in this issue:
hot button issues: CRUSADE / STOPP I / STOPP II
abortion: UNBELIEVABLE I / UNBELIEVABLE II
catholic bishops: BRUNETT / HARRINGTON / VASA
condoms: GIVE THEM AWAY
human embryonic stem cell research: PRESSURE IS ON
in vitro fertilization: INVESTIGATION / RISKS
lifelines: ST. JOSE MARIA ESCRIVA
online library: DIANNE IRVING, PH.D.
planned parenthood: TEXAS
reflection for prayer: IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD
hot button issues
CRUSADE: Pro-life Crusade walkers have questions for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, in which they were forbidden from speaking after Masses.
(Reading: “Where’s the brotherly love?” American Life League news release, 7/16/04)
STOPP I: Planned Parenthood is continuing to promote a book that Jim Sedlak of ALL’s STOPP International calls “nothing more than pornography in comic book form.” The book, It’s Perfectly Normal, was given to children from grades 7 through 9 at a conference in Waco, Texas. Sedlak says the event “was a thinly veiled attack on parental rights, public morality, and the health and well-being of our children.”
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood’s ‘Nobody’s Fool’ conference pushes pornographic sex book on children,” American Life League’s STOPP International news release, 7/16/04)
STOPP II: ALL’s STOPP International has used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover evidence that “a federally funded employment-training program is being exploited by Planned Parenthood to promote its agenda,” according to STOPP’s Ed Szymkowiak.
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood abuses tax dollars, infiltrates federal employment training program,” American Life League’s STOPP International news release, 7/13/04)
abortion
UNBELIEVABLE I: The New York Times published a first-person account from Amy Richards, an unmarried woman who learned she was pregnant with triplets. She offers a nonchalant account of how she used “selective reduction” to abort two of her three children. Richards said she’d have to give up her life if she had three children: “I’ll never leave my house because I’ll have to care for these children. I’ll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise.”
(Reading: “When one is enough,” New York Times, 7/18/04)
UNBELIEVABLE II: Planned Parenthood is offering a new t-shirt in its online store. The words on the front: “I had an abortion.” The sales pitch says, “These soft and comfortable fitted tees assert a powerful message in support of women’s rights.”
(Reading: “I had an abortion t-shirts,” Planned Parenthood)
catholic bishops
BRUNETT: Seattle Archbishop Alexander Brunett said pro-abortion Catholics hold “a morally untenable position and are choosing a path that leads them away from the church.” He added that those “who suggest that they can disassociate totally their political actions in principle from their Catholic faith are laboring under a dangerous moral delusion.”
(Reading: “Archbishop warns Catholic politicians on abortion,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 7/20/04)
HARRINGTON: Bishop Bernard Harrington of Winona, Minn., said “any Catholics who steadfastly support abortion should not come forward” for Holy Communion.” The bishop did not specifically say he would deny the sacrament to pro-abortion Catholics, but noted, “It is time we recognize that morality and ethics — not our political parties — determine what we believe.”
(Reading: “Bishop: No Eucharist for supporters of abortion,” Associated Press, 7/8/04)
VASA: Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore., would deny Holy Communion to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.): “Absolutely. I would agree, certainly, with Archbishop Burke and Bishop Bruskewitz in their own actions in this matter. I literally could not give Holy Communion to a professed and actively committed pro-choice politician.”
(Reading: “Bishop Vasa: A shepherd for our time,” Catholic Online, 7/17/04)
condoms
GIVE THEM AWAY: Tulane University researchers argue in favor of providing free condoms as a way of assuring a higher level of “prevention” of the spread of the AIDS virus.
(Reading: “Social marketing of condoms is great, but we need more free condoms,” The Lancet, 7/3/04, pp. 13-14)
human embryonic stem cell research
PRESSURE IS ON: The British medical journal, The Lancet, published an entire series of articles on the need to make a case in favor of human embryonic stem cell research. Articles include both favorable research documents on the use of human embryonic stem cell research and the more impressive research being done with bone marrow stem cells, human periodontal ligament stem cells and allogeneic haemopoietic stem cells.
(Reading: “Scientific freedom and research cloning: can a ban be justified?” “International policy failures: cloning and stem-cell research,” “It’s time for scientists to make the case for stem-cell research,” “Justice, ethnicity, and stem-cell banks,” “Intracoronary autologous bone-marrow cell transfer after myocardial infarction,” The Lancet, 7/10/04)
in vitro fertilization
INVESTIGATION: Zenit reports the views of several scientists who agree that children who are the product of in vitro fertilization are at risk psychologically due to their “true biological origins.”
(Reading: “IVF faces more scrutiny by science,” Zenit, 7/10/04)
RISKS: Carlo Bellieni, M.D., an Italian professor of neonatal therapy, exposes the risks of in vitro fertilization to the health of the child.
(Reading: “In vitro children and the risks they face,” Zenit, 7/6/04)
lifelines
ST. JOSE MARIA ESCRIVA: If it is God who lays the burden on you, God will also give you the strength to bear it.
online library
DIANNE IRVING, PH.D.: A library of Prof. Irving’s work in exposing bioethics and defending human dignity from the beginning of a human being’s life is now available online.
planned parenthood
TEXAS: The Brownsville city commission awarded $15,000 to the local Planned Parenthood affiliate, alarming local pro-life activists who claim that Planned Parenthood is already receiving large sums from other federal and state agencies.
(Reading: “Commission approves funding for non-profit groups,” Brownsville Herald, 7/7/04)
reflection for prayer
IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD: A Christian cannot make the mistake which Saint Gregory the Great described as follows: “There are some who wish to be humble, but without being despised, who wish to be happy with their lot, but without being needy, who wish to be chaste, without mortifying the body, to be patient without suffering. They want both to acquire virtues and to avoid the sacrifices those virtues involve: they are like soldiers who flee the battlefield and try to win the war from the comfort of the city.” Virtues cannot be had without effort and trials.
(Reading: “In conversation with God,” Vol. 4, p. 157)