Exclusive Interview: Pro-Life People Must Not Lose Heart with Obama Election Says Vatican Archbishop
Says the movement must never stop trying to overturn Roe v Wade
By Hilary White - Rome Correspondent
VATICAN CITY, January 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews.com earlier this week, Archbishop Raymond Burke sent a message of support from Rome to those in the U.S. who defend human life and the traditional family, telling them not to give up the fight, even though things may seem dire with the election of Barack Obama. The Archbishop particularly urged pro-life people to continue the political and legal battle against the 1973 US Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade, that legalised abortion.
“We are in a very dark period for the pro-life movement, which means that now we have really to re-double all of our efforts,” he said.
The new president, Archbishop Burke said, must hear from the American people “who I believe are, in the end, pro-life, above all else.” But the time has come, with the election of the man who is being called by pro-life advocates the “most pro-abortion president” in US history, to announce clearly and firmly the message of the sanctity of life and family more than at any other time.
“There can never be any let-up on the effort to overturn Roe versus Wade,” he said, “because there is, at its deepest core, our most unjust judicial decision. It has to be overturned.”
He agreed that people of good will could work with the Obama administration to provide improved services to women in crisis pregnancies and pointed out that the Catholic Church has “above all, been in the forefront of that.” But, he said, “that can never exempt us from the duty” to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Despite the difficulties ahead, he urged the pro-life people to be the “tough who get going when the going gets tough.”
“It’s going to depend upon the pro-life movement to make that voice heard, and to get people to express to the president their dismay with what he’s doing, so that he understands that the people of the United States are not for the murder of infants in the womb.”
LifeSiteNews.com spoke to Archbishop Burke, who is regarded as a hero by many in the pro-life and family movement, at his offices in Rome, where he was recently appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as head of the Catholic Church’s highest tribunal, the Apostolic Signatura. The office of Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura is normally regarded as a “red hat” position that brings with it appointment as a Cardinal. It is widely expected among Vatican watchers that Pope Benedict will name Archbishop Burke a Cardinal at the next consistory.
He told LifeSiteNews.com that he is becoming “very concerned” at the number of people who have written to him to say that the election of Obama is a sign that the pro-life movement has definitively failed to overturn Roe vs. Wade. He particularly denounced the idea, put forward by some in the pro-life movement in the US, that the time has come to abandon the fight against Roe and turn exclusively to “education” and to cooperate with the new administration in “reducing abortions” by improving welfare and health services for women.
Archbishop Burke responded, saying, “To me this is a form of self-deception because the law itself is one of the principle teachers in any culture, and you have a law, a decision of the Supreme Court of your country, which says, in effect, that an infant in the womb can be destroyed right up to the time of birth and even in the act of birth.”
Until Roe vs. Wade is overturned, he said, “that law remains a teacher in the culture” and “represents a direction given to the life of the society, of the nation.
“So I’m very concerned that some of the dedicated pro-life people don’t fall prey to this false reasoning, and then not continue their work for the repeal of this Supreme Court decision.”
Archbishop Burke is known in the US as one of the most outspoken members of the US hierarchy on the Church’s teachings on the sanctity of life. He was the first among a very small number of US Bishops who enforced can. 915 of the Code of Canon Law, saying that pro-abortion Catholic politicians are not to be given Holy Communion. His position was confirmed by a letter of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in June of 2004.Upon the announcement of his transfer to Rome, Judie Brown, the president of the American Life League, said, “Archbishop Burke's contributions to the Church go beyond anybody's imagination. He is among the most courageous bishops that I have known in my entire life.”
The archbishop said, “I have been for years very much in the heart of the pro-life movement as I believe that I should be as a bishop.”
“It was painful for me to leave the United States because of my strong conviction about the importance of strong leadership, a prophetic leadership on the part of the bishops in the whole work of promoting the respect for human life.”
He particularly urged pro-life and family people to be on guard against becoming discouraged. “Discouragement is itself a prime temptation that Satan uses to get people to stop working for the good,” he said. “But the minute you give into discouragement he can get you to do whatever he wants. But if we are people of life, if we are people who honour the dignity of every human life, then we also are necessarily people of hope.
“I understand, from a human point of view, why people are discouraged and why they want to give up or try some radically different approach, but as people of hope we don’t have any choice in this matter. We have to continue the battle.”
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
North American Leaders Bid Farewell to Pro-Life Hero Archbishop Burke
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08062709.html
URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09013011.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
An awesome poem from a young convert
My name is Seamus O'Brien. I'm recently married to the most beautiful Catholic woman who has recently joined me from the cold state of Minnesota. We're currently living in Corpus Christi, Texas where I have been attending St. Helena's Parish, with Fr. James as our courageous pastor, for almost two years. I'm a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the US Navy and am almost done flight school where I've been learning to fly carrier based aircraft. I'm the proud oldest brother of four brothers and four sisters and the loving son of the greatest parents in the world. I'm a convert to Catholicism and firmly believe that the Church, especially men, need to start taking a more active roll in living the faith and I'm trying to live that out myself, although I am so thankful for confession! Hope you enjoy the poem!
St. George and the Slaying of the Dragon
by Seamus O'Brien
Amidst dark and moonlight
Where once wolves and ogres roamed
A man trods the earth
Alive and awake amidst sleep and death.
With sword in hand and bright helmet aloft
He, like moon, is the render of dark
For his sword is truth and his helm is right
And thus is he, the enemy of night.
In days long past, when man would fight
Charity was given to those in plight
But today we see that unless it be self
It is not worth caring - least not worth dying.
For our time is not for swords and flags
But for peace and comfort and all things bad
And in this way, the night has come
Rolling and crushing as night turns sun.
But to this knight who walks alone
The night is nothing except before the dawn
This man who trods the night unbound
From fear of nothing for darkness is such.
The courage that filled the knight of old
Still lives in this man so bold
For he faces the enemy that none dare see
Though he stands in front of both you and me.
He faces the dragon who again has rose
As if resurrected from of old
And this dragon with teeth and claw
Is the destroyer not of knights but of the innocent and small.
For this Moloch, for such he is called
Comes craving the blood of children
And since none dare stand
The knight is alone against his foe.
As he raises his sword, the dragon reels
For truth is the enemy of the king of the dead
And as he swings the dragon claws
But the helm sits rightly where wrath descends.
And reason declares what fools ne'er will
That dragons must die
For although they crave gold
Greater still is their lust for blood.
And though it may seem asleep for now
The dragon will not remain
But will 'waken when sleep has fallen over all
And bewitch and consume both good and bad.
For unlike the knight who fights only the wicked
It is the blood itself that the dragon desires
To drip upon its scales as balm
And gnaw the wounds of the fallen as well as the proud.
And thus it will be
For all who make peace
With the enemy of life
Who calls himself good.
He deceives and destroys
And can ne'er give life
His hunger is for death
And appetite for ruin.
But when the sword is raised
The light from star and moon
Like saints and God shine on the blade
And bless the grip of the man so grim.
For though his face is taut and hard
His heart is all aloft and free
Though death may take him
His heart laughs.
For he knows, unlike the dragon
That death is not the strongest thing
And though might may strike a mortal blow
Only right can make it last.
And God is the owner of right
Like all things good
The maker of thought
And the maker of life.
And thus it is that if God be good
We must all fear
For if the dragon promises gold and peace
God promises much more and less.
For gold and peace
Are soft and dull
Compared with sun and charity
And such are the creations God has wrought.
And these are but shadows
Of things to come
Of heaven and hellfire
Of famine and feast.
So take up your sword
For safer shall you be
When forsaking safety
To battle God's enemy.
And with the knight
Proclaim on high!
"Deus Veritas est!
Deus Caritas est!"
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Archbishop Raymond Burke forcefully criticizes "Faithful Citizenship" document
Exclusive Interview: Leading Vatican Prelate Says Document of US Bishops Partly to Blame for Election of “Most Pro-Abortion President”
Also says Bishops’ Catholic News Service needs to be given "some new direction"
By Hilary White, Rome Correspondent
ROME, January 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A document of the US Catholic Bishops is partly to blame for the abandonment of pro-life teachings by voting Catholics and the election of the “most pro-abortion president” in US history, one of the Vatican’s highest officials said in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com.
Archbishop Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, named a document on the election produced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that he said “led to confusion” among the faithful and led ultimately to massive support among Catholics for Barack Obama.
The US bishops’ document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” stated that, under certain circumstances, a Catholic could in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports abortion because of "other grave reasons," as long as they do not intend to support that pro-abortion position.
Archbishop Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louise Mo. and recently appointed head of the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church, told LifeSiteNews.com that although “there were a greater number of bishops who spoke up very clearly and firmly ... there was also a number who did not.”
But most damaging, he said, was the document “Faithful Citizenship” that “led to confusion” among the voting Catholic population.
“While it stated that the issue of life was the first and most important issue, it went on in some specific areas to say ‘but there are other issues’ that are of comparable importance without making necessary distinctions.”
Archbishop Burke, citing an article by a priest and ethics expert of St. Louis archdiocese, Msgr. Kevin McMahon, who analysed how the bishops’ document actually contributed to the election of Obama, called its proposal “a kind of false thinking, that says, ‘there’s the evil of taking an innocent and defenceless human life but there are other evils and they’re worthy of equal consideration.’
“But they’re not. The economic situation, or opposition to the war in Iraq, or whatever it may be, those things don’t rise to the same level as something that is always and everywhere evil, namely the killing of innocent and defenceless human life.”
Archbishop Burke also cited the work of the official news service of the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference, that many pro-life observers complained soft-pedalled the newly elected president’s opposition to traditional morality.
“The bishops need to look also at our Catholic News Service, CNS, they need to review their coverage of the whole thing and give some new direction, in my judgement,” he said.
URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012805.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.
Also says Bishops’ Catholic News Service needs to be given "some new direction"
By Hilary White, Rome Correspondent
ROME, January 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A document of the US Catholic Bishops is partly to blame for the abandonment of pro-life teachings by voting Catholics and the election of the “most pro-abortion president” in US history, one of the Vatican’s highest officials said in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com.
Archbishop Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, named a document on the election produced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that he said “led to confusion” among the faithful and led ultimately to massive support among Catholics for Barack Obama.
The US bishops’ document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” stated that, under certain circumstances, a Catholic could in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports abortion because of "other grave reasons," as long as they do not intend to support that pro-abortion position.
Archbishop Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louise Mo. and recently appointed head of the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church, told LifeSiteNews.com that although “there were a greater number of bishops who spoke up very clearly and firmly ... there was also a number who did not.”
But most damaging, he said, was the document “Faithful Citizenship” that “led to confusion” among the voting Catholic population.
“While it stated that the issue of life was the first and most important issue, it went on in some specific areas to say ‘but there are other issues’ that are of comparable importance without making necessary distinctions.”
Archbishop Burke, citing an article by a priest and ethics expert of St. Louis archdiocese, Msgr. Kevin McMahon, who analysed how the bishops’ document actually contributed to the election of Obama, called its proposal “a kind of false thinking, that says, ‘there’s the evil of taking an innocent and defenceless human life but there are other evils and they’re worthy of equal consideration.’
“But they’re not. The economic situation, or opposition to the war in Iraq, or whatever it may be, those things don’t rise to the same level as something that is always and everywhere evil, namely the killing of innocent and defenceless human life.”
Archbishop Burke also cited the work of the official news service of the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference, that many pro-life observers complained soft-pedalled the newly elected president’s opposition to traditional morality.
“The bishops need to look also at our Catholic News Service, CNS, they need to review their coverage of the whole thing and give some new direction, in my judgement,” he said.
URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012805.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.
A great Bishop speaks out about abortion situation
Bishop Hermann: 'I thought you should know’
By Bishop Robert J. Hermann, Archdiocesan Administrator, Ardiocese of Saint Luis
January 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - I was very edified this past Saturday to see the Cathedral almost filled for the Pro-Life Mass. Then to see such a large contingent, on a very cold day, make a pilgrimage to the abortion clinic, praying the Rosary for Life, was truly heartwarming.
At the very moment I am writing this, our new president, Barack Obama, is being sworn into office. We congratulate him, and we pray for him, but we cannot condone his pro-death policies, even while we are happy that so many people feel they have new hope. We must do everything we can to oppose his pro-death-to-children efforts.
Joseph Bottum, in an article entitled "Abortion after Obama," writing in the January 2009 edition of First Things, pages 13-15, tells us, "Now the 2008 election has brought us the presidency of Barack Obama, the most consistent supporter of legalized abortion ever nominated by a majority party."
When asked about making decisions as to when a baby gets human rights, President Obama answered that "is above my pay grade." He also stated that he would not want his daughters "punished with a baby."
He has made it known that, upon taking office, he will remove all federal restrictions on funding embryonic stem-cell research. He also intends to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Seldom has our nation ever been confronted with such an extreme measure. The Freedom of Choice Act will invalidate for the entire country all restrictions on abortion before viability, including parental notification, waiting periods and partial-birth abortion bans. President Obama has no problem supporting legislation that would even kill a child who survived a botched abortion.
If at this stage our anger is directed at President Obama, our anger is misdirected. Obama is not the enemy. He needs and deserves our prayers, not our condemnation.
As Catholics, we are not guiltless. It seems to me that when President Kennedy compromised Catholic teachings and accommodated political pressures in order to be elected to the highest office in the land, he set the tone for many Catholic leaders to follow and to compromise their Catholic principles to get ahead.
In our Supreme Court and in our Congress, we have a plethora of so-called Catholics who are failing to live their Catholic identity. Over 50 percent of our electorate voted for a president who is one of the most pro-culture-of-death candidates from a major party to run for the highest office of the land.
Yes, we can thank one-half of our Catholics for bailing out on their faith!
After almost 50 years of having 50 percent of Catholics abandoning their Catholic identity, we cannot expect to turn this culture around by short-term political efforts.
In order to bring about a transformation from a culture of death to a culture of life, we have to restore our Catholic identity.
This means that all of us, as Catholics, have to undergo a profound transformation. It means that we have to take a good look at every facet of our Catholic life, including the serious study of life issues, the regular and devout use of our Sacramental system, especially the devout and weekly attendance at Mass, the regular reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the devout praying of the daily Rosary, and then the faithful, loving and firm witness to lax Catholics about our Catholic beliefs and practices.
We have to live our lives in such a way that we will be unafraid to witness to what we believe and live.
I may courageously say that I am willing to die to end abortion, but am I equally willing to say that I am ready to let my ego get ruffled daily for the same cause? Yet … that is where I need to arrive if I am to be a credible witness.
What a glorious opportunity we all have to make a difference in the pro-life cause. Until we are willing to be politically incorrect in order to be biblically correct, we will never convince anyone that our religion is worth living.
It does not take 100 percent of our Catholics to transform this country. If 75 percent of our Catholics were steeped in Catholic identity, the abortion issue would be over for our entire country. We have many, many evangelicals on our side in the culture of life. Look at how many more of them would flock to our side if we really lived our Catholic teachings! They, too, are looking for changeless principles lived out in practice.
But there is more! Our laxity in living our Catholic life has blinded us into not seeing the role of Satan in the culture of death. Satan is having a heyday in our midst, because he has managed to remain invisible in the culture of death, and our laxity has granted him that luxury. Since we are not steeped in the Word of God as we should be, we do not recognize his darkness in our society. Our first reading from Hebrews tells us, "The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart."
St. Paul tells us that our warfare is not against flesh and blood but against the power and principles of darkness. He also tells us that we should not let the sun go down upon our anger so as to give Satan a foothold. These readings are wake-up calls for us all. I bring this up deliberately, because I do not want us to fall into Satan's trap of getting us to hate President Obama or any of the pro-choice Catholic legislators in Congress. Being pro-life means that we engage far more in spiritual warfare than in political warfare.
That Satan is very alive in influencing all of us is his best-kept secret. Becoming steeped in the Word of God and the teachings of the Catholic Church exposes his evil machinations.
President Obama, pro-choice legislators and Planned Parenthood are not our enemies. Our enemies are the invisible forces masked behind these people. Most of them do not have a clue that they are being deceived by our common enemy, the devil. They are used by our common enemy, Satan, and his evil forces, to get us to hate so that we, too, will end up in a culture of death. President Obama and all pro-choice and pro-abortion legislators, as well as members supporting Planned Parenthood (and we have in our own state a national legislator who has received over $900,000 from groups that advocate for abortion rights) — these are not our enemies. They are used by the evil one to get us to hate them in our efforts to be pro-life and thereby ditch our pro-life efforts. We cannot fall for that trap!
We owe all of them prayers and fasting for their conversion. At one point, Gov. Reagan was California's very pro-abortion governor. Yet he became a very pro-life president. He repented and regretted the evil he supported.
We must bravely witness against supporting pro-choice and pro-abortion candidates in political elections, but pray daily for their conversion.
URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012707.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.
By Bishop Robert J. Hermann, Archdiocesan Administrator, Ardiocese of Saint Luis
January 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - I was very edified this past Saturday to see the Cathedral almost filled for the Pro-Life Mass. Then to see such a large contingent, on a very cold day, make a pilgrimage to the abortion clinic, praying the Rosary for Life, was truly heartwarming.
At the very moment I am writing this, our new president, Barack Obama, is being sworn into office. We congratulate him, and we pray for him, but we cannot condone his pro-death policies, even while we are happy that so many people feel they have new hope. We must do everything we can to oppose his pro-death-to-children efforts.
Joseph Bottum, in an article entitled "Abortion after Obama," writing in the January 2009 edition of First Things, pages 13-15, tells us, "Now the 2008 election has brought us the presidency of Barack Obama, the most consistent supporter of legalized abortion ever nominated by a majority party."
When asked about making decisions as to when a baby gets human rights, President Obama answered that "is above my pay grade." He also stated that he would not want his daughters "punished with a baby."
He has made it known that, upon taking office, he will remove all federal restrictions on funding embryonic stem-cell research. He also intends to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Seldom has our nation ever been confronted with such an extreme measure. The Freedom of Choice Act will invalidate for the entire country all restrictions on abortion before viability, including parental notification, waiting periods and partial-birth abortion bans. President Obama has no problem supporting legislation that would even kill a child who survived a botched abortion.
If at this stage our anger is directed at President Obama, our anger is misdirected. Obama is not the enemy. He needs and deserves our prayers, not our condemnation.
As Catholics, we are not guiltless. It seems to me that when President Kennedy compromised Catholic teachings and accommodated political pressures in order to be elected to the highest office in the land, he set the tone for many Catholic leaders to follow and to compromise their Catholic principles to get ahead.
In our Supreme Court and in our Congress, we have a plethora of so-called Catholics who are failing to live their Catholic identity. Over 50 percent of our electorate voted for a president who is one of the most pro-culture-of-death candidates from a major party to run for the highest office of the land.
Yes, we can thank one-half of our Catholics for bailing out on their faith!
After almost 50 years of having 50 percent of Catholics abandoning their Catholic identity, we cannot expect to turn this culture around by short-term political efforts.
In order to bring about a transformation from a culture of death to a culture of life, we have to restore our Catholic identity.
This means that all of us, as Catholics, have to undergo a profound transformation. It means that we have to take a good look at every facet of our Catholic life, including the serious study of life issues, the regular and devout use of our Sacramental system, especially the devout and weekly attendance at Mass, the regular reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the devout praying of the daily Rosary, and then the faithful, loving and firm witness to lax Catholics about our Catholic beliefs and practices.
We have to live our lives in such a way that we will be unafraid to witness to what we believe and live.
I may courageously say that I am willing to die to end abortion, but am I equally willing to say that I am ready to let my ego get ruffled daily for the same cause? Yet … that is where I need to arrive if I am to be a credible witness.
What a glorious opportunity we all have to make a difference in the pro-life cause. Until we are willing to be politically incorrect in order to be biblically correct, we will never convince anyone that our religion is worth living.
It does not take 100 percent of our Catholics to transform this country. If 75 percent of our Catholics were steeped in Catholic identity, the abortion issue would be over for our entire country. We have many, many evangelicals on our side in the culture of life. Look at how many more of them would flock to our side if we really lived our Catholic teachings! They, too, are looking for changeless principles lived out in practice.
But there is more! Our laxity in living our Catholic life has blinded us into not seeing the role of Satan in the culture of death. Satan is having a heyday in our midst, because he has managed to remain invisible in the culture of death, and our laxity has granted him that luxury. Since we are not steeped in the Word of God as we should be, we do not recognize his darkness in our society. Our first reading from Hebrews tells us, "The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart."
St. Paul tells us that our warfare is not against flesh and blood but against the power and principles of darkness. He also tells us that we should not let the sun go down upon our anger so as to give Satan a foothold. These readings are wake-up calls for us all. I bring this up deliberately, because I do not want us to fall into Satan's trap of getting us to hate President Obama or any of the pro-choice Catholic legislators in Congress. Being pro-life means that we engage far more in spiritual warfare than in political warfare.
That Satan is very alive in influencing all of us is his best-kept secret. Becoming steeped in the Word of God and the teachings of the Catholic Church exposes his evil machinations.
President Obama, pro-choice legislators and Planned Parenthood are not our enemies. Our enemies are the invisible forces masked behind these people. Most of them do not have a clue that they are being deceived by our common enemy, the devil. They are used by our common enemy, Satan, and his evil forces, to get us to hate so that we, too, will end up in a culture of death. President Obama and all pro-choice and pro-abortion legislators, as well as members supporting Planned Parenthood (and we have in our own state a national legislator who has received over $900,000 from groups that advocate for abortion rights) — these are not our enemies. They are used by the evil one to get us to hate them in our efforts to be pro-life and thereby ditch our pro-life efforts. We cannot fall for that trap!
We owe all of them prayers and fasting for their conversion. At one point, Gov. Reagan was California's very pro-abortion governor. Yet he became a very pro-life president. He repented and regretted the evil he supported.
We must bravely witness against supporting pro-choice and pro-abortion candidates in political elections, but pray daily for their conversion.
URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012707.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Extraordinary historical news from the Vatican
Excommunication of Society of Pius X Bishops has been lifted
Click - Official Vatican text in Italian
Click - Letter from Bishop Bernard Fellay SSPX
Click - Official Vatican text in Italian
Click - Letter from Bishop Bernard Fellay SSPX
Friday, January 23, 2009
The Great Deceiver Strikes Again
OBAMA TODAY REINSTATES FEDERAL FUNDING FOR ABORTIONS IN OTHER COUNTRIES
If God doesn't soon bring judgment upon America, He'll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!” - Ruth Graham - late wife of Rev. Billy Graham
Pray the Rosary every day for the conversion of President Obama.
Pray the Rosary every day that God may have mercy on our country.
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison
Thursday, January 22, 2009
January 22, 1973 - More than 49 million dead
There have been more babies killed by abortion since Roe v Wade than people killed in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and both Iraq wars combined. An average of 150 convicted murderers, proven guilty, are killed by the death penalty in Texas every year. 90,000 innocent babies are killed in Texas every year by abortion.
Since 1973 there have been over 49 million abortions in the U.S. alone. Consider the estimated populations of some of our major U.S. cities: New York – 8,143,197; Los Angeles – 3,844,829; Chicago – 2,842,518; and Houston – 2,016,582.
If we can kill an innocent child in the womb of a mother and that no longer shocks us as a nation, then we can justify anything such as unending wars, abuses in capital punishment, violence, and social injustices.
Abortion undermines civil order because it affirms that everyone is not equal under the law.
Let us remember the haunting words of Mother Theresa: "Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion”.
When legalized abortion has ended, we can move on to other pressing concerns.
All those who voted for President Barack Hussein Obama or remained silent have blood on their hands.
Click here - America must see abortion in order to end abortion
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A Letter to President Barack Obama from an army wife and mother
A Letter to President Elect Obama: Protect the Weakest Among Us!
By Jennifer Hartline
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - Jennifer Hartline likes to refer to herself as an "army wife and mom". She is also a contributing writer to Catholic Online and her writings are very popular with our global readership. She writes "from the heart", with a simple yet profound style which communicates to everybody. This is her letter to the President Elect. (Editor)
To President-elect Obama
As your inauguration day approaches, my heart is burdened with grief at the thought of all that you may do, and all that may happen for years to come as a result. Will anyone be able to change your mind? I hope so, for untold lives depend on it. I am convinced that only God will be able to change your heart, so that is how I, and all those who believe as I do, must direct our prayers. Life is sacred, Mr. Obama. Yours, mine, and our neighbor’s…I mean that tiny, developing life concealed in the womb. Concealed to us, always seen and known to God.
My mind goes back to your passionate speech at a Planned Parenthood event in 2007, and how eloquently you talked about the dreams you have for your daughters and for all the girls of the U.S., stressing that our nation must protect their “rights” and ensure that we don’t go backward to a time when women didn’t have those “rights.” I kept thinking, “Senator, if you have your way, this nation’s daughters won’t have the chance to be born!” That fundamental and genuine right will be taken from them before they ever see daylight.
All this concern for women’s rights seems hollow. It strikes me as profoundly hypocritical that women march and scream and protest and demand this “right” to kill their unborn babies, conveniently forgetting that that baby may be a girl…a daughter…a woman in the making! What about her rights? Is there no equality for women among women?
And I’m not at all diminishing the rights of unborn boys…the future husbands and fathers of our families. They are not expendable any more than our girls are. They deserve to be born. Indeed, we need them to be born.
It’s simply idiotic for anyone to argue anymore that the child in the womb is some lesser form of human and therefore not entitled to live. Modern science makes it impossible to deny the LIFE that exists in that amazing chamber called the uterus. No woman is pregnant without the presence of that life. It’s not an eggplant in there! It’s a human being. Less physically advanced than we who are walking around, but no less an individual. That little person has her own heartbeat, own brainwaves, own fingerprints, own blood supply, own hair and nails, her own personality. She has a soul, and a mission on this earth to fulfill. It is not “terminating a pregnancy.” It is ending a life. There is no pregnancy without the life.
Without the right to be born, the right to life, there are no other rights. Do you really not see that, Mr. Obama?
We, the born, do not have the right to say to them, the unborn, “We will not let you live. You must die because we wish it. It is our right to decide.”
Those who favor abortion want to sanitize the gruesome reality with clinical terms like “reproductive choice” and “freedom” and call it simply a “medical procedure.” What utter nonsense. There is nothing sanitary or simple or clinical about it. I challenge every single person in our nation who supports abortion to be honest enough to read the complete medical description of an abortion “procedure” from start to finish, particularly one done in the second or third trimester of pregnancy. I challenge people to watch one performed. (Yes, I challenge you, President-elect.)
If you’re going to demand the “right” to abortion then you should have the guts to watch one and read all about what it really entails. Then look me, or better yet, look yourself straight in the eye and say it’s not murder. Say a baby wasn’t just dismembered, burned alive, brains sucked out, and torn to pieces like less than an animal. If you can’t or won’t do it, then you’re intellectually dishonest and a coward. You want to support something you don’t have the stomach to face because you KNOW it’s barbaric. You would never allow a puppy to be brutalized in the same manner.
President-elect Obama, the Freedom of Choice Act that you so vigorously support must not be allowed to become law. Surely, you can see how this ironically-named legislation will declare “Open Season” on the unborn and eliminate all freedoms and rights for those who would choose to protect the child in the womb. I do not understand how you and so many others in Congress can in good conscience champion a bill that nullifies every legal and occupational safeguard now in place to protect the unborn child and call that bill the “Freedom of Choice.” There is no choice and certainly no freedom for anyone except those who want completely unrestricted abortion up to the very moment of birth. That is not Pro-Choice… that’s Pro-Abortion.
I, too, cherish my daughters, and I want their wombs safeguarded and treated with respect for the miracle that takes place there. I want them to understand how precious new life is, and to have the grace to know that no one has the right to kill a defenseless person just because they may have the power to do so.
It’s not about choice. It’s not a right. It’s about respect for human life and the dignity of each person God has created. The issue of abortion is the most fundamental issue of basic human rights. You must, sir, defend this basic human right if you truly believe in the foundation America stands on… “that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…that among these are LIFE…”
Be courageous, Mr. Obama. Be honest. Protect the weakest among us, please.
Mrs. Jennifer Hartline
Chesapeake, VA
Mother, wife, and daughter
By Jennifer Hartline
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - Jennifer Hartline likes to refer to herself as an "army wife and mom". She is also a contributing writer to Catholic Online and her writings are very popular with our global readership. She writes "from the heart", with a simple yet profound style which communicates to everybody. This is her letter to the President Elect. (Editor)
To President-elect Obama
As your inauguration day approaches, my heart is burdened with grief at the thought of all that you may do, and all that may happen for years to come as a result. Will anyone be able to change your mind? I hope so, for untold lives depend on it. I am convinced that only God will be able to change your heart, so that is how I, and all those who believe as I do, must direct our prayers. Life is sacred, Mr. Obama. Yours, mine, and our neighbor’s…I mean that tiny, developing life concealed in the womb. Concealed to us, always seen and known to God.
My mind goes back to your passionate speech at a Planned Parenthood event in 2007, and how eloquently you talked about the dreams you have for your daughters and for all the girls of the U.S., stressing that our nation must protect their “rights” and ensure that we don’t go backward to a time when women didn’t have those “rights.” I kept thinking, “Senator, if you have your way, this nation’s daughters won’t have the chance to be born!” That fundamental and genuine right will be taken from them before they ever see daylight.
All this concern for women’s rights seems hollow. It strikes me as profoundly hypocritical that women march and scream and protest and demand this “right” to kill their unborn babies, conveniently forgetting that that baby may be a girl…a daughter…a woman in the making! What about her rights? Is there no equality for women among women?
And I’m not at all diminishing the rights of unborn boys…the future husbands and fathers of our families. They are not expendable any more than our girls are. They deserve to be born. Indeed, we need them to be born.
It’s simply idiotic for anyone to argue anymore that the child in the womb is some lesser form of human and therefore not entitled to live. Modern science makes it impossible to deny the LIFE that exists in that amazing chamber called the uterus. No woman is pregnant without the presence of that life. It’s not an eggplant in there! It’s a human being. Less physically advanced than we who are walking around, but no less an individual. That little person has her own heartbeat, own brainwaves, own fingerprints, own blood supply, own hair and nails, her own personality. She has a soul, and a mission on this earth to fulfill. It is not “terminating a pregnancy.” It is ending a life. There is no pregnancy without the life.
Without the right to be born, the right to life, there are no other rights. Do you really not see that, Mr. Obama?
We, the born, do not have the right to say to them, the unborn, “We will not let you live. You must die because we wish it. It is our right to decide.”
Those who favor abortion want to sanitize the gruesome reality with clinical terms like “reproductive choice” and “freedom” and call it simply a “medical procedure.” What utter nonsense. There is nothing sanitary or simple or clinical about it. I challenge every single person in our nation who supports abortion to be honest enough to read the complete medical description of an abortion “procedure” from start to finish, particularly one done in the second or third trimester of pregnancy. I challenge people to watch one performed. (Yes, I challenge you, President-elect.)
If you’re going to demand the “right” to abortion then you should have the guts to watch one and read all about what it really entails. Then look me, or better yet, look yourself straight in the eye and say it’s not murder. Say a baby wasn’t just dismembered, burned alive, brains sucked out, and torn to pieces like less than an animal. If you can’t or won’t do it, then you’re intellectually dishonest and a coward. You want to support something you don’t have the stomach to face because you KNOW it’s barbaric. You would never allow a puppy to be brutalized in the same manner.
President-elect Obama, the Freedom of Choice Act that you so vigorously support must not be allowed to become law. Surely, you can see how this ironically-named legislation will declare “Open Season” on the unborn and eliminate all freedoms and rights for those who would choose to protect the child in the womb. I do not understand how you and so many others in Congress can in good conscience champion a bill that nullifies every legal and occupational safeguard now in place to protect the unborn child and call that bill the “Freedom of Choice.” There is no choice and certainly no freedom for anyone except those who want completely unrestricted abortion up to the very moment of birth. That is not Pro-Choice… that’s Pro-Abortion.
I, too, cherish my daughters, and I want their wombs safeguarded and treated with respect for the miracle that takes place there. I want them to understand how precious new life is, and to have the grace to know that no one has the right to kill a defenseless person just because they may have the power to do so.
It’s not about choice. It’s not a right. It’s about respect for human life and the dignity of each person God has created. The issue of abortion is the most fundamental issue of basic human rights. You must, sir, defend this basic human right if you truly believe in the foundation America stands on… “that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…that among these are LIFE…”
Be courageous, Mr. Obama. Be honest. Protect the weakest among us, please.
Mrs. Jennifer Hartline
Chesapeake, VA
Mother, wife, and daughter
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Great testimony from an awesome Catholic Mom
Commentary: The Truth about Life and Conversion of the Heart
By Jennifer Hartline
1/6/2009
Catholic Online
The “abortion rights” captain is a master of deception. He is the father of lies. He is the procurator of selfishness and fear.
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - I’ve been trying to figure out the how and why of the “abortion rights” mindset, now the mindset of our President-elect, because frankly, I just don’t get it. I can’t comprehend how they (he) can defend the indefensible.
HOW can they rationalize and justify the act of abortion as a perfectly acceptable and reasonable “right”?
WHY are they so defiant in the face of medical evidence proving the presence of life in the womb from conception, and why are they so adamant, so militant in their demand to be allowed to murder that small life?
HOW can they continue to insist that it is not murder? If the fetus is human, and not a plant or a rock, then how else do you describe the intentional cessation of that fetus at the hands of another who is more powerful?
WHY do they think that terms like “reproductive choice” can disguise the reality that one person has willfully caused the death of another?
For the most part, these are very intelligent, educated people. We can’t simply say they’re idiots or Neanderthals. So why is it that what’s so obvious to me and oodles of other people isn’t obvious to them? What’s going on?
There’s something much deeper at work. And we are entirely missing the point if we do not focus our efforts and attention on the true target: the heart. The logic and rational truth of the sacredness of life from the moment of conception is solid and indisputable. In the depths of the human spirit, everyone knows this. Everyone. The intellect can deny it til the cows come home, but the spirit knows better. The heart knows the truth.
We are engaged in a heated and dangerous war for life and for souls. Are we fighting the true enemy? Are we using the right weapons?
A wise and holy man reminded me recently that what is required is a conversion of the heart. We will never shout or lecture abortion supporters into changing their minds. We will pass out from wasted breath first. The mind is not the problem. The heart is. And that is something only God can change.
The “abortion rights” captain is a master of deception. He is the father of lies. He is the procurator of selfishness and fear. He has hardened the hearts of so many into such a brittle state that the only thing that matters is “my freedom”, “my rights”, and “my life, my body, my choice.” If it interferes with any of those, then it is an infringement on personal liberty and it must be outlawed.
The deceiver has convinced so many that happiness and fulfillment are found by having total control over our lives, our decisions and not allowing anyone else, least of all GOD, to influence us or “steal” our liberty. Front and center here is the “reproductive” freedom. The hardened heart sees only self-interest, personal wishes, responsibilities not wanted, and so comes to demand what it feels entitled to.
The irony of course is that the faithful know that only by living in cooperation with the will and wisdom of God can we ever know true freedom and happiness. God is the author of our liberty! Giving God control is almost a misnomer, because He already has it… He’s simply waiting for our free will to acknowledge it and comply with it. And when we do, the blessings flow! His graces flow like mighty rivers and the God of Love softens our hardened hearts and heals our selfish wounds. Then suddenly our blurry vision becomes clear.
Satan knows this to be true, and that is why he is so hard at work in the hearts of too many Americans. He knows he can twist and deform our notion of freedom and rights into a poison that will kill generations of people. He knows he can delude us into believing that wrong is right when it suits our purpose and desires, even at the cost of our own soul. And he knows something else…something we must never forget … the only power that will defeat him is prayer.
Does that mean that our words are meaningless? Certainly not! We must continue to speak out every chance we get and when God puts the words in our mouths, they will be effective. We must speak and write the truth as long as we have life in us. We must continue to fight the legal battles and actively work in the civil and political realms to advance the protection of all human life.
We must do all of this while remembering that the primary target is the heart. What is required is a conversion of the heart, and that will only be accomplished through prayer. Only the Holy Spirit will be able to speak to the hearts of those who stubbornly and selfishly refuse to protect unborn life. When the heart sees clearly, the mind follows easily.
So, my answer to myself and all the faithful is RISE UP! There is not a moment to waste in discouragement. Pray continually, without ceasing. Beg our Blessed Mother and all the Saints in heaven to pray with us and aid in our victory. Pray for the Holy Spirit to enlighten even the most hardened of hearts with true wisdom and strengthen them with courage. Pray for our new President…he is not beyond God’s reach. We must not tire; we must not believe the Liar’s press that our cause is hopeless. We must fight wisely.
“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers and rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.” Ephesians 6:12
It will never be an easy fight. Fight anyway. PRAY! (That distant sound you hear is the knocking of demonic knees…)
----
Jennifer Hartline is a Catholic Army wife and stay-at-home mother of three precious kids who writes frequently on topics of Catholic faith and daily living. She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.
Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation
'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!' (posted on Spirit Daily)
By Jennifer Hartline
1/6/2009
Catholic Online
The “abortion rights” captain is a master of deception. He is the father of lies. He is the procurator of selfishness and fear.
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - I’ve been trying to figure out the how and why of the “abortion rights” mindset, now the mindset of our President-elect, because frankly, I just don’t get it. I can’t comprehend how they (he) can defend the indefensible.
HOW can they rationalize and justify the act of abortion as a perfectly acceptable and reasonable “right”?
WHY are they so defiant in the face of medical evidence proving the presence of life in the womb from conception, and why are they so adamant, so militant in their demand to be allowed to murder that small life?
HOW can they continue to insist that it is not murder? If the fetus is human, and not a plant or a rock, then how else do you describe the intentional cessation of that fetus at the hands of another who is more powerful?
WHY do they think that terms like “reproductive choice” can disguise the reality that one person has willfully caused the death of another?
For the most part, these are very intelligent, educated people. We can’t simply say they’re idiots or Neanderthals. So why is it that what’s so obvious to me and oodles of other people isn’t obvious to them? What’s going on?
There’s something much deeper at work. And we are entirely missing the point if we do not focus our efforts and attention on the true target: the heart. The logic and rational truth of the sacredness of life from the moment of conception is solid and indisputable. In the depths of the human spirit, everyone knows this. Everyone. The intellect can deny it til the cows come home, but the spirit knows better. The heart knows the truth.
We are engaged in a heated and dangerous war for life and for souls. Are we fighting the true enemy? Are we using the right weapons?
A wise and holy man reminded me recently that what is required is a conversion of the heart. We will never shout or lecture abortion supporters into changing their minds. We will pass out from wasted breath first. The mind is not the problem. The heart is. And that is something only God can change.
The “abortion rights” captain is a master of deception. He is the father of lies. He is the procurator of selfishness and fear. He has hardened the hearts of so many into such a brittle state that the only thing that matters is “my freedom”, “my rights”, and “my life, my body, my choice.” If it interferes with any of those, then it is an infringement on personal liberty and it must be outlawed.
The deceiver has convinced so many that happiness and fulfillment are found by having total control over our lives, our decisions and not allowing anyone else, least of all GOD, to influence us or “steal” our liberty. Front and center here is the “reproductive” freedom. The hardened heart sees only self-interest, personal wishes, responsibilities not wanted, and so comes to demand what it feels entitled to.
The irony of course is that the faithful know that only by living in cooperation with the will and wisdom of God can we ever know true freedom and happiness. God is the author of our liberty! Giving God control is almost a misnomer, because He already has it… He’s simply waiting for our free will to acknowledge it and comply with it. And when we do, the blessings flow! His graces flow like mighty rivers and the God of Love softens our hardened hearts and heals our selfish wounds. Then suddenly our blurry vision becomes clear.
Satan knows this to be true, and that is why he is so hard at work in the hearts of too many Americans. He knows he can twist and deform our notion of freedom and rights into a poison that will kill generations of people. He knows he can delude us into believing that wrong is right when it suits our purpose and desires, even at the cost of our own soul. And he knows something else…something we must never forget … the only power that will defeat him is prayer.
Does that mean that our words are meaningless? Certainly not! We must continue to speak out every chance we get and when God puts the words in our mouths, they will be effective. We must speak and write the truth as long as we have life in us. We must continue to fight the legal battles and actively work in the civil and political realms to advance the protection of all human life.
We must do all of this while remembering that the primary target is the heart. What is required is a conversion of the heart, and that will only be accomplished through prayer. Only the Holy Spirit will be able to speak to the hearts of those who stubbornly and selfishly refuse to protect unborn life. When the heart sees clearly, the mind follows easily.
So, my answer to myself and all the faithful is RISE UP! There is not a moment to waste in discouragement. Pray continually, without ceasing. Beg our Blessed Mother and all the Saints in heaven to pray with us and aid in our victory. Pray for the Holy Spirit to enlighten even the most hardened of hearts with true wisdom and strengthen them with courage. Pray for our new President…he is not beyond God’s reach. We must not tire; we must not believe the Liar’s press that our cause is hopeless. We must fight wisely.
“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers and rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.” Ephesians 6:12
It will never be an easy fight. Fight anyway. PRAY! (That distant sound you hear is the knocking of demonic knees…)
----
Jennifer Hartline is a Catholic Army wife and stay-at-home mother of three precious kids who writes frequently on topics of Catholic faith and daily living. She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.
Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation
'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!' (posted on Spirit Daily)
Sunday, January 18, 2009
National Sanctity of Human Life Day
FULL TEXT of President Bush Proclamation of Sanctity of Life Day - January 18 January 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The following is the full text of President Bush’s proclamation of National Sanctity of Life Day:All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and voiceless among us. The most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent. My Administration has been committed to building a culture of life by vigorously promoting adoption and parental notification laws, opposing Federal funding for abortions overseas, encouraging teen abstinence, and funding crisis pregnancy programs.
In 2002, I was honored to sign into law the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which extends legal protection to children who survive an abortion attempt. I signed legislation in 2003 to ban the cruel practice of partial birth abortion, and that law represents our commitment to building a culture of life in America. Also, I was proud to sign the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which allows authorities to charge a person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb with a separate offense in addition to any charges relating to the mother.
America is a caring Nation, and our values should guide us as we harness the gifts of science. In our zeal for new treatments and cures, we must never abandon our fundamental morals. We can achieve the great breakthroughs we all seek with reverence for the gift of life.
The sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women. On this day and throughout the year, we aspire to build a society in which every child is welcome in life and protected in law. We also encourage more of our fellow Americans to join our just and noble cause. History tells us that with a cause rooted in our deepest principles and appealing to the best instincts of our citizens, we will prevail.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 18, 2009, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies and to underscore our commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third. GEORGE W. BUSH
Thursday, January 15, 2009
An Ode to Mike Lapore
When I was a kid, my Dad owned and ran a luncheonette in Pound Ridge, New York. Pound Ridge is located close to New York City and very close to the western border of Connecticut. I worked with my Dad as a kid and continued working with him all the way until I graduated from college and entered the seminary.
Working at the family restaurant was a great experience. Aside from the strong work ethic and family values that my Dad instilled in all of his employees, I learned a lot about people. There is much to learn about human nature when people are hungry and in a hurry.
The Village Luncheonette opened Monday thru Saturday punctually at 7:30 AM. On Saturdays and every summer, I would arrive early in the morning with my Dad in order to get the place ready for business. Coffee had to be brewed, the grill had to be heated up and the little milk pitchers had to be set out on the counter.
Like clockwork, as if the parking lot were going to open and swallow everyone up, the customers were at the door, punctually at 7:30 AM. The first morning crowd consisted mostly of the dedicated crew that worked for Larry Jacoby, a local Jewish home builder. However, mixed in with the workers were all sorts of interesting characters. Among them was Mike Lapore.
Mike was retired from something. I can’t remember. He would always be at the restaurant every morning at 7:30 AM for his coffee and breakfast.
You can imagine what the place was like at 7:30 AM…very quiet. You could hear a pin drop. My Dad was in the small kitchen, located in the back of the restaurant, preparing the lunch menu for later in the day. Sherry, an industrious waitress, was working the grill. I was attending the counter.
Every morning, as if it were some kind of ritual, my Dad would place two or three copies of the New York Daily News on the counter for the reading pleasure of the customers. The newspapers were purchased on the drive to work from our home town. I understand that Squashes, the local newspaper store, is still an important part of the quaint, small town atmosphere of Ridgefield, Connecticut where our family lived for many years.
Mike Lapore sat quietly at the very end of the counter, close to the kitchen, reading a copy of the New York Daily News. The whole place was totally quiet. This was the late 1960’s and the 1970’s. Cities were being burnt down. Riots were taking place on college campuses. These were the years of Vietnam. The country was in turmoil.
It was common for Mike, with his characteristic Brooklyn accent, to yell out, piercing the early morning silence as he read the headlines: “Sal, it’s the end of the world!” Sooner or later my Dad would emerge from the kitchen and the arguing would start, not with Mike, but with Larry who was quite liberal in his politics.
Mike hated New York City Mayor John Lindsey with a passion. He would go on and on. My Dad would nod with approval. Larry would argue. And so were the early mornings in a small town family restaurant.
If Mike were alive today and if my Dad still ran his family restaurant in Pound Ridge, New York, I wonder what Mike would say about the presidency of Barack Obama?
The very ideas that inspired the leftist radicals of the 1960’s and the 1970’s to burn down cities and destroy college campuses are the same ideas that make up Obama’s ideology. Yes, Obama is the embodiment of that same movement of Marxists-Socialists that hate America and kill babies through abortion on demand.
Well, as we know, the world did not end in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Hopefully it will not come to end just yet. But, without a doubt, Barack Obama will put the nail in the coffin in the country that we all love.
Abortion will flourish. The homosexual movement will take over. The economy will continue to be in turmoil because how can a nation be productive if it has become so immoral? There will be more terrorist attacks.
The world that we once knew has ended. The world of growing up in small towns and in small restaurants. The world of hard work, family values, Sunday church and vibrant neighborhoods are, for the most part, something of the American past.
So, what are we supposed to do about this mess?
Mike Lapore might have just sat down at my Dad’s restaurant, drinking his coffee, eating his breakfast and arguing with Larry Jacoby. It is too comfortable just to complain.
We need doers, people of action.
There is probably very little that we can do about our federal government. But, we can focus on our local communities. We can build strong families, lively neighborhoods, faithful church communities, honest places of work and quality schools.
We can close down local abortion clinics and provide assistance to unwed mothers who are caught in the trap of a crisis pregnancy.
We can promote traditional values by living those values in our daily lives.
I remember Mike Lapore.
He was alarmed about what was going on many years ago. I too am alarmed by what went on then and what goes on today. I am determined to keep on fighting the good fight. I hope that you will join me in taking back America by taking back our local communities.
Working at the family restaurant was a great experience. Aside from the strong work ethic and family values that my Dad instilled in all of his employees, I learned a lot about people. There is much to learn about human nature when people are hungry and in a hurry.
The Village Luncheonette opened Monday thru Saturday punctually at 7:30 AM. On Saturdays and every summer, I would arrive early in the morning with my Dad in order to get the place ready for business. Coffee had to be brewed, the grill had to be heated up and the little milk pitchers had to be set out on the counter.
Like clockwork, as if the parking lot were going to open and swallow everyone up, the customers were at the door, punctually at 7:30 AM. The first morning crowd consisted mostly of the dedicated crew that worked for Larry Jacoby, a local Jewish home builder. However, mixed in with the workers were all sorts of interesting characters. Among them was Mike Lapore.
Mike was retired from something. I can’t remember. He would always be at the restaurant every morning at 7:30 AM for his coffee and breakfast.
You can imagine what the place was like at 7:30 AM…very quiet. You could hear a pin drop. My Dad was in the small kitchen, located in the back of the restaurant, preparing the lunch menu for later in the day. Sherry, an industrious waitress, was working the grill. I was attending the counter.
Every morning, as if it were some kind of ritual, my Dad would place two or three copies of the New York Daily News on the counter for the reading pleasure of the customers. The newspapers were purchased on the drive to work from our home town. I understand that Squashes, the local newspaper store, is still an important part of the quaint, small town atmosphere of Ridgefield, Connecticut where our family lived for many years.
Mike Lapore sat quietly at the very end of the counter, close to the kitchen, reading a copy of the New York Daily News. The whole place was totally quiet. This was the late 1960’s and the 1970’s. Cities were being burnt down. Riots were taking place on college campuses. These were the years of Vietnam. The country was in turmoil.
It was common for Mike, with his characteristic Brooklyn accent, to yell out, piercing the early morning silence as he read the headlines: “Sal, it’s the end of the world!” Sooner or later my Dad would emerge from the kitchen and the arguing would start, not with Mike, but with Larry who was quite liberal in his politics.
Mike hated New York City Mayor John Lindsey with a passion. He would go on and on. My Dad would nod with approval. Larry would argue. And so were the early mornings in a small town family restaurant.
If Mike were alive today and if my Dad still ran his family restaurant in Pound Ridge, New York, I wonder what Mike would say about the presidency of Barack Obama?
The very ideas that inspired the leftist radicals of the 1960’s and the 1970’s to burn down cities and destroy college campuses are the same ideas that make up Obama’s ideology. Yes, Obama is the embodiment of that same movement of Marxists-Socialists that hate America and kill babies through abortion on demand.
Well, as we know, the world did not end in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Hopefully it will not come to end just yet. But, without a doubt, Barack Obama will put the nail in the coffin in the country that we all love.
Abortion will flourish. The homosexual movement will take over. The economy will continue to be in turmoil because how can a nation be productive if it has become so immoral? There will be more terrorist attacks.
The world that we once knew has ended. The world of growing up in small towns and in small restaurants. The world of hard work, family values, Sunday church and vibrant neighborhoods are, for the most part, something of the American past.
So, what are we supposed to do about this mess?
Mike Lapore might have just sat down at my Dad’s restaurant, drinking his coffee, eating his breakfast and arguing with Larry Jacoby. It is too comfortable just to complain.
We need doers, people of action.
There is probably very little that we can do about our federal government. But, we can focus on our local communities. We can build strong families, lively neighborhoods, faithful church communities, honest places of work and quality schools.
We can close down local abortion clinics and provide assistance to unwed mothers who are caught in the trap of a crisis pregnancy.
We can promote traditional values by living those values in our daily lives.
I remember Mike Lapore.
He was alarmed about what was going on many years ago. I too am alarmed by what went on then and what goes on today. I am determined to keep on fighting the good fight. I hope that you will join me in taking back America by taking back our local communities.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Pro-life Activities January 2009
January 22, 2009 marks the 36th black anniversary of the abhorrent and unjust U.S. Supreme Court, Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton Decisions that legalized abortion on demand, for any reason from conception to during childbirth and has allowed the legalized and intentional murder of over 50 million innocent babies. Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate in the following activities in peaceful prayer, for the conversion of the abortionists, the closing of the killing centers, the overturning of Roe v Wade, so that all may “Respect Life from Conception until Natural Death.”
Helper’s Pro-Life Mass and Rosary - Saturday January 17th
The Helper’s of God’s Precious Infants will have their regular monthly Pro-life Mass at 7:30 AM in reparation for the sin of abortion at St. Joseph’s Church, 710 South 19th Street in Corpus Christi, followed by a Rosary Procession led by the Knights of Columbus to the abortion mill on Morgan Street and the Cross-town Freeway and back. Contact Mary at 887-0631 or twocrabs@swbell.net for more information.
Pro-Life Prayer Vigil and Rosary - Thursday January 22ndPlease join together with the Helper’s of God’s Precious Infants and the Knights of Columbus and pray the Most Holy Rosary of Our Blessed Mother, under the Banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Bishop Emeritus Rene H. Gracida will lead the Rosary at 5:00 PM at the abortion mill on Morgan Street and the Cross-town Freeway in Corpus Christi. Please make a special effort to Pray for an End to Abortion on the Front Lines on the black anniversary of Roe v Wade. Contact Ray at 994-8783 or rreeves002@stx.rr.com for more information.
Texas Rally for Life - Saturday January 24thThe Texas Alliance for Life is sponsoring a statewide Rally and March for Life in Austin beginning at West 4th and Guadalupe Streets proceeding to the State Capital. Pro-life Governor Rick Perry will be one of the honored guest speakers. Please go to the Rally web-site at www.TexasRallyforLife.org for detailed information.
Monday, January 12, 2009
A good movie for some inspiration
If you are looking for some "feel good" inspiration, I highly recommend this great film. "The Long Grey Line" with Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara and Donald Crisp is a wonderful movie for the entire family.
The radical agenda begins
A pervert chosen to "pray" before the Inaugural. Following the complaints that erupted after pro-marriage and pro-life Saddleback pastor Rick Warren was picked to preside over the main inauguration event, Obama has selected the Episcopal Church's only openly homosexual bishop to give the main invocation at a Sunday event celebrating Obama's inauguration, to be held two days later.
The best way to describe this is in the words of Ruth Graham, the late wife of Rev. Billy Graham - “If God doesn't soon bring judgment upon America, He'll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!”
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The Armageddon of the culture war is upon us
This morning I awoke very early. I am going on retreat tomorrow and I have a lot to do today. As I awoke, the reality of a new year settled in very quickly and then I thought to myself…in less than 20 days Barack Obama is going to be president. I felt nervous all over, especially in my stomach.
It seems like it was not too long ago, that Patrick Buchanan coined the term "culture war". His affirmation and his analysis were dead on. His book "The Death of the West" is important for us to read again.
January 20, 2009 will be the Armageddon of the culture war.
Barack Obama, with his cabinet of radical leftists, will unleash an evil attack on all the values that have made America a great nation.
God is in charge.
Today, in the Daytime Prayer from the Roman Breviary we prayed Psalm 53: "God looks down from heaven on the sons of men, to see if any are wise, if any seek God".
God is in charge. We must trust Him. We must immerse ourselves in God. Only those who have a deep spiritual life will be able to remain in peace and not fall apart. During Morning Prayer we prayed Psalm 65: "The hills are girded with joy, the meadows covered with flocks, the valleys are decked with wheat. They shout for joy, yes, they sing."
And now there is more and more clamors from the American Bishops about how they are going to fight FOCA. Too late guys! You let your man get into the White House by confusing the people with "Faithful Citizenship". The American Bishops could have stopped Obama by speaking out against him. Thankfully a few familiar voices did speak out. God will reward them abundantly. The rest of them have blood on their hands – the blood of innocent babies.
I hope that these personal reflections help as the actuality of a new and challenging year becomes our reality.
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