Archive for the Pro-life Category

Liberals Want to See Shameful Photographs

Posted in American, Anti-abortion, Catholic, Christian, Conservative, Culture of Death, Government, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud, Media, Opinions, Pro-life, Reflecting on the news, Spiritual, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 24, 2009 by Joann

Our President seems bent on shaming America before the world with pictures.  Not for the faint of heart, but here are the pictures that should shame the President and the world.

Priests for Life reports:

Baby Body Parts

Priests for Life has known for some time of the grisly trade in baby parts taking place in abortion facilities throughout the nation. Through the efforts of our friends at Life Dynamics, Inc., the details of this trade have come to light. You may obtain from Life Dynamics (1-800-401-6494) copies of the actual order forms used. Some of the forms request that there be no abnormalities. Many mistakenly think that abortions in later stages of pregnancy are performed only in cases of fetal abnormality.

Fetal tissue wholesalers are companies which place employees in abortion clinics to harvest tissue, limbs, organs, etc. from aborted babies. This material is then shipped to researchers working for universities, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies. Although it is against federal law to sell human tissue or body parts, these organizations have devised a system to circumvent this restriction. Technically, all fetal material they harvest is “donated” to them by the clinics. However, they do pay a “site fee” to the clinics for the right to access the tissue. The tissue is then “donated” to the researchers who in turn pay the wholesalers for the cost of retrieval. Profit is realized by the wholesalers’ ability to set their own retrieval fees.

As to the harsh realities of keeping our country safe, the Gateway Pundit says Fox reports:

The release of the photos along with Obama’s decision last week to release CIA memos has federal agents feeling dispirited.
Jake Tapper reported:

Calling the ACLU push to release the photographs “prurient” and “reprehensible,” Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production, tells ABC News that the Obama administration should have taken the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

“They should have fought it all the way; if they lost, they lost,” Lowenthal said. “There’s nothing to be gained from it. There’s no substantive reason why those photos have to be released.”

Lowenthal said the president’s moves in the last week have left many in the CIA dispirited, based on “the undercurrent I’ve been getting from colleagues still in the building, or colleagues who have left not that long ago.”

“We ask these people to do extremely dangerous things, things they’ve been ordered to do by legal authorities, with the understanding that they will get top cover if something goes wrong,” Lowenthal says. “They don’t believe they have that cover anymore.” Releasing the photographs “will make it much worse,” he said.

Along the same lines of disclosures that hurt our country, Michelle Malkin points to the Rasmussen report in her, “Public to White House”:

Results from the latest Rasmussen poll show a public more in tune with Dick Cheney than George Soros:

Fifty-eight percent (58%) believe the Obama administration’s recent release of CIA memos about the harsh interrogation methods used on terrorism suspects endangers the national security of the United States. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 28% believe the release of the memos helps America’s image abroad.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of voters now believe the U.S. legal system worries too much about protecting individual rights when national security is at stake. But 21% say the legal system is too concerned about protecting national security. Thirty-three percent (33%) say the balance between the two is about right.

This reflects a significant shift over the past couple of years. In several surveys conducted during 2008, Americans were fairly evenly divided as to whether our legal system worried too much about individual rights or too much about protecting national security…

…Forty-six percent (46%) of voters disagree with Obama’s decision to close the prison camp for terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, while 36% agree with the president’s action. Support for the decision has fallen since the president announced it in January.

Ed Morrissey says more:

Instead of the headlines being about what the Bush administration sanctioned, they became about Nancy Pelosi’s denial and then non-denial of her knowledge on waterboarding interrogations, the success of the interrogations in preventing an attack, and Obama’s lack of testicular fortitude in sticking with his original position to let sleeping dogs lie. Small wonder that he began backtracking in earnest yesterday when meeting with Congressional leaders.

Now we have confirmation that Obama planned this all along as a political attack against a man who hardly matters on the national political scene any longer – or at least he didn’t until Obama decided to pick a fight with him. Just as with his strange attack on Rush

Pro-Choice Isn’t Pretty

Posted in American, Christian, Conservative, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Gospel, Government, In a nutshell, My Journal, News, Opinions, People, Politics, Pro-life, Religion, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 21, 2009 by Joann

It was a good day for Life at the Capitol today.  It wasn’t that Congress did anything to protect the human life growing in a mother’s womb.  Congress it seems is insensitive to Truth these days. However, ordinary Americans continue to demonstrate for Life.  Young and old found their voice and pleaded with those who listened to hear the cries of the unborn.  Children distributed life calling-cards proclaiming the truth of abortion and pro-choice.  Someone dies and it isn’t pretty.  The consequence of pro-choice is blood and tears.  A banner photograph of the aborted infant offended some who is seems aren’t offended by the act of abortion.  Strange sensitivities that allow the actual infant to die but want to spare their consciences, I must think.

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Teresa Tomeo’s Exchange With a Pro-Abortion Listener

Posted in Christian, Conservative, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Opinions, Pro-life, Spiritual, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2009 by Joann

Teresa Tomeo of Ave Maria Radio took time to answer this pro-choice/pro-life Catholic educator. She’d really like it shared.

Here is the initial letter Kathy wrote to Teresa.

Dear Ms. Tomeo,
I was discouraged and even angered at your comments about President Obama. He is one of the most inspirational figures of recent times. As a Catholic educator for over 30 years, I am proud that we gave each student a book about Barack Obama on Inauguration Day. Most teachers have his picture in our Catholic classrooms and talk about his thoughtful, open, and integrity‐based life. He cares about LIFE ‐ education and health care are life issues, how we handle war and the economy are life issues. How we talk with people in dialogue is a life issue. Measuring all life issues through the lens of abortion is outrageous to say the least. Obama’s commitment to prevent abortion and to support healthy life for all is a critical moral issue. God created us to be able to choose. It is our job in churches to help form conscience so that we may choose life.
Working on his campaign in the fall, and the Catholics for Obama campaign, was one of the most important times I have experienced in my 55 years of life.
It is clearly deeply Christian to be PRO‐LIFE and PRO‐CHOICE both.
It is offensive to promote such negativity toward the president of the United States.
Peace and grace,
Kathy.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Hi Kathy. Thanks for writing. I hope you will take the time to read this e mail and really pray and think about what I am laying out before you. I will be discussing this e mail exchange on my radio show this week so I hope you tune in and even call in if possible. I have attached an article that is coming out this week on a major Catholic web site regarding the Obama administration. As a woman I thought you would be interested in this and this will help you understand why I
feel so strongly about this issue. I was so disappointed to see that you call yourself a “Catholic educator” and a “proud member” of the Catholic Church and yet you express only emotion and no fact to back up your claims that it is okay for Christians to be both pro life and pro choice as well as your claims that the
president is “for life” as you put it. As the old Wendy’s commercial use to say “where’s the beef?” I normally don’t spend this much time on e mails but the Holy Spirit is prompting me to reach out to you in hopes that you will really re‐consider and really truly study what our Church and the Bible have to say about abortion. I am also very concerned because you are in a position to influence young people.

From your note I get the sense that you have very little awareness of the fallout from abortion on women, men, families, the economy, increased rates of drug abuse, the connection to abortion and breast cancer, increased suicide attempts with post abortive women etc. and most importantly the loss of life with 50 million babies lost in this country (17 million of whom are African Americans) yes Barack Obama’s own people have suffered the greatest causalities since the legalization of abortion in this country.


Regarding all the above issues here are some web sites for you‐www.afterabortion.org , www.abortionbreastcancer.com and one of the best of course www.priestsforlife.org Are you aware that most abortion centers are unregulated and that there have been many cases, several recently, of statutory rape that have gone unreported by these abortion centers? Are you also
aware that the majority of women having abortions say they feel they are being forced to do so and that there was little “choice” involved but threats and coercion? A great amount of research has been done in all of these areas although it rarely gets any attention. Have you ever heard of the Silent No More Awareness campaign? www.silentnomoreawareness.org where women and men tell their painful post abortive stories?

Go here for the rest of the article.

Stacking the Council on Women and Girls

Posted in American, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Opinions, People, Political, Politics, Pro-life, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2009 by Joann

In March of 2009, President Obama created a White House Council on Women and Girls. With issues of life intrinsically bound to women and girls, the president’s choices are noteworthy, making “All the President’s Women” by Denise Bossert a must read:

“…the President has named women who are seasoned politicians to positions in his Administration. These women, almost without exception, have one thing in common. They are radically pro-abortion, with track records to prove it, and they typically achieved positions of political power through organizations like Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women (NOW) or the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (currently called NARAL Pro-Choice America). The women in this category have accepted the tenets of these pro-abortion organizations. They know that, to accept money from any pro-abortion Political Action Committee (PAC), they must respond by advancing the pro-abortion agenda.”

Abortion Package – the Price of Death

Posted in American, Catholic, Christian, Conservative, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Government, News, Political, Politics, President Obama, Pro-life, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2009 by Joann

The moves and monies against Life have come fast and furiously, since President Obama took office and turned his attention to the most defenseless of this Nation.  Calling it “health” millions will die with the help of American dollars. With Planned Parenthood at the top of the list, ” Abortion groups have submitted their 50 page proposal to the Obama-Biden Administration.”

From Susan B. Anthony List:

The Abortion Bailout Package:

  • $1 BILLION dollars in taxpayer funding for International Abortion Groups
  • $700 million in taxpayer funding for “Title X” Health Clinics (aka your local Planned Parenthood affiliate)
  • $65 million for the UNFPA, an international aid organization connected to coercive abortion as part of China’s coercive one-child policy
  • Repeal the Hyde Amendment – Vastly expanding federal taxpayer funding for abortions
  • Include Abortion coverage in any taxpayer-subsidized national health care program
  • Expand taxpayer-funded abortions on military bases
  • Expand taxpayer-funded abortions through the Peace Corps program
  • Expand taxpayer-funded abortions for federal prisoners

For action alerts check here as well.

Count the Blessings? of Abortion: 50,000,000

Posted in American, Catholic, Christian, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Pro-life, Reflecting on the news, Religion, Spiritual, Spiritual Things, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 1, 2009 by Joann

When you think you’ve heard it all, Amy Welborn tells you that the unanimously elected a new dean, Dr. Katherine Ragsdale of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge is preaching Abortion is a Blessing!

As quoted by Chris Johnson of Midwest Conservative Journal:

And when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortion – there is not a tragedy in sight — only blessing. The ability to enjoy God’s good gift of sexuality without compromising one’s education, life’s work, or ability to put to use God’s gifts and call is simply blessing.

These are the two things I want you, please, to remember – abortion is a blessing

and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done.

I want to thank all of you who protect this blessing – who do this work every day: the health care providers, doctors, nurses, technicians, receptionists, who put your lives on the line to care for others (you are heroes — in my eyes, you are saints); the escorts and the activists; the lobbyists and the clinic defenders; all of you. You’re engaged in holy work.

Can there be anything sadder ? Convenience over conscience, money over morals, sex over sacredness, what are those Doctors of Divinity thinking.  Dr. Katherine Ragsdale is their unanimous choice.  I can better understand why questions of the true Presence of Christ in the Eucharist are at issue when these people cannot recognize the true presence of a child in the womb.

Pursuing Holiness has this: [UPDATE: Ms. Ragsdale deleted the sermon, but on the intarweb things have a zombie-like way of coming back to get you. Cached copy is here. And for posterity, here's a PDF of the cached page with Our Work Is Not Done.  Why do you think she deleted it?

Anti-Abortion Online Success

Posted in American, Catholic, Christian, Conservative, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, News, Opinions, Political, President Obama, Pro-life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 1, 2009 by Joann

As the liberal media and liberal government close ranks, and embed abortion and anti-life laws and philosophies into American Culture, hope springs eternal. On-line you can find the alternative to the Culture of Death, as Pope John Paul II dubbed it.

For pro-life bloggers, and the likes of Priests for Life, Catholic Vote.org, Jill Stanek, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.  The demons press on, indoctrinating our children in the classroom, and all strata of our citizenry in higher education, from Hollywood to the doctors office and health department, through glossy magazines, pop-culture etc. Light, however, finds a way! It’s the candle in the darkness thing at work. I’m new to blogging but those who’ve been doing this for a while like the Anchoress writing about miracles and little Faith and Brutally Honest declaring God alive, delight me with the persistent signs of hope I need to see.

Today is a good day for that kind of hope.  The Wall Street Journal had good news for pro-life advocates and all those asking questions about life and wanting the truth.

Stephanie Simon reports:

“Mr. Obama supports legal abortion. Yet this video by CatholicVote.org — viewed nearly 1.8 million times on YouTube since it was posted in January — has turned his life story into an advertisement for the antiabortion movement.”

“The White House declined to comment. The producers describe their 40-second video as a strategic triumph that can help chart a new course for their movement as abortion opponents face a hostile climate in Washington, with Democrats controlling Congress and the White House.”

“So CatholicVote.org plans a series of biographical videos along the lines of the Obama video. The goal is to get people thinking about what the world would be missing if musicians, athletes and other luminaries with hard-luck life stories had been aborted.”

“Ms. Doan said ultrasound images circulating online have been especially helpful to abortion opponents, because they humanize the fetus. “I’ve seen a marked change in how people talk about abortion,” especially young adults, Ms. Doan said. “It’s much more favorable to the pro-life movement.”

“We’re able to reach people directly,” said Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life. He stars in a series of matter-of-fact videos that explain how abortions are performed, with a plastic model of a fetus as a prop. The clip describing a first-trimester abortion has been viewed more than 680,000 times on YouTube. “TV networks would never show this type of video,” Father Pavone said, “but now that doesn’t matter.”

Update: Our Lady of Kibeho

Posted in Catholic, Christian, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Just Thinking Out Loud, Lent, Mary, Mother of God, Our Lady, Pro-life, Religion, Spiritual with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 30, 2009 by Joann

EWTN’s Sunday Night:Live with Fr. Groeschel featured  – Our Lady Appears in Rwanda.  Guest: Immaculee Illibagiza

Recently, I wrote about Immaculee , her book, Left to Tell and about the Apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho that preceded and  predicted the Rwandan genocide nine years before it occurred. The images of the apparition were  graphic and terrorizing as was the genocide.

In Left to Tell, Immaculee Ilibagiza tells her story of her experience of the Rwandan genocide. In 1981, many years prior to the Rwandan events( to which the world turned a blind eye,) Our Lady made them known through a series of apparitions (approved by the Church) to seven children, Alphonse, Anathalie, Marie Claire, Agnes, Stephanie and Vestine and Emanuel, a young pagan, known as ‘Sagastasha’ at the time of the revelations.

The Shrine of Our  Lady of Kibeho has been given Church approval. Sean Bloomfield writes:

Although Rwanda was graced by a divine visitation during the eighties, the nineties brought quite the opposite: a gruesome genocide in which a million men, women and children were brutally killed, often by friends and neighbors, in only 100 days. The message of Kibeho, however, is intrinsically tied to this tragic event.

It was not until after the war that the Catholic Church made a definitive ruling about the apparitions. Only three of the seven alleged visionaries gained Church approval:

  • Alphonsine Murmureka
  • Nathalie Mukamazimpaka
  • Marie Claire MukangangoThese seers were the first three young people to report experiencing apparitions of the Virgin Mary, who called herself Nyina wa Jambo, which translates to Mother of the Word.
  • Faith Walk – Hope Eternal

    Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, Culture, Defending Life, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud, Pro-life, Religion, Spiritual, Spiritual Things with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 29, 2009 by Joann

    “We walk by faith and not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

    No one knows that better than Myah who’s been walking the walk with grace and joy.  Now she walks it with Faith, her beautiful babe in arms. Myah writes:

    I was told that my baby was only alive because she was attached to me, but that she couldn’t survive on her own. The doctor said that I could continue the pregnancy safely, but that my baby would die shortly after being born. Or I could choose to terminate the pregnancy then, which would mean being induced at 20 weeks and letting my baby die without ever seeing or holding her (I don’t even want to know what they do with babies in this case). Well, to some people this would be a difficult decision, but it wasn’t for me. I knew there was nothing to gain by terminating the pregnancy and I already loved my daughter more than anyone else in the world. Even if she was unconscious like the doctors said and lived for only a few seconds or minutes –even if she was stillborn –it was worth it to me. And so we began our journey…

    Pursuing Holiness writes:

    Faith has confounded the medical community, helped her mother and other family members rely wholly on God, and she is the recipient of a very great love. And if those things are the extent of her success and achievement in her life, it will have been a life well-lived.

    Best to read the whole story. The photos tell a beautiful tale of 32 days of love with more to follow.  Keep Faith and Myah at the top of your prayer list.

    Liberal View / Moral Monster

    Posted in American, Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, Conservative, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Just Thinking Out Loud, Media, News, Politics, Pope Benedict XVI, Pro-life, Reflecting on the news, Religion, Spiritual, Spiritual Things, The Cross, Tradition, United States, Wisdom with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 29, 2009 by Joann

    Pope Benedict XVI must be doing something right because the press is crucifying him again.  Monsignor Raun writes, “On his way to Africa, the Pope was asked what the Church thought of AIDS and condoms.  Our Holy Father answered that the real answer was sexual morality, not pieces of plastic.  The press dubbed him ‘a moral monster’.”

    The liberalized world and press avoid the Truth, especially on issues of life.  They prefer to propagandize, for the furtherance of liberal, secular, “progressive” agenda’s, which leave God out of such deliberations.  As if an investigation without Truth could be substantive.

    “I suspect every abortion, every “compassionate” bit of euthanasia has the evil one stamping his foot in triumphant glee.” says the Anchoress.  In speaking of God’s influence and grace in the world, she submits that such grace is “subdued in  the world” when those “enthusiastic about subduing new life – of judging how much life there should be, and of what quality” play God.

    Monsignor Raun makes a few points of his own:

    1. Ten to twenty percent of the time, condoms don’t
    work. For argument’s sake, let’s say they don’t
    work 1 percent of the time. Would anyone say it
    was moral to do something that there was a one-ina-
    hundred chance of giving someone a deadly illness?
    Would any sane person take such a chance
    with their own life? (If there was a one-in-a hundred
    chance that holy water could give you
    AIDS, would any of you put your fingers in the
    fount, or allow your children to do so?)
    2. And the sad fact is that some people think they are
    “invulnerable” if they wear a condom, and so they
    are all the more promiscuous – all the more spreading
    the possibilities of infecting others with the disease.
    Condoms are the answer to AIDS for those people who
    are only willing to do what it takes to stop this horrible
    disease as long as sexual freedom is preserved – which
    for liberal society has become the ultimate good in life.
    If you don’t want to get sexually-transmitted AIDS, be
    faithful to your spouse or live a chaste single life. This
    and this alone, is guaranteed to be 100% effective. It is
    also the moral teaching of Christ and His Church –
    which is the Holy Father’s duty to teach. To teach anything
    else is cruel, and to gamble with peoples lives.

    And, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we have this:

    To achieve the maximum protective effect, condoms must be used both consistently and correctly. Inconsistent use can lead to STD acquisition because transmission can occur with a single act of intercourse with an infected partner. Similarly, if condoms are not used correctly, the protective effect may be diminished even when they are used consistently. The most reliable ways to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), are to abstain from sexual activity or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner. However, many infected persons may be unaware of their infections because STDs are often asymptomatic or unrecognized.

    The above report sounds like Russian Roulette to me.  Chastity is still the best policy, even according to disease control scientific and statistical reports.


    Who Painted It? Answer – GOD

    Posted in Catholic, Christian, Defending Life, Mother of God, News, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Political, Pro-life, Religion with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2009 by Joann

    Hillary needs a tele-prompter!

    CNA reports while Hillary is clueless.  Hot Air and the Anchoress aren’t really surprised.

    Our Lady of Guadalupe looks on probably thinking, “My Child, if you only knew.”

    During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image’s lack of decay. Mrs. Clinton was received on Thursday at 8:15 a.m. by the rector of the Basilica, Msgr. Diego Monroy. Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion. After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God.”

    How about if when we’re done laughing, we pray for Hillary’s conversion.  It would be great to have this talented, determined lady on the pro-life side.  I believe in miracles!

    “Moving Our Country from Democracy to Despotism,”

    Posted in American, Catholic, Christian, Church, Conservative, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, News, Political, Politics, Pro-life, Reflecting on the news, Religion, Republican, Spiritual, Spiritual Things, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 23, 2009 by Joann

    A call to action delivered by Cardinal Francis George:

    As Catholic bishops and American citizens, we are deeply concerned that such an action on the government’s part would be the first step in moving our country from democracy to despotism. Respect for personal conscience and freedom of religion as such ensures our basic freedom from government oppression. No government should come between an individual person and God–that’s what America is supposed to be about. This is the true common ground for us as Americans. We therefore need legal protection for freedom of conscience and of religion–including freedom for religious health care institutions to be true to themselves.”

    Full text follows:

    “Hello. I am Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. I’d like to take a moment to speak about two principles or ideas that have been basic to life in our country: religious liberty and the freedom of personal conscience.

    On Friday afternoon, February 27, the Obama Administration placed on a federal website the news that it intends to remove a conscience protection rule for the Department of Health and Human Services. That rule is one part of the range of legal protections for health care workers–for doctors, nurses and others–who have objections in conscience to being involved in abortion and other killing procedures that are against how they live their faith I God.

    As Catholic bishops and American citizens, we are deeply concerned that such an action on the government’s part would be the first step in moving our country from democracy to despotism. Respect for personal conscience and freedom of religion as such ensures our basic freedom from government oppression. No government should come between an individual person and God–that’s what America is supposed to be about. This is the true common ground for us as Americans. We therefore need legal protection for freedom of conscience and of religion–including freedom for religious health care institutions to be true to themselves.

    Conscientious objection against many actions is a part of our life. We have a conscientious objection against war for those who cannot fight, even though it’s good to defend your country. We have a conscientious objection for doctors against being involved in administering the death penalty. Why shouldn’t our government and our legal system permit conscientious objection to a morally bad action, the killing of babies in their mother’s womb? People understand what really happens in an abortion and in related procedures–a living member of the human family is killed–that’s what it’s all about–and no one should be forced by the government to act as though he or she were blind to this reality.

    I ask you please to let the government know that you want conscience protections to remain strongly in place. In particular, let the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington know that you stand for the protection of conscience, especially now for those who provide the health care services so necessary for a good society. Thank you and God bless you.”

    acertainslantoflight writing in Catholics in the Public Square reports the meeting of President Obama with Cardinal Francis George.  “The statement from the USCCB said: “The meeting was private. Cardinal George and President Obama discussed the Catholic Church in the United States and its relation to the new administration. The meeting lasted approximately 30 minutes.”

    Private, yes, but one can guess that Obama’s attack on conscience issues in health related fields had to be in mind and mouth. The meeting followed by one day Cardinal George’s warnings of emerging “depotism” with the removal of conscience protection.

    EWTN report here

    Educators Fail – Lawmakers Fail – Journalists Fail – False Compassion Fails!

    Posted in American, Anti-abortion, Catholic, Christian, Church, Defending Life, Lenten Reading, My Journal, Politics, Pro-life, Religion, Spiritual with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 23, 2009 by Joann

    We have important moral and ethical problems to face in America and in the world.  In order to make educated decisions, people need to be educated.  Our present culture seems determined to keep the people, young and old, in the dark as to the life that lives and moves and has its being within a mother’s womb.

    National Geographic will take you inside the womb, so that you can watch the reality.  While Planned Parenthood, funded by U.S. dollars, enters into the most personal and profound decisions women can make, offers less than the reality.  For the woman making a life changing decision, a decision that will impact, for better or worse, how she thinks and feels about herself and others,especially her own child, Planned Parenthood obscures the facts in favor of  its own agenda.  Planned Parenthood will, for instance, turn the monitor away from the pregnant mother during a sonogram procedure.  Why trouble the client with the fact within the womb of their client, an actual picture of the truth, the infant/fetus growing  within them.  Why is that? Could it be that seeing is believing and believing can effect a decision to abort, when such a decision would effect the financial bottom line of this booming mega-business?

    Our schools are no better.  Values-free education is of  no value when it comes to living a moral, ethical human life.  Giving teenagers less than science, and telling them less than the actuality of  pregnancy and person-hood is to fail them.  We propagandize them, when we pretend they will not be effected by decisions that society makes for them in lieu of  the education that can with present technology show them, in flesh and blood, not only the life in the womb, but abortion as it really is.

    When the young teenager is aborted of the baby she carries within her, she sees it and feels it, and then has to live with it.  What teacher, lawmaker, journalist or councilor has prepared her for this reality, rather than failed her  in the name of compassion and/or convenience?  False compassion leaves scars too deep to be helped by a brochure hastily given before dismissing the girl to make way for their next act of “mercy?”

    The education needed for today’s moral and ethical decisions goes beyond the facts of pregnancy to the heavy lifting science touching on  embryonic stem cell research.  Here journalistic misinformation and purposeful skewing of the facts muddy the waters. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput spoke of  “The Evil of Embryo Destruction - In embryonic stem cell research, end does not justify the means.”

    Commenting on journalistic integrity Chaput responses to the Denver Post:

    In the debate over federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, some of the massive media coverage has been fair, accurate and thorough, but much of it — too much of it — has fallen short of reasonable journalistic standards.

    By far the most troubling piece I’ve seen was the editorial, “Zealotry vs. science,” published by the Denver Post….. in this case, the Post used bombast and misleading information to argue its support for federally funded embryonic stem cell research in a way reminiscent of a not-very-bright bully.”

    Ed Morrisey talks about the issue here with more from Archbishop Chaput

    Religion and Morality Are Indispensable Supports of Democracy

    Posted in Catholic, Christian, Conservative, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud, My Journal, Opinions, Political, Politics, Pro-life, Religion, Republican, Spiritual, Tradition, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 15, 2009 by Joann

    The Left would like to place marriage, decisions regarding life and end-of-life, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and quite possibly cloning, outside of religious proscriptions. They would like to forget, or rather, re-write history. It is the Church’s message that is the foundational structure of our liberty, our National conscience, our democracy and our human rights. In fact, it is the message of Christianity that is the bench-mark of Western Civilization.

    George Washington’s in his Farewell Address emphatically states, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them.”

    John Adams, who followed Washington in the Presidency writes, “Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand…. The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a greater measure, than they have it now, they may change their rulers, and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty. They will only exchange tyrants and tyrannies.”

    Issues of marriage, decisions regarding life and end-of-life, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and cloning are precisely where separation of church and state have meaning. Said another way, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” The Left would like to isolate the message of the Church, have us believe it speaks to practicing members alone. However, it is God who speaks through His Church, and God speaks from Eternity. He breaks into Time, all time, lighting up every Age. The Church’s commission obligates it to announce Truth to all peoples of all times. Their message is the stuff of a true humanity.

    One Man’s Prayer

    Posted in Catholic, Christian, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Opinions, Political, President Obama, Pro-life, Reflecting on the news, Spiritual, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 14, 2009 by Joann

    Paul Edwards, a columnist writing for Townhall.com,  is compelled to pray for President Obama and more. After just 50 days in office:

    “President Obama has clearly acted in opposition to righteousness by lifting the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, reversing the Mexico City Policy which forces the use of your tax dollars to fund abortions at overseas abortion facilities, and by acting to rescind the “conscience clause” which protects doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical personnel from participating in abortions against their personal, private convictions.”

    “He has elevated science above God by appealing to science rather than to morality in deciding to sacrifice the lives of future generations of unborn children for the false promise of “cures” for the present generation.”

    Edwards says he will pray for wisdom, strength and protection for our President but cannot pray that plans, that clearly oppose righteousness and do harm to people, succeed.  He says that there is precedent for praying that unrighteous plans come to nothing:

    “There is scriptural precedent for praying that the ungodly plans of God’s appointed leader fail. David repeatedly prayed that King Saul’s plans against him would fail.”

    Does the agenda that so clearly “devalues the cause of life” that  President Obama has instituted deserve our support?  I’m praying for a righteous, moral, conscientious America, and that God will bring to naught evil plans that destroy life, make science a god and institute convenience as a dictator.

    Edwards points to mainstream media pundit writing for Newsweek , Howard Fineman and American Enterprise Institute ‘s Kevin Hassett as reasonable men who “are now beginning to question whether or not Barack Obama is intentionally acting to harm the interests of the American people.”

    General Public – Generally Duped! Update

    Posted in Catholic, Christian, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Just Thinking Out Loud, News, Opinions, Political, Politics, President Obama, Pro-life, Reflecting on the news, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 12, 2009 by Joann

    Update:

    Thoughts From the Great Unwashed – putting it in the vernacular so no one has a reason to be uninformed or unconcerned – simplifies the thinking behind the   Obama/Pelosi/Reid attack on America and human life:


    If We’re Going to Murder Babies We Might As Well Use the Tissue.

    Update: Cardinal Rigali :

    Obama stem cell order  “a sad victory of politics over science and ethics”.

    According to the Catholic News Agency, the Cardinal explained:

    ” that embryonic stem cell research is wrong due to the fact that it destroys “innocent human life” by “treating vulnerable human beings as mere products to be harvested,” and also noted that the executive order “disregards the values of millions of American taxpayers who oppose research that requires taking human life.” “It ignores the fact that ethically sound means for advancing stem cell science and medical treatments are readily available and in need of increased support.”


    Unity,Hope,Change – Truth & Conscience

    Posted in Archbishop Charles Chaput, Catholic, Christian, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, News, Opinions, Political, Politics, President Obama, Pro-life, Reflecting on the news, Religion, Spiritual, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2009 by Joann

    It been two weeks since Archbishop Chaput’s addressed over 700 participants on the campus of the University of Toronto at St. Basil’s Church.  The Archbishop urged Catholics to live out their faith in the public square.  He sounded a warning saying that in the United States Catholics “needed be on guard against “a spirit of adulation bordering on servility” that exists towards the Obama administration.  Of President Obama, he said, “There’s no way to reinvent his record on abortion and related issues with rosy marketing about unity, hope and change”

    “I think modern life, including life in the Church, suffers from a phony unwillingness to offend that poses as prudence and good manners, but too often turns out to be cowardice. Human beings owe each other respect and appropriate courtesy. But we also owe each other the truth — which means candor.”

    That Catholics voted for Obama despite his stand on life issues proved  Chaput’s point that  the “Church in the United States has done a poor job of forming the faith and conscience of Catholics for more than 40 years.” In his book, “Rend Unto Caesar” Archbishop Chaput traces the Catholic struggle to be accepted in the United States, which was formed mainly by Protestants.  President John F. Kennedy ushered in a coming of age of Catholic respectability.  What will that acceptance cost us, if, for it’s sake, we lose our sense of duty, our will, and our nerve to be outspokenly Catholic?

    I have a friend who said her father taught her that she needed three things to be happy: “a wish bone, a funny bone and a back bone.”  I think our catholic back bone is being tried, but if we are found wanting, there will be no happily ever after in America.

    General Public – GenerallyDuped!

    Posted in Catholic, Christian, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Just Thinking Out Loud, News, Opinions, Political, Politics, President Obama, Pro-life, Reflecting on the news, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2009 by Joann
    Our public godhead, President Obama, seems to mistake himself for the real Deity.  Speaking on issues beyond his capacity, he is linking embryonic stem cell research with “scientific integrity” as reported in USA Today.  Obama can’t see past the pocket of Planned Parenthood, his indebtedness to them, and Planned Parenthood’s BIGGER agenda which is NO LIMITS – NO GOD!
    The general public has been generally duped in a well orchestrated bombardment of half truths and emotional sop.  Smothered in scientific jargon and human interest pieces depicting Parkinson patients suffering, supposedly with no other recourse but the unethical one of embryonic stem cell research, the media, the general public, we the people, and our politicians have caved.  No news reporter has the good sense or gumption to report that NO success has come from this unethical side street of science. Embryonic stem cells are unnecessary according to the scientific community!  We have other ways and better ways that have already shown results.
    I can understand how the misled mass media has been sold a fabricated bill of goods.  I can understand that Planned Parenthood and the others of that camp simply want a free, no holds barred approach to win out over moral and ethical concerns and discussion; and so wage war.  What I don’t understand is why we let them?!  I don’t understand where the Christian voices in all this are?  I hear the voice of the Roman Catholic Church speaking clearly and courageously, but where are all the others of faith. Obama talks about “scientific integrity” all the while violating the integrity of human life.  Once a human life is seen as fodder for our scientific perversion there is no limit to how far our society can fall. Do we really want our Nation aligned against the God of Life?

    When He Asks Who Cares?

    Posted in Catholic, Christian, Defending Life, Lent, Pro-life, Religion with tags , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2009 by Joann

    A Great Prayer For Life

    Posted in Catholic, Christian, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Pro-life, Religion, Spiritual Things with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2009 by Joann

    A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer.” – Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae), n. 100.

    Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life,
    And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.
    I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion,
    Yet I rejoice that you have conquered death
    by the Resurrection of Your Son.
    I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.
    Today I commit myself
    Never to be silent,
    Never to be passive,
    Never to be forgetful of the unborn.
    I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement,
    And never to stop defending life
    Until all my brothers and sisters are protected,
    And our nation once again becomes
    A nation with liberty and justice
    Not just for some, but for all,
    Through Christ our Lord. Amen!

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