4/22/05
in this issue:
hot button issues: HABEMUS PAPAM / NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY
abortion: BUFFER ZONES / INDIANA
culture of death: SELLING HOST
dark side: CFFC / PLANNED PARENTHOOD
euthanasia: GEORGIA / VIRGINIA
morning-after abortion pill: CANADA
reminder: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005
reflection for prayer: PSALM 33:11-12
hot button issues
HABEMUS PAPAM: American Life League welcomes Pope Benedict XVI. “The late Pope John Paul II provided a heroic example in leading the faithful in the Church’s consistent teachings that celebrate the inherent dignity of every human person from creation to death. Following in those holy footsteps, we are confident that Pope Benedict XVI will also teach this message with courage.”
(Reading: “ALL trusts Pope Benedict XVI to guide Catholic Church in building Culture of Life,” American Life League news release, 4/19/05)
NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: American Life League’s third annual National Pro-life T-shirt Day is Tuesday, April 26. All pro-life Americans, especially students, are encouraged to wear pro-life apparel to show support for the preborn. Additional information is available online at NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
(Reading: “Supreme Court won’t hear abortion clinic case,” Associated Press, 4/18/05)
abortion
BUFFER ZONES: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case that questioned the constitutionality of state laws that establish floating buffer zones around abortion facilities. The specific case involved a Massachusetts law that prohibits anyone from coming within six feet of a patient near a clinic entrance without the patient’s permission. Clinic workers are exempt from the law’s provisions.
(Reading: “Supreme Court won’t hear abortion clinic case,” Associated Press, 4/18/05)
INDIANA: Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed into law a bill requiring abortionists to tell mothers about ultrasound imaging before they abort their babies. Mothers must also be told they can listen to the baby’s heartbeat. A Planned Parenthood spokesman speculated the bill was “an opportunity for political exploitation.”
(Reading: “Abortion providers must discuss ultrasounds,” Indianapolis Star, 4/19/05)
culture of death
SELLING HOST: Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput was one of many people writing to eBay to express dismay that someone was using the online service to sell a Communion Host consecrated by Pope John Paul II. The archbishop pointed out that “the sale of a consecrated Communion Host by anyone, under any circumstance, is a very serious sacrilege for Catholics and therefore an equally serious insult to the Catholic community.” It is reported that the Diocese of Sioux City helped convince eBay to stop the sale. The seller, who claimed to be non-Catholic, lives in Iowa. It is not certain if eBay has changed its policy to prevent similar attempts in the future.
(Contact: To request a policy change, contact Pierre Omidyar, Founder and Chairman of the Board and Meg Whitman, President and CEO, eBay, 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125, 800-322-9266; eBay Customer Support)
(Reading: “Archbishop Chaput calls Eucharist sale on eBay ‘extraordinarily offensive,'” Catholic News Agency, 4/19/05; “eBay pulls sale of consecrated Communion Host after 9,000 complaints received,” LifeSiteNews.com, 4/20/05)
dark side
CFFC: Pope Benedict XVI is getting an offer of “help” from the anti-church group Catholics for a Free Choice, which outlined an agenda for the pontiff’s first 100 days in the chair of Peter. The group says, “The pope should lift the ban on condoms immediately” to stop the spread of AIDS.
(Reading: “Catholics for a Free Choice lays out a schedule for the new pope,” CFFC news release, 4/19/05)
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson told a Planned Parenthood “prayer breakfast” that people of faith must counter faith-based arguments against so-called abortion rights. “We have allowed the Bible to be taken hostage, and it is being wielded by folks who would use it to hit us over the head. We have to take back those Scriptures,” he said. “You know, those stories are our stories. I tell this to lesbian folk all the time: The story of freedom in Exodus is our story… That’s my story, and they can’t have it.”
(Reading: “Gay bishop backs Planned Parenthood,” Washington Times, 4/16/05)
euthanasia
GEORGIA: A feeding tube was reinserted to provide nutrition and hydration for Mae Magouirk, an 81-year-old woman whose relatives had removed the tube for ten days, ignoring provisions of a living will that spelled out her wishes to be fed.
(Reading: “Feeding tube reinserted into Georgia woman after ten days,” Concerned Women for America, 4/13/05)
VIRGINIA: Several lawmakers say they will use the Terri Schiavo case to craft new legislation. Del. Robert Marshall (R-Manassas) said, “At a minimum, we need to say that you can’t just starve someone to death.” Del. John Cosgrove (R-Chesapeake) added, “Most people think of life support as a way to keep someone breathing or a heart beating. Providing nutrition is not an artificial means of keeping someone alive.”
(Reading: “End-of-life legislation planned by Va. delegates,” Washington Post, 4/14/05)
morning-after abortion pill
CANADA: Health Canada will permit Plan B, a so-called emergency contraceptive, to be sold without a doctor’s prescription. The government order permitting over-the-counter sales claims the drug can be used to “prevent pregnancy,” yet the same document goes on to say that it does so by “preventing the fertilized egg to attach to the wall of the uterus.”
COMMENT: That action, of course, is not contraception but abortion.
(Reading: “Regulations amending the Food and Drug Regulations,” Health Canada, 4/19/05; “Minister Dosanjh announces regulatory changes to allow Levonorgestrel 0.75 mg (Plan B) to be sold without a prescription,” Health Canada news release, 4/20/05)
reminder
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005: This bill (go to Library of Congress and search for HR 552) states, “The terms ‘human person’ and ‘human being’ include each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including, but not limited to, the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.”
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? He or she should be. Ask!
reflection for prayer
PSALM 33:11-12: The plan of the Lord stands forever, wise designs through all generations. Happy the nation whose God is the Lord, the people chosen as his very own.