness of God. By reason of the fact that every man, woman and child in the world is called to a destiny with God after this life, that is forgotten...
In the face of all this, religion in general, the Judeo Christian religion, founded on Sacred Scripture, the Christian denominations, and the Catholic church which is the largest of all of them, should be in awe to some degree, endeavouring to remind human beings that we are not badly behaved apes...Brother Felix said an animal cannot do wrong...but we can do much wrong. On the other side is something marvellous. There is the hope of everlasting life. This hope is in the human race. Some people will say that's some Christian thing. Cut it out. That's full of baloney. That it's only a Christian idea that the Christians invented life after death. The oldest ruins on the face of the Earth are tombs. They are 15 thousand years old. and you can see then in Burren in County Clare Ireland. They are made with prodigious expenditure of energy without any machinery, great stone lifted into primitive arches, to give a home for the dead. The largest and intact buildings on the face of the Earth are magnificent tributes to the human hope and expectation that this life is not the end. Those buildings of course are called the pyramids in Egypt. Incredible monuments soaring into the sky, the hope of human beings that they pass from this world to a better world where their real hopes and expectations will be fulfilled by the God who made them.
I've had people tell me that in the old testament there is no witness of eternal life. What do they mean when they say "and he was gathered to his father"--the Father of Abraham, Isaac and, Jacob they were dead. As Jesus said to the Sadducees "It's not the God of the dead it's the God of the living."
(Father Groeschel then goes through some examples of eternal life:Daniel Chapter 12, Maccabees 7, and John 14 1:4 "Let not your heart be troubled or be afraid")
If you're listening to this program and you don't know what's coming, if you don't know what life is all about, keep this in mind because everyone hopes that by obeying the commandments of God, they may have eternal life.
Unfortunately we live in a sad and sorrowful time when our public leaders, the leaders of the 20th century, politicians, they do not ask the question, what is right or wrong, but what is expedient. Or what will sell. Sometimes they refuse to see the most obvious fact in the world.
The commandment says: Thou shalt not kill. I am going to get around to all the commandments, of the natural law of revealed religions of the bible, the commandments of Christ. But just this one commandment, thou shalt not kill--have religious people killed? Of course they have. Have religious people betrayed God? Certainly.
The fact is, it is objectively wrong to kill. There may be an excuse to stop someone whose trying to kill you or an innocent person but otherwise the commandment is there: Thou shalt not kill. The commandment of justice. Unfortunately the leaders of nations in the 20th century, even the better ones, have been very expedient, about killing people. We like to think that our side, the allies, in the war didn't kill people unnecessarily but we most certainly did. Those commandments were broken. And what about those who did hideous things? What about Albert Speer, the devil's architect, Hitler's architect? He pleaded at Nuremberg when he was tried on the natural law of philosophy and theology. And he pleaded, "I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know we had slave labourers, I didn't know we were killing people arbitrarily." He got away with it. He got 20 years. When Speer was dying in a recent biography, Speer said, "I chose to be blind". What terrible terrifying words. I'm sorry to tell you this brothers and sisters, but as we begin to discuss in these 13 segments, the Law of God, I'm sorry to tell you, that religion in the United States is nothing to write home to St. Paul about.
I tell you this very sadly. But recently we had a hideous thing in public life. A partial birth abortion. A partial birth abortion! That's not abortion, that's murder. And I am horrified to tell you, that a professor at George Town University, and a member of an organization that vows to defend the teachings of the Church, a Jesuit, in the New York Times, supported the veto of the Legislation outlawing that horrible procedure.
Brothers and Sisters don't be part of the confusion of this time. Don't be part of it. In the new Catechism we have a wonderful teaching, a marvellous teaching on morality. The Catechism calls it a Catechisis. That's a religious teaching. The Holy Spirit who is the interior master of our lives according to Jesus, and the teaching about grace and how you and I can get the help, that despite our weakness, to do God's will and I can tell you in this series of people who have overcome incredible weakness. People in the 12 step program. The teaching on the Beatitudes. of blessed peace in this life. Of the Catechis of sin and forgiveness. Of virtue. Of human virtue and the great virtues that come from God alone: Faith Hope and Charity. The Catechisis of the Commandments. That prepares us to live the way Christ taught in Mathew 25. "I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me."
Don't let anybody tell you that that is not about judgement. That is Christ's description of the Last Judgement. St Augustine tells us, "If they came to you with open hands, hungry and naked and in need and you responded you gave to Christ. And if you didn't, you call upon yourself a judgement."
This series may not be what a lot of people would like to call the Good News. It's about the moral teaching of the natural law of Sacred Scripture, of Jesus Christ, and the teacher that he left to the world, when he said to the Apostles, "he who hears you, hears me". The teaching of the Church. It may not be pleasant for a lot of people to hear it. But it is absolutely necessary if we are going to make something beautiful out of our lives. Our lives are a transition to a fuller more perfect life. Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments."
Monday, August 9, 2010
What would the Martians think?--(Part 7...an "unspeakable crime")
(Continued from my last post-What would the Martians think part 6)
The Vancouver Island Women’s Health Clinic says on their Making your decision page, that they support your "choice":
"We are not here to influence your decision. We support you in whatever choice you make."
But then they warn women against using crisis pregnancy centres:
Also beware of "CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTRES" (note the caps for added emphasis)
Many of these groups try to influence vulnerable women to continue their pregnancy by frightening them. Some will say anything to have you keep your pregnancy. Not all of their information about gestational development, health risks and after-effects of abortion is correct."
CPCs are support organizations that help women who choose to keep their baby or to put it up for adoption.
When people tell you they support your choice, but then warn you not to use CPCs, their bias is showing. They are "pro-choice" so long as your choice is abortion. These so-called pro-choicers are actually pro-abortion since they don’t support a woman’s "choice" to go to a CPC.
Further evidence of being pro-abortion is found in the two booklets linked to from this same page.
The first booklet is The Pregnancy Options Workbook where a section called Catholicism and abortion states:
The Vancouver Island Women’s Health Clinic says on their Making your decision page, that they support your "choice":
"We are not here to influence your decision. We support you in whatever choice you make."
But then they warn women against using crisis pregnancy centres:
"A word of caution: if you surf the net you will come across many anti-abortion websites that have frightening and inaccurate information about abortion. The resources and links page on this website has a list of pro-choice organizations that are good sources of information.
Antichoice groups sometimes set up offices, distress centres, phone lines or 'clinics' that pretend to help pregnant women with information and pregnancy tests.
Antichoice groups sometimes set up offices, distress centres, phone lines or 'clinics' that pretend to help pregnant women with information and pregnancy tests.
Also beware of "CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTRES" (note the caps for added emphasis)
Many of these groups try to influence vulnerable women to continue their pregnancy by frightening them. Some will say anything to have you keep your pregnancy. Not all of their information about gestational development, health risks and after-effects of abortion is correct."
CPCs are support organizations that help women who choose to keep their baby or to put it up for adoption.
When people tell you they support your choice, but then warn you not to use CPCs, their bias is showing. They are "pro-choice" so long as your choice is abortion. These so-called pro-choicers are actually pro-abortion since they don’t support a woman’s "choice" to go to a CPC.
Further evidence of being pro-abortion is found in the two booklets linked to from this same page.
The first booklet is The Pregnancy Options Workbook where a section called Catholicism and abortion states:
"The official Catholic Church doctrine teaches that abortion is morally wrong."
This statement is true.
But next the booklet says:
"According to the organization, Catholics For A Free Choice, “This is not, as most Catholics think, based on the belief that the fetus is a person. The Church has no firm doctrine on when the fetus becomes a person. Thus, this teaching has never been proclaimed as infallible by the Pope. The Church is also more than the Pope and the Bishops. It includes all the people of God. Clergy, theologians and laity work together to develop church teachings. Many theologians and lay people feel that abortion can sometimes be a moral decision and that conscience is the final arbiter of any abortion decision... The Church also teaches that the conscience of the individual is supreme...If you carefully examine your conscience and then decide abortion is the most moral act you can do at this time, you are not committing a sin.” As with all religions, individuals must decide what their conscience says and their faith advises.
In fact, Catholic women choose abortion in the same proportion as non-Catholic women. Catholics for Free Choice “You Are Not Alone” 1436 U St. NW #301 Washington DC 20009 www.catholicsforchoice.org
But next the booklet says:
"According to the organization, Catholics For A Free Choice, “This is not, as most Catholics think, based on the belief that the fetus is a person. The Church has no firm doctrine on when the fetus becomes a person. Thus, this teaching has never been proclaimed as infallible by the Pope. The Church is also more than the Pope and the Bishops. It includes all the people of God. Clergy, theologians and laity work together to develop church teachings. Many theologians and lay people feel that abortion can sometimes be a moral decision and that conscience is the final arbiter of any abortion decision... The Church also teaches that the conscience of the individual is supreme...If you carefully examine your conscience and then decide abortion is the most moral act you can do at this time, you are not committing a sin.” As with all religions, individuals must decide what their conscience says and their faith advises.
In fact, Catholic women choose abortion in the same proportion as non-Catholic women. Catholics for Free Choice “You Are Not Alone” 1436 U St. NW #301 Washington DC 20009 www.catholicsforchoice.org
Catholics for Choice are a contradiction in terms. As I’ve said before here and here these “Catholics” can't be Catholics. So we can immediately disregard anything they say.
Next it says:
Next it says:
"Pope John Paul II recognized that “in dire circumstances, some women may honestly feel trapped with no viable option or alternative but to turn to abortion. Decisions that go against life sometimes arise from difficult or even tragic situations of profound suffering, loneliness, a total lack of economic prospects, depression, and anxiety about the future. Such circumstances can mitigate, even to a notable degree, subjective responsibility and consequent culpability of those who make these choices which, in themselves, are wrong.” (as quoted by Father Roberts, speech, 1998)"
What Pope John Paul II did say in his Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) was:
What Pope John Paul II did say in his Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) was:
"Decisions that go against life sometimes arise from difficult or even tragic situations of profound suffering, loneliness, a total lack of economic prospects, depression and anxiety about the future. Such circumstances can mitigate even to a notable degree subjective responsibility and the consequent culpability of those who make these choices which in themselves are evil. But today the problem goes far beyond the necessary recognition of these personal situations. It is a problem which exists at the cultural, social and political level, where it reveals its more sinister and disturbing aspect in the tendency, ever more widely shared, to interpret the above crimes against life as legitimate expressions of individual freedom, to be acknowledged and protected as actual rights."
First, the Pope did not say the first line as quoted above starting with "In dire circumstances".
First, the Pope did not say the first line as quoted above starting with "In dire circumstances".
Second, he used the word "evil", not "wrong".
Third, the quote above omits the remaining important part of the paragraph of the quote.
Third, the quote above omits the remaining important part of the paragraph of the quote.
Fourth, what Pope John Paul did call abortion elsewhere in his encyclical, was an "unspeakable crime":
"...Among all the crimes which can be committed against life, procured abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable. The Second Vatican Council defines abortion, together with infanticide, as an "unspeakable crime".
I suggest the reader read the whole encyclical if you'd like to know Pope John Paul II’s entire guidance on abortion. It isn't ambiguous.
The second booklet on this link is the Unsure about your pregnancy? A guide to making the right decision for you"
This booklet comes courtesy of the National Abortion Federation. It states:
"...Among all the crimes which can be committed against life, procured abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable. The Second Vatican Council defines abortion, together with infanticide, as an "unspeakable crime".
I suggest the reader read the whole encyclical if you'd like to know Pope John Paul II’s entire guidance on abortion. It isn't ambiguous.
The second booklet on this link is the Unsure about your pregnancy? A guide to making the right decision for you"
This booklet comes courtesy of the National Abortion Federation. It states:
"If an agency tells you that abortion is unsafe or immoral, that is a clue that they are not interested in helping you make your own decision; call the National Abortion Federation’s hotline at (800) 772-9100 for the name of an agency that will give you accurate information and non-judgmental Assistance."
Let’s see. I’m not sure what I want to do. Should I keep my baby? Should I put it up for adoption? Should I abort it? Is abortion safe? What are my options? Oh I know what I’ll do...I’ll call the National Abortion Federation, the organization which represents doctors in the abortion business, for advice. Good plan.
Let’s see. I’m not sure what I want to do. Should I keep my baby? Should I put it up for adoption? Should I abort it? Is abortion safe? What are my options? Oh I know what I’ll do...I’ll call the National Abortion Federation, the organization which represents doctors in the abortion business, for advice. Good plan.
Friday, August 6, 2010
What would the Martians think? (Part 6...What success looks like)
Dr. Konia Trouton, of the Vancouver Island Women’s Clinic, details her quest to:
"set up a woman's clinic that included abortions, and not have a clinic that focused only on abortions. "
She struggles to accomplish this because of what she calls the:
"political challenges in trying to enhance abortion care."
The doctor tells about her troubles getting doctors and other health professionals to work with her, as well as having trouble getting office space:
"I sought to find family physicians who would be excited to have me work alongside their practice, offering surgical abortions, medical abortions and IUD care. Strangely enough, there are not many of those types of clinics, or doctors. I called the local birth control clinic, and their board did not want me to work, even just a day a week, doing pre-operative abortion assessments and scheduling the abortion in the hospital. Paradoxically, they supplied many referrals for abortion and provided after care. They were much more vigorously opposed than I ever expected, and while I continued to work there once a week doing IUD insertions, I knew to look elsewhere for office space. I called some physician colleagues in the peace and justice movement, whom I knew for many years, and I called some alternative health care facilities, but the doors were shut for office space."
But Dr. Trouton's perseverance pays off. By finding nurses and midwifes who support "choice"; by winning doctors over; by getting the National Abortion Federation's stamp of approval; the doctor now has a "successful" clinic where two thirds of her work is for "women seeking termination".
She gradually increases the gestational age of her abortions:
"Moving to D&E required some gradual work, first to 16 weeks, and then six months later to 20 weeks."
(Dilation and Evacuation (D&E): Sharp-edged instruments are used to grasp, twist, and tear the baby’s body into pieces. This continues until the child’s entire body is removed from the womb. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy describes the procedure saying, “The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb.”)
In case you're curious to see what a 20 week old fetus looks like.
What strikes me as odd about the doctor's presentation, is that she seems genuinely puzzled why she encountered difficulties. She writes in a calm, composed and non strident manner. Very professional. Very matter of fact.
"There have been many challenges but when I look at why this has been a successful story, it is because it has been about establishing trust and working across disciplines. I have worked hard to get to know the hospital staff, the health authority personal and invited them into the clinic to see the work done and to convince them the clinic and hospital partnership benefits them in reducing wait lists, costs and increasing training opportunities and retention of excellent staff."
The doctor was successful. In setting up a clinic. To abort babies. Close to viability. Who feel pain.
Yes Mary. This is what we call success. In a pro-abortion world.
Part 1...Women's "Rights"
Part 2...When the truth isn't the truth
Part 3...Translating Dr. Henry Morgentaler
Part 4...Why late-term abortions are not inconsequential
Part 5...Does the fetus matter?
"set up a woman's clinic that included abortions, and not have a clinic that focused only on abortions. "
She struggles to accomplish this because of what she calls the:
"political challenges in trying to enhance abortion care."
The doctor tells about her troubles getting doctors and other health professionals to work with her, as well as having trouble getting office space:
"I sought to find family physicians who would be excited to have me work alongside their practice, offering surgical abortions, medical abortions and IUD care. Strangely enough, there are not many of those types of clinics, or doctors. I called the local birth control clinic, and their board did not want me to work, even just a day a week, doing pre-operative abortion assessments and scheduling the abortion in the hospital. Paradoxically, they supplied many referrals for abortion and provided after care. They were much more vigorously opposed than I ever expected, and while I continued to work there once a week doing IUD insertions, I knew to look elsewhere for office space. I called some physician colleagues in the peace and justice movement, whom I knew for many years, and I called some alternative health care facilities, but the doors were shut for office space."
But Dr. Trouton's perseverance pays off. By finding nurses and midwifes who support "choice"; by winning doctors over; by getting the National Abortion Federation's stamp of approval; the doctor now has a "successful" clinic where two thirds of her work is for "women seeking termination".
She gradually increases the gestational age of her abortions:
"Moving to D&E required some gradual work, first to 16 weeks, and then six months later to 20 weeks."
(Dilation and Evacuation (D&E): Sharp-edged instruments are used to grasp, twist, and tear the baby’s body into pieces. This continues until the child’s entire body is removed from the womb. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy describes the procedure saying, “The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb.”)
In case you're curious to see what a 20 week old fetus looks like.
What strikes me as odd about the doctor's presentation, is that she seems genuinely puzzled why she encountered difficulties. She writes in a calm, composed and non strident manner. Very professional. Very matter of fact.
"There have been many challenges but when I look at why this has been a successful story, it is because it has been about establishing trust and working across disciplines. I have worked hard to get to know the hospital staff, the health authority personal and invited them into the clinic to see the work done and to convince them the clinic and hospital partnership benefits them in reducing wait lists, costs and increasing training opportunities and retention of excellent staff."
The doctor was successful. In setting up a clinic. To abort babies. Close to viability. Who feel pain.
Yes Mary. This is what we call success. In a pro-abortion world.
Part 1...Women's "Rights"
Part 2...When the truth isn't the truth
Part 3...Translating Dr. Henry Morgentaler
Part 4...Why late-term abortions are not inconsequential
Part 5...Does the fetus matter?
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Canada's any-time any-reason no-reason tragic abortion reality that nobody knows about
Today we learn that Few Canadians know rules on abortion, poll finds
No shaving cream Sherlock. Tell me something I don't know.
Last year the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus had a press conference to discuss this very topic. There was no mainstream media present at said press conference. This resulted in no media coverage, except one lonely letter in the Ottawa Citizen.
Below is the PPLC Chair Rod Bruinooge's press release at that time, followed by my letter.
The ad mentioned in the press release:
9 Months the length of time an abortion is allowed in Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Immediate Release
May 13, 2009
Pro-Life Free Speech Suppressed in Canada
(Ottawa) - "In the last 12 months we have seen an alarming increase in the number of cases where pro-life groups have had their free speech suppressed," said Rod Bruinooge, Chair of the Parliamentary Pro Life Caucus (PPLC). "What do opponents of the pro-life viewpoint fear?
"Each year, the multi-party Pro-life Caucus holds a press conference in conjunction with the National March for Life.* This year's March marks the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Omnibus Bill which decriminalized abortion in Canada.
The pro-life caucus will use this opportunity to highlight a disturbing trend of intolerance towards the pro-life point of view. "From student unions and campuses, to advertising regulators, pro-life free speech is being treated by some as unworthy of protection," Bruinooge said.
One particular case involved LifeCanada, after they coordinated a national billboard campaign with the message "Nine Months, the length of time abortion is allowed in Canada." The Advertising Standards Canada body ruled that the advertising was "deceptive," and LifeCanada was banned from using that ad among all of the major advertisers that this body serves. "It is unfortunate that we are unable to communicate the truth to Canadians that abortion is permitted in all 9 months of pregnancy," said Gudrun Schultz, executive director of LifeCanada.
On campuses around Canada there are a number of cases where pro-life clubs have been denied club status and where pro-life students have been shouted down, prevented from speaking, been the subject of "thought police" inquiries, or have been arrested for trespassing.
"Polls consistently show that a majority of Canadians do not support Canada's unrestricted tax-payer funded abortion regime," Bruinooge said. "And although there are close to 100,000 abortions every year in Canada, we actually know very little about the practice. For example, we don't know the gestational age of the unborn child in over 60% of the cases because abortion providers aren't required to report this information. Nor are they required to report health complications or the reasons women obtain abortions. Stifling free speech allows the whole secrecy surrounding the practice of abortion to thrive."
Bruinooge continued, "Every woman has a right to be fully informed about the potential physical and psychological health risks of abortion. The trend to clamp down on free speech on this issue is a threat to all women who seek to be adequately informed."
Bruinooge concluded, "Student unions attempt to censor pro-lifers; school campuses attempt to censor pro-lifers; advertising bodies attempt to censor pro-lifers; but one place where freedom and democracy are still valued is the Parliament of Canada. It doesn't surprise me that our opponents attempt to suppress pro-life messages, because the truth is powerful.
"The PPLC press conference will be held Thursday, May 14, at 11:00 a.m. in the Charles Lynch Press Theatre (room 130-S Centre Block).
- 30 -
For additional comment, please contact:Rod Bruinooge, MP(204) 984-6787* The National March for Life is an annual event organized by Campaign Life Coalition and draws thousands of people to Ottawa from across the country every year in support of the lives of preborn children, the health of women, and the strength of families.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pro-life free speech was suppressed
The Ottawa Citizen May 21, 2009
Re: Thousands hit Hill to protest against abortion, May 15.
I attended this year's pro-life rally on Parliament Hill for the first time. I saw the thousands of people, but I sure didn't see much media presence.
In the Citizen's news story, the statement that there has been "snickering" at the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus' "secretive" reputation in the mainstream media is really kind of silly.
Every year the pro-life caucus holds a press conference at the same time as the rally. A media advisory and a press release went out to the Ottawa Press Gallery before the conference.
Perhaps if some members of the media could have taken a few minutes out from their laborious duties of their round-the-clock coverage of Larry O'Brien's trial or Brian Mulroney's inquiry, they would have had a few minutes left over to cover the Pro-Life Caucus's press conference and rally.
They would have learned something, like who some of the Pro-Life Caucus members are, as many of them attended at the press conference.
Publishing the names of members of a caucus is not normal caucus protocol -- it's up to members to self-identify if they wish.
It's ironic that the subject for this year's press conference was "pro-life free speech suppressed in Canada."
Now that's an understatement.
With the press's little to no coverage of the pro-life rally or caucus press conference, this all seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Patricia Maloney,
Ottawa
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
No shaving cream Sherlock. Tell me something I don't know.
Last year the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus had a press conference to discuss this very topic. There was no mainstream media present at said press conference. This resulted in no media coverage, except one lonely letter in the Ottawa Citizen.
Below is the PPLC Chair Rod Bruinooge's press release at that time, followed by my letter.
The ad mentioned in the press release:
9 Months the length of time an abortion is allowed in Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Immediate Release
May 13, 2009
Pro-Life Free Speech Suppressed in Canada
(Ottawa) - "In the last 12 months we have seen an alarming increase in the number of cases where pro-life groups have had their free speech suppressed," said Rod Bruinooge, Chair of the Parliamentary Pro Life Caucus (PPLC). "What do opponents of the pro-life viewpoint fear?
"Each year, the multi-party Pro-life Caucus holds a press conference in conjunction with the National March for Life.* This year's March marks the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Omnibus Bill which decriminalized abortion in Canada.
The pro-life caucus will use this opportunity to highlight a disturbing trend of intolerance towards the pro-life point of view. "From student unions and campuses, to advertising regulators, pro-life free speech is being treated by some as unworthy of protection," Bruinooge said.
One particular case involved LifeCanada, after they coordinated a national billboard campaign with the message "Nine Months, the length of time abortion is allowed in Canada." The Advertising Standards Canada body ruled that the advertising was "deceptive," and LifeCanada was banned from using that ad among all of the major advertisers that this body serves. "It is unfortunate that we are unable to communicate the truth to Canadians that abortion is permitted in all 9 months of pregnancy," said Gudrun Schultz, executive director of LifeCanada.
On campuses around Canada there are a number of cases where pro-life clubs have been denied club status and where pro-life students have been shouted down, prevented from speaking, been the subject of "thought police" inquiries, or have been arrested for trespassing.
"Polls consistently show that a majority of Canadians do not support Canada's unrestricted tax-payer funded abortion regime," Bruinooge said. "And although there are close to 100,000 abortions every year in Canada, we actually know very little about the practice. For example, we don't know the gestational age of the unborn child in over 60% of the cases because abortion providers aren't required to report this information. Nor are they required to report health complications or the reasons women obtain abortions. Stifling free speech allows the whole secrecy surrounding the practice of abortion to thrive."
Bruinooge continued, "Every woman has a right to be fully informed about the potential physical and psychological health risks of abortion. The trend to clamp down on free speech on this issue is a threat to all women who seek to be adequately informed."
Bruinooge concluded, "Student unions attempt to censor pro-lifers; school campuses attempt to censor pro-lifers; advertising bodies attempt to censor pro-lifers; but one place where freedom and democracy are still valued is the Parliament of Canada. It doesn't surprise me that our opponents attempt to suppress pro-life messages, because the truth is powerful.
"The PPLC press conference will be held Thursday, May 14, at 11:00 a.m. in the Charles Lynch Press Theatre (room 130-S Centre Block).
- 30 -
For additional comment, please contact:Rod Bruinooge, MP(204) 984-6787* The National March for Life is an annual event organized by Campaign Life Coalition and draws thousands of people to Ottawa from across the country every year in support of the lives of preborn children, the health of women, and the strength of families.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pro-life free speech was suppressed
The Ottawa Citizen May 21, 2009
Re: Thousands hit Hill to protest against abortion, May 15.
I attended this year's pro-life rally on Parliament Hill for the first time. I saw the thousands of people, but I sure didn't see much media presence.
In the Citizen's news story, the statement that there has been "snickering" at the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus' "secretive" reputation in the mainstream media is really kind of silly.
Every year the pro-life caucus holds a press conference at the same time as the rally. A media advisory and a press release went out to the Ottawa Press Gallery before the conference.
Perhaps if some members of the media could have taken a few minutes out from their laborious duties of their round-the-clock coverage of Larry O'Brien's trial or Brian Mulroney's inquiry, they would have had a few minutes left over to cover the Pro-Life Caucus's press conference and rally.
They would have learned something, like who some of the Pro-Life Caucus members are, as many of them attended at the press conference.
Publishing the names of members of a caucus is not normal caucus protocol -- it's up to members to self-identify if they wish.
It's ironic that the subject for this year's press conference was "pro-life free speech suppressed in Canada."
Now that's an understatement.
With the press's little to no coverage of the pro-life rally or caucus press conference, this all seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Patricia Maloney,
Ottawa
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen