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Showing posts with the label Culture of Death

2018 Novena of Reparation for Roe vs. Wade and an End to Abortion

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In preparation for the upcoming March for Life, we will begin praying the novena of reparation for the Roe vs. Wade decision and an end to the evil of abortion. While legislation and public witness are essential to defeat the abortion culture, our most powerful weapon remains prayer. From the Priests for Life website: "The Catholic bishops of the United States have designated January 22nd as a special day of prayer and penance in atonement for the massive killing that has resulted from the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision [handed down January 22, 1973] which allows abortion through all 40 weeks of a woman's pregnancy." "We at Priests for Life invite you to prepare spiritually for that day by joining a Novena that starts on January 14 and concludes on the 22nd . We invite you to say the following prayer each of those days, and to let us know [see end of post] that you have committed to say it." Prayer of Reparation [ Click here for Spanish – En E

March for Life 2018

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Will you march to end abortion, the greatest human rights abuse of our time? The 45th annual March for Life is Friday, January 19, 2018, in Washington D.C. The gathering is the largest pro-life rally in the world. Please consider attending or supporting this event in person to help protect those who cannot speak for themselves. Even if you are not able to attend your voice is still important! Here are a few things that you can do: Show your support on social media. Support the March for Life and the pro-life cause on Friday using #whywemarch. We want our friends, family, and the world to know why we are marching. All of your #whywemarch and #marchforlife posts will be compiled at WhyWeMarch.org. ______________________________________________ Here is the schedule for the 2018 March for Life and a partial list of speakers. Schedule  11:30 a.m. Musical Opening featuring Plumb! 12:00 p.m. Rally Program. 1:00 p.m. March up Constitution Avenue to Supreme Co

Rushing Toward Gomorrah? Millennials are Abandoning Religion for Satanism and Astrology

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Enter any given high school and you will encounter students wearing all black clothing, makeup and accessories often featuring Satanic or Wiccan imagery. Such is the morbid ensemble of the "Goth culture", a subculture marked by rebellion against authority, rejection of morality and experimentation, whose adherents typically embrace death metal, drugs and all things occult. "Goths" may celebrate their contrarianism by reveling in vice and flaunting convention. Not all millennial’s share in the Goth culture’s tastes or sentiments, but increasing numbers have abandoned Christianity in favor of Satanism, witchcraft, the occult and astrology. Since the turn of the century doubt about God has grown steadily among millennials. Their rejection of Judeo-Christian morality and concomitant embrace of moral relativism has left many millennials searching for meaning. Dr. Joseph Atkinson of the St. John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage explains : Within the last 4

From the Catechism | On Human Dignity

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"Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person —  among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you' (Jer 1:5; cf Job 10:8-12; Ps 22:10-11). 'My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth' (Ps. 139:15). Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable." (CCC, 2270-2271) St. John Paul II explains this further: "The child then must be understood as the maximum expression of the communion between man and woman, the reciprocal acceptance and donation that is realized and transcended in a 'third,' who is that child. The child is God's

The Value of Suffering: "A Cult of Entitlement Has Led Us To An Epidemic of Opiates"

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By Father Thomas Mattison When thinking about childlessness and celibacy and voluntary renunciations of various sorts, let us take note, too, of those deprivations, hurts, injustices and differences that seem to be visited so unjustly on so many. Even the most basic human concern asks: Must one suffer these lacks? When so posed, the question begs the answer: One must not so suffer. In an age that worships technology’s – medical, pharmacological, legal – ability to ‘fix’ what is judged to be broken. The clear implication of that response is that one who suffers has a right to be fixed, to be changed, to have others changed, to have the whole culture changed and to have the ‘justice’ system arrange for the costs to be borne by someone else. And if that cannot be arranged, then they right to be helped to die! There are so many remedies for those who suffer unjustly that we have begun to imagine that suffering itself is wrong. Worse! We begin to think that those who suffer willi

The Connection Between Hitler and Margaret Sanger

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The National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nazi Party, greatly admired the policies and practices of the American eugenics movement advanced by Margaret Sanger and her fellow Progressives. In fact, Hitler received some of his most maniacal and destructive ideas directly from Sanger. The Nazi’s literally lifted the "Final Solution" from the blueprints and example of America’s eugenicists. This is the Hitler Margaret Sanger connection that most contemporary observers ignore. Today, if you pick up a Planned Parenthood brochure you get the impression its founder Margaret Sanger, was a champion of choice. She wanted all woman to decide whether, and how many, children to have. The real Margaret Sanger was opposed to choice. Her personal slogan, published in her magazine Birth Control Review , embodies her mission: "More children from the fit. Fewer children from the unfit. This is the chief aim of birth control." Margaret Sanger said, if you are unfit then

Planned Parenthood Joins with Satanists to Promote Abortion [And It Isn't the First Time]

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The late Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s former chief exorcist, once observed: "God never rejects his creatures. Therefore, even though they broke with God, Satan and his angels maintain their power and rank (thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, and so on) even if they use them for evil purposes. Saint Augustine does not exaggerate when he claims that, if God gave Satan a free hand, 'no man would be left alive.' Since Satan cannot kill us, he tries to 'make us into his followers in opposition to God, just as he is in opposition to God.'" Make no mistake, Satan's diabolical scheme continues apace. To wit: "Missouri has reportedly doubled its abortion capacity this year 'thanks to the Satanic Temple and Planned Parenthood,' who have worked in tandem to fight the state’s restrictions on abortion… Planned Parenthood has battled against [popularly enacted pro-life] state regulations requiring abortion clinics to meet the same surgica

Video: Pro-Choice Professor Makes Zero Sense

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WARNING :  Illogic Alert!  If you value logical, empirically based argumentation, the dignity of persons as made in the image of God, or just plain human decency, the following video will offend you in multiple ways. Viewer discretion is advised. Philosophy Time is a social media Q & A program aimed at Millennials covering everything from the nature of metaphor to the intricacies of how our society defines beauty. Here Prof. Liz Harman of Princeton University discusses the ethics of abortion with actor and director James Franco and Eliot Michaelson, a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at King’s College London. It is painful to watch. Prof. Harman employs circular reasoning, a logical fallacy in which one begins with what they are trying to end with - i.e., her premises and conclusion appear to be the same or nearly indistinguishable. Moreover, if you were to use the word "slave" instead of "fetus" in the professor's torchered argument, people

The Tragedy of Charlie Gard is a Cautionary Tale for America About the Evils of Socialized Medicine

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It has long been an aspiration for the Left to impose a single-payer health care system like the kind found in Canada and much of Europe. Proponents of such socialized medicine argue it is the only viable alternative, both economically and morally. However, as the tragic case of Charlie Gard shows, faceless autocrats from government run universal health care bureaucracies invariably abrogate parental rights and the efforts of well-meaning doctors to provide alternate care. Townhall reports that Charlie’s parents have ended their legal battle as time has simply run out. "Connie Yates and Chris Gard, the parents of Charlie Gard, the terminally-ill baby who they sought to bring to the United States for a last-ditch experimental treatment, have dropped their legal battle to move their son. Per the couple's lawyer, it's simply too late for the treatment to have any... benefit." "Charlie's parents have been fighting for months to bring their son to the Unit

Pray for Charlie Gard

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Charlie Gard is an 11 month old baby in the UK who suffers from a genetic disorder known as mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome. His condition is caused by a disruption in the mitochondria, the part of the cell that provides energy to his muscles, kidneys and brain. There is a new treatment available which is a nucleoside bypass therapy, which could potentially repair Charlie’s mtDNA and help it synthesize again by providing him the naturally occurring compounds that his body cannot now produce. Charlie's Situation is Dire "According to press accounts, Charlie is terminally ill at this point. His parents have raised more than $1 million to try an experimental treatment to help him, but hospital officials—backed by British and European courts—have forbidden his parents to take him from the London hospital where he currently is." [ Source ] England's National Health Service has repeatedly denied Charlie this potentially lifesaving treatment despite the pleas

Homily for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 25, 2017, Year A

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Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Sparrows are the most common and the most plentiful of all birds. This being so, they are not valued very highly at all. If as a species they were becoming extinct you can safely bet, however, that committees and campaigns would spring up to save them. But what about human life? There are over seven billion human beings alive on this earth today. In this century, more than in any other century in human history, human life is less and less valued. Paradoxically the baby-boomer generation, namely all those born after the end of WWII, is committed to individual rights, to individual expression and personal choice, to the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and the sexual revolution as no other generation in human history. But what about commitment to the right to life? Perversely and paradoxically, the people of this century are given to abortion and euthanasia as never be

A Brilliant Defense of the Pro-Life Position in the Case of Rape: "The Morality of Abortion Does Not Change"

In an exchange that has gone viral, the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro brilliantly articulates the pro-life argument in cases of rape, and in the process, eviscerates the abortion dogma of pro-abortion advocates. LifeSiteNews reports : "During an April 3 talk at the University of Florida, a female student asked how Shapiro would advise a woman who’s been raped and has no access to abortion." Shapiro replied, "The answer is that [rape] doesn't actually change the calculus, meaning that obviously, what happened to this person is an awful, awful horrible thing. And as I said earlier, the person who raped her should be tracked down, captured, killed or castrated. So that's number one,"  "If you don't think it's a life, then you can do whatever you want with it. If you do think it's a life, then you can't do anything with it." "As far as what she does with the baby, that's up to her. It's obviously go

March for Life 2017

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The 44th annual March for Life is Friday, January 27th, 2017 in Washington D.C. This march is the largest pro-life rally in the world. Please consider attending or supporting this event in any way possible. The march is ignored by the media. Star Parker points out the blatant hypocrisy in her weekly column that is worth your time. Calling out the self-centeredness of the 'me' culture, she writes: "Bringing children into the world and raising them takes three things that don't work well with the 'me' culture: work, sacrifice and love. I wonder why when hundreds of thousands of women show up in Washington to demonstrate for what one Wall Street Journal columnist called "everything under the progressive sun," the press goes bonkers with coverage. Yet, when similar numbers of pro-lifers reportedly show up for the March for Life, as they have been doing every January since the Roe v. Wade decision in January 1973, and as they will do again this

Mother Angelica's Devastating Critique of the Culture of Death

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On October 3rd, 2000, a viewer called into EWTN's  Mother Angelica Live program asking whether Catholics were obligated to vote, and if so, "for whom?". In her answer, the late Mother Angelica urges us to vote judiciously in accordance with the teachings of Christ, and expresses her steadfast opposition to the culture of death, which she condemns as unbending and without love: (See video below.) Beginning at 0:50: "I'm not going to vote for candidates. I vote for life. ... I vote for life. Because it's an abomination to God, the culture of death. ... I cannot vote for death. I vote for life. I vote for the God who gave us life and has a right, the only one who has a right, to create life, and call it forth to Himself. The only one! You don't have a right, I don't have a right, nobody has a right to call death on someone God has called to life. If we don't stand for the principles of God, you will be next, because you're getting too old

Black Christian Leaders Decry Secretary Clinton’s 'Unconscionable Silence' over Black Abortion

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In an open letter to Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton , a group of 26 prominent black Christian leaders, including eight African American bishops, criticize Clinton for her "unconscionable silence in the face of such destruction of innocent black life," and her support of the abortion industry. They write in part: "Almost 80 percent of 41 million black people are members of historically black churches. As leaders of the Pentecostal-Charismatic wing of the black church, we are requesting a meeting with you to discuss some of the critical issues in the black community: education and employment, religious freedom, violence, and justice for the unborn… It is the responsibility of the church to speak out in defense of the dignity of the poor as part of our public witness. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, proclaims in Luke 4:18: The Spirit of the Lord is on me,     because he has anointed me     to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to

Archbishop Cordileone’s Powerful Defense of Marriage: "The Question of Our Civilization is at Stake."

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Orthodox priest, Father Josiah Trenham, interviews His Excellency, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Prefect of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. Although this was recorded prior to the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision legalizing ‘gay marriage’, Archbishop Cordileone powerfully illustrates why redefining marriage is destructive to the health and well-being of marriage and society. The following are Archbishop Cordileone's concluding remarks. Beginning at 32:35 Fr. Trenham: "Your Excellency… your speaking has been very educational for us. I'm wondering if you could speak directly to us, how can we assume our responsibility also, as an Orthodox community, what can we contribute, how can we co-labor in this?" Abp. Cordileone: "One sort of side benefit I see to what's going on in the culture is God, in His own way, is bringing His people together. The ecumenical cooperation has been very heartening, and I think we see where we nee

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on Catholics Who Support Pro-Choice and/or Pro-Euthanasia Politicians

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A year before becoming Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a confidential memorandum to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick entitled Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion: General Principles that became public shortly thereafter. His Eminence Cardinal Ratzinger, explaining the norms for reception of the Eucharist, states in part: A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons. At issue was whether Catholics who vote for pro-choice and/or pro-euthanasia politicians are complicit i

George Weigel on a Pending Euthanasia Measure & the Culture of Death

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As the moral and linguistic confusions, subterfuges, and just plain falsehoods surrounding a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Colorado graphically illustrate, euthanasia kills more than a disturbed human being facing life’s most challenging moment. The proponents of the culture of death are persistent and assiduous in their efforts to undermine and replace Christian values. George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, in an article for National Review Online , explains what is at stake as Colorado voters prepare to decide on Proposition 106, the "End-of-Life Options Act," that would legalize physician-assisted suicide in the Centennial State. Weigel notes that the citizens of Colorado should bear in mind the unintended consequences and implicit dangers of such a law. He writes: "The more apt mot about all of this lethality masquerading as compassion, however, is from the quotable quotes of... [Fr.] Richard John N

Cardinal Burke: We Must 'Resist' False Teaching on Marriage and the Sacraments

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Here is Raymond Cardinal Burke's address before the Rome Life Forum last week entitled "Martyrdom for the Faith in our times", via Life Site News . [Read the full text here .] His Eminence quoted the words of Father John Hardon who in speaking of the need for contemporary witness noted present-day Catholics' ignorance regarding the truths of the faith: "In a particular way, Father Hardon knew that the necessary strong Catholic witness depends essentially upon the right understanding of the faith and its demands provided by sound catechesis. He saw how decades of a thin and even false catechesis had created a situation in which many Catholics were illiterate regarding the faith. He saw how many were left in confusion and error regarding the most fundamental tenets of the Catholic faith and of the moral law written upon the human heart and definitively articulated through the word of Christ handed down in the Church. Faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord J

This is the Culture of Death Personified, Part III

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Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness...  — Isaiah 5:20  On October 8th, in Cleveland, Ohio, United Methodist and Episcopalian Church clergy led a prayer rally to "Bless" an abortion clinic. Brietbart and Lifenews report that the event outside the Preterm abortion clinic was arranged by Rev. Laura Young, a United Methodist minister. Young calls herself a “progressive theological thinker and a feminist,” who actively urges clergy members to advocate for abortion. (For earlier culture of death personified posts see here and here . This is stomach turning stuff, indeed. Fortunately, Lifenews adds the following : Thankfully, pro-abortion religious groups are in the minority and countless prominent religious leaders have expressed disapproval for Planned Parenthood’s outrageous practices. For example , Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap., archbishop of Boston and chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Act