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January 18, 2009 - National Sanctity of Human Life Day

Catholic News Agency:
In what may be his last declaration as U.S. president, George W. Bush has announced that he is establishing January 18, 2009 as "National Sanctity of Human Life Day."

President Bush writes that "All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy of protection.

"On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and voiceless among us." . .

The president closed his declaration by saying that "the sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women" and that National Sanctity of Life Day should be dedicated building "a society in which every child is welcome in life and protected in law."

Read the full article:

President declares Sanctity of Human Life Day, sums up pro-life victories

Whose Rights Are We Protecting?

Fr. Peter Irving has this video posted on his blog. What a fantastic testimony.

A vote for Obama is a vote for...

Can a Catholic in good faith vote for a candidate who openly supports abortion? Many will say that abortion isn't the only issue at stake in this election. They are correct. Our next president will have to address some very important issues ranging from war to the economy to energy. However, the correct position on these issues can be debated. Under no circumstances can one argue for the morality of abortion. It is intrinsically evil.

The bishops of Fort Worth and Dallas have issued a joint statement. In this statement they say that "to vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or "abortion rights" when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil – and, therefore, morally impermissible. " Read the full text here.

Archbishop Chaput of Denver has gone so far as to call out Barack Obama by name. He states that there hasn't been a "more committed" abortion rights candidate from a major party in the last 35 years and that Catholic organizations who support Obama are doing a "disservice to the church." Read the article here.

**Update**
Yesterday, the USCCB came out with an official statement regarding our obligation to protect the unborn as well as care for the needs of mothers. You can find the statement here.

Defending Marriage

I want to share this recent article from the Catholic News Agency (CNA) regarding the fight to protect marriage. Please read and support.

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Sacramento, Aug 13, 2008 / 01:10 am (CNA).- ProtectMarriage.com, the campaign favoring Proposition 8, the California initiative that would ban same-sex marriage, on Tuesday announced the launch of the official grassroots effort dedicated to supporting the campaign. The organization Catholics for ProtectMarriage.com is led by the Knights of Columbus, the California Catholic Conference and Catholics for the Common Good.

Catholics for ProtectMarriage.com is chaired by Bill May, who is also chairman of Catholics for the Common Good.

“Our strong Catholic faith teaches us the importance of treating all of God's children with love and respect, it also teaches us that marriage between a man and a woman is the foundation of the family - the first school of love, peace and justice," May said in a statement. "The ruling by the California Supreme Court nullifying the legal definition of marriage in state law was a shock to Catholics and other citizens who are concerned about how this will affect their own children's understanding of marriage.”

California Catholics reportedly played a large role in the passage of Proposition 22 in 2000, which defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. The proposition was approved by more than 60 percent of California voters.

Proposition 22 was overturned on May 15, 2008 by the California Supreme Court. The court’s majority found that domestic partnerships are not an adequate substitute for marriage.
Ron Prentice, chairman of ProtectMarriage.com, welcomed Catholics to the effort aimed at amending California’s Constitution. “The fight to protect marriage is an all-encompassing effort that affects everyone in California," he said. "We're honored to have Catholics for ProtectMarriage.com offer us their assistance and to add them to our diverse list of supporters. We expect they will help us motivate a groundswell of support for Proposition and we're confident that with that support we will restore the definition of marriage in California, come November.”

Catholics for ProtectMarriage.com reportedly supports volunteer activities such as literature distribution and phoning in parishes and surrounding communities. Its website is located at http://catholicsforprotectmarriage.com/.

[1] Full Article

[2] Protect Marriage.com

US Bishops on Stem Cell Research

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) recently made a statement regarding stem cell research. It is worth reading at length. Stem cell research has caused quite a bit of controversy, and rightfully so. It seems that the stem cells from adults as well as umbilical cord blood has proven beneficial while the stem cells from embroys haven't been proven to be effective. Why would the scientific community insist on "harvesting" stem cells by destroying the lives of human embryos when umbilical cord blood is easy to come by?

Culture of Life vs. Culture of Death

Turn on the TV and it is a matter of minutes before one is inundated with gratuitous sex and violence. Why is that? What is it with our infatuation with death and sex? And what do they have to do with each other? All around us we see death. However, true discussion on death is often avoided due to the fact that there are not many things that are more frightening or misunderstood. So the conversation gets suppressed. Sex is another topic that isn't usually discussed appropriately. Most conversations regarding sex are very uncomfortable and awkward unless it is the punchline of a joke or put in your face (literally) in the media. The problem is that when things are suppressed, they tend to resurface in ways that are not very healthy. In the beginning, man and his wife were both naked and they were not ashamed.(cf.Gen. 3:25) In the beginning, there was no death. Naked without shame and no death. What happened after "The Fall?" Death and shame both entered the world. The Theology of the Body addresses the connection with death and sex. It is worth quoting at length:

Thus, each man bears within him the mystery of his "beginning" closely bound up with awareness of the generative meaning of the body. Genesis 4:1-2 seems to be silent on the subject of the relationship between the generative and the nuptial meaning of the body. It will be necessary, then, to raise again the questions connected with the appearance of shame in man, shame of his masculinity and femininity, not experienced before. At this moment, however, this is in the background. In the foreground there remains, however, the fact that "Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore . . . " This is precisely the threshold of man's history. It is his "beginning" on the earth. On this threshold man, as male and female, stands with the awareness of the generative meaning of his own body: masculinity conceals within it the meaning of fatherhood, and femininity that of motherhood. In the name of this meaning, Christ will one day give the categorical answer to the question that the Pharisees had asked him (Mt 19; Mk 10). We, on the other hand, penetrating the simple content of this answer, are trying at the same time to shed light on the context of that "beginning," to which Christ referred. The theology of the body has its roots in it.
7. Awareness of the meaning of the body and awareness of its generative meaning come into contact, in man, with awareness of death, the inevitable horizon of which they bear within them, so to speak. Yet there always returns in the history of man the "knowledge-generation" cycle, in which life struggles, ever anew, with the inexorable perspective of death, and always overcomes it. It is as if the reason for this refusal of life to surrender, which is manifested in "generation," were always the same "knowledge," with which man goes beyond the solitude of his own being, and, in fact, decides again to affirm this being in an "other." Both of them, man and woman, affirm it in the new man generated. In this affirmation, biblical "knowledge' seems to acquire an even greater dimension. It seems to take its place in that "vision" of God himself, with which there ends the first narrative of the creation of man about the "male" and the "female" made 'in the image of God": God saw everything that he had made and . . . it was very good (Gen 1:31). Man, in spite of all the experiences of his life, in spite of suffering, disappointment with himself, his sinfulness, and, finally, in spite of the inevitable prospect of death, always continues, however, to put "knowledge" at the "beginning" of "generation." In this way, he seems to participate in that first vision" of God himself: God the Creator "saw . . . , and behold, it was very good". And, ever anew, he confirms the truth of these words. (TOB 22:6,7)

Pope John Paul II is absolutely correct; life will always win. However in our culture, the value of a life is based on what it can produce or what it can provide. Individuals are looked upon as objects to be used and then discarded when they are no longer useful. We were not created to be objects to be used. We were created to commune with God and one another. This desire to "know" one another is stamped in our very being. The world calls it a "sex drive"; the Church Fathers called it "paternal desire."