in this issue:
hot button issues: PLANNED PARENTHOOD / SOUTH DAKOTA
catholic bishops: COLORADO / MISSOURI
catholics and contraception: GOOD / NOT GOOD
culture of life: KOLBE CENTER
dark side: HAUNTED HOUSE
euthanasia: DOCTORS AFFECTED / UNPLUGGED
health insurance: ALTERNATIVES
politics: NEW JERSEY / TENNESSEE
vaccines: SHINGLES
wisdom: SPEAKING TO AMERICA
zinger: NOT REALLY THERE
reflection for prayer: LUKE 12:4-5
hot button issues
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: ALL’s David Bereit says one extremely troubling point that Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards presses in a recent strategy memo is the need for the abortion lobby to use the federal court system to propagate its radical agenda. “Planned Parenthood knows that it is not in line with mainstream America, and therefore will do anything to push its dangerous plans – including the use of extremist judges who share the abortion organization’s deadly agenda.”
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood strategy memo reveals insecurity,” American Life League news release, 10/26/06)
SOUTH DAKOTA: A number of Vote Yes for Life signs were vandalized with images spray-painted with a stencil. The top of the stencil had an outline of a baby in the womb (approximately 10 weeks of age) complete with an umbilical cord. Under the baby’s outline was the two-word slogan – “Eat Babies.”
(Reading: “Abortion proponents desperate in South Dakota,” American Life League news release, 10/23/06)
catholic bishops
COLORADO: Colorado’s three Catholic bishops have issued a statement pointing out the need to reject candidates who support abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, human embryo destruction, human cloning and gay marriage. The bishops point out that candidates who favor or are indifferent to issues described as intrinsically evil do not deserve the Catholic vote.
(Reading: “Bishops urge Catholic voters to heed teachings of the Church,” Pueblo Chieftain, 10/21/06)
MISSOURI: Archbishop Raymond Burke’s most recent column addresses Amendment 2, which would protect a “clone and kill” policy and enshrine it in the state constitution. He challenges Missouri’s Catholics to be fully informed and to act in defense of the innocent. Perhaps most importantly, he repeats the need for each Catholic to pray the Rosary daily: “Christians, down through the centuries since our Lord first gave us the rosary, in times of great crisis, have called upon God’s help through this most powerful prayer. Imitating them, we pray with confidence that God will deliver us from this current moral crisis.”
(Reading: “Safeguarding embryonic human life through prayer,” Archdiocese of St. Louis, 10/20/06)
catholics and contraception
GOOD: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will review a new document called “Married Love and the Gift of Life.” One reported excerpt: “A failure to respect married love’s power to help create new life has eroded respect for life and for the sanctity of marriage.”
(Reading: “U.S. bishops draft document to warn of harm caused by contraception to marriage, family and society,” Life Site News, 10/23/06)
NOT GOOD: In spite of arguments from the Catholic Conference of New York that “forcing Catholic institutions to provide contraceptive coverage and to pay for it is a violation of our religious liberty,” a state court has ordered Catholic institutions to do just that. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is likely.
(Reading: “Catholic Church in New York must provide contraceptives for employees, court rules,” Life Site News, 10/23/06)
culture of life
KOLBE CENTER: Hugh Owen, director of the Kolbe Center, writes: “The modern culture of death grew out of the macro-evolutionary theory, but its fundamental principles have since been contradicted by the discoveries of modern science. Since the culture of life can only be firmly established on the foundation of the true Catholic doctrine of creation, the director and experts on the Kolbe advisory council present Catholic creation seminars all over the world. One pro-life leader who recently invited the Kolbe Center to his state convention wrote, ‘I just wish we could have had our archbishop and all our priests there to hear you. I’ll do what I can to get the message to them.'”
dark side
HAUNTED HOUSE: Pro-abortion interests in Philadelphia are sponsoring a “haunted house” this weekend, marking both Halloween and the 30th anniversary of the Hyde Amendment. The display promises “a terrifying eye-opener, depicting the real hell of women in the US who simply wish to have a safe legal abortion.”
(Reading: “Nightmare on American Street,” Women’s Medical Fund)
euthanasia
DOCTORS AFFECTED: A new study reported by Physicians for Compassionate Care reveals that doctors who perform physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia suffer severe aftereffects.
(Reading: “Study shows doctors affected by euthanasia practice,” AFA Journal, 10/20/06; “Emotional and psychological effects of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia on participating physicians,” Physicians for Compassionate Care, 2006)
UNPLUGGED: Misrepresenting Terri Schiavo once again as someone who was dying rather than someone who was severely disabled, attorney William Colby sets the stage for his most recent book. A review of his book, “Unplugged: Reclaiming our right to die in America,” suggests that when treating someone with Alzheimer’s, for example, there are those who argue that providing nutrition and hydration is viewed as “aggressive” and perhaps inconsistent with the patient’s quality of life. The review makes it clear that “quality of life” is paramount to Colby.
(Reading: “Unplugged: Reclaiming our right to die in America,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 10/4/06)
health insurance
ALTERNATIVES: The report “Are you paying for someone else’s abortion?” presents the facts about health insurance companies that subsidize abortion and what you can do about.
ACTION: See specific information about ValuSure, a plan specifically designed for groups.
(Reading: “Are you paying for someone else’s abortion?” National Catholic Register, 3/5/06)
politics
NEW JERSEY: Senate candidate Tom Kean (R) has said, “I opposed Pres. Bush’s veto of the federal stem cell legislation and, in the Senate, will work to bring the hope and promise that stem cell research offers to millions of Americans who suffer from devastating diseases.”
COMMENT: So why did the National Right to Life Political Action Committee contribute $12,815.55 as an independent expenditure to the Kean campaign?
(Reading: “Thomas J. Kean, Jr., on abortion,” On the Issues, 9/2/06; “National Right to Life Political Action Committee,” Federal Election Commission)
TENNESSEE: The Christian Science Monitor calls U.S. Senate candidate Tom Corker a “moderate Republican,” noting that he “at one time supported abortion rights.” The paper reports the National Right to Life Committee has endorsed Corker, but Tennessee Right to Life has not.
(Reading: “All eyes on South’s big race,” Christian Science Monitor, 10/25/06)
vaccines
SHINGLES: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends shingles vaccines for everyone over 60. The vaccine is described as “a souped-up version of Merck’s chickenpox vaccine for children, with a live virus that is 14 times more potent.” Debi Vinnedge of Children of God for Life notes that the vaccine, Merck’s Zostavax, is manufactured with aborted fetal cell lines.
(Reading: “Government panel recommends shingles vaccine,” Associated Press, 10/25/06)
wisdom
SPEAKING TO AMERICA: A group of highly respected Catholic and evangelical spokesmen has authored a statement which includes the following: “While we cannot remedy all the evils in the world, we can-if we are prepared to suffer and even die rather than to do evil-always refuse to willingly participate in, support, or condone the doing of evil.”
(Reading: “That they may have life,” First Things, 10/06)
zinger
NOT REALLY THERE: “Babies born alive at less than 22 weeks gestation should be treated as if they had never existed, even if they breathe, move or their heart beats, a report by a royal college is expected to say.”
(Reading: “Brief life of premature babies may go unmarked,” The Sunday Times [U.K.], 10/22/06)
reflection for prayer
LUKE 12: 4-5: I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.