Fr. Thomas Euteneuer and Our Possible Future

The following is the complete text of LifeSiteNews.com’s interview with Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International:

LSN: We see the crisis of abortion sometimes in isolation. We look at individual problems like the health care bill in the US, or the threat to national sovereignty presented by the Lisbon Treaty, or we look at a particular political party or candidate and we focus our attention on those things, but we need also to look at the larger picture. What does the abortion crisis, and the moral crisis, presage in the larger realm?

TE: A moral degradation precedes social and political degradation. And we see a take-over of the financial system. We see a dismantling of the free market as we know it, which is a hallmark of western democracy. We see a socialization of huge industries, such as the health care industry, even the insurance industry is part of this process of socialization. I say it is not remarkable that it is happening now.

You mention that it has already happened in Europe and we’re now catching up. Of course, because Europe legalized abortion, Europe had their moral degradation prior to us. And now they’re seeing a rapid systematic dismantling of their economies.

LSN: Can a line between legalized abortion and the financial crisis be drawn clearly?

TE: The line to me is the spiritual and moral dimension of it. The spiritual and moral affect everything that we do. But usually because there is a greater accountability in the financial and economic realm of things, it takes longer for that to degrade. When people start losing money, they begin to wake up. And God allows that because when people do not recognize the demands of morality and the demands of God, the only thing they’re willing to listen to oftentimes is their pocket book. There’s a great possibility in all these structural changes that are happening now that people could turn around and become moral again, because of the financial crisis. Also, any type of disaster turns people back to God, as we saw after 9-11. We didn’t sustain that because we got back on our feet economically.

LSN: Do you anticipate a social crisis similar to that of Britain in the US?

TE: The social crisis happens when we elect people to rule over us who are immoral. That is not an isolated incident anymore. We have immoral activists at every branch of government and everywhere we turn around the pagans are in charge of our institutions. So people who don’t have a moral bearing to elect other moral people, elect immoral politicians and people to serve over them, eventually end up reaping the fruit of those immoral decisions. So immoral lifestyles produce immoral leaders.

LSN: This should come as a surprise to no one, though.

TE: It’s not. It’s happened in every society that has reached its pinnacle of civilization and then collapsed. Look at Carthage, the Phoenician empire was much more powerful than Rome for a period of time. But Carthage had a religion that offered human sacrifice of babies. Eventually it degraded from within and collapsed on itself.

LSN: What do you anticipate then, with our global culture?

TE: We’ve got a serious crisis on the horizon. I’m not a prophet of doom but I don’t see this going any other way but a serious political crisis that’s going to affect the globe.

LSN: You don’t think there is going to be a backlash? A natural return to moral sanity? In Britain, even if most people don’t understand why the situation is so bad, they are clearly fed up with Blairism and are going to kick the Labour Party out. Do you think that people will say “enough” before a global social disaster?

TE: The only way we can avert a global collapse is by a moral conversion. Once again, we have to reverse the process. Just to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, is not a way to stop the collapse, the sinking of the Titanic. We have to turn back to God. And if people get fed up and just elect another political party that is just as bad as the previous political party, it does nothing to stem the global crisis that’s going to come upon us. What we need is a conversion of heart.

LSN: How is this going to come about, barring a massive disaster?

TE: It’s going to be the natural result of suffering. People turn back to God when they suffer. People can turn back to God because they listen to reason. Or because they hear good preaching or because they have good moral leadership. It could also happen that way, where if the Church were living up to its vocation – and I mean mainly Church leadership – then the people have a fighting chance of turning this back.

A good example of where it’s not happening was this summer. Many of us were happy that people were attending the townhall meetings and tea parties and yelling and screaming, but it was all about the economics. Where were these people when they were killing babies? Where are these people since they are continuing to kill babies. Where is this kind of anger generated by that?

Biblically, we see Nineveh, as a sign that this kind of thing can happen. They responded to God’s grace.

LSN: So where’s our Jonah?

TE: (Pope) Benedict, and John Paul before him, they are true prophets. We have witnesses such as Terri Schiavo who was a victim. They are victim witnesses. We have the witnesses of holiness in the lives of sanctity that we see proposed to us by the Church throughout the ages, but in the modern age we are not lacking at all.

LSN: But we’ve had martyrs, modern martyrs, so where’s the miracle? Where’s the big conversion?

TE: I think because the seriousness of the shedding of innocent blood through the 20th century into the 21st century, the spiritual deficit is too great. The scales are tipped too low, and I really believe that we’re going to need a great martyrdom in order to return the balance. Abraham Lincoln, believe it or not, said that the cost of slavery was all the blood shed in the Civil War. And I believe ... how will we pay back the cost of abortion? Our trillion-dollar debt in the United States isn’t anything in comparison to the actual debt that we owe to reality and to God and to the human race even for the killing of innocents.

50 million is what is killed every year around the world. It’s a global genocide and it’s totally unrepented.

And with contraception and abortion, we’re basically committing mass suicide on a global scale.

LSN: Lots of people have been sounding the trumpet of warning for a long time...

TE: It’s human nature. Human nature doesn’t listen. My mother always says those who do not listen must feel. You get the message when you feel it hurting you and striking you back. I believe that is very much the way human nature operates. It’s the law of nature that we are slothful until we’re woken up. The Gospels have so many messages saying not only ‘stay awake’ but ‘wake up!’ and see what is happening around you and if you don’t then death happens.

LSN: Death happens?

TE: The principle is that what happens under the surface eventually comes out into the open. So the killing of babies eventually leads to the euthanizing of elderly and sick people. That’s the law. It happens infallibly. It’s part of the moral law of nature, the moral dimension of nature, that if you don’t see something that is so necessary to see on a personal scale, eventually it becomes social, so that you can’t miss it.

The sad part is that we might as individuals and even as a majority of society we might see it, we might get the message. But we’ve elected these clowns who don’t get the message.

LSN: Why do we who see the problem and keep electing the same ‘clowns’ then?

TE: They see it but they don’t really see it. Because seeing it has implications for action. And if they’re not willing to act according to what they see, then they’re not part of the solution.

But it’s probably more a question of people not having good leadership. People become paralyzed very easily when they feel isolated. You’re only one vote, you’re just one person, what can you do? But if you had leadership that is saying ‘follow me, we’ll all do this together’ then we would have much more impact on society.

LSN: Where is the leadership? Here we are, there’s the dome of St. Peter’s right out that window...

TE: We have individual leaders that are stellar. Such as here, in Archbishop (Raymond) Burke. I think the man is just a modern saint. And his leadership does not go unnoticed. However as just one individual bishop there’s only so much he can do. We don’t have conferences of bishops that are giving us leadership as a body of bishops. When will that come? It will probably only come when [the secular governments] start forcing the bishops to pay for abortions. Those who do not listen must feel.

LSN: People are saying that there has been a surprisingly strong reaction from the US bishops to abortion funding in the American health care bill. Where’s that coming from?

TE: I think there are more bishops who are seeing it for what it is. There are more bishops who have less of the liberal agenda and are just more Catholic. When their number increases then we have more leadership in the body of bishops.

LSN: Has there been a backlash by the Catholic bishops against the attempts to force Catholic health care services to provide contraception and abortion in places like Massachusetts?

TE: In some ways the bishops’ hands are tied because they don’t have control over the Catholic health care any more. In most cases the bishops are not the owners of these institutions. They can only exercise moral leadership and not legal control over an entity. That being said, they can exercise a great deal of influence over these institutions as well and when they’re willing to do it, they have incredible influence.

Pro-abortion forces in the US government are becoming more aggressive against [the bishops]. That’s where I think the bishops as a body will stand up and make stronger statements as time goes on because more is going to be threatened. Not just the tax-exempt status but Catholic institutions, Catholic identity and they will have to defend that or they will not be Catholic.

That’s why I think that something like abortion, because it’s proposed and spread as a personal choice, is much more difficult to deal with than communism because communism is imposed from the outside. This health care situation, the socializing of medicine and the attack on our fundamental values, could be the wake-up call that we need. Because it is an external imposition on us that runs contrary to our values, militates against our values. And in order to defend those basic identity issues the bishops have to do something.

LSN: I’ll give you the case of the government of Britain forcing the closure or secularization of Catholic adoption agencies. When the British Labour government, in the person of Tony Blair, refused to give a religious exemption to the Sexual Orientation Regulations, the bishops shrugged and secularized their adoption agencies. So they’ve lost the Catholic service of adoption in Britain.

TE: And they may lose more. As the attacks against our values and institutions get more militant, they’re going to have to make those very hard decisions. Our point is that they’ve had the question of the salvation of souls as a perennial question for them and in a lot of those cases they haven’t done anything. Souls are being lost. Now they’re talking about the loss of health care institutions, which is nothing in value to compare with the loss of a soul. So maybe this is the way that the Catholic leadership will wake up and realize that there is so much that potentially can be lost here and get them back on their mission putting the salvation of souls as their primary concern.

I’ve always said, and I’ll continue to say it, for a bishop to be a real bishop, he has to be willing to go to war. That is a war not only with the secular culture but often times the most difficult part of that is the war with his own people. To make them truly Catholic and to witness to them.

LSN: Have there been concrete gains from the faithfulness of the people in the movement to restore sanity?

TE: We need to watch the things that don’t get a lot of press, and that is the movements, such as the pro-life movement. It’s important to keep an eye on the people who are doing good things and the way they are doing them. I think the unsung heroes of the pro-life movement are the crisis pregnancy centres. This very humble, down-to-earth grassroots movement that gets no press at all but they’re saving babies and saving souls every single day out there. 40 Days for Life, positive things like that, the March for Life, we have plenty of things to keep us enthusiastic in this war.

Every war is discouraging because you lose some battles. And sometimes you lose a lot of battles before you actually win one and then turn the tide. So I think we need encouraging things, to find and promote them to show people that all is not lost.

LSN: Are there signs that the tide is turning?

TE: No. I don’t think the tide is turning. I don’t think we’ve reached that point yet. I think the crisis we were talking about earlier will be the way in which the tide turns. Again, I’m not predicting anything, I just have this intuition that the way things are going, they’re getting worse, they’re declining, they’re dismantling, and that can only mean some form of major destruction down the road. The ones who are now presently on the side of the angels are the ones who are going to get through that. And to bring others along with them back to God.

We can talk about the wonderful people who are already doing that, the saints who are out there on the streets, living their faith and making great sacrifices and those stories need to be told.

And we have to keep in mind that Obama doesn’t define life. I’m an exorcist, and I tell all the people who I work with that the demons do not define your life. They are painful and terrible, however long it may take to remove them and get you back to health, you have to keep this message in mind. That you are not defined by evil. You are defined by God, by Jesus Christ. And the return that some of these people have to make after living terrible lives, and paying the price for that, is part of the reason why God allows evil in the world. It serves a purpose in the overall work of the Kingdom. He allows evil in order to bring something good out of it. In fact something even better than it would have been had evil not been present.

LSN: So this unimaginably huge evil, 50 million people being killed a year...

TE: ...will produce an unimaginably marvelous good, if we are men and women of faith and we look for it.

Reasons Behind The Shift To Pro-Life

For The Bulletin

The major media seemed a bit mystified at the results of a recent Gallup Poll, showing a significant shift to the pro-life point of view.

The national telephone survey of 1,015 adults, age 18 or older, conducted from May 7-10, indicated that 51 percent of Americans now call themselves “pro-life” on abortion, as opposed to the 42 percent who self-identify as “pro-choice.” This marks the first time the pro-life side held the majority since Gallup started posing the question back in 1995.

Given the fact that America just elected a “pro-choice” president, the results might seem surprising, even shocking. However, upon further analysis, there are substantive reasons why the populace is moving to the pro-life end of the spectrum of public opinion:

The campaign against the Freedom of Choice Act — The nation’s Catholic bishops, along with a number of pro-life organizations, including the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, have been waging a very public campaign to stop the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a proposal which would mean virtually no limits on abortion. In fact, FOCA, which President Obama supports, would mean the end of parental consent, conscience clauses, 24-hour waiting periods for abortion, along with the return of the heinous practice of partial-birth abortion. The presumed sponsor of the legislation, New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler, has indicated that the bill will be introduced soon. However, the delay in its introduction may be indicative of the pressure brought to bear by anti-FOCA campaigns.

Overreaching by the Obama Administration — A Gallup poll conducted earlier this year found that 58 percent of Americans opposed President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap the Mexico City Policy, meaning that most Americans object to their tax money being used for organizations that promote and perform abortions overseas. In fact, when Gallup asked Americans to evaluate seven major policy initiatives undertaken by the White House, the discarding of the Mexico City Policy elicited the most opposition.

Ultrasound puts a face on the abortion debate — With the advent of real-time ultrasound, there can be little debate that at the heart of every pregnancy is an actual baby, not a blob of tissue as advocates of legal abortion have claimed in the past. It’s a little hard to argue “choice” when you see a human being staring back at you.

The testimonies of women and men who have been hurt by abortion — Each abortion leads to two victims — the baby who dies and the mother who’s wounded. Women who regret their abortions are speaking out, talking about the pain, both emotional and physical, that resulted from their abortions. They trace drug addiction, alcohol abuse, eating disorders and sleep disorders to the abortions of their past. Men, too, are grieving and opening up about the devastation abortion has caused in their lives. There is nothing quite so powerful as the complaint of a dissatisfied customer, and the abortion industry has a number of former clients expressing buyer’s remorse.

For years, pro-abortion activists have been talking about a so-called “pro-choice majority.” The Gallup Poll shows that that pool of abortion supporters is now shrinking. With other polls showing that young people tend to be more pro-life than the youth of previous generations, it’s clear that we’re entering a new era in American society, where Americans freely recognize not only the sanctity of life in the womb, but our sacred obligation to protect women from the harm of abortion.

Maria Vitale is the education director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, based in Harrisburg. She can be reached at vitale@paprolife.org

Imagine the Potential

Here's a great video I wish the MSM would run, but I think we know that would never happen...

Bishops Address Opportunities, Challenges for New President, Congress

January 13, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama
President-elect
Presidential Transition Team
Washington, D.C. 20270

Dear Mr. President-elect,

As our nation begins a new year, a new Administration and a new Congress, I write to outline principles and priorities that guide the public policy efforts of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). As President of the Bishops' Conference, I assure you of our prayers, hopes and commitment to make this period of national change a time to advance the common good and defend the life and dignity of all, especially the vulnerable and poor. We continue to seek ways to work constructively with the new Administration and Congress and others of good will to pursue policies which respect the dignity of all human life and bring greater justice to our nation and peace to our world.

As Bishops, we approach public policy as pastors and teachers. Our moral principles have always guided our everyday experience in caring for the hungry and homeless, offering health care and housing, educating children and reaching out to those in need. We lead the largest community of faith in the United States, one that serves every part of our nation and is present in almost every place on earth. From our experience and our tradition, we offer a distinctive, constructive and principled contribution to the national dialogue on how to act together on issues of economic turmoil and suffering, war and violence, moral decency and human dignity.

Our nation now faces economic challenges with potentially tragic human consequences and serious moral dimensions. We will work with the new Administration and Congress to support strong, prudent and effective measures to address the terrible impacts and injustices of the economic crisis. In particular, we will advocate a clear priority for poor families and vulnerable workers in the development and implementation of economic recovery measures, including new investments while strengthening the national safety net. We also support greater accountability and oversight to address irresponsible abuses of the system that contributed to the financial crisis.

The Catholic Bishops of the United States have worked for decades to assure health care for all, insisting that access to decent health care is a basic human right and a requirement of human dignity. We urge comprehensive action to ensure truly universal health care coverage which protects all human life including pre-natal life, and provides access for all, with a special concern for the poor. Any such legislation ought to respect freedom to choose by offering a variety of options and ensuring respect for the moral and religious convictions of patients and providers. Such an approach should seek to restrain costs while sharing them equitably.

On international affairs, we will work with our leaders to seek a responsible transition in an Iraq free of religious persecution. We especially urge early, focused and persistent leadership to bring an end to violent conflict and a just peace in the Holy Land. We will continue to support essential U.S. investments to overcome poverty, hunger and disease through increased and reformed foreign assistance. Continued U.S. leadership in the fight against HIV-AIDS and other diseases in ways that are both effectively and morally appropriate have our enthusiastic backing. Recognizing the complexity of climate change, we wish to be a voice for the poor and vulnerable in our country and around the world who will be the most adversely affected by any dramatic threats to the environment.

We will work with the new Administration and Congress to fix a broken immigration system which harms both our nation and immigrants. Comprehensive reform is needed to deal with the economic and human realities of millions of immigrants in our midst. It must be based on respect for and implementation of the law. Equally it must defend the rights and dignity of all peoples, recognizing that human dignity comes from God and does not depend on where people were born or how they came to our nation. Truly comprehensive immigration reform will include a path to earned citizenship with attention to the fact that international trade and development policies influence economic opportunities in the countries from which immigrants come.

We stand firm in our support for marriage which is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman and must remain such in law. In a manner unlike any other relationship, marriage makes a unique and irreplaceable contribution to the common good of society, especially through the procreation and education of children. No other kinds of personal relationships can be justly made equivalent to the commitment of a man and a woman in marriage.

With regard to the education of children, we will continue to support initiatives which provide resources for all parents, especially those of modest means, to choose education which best address the needs of their children.

We welcome continuing commitments to empower faith-based groups as effective partners in overcoming poverty and other threats to human dignity. We will work with the Administration and Congress to strengthen these partnerships in ways that do not encourage government to abandon its responsibilities, and do not require religious groups to abandon their identity and mission.

Most fundamentally, we will work to protect the lives of the most vulnerable and voiceless members of the human family, especially unborn children and those who are disabled or terminally ill. We will consistently defend the fundamental right to life from conception to natural death. Opposed to abortion as the direct killing of innocent human life, we will encourage one and all to seek common ground that will reduce the number of abortions in morally sound ways that affirm the dignity of pregnant women and their unborn children. We will oppose legislative and other measures to expand abortion. We will work to retain essential, widely supported policies which show respect for unborn life, protect the conscience rights of health care providers and other Americans, and prevent government funding and promotion of abortion. The Hyde amendment and other provisions which for many years have prevented federal funding of abortion have a proven record of reducing abortions. Efforts to force Americans to fund abortions with their tax dollars would pose a serious moral challenge and jeopardize the passage of essential health care reform.

This outline of USCCB policies and priorities is not complete. There are many other areas of concern and advocacy for the Church and the USCCB especially: religious freedom and other civil and human rights, news media and communications, and issues of war and peace. For a more detailed description of our concerns please see Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (USCCB 2008), pages 19-30.

Nonetheless, we offer this outline as an agenda for dialogue and action. We hope to offer a constructive and principled contribution to national discussion over the values and policies that will shape our nation's future. We seek to work together with our nation's leaders to advance the common good of our society, while disagreeing respectfully and civilly where necessary for preserving that same common good.

In closing, I renew our expression of hope and our offer of cooperation as you begin this new period of service to our nation in these challenging times. We promise our prayers for you, that the days ahead will be a time of renewal and progress for our nation and that we can work together to defend human life and dignity and build a nation of greater justice and a world at peace.

Sincerely yours,

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago
President

Armed vs. the un-Armed

As I prepare to walk with thousands of my brothers and sisters next week in Washington D.C., I am reminded of Christ's passion: the unstained handed over to the stained.

I've been reading and meditating on Saint Thomas More's The Sadness of Christ, written as a commentary on the Passion while More was awaiting his own execution by the stain of King Henry VIII. More commentary than exegesis, More presents profound insight into that cataclysmic event that re-opened the doors to heaven for all of us lowly beings.

More offers the following comments on the "darkness" that handed Jesus over to the guards by all who were threatened by him:

This is the mad and ungovernable power which brings you armed to take an unarmed man, which brings the fierce against the gentle, criminals against an innocent man, a traitor against his lord, puny mortals against God.

The irony of all innocent blood participating and united in Christ's passion. The unborn, the sick, the dying- all of the unarmed. The abortionist (and the legislators and commonfolk that support him) murdering the child by unspeakable means and weaponry. He who is to defend and heal the sick as doctor, is now the aggressor. Under the natural law, written by God, this criminal who sins against the natural law.

The safest and most intimate place for any human being, has become a battleground.

The Battle Continues

The number of abortions performed in Pennsylvania in 2007 dropped slightly from the previous year's totals, according to figures just released by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The total in 2007 was 36,663, down 0.2 percent from the number that occurred in 2006. African-American women underwent about 39 percent of the abortions, while Hispanic women accounted for about six percent of the total. The single largest age group was the 20 to 24-year-old category, accounting for about 34 percent of all abortions. The vast majority of abortions occurred in seven counties--Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Lehigh, and Philadelphia. About 45 percent of abortions were performed on women who had already had at least one abortion--in some cases, more than four. You can find the abortion statistics at http://www.paprolife.org/2007%20PA%20AB%20Stats.pdf

When the Law's Not the Limit

The mainstream media are trying to cast pro-lifers as the big losers in the 2008 election.

Granted, the most pro-abortion Presidential candidate in history won the White House. Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion operation, boosted its support in Congress. And pro-life ballot issues in three different states went down to defeat.

In fact, you can even find reference in cyberspace to the pro-life movement being dead.

Some media "experts" are suggesting that the pro-life movement has to give up the goal of making abortion illegal. Outlawing abortion "can't be done" is the media rallying cry.

But the fact that abortions are legal in the U.S. is not inconsequential. In his book, "Friendship: The Art of Happiness," Dr. John Cuddeback writes, "One of the most serious ways in which the flaws of a civil society are manifested is in its laws." He adds that, "Since it speaks of the judgment of the community regarding right and wrong in action, it has a formative effect on the judgment of citizens regarding right and wrong."

Cuddeback points out that philosophers have long spoken of the teaching value of the law. In a society with a bad law, youth, in particular, can become corrupted.

Abortion-on-demand teaches young people that they should strive for convenience at all costs. It instills the frightening idea that killing is an acceptable solution to both personal and social problems. It teaches them that a child's value is less than dirt and that women are to be used, discarded, and their offspring are to be eliminated. It shatters the heart, darkens the soul, and coarsens society.

As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops states in its brochure, "A People of Life," "The Supreme Court decisions legalizing abortion--Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton--must be reversed."

No matter how long it takes.

But, I hope, sooner than we could ever expect.

By Maria Vitale, Education Director PA Pro-Life Federation

vitale@paprolife.org

Warning From the Past

A friend of mine sent me this article....

WHAT is this strange spell which seems to have bewitched America? What is this enchantment which has befallen the mainstream media? What is this strong infatuation which has inebriated a large portion of the electorate? Yet, for many others, there are enormous and very loud alarm bells ringing this eve over the next likely President of the United States: Barack Obama. I am a Canadian, and so I am usually reluctant to express my thoughts on another country’s politics. However, I feel more and more that what is happening is setting the stage, in part, for many things I have written about of the trials which are coming upon the Church and the world.

A STRANGE SPELL

As always with the internet, there are the wild and extreme opinions, the conspiracy theorists, the bizarre extrapolators. CONTINUE READING...

Election Day 2008

Tomorrow is Election Day.

Most think it's a "defining day" in our country's history, because the economy's at stake. I think it's a defining day in our history, because at stake are the lives of those without a voice: the unborn, the elderly, and the sick.

No matter the outcome tomorrow, all will not be tip-top. Suffering is temporary. Heaven is eternal...


Our Lady of Victory...

...PRAY FOR US!

Miracles can happen...

Truth, Freedom, and Abortion

Another great piece, this being from Archbishop Gomez of San Antonio:

Abortion is not a “Catholic” issue. It is a matter of fundamental human rights. In fact, I believe it is the foundational issue of our time. Because it is so important, the Church has spoken clearly about it and believes it is an essential aspect of the Catholic faith.

One of the misleading arguments is that the question of when life begins is “a matter of faith.” I think that modern biology clearly shows us that human life begins at conception. Embryologists can show us that within just a few weeks the embryo has developed recognizable features, including his or her face, arms, and legs.

CONTINUE READING...

In the Holiness of Truth...

Great piece by New York's Cardinal Egan...

Just Look
The picture on this page is an untouched photograph of a being that has been within its mother for 20 weeks. Please do me the favor of looking at it carefully.



Have you any doubt that it is a human being?

CONTINUE READING...

"Today, Children of All Races Are Denied Recognition as 'Persons'"

I get disgusted hearing politicians say they cannot bring their religious convictions into the political arena. Having said that, I guess people like Joe Biden cannot pass laws against slavery, theft, murder, et. al. because the Catholic Church is against ALL of those issues...

Dear Senator Biden:
I write to you today as a fellow Catholic layman, on a subject that has become a major topic of concern in this year's presidential campaign.

The bishops who have taken public issue with your remarks on the Church's historical position on abortion are far from alone. Senator Obama stressed your Catholic identity repeatedly when he introduced you as his running mate, and so your statements carry considerable weight, whether they are correct or not. You now have a unique responsibility when you make public statements about Catholic teaching.

On NBC's Meet the Press, you appealed to the 13th Century writings of St. Thomas Aquinas to cast doubt on the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church on abortion.
There are several problems with this.

First, Aquinas obviously had only a medieval understanding of biology, and thus could only speculate about how an unborn child develops in the womb. I doubt that there is any other area of public policy where you would appeal to a 13th Century knowledge of biology as the basis for modern law.

Second, Aquinas' theological view is in any case entirely consistent with the long history of Catholic Church teaching in this area, holding that abortion is a grave sin to be avoided at any time during pregnancy.

This teaching dates all the way back to the Didache, written in the second century. It is found in the writings of Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine and Aquinas, and was reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council, which described abortion as "an unspeakable crime" and held that the right to life must be protected from the "moment of conception." This consistent teaching was restated most recently last month in the response of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to remarks by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Statements that suggest that our Church has anything less than a consistent teaching on abortion are not merely incorrect; they may lead Catholic women facing crisis pregnancies to misunderstand the moral gravity of an abortion decision.

Neither should a discussion about a medieval understanding of the first few days or weeks of life be allowed to draw attention away from the remaining portion of an unborn child's life. In those months, even ancient and medieval doctors agreed that a child is developing in the womb.
And as you are well aware, Roe v. Wade allows for abortion at any point during a pregnancy. While you voted for the ban on partial birth abortions, your unconditional support for Roe is a de facto endorsement of permitting all other late term abortions, and thus calls into question your appeal to Aquinas.

I recognize that you struggle with your conscience on the issue, and have said that you accept the Church's teaching that life begins at conception - as a matter of faith. But modern medical science leaves no doubt about the fact that each person's life begins at conception. It is not a matter of personal religious belief, but of science.

Finally, your unwillingness to bring your Catholic moral views into the public policy arena on this issue alone is troubling.

There were several remarkable ironies in your first appearance as Senator Obama's running mate on the steps of the old state capitol in Springfield, Illinois.

His selection as the first black American to be the nominee of a major party for president of the United States owes an incalculable debt to two movements that were led by people whose religious convictions motivated them to confront the moral evils of their day - the abolitionist movement of the 19th Century, and the civil rights movement of the 20th Century.

Your rally in Springfield took place just a mile or so from the tomb of Abraham Lincoln, who in April 1859 wrote these words in a letter to Henry Pierce:

"This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to
have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves;
and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."

Lincoln fought slavery in the name of "a just God" without embarrassment or apology. He confronted an America in which black Americans were not considered "persons" under the law, and were thus not entitled to fundamental Constitutional rights. Today, children of all races who are fully viable and only minutes from being born are also denied recognition as "persons" because of the Roe v. Wade regime that you so strongly support. Lincoln's reasoning regarding slavery applies with equal force to children who are minutes, hours or days away from birth.

The American founders began our great national quest for liberty by declaring that we are all "created equal." It took nearly a century to transform that bold statement into the letter of the law, and another century still to make it a reality. The founders believed that we are "endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable rights," and that first among these is "life."

You have a choice: you can listen to your conscience and work to secure the rights of the unborn to share in the fruits of our hard-won liberty, or you can choose to turn your back on them.

On behalf of the 1.28 million members of the Knights of Columbus and their families in the United States, I appeal to you, as a Catholic who acknowledges that life begins at conception, to resolve to protect this unalienable right. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues personally with you in greater detail during the weeks between now and November 4.

Respectfully,

Carl A. Anderson

Supreme Knight - Knights of Columbus

"Vote for Real Hope..."

“Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.”

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As we head toward November, Catholics might profit from recalling a few simple facts.

First, surrounding a bad social policy or party platform plank—for example, permissive abortion—with religious people doesn’t redeem the bad policy or plank. It merely compromises the religious people who try to excuse it. One of the more miraculous, or suspicious, side-effects of the 2004 election was the number of candidates in both political parties who suddenly began talking about their religious faith. There’s no doubt that many public officials, regardless of party, do take their religious beliefs very seriously and do try to live by them. That’s a good thing. So maybe this latest trend implies a new Great Awakening. Or maybe, as one of my skeptical friends says, “it’s just another charm offensive to get the shamans off their backs.” Time will tell. Words are important. Actions are more important. The religious choreography of a campaign doesn’t matter. The content of its ideas does. The religious vocabulary of a candidate doesn’t matter. The content of his record, plans, and promises does.

Second, there’s no way for Catholics to finesse their way around the abortion issue, and if we’re serious about being “Catholic,” we need to stop trying. No such thing as a “right” to kill an unborn child exists. And wriggling past that simple truth by redefining the unborn child as an unperson, a pre-human lump of cells, is the worst sort of Orwellian hypocrisy—especially for Christians. Abortion always involves the deliberate killing of an innocent human life, and it is always, inexcusably, grievously wrong. This fact in no way releases us from the duty to provide ample and compassionate support for unwed or abandoned mothers, women facing unwanted pregnancies, and women struggling with the aftermath of an abortion. But the inadequacy of that support demands that we work to improve it. It does not justify killing the child.

Obviously, we have other important issues facing us this fall: the economy, the war in Iraq, immigration justice. But we can’t build a healthy society while ignoring the routine and very profitable legalized homicide that goes on every day against America’s unborn children. The right to life is foundational. Every other right depends on it. Efforts to reduce abortions, or to create alternatives to abortion, or to foster an environment where more women will choose to keep their unborn child, can have great merit—but not if they serve to cover over or distract from the brutality and fundamental injustice of abortion itself. We should remember that one of the crucial things that set early Christians apart from the pagan culture around them was their rejection of abortion and infanticide. Yet for thirty-five years I’ve watched prominent “pro-choice” Catholics justify themselves with the kind of moral and verbal gymnastics that should qualify as an Olympic event. All they’ve really done is capitulate to Roe v. Wade.

Third and finally, national campaigns—of every political party—always run on the language of hope, change, and the American Dream. This makes sense. Our leaders should inspire us; they should stir our hearts and call us to live the ideals that make America great. But sometimes the answer to the realities we face is not “yes, we can,” but “no, we can’t.” No, we can’t spend money like hedonists and outrun our debts forever. No, we can’t ignore the poor of the Third World and expect to be loved abroad. No, we can’t allow the killing of roughly one million unborn children a year and then posture ourselves as a moral society. No, we can’t make wicked things right by spinning them in a clever way.

Robert D. Kaplan once wrote that “Americans can afford optimism partly because their institutions, including the Constitution, were conceived by men who thought tragically.” The American Founders, most of them Christians, had a hard and unsentimental understanding of the limits of human reason and virtue. The last thing we need in 2008 is the kind of bogus hope rooted in mystical good feeling.

The real world involves hard conflicts and intractable issues that can’t be talked away or smothered under evasive language. Plenty of very good Catholics inhabit both major political parties. It’s our job as Catholic citizens to press our parties and our political leaders to respect the sanctity of human life—all of it, from conception to grave—whether our leaders and party elites like us or not.

Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

Equal Fruits

Nice op-ed piece by our friend George today in the Philadelphia Daily News:


Letters: The real story on abstinence

THE Daily News made heavy and false accusations in its Aug. 22 editorial, "The Ethical Fraud of Abstinence-Only Education."

Generation Life believes that young people deserve to hear the truth about the beauty of their sexuality and only teaches about saving all sexual acts until marriage. We do not demonize gays, and we can and do teach our message without religious proselytizing.

Continue reading...

Pelosi now a Church Historian!

How preposterous this woman is. I'd rather just post the article then comment...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's kiss of betrayal...

Veritatis Splendor

Wow. Our friend, Mike McMonagle (founder of Generation Life - view site and blog on right >), was arrested in Tiananmen Square with 2 others (Rev. Patrick Mahoney & Brandi Swindell) for conducting a prayer vigil in defense of those who have no rights....when will we see there is a HUGE problem in China?

Praise God for Freedom of Religion in this country.

LINK from the UK (updated)

BEIJING, Aug. 6 /Christian Newswire/ -- Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition in Washington, D.C., states, "Today we stand as a bold and prophetic witness against the tyranny and brutality by the Chinese government against their own people. As the Summer Olympics are being celebrated, millions of Christians and those with other faith traditions are routinely oppressed, tortured and jailed by Chinese officials. It is a privilege and honor to be able to stand with those who are persecuted.

"China also promotes the barbaric practice of forced abortion and sterilization, while those who speak out against human rights abuses by the Chinese government are crushed and trampled. And, the peaceful citizens of Tibet have been brutalized by Chinese leaders.

"Today we follow the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 25 and stand in solidarity with our oppressed Chinese brothers and sisters. Our public witness is a visible reminder that 100,000 military troops and abusive security measures cannot silence the voice of freedom, justice and the power of the Gospel of Christ. The truth will always be heard and we hope that President Bush will boldly speak out against these human rights abuses on his official visit to China during the Olympics."

Brandi Swindell, National Director and co-founder of Generation Life based in Boise, Idaho, comments, "I gladly risk my freedoms to speak out for those who have none. It is an honor to stand in solidarity with our Chinese brothers and sisters who risk their lives every day for expressing the simple act of worshipping their God. Today millions of Christians, Tibetan Monks and Falun Gong practitioners sit in prison and face unspeakable brutality because of their religious beliefs.

"As a young woman, I passionately speak out against the pain and suffering that Chinese women must face daily through the practice of forced abortion and human trafficking. They routinely deal with the tragic and painful loss of children through forced abortion and young girls face the horror of being sold into sex slavery through human trafficking. My hope is through my witness today I may be a voice for them.

"We pray that God will bring an end to these human rights abuses by the Chinese government and one day the world will see justice, liberty and freedom for the beautiful people of this wonderful country."

Michael McMonagle, a national Catholic pro-life activist and founder of Generation Life in Philadelphia, adds, "We are willing to risk some minor hardship to provide this public witness for Jesus Christ and against the worst human rights abuses in the history of the world. Our prayer is our witness will stir Christians across the world to take a public stand for Jesus Christ and His Gospel of Life.

"I brought a banner with me that reads, 'Jesus Christ is King.' This banner summarized Cardinal Ignatius Kung's heroic statement in 1955 before thousands of people in a stadium in Shanghai, when he cried out, 'Long live Christ the King! Long live the Pope!' He spent 30 years in prison for this powerful public witness for Christ.

"Today, we join with the witness of Cardinal Kung as we stand for life, human rights and justice."

"I'm Lovin' It???"

McDonald’s says they "stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment," here is what they won’t tell you. McDonald’s helped sponsor the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade. Want to see what McDonald’s considers worthy of support? Click here. (Warning: These photos are extremely offensive and graphic.)

AFA asked McDonald’s to remain neutral in the culture war. The company refused, stating they will continue to support the gay agenda including same-sex marriage. AFA has called for a boycott of McDonald’s restaurants.

McDonald’s spokesman Bill Whitman told the Washington Post that those (even Christians) who oppose homosexual marriage are motivated by hate, saying that "... hatred has no place in our culture."

This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald’s choosing to put the full resources of their corporation behind promoting the homosexual agenda.

To help promote the gay agenda, McDonald’s paid $20,000 to become an official "organizational ally and corporate partner" of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and secure a seat on the group’s board of directors. The NGLCC lobbies against laws protecting marriage as between a man and a woman.

Sincerely,

Donald E. Wildmon

Founder and Chairman American Family Association

Birth "Control?"

Anyone else getting sick of contraception commercials???
I bet we see 2 for every half hour tv show we watch.

Now women get to only have one menstrual cycle per year.
Give me a break. Like that's good for the body?!?!?

What's next?

"If you're tired of having cycles and all those womanly things....our new 'pill' removes your entire insides - ovaries and all!"

Honestly, it's a bit ridiculous...

A Case For Chastity

Ok, so through the years I've always heard people refer to engaging in pre-marital sex as, "test-driving the car before buying it."
It always infuriated me, wondering if their "other" knew they were being looked at as a "machine" and not as another human being to be loved. Yes, even in my pagan days it annoyed me.

Anyway, after some time of hearing this over and over, I thought of a great rebuttal to this crude comment:

"Yes, but if you can test drive a car whenever you like, why would you ever buy it?"

"And if you don't own a car, how quick are you to toss it aside when something breaks or malfunctions and get a new "car?"
If you own a car, your more likely to cherish it, take care of it, and do whatever is in your means to make sure it runs."

Response for Life

Today in a local Catholic newspaper, the following Letter to the Editor was printed. My response to the letter follows. Hopefully the paper prints it:

To the Editor:
I read with great interest Patricia Zapor's June 13 Catholic News Service article "Professor Refused Communion over Obama Support" in a local newspaper.

Although [my wife and I] consider ourselves conservative, we have a strong feeling this year to vote for Sen. Barack Obama, chiefly for reasons of "change" and for reasons against Sen. John McCain's stance on the Iraqi war resulting in continual killings and devastation.

While we do understand Sen. Obama's stance on abortion, which is unfortunate, we understand Sen. McCain's stance on the Iraqi war that results in continual "murder" of our own soldiers and innocent lives.

If Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec, an active pro-life advocate, and endorser of Sen. Obama, was refused Communion on the basis of his support of a candidate, what, indeed, is the Catholic Church's teaching on supporting either candidate?

Stanley M. Kochanek
Berlin, NJ

In response to Stanley Kochanek’s Letter to the Editor

With the horror of war, we must realize that the objective is not to murder the “innocent”, whereas in abortion it is the reason for it.

War is an atrocity, there’s no question about it. Abortion is double the atrocity, which is why it is the primary concern in the USCCB Voter’s Guide. If you review these several items of importance from the Bishops, you’ll see that Senator Obama is by far the worst candidate for the Presidency. By contrast, that doesn’t mean Senator McCain is the best. Thankfully, we have more than two choices.

No Catholic should be voting for Senator Obama who, in addition to supporting partial-birth abortion, believes an aborted child who is removed from its mother’s womb with vital signs can still be killed by an abortionist.

It’s reported that on average nearly 50 troops and civilians have lost their lives each day in Iraq.
Conversely, 126,000 innocent children are aborted worldwide every single day.

I agree with Mr. Kochanek.

Come November, a “change” in the “continual murder of…innocent lives” is a moral imperative.