in this issue:
hot button issues: ANNUNCIATION / BABY STEPS / SAVING THOSE DAMNED CATHOLICS
abortion: SUING AFTER FAILED ABORTION
catholic bishops: OREGON
euthanasia: SUICIDE / TEXAS
organ transplant: CALIFORNIA
stem cell research / unethical: UKRAINE
wisdom: MARK PICKUP
reminders: NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY / PETITION
reflection for prayer: PSALM 12:4-5
hot button issues
ANNUNCIATION: March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation. Learn all about this pro-life feast day, and leave your special prayer requests for mothers and their preborn children online.
BABY STEPS: “Baby Steps: Live from the womb, 16 stages of pre-birth development,” is an amazing new video from American Life League, featuring dramatic 4-D ultrasound images of preborn babies from 8 to 34 weeks development. Said ALL’s Judie Brown, “There is no way that anyone can look at these pictures and not immediately recognize that the preborn child is one of us, and fully human in every way. I am convinced that these pictures will save lives.”
TO ORDER: The “Baby Steps” DVD is available from ALL for $9.95 plus shipping and handling. Call 866-LET-LIVE toll-free, or purchase online.
SAVING THOSE DAMNED CATHOLICS: Judie Brown’s new book provides an eye-opening account of the connections between dissent and current trends among many Catholics today. The numbers are startling and the result has been millions of preborn children lost under the mantra of “choice.”
TO ORDER: “Saving Those Damned Catholics” is available from ALL in hardcover or paperback. Call 866-LET-LIVE or purchase online.
abortion
SUING AFTER FAILED ABORTION: A Boston woman has filed a lawsuit against two doctors and Planned Parenthood in order to recover the costs of raising a child she had paid to have killed by abortion.
(Reading: “Boston woman sues for child-rearing costs after failed abortion,” Associated Press, 3/7/07)
catholic bishops
OREGON: Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Baker writes, “It is categorically impossible for the same person to state that he or she believes simultaneously both what the Catholic Church teaches and that abortion is just a choice. What we believe must inform what we do.”
(Reading: “There are just and unjust choices — Church teaching helps,” Catholic Sentinel, 3/1/07)
euthanasia
SUICIDE: Rita Marker and Wesley J. Smith have written an excellent commentary on the truth behind assisted suicide laws.
(Reading: “When killing yourself isn’t suicide,” National Review Online, 3/5/07)
TEXAS: The Texas Advanced Directives Act, also known as the Futile Care Law, officially gives permission to hospital ethics committees to decide to end treatment even when families and/or patients want the treatment continued.
(Reading: “Texas does it big once again: futile care law blunder,” Dakota Voice, 2/28/07)
organ transplant
CALIFORNIA: Police are investigating a transplant surgeon who may have hastened the death of a patient in order to retrieve organs from the man. Reports indicate that the doctor may have ordered excessive doses of powerful pain medication.
(Reading: “Police probe death in organ donation case,” Los Angeles Times, 2/2/807)
stem cell research / unethical
UKRAINE: It is reported that investigators are looking into the possibility that healthy infants and preborn babies were killed for stem cell experimentation.
(Reading: “Partial-birth abortion revisited,” AFA Journal, 2/07)
wisdom
MARK PICKUP: “The Church speaks the Truth to provide spiritual and moral clarity to humanity-even at the darkest moments of confusion. If this generation rejects the principles of natural law and God’s Word, another generation faithful [to] the Word of God will rise to replace error with Truth. I believe this with all my heart. I must!”
(Reading: “Conscience and natural moral law,” Mark Pickup, 3/6/07)
reminders
NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: April 24 is the date for ALL’s fifth annual National Pro-life T-shirt Day. The day provides an opportunity for all pro-life people, especially students, to make a public stand on behalf of preborn children.
TO ORDER: The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available for $6 plus shipping and handling. Call 866-LET-LIVE or order online. Additional information is available at NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
PETITION: An American Life League petition asks Catholic bishops to address the scandal caused by political figures who claim the Catholic faith but support abortion. Church law states that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.”
ACTION: All Catholics are invited to sign the petition that will be delivered to U.S. bishops in June.
reflection for prayer
PSALM 12:4-5: Give light to my eyes, Lord, lest I sleep in death, and my enemy says: I have overcome him.