in this issue:
hot button issues: JUDIE BROWN’S BOOK / PETITION TO BISHOPS / REMEMBERING JERRY FALWELL
adolescents: HEALTH
culture of death: RAPIST/MURDERER CONVICTED
euthanasia: WORDS THAT KILL
heroes: PAUL NOWAK
politics: CRITICIZING THE POPE / HILLARY / SEBELIUS
stem cell research / unethical: ORRIN HATCH
vaccines: GARDASIL
reflection for prayer: WISDOM
hot button issues
JUDIE BROWN’S BOOK: Of Judie Brown’s Saving Those Damned Catholics, Fr. Tom Euteneuer of Human Life International writes, “Judie Brown has never been one to sit back and let the devil have his way. Her great new work, Saving Those Damned Catholics, tells it like it is. I thank Judie for her forthright analysis of the state of the Church. She is not just telling us what is wrong – she is giving us our marching orders.”
TO ORDER: “Saving Those Damned Catholics” is available from ALL in hardcover or paperback. Call 866-LET-LIVE or purchase online.
PETITION TO BISHOPS: An American Life League petition asks American 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.
REMEMBERING JERRY FALWELL: ALL’s Judie Brown notes, “From the earliest days of American Life League’s existence, Dr. Falwell lent his name, his support and his counsel to much of what we did then and continue to do today. Dr. Falwell inspired and supported our first efforts to expose Planned Parenthood in 1980.”
Reading: “ALL mourns passing of Dr. Jerry Falwell,” American Life League news release, 5/15/07
adolescents
HEALTH: A recent report tells us that throughout the world, “adolescents continue to be disproportionately burdened by threats to their sexual and reproductive health.”
COMMENT: This report fails to report on the value of chastity or the reasons why self control and self respect are the cornerstones of a healthy moral and physical teenage lifestyle.
Reading: “Global perspectives on the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents: patterns, prevention and potential,” The Lancet, 4/7/07
culture of death
RAPIST/MURDERER CONVICTED: A father who raped his teenage daughter over several years and ordered her to throw two newborns he had fathered down an air shaft was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Reading: “Father gets 35 years in daughter’s rape,” Associated Press, 4/26/07
euthanasia
WORDS THAT KILL: A recent New England Journal of Medicine article claims, “The Dutch Euthanasia Act was followed by a modest decrease in the rates of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The decrease may have resulted from the increased application of other end-of-life care interventions, such as palliative sedation.”
COMMENT: In other words, enough pain killer will also do the job and exonerate the health care professional from actively pursuing a patient’s death.
Reading: “End-of-life practices in the Netherlands under the Euthanasia Act,” New England Journal of Medicine, 5/10/07
heroes
PAUL NOWAK: A prolific writer, Nowak resigned his post at a pharmaceutical company when he realized that the company was involved in work that conflicted with his Catholic and pro-life beliefs.
Reading: “I quit my day job,” Paul Nowak news release, 5/7/07
politics
CRITICIZING THE POPE: Eighteen members of the U.S. House, all Democrats, said Pope Benedict’s recent comments on pro-abortion Catholic politicians “offend the very nature of the American experiment.” Their statement said that barring pro-abortion lawmakers from receiving Communion would be “a great disservice to the centuries of good work the Church has done,” the 18 Congressmen argued.
Reading: “House Democrats rap pope’s stand against pro-abortion pols,” Catholic World News, 5/15/07
HILLARY: A promotional video for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign features a photo of the senator with Mother Teresa. It was at a 1994 prayer breakfast, with Bill and Hillary Clinton at the head table, that Mother Teresa said, “the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”
Reading: “Abortion activist Hilary Clinton uses photo of herself with Mother Teresa in campaign video,” Life Site News, 5/15/07
SEBELIUS: The governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, was scheduled to appear at a Planned Parenthood affiliate’s fundraising event. Sebelius is Catholic.
Reading: “Kansas governor lends support to Planned Parenthood,” Catholic News Agency, 5/15/07
stem cell research / unethical
ORRIN HATCH: You can read or listen to a complete interview with Utah Senator Orrin Hatch covering the reasons why he says he is pro-life, but also favors human embryonic stem cell research.
Reading: “Expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research,” New England Journal of Medicine, 5/3/07
vaccines
GARDASIL: Sigrid Fry-Revere writes, “Gardasil is not all it’s cracked up to be. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that among women aged 14-24, the rate of all 37 types of sexually transmitted HPV combined is 33.8 percent — much lower than the 50 percent figure quoted on Merck’s web site. More important, the rates for HPV 16 and 18 — the two types responsible for 70 percent of all cervical cancers — are astronomically lower: only 1.5 and 0.8 percent, respectively … It’s worth noting that the American Cancer Society sees its fight against cervical cancer as a success story even without Gardasil. When the disease is detected early through pap testing, the survival rate is more than 90 percent.”
Reading: “Mr. Kane — veto that bill,” American Spectator, 3/23/07
reflection for prayer
WISDOM: Confirm me, O God, by the grace of Thy Holy Spirit. … For it is great wisdom not to be moved with every wind of words, nor to give ear to the wicked, flattering siren; for thus shall we go on securely in the way we have begun.
Reading: “Imitation of Christ,” Book III, Chapter 27