2012 USCCB Statement for Respect Life Month

The USCCB has declared October to be Respect Life Month. During this month local Catholic Churches are supposed to have this theme highlighted in their liturgies as well as marking the by special events. The USCCB even provides materials to be used during this month. Sadly, way too many dioceses & parishes ignore what is going on other than to pay minimal lip service. So it is up to the rest of us to get the message out.

Cardinal DiNardo's statment this year really puts the toll taken by abortion into perspective. He does so by showing how many states would be wiped out if all the deaths had taken place at one time, in one region. Yet, because abortion takes 1 person at a time, most people don't realize how horrible that toll is & the effect it has had on our country.

With the current conditions in our country, Cardinal DiNardo's invitation to "to gain a deeper understanding of the teachings of our faith," as well as his challenge "to live out these teachings more faithfully, witness them more radiantly in our actions, and propose them to others in fresh and engaging ways," is a prophetic word we cannot afford to ignore. 

 

 

2012 Statement for Respect Life Month

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo
Chairman, Committee on Pro-Life Activities
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

September 25, 2012

This October the Catholic Church throughout the United States will observe Respect Life Month. This annual tradition is now in its forty-first year.

Beginning October 7, Respect Life Sunday, our nation's Catholics will be called to renew their personal commitment to defend all human life, especially the most vulnerable members of the human family. They will demonstrate this commitment in a variety of ways—by participating in prayer services and educational conferences, engaging in public witness and advocacy, and helping to offer church and community services to those in need.

The theme of this year's Respect Life Program is one often expressed by Pope Benedict XVI: "Faith opens our eyes to human life in all its grandeur and beauty." He reiterated this insight during his recent visit to Lebanon:

The effectiveness of our commitment to peace depends on our understanding of human life. If we want peace, let us defend life! This approach leads us to reject not only war and terrorism, but every assault on innocent human life, on men and women as creatures willed by God. … The grandeur and the raison d'être of each person are found in God alone. The unconditional acknowledgement of the dignity of every human being, of each one of us, and of the sacredness of human life, is linked to the responsibility which we all have before God. We must combine our efforts, then, to develop a sound vision of … the human person. Without this, it is impossible to build true peace.

These links among faith, the inherent dignity and rights of human beings, and a just and peaceful society were also understood by America's Founding Fathers. As George Washington remarked in his "Farewell Address": [L]et us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. … [R]eason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

How can people coexist, much less flourish, in a society lacking the shared belief that we are called to care for those unable to care for themselves, not to neglect, abuse or kill them? Such basic moral principles have served civilization well for millennia.

Yet in recent decades, many people who influence public policy have promoted various exceptions to these principles.

Initially, medical neglect of the most vulnerable people at the beginning and end of life—those with disabilities or a potentially fatal disease—was tolerated as an exception to accepted standards of care. In time, neglect led to the acceptance of active measures to end the lives of such human beings, whose existence came to be viewed as a "burden." Now early induction and late-term abortion for "fetal anomalies," and doctor-assisted death by overdose for the sick and elderly, are not only State-approved but even publicly funded in some states.

Nationwide, even healthy unborn children are at risk of being killed at any time before birth, under Roe v. Wade.

Many fertility procedures used to help couples take home a baby result in many dead human embryos for each one who is born. When "excess" babies successfully implant and develop in a mother's or surrogate's womb, fertility specialists often propose "selective reduction," inducing a heart attack in each "excess" child. The National Institutes of Health still funds human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, which involves killing human embryos to harvest their stem cells, despite the remarkable track record of adult and cord blood stem cells in helping patients with some 72 diseases and the lack of similar results from hESCs.

Until recently, at least accommodation was made for healthcare providers who, as a matter of faith or conscience, will not take part in killing or in other procedures they believe to be gravely wrong. Yet now many government officials believe that maximum access to the full range of "reproductive rights"—abortion, sterilization, contraceptives and abortifacient drugs—trumps the right of believers to live and act according to their faith.

Under the "preventive services" mandate of the Affordable Care Act, Catholic employers and most Catholic institutions offering health coverage to their employees, will be forced to cover all these objectionable items. Under the Administration's rule, even individuals who work for these Catholic institutions will have no right to reject such coverage for themselves or their minor children.

As always, the educational materials in this year's Respect Life Program cover a broad range of topics related to the promotion of human dignity and human rights, the first of which is the right to life. Abortion remains a paramount concern, though certainly not an exclusive one, as we approach the 40^thanniversary of Roe v. Wade in January 2013.

The nationwide death toll from abortions since 1973 is staggering—equal to the entire combined populations of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah and Nevada. Put another way, it is as if every man, woman and child now living in the Gulf Coast states from Texas to Florida, or every person living in the Atlantic Coast states from Maine through Virginia, had perished from the earth.

And yet the number of deaths alone cannot begin to convey the full impact of the loss to families and to our nation of each unique, unrepeatable human being, who was created with the capacity to love, to learn, to share and contribute to their families and to our country. Nor can numbers convey the depth of grief and pain experienced by the parents and grandparents of aborted children, many of whom contact the Catholic Church's post-abortion ministry (Project Rachel Ministry) for relief from their suffering, for healing, forgiveness and hope.

Can anyone claim that our country is better off now because of Roe v. Wade than it was forty years ago? The close bonds, commitments and sacrifices for others, once modeled in families and carried into neighborhoods, civic organizations and communities, have gradually eroded.

Thankfully, positive signs are emerging that give reason for hope. Polls show that Americans increasingly identify themselves as pro-life. At the state level, the shift has resulted in the passage of scores of pro-life laws in recent years, no doubt contributing to the steady decline in the number of abortions. The youth who have come of age since Bl. Pope John Paul II inaugurated World Youth Day not only embrace the cause of life, they are actively involved in promoting life through social media and services to those in need. Adult Catholics as well, exposed for years to the media's caricatures of Catholic teaching, are often surprised by the wisdom and rightness of those teachings when they are given an opportunity to learn more about them. That is why Respect Life Month and the Year of Faith are vitally important. During October, and throughout the Year of Faith announced by Pope Benedict XVI and set to begin on October 11, Catholics are invited to gain a deeper understanding of the teachings of our faith. For our part, we need to live out these teachings more faithfully, witness them more radiantly in our actions, and propose them to others in fresh and engaging ways.

By our unflinching defense of human life and religious freedom, by our witness to the transcendent nature of the human person, and by our compassionate service to our brothers and sisters in need, may we spark a renewal of love and commitment to the true good of others. Only a love that seeks to serve those most in need, whatever the personal cost to us, is strong enough to overcome a culture of death and build a civilization worthy of human beings made in God's image.

Iowa Activists Flipping Their "Wig"gins to Retain Activist Judge



On 3 April 2009 the Iowa Supreme Court overstepped its boundries & ruled from the bench, 9-0 in Varnum v. Brien, that the Iowa Constitution did something it was never intended to do by its authors, allow gay marriage. Of course, the liberal left was overjoyed at this bit of judicial activism. It was a blatent attempt to not only change the law, but amend the Iowa Constitution without following the proper proceedures. In doing so they also denied the people the right to decide for themselves if the definition of marriage should be changed.

Fortunately, the Iowa Constitution provides the citizens with a way to redress this situation. In 1962 the Iowa Constitution was amended to replaced the then current way electing judges, they ran on a party ticket. The new system was meant to be nonpartisan while letting citizens decide if these judges are doing the job as they are supposed to & getting rid of them if they don't. At that time Section 3, 5 & 9 of Article V were replaced with Sections 15-18. So in addition to facing impeachment (Article III, Section 19 & 20), every 8 years the citizens are asked to vote whether to retain the current Iowa Supreme Court Justices or remove them from office. In short, the justices remained answerable to the people they were serving.

In 2010 three of the seven justices, Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, Justice David Baker, & Justice Michael Streit, were up for retention. & for the 1st time since the 1962 amendment a judge was ousted. In fact all three of them were. Of course those supporting their judicial activism tried to paint this as politicizing the judiciary so as to convince people they didn't have to right to stop activist judges. But as you see they failed, the judges were ousted, by an average 55-45% margin. Iowans made it clear that they didn't want the Supreme Court to, usurp the constitution, legislate from the bench, as well as malfeasance in the way they made the decision.

This year the 4th of the seven judges, Justice David Wiggins, is up for retention. (The other three will be up in 2016.) Of course, the left & a huge number of those in the Iowa Bar Association who want to keep the status quo are fighting once again to protect Wiggins. In fact the Iowa State Bar has launched a“Yes Iowa Judges” campaign. Ostensibly, they are saying they are simply education people about the process & why the claims of those trying to oust Wiggins were wrong. Unfortunately, they are using misdirection & even outright lies to defend their stand. 

Believe me, their side is the one that is taking the political stand. & that includes the Iowa Bar Association. It should be noted that the American Bar Association supports gay marriage. So naturally, the Iowa Association will follow suit & oppose anything that would go after judicially activist judges who usurp their role. In fact, it is no surprize to see the Iowa Bar Association lauding the judges while attacking Bob VanderPlaats & the rest of us who are using the process as intended. (Legislation - Guest Column Obsessed with gay marriage by Dan Moore, past president of the Iowa State Bar Association)

To do so, they have been going around to the sites announced by Iowans for Freedom - No Wiggins campaign & starting their rallies before the No Wiggins one. One of those sites was here in DBQ. The No Wiggins rally was scheduled for 2 PM. So they began in a nearby location before that. & made sure they ran past 2 PM as well. I would have loved to debate them because, as I said, they were not presenting the facts accurately. (You can read refutations of their talking points here.)

Sadly, there was a very small turnout for the No Wiggins rally. But the speeches were excellent. Among the facts brought up were a Hawaiian court ruling that cited the Varnum ruling as the wrong way to make a decision. In addition, Justice Wiggins has been given a 63% rating by his peers. By today's standards that is a D-, but in my day it was an F. Clearly, Wiggins is not doing his job as he should if even his peers feel that way about him.

Also, the majority in DBQ Co voted for pro-gay marriage incumbent governor, Chet Culver (D), who lost, while voting with the majority of getting rid of those judges. Clearly that vote wasn't on partisan lines.

Those who want the status quo saw that it wasn't to be 2 years ago. & they are afraid the same thing will happen this year. & it seems they are a bit better organized. But in the end, I have great faith in the citizens to discern the truth. I salute Iowans for Freedom for their efforts & pray they will be successful in once again getting Iowans to hold their Supreme Court Justices accountable as they should be. I am hopeful that the result of Iowans for Freedoms efforts will be that Justice Wiggins will no longer be on the court just like the three others that were removed 2 years ago.

_____________

You can see what the Iowa Judicial Branch says about retention elections here. They may not admit it, but it makes the case for removing Wiggins. 

Bishop Paprocki - Democratic Platform Endorses Intrinsic Evils, Republican Platform Doesn't

Think and pray about your vote in upcoming election

by Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, Diocese of Springfield in Illinois

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Much attention was given at the Democratic National Convention held recently in Charlotte, N.C., to the fact that all references to God had been purged from the draft version of the party platform. After outcries of protest from outside as well as within the Democratic Party, the sentence with the same reference to God used in 2008 was restored to read, "We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential."

Before anyone relaxes and concludes that all is well now that the Democratic Party Platform contains a single passing reference to God, the way that this was done should give us pause. Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa had to call for the voice vote three times because each time the sound level for the "ayes" and the "nays" sounded about even, far short of the two-thirds necessary according to convention rules to amend the platform. That did not stop the convention chairman from declaring, "The ayes have it!"

What is troubling about that is the blatant disregard for the rules and for the apparent wishes of about half the delegates. The reference to God is back in the platform apparently because President Obama wanted it back in. That may be fine for now, but if a future president wants references to God taken out, apparently that can be done regardless of the wishes of the delegates if that is what The Leader wants. That does not bode well for democracy in the Democratic Party.

Even more troubling is that this whole discussion about God in the platform is a distraction from more disturbing matters that have been included in the platform. In 1992 Presidential candidate Bill Clinton famously said that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare." That was the party's official position until 2008. Apparently "rare" is so last century that it had to be dropped, because now the Democratic Party Platform says that abortion should be "safe and legal." Moreover the Democratic Party Platform supports the right to abortion "regardless of the ability to pay." Well, there are only three ways for that to happen: either taxpayers will be required to fund abortion, or insurance companies will be required to pay for them (as they are now required to pay for contraception), or hospitals will be forced to perform them for free.

Moreover, the Democratic Party Platform also supports same-sex marriage, recognizes that "gay rights are human rights," and calls for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law signed by President Clinton in 1996 that defined marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman.

Now, why am I mentioning these matters in the Democratic Party Platform? There are many positive and beneficial planks in the Democratic Party Platform, but I am pointing out those that explicitly endorse intrinsic evils. My job is not to tell you for whom you should vote. But I do have a duty to speak out on moral issues. I would be abdicating this duty if I remained silent out of fear of sounding "political" and didn't say anything about the morality of these issues. People of faith object to these platform positions that promote serious sins. I know that the Democratic Party's official "unequivocal" support for abortion is deeply troubling to pro-life Democrats.

So what about the Republicans? I have read the Republican Party Platform and there is nothing in it that supports or promotes an intrinsic evil or a serious sin. The Republican Party Platform does say that courts "should have the option of imposing the death penalty in capital murder cases." But the Catechism of the Catholic Church says (in paragraph 2267), "Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm — without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself — the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."

One might argue for different methods in the platform to address the needs of the poor, to feed the hungry and to solve the challenges of immigration, but these are prudential judgments about the most effective means of achieving morally desirable ends, not intrinsic evils.

Certainly there are "pro-choice" Republicans who support abortion rights and "Log Cabin Republicans" who promote same-sex marriage, and they are equally as wrong as their Democratic counterparts. But these positions do not have the official support of their party.

Again, I am not telling you which party or which candidates to vote for or against, but I am saying that you need to think and pray very carefully about your vote, because a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy.

I pray that God will give you the wisdom and guidance to make the morally right choices.

May God give us this grace. Amen.

H/T: Fr. John Zuhlsdorf (An American Bishop on the Democrat Convention, intrinsic evil, and voting wisely as a Catholic)

President Obama, A Clear & Present danger to Catholicism

President Obama: An Opponent Of Catholicism?

By Msgr. Eric Barr

Vicar General, Diocese of Rockford

Step with me into the area of controversy and consider the provocative question of whether President Barak Obama is an opponent of Catholicism and its values. As our government bent upwards and sideways last week to appease the darkness that is radical Islam, apologizing and even going wobbly on the issue of free speech, I thought a bit about how the president and his government is treating Catholics and their views.
For your consideration:
First, abortion rights. Not only is the president a fierce proponent of abortion on demand, he is also for something that should horrify not only Catholics but all people of good will. Not once, not twice, but three times as an Illinois senator, Obama opposed the “Born Alive Infant’s Protection Act,” which stated that babies born after abortions are persons and must be given care. His opposition was a patent endorsement of infanticide — the murder of children. There has never been an abortion restriction that he has endorsed. He is not simply pro-choice; rather, he is an activist in the strongest sense, diametrically opposed to the most obvious moral stance taken by Catholicism.
Second, the humiliation of Cardinal Dolan over the health care act. During a White House meeting between the cardinal and the president, Obama promised the cardinal that he would protect churches and religions and the consciences of those in Obamacare, not forcing them to go against their beliefs in any way. The HHS mandate forcing Catholics and others to pay for birth control, abortifacients, and sterilization in their employees’ healthcare plans showed his promise to be false and the “compromise” he suggested simply doubled down on his belief that the Constitution provides only for freedom of worship (inside church buildings) and not freedom of religion (a broader concept that allows people of faith to act publicly).
Third, his continued prevarication, i.e., lying, about freedom of religion. Just this past Monday, the president made a video on religious liberty. The Hill reports that Obama, “made a campaign pitch to ‘people of faith’ in which he reaffirmed his ‘commitment’ to this value saying, ‘The American people should know this: In a changing world, my commitment to protecting religious liberty is and always will be unwavering.’ ” He goes on talking about protecting people’s consciences — something he has no intention of ever doing. Meanwhile, Obamacare marches on, steamrolling Catholic morality and the First Amendment under its weight. How can that be tolerated by citizens?
These statements and attitudes by the president become even more breathtaking when weighed with the passion and determination the administration has shown trying to soothe outraged Muslims who are not even citizens of our country. The rioting mobs around the world are kowtowed to and the precious sensibilities of their beliefs are put on the front burner even as they kill and harm others. Nothing justifies this peculiar and unreal stance of the president.
But these are the times we live in, when truth is sacrificed for expediency and a hostile stance — we could even call it a hatred — toward religion and Catholicism in particular grows in our country. It’s persecution without rack and pyre, but perhaps those are coming too, if men and women of integrity, regardless of faith, do not stand up for religious liberty.

We're Off to A Great Start for DBQ's 40 Days Campaign

 

 

Last night we held the kick-off rally for the DBQ 40 Days for Life campaign. We had about 65-70 people in attendance. It was held at the St Joseph the Worker gymnasium.

I will start by saying that the Pro-life community in DBQ is ready to start the actual campaign in DBQ on Wednesday, if last night was any evidence.

The rally started with Fr. Gabriel Anderson, pastyor of St. Joseph the Worker welcoming those participating & leading us in prayer. Next Marian Bourek, executive director of DBQ Co Right to Life, read Psalm 139:13-18 followed by a silent meditation. This was followed by some songs of praise & worship lead by members of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Key West.

After spending time in prayer, praise & worship there were 4 talks.

The 1st was by Fr. Michael Podhajsky, pastor of St. Joseph, Key West & Holy Family, New Melleray. His talk set the tone for the rest of the talks by showing us how our country was based on the Christain principle of the right for life & ended with a challenge to us to bring back that as the guiding principle of our country.

Bill Frye, DCRTL board member then spoke on the abortion issue on the local level. he challenged us to continual witnessing to the importance of defending life.

Next up I spoke on 40 Days as a solution to the abortion problem in our community. I shared why I felt so as well as shared some of the ways 40 Days has been successful elsewhere.

Finally, Trina Hingtgen, executive assistant of DCRTL, spoke on the nuts and bolts of the local campaign. 

Next up we paused to recognize Fr. John Ptacek who was celebrating his 83rd birthday Sunday & thank him for all his years of faithful service.

The evening ended with some more praise & worship songs. Then Deacon Tom Lang. St. Joseph, Key West, gave the closing prayer. The evening ended with Fr. Ptacek giving us his blessing.

After the rally 18 new people signed up to participate in the prayer vigil.

Again, I ask for your prayers for our efforts. As I have said in previous posts, abortion in the form of telemed abortions has arrived at the DBQ Planned Parenthood. Through 40 Days, we could see a swift end to that scourge in our city. May God hear & answer our prayers.

The Vitriol Seems to Be Coming From the Pro-Aborts, Not Pro-lifers

It never ceases to amaze me how those who support abortion try & claim that they are the loving peaceful side of the debate when they do the very actions that they accuse us of doing that we don't.

A prime example of this is the experience that David Bereit had during a recent 40 Days for Life speaking tour all across Australia. During that trip with his family he spoke to over 1,200 people at 35 events and meetings over 13 days in Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, and Sydney.

On the final Saturday evening of our trip, he spoke at a banquet in Sydney for New South Wales Right to Life. It was during that event that an incident occurred. Here is how he described it:

 

"Right after I was introduced, two young women jumped up from a table in the back of the room. They began yelling “this is for the women,” and one of them threw a pink sparkly ballet shoe at me (fortunately, it missed).

That was the cue for another ten people to burst into the room, chanting abortion slogans. They ran around the room throwing glitter on banquet attendees while distributing brochures depicting Mary and baby Jesus along with “prayers” demanding that abortion be affordable and accessible, and that pro-lifers would “keep their vitriolic nonsense to themselves.”

Then they ran to the front of the room and locked arms around the podium, intent on shutting down the event. One young lady was yelling into what looked like a toy megaphone, which thankfully failed to work.

While I was a bit surprised by the sudden barrage, I was saddened more than anything else. As I looked at the anger and hatred in the eyes of these young people, I realized that some of them had probably experienced the pain of abortion in their own lives.

It was at that point that I asked the audience to bow their heads and join me in praying the Lord’s Prayer.

Here’s the photo of that moment:

 

 

Then we prayed for all women and men who have been harmed by abortion, that they would find healing … and that they would experience love and compassion from pro-lifers, without judgment or condemnation.

After about ten minutes, security guards were able to remove the abortion advocates from the room, and the event continued on — with the audience more motivated than ever before.

If that wasn’t enough excitement, on Monday morning I spoke to 60 college students from the University of Notre Dame (Australia) and the University of Sydney at a breakfast. Desperately trying to disrupt us once again, abortion advocates organized an even bigger protest outside with 30-35 people. We simply moved our event half a block away to avoid confrontation, and they never figured out that they were protesting an empty room.

Sydney’s largest newspaper covered the twin protests, and we learned that one of the most prominent feminists in Australia was among those protesting on Monday morning! "

 

It never ceases to amaze me how abortion supporters project their own actions onto us while denying that they are even doing them, despite documentary evidence to the contrary.

It also saddens me to see how they mock our faith like they did using pictures of Jesus & Mary as well as prayers for abortion to be affordable & accessible. The latter reminds me of the story that Archbishop Sheen shared about a plane trip he took. It was Lent & he told the attendant he was skipping lunch to fast. The woman next to her said she was fasting as well. When he inquired "Are you also Catholic?" she answered, "No, I'm a witch, and I'm fasting for abortion."

These incidents point out all the more to us of the importance of prayer & fasting to end abortion. Those on the pro-abortion side are praying to Satan. But he can only win in so far as we let him. Our responsibility is to pray & fast so those strongholds will be broken. If we don't do as God has commanded, then those strongholds continue to stand.

Dave Bereit shows us the response we are to have when confronted with those who confront us angrily, with love & prayer. I too have seen the anger & hatred in the eyes of abortion supporters. He is right to say that for some, it is a result of the pain they have experienced because of an abortion in their lives, men & women.

These people need to know the love & mercy that Jesus offers them so they can be set free.

40 Days for Life is 1 of those ways in which God does so. As I mentioned in a recent post, we will be be having our 1st 40 Days for Life campaign in DBQ next week. I am excited because I know that it is a powerful tool that God has given us to build a "Culture of Life" & defeat the "culture of death".

If 40 Days for Life wasn't successful you wouldn't see incidents like this attempting to disrupt these events. These disruptions are more than just an attempt to protest what we stand for, they are an attempt to stop us from doing what we do that has been so successful.

Again, I ask all your prayers for the success of our campaign, beginning with the kick-off event tommorrow night. This is the largest 40 Days campaign ever. & I suspect that we will see God's hand move mightily, not only here in DBQ but accross the world as we answer the call to do our part in putting an end to abortion.

 

Source: Yes, they threw a SHOE at me …

See also: Record-Breaking 40 Days for Life Campaign Starts Next Week

Thought for the Day - 21 September 2012

Source: Open Thread

Birthright Is Celebrating 40 Years in Dubuque

 

 

40 years ago, a new organization arrived in DBQ to offer women in crisis pregnancies help to get through them. That organization was Birthright. Birthright had been started in 1968 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by Louise Summerhill. they started in aaone-room office with only $300 in the bank. The idea quickly took off & 4 years later it reached DBQ. Little did they know at the time that what they offered would be as urgently needed as it would be. It was only a few months later, in January 1973, that the Roe v Wade & Doe v Bolton rulings came down from the Supreme Court legalizing abortion for any reason & at any time in the pregancy throughout the USA.

With women being told that abortion was now an option, their range of services designed to "help support a woman's desire not to have an abortion," were needed more than ever.

Each local Birthright is staffed by volunteers & relies on the financial & other assistance they may need. This includes donations of clothing, baby blankets, diapers & other things. All of their services are free. They include  

Completely confidential help

Friendship and emotional support

Free pregnancy testing

Medical referrals

Legal referrals

Educational assistance and referrals

Maternity and baby clothes

Housing referrals

Referrals to social agencies

Referrals for professional counseling

Information on:

• Prenatal development
• Job search/career development
• Adoption
• Pregnancy & childbirth
• Child care options
• Child safety issues

 

At birth each mother is given a complete layette.

As you can see Birthright helps provide a whole range of services that do more than just talk a woman out of abortion. They are the face of the Pro-life movement that the media tries to claim doesn't exist so as to paint us as just wanting to end abortion & uncaring about women or what happens to the child. This has never been true of the Pro-life movement. In the early days much of the focus was on ending abortion, but that being the only thing was never true. & Birthright is proof that we cared even before abortion was legal.

Birthright in DBQ has 28 volunteers that represent more than 400 years of service to the organization. Their current location at 1125 Main St. is their fourth location.

To celebrate their 40 years of service to women in the DBQ area, Birthright will be holding a special celebration this Saturday here in DBQ. It will be held at the Grand River Center, 500 Bell ST in DBQ. The featured speaker will be Louise Summerhill, the daughter of the late founder of Birthright. Following in the footsteps of her mother, she helps run the 44-year-old international organization.

The cost is $10. There are limited seats available. Reservations can be made by by calling 563-870-4665.

Why I Haven't Been Posting As Regularly Lately - DBQ's 40 Days for Life Campaign

The last couple of weeks I haven't been able to put up as many posts as I would have liked. But there is a very good reason, much of the time I would have had for posting has been taken up with a very important project, doing my part as a campaign leader for the upcoming 40 Days for Life Campaign in DBQ.

 

 

I have posted many times about the 40 Days for Life Campaigns & the success they have been elsewhere. With the DBQ Planned Parenthood moving to its new location this year & offering telemed abortions, it was felt by some people  that now was the time to hold a campaign in DBQ. So with the support of DBQ Co Right to Life an application was made to be a part of the Fall Campaign.

I was contacted & agreed to act as the events coordinator. That means my primary responsibility is to plan 3 events, the kick-off rally, a mid-point rally & a closing event to celebrate the success we have had in our local campaign.

After going through the 40 Days training module, the work includes finding a site, setting up speakers & others who will have a part in leading the rally. Additionally, I have been called on to speak at a few places to promote the campaign. Add to that helping with PR & the work being done on other parts of the campaign, a lot of my time has been occupied with this important work.

Now I am NOT saying this to look for sympathy. Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows how I feel about abortion & the importance to put an end to it. They also know the emphasis on the importance or prayer I make as well. So my involvement is only natural & obviously is a priority for my time. I have to be involved or I couldn't look at myself, let alone ask God to bring about an end to abortion when I wasn't willing to answer His call to do my part.

40 Days campaigns do just this.

For those of you unaware of what 40 Days does, let me share a little about it. (Quotes taken from the 40 Days website unless otherwise noted)

"The first 40 Days for Life campaign was conducted in Bryan/College Station, Texas in the fall of 2004. A local pro-life group prayed for an answer about how to reduce abortion in their area, and the answer God gave them was 40 Days for Life. The campaign was put together in a matter of weeks, yet it activated 1,000 people and led directly to a 28 percent decline in abortions in that community."

After the news of the victories won by God spread, 6 other communities held their own campaigns. Like the 1st one God moved to bring more victories at each location. "For some, it was learning that clinics closed altogether or cut their operating hours. Other cities found an outpouring of women seeking post-abortion healing."

So in 2007 it was decided to go national. More than 80 cities in 30 states participated."People who had never been involved in pro-life activities came forward to answer the call. Lives were saved, hearts were changed and people are seeing that prayer indeed can make a difference in the quest to end abortion."

The success lead to scheduling a 2nd nationwide event. It was scheduled to coincide with Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday. Again it meet with success.

Since then they have been held twice a year, in the Spring (Lent) & in the Fall. Over the years they have grown in numbers & even gone international. There have been 440 cities across the United States & Canada, plus cities in Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belize, Denmark, England, Georgia, Germany, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Puerto Rico & Spain that have been a part of various campaigns. The Fall 2012 campaign includes the following:

• 314 locations -- the most ever!
• 49 US states -- plus Washington, DC
• 7 Canadian provinces
• Australia, England, Spain and -- for the first time -- Uganda
• Many NEW cities ... 46 first-time campaigns

As I said 1 of those new cities is DBQ.

For those wondering about the difference in numbers between the 440 total cities & the 314 this year, the answer is simple. Not every city participates in every campaign, & in some cases, 24 to be exact,  the abortion facilities have shut down completely. 1 of the most recent was the closing last Spring of the Planned Parenthood abortion Center in Storm Lake, IA in 1 March. That site had been the location for a campaign in the Fall of 2011. The vigil was coordinated by Sue Thayer – who once served as manager of that very facility ... until she was fired! In addition a 2nd site in nearby Knoxville was closed as well. (Note: the 40 Days campaign was endorsed by Sioux City Bishop Nickless who also did his part by leading a Eucharistic procession in the Summer of 2011 that stopped to pray there as 1 of its stops.)

In addition to the success closings of 24 abortion facilities the campaigns have seen prayers answered & the following things happen as well:

• 1,894 individual campaigns have taken place in 440 cities
• More than 525,000 have joined together in an historic display of unity to pray and fast for an end to abortion
• More than 15,000 church congregations have participated in the 40 Days for Life campaigns
• Reports document 5,928 lives that have been spared from abortion — and those are just the ones we know about
• 69 abortion workers have quit their jobs and walked away from the abortion industry
• Hundreds of women and men have been spared from the tragic effects of abortion, including a lifetime of regrets
• More than 2,100 news stories have been featured in newspapers, magazines, radio shows and TV programs from coast to coast ... and overseas
• Many people with past abortion experiences have stepped forward to begin post-abortion healing and recovery

Some people may remember that one of those workers was Abby Johnson. I have posted about her several times, including her appearance here in DBQ for a dinner for DBQ Co Right to Life.
40 Days has 3 main componants that are at the heart of its success.
The 1st is prayer & fasting. "Christ told us some demons can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. The two go hand in hand. Prayer keeps us rooted in the fact that it is our desire to carry out God's will. Fasting is a sacrifice that helps us reach beyond our own limitations with God's help. Fasting is not a Christian diet; it is a form of physical prayer. You can fast from food, TV, alcohol ... anything that separates you from God." This componant starts even before the actual campaign. People are asked to start early in order to ensure even the preperatory work done is under the guidance & blessing of God.
The second componant is the actual 40 Days of constant prayer vigil before the abortion facility. "The most visible component of 40 Days for Life is a constant prayer vigil outside a place where children are aborted. It is the hope that the vigil can be maintained 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is a prayerful witness to the clinic's patients and employees, and to the entire community, that evil is in our midst and that with God's help, it will be defeated." For most of the sites, the vigil runs 24-7 for the full 40 days. Here in DBQ we will only be praying for 12 hours each of the 40 days due to the smaller size of our community.
The final componant is community outreach. "During 40 Days for Life, the pro-life message is proactively taken to the community through focused, grassroots educational efforts. People are given the opportunity to visibly show their support for 40 Days for Life." Some of this starts earlier by contacting the media & putiing up posters, speaking at Churches, etc.

By now, I think you can understand  my excitement that we are having a campaign in DBQ & making it a huge priority in my life.

Her in DBQ the kick-off event will be held at 6 PM on Sunday, 23 September 2012. The site will be the St. Joseph the Worker School Gymnasium, 2113 St. Joseph ST, DBQ. On Tuesday, 25 September there will be a 6 PM Mass for the success of the campaign at St. Mary's Catholic Church, 170 Montgomery Ave, E DBQ, IL.

The campaign starts on 26 September 2012 at 8 AM & will run each of the 40 days from 8 AM to 8 PM. If you are in the DBQ area please come to the kick-off event & go to the DBQ campaign website to sign up for as many times as you can. If you live elsewhere, you can go here to check if there is a location near you.

Regardless, I ask everyone to start praying & fasting for the success of the campaign, both in DBQ as well as the rest of the locations.
The abortion industry thinks that they are winning the battle because of the support the have from the current administration. They think that as long as they can rake in as much of our tax dollars as possible they won't ever lose the battle. But they also know how effective these campaigns are so they try to downplay what we are doing. The one thing those in abortion industry won't admit is that it will eventually be defeated because this isn't a battle of dollars & cents, it is a spiritual battle. Because it is spiritual, it will be won using spiritual weapons, not merely by politics or education. The victories in those arenas will come about because we were willing to invest the time & effort in prayer, using all the spiritual weapons that God has given us. I don't know how much longer it will take. But if we continue to pray, ask God to guide & bless our efforts & remain faithful to our calling, then hearts will be changed, not only individual clinics but the entire industry will be shut down, abortion workers will be converted, those hurt by abortion (men & women) will receive the forgiveness & healing they need, & untold babies will have their lives spared from death.
The choice is ours. We can say yes & play our part in defeating the "culture of death". Or we cay no & answer to God for our refusal. We must say yes & do our part to bring about the "Culture of Life" God wants. & 40 Days for Life is one of the ways God has provided for us to bring it about.



Now Abortion Is Being Called Mercy Killing

Just when you think you have heard every sick & twisted justification for abortion, something like this comes along.

 Ellen Hawley Roddick admitted in her latest Salon post that abortion may be murder. Why? As she explains "But when I had become pregnant, I had known immediately and beyond any doubt that I was no longer alone in my body. Not having heard of anyone else having this startling experience, I asked other women. A surprising number said yes, they, too, had known they were pregnant as soon as the baby was conceived."

But once again proving the old adage, "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts," she goes on to say "Given this anecdotal evidence that in some sense personhood may begin at conception, I still believe that a newly pregnant woman has a right to end her pregnancy. Surely it is no gift to force a baby into a world where its own mother does not want it. Life can be tough enough for people whose mothers do want them."

After listing all reasons for justifying an abortion because it is unwanted etc, all lies that can be easily refuted, she pretty much leaves you thinking that aborting the baby is the merciful thing to do. So while she doesn't actually use the term, that is pretty much what she is saying.

But in a way, this isn't totally surprizing. With all the scientific evidence out there that the preborn child is a human being, it is harder to deny that abortion kills someone. So now, the abortion supporters have to come up with new reasons to justify what even they are forced to admit is murder.

So, we have a mercy killing mentality. This is the same "culture of death" mentality that justifies euthenasia as well. They set what they define is the acceptable "quality of life" & then push to eliminate all those who don't meet their standard.

I would like Roddick to say what she did to Rebecca Kiessling.

Rebecca Kiessling was conceived as the result of a rape in 1969. At the time she would have been aborted had it been legal in Michigan. Thankfully she wasn't. & a family that wanted her adopted her. Her entire life is an answer to why abortion is never right.

Tuesday afternoon I saw a video with her story at the  DBQ Co Right to Life office. It was very powerful. They were showing it because she will be speaking in the DBQ area at the start of Pro-Life month in October.

I would love to see how Roddick would respond to what Rebecca Kiessling would have to say. I suspect she would have a difficult time sustaining her arguements when faced with the truth, that there are other options than abortion.

 

Note: For some reason Salon has taken down Roddick's post. Maybe they realized that it let out a little too much of the truth about the pro-abortion mindset & brought too much negative response that showed it did more harm than good at this point.

 

Source: Shock: Salon Writer Pushes Abortion as Mercy Killing

The Day I Hoped & Prayed Would Never Be, Has Come to Pass

This afternoon I was at work at the DBQ Co Right to Life Office doing some things in my capacity of events coordinator for the 40 Days for Life campaign we are putting on starting 26 September. In the process of writing a news release I had to look up the address of the Planned Parenthood in Dubuque. So I went to the PP website to get it since the phone book had the old address. While there I noticed that one line in their list of services offered had changed from last week. Instead of saying abortion referal it now said abortion services.

It is my sad duty to report that PP has officially announced they are doing telemed abortions at the DBQ site. God help us.

After I read that on the website I called over Marion Bourek, the new executive director, to show her the bad news. As she came from her office, it was all I could do to hold back the tears. I was also sick to my stomach. She had a similar reaction. Then the executive assistant came over & for a few moments a pall of sorrowful silence fell over this office.

Part of the reason we decided to have a 40 days campaign in DBQ was because we knew that abortions would be a part of the services offered at the new site. & now they are. While it is only telemed abortions, the building is suitable for offering surgical abortions as well.

This news has added all the more impetus to continue the battle against PP & abortion. This evil MUST be driven out of DBQ as well as elsewhere.

I ask for your prayers for our 40 Days campaign to be successful, so that by its end, the Planned Parent Health Center as they describe themselves will be permanantly shut down. Calling themselves a health center is a sick joke. They are anything but a health center, especially for the unborn. What they really are is a death center.

Thankfully they haven't expanded their hours from the 17 they are currently open. When they 1st came to DBQ they were open 40 hours a week. At the time they claimed there was this huge need. Since then they reduced their hours to the current 17 & recently moved to Hillcrest & their own building. Offering abortions in DBQ is the only reason they have keep open a site that sees less than 20 people a week. They hope that this will enable them to make the money they need to keep it going. & maybe even expand as well. They have also stayed because this is a town that is mainly Catholic (although many are pro-choice)so they can mock God & His Church as well.

What PP won't admit is that it has been the ongoing prayful protest that has played a huge part in their failure. But it has. & with the 40 Days campaign coming up, the spiritual warfare going on will see them permanantly removed from DBQ, bringing an end to the scourge of an abortion clinic in this town.

This may be a sad day, but God will be triumphant in the end. & that is what gives me the hope to go on rather than give up.

Thought for the Day - 11 Sept 2012

In New Zealand, A River Is Recognized As A Person, Yet Preborn Babies Aren't

Just when you think things couldn't get any more wacko, this comes along:

From the New Zealand Herald:

Meet the Whanganui. You might call it a river, but in the eyes of the law, it has the standings of a person.

In a landmark case for the Rights of Nature, officials in New Zealand recently granted the Whanganui, the nation’s third-longest river, with legal personhood “in the same way a company is, which will give it rights and interests”. The decision follows a long court battle for the river’s personhood initiated by the Whanganui River iwi, an indigenous community with strong cultural ties to the waterway. Under the settlement, the river is regarded as a protected entity, under an arrangement in which representatives from both the iwi and the national government will serve as legal custodians towards the Whanganui’s best interests.

 

Let's see now, in 1983 New Zealand's parliament refused to pass the Status of the Unborn Child Bill that would overturn a court ruling saying that embryos & fetuses had no legal status in New Zealand, but now the same courts say that a river does? Also, though theoretically, there are some limits on abortion, the mental health exception virtually eliminates that. Thus, unlike for the Whanganui, everything in New Zealand law is such that it operates against the best interests of every preborn human in the country.

Just so you understand, in New Zealand, this is a person:

 

 

Yet this isn't:

 

Of course things aren't much different in the USA. Here, an unborn eagle is protected by law, yet an preborn human is not. If you destroy an unhatched eagle you face a fine & imprisonment. But if you are an abortionist, you are not only protected if you kill the baby, in most places you don't even have to meet the basic regulations or standards that any real health clinic does. & if you are Planned Parenthood, you get plenty of our tax dollars to do so. We worship nature as a god, we treat humans as disposable. All I can add is even though we don't deserve it:

GOD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL!!!!

 

 

H/T:New Zealand River Gets Personhood Rights  (TheLarryD @ Acts of the Apostasy)

Thought for the Day - 10 Sept. 2012

God Gets In the Last Word at the Democratic Convention

Here is the text of the prayer Cardinal Dolan said at the Democratic Convention Thursday Night, while the wording is a bit different it expressed exactly the same Pro-life & religious freedom message that the prayer he said at the Republican convention did.

With a ‘firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,’ let us close this convention by praying for this land that we so cherish and love.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed to us so powerfully in Your Son, Jesus Christ, we thank You for showering Your blessings upon this our beloved nation. Bless all here present, and all across this great land, who work hard for the day when a greater portion of Your justice, and a more ample measure of Your care for the poor and suffering, may prevail in these United States. Help us to see that a society’s greatness is found above all in the respect it shows for the weakest and neediest among us.

We beseech You, almighty God to shed Your grace on this noble experiment in ordered liberty, which began with the confident assertion of inalienable rights bestowed upon us by You: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Thus do we praise You for the gift of life. Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure. We ask Your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected. Strengthen our sick and our elders waiting to see Your holy face at life’s end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.

We praise and thank You for the gift of liberty. May this land of the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic freedoms. Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty: the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our Founding. May our liberty be in harmony with truth; freedom ordered in goodness and justice. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope, and love. Make us ever-grateful for those who, for over two centuries, have given their lives in freedom’s defense; we commend their noble souls to your eternal care, as even now we beg the protection of Your mighty arm upon our men and women in uniform.

We praise and thank You for granting us the life and the liberty by which we can pursue happiness. Show us anew that happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Empower us with Your grace so that we might resist the temptation to replace the moral law with idols of our own making, or to remake those institutions You have given us for the nurturing of life and community. May we welcome those who yearn to breathe free and to pursue happiness in this land of freedom, adding their gifts to those whose families have lived here for centuries.

We praise and thank You for the American genius of government of the people, by the people and for the people. O God of wisdom, justice, and might, we ask your guidance for those who govern us: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, Congress, the Supreme Court, and all those, including Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan, who seek to serve the common good by seeking public office. Make them all worthy to serve you by serving our country. Help them remember that the only just government is the government that serves its citizens rather than itself. With your grace, may all Americans choose wisely as we consider the future course of public policy.

And finally Lord, we beseech Your benediction on all of us who depart from here this evening, and on all those, in every land, who yearn to conduct their lives in freedom and justice. We beg you to remember, as we pledge to remember, those who are not free; those who suffer for freedom’s cause; those who are poor, out of work, needy, sick, or alone; those who are persecuted for their religious convictions, those still ravaged by war.

And most of all, God Almighty, we thank you for the great gift of our beloved country.

For we are indeed “one nation under God,” and “in God we trust.”

So, dear God, bless America, You Who live and reign, forever and ever.

Amen.

Of course, it should come as no surprize, given how they booed God earlier in the week, that many of those attending were not happy to have Cardinal Timothy Dolan remind them that what the Dems stand for & what God expects them to stand for were diametricly opposed. & those at home were even less so, to the point of sending tweets using the F-word. You can read some of those tweets at the LifeNews story here. (CAUTION: Plenty of graphic language) Those tweets show that the reaction on the convention floor were NOT a deviation, but that the Democratic Party has become the anti-God party as well as the anti-Catholic Church party. & it is the Dems who look for hate in the Republicans rather than admit they are the ones filled with hate. A classic example of projection.

Only Planned Parenthood Could Come Up With Something This Sick & Twisted

Their campaign to defeat Romney, have as much sex as you want, use a condom, then when you get pregnant, come to us for you (soon to be if we have our way) paid by tax money abortion. & this is how they are pushing that campaign:

Yes, you are seeing what you think you see, a specially packaged condom. This was handed out to those people who attended a  rally held by Planned Parenthood before the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday morning. The only problem is, only about 30-40 people showed up. Of course that didn't stop Planned Parenthood from presenting it as a huge success, espcially with the photos they released.

Looks like a big crowd, doesn't it?
The reality is a lot different:

Making it look like a there is a larger number of Planned Parenthood supporters than there really is is a trick regularly used by the media at the annual March for Life to make it look like there are more than the handful of pro-aborts counterprotesting actually there as well.

I suspect the specially packaged condoms will soon be showing up at local Planned Parenthood clinics since they had so many left over due to poor attendance. Never mind that Planned Parenthood is a 501(c)3 forbidden to endorse any candidate. But with the current administration, who is going to do anything about it?

The rally openned with a speciasl appearance by Pillamina who has been regurlay stalking Mitt Romney through the Summer. (Now if this had been a Pro-lifer following Obama with a protest sign showing what abortion actually does, you can be sure he or she would have been arrested & thrown in jail as a stalker & a terrorist.)

Other appearances were made by Sandra Fluke (no surprize), Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker, & PP CEO Cecile Richards, although she would say it was in her capacity as head of the PP PAC.
Once again we see how the demonic "culture of death" is working to destroy our country. & how sick & twisted & perverted it really is.

Source: Planned Parenthood Rally Featured Anti-Mitt Romney Condoms

Planned Parenthood hands out condoms at DNC rally: ‘protect yourself from Romney & Ryan’

Truth in Labeling Requires That I Post This

H/T:  Fr. Erik Richtsteig

The Democratic Party is Now the Democratic Religion . . . .

with Obama as its god & abortion as its sacrament.

This week the 2012 Democratic Convention has been going on in Charlotte NC. & they have finally come out into the open about who they have become, what they believe in & what their demonic "culture of death" agenda is.

I want you to think about how Obama was promoted 4 years ago. He was presented as the Messiah who was going to turn everything arround & make this country heaven on Earth. The Main Stream Media (MSM) & many others fell in line & promoted him in exactly that way, thrills, tingles & all. He could do no wrong then, & in the time since Obama has been in office the MSM has done all they can to promote that image that Obama walks on water, despite him failing at everything he promised. In promoting the cult of Obama, they followed the lead of the Fascists in how they presented Mussolini during their rise to power. & like Mussolini, Obama failed.

But that hasn't stopped the deification of Obama by his followers, in & out of the press. As I pointed out a couple months ago, 1 North Carolina state employee has erected a shrine to him. Now one of his worshipful followers has put out a calendar he is selling at the Dems' convention with the following picture for August:

 

 

Yes, you read that right, the guy is calling Obama the Messiah* sent from heaven to save us all. LarryD has the video promoting this calendar in a post at his blog. If you can make it through to November without, as Larry says, throwing up in your mouth a little, you will see that the picture is supposed to commemorate Shirley Chisholm being the 1st black woman elected to Congress in 1968. Besides mispelling the last name & saying it happenned on the 55th of November, the focus is on Obama, of course. The picture shows Obama with his back to the crowd & people reaching out to touch him, like they did for Jesus. The caption makes it clear that that is a fairly accurate interpretation. It says "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. - Psalm 23:1".

I have to remind folks that the reason they are following Obama is because they expect him to provide all their Earthly needs so they don't have too. When the crowds followed Jesus after he feed the 5000 he said "Amen, amen I say to you, you seek me, not because you have seen miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting." (John 6:26-27) Jesus condemned the crowds for doing the very thing that Obama wants the crowds to do.

Meanwhile, the 2012 Democratic platform, has had any reference to God in it removed. But there are plenty of references to Obama (over 100 according to various sources) & abortion in it. (Note: late breaking report says that God was just put back in, to the boos of many of the delegates. I suspect this was because of the public outcry & was meant to give Obama cover. The reaction of the delegates in opposition reveals the truth however.)

On the other hand, there is no opposition (allowed) to the plank supporting taxpayer funded abortions. So, despite promises made by Obama  to Bart Stupak (who has finally admitted he was duped) & the rest of us, it is clear he wants abortion treated the same as birth control under ObamaCare & if re-elected, you can be sure the mandate will be there forcing coverage. & probably with no deductable or co-pay either. The platform has dropped the word "rare" as well, making it clear that they don't want to reduce, but increase the number of abortions done in the USA.

Yesterday, one of the featured speakers was NARAL president Nancy Keenan & tonitw will feature Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards. Both of them have been crowing about their open forums to promote abortion. Keenan did so last night. (As an aside, following her logic about politicians making decisions about health care when it comes to abortion, then there should be NO laws on the books regulating any aspect of healthc care.)

Michelle Obama made it clear as well. Of course, none of them will actually use the word abortion in public, just bury it in the platform, that is what they are pushing, unlimited access to abortion with no regulations like those on any other medical proceedure. They might as well use the word in the speeches, since most people already know that is exactly what they are talking about. It is also interesting that the Dems released the platform in the dead of the night, as if they had something to hide. & the MSM is abetting it by ignoring what it says about abortion after, IMHO, leading the attack on the Republican Party^ for being Pro-life last week. Apparently the Democratic leadership thinks the average independent voter is too stupid to figure out that the heart & soul of what the Democratic Party is about is abortion, not all the other things they claim. They might have gotten away with it if they hadn't put so many abortion industry leaders & promoters in the spotlight.

So now we have the Democratic Party making Obama God & abortion their sacrament, what next?

Simple, since Obama is their god, just like it was in the time of the Roman emperor, they will demand he be worshipped. It will require all of us to acknowledging he is god by paying for birth control & abortion. This is the modern equivalent of the pich of incense that all Christians were expected to offer, or face death.

The HHS mandate forcing everyone to have insurance that covers artifical birth control is the 1st step in the modern version of using the power of state to enforce worship of a false god & destroy freedom of religion. Remember, that the Christians were told they could worship as they wanted, as long as they did the 1 thing against their faith, offer sacrifice (incense) to a false god.

You can be sure, abortion will bne added, should Obama be elected to a 2nd term. We have already seen how Obam has used to power of the state to try & force a Church to hire people who don't agree with their beliefs & we are seeing that in the HHS mandate. If the Christians in 21st century refuse, they are facing the threat of heavy fines that could destroy their business or organization. Arrests could very well follow as well. & what is there to stop us from being martyred down the road as well? Especially since Pro-lifers are already labelled as domestic terrorists & can be arrested under current law & locked away indefinitely, with no one knowing where we are.

I don't say this lightly, things are very similar to what it was like in the Roman Empire when the Catholic Church & its members faced that persecution. The economy was bad, so to divert attention, the government offered bread & circuses. Today the government is pushing more & more people to depend on it for food via food stamps. & look at how big a diversion sports have become. The Roman society was also a culture that promoted immorality, abortion etc, just like today. & if we don't turn back, like it, our civilization will fall.

Another example of what may lie ahead is what happenned with the Jewish nation in the Old Testament. Moses warned the people what would happen if they chose to follow other gods. But they said they would serve the true God. Instead, time after time they turned away. They followed the false gods & practices of the pagans, including offering their children up to those gods by killing them (like abortion today). So they faced threat after threat. & only when they turned back to God did He raise a judge up to save them. This continued throughout the reigns of the kings, despite prophet after prophet warning them. In fact the Northern Kingdom of Israel made it public policy to do so, sort of like what the Dems are doing now for our country. They ignored & killed the prophets. & the few periods of reform in Judah never lasted.  Eventually both kingdoms fell.

In 2008, Cardinal Burke warned us that the Democratic party was heading this way. Like prophets of the past, he was ignored by the very people he was trying to get to repent & change course. Those of us who agree with him, those of us who are faithful to the magesterial teachings of the Catholic Church, must follow his lead. Like the early martyrs & the OT prophets, we are being called to take a prophetic stance, speaking out against as well as fighting the evils of our day. We must refuse to offer incense to the false god Obama & the demonic "culture of death", no matter the cost.

Undergirded by prayer we must call our nation to repentance & conversion. We must be evangelists for the true Gospel. Like Peter, Paul & the others in the early Church, we cannot be silent.

I have no idea if it is too late to stop America from being destroyed. But whether it is or not, we still have to be about our mission. Like the 7000 who didn't bow to Baal (see 1 Kings 19:8) we must not bow our knee to the "culture of death". Instead we are to live out our faith in authentic worship of God as well as action by proclaiming the truth. God expects no less of us.

 

 ____________________

NOTES:
* I want to make it clear I am not saying Obama is the Antichrist. He may or may not be, I don't know. But it is clear that he is 1 of the many antichrists that John warned us about in 1 John 2:18-19.

^ I also want to make it clear that I am not claiming the Republican party is perfect either. Not everything they stand for perfectly aligns with Catholic teaching. But when it comes to the 5 non-negotiable issues in Catholic teaching, we are left with voting against what the Church requires us to support by voting Democrat, or voting Republican. Sadly, even in the Republican party we see many who want to dump the Pro-life stand of the party & have it support abortion as well. This is just a reminder that our ultimate loyalty isn't to any party but to the truths of God as proclaimed through the Catholic Church.

Doctor Who - The New Season

As any Doctor Who fan knows, tonite marks the start of the 7th Series of the show since it returned to the air in 2005. While there have been 14 episodes announced, not all the details have come out, including the plots of all the episodes. Thanks to my connections I have been able to discover the plots of 2 of those episodes. Here is what I have found out about them*:

CAUTION: Spoiler alert

MATERNIA 

This story  is a flashback to the 6th season when Amy & Rory are still expecting Melody (River). Because of the uncertainty that keeps cropping up, he takes them to the planet Maternia which is known for giving the best prenatal care in the universe regardless of species. When he gets there he finds that the planet has been renamed Sanger & is now ruled by the evil empress, Ceciler & her consort Brocko. Brocko had recently run for president, but disguised his real beliefs until he could get elected. Cecile & her Planned Parenthood Federation Intersteller gang were secretly behind his election & poured in huge amounts of money to get him elected. The PPFI are a race of pink humanoids. They came from a distant galaxy after being exiled for promoting abortion. After the election, Brocko, declares martial law. He also nationalizes all of the maternity clinics & turns them over to the head of the HHS, Sibally.  Under her, the clinics are turned into abortion clinics run by the telemed robots.
Sibally & several other members of Brockos administration turn out to be PPFI. They overthrow Brocko & install Ceciler as empress. Brocko, who was very narcisistic & is shocked by his loss of power, so he begins to go mad. Ceciler kept him arround for amusement which is why he is officially her consort.
They also begin their eugenics plan to eliminate anyone who isn't ideal geneticly, which means only those who are of the PPFU. Now, if a pregnant woman comes in, instead of getting prenatal care, every woman is forced to have an abortion. As the TM Robert performs the abortion with the aide of robotic nurses, they scream "abort, abort, ABORT!!!!!"
Meanwhile, those who opposed what was going on have been shipped off to the planet's moon renamed Marie Stopes^. They are sent to the mines as slaves to mine the mineral RU-486 which is used for the abortions. There is also a huge Pro-life underground still on planet.
The Tardis landed near a clinic, so the Doctor, Amy & Rory are unaware of the changes. They go into the clinic. While Rory & the Doctor wait, Amy is taken into an examination room. As they start to force Amy to take the RU-486 she begins to scream & tries to escape. Fortunately the Doctor & Rory hear her. They are able to rush in & save Amy, disabling the TM Robot & restoring the original programs to the Nurse robots.
Soon, they connects up with the pro-life underground who have been working to overthrow Empress Ceciler. With the help of the underground, the Doctor is able to destroy the main computer operating the Telemed Robots.
Meanwhile, as the Pro-life underground peacefully takes over the palace, Ceciler & Brocko are trapped in a room on the upper floor. Brocko's mind has now completely snapped & his anger to Ceciler turns into rage. He throws her out the window & she is killed.
At the same time, the slaves on the moon are able to take control from those in control. All the PPFI are arrested & locked up to await trial. A temporary government is set up to run things until a free election can be held. All the RU-486 is found & shot into the sun to destroy it.
As the show end, we see Brocko in a padded cell with the Doctor, Amy & Rory watching him via a monitor. He has a totally blank look on his face & can be heard repeating certain phrases  like "It is unfortunate that Amy is being punished with a baby" "Forward" or "You didn't build that maternity clinic."

Attack of The Habitless Hussies

The sepisode starts out where the previous episode ended after the defeat of the Daleks on 45th Century Earth. The camera panned over the destruction ending with the Vatican & St. Peter's Basilica,  lying in ruins. The picture fades to a restored St. Peter's. At this point in the new episode, the camera begins pulling back & we see the familiar shape of Italia. But as we continue we notice it is not Earth but a different planet. We see several other continents, including one on the other side of the globe shaped like Iowa. As we return to St. Peter's a gigantic bus appears in the sky. Cut to opening credits.
The doctor & his new companion name unknown at this time, but female) receive a distress signal & answer it. They find that they have landed in New St. Peter's Square in the 50th Century on Earth.. When they come out they are met by the Camerlengo. He greats them & tells them he is there to take them to an audience with the Pope, Benedict CXVI. As they walk towards the Vatican, the Camerlengo tells the Doctor what happenned.
They are on the planet Vaticano. After the Dalek attack in the 45th Century Pope Pascal XI was killed in the destruction. The cardinals who came in from across the galaxy elected Pope Eugene XXII. At that time it was decided to move Vatican City off world. Over the centuries, as man travelled in space & met new races, the Catholic faith went with them. Many races saw that the Catholic faith the ultimate truths they had long looked for were clearly & unapologeticly proclaimed. So, they converted.  Unfortunately, not everyone agreed. In fact certain groups, like the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR) & their confederates, the Non-orthodox Catholic Reporter clan (NCR) from the Heresia galaxy were among them.
Finally, they settled on this non-inhabited planet which they named Vaticano. A few days ago, the giant bus we saw at the start appeared in the sky. It contained the armies of the LCWR along with some NCR spies.
At this point they are welcomed by Pope Benedict. He explains that the LCWR are a race whose skin is made of polyester & that they always wear pants suits. He says that their faces are those of pure evil. They have laid seige on New Vatican City & are calling for the ordination of women, gay marriage & the deposition of Pope Benedict.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet in the continent shaped by Iowa, the Eternal Word Transuniverse Network (EWTN) complex is being infiltrated by the NCR spies.  EWTN aides the Vatican in promulgating the authentic teachings of the Catholic Church. The NCR spies goal is to attach their secret weapon, the Spiritualizer to the EWTN transmitter. After it is attached, during the Papal audience broadcast the next day, it will send out a beam that will cause all those watching to be possessed by the evil False Spirit of Vatican II.

That evening after Evensong, while the Doctor & the Pope continue their discussion, the new companion goes wandering off & is captured by a LCWR soldier. She is taken to LCWR HQ where they try to turn her into a radical feminist, supporting their agenda. She pretends to go along & later is able to escape. One of the LCWR soldiers realizes what is going on & gives chase. The Doctor & the Pope are on the steps of St. Peter's & see her running. They are able to stop the guard when the Pope, who had been going out to bless the Tardis, accidently sprinkles some of the Holy Water he was carrying on the guard.

The companion found out about the plans to send out the signal via EWTN as well as the simultanious attack on the Vatican. But that night, all the LCWR will be meditating is a group of mazes to prepare.
The Doctor & the Pope decide to attack the LCWR while they are meditating. Arming the Swiss Guards with Holy Water they are able to capture all the LCWR & put them into a temporary force field prison erected by the Doctor.
The Doctor & his companion then head to EWTN to thwart the NCR spies. When they get there they find that the spies, Joanie C (aka Satan's Blueberry Muffin) & The Bishop of Gumbleton have installed the transmitter & are talking with the LCWR leader, Sr. Pat. When they see the Doctor they flee in a minibus after telling the Doctor it is too late.
The Doctor then tries to remove the Spiritualizer as we see a clock in the studio counting down to the broadcast of the Papal audience. Just as the clock reads 0:07 the Doctor succeeds in removing the Spiritualizer.
The next day, the Pope, aided by several Cardinals, performs an exorcism on the captured LCWR. They are then sentanced to life in a cloistered monastery. There they will be required to wear a habit, take a vow of silence, pray the office daily, attend a Traditional Latin Mass each Sunday (weekdays will be Eastern Rite liturgies), read daily from the Catechism as well as hear lectures on what the Catholic Church actually teaches from a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Unfortunately, Sr. Pat & her NCR spies were able to escape & we see their minibus flying off into space.

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* I would like to thank the staff @ AoftheAP under their fearless leader LarryD. Through them, I was able to uncover a few additional facts about Brocko as well as as the weapon used by the LCWR.
^Marie Stopes was the British equivalent of Margaret Sanger.