
Judie Brown
February 28, 2014
Love the sinner, hate the sin. That is something we are taught from the time we are children. But, in today’s society, we are now taught to tolerate the sin, embrace the sin, or even advocate for the sin. If we dare to mention that a type of behavior is sinful, we are castigated and branded intolerant. As we regularly see, Catholic clergy often do not give voice to God’s word and God’s will. Consequently, we now live in a society where it is the peoples’ will that rules. Why have we silenced God?
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/brown/140228

Matt C. Abbott
February 28, 2014
Of course, we know from Scripture that Our Lord taught the following:
I asked Father John Trigilio Jr., author, theologian and president of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, how he would place the aforementioned scriptural passage in its proper context (from an authentically Catholic perspective) and in regard to the cultural and spiritual wars that rage around us.
Father’s response is as follows (slightly edited):
Check out the website www.prayforbishopsnow.org.
Matt C. Abbott is a Catholic commentator with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication, Media and Theatre from Northeastern Illinois University. He has been interviewed on MSNBC, NPR and WLS-TV in Chicago, and has been quoted in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. He can be reached at mattcabbott@gmail.com.
© Copyright 2014 by Matt C. Abbott
LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Friday, February 28, 2014
For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com. |
Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Planned Parenthood President: My Childrens Lives Began at Delivery, Not Conception
• Beautiful Photo of Noah, Miscarried at 12 Weeks, Shows Unborn Babys Humanity
• Fifth Abortion Clinic Closes in 2014 as California Biz Shuts Down
• Video: Moms of Ex-Girl Scouts Say GSUSA CEO Lying About Planned Parenthood Link
More Pro-Life News
• Declared Dead Too Soon: Man Wakes Up in Body Bag in Funeral Home
• Dad Surprises Fiancée by Marrying Her While Shes Giving Birth to Their Baby
• Mom of Newborn Baby Abandoned in Apartment Dumpster May Regain Custody
• Pro-Lifers Must Boycott Businesses Working With Planned Parenthood
• Husband and Wife Team Own More Abortion Clinics in Illinois Than Anyone Else
• Justina Pelletiers Family Still Battling DCF Over Custody of Their Daughter
• Pro-Choice Advocates Fight Against Choice, Prefer Abortions of Disabled Babies
• Human Trafficking is Happening in America and Abortion is Part of the Equation
• The Language of Assisted Suicide: Deception Instead of Dignity
• Electric Stimulation Treats Severe Brain Damage for PVS Patients
• Washington Bill to Force All Insurance Plans to Cover Abortions Fails for Third Time
• Louisville Abortion Clinic Known as One of the Worst Places to Get an Abortiong
• What Could be Wrong with Womb Transplants?Environment Over People: The Sierra Clubs War on Humans
• Alaska Committee Passes Bill to Stop Taxpayer-Funded Abortions
Planned Parenthood President: My Childrens Lives Began at Delivery, Not Conception
Despite its status as the nations biggest abortion business, Planned Parenthood very rarely talks about abortion and it almost never talks about the development of unborn children.
The abortion giant essentially admitted long ago that science was not on its side in the abortion debate, since basic biological facts of fetal development and the advent of 3-D and 4-D ultrasounds clearly depict a human being growing and developing in the womb before birth. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/planned-parenthood-president-my-childrens-lives-began-at-delivery-not-conception/
Beautiful Photo of Noah, Miscarried at 12 Weeks, Shows Unborn Babys Humanity
Baby Noah died from a spontaneous miscarriage on February 20th, 2014. His mother, Lara, named him Noah because it means rest and peace.
Noah was only 12 weeks and 5 days old when he died. Even though he passed away, his perfectly formed body displays the development of a new human life, the most spectacular miracle on earth. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/beautiful-photo-of-noah-miscarried-at-12-weeks-shows-unborn-babys-humanity/
Fifth Abortion Clinic Closes in 2014 as California Biz Shuts Down
Liberalization of Californias abortion laws last year could not save the Family Planning Associates abortion clinic in Montclair, California, which has closed due to a lost lease. The building is up for sale and there are currently no plans to reopen the clinic at another location.
All services are expected to halt by the end of February, but furnishings stacked behind the clinic near a large dumpster, which was loaded with medical and office equipment, more furniture, brochures, and even money bags from a local bank, indicate that the business is finished. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/fifth-abortion-clinic-closes-in-2014-as-california-biz-shuts-down/
Video: Moms of Ex-Girl Scouts Say GSUSA CEO Lying About Planned Parenthood Link
Mothers of girls who are former members of the Girl Scouts say the CEO of Girl Scouts USA is essentially lying in recent claims that the organization has no relationship with the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
As LifeNews has reported, the Girl Scouts have a longstanding relationship with Planned Parenthood and have lashed out at pro-life groups bringing that to light. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/video-moms-of-girl-scouts-say-gsusa-ceo-lying-about-planned-parenthood-link/
Declared Dead Too Soon: Man Wakes Up in Body Bag in Funeral Home
LifeNews reported earlier this month about a man who doctors pronounced clinically dead came back to life 45 minutes after his death had been called. Now its happened again.
Workers at a Mississippi funeral home say they found a man alive and kicking when they opened a body bag. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/declared-dead-too-soon-man-wakes-up-in-body-bag-in-funeral-home/
Dad Surprises Fiancée by Marrying Her While Shes Giving Birth to Their Baby
Talk about a shotgun wedding! One dad just couldnt wait for his fiancé to be done birthing their child before he made her his wife. Brandi Wetzel was laboring away at a hospital in Fort Worth, Texas on Tuesday when her intended suddenly ran to the store.
Unbeknownst to her, James Anderson had dashed off to find a ring and to enlist the nurses help in staging an impromptu wedding in the maternity ward. The couple has been engaged since last August, but it seems like dad really didnt like the idea of their second child together being born out of wedlock. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/dad-surprises-fiancee-by-marrying-her-while-shes-giving-birth-to-their-baby/
Mom of Newborn Baby Abandoned in Apartment Dumpster May Regain Custody
The mother of a newborn who was found alive abandoned in an apartment dumpster in Houston, Texas, may regain custody of the child.
As LifeNews reported, officers were called to the Windmall Lakes Reserve apartment complex at about 8:30 a.m. on a report of a newborn baby found alive in a dumpster. A man named Carlos was going through the trash when he heard a noise. At first, he thought it might be an animal, but after further searching discovered the baby in a bag. EMS crews were called the scene. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/mom-of-newborn-baby-abandoned-in-apartment-dumpster-may-regain-custody/
Pro-Lifers Must Boycott Businesses Working With Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in America, performing over 330,000 abortions every year. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/pro-lifers-must-boycott-businesses-working-with-planned-parenthood/
Husband and Wife Team Own More Abortion Clinics in Illinois Than Anyone Else
One of our supporters a family practice doctor currently working in the Chicago area recently sent us a cold-call mailing he had received from notorious abortionists Vinod and Vijay Goyal, a husband-and-wife team who own and operate more surgical abortion clinics than anyone else in Illinois. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/husband-and-wife-team-own-more-abortion-clinics-in-illinois-than-anyone-else/
Justina Pelletiers Family Still Battling DCF Over Custody of Their Daughter
Justina Pelletier has been at the center of a legal battle between the Pelletier family and Boston Childrens Hospital over custody and proper medical treatment. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/justina-pelletiers-family-still-battling-dcf-over-custody-of-their-daughter/
Pro-Choice Advocates Fight Against Choice, Prefer Abortions of Disabled Babies
Abortion advocates like to trot out stories from women whose babies are diagnosed prenatally with life-threatening illnesses as an excuse for why late-term abortion is needed. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/pro-choice-advocates-fight-against-choice-prefer-abortions-of-disabled-babies/
Human Trafficking is Happening in America and Abortion is Part of the Equation
When you hear the term human sex trafficking, your thoughts probably go to some foreign land. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/human-trafficking-is-happening-in-america-and-abortion-is-part-of-the-equation/
The Language of Assisted Suicide: Deception Instead of Dignity
The battle over ideas is the battle over definitions. Whoever controls the language controls the debate. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/the-language-of-assisted-suicide-deception-instead-of-dignity/
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Electric Stimulation Treats Severe Brain Damage for PVS Patients
It appears there may be a way to improve the condition of patients in a persistent unconscious and minimally conscious states. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/electric-stimulation-treats-severe-brain-damage-for-pvs-patients/
Washington Bill to Force All Insurance Plans to Cover Abortions Fails for Third Time
The Senate Health Care committee failed to vote on a bill with significant implications. This signals the likely death for an Abortion Insurance Mandate (HB 2148). http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/washington-bill-to-force-all-insurance-plans-to-cover-abortions-fails-for-third-time/
Louisville Abortion Clinic Known as One of the Worst Places to Get an Abortion
Kentuckys sole abortion clinic is known as one of the worst places in the country to get an abortion. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/louisville-abortion-clinic-known-as-one-of-the-worst-places-to-get-an-abortion/
What Could be Wrong with Womb Transplants?
The Catholic Church loves babies. One of Gods first instructions was to be fertile and multiply, and the Bible is strewn with stories of mothers who conceived despite infertility and old age. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/what-could-be-wrong-with-womb-transplants/
Alaska Committee Passes Bill to Stop Taxpayer-Funded Abortions
Victories are few and far between in the pro-family, pro-life policy world but when they do occur, we should give thanks. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/alaska-committee-passes-bill-to-stop-taxpayer-funded-abortions/
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- NPR’S disturbing prenatal testing story
- Planned Parenthood plotting spending spree for midterm elections
- Michelle Duggar loves her body, even after 19 babies
- Homosexual activists aim to ‘destroy the family’, impose ‘totalitarianism’
- Same sex ‘marriage’ ban struck down in Lonestar state
- Sex change operations, courtesy of Obamacare
- Belgium’s child euthanasia move lamented as ‘unbelievable’
NPR’S disturbing prenatal testing story
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Planned Parenthood plotting spending spree for midterm elections
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Michelle Duggar loves her body, even after 19 babies
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Homosexual activists aim to ‘destroy the family’, impose ‘totalitarianism’
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Same sex ‘marriage’ ban struck down in Lonestar state
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Sex change operations, courtesy of Obamacare
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Belgium’s child euthanasia move lamented as ‘unbelievable’
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Who Cares More About Women’s Health? President Obama or President Cody?
(You can use the image to the left and use this link to accompany it)
Life Legal Defense Foundation Warns of Contraceptive Dangers
Contact: Tom Ciesielka, 312-422-1333, tc@tcpr.net
NAPA, Calif., — Women’s health is being threatened by the very program that purports to make it safe and affordable. The Health and Human Services mandate on birth control, a much debated tenet of Obamacare, requires insurance plans to provide women with free pharmaceuticals that could do irreparable damage to their bodies.
What do women think?
Dana Cody, President of Life Legal Defense Foundation, says, “I bought the lie when I was younger and uninformed, and it adversely impacted my health. Think I’m kidding? All you need do is watch late night TV to find law firms who are trying to recruit plaintiffs for lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies who have caused harm to women who used their contraceptive products. Women deserve better.”
As President Obama forces access to free contraceptives, President Cody points to the fact that Federal Courts are currently reviewing the dangers that these same contraceptive drugs pose to women’s health.
Cody is not the only voice proclaiming the serious health hazards of hormonal contraceptives. As Life Legal Defense Foundation has brought the warning before the courts, former talk show host Ricki Lake is promoting the message by way of a documentary exposing the everyday risks of hormonal birth control.
One woman who would rather not hear the messages Cody and Lake are broadcasting is Health and Human Services director Kathleen Sebelius. Sebelius, who publically equated contraception with maternity care (DNC 2012), leads the list of those being sued — not only by people who have religious objections to compulsory provision of abortions and birth control, but by those who understand that women’s lives should not be pawns for those in pursuit of a political legacy.
The facts about birth control pills — widely suppressed by the contraceptive industry — are nasty. There is substantial evidence that hormonal contraceptives pose serious health risks to women. The health hazards listed for the now mandatorily provided drugs include:
- higher risk of heart attack
- higher risk of stroke
- higher risk of cardiovascular complications
- greater susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections
- higher risk of breast cancer
- higher risk of cervical cancer
- higher risk of liver tumors that could bleed or rupture
For greater detail on the issue, read Brief Argues Mandatory Contraceptives Endanger Women’s Health
About Life Legal Defense Foundation
Life Legal Defense Foundation was established in 1989, and is a nonprofit organization composed of attorneys and other concerned citizens, committed to giving helpless and innocent human beings of any age, and their advocates, a trained and committed voice in the courtrooms of our nation. For more information about the Life Legal Defense Foundation, visit www.lldf.org.
Thomas Ciesielka
TC Public Relations
One N. LaSalle Street
Suite 600
Chicago, IL 60602
(o) 312-422-1333
(c) 312-403-1333
This past weekend and into this week, the Internet was abuzz with chatter about an article seriously examining the justification of infanticide. And the proposition originated in the Journal of Medical Ethics!
Political pundits and bloggers were Tweeting and writing about an article from two years ago on Slate.com which debated the points made by ethicists Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva in the Journal of Medical Ethics. It’s not clear what sparked the renewed interest in the article, but it’s important to once again tackle this issue and respond to the disturbing propositions threatening innocent life.
HLI Fellow Dr. Denise Hunnell wrote an article responding to the ethicists’ claims back in 2012 when the story first broke. HLI reprinted the article this week on our Truth and Charity Forum, and I wanted to share it with you in our newsletter. God bless.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Father Shenan J. Boquet
President, Human Life International
After Birth Abortion: A Modest Proposal?
by Denise Hunnell, M.D.
Let us consider two excerpts, and see if we can determine which comes from the realm of fiction, and which comes from the field of modern ethics. The first:
That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
And the second:
Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled. (After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live? Journal of Medical Ethics, February 23, 2012)
I suppose the jargon in the latter gives it away.
When I first read the latter, an abstract from the article “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, I was hoping it would be the prelude of an updated version of Jonathan Swift’s eighteenth century work A Modest Proposal, from which the first excerpt is drawn,In Swift’s eerily prescient satire, the protagonist argues that the solution to poverty is to eat the children of the poor.
Alarmingly, unlike Jonathan Swift’s work, the abstract is not from a work of satire. It is ostensibly a serious presentation by ethicists Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, who argue that parents should be allowed to kill newborn infants for any reason that is currently used to justify abortion. In fact, they do not constrain their proposal to a specific time period after birth but claim that a child has no right to life until she adequately demonstrates the very nebulous and subjective characteristic of “self-awareness”.
Giubilini and Minerva are not, at least not in this article, arguing that the killed children should also be eaten. Fortunately, that detail of Swift’s solution remains fiction. Even so, the expressions of outrage over this piece have been harsh and swift. Indeed, the editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics felt compelled to release a statement defending the publication of this provocative article, although the defense was weak at best.
That an argument for killing newborns would be made should not be surprising. Similar reasoning was put forth by Michael Tooley in 1972 and by Peter Singer in 1993. Giubilini and Minerva simply extend these arguments to include killing perfectly healthy newborns that merely pose a burden or inconvenience to their mothers or to society as a whole. In addition, they argue that logic demands the option to kill disabled infants, especially those with genetic diseases like Downs syndrome, when the diagnosis is not made until after birth. Why, they ask, should a woman have every option including abortion before birth, and no options after birth?
As reprehensible as their conclusions are, Giubilini and Minerva agree with pro-lifers on two key points. First, they fully accept that the unborn and the newborn are both living human beings, accepting without argument the scientific reality that a biological human being begins at conception. Thus, they forthrightly acknowledge that both abortion and infanticide involve the taking of human life.
Second, Giubilini and Minerva agree that the event of birth is irrelevant to the moral status of both the unborn child and the newborn. In order to make their proposal more palatable, they eschew the term “infanticide” to emphasize that the lives of the newborn and the fetus carry the same moral weight. In this, they find agreement with the Catholic Church and all who recognize the full humanity of the unborn child. There is absolutely no difference in the moral standing of a child in the womb and a newborn in her mother’s arms.
If they have such essential points right, how do they end up so wrong? Their errors begin when they assign the arbitrary status of “potential person” to both the unborn and the newborn. With absolutely no justification other than their own opinion for such an assertion, they echo Peter Singer in declaring that while the unborn and newborn are living human beings, they lack the self-awareness to qualify as “actual persons.” In fact, also following Singer, the authors go so far as to claim that personhood is a characteristic that can be assigned to non-human animals that demonstrate a sense of self:
Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’. We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her. This means that many non- human animals and mentally retarded human individuals are persons, but that all the individuals who are not in the condition of attributing any value to their own existence are not persons. Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life.
Giubilini and Minerva go on to declare that when “aborting” a “potential person,” no life is really lost. A true person never existed. Therefore, one cannot destroy what never was.
What Giubilini and Minerva cannot justify is their authority to declare some human beings as “potential persons.” If they can dismiss the life and dignity of a newborn child based on the lack of an arbitrary concept of self-awareness, what is to stop others from declaring that true personhood requires a specific level of intelligence or gender or race or creed?
What Giubilini and Minerva effectively do is subjugate the life and dignity of the vulnerable to the whims of the powerful, who are allowed to determine who is and who is not a person. This is the fatal flaw of attributing human dignity based on some external evaluation. Either one accepts that every human being is worthy of life and dignity, or you are forced to adopt capricious and subjective metrics as the basis of one’s claim to rights and dignity. It takes great arrogance to presume both the wisdom to judge which human lives are worth living as well as the prescience to know whose life will be too burdensome.
The fundamental error of Giubilini and Minerva is that they fail to recognize that every human being is of inestimable worth. The dignity of every human life is an intrinsic characteristic – it cannot be granted or denied according to some arbitrary algorithm. Further, the term “potential person” has no basis in science, although this error is not unique to Giubilini and Minerva: It is common to all those who advocate for abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, or any other actions that relegate human lives to a disposable status.
Perhaps now those who have thus far seen room for a “compromise” in the areas of abortion and other beginning-of-life issues might recognize the urgency of reaffirming the dignity and value of every human being without exception. No one who allows that some human beings are more valuable than others can honestly be shocked and outraged by Giubilini and Minerva’s argument. These ethicists merely carry this sadly common premise to its logical conclusion, and offer a very “Modest Proposal”.
Find this article on HLI’s Truth and Charity Forum.
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Witness God!
(c)Mary TV 2014
J.M.J
February 28, 2014
Dear Family of Mary!
“Dear children! You see, hear and feel that in the hearts of many people there is no God. They do not want Him, because they are far from prayer and do not have peace. You, little children, pray – live God’s commandments. You be prayer, you who from the very beginning said ‘yes’ to my call. Witness God and my presence and do not forget, little children: I am with you and I love you. From day to day I present you all to my Son Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (February 25, 2014)
A dear friend, Sandy, told me about a prayer called “The Radiating Christ Prayer” which reflects Our Lady’s plea to us: “Witness God…” It is a remarkable prayer! This prayer was written by Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman and was recited daily after Communion by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Sisters of Charity. This Prayer is also known as the Fragrance Prayer.
Thank you, Sandy, for sharing this incredible prayer with us, and may we all breath in the words of this prayer and let them form us:
The Prayer Radiating Christ by Blessed Card. John Henry Newman
Dear Jesus,
help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that all my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul
I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, O Jesus, will be all from You;
none of it will be mine:
it will be You shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You in the way You love best:
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching,
not by words, but by my example,
by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Amen
Our witness can only be real when it is Jesus witnessing through us. Jesus is the light, we can only carry it. Jesus is the joy, we can only receive it. Jesus is the hope, we can only live it. May we all witness God!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2014
PS. Today the parish will climb Mt. Krizevac, praying the Stations of the Cross. We will stream it if the weather permits. 8:00 am EST (2:00 pm Medjugorje time).
Sunday, March 2, Mary TV will stream Mirjana’s monthly apparition live (circumstances permitting). Streaming will begin at 2:00 am EST (8:00 am Medjugorje time).
Sunday, March 2, 2014 the Parish will climb Mt Podrdo praying the Rosary at 8:00 am EST (2:00 pm Medjugorje time). Mary TV will stream it, live!
“Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!”