Jesuit Father Edward Oakes has a brilliant essay on changing President Obama’s mind on abortion.
You need to read the essay.
Category: Pro Life
Glendon’s Daughter Comments
Yesterday (April 29, 2009), Tom McFeely, of the National Catholic Register posted a brief story relating the “back story” to Mary Ann Glendon’s declining the Laetare Medal.
Catholic writer and art historian Elizabeth Lev is Mary Ann Glendon’s
daughter.
In a post at
PoliticsDaily.com, Lev — who lives in Rome and is a regular contributor to
Zenit news service — discusses her mother’s decision to refuse to accept Notre
Dame’s Laetare Medal.
Lev explains that Glendon’s action, undertaken because of
Notre Dame’s honoring of pro-abortion President Barack Obama, must be
considered in the context of Glendon’s proven commitment to defending the human
rights of all vulnerable people, born and unborn.
And, Lev said, in light of that commitment it’s silly to
dismiss her mother’s principled action as merely a gesture by someone who cares
only about the pro-life cause.
“Professor Glendon was to have been honored for not only for
her scholarship, but for her second career, her pro-bono work — ranging from
the civil rights movement of the 1960s to the great civil rights issues of the
present day — namely, the defense of human life from conception to natural
death,” writes Lev. “Her concerns range from the aging and dying population to
the unborn to the well-being and dignity of every life, regardless of race,
religion, or economic status. Her outstanding work in this field has earned her
the respect of the most brilliant minds of the international community,
regardless of whether they agree with her position. So again, to see her merely
as ‘strongly anti-abortion’ instead of as a tireless defender of the dignity of
life, is to reveal not only a lack of understanding of the subject’s work, but
also the writer’s real interest in this question.”
Fund for Life established at Notre Dame Univ.
The University
of Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture
establishes “The Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life,” a fund
to support pro-life activities. Here’s the summary of this new
initiative and the press release.
PS: poke around
the Center’s website, especially the list of Board of Advisors and notice the
names of those who lend their political & religious influence to this
project.
No to abortion, yes to life: Spain is in a fight over Pro-Life
The headmistress of Purísima Concepción y Santa María Micaela school, a parochial school in Logroño in northern Spain, Sister María Victoria Vindel gave this presentation to her students about horror of abortion. The slideshow is provocative and graphic
Spain’s very left leaning government is trying to overturn its country’s abortion laws. To procure an abortion in Spain is currently a crime. Sister Vindel is being attacked by those who want to “progress” into the 21st century of nihilism. Pray for her and the others taking up the fight against abortion.
The drama of life and death in reality
Turn, O Lord, and deliver their souls for there is none in death who will be mindful of You!
The dead from Italy’s earthquake last week are mourned. A Mass of Christian Burial was offered on Good Friday by Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, Secretary of State to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI with the bishops and priests of the region.
We beseech Thee, O Lord, deliver the souls of Thy servants, that being dead to this world, they may live to Thee and whatever sins they have committed through human frailty, do Thou wipe away by the pardon of Thy merciful goodness.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.
A gloomy Holy Saturday: the courseness of humanity
The gloominess of today’s weather leads to a gloomy feeling that all is not well in the world. Of course, it is Holy Saturday which in itself is a bittersweet experience: the Paschal Mystery is intense and the drama of the sacred Liturgy causes me to reflect more deeply on important matters: human desire, cooperation with truth, faithfulness, interior and exterior peace, love, salvation, God, Chris’t atonement, etc.
The spiritual intensity of the day has led me to think of how some cultural commentators are looking at life through the lens of Christian faith seeing a dismal experience of Christianity and the reduction of man and woman to the courseness of existence. I am beginning to see that we are living a dark period of history. Let me give three examples that depress me, all come from today’s edition of the New York Times: “Washington Churches Eye a Prize: The Obamas,” “In Another Recession Sign, an Uptick in Vasectomies” and “Spain Steps Into Battle With Itself on Abortion.” For me, these articles show to what extent that many people are willing to go to reduce the experience of faith to a commodity, life to a matter of “rights and progressivity” and the sexual intercourse to economy and self-centeredness. All three articles strike me as examples of desperation because know of them really demonstrate to me that following Christ (or any religious sensibility) means anything. Has truth, the dignity of human life and a healthy sexuality been totally replaced by radical subjectivity, nihilism and hedonism?
The Spanish interlocutors make the claim of trying to change the current abortion law as a matter of humanity suggesting that not to change the law is to live in a barbourous society. It’s quite the opposite: you’re humanity is diminished by acting selfishly and cruelly toward the unborn. How is killing the unborn giving a woman a dignified humanity when abortion is part of the matrix? The abortion proponents argue that they want a state that is “progressive,” like other Western nations except Ireland. To what are they progressing? Death? A culture where death is the hallmark and not life.
On Holy Saturday I have to say that our society is leaping toward madness and not to great freedom and certainly not toward communion with God and life with Him.
Canon 915: its full, objective application
A recent interview with His Excellency, Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (The Pope’s Chief Justice) regarding the application of Canon 915 is online here. Nothing new is presented but he states the truth of Catholic teaching.
Canon 915 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law reads: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
I think he’s clear on the thinking of the Church on its application, don’t you? Is there debate?
Fight HB 2354: The Illinois FOCA Bill
House Bill 2354, Illinois State Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), passed the Illinois House Human Services Committee on March 11. The bill will now head to the Illinois House floor for the consideration of the entire body.
“Vote NO on HB 2354. The bill is extreme. It declares abortion to be a fundamental right and it invalidates a health care professional’s right of conscience.”
The bill also seeks to :
– Make abortion a fundamental right, preventing any common-sense regulation such as parental notification
– Expand public funding of abortion through Medicaid at a time when the State cannot even meet its current fiscal obligations
– Invalidates the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act protecting health care professionals and employers
– Mandate comprehensive sex education for all children in public schools
– Establish a liability shield for abortion providers who harm pregnant women
Visit the Illinois General Assembly’s web site at www.ilga.gov to find your Legislator. If you encounter any difficulties, please call the Catholic Conference of Illinois at 312-368-1066.
Cardinal Francis E. George’s letter on HB 2354:
Cardinal’s letter HB2354.pdf
Opposing FOCA March 31st–President Obama needs to know not all agree with him
The President of the United States of America needs to realize not everyone supports Planned Parenthood’s goals. Please follow this suggestion if you are against abortion. Please send this message to everyone in your address book that thinks similarly. MAYBE our biased MEDIA would even mention it IF we DO IT. Mark March 31 on your calendar!
What: Get red envelopes or postcards and mail them on March 31st to the White House; You can buy them at Kinkos, or any party supply stores.
When: March 31, 2009
To Whom:
President Barack Obama
The White House
On the back, write the following message:
This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion. It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be a part of our world.
We will mail the envelopes out
Forward this event to every one of your friends who you think would send one too. It would be good if we could send 50 million red envelopes, one for every child who died [in the
It may seem that those who believe abortion is wrong are in a minority. It may seem like we have no voice and it’s shameful to even bring it up. Let us show our President and the world that the voices of those of us who do not believe abortion is acceptable are not silent and must be heard. Together we can change the heart of The President and save the lives of millions of children.
President Barack Obama spoke at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event, uttering the now infamous line, “Well, the first thing I’d do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. [Applause.] That’s the first thing that I’d do.”
An empty red envelope will send a message to President Barack Obama that there is moral outrage in this country over this issue [The Freedom of Choice Act, which will essentially “undo” every law currently in place to limit abortion in the U.S. (i.e., parental consent laws, parental notification, waiting periods, prohibition of transporting a minor girl across state lines to obtain an abortion, etc.)]. It will be quiet, but clear.
Please read more about The Freedom of Choice Act here:
http://www.lifenews.com/nat4359.html
http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2008/07/one_year_annive.html
Eluana’ death is a provocation to human dignity
The head of the Vatican’s Academy for Life, Archbishop Rino Fisichella said that his hope is that Eluana Englaro’s tragic death will provoke a societal affirmation of human dignity. Watch a video clip.
Read Communion & Liberation’s statement on Eluana’s death.