Happy Earth Day!

"Building up a culture of life is the single most important way to build a culture that respects the environment.” -Brian Burch, President of CatholicVote.org Education Fund

Lives are at Stake

I must admit I haven't been on top of the "outside world" for the past week or so. It's been nice to have some private time at home and to just concentrate on Monica, but I also realize the election is less than one week away. This is potentially a huge turning point for our nation and every vote counts. I know I'll be in the booth next Tuesday, even if I need to bring my little one.

Please watch this video via the link below. It is specifically geared toward Catholics, but it really applies to Christians of all stripes. Many lives at all stages--the embryo, the fetus, the newborn, the suffering, and the dying--are at stake. Holding little Monica in my arms reminds me of how precious life and family really is. Please vote to protect all that we hold dear.

http://www.catholicvote.com/Michigan/

LIFE, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

This is an election frought with issues and media coverage fighting for our attention. Check out this blog post from a friend of mine. She makes the case for why protecting life, specifically that of the unborn, if of utmost importance.

Respect Life Sunday

Yesterday marked Respect Life Sunday in the Catholic Church throughout the United States. Every year since 1972, US Bishops have set aside the first Sunday in October for prayer and a renewed resolve to embrace a culture of life and end the killing of innocent human beings, regardless of age, size, health and dependency.

The right to life of children in the womb is close to my heart, and has become even more dear during pregnancy. Experiencing a child within me, a life that is separate and yet so intimately connected to mine, has been surreal and challenging, but altogether beautiful and humbling. God saw fit to entrust me with this life that is so vulnerable. Apart from my choice to protect this child, there is no protection for him or her under the law; the child in my womb does not have the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Father Frank Pavone, the director of Priests for Life stated recently, "...there’s only one group in our society whose right to life has been directly and formally denied, and that is the children in the womb...Deny their right to life, and you undermine the entire moral order." The right to life from conception to natural death is absolutely critical to all social issues from the war in Iraq, to immigration, to health care, to responsible environmentalism. The right to life is at the heart of all issues facing our society.

Please consider the right to life--in regards to abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research--in the upcoming elections-presidential and local. Our right to life is the most important and precious gift we have. Please do all you can to protect it for all people in our society.

Voting with a Clear Conscience - Catholic Edition
Voting with a Clear Conscience - Interdenominational Edition

For Michigan Voters...

In the upcoming November election, Proposal 2, a proposed ammendment to Michigan's state constitution allowing unrestricted experimentation on live human embryos, will be on the ballot. The ballot language is vague and deceptive. Please check out this website for further information. Voter approval of this ammendment could lead to wholesale destruction of human embryos at the expense of tax payers. Please pass this site and information on to friends and family. It is imperative that Michigan voters go to the polls informed of the far reaches of Proposal 2.

More of the Real Deal

Yesterday I posted an excerpt of Speaker Pelosi's comments regarding the Catholic Church's stance on abortion. She specifically referenced St. Augustine in regard to abortion and when human life actually begins. The specific writings she was referencing did not really address the morality of abortion, but the time that the soul entered the human body, or ensoulment.

Here's part of a statement from Archbishop Wuerl of Washingtion D.C.:

“As the Catechism and early Church documents make clear, abortion is always an evil. That is an unchanging teaching. The question on when the soul enters the body was a philosophical question that grew out of a lack of scientific data at the time of St. Augustine. We have the data today which shows the embryo is human. There no longer is any discussion of whether the unborn is human and so the philosophical discussion of St. Augustine’s time is not relevant today.

The Real Deal

Over the past week, there has been a lot of media hub-bub regarding politics, the sanctity of human life, and the Catholic Church. On Sunday, Representative Nancy Pelosi erroneously represented the Catholic Church and its position on abortion. An excerpt of her statement reads:

“as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition . . . St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose.”

In the past 48 hours, the archbishops of Denver, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. and other bishops have made formal statements regarding those of Nancy Pelosi. One of the most ardent was that of Edward Cardinal Egan. Directly from the Archdiocese of New York website:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 26, 2008

STATEMENT OF EDWARD CARDINAL EGAN CONCERNING REMARKS MADE BY THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Like many other citizens of this nation, I was shocked to learn that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America would make the kind of statements that were made to Mr. Tom Brokaw of NBC-TV on Sunday, August 24, 2008. What the Speaker had to say about theologians and their positions regarding abortion was not only misinformed; it was also, and especially, utterly incredible in this day and age.

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.

Edward Cardinal Egan
Archbishop of New York

August 26, 2008

Cardinal Egan is an outspoken champion for the unborn and the integrity of the Catholic Church's teaching on this abortion. In April, Kevin and I had the opportunity to attend a mass celebrated by Cardinal Egan during Catholic Public Policy Day in Albany. His homily centered on this very issue and was just as strong and poignant as the statement above. In the end, who are Catholics and the American pubblic going to believe? A misinformed politician claiming skills in moral theology, or a faithful, learned man of the church who gives his life for defense of the truth?

Little Fighter

Check out this story about an Israeli baby who was declared dead, put into a freezer, then was found to be alive! Say a prayer for this amazing little one and her family.

Enemy Number One: Supermum

The 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's letter to women, Mulieres Dignitatem, is this month. I found this article via one of my favorite man-blogs, Quaffs and Quibbles:

Are supermums selfish?

Here, two mothers give their fiercely opposing views

on whether a mother's place is in the home

The first writer is very hostile toward stay-at-home mothers, blaming them for working women's failures in their career ladder climbing efforts and even going as far to blame them for the demise of greater society.

The second, a career woman turned stay-at-home mother, defends her choice to sacrifice career, salary and prowess in the workplace to be with her children.

While I am tempted to write very scathing remarks in response to Ms. Hirshman's opinions and assertions, I'll refrain and leave you with this: Extremism, in regard to women in the workplace or women in the home, is not healthy for anyone. Passing judgement on a woman for her choice to stay home with children or go to work only reveals ignorance and prejudice. We all have a responsibility to assess our lives and make decisions about what is possible and what is most important, and no self-proclaimed philosopher has the right to judge, no matter what she may say. I hope and pray that every woman and every man will take the time to form their consciences and consider what is most loving and wise in regard to their family.

In the name of liberation from male "domination", women must not appropriate to themselves male characteristics contrary to their own feminine "originality". There is a well-founded fear that if they take this path, women will not "reach fulfilment", but instead will deform and lose what constitutes their essential richness. It is indeed an enormous richness. In the biblical description, the words of the first man at the sight of the woman who had been created are words of admiration and enchantment, words which fill the whole history of man on earth.

--"Mulieres Dignitatem, On the Dignity and Vocation of Women," John Paull II

Du bist Deutschland

In some areas of the Western world, people not having enough children to replace the current population. Check out this German ad that encourages more babies.



The ad is part of a German initiative called A Campaign for More Child Friendliness. I found it refreshing to see a public campaign highlighting the joy of children, even when they require much sacrifice.

Stand Up!

I am reminded today, as we commemorate the decision reached in Roe v. Wade, that Our Lord and his mother endured a "crisis pregnancy" situation. Mary was not yet married and therefore subject to the Jewish law which could have sentenced her to death for a pregnancy out of wedlock. But that was not to be. Joseph stood up for Mary and the child within her, Jesus Christ.

I pray that we may all do the same, today and everyday. Let us too stand up for all mothers and their children, born and unborn. Life is worth living, but we need to give it a chance.

preborn baby

O Mary, Mother of the Unborn, protect the gift of human life which your Divine Son has allowed to be given.

Give strength and joy to all parents as they await the birth of the precious child they have conceived.

Give courage to those who are fearful, calm to those who are anxious and guide all of us, with your motherly care, to treasure and protect the miraculous gift of human life.

We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mary, Mother of the Unborn, Pray for Us!

Good News!

The abortion rate is the lowest it's been in 30 years. Now that's praise worthy!