Vatican City, Nov 30, 2009 / 11:46 am (CNA).- L’Osservatore Romano (LOR) published an article last week reminding U.S. President Barack Obama that the number of Americans who oppose abortion continues to be on the rise. This was recently demonstrated by the nearly 200,000 signatures to the "Manhattan Declaration," a document drafted by various Christian leaders in defense of life, marriage, the family and religious freedom.
LOR said: "The political and spiritual weight of the Manhattan Declaration is thus evident" as "this is a crucial moment for the Obama administration since the president's credibility is at risk over promises made during the campaign season, considering the not-so-encouraging results of the latest polls on the president's popularity."
In recent days "the spotlight is on health care reform," which is currently being debated in the Senate, with a bill that is "quite different from the one approved only weeks ago by the House of Representatives." That bill prohibited the use of federal funds for abortion and established conscience protections through the Stupak amendment, which was lauded by the U.S. bishops.
LOR pointed out that the difference in between the two bills cannot be considered an accident. “In fact it was Obama himself, in a recent interview, who said that the Stupak Amendment introduced unbalanced language in the health care reform and that "women's choices" should not be restricted.
Thus, LOR argued, Obama is moving between two contrary positions: that of keeping his campaign promises "not to use federal funds for abortion and that the right to conscientious objection be respected," and that of "influential pro-choice groups who demand an ultimate liberalization of abortion practices."
After noting that the Manhattan Declaration clearly defends life and opposes abortion, LOR explained that "polls in recent months show that the number of those who are pro-life continues to rise and is now larger than the number of Americans” who think unrestricted abortions should be allowed during the course of pregnancy.
LOR said the change in public opinion in the U.S. is made evident by the Manhattan Declaration, which reads: "no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty.”
Among the signers of the declaration are "Jonah Paffhausen, primate of the Orthodox Church in America, and Robert Duncan, Anglican Primate of North America, as well as the Rev. William Owens, president of the Coalition of African American Pastors. Signers such as these could make Obama campaign staffers recalculate,” LOR said.
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17868&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The need for hope
“The contemporary world needs hope above all; this is true for developing peoples but especially for developed peoples. Increasingly, we realise that we are in the same boat and that we can save ourselves together. With the collapse of so many false certainties, we are becoming especially aware of how we need reliable hope and that this is found only in Christ, who according to the Letter to the Hebrews Jesus “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (13:8). The Lord Jesus came in the past, comes in the present, and shall come in the future. He embraces all of time’s dimensions. Because he died and rose, he is the ‘Living’, and whilst he shared our human precariousness, he is always there, offering us God’s stability. He is “flesh” like us, and “rock” like God. Anyone who yearns for freedom, justice, and peace can stand erect and raise his head because in Christ redemption is at hand (cf Lk, 21:28).”
Thursday, November 26, 2009
EU commission strikes down British religious freedom exemptions from anti-discrimination law
London, England, Nov 26, 2009 / 01:06 pm (CNA).- The European Union has compelled the British government to remove religious freedom exemptions from an anti-discrimination bill. The move will forbid church bodies from declining to employ homosexual staff. The National Secular Society had argued that the exemptions went further than was permitted under an EU directive and created “illegal discrimination against homosexuals,” the Observer reports.
The EU commission agreed, ruling that the exemptions are “broader than that permitted by the directive.”
The British government must now redraft anti-discrimination laws. The new proposals would allow religious organizations to decline to employ homosexuals only if their job involves actively promoting or practicing a religion.
The prior law allowed religious groups to refuse to employ homosexuals “so as to avoid conflicting with the strongly held religious convictions of a significant number of the religion's followers.”
Homosexual activist Peter Tatchell claimed that the ruling was “a significant victory for gay equality” and a “serious setback” for religious employers who had been granted exemption. According to the Guardian, he said the move was a “big embarrassment” for the British government, which he claimed has “consistently sought to appease religious homophobes.”
The Christian charity, Care was critical of the decision, the Guardian says.
“If evangelical churches cannot be sure that they can employ practicing evangelicals with respect to sexual ethics, how will they be able to continue?” the organization asked.
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17852&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
The EU commission agreed, ruling that the exemptions are “broader than that permitted by the directive.”
The British government must now redraft anti-discrimination laws. The new proposals would allow religious organizations to decline to employ homosexuals only if their job involves actively promoting or practicing a religion.
The prior law allowed religious groups to refuse to employ homosexuals “so as to avoid conflicting with the strongly held religious convictions of a significant number of the religion's followers.”
Homosexual activist Peter Tatchell claimed that the ruling was “a significant victory for gay equality” and a “serious setback” for religious employers who had been granted exemption. According to the Guardian, he said the move was a “big embarrassment” for the British government, which he claimed has “consistently sought to appease religious homophobes.”
The Christian charity, Care was critical of the decision, the Guardian says.
“If evangelical churches cannot be sure that they can employ practicing evangelicals with respect to sexual ethics, how will they be able to continue?” the organization asked.
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17852&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Law on homosexual unions in Mexico City is a 'legal monstrosity,' expert says
Mexico City, Mexico, Nov 24, 2009 / 04:56 pm (CNA).- The president of the College of Catholic Lawyers of Mexico, Armando Martinez, criticized a proposed measure this week that would make homosexual unions equal to marriage. Martinez said the new measure being promoted by the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) is a “legal monstrosity,” and that the existing civil union laws could be modified to address such issues as social security.
Overhauling the country’s laws for the sake of rights that are “supposedly” not recognized is “a huge lie,” he said adding that the only thing that would be created is a legal contradiction between the Federal District and the states. Martinez slammed lawmakers for being “scatterbrains” and for allowing themselves to be the spokesmen for “small-minded intellectuals” who are promoting such measures.
“It is untrue that reforming the Civil Code would give homosexuals rights in the area of social security, since in order for that to happen federal law must be changed,” he pointed out.
Martinez also criticized lawmakers in Mexico City for being out of touch with the Mexican people, as 17 states have enacted constitutional reform in support of “the culture of life.” If they are so sure their agenda is what the people want, he added, then they should hold a referendum and allow voters to participate in the decision of whether or not to legalize homosexual unions
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17821&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Overhauling the country’s laws for the sake of rights that are “supposedly” not recognized is “a huge lie,” he said adding that the only thing that would be created is a legal contradiction between the Federal District and the states. Martinez slammed lawmakers for being “scatterbrains” and for allowing themselves to be the spokesmen for “small-minded intellectuals” who are promoting such measures.
“It is untrue that reforming the Civil Code would give homosexuals rights in the area of social security, since in order for that to happen federal law must be changed,” he pointed out.
Martinez also criticized lawmakers in Mexico City for being out of touch with the Mexican people, as 17 states have enacted constitutional reform in support of “the culture of life.” If they are so sure their agenda is what the people want, he added, then they should hold a referendum and allow voters to participate in the decision of whether or not to legalize homosexual unions
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17821&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Sunday, November 22, 2009
South Korean obstetricians demand enforcement of abortion law
Seoul, South Korea, Nov 22, 2009 / 08:34 pm (CNA).- Despite South Korea’s prohibition on abortion, some 350,000 abortions still take place annually. Now a group of obstetricians is working to enforce the law, even if the former abortionists among their membership must implicate themselves in their own illegal acts. The number of abortions in South Korea is only 100,000 fewer than the 450,000 babies usually born each year.
The Korean group of obstetricians called Gynob has launched a movement against abortion, Joon Ang Daily reports. Their spokeswoman, practicing obstetrician Choi Anna, said she intends to advocate against abortion until the practice is entirely wiped out though she has reportedly received death threats from other private obstetricians who say her activities are bad for business.
“Our group has made it clear that we as obstetricians won’t rely on abortion for a living anymore,” Anna said.
The 43-year-old Anna admits to having once profited from abortions at her hospital. She told the Joon Ang Daily that Korean society’s tacit consent to abortion has prompted many obstetricians to secretly provide the procedure.
“The country is now suffering from a low birthrate,” Anna said, attributing it to a past population control policy that encouraged abortion. “The government seems to be reluctant now to clamp down. But we believe when doctors halt abortions, births could increase by more than 100,000 in one to two years.
“If this movement becomes successful, obstetricians won’t have to provide abortions for a living,” she added.
Gynob is planning to send questionnaires on abortion to all government institutions, including the presidential Blue House, and to related research centers.
If the Health Ministry does not launch an investigation into the conducting of abortions for profit, Anna said, her group will try to have the ministry indicted for neglecting its duties.
Members of Gynob are considering implicating themselves for illegal abortions because abortion has a five-year statute of limitation.
“My fellow doctor Shim Sang-deok says our movement may bear fruit after he is imprisoned,” Anna said.
Many practicing obstetricians provide abortions because they are profitable, while delivering babies and providing gynecological treatment are not big moneymakers, Anna explained.
“Doctors performing abortions say they are ashamed to tell their families what they do,” she told the Joon Ang Daily. “When I opened my hospital seven years ago, I wanted to treat patients suffering from sterility, my expertise, but a major portion of my patients were those wanting abortions. I washed my hands countless times after abortion surgeries.”
She said abortion is the “easiest choice” for pregnant Korean women regardless of their wealth, religion or education.
“But post-abortion trauma is gigantic,” Anna added.
Korean law defines abortion as artificially ending the life of an unborn child aged 23 weeks or younger. It allows exceptions if a mother’s life is in jeopardy if she gives birth and in case where women are victims of rape or incest or have infectious or genetically-based mental illnesses.
Both abortionists and the women who seek abortions are subject to prison terms of up to two years, but few have ever been punished, the Joon Ang Daily reports.
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17790&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
The Korean group of obstetricians called Gynob has launched a movement against abortion, Joon Ang Daily reports. Their spokeswoman, practicing obstetrician Choi Anna, said she intends to advocate against abortion until the practice is entirely wiped out though she has reportedly received death threats from other private obstetricians who say her activities are bad for business.
“Our group has made it clear that we as obstetricians won’t rely on abortion for a living anymore,” Anna said.
The 43-year-old Anna admits to having once profited from abortions at her hospital. She told the Joon Ang Daily that Korean society’s tacit consent to abortion has prompted many obstetricians to secretly provide the procedure.
“The country is now suffering from a low birthrate,” Anna said, attributing it to a past population control policy that encouraged abortion. “The government seems to be reluctant now to clamp down. But we believe when doctors halt abortions, births could increase by more than 100,000 in one to two years.
“If this movement becomes successful, obstetricians won’t have to provide abortions for a living,” she added.
Gynob is planning to send questionnaires on abortion to all government institutions, including the presidential Blue House, and to related research centers.
If the Health Ministry does not launch an investigation into the conducting of abortions for profit, Anna said, her group will try to have the ministry indicted for neglecting its duties.
Members of Gynob are considering implicating themselves for illegal abortions because abortion has a five-year statute of limitation.
“My fellow doctor Shim Sang-deok says our movement may bear fruit after he is imprisoned,” Anna said.
Many practicing obstetricians provide abortions because they are profitable, while delivering babies and providing gynecological treatment are not big moneymakers, Anna explained.
“Doctors performing abortions say they are ashamed to tell their families what they do,” she told the Joon Ang Daily. “When I opened my hospital seven years ago, I wanted to treat patients suffering from sterility, my expertise, but a major portion of my patients were those wanting abortions. I washed my hands countless times after abortion surgeries.”
She said abortion is the “easiest choice” for pregnant Korean women regardless of their wealth, religion or education.
“But post-abortion trauma is gigantic,” Anna added.
Korean law defines abortion as artificially ending the life of an unborn child aged 23 weeks or younger. It allows exceptions if a mother’s life is in jeopardy if she gives birth and in case where women are victims of rape or incest or have infectious or genetically-based mental illnesses.
Both abortionists and the women who seek abortions are subject to prison terms of up to two years, but few have ever been punished, the Joon Ang Daily reports.
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17790&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Friday, November 20, 2009
Vatican Alerts Doctors to Anti-Life Mindset
ROME, NOV. 20, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There is an urgency today to educate society in the culture of life, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone told a gathering of Italian physicians.
Benedict XVI's secretary of state said this last week during a homily he gave to members of the National Council of Italian Catholic Medical Associations, held in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.
Addressing the challenges of modernity, the cardinal noted that "medicine itself, which by its nature should tend to the defense and care of human life, in some of its sectors lends itself increasingly to carry out acts against the person."
The secretary of state affirmed an "urgency to educate in the culture of life."
"Witnessed on one hand is the elimination of nascent human lives or those that are close to their end; on the other, it is increasingly difficult for conscience to distinguish good from evil in what affects the very fundamental value of human life," he explained.
Cardinal Bertone reminded his listeners that "the activity of the Catholic doctor is revealed useful not only for the purpose of physical health, but also, in a certain sense, for the moral and spiritual health of the patient."
This is true, he said, because "body and spirit are so united in man that one influences the other, and your main task is to watch over and promote life in its integral realization."
Reductions
Referring to the encyclical "Caritas in Veritate," the secretary of state criticized the material and mechanical concept of human life," which reduces love without truth to "an empty shell to be filled arbitrarily" and can entail negative effects for integral human development.
According to the cardinal, to educate in the culture of life it is necessary "to be able to contemplate in every human being the reflection of the beauty and love of God."
"Without God, man no longer perceives himself as 'mysteriously other' in relation to the various earthly creatures, and is considered as one of many living beings, as an organism that, at best, has reached a very high level of perfection," he said.
Referring to the encyclical "Evangelium Vitae" of John Paul II, Cardinal Bertone pointed out that it is "precisely in the distance between God and man" where "the motive is found that leads to losing the value of human life with the consequent presumption of being able to manage it, ignoring the Creator."
In this context, the secretary of state denounced abortion and deaths due to hunger: "There are lives that aren't news and whose loss does not cause shock.
"There are sacrosanct battles to save the life of those sentenced to death and also to safeguard the right to life of those who have committed serious crimes, while the death of innocents is considered legal and just, with laws approved by majorities in civil Parliaments."
"Emotion, ideologies, and political reasons," he added, "substitute in practice the correctly illumined conscience."
this can be found at: http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-27621
Benedict XVI's secretary of state said this last week during a homily he gave to members of the National Council of Italian Catholic Medical Associations, held in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.
Addressing the challenges of modernity, the cardinal noted that "medicine itself, which by its nature should tend to the defense and care of human life, in some of its sectors lends itself increasingly to carry out acts against the person."
The secretary of state affirmed an "urgency to educate in the culture of life."
"Witnessed on one hand is the elimination of nascent human lives or those that are close to their end; on the other, it is increasingly difficult for conscience to distinguish good from evil in what affects the very fundamental value of human life," he explained.
Cardinal Bertone reminded his listeners that "the activity of the Catholic doctor is revealed useful not only for the purpose of physical health, but also, in a certain sense, for the moral and spiritual health of the patient."
This is true, he said, because "body and spirit are so united in man that one influences the other, and your main task is to watch over and promote life in its integral realization."
Reductions
Referring to the encyclical "Caritas in Veritate," the secretary of state criticized the material and mechanical concept of human life," which reduces love without truth to "an empty shell to be filled arbitrarily" and can entail negative effects for integral human development.
According to the cardinal, to educate in the culture of life it is necessary "to be able to contemplate in every human being the reflection of the beauty and love of God."
"Without God, man no longer perceives himself as 'mysteriously other' in relation to the various earthly creatures, and is considered as one of many living beings, as an organism that, at best, has reached a very high level of perfection," he said.
Referring to the encyclical "Evangelium Vitae" of John Paul II, Cardinal Bertone pointed out that it is "precisely in the distance between God and man" where "the motive is found that leads to losing the value of human life with the consequent presumption of being able to manage it, ignoring the Creator."
In this context, the secretary of state denounced abortion and deaths due to hunger: "There are lives that aren't news and whose loss does not cause shock.
"There are sacrosanct battles to save the life of those sentenced to death and also to safeguard the right to life of those who have committed serious crimes, while the death of innocents is considered legal and just, with laws approved by majorities in civil Parliaments."
"Emotion, ideologies, and political reasons," he added, "substitute in practice the correctly illumined conscience."
this can be found at: http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-27621
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Planned Parenthood 'runs on fear,' former clinic director charges
Denver, Colo., Nov 17, 2009 / 07:02 am (CNA).- Abby Johnson, former Bryan, Texas Planned Parenthood director spoke with CNA on Monday about the restraining order her former employer filed against her following her Oct. 6 resignation. Johnson noted that while she was a little surprised by the injunction, she also knows that Planned Parenthood “runs on fear.”
Johnson, who had worked at the Bryan clinic for eight years, left Planned Parenthood on what she describes as “good terms” after witnessing an ultrasound of an abortion.
“I made a decision that day,” she told CNA. “I went home and talked to my husband about it.”
Following her resignation, Johnson joined up with members of the Coalition of Life. Shortly after, Planned Parenthood's lawyers filed a restraining order against their former employee citing their concern that she would share confidential information about the clinic as well as its patients.
Johnson noted that Planned Parenthood's attempt was unsuccessful and that their claims “had no evidence.”
“Alluding to the fact that I would release patient information is very offensive. I cared about them when I worked there, and I still do.” Johnson added that she would never do anything to violate their privacy. “It's absolutely ridiculous!”
The former clinic director went even further in denouncing Planned Parenthood, calling it “an organization that frequently threatens people who go against them.” During her tenure at the clinic, Johnson said that she saw her former employer “continually threaten” its opponents.
“If you're against them, they are going to try to sue you,” she told CNA.
Though Johnson admitted she was slightly surprised the organization filed an injunction, she figured they might go after her.
“Planned Parenthood is an organization that runs of fear. They are scared of what they do know, and they are scared of what they don't know.”
Now that Johnson has resigned from her position, she said she's not sure what is in store for her. Currently she has several talks lined up to discuss pro-life issues on the benefits of ultrasound and how important it is for women.
She added that she and her husband are “spending a lot of time in prayer to decide what we'll do next. Everyday something new pops up. Something that we didn't expect.”
This can be seen at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17718&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Johnson, who had worked at the Bryan clinic for eight years, left Planned Parenthood on what she describes as “good terms” after witnessing an ultrasound of an abortion.
“I made a decision that day,” she told CNA. “I went home and talked to my husband about it.”
Following her resignation, Johnson joined up with members of the Coalition of Life. Shortly after, Planned Parenthood's lawyers filed a restraining order against their former employee citing their concern that she would share confidential information about the clinic as well as its patients.
Johnson noted that Planned Parenthood's attempt was unsuccessful and that their claims “had no evidence.”
“Alluding to the fact that I would release patient information is very offensive. I cared about them when I worked there, and I still do.” Johnson added that she would never do anything to violate their privacy. “It's absolutely ridiculous!”
The former clinic director went even further in denouncing Planned Parenthood, calling it “an organization that frequently threatens people who go against them.” During her tenure at the clinic, Johnson said that she saw her former employer “continually threaten” its opponents.
“If you're against them, they are going to try to sue you,” she told CNA.
Though Johnson admitted she was slightly surprised the organization filed an injunction, she figured they might go after her.
“Planned Parenthood is an organization that runs of fear. They are scared of what they do know, and they are scared of what they don't know.”
Now that Johnson has resigned from her position, she said she's not sure what is in store for her. Currently she has several talks lined up to discuss pro-life issues on the benefits of ultrasound and how important it is for women.
She added that she and her husband are “spending a lot of time in prayer to decide what we'll do next. Everyday something new pops up. Something that we didn't expect.”
This can be seen at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17718&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Monday, November 16, 2009
Well-formed conscience imperative to defense of life, says Holy Father
Vatican City, Nov 16, 2009 / 12:31 pm (CNA).- At the conclusion of their visit to Rome, Pope Benedict addressed members of Brazil’s National Conference of Bishops, inviting them to continue their evangelization efforts and emphasizing that the well-formed conscience brings about the absolute good of humanity.
Integral to that human good, and to the formation and exercise of conscience, is the defense of life, which is “not just a Christian prerogative” the Pope continued. “The 'people of life' are happy to share their commitment with others in such a way that they may become ever more numerous and the new culture of love and solidarity may grow, for the true good of human civilization,” he told the bishops.
In face of the “growing wave of violence and contempt for human beings” in today’s culture, Benedict XVI encouraged the prelates to speak "to people's hearts" and "to unite their efforts,” reminding the people that they are not merely a human product but “a gift of God welcomed in the loving intimacy between man and woman.”
Essentially, “the conviction - founded on proper reason and the certainty of faith - that human life, from conception to natural death, belongs to God and not to man, gives life that sacred character and individual dignity which justify the only correct legal and moral attitude: one of profound respect," the Pope added.
The Holy Father closed by inviting the bishops to do God’s work, “not with the sadness of those who see only shortcomings and dangers, but with the firm trust of those who know they can be sure of Christ's victory.”
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17712&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Integral to that human good, and to the formation and exercise of conscience, is the defense of life, which is “not just a Christian prerogative” the Pope continued. “The 'people of life' are happy to share their commitment with others in such a way that they may become ever more numerous and the new culture of love and solidarity may grow, for the true good of human civilization,” he told the bishops.
In face of the “growing wave of violence and contempt for human beings” in today’s culture, Benedict XVI encouraged the prelates to speak "to people's hearts" and "to unite their efforts,” reminding the people that they are not merely a human product but “a gift of God welcomed in the loving intimacy between man and woman.”
Essentially, “the conviction - founded on proper reason and the certainty of faith - that human life, from conception to natural death, belongs to God and not to man, gives life that sacred character and individual dignity which justify the only correct legal and moral attitude: one of profound respect," the Pope added.
The Holy Father closed by inviting the bishops to do God’s work, “not with the sadness of those who see only shortcomings and dangers, but with the firm trust of those who know they can be sure of Christ's victory.”
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17712&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Friday, November 13, 2009
Breast cancer-abortion link highlighted by Chinese study
Shenyang, China, Nov 13, 2009 / 07:31 am (CNA).- Chinese researchers claim to have found a 17 percent increased breast cancer risk among women who have had induced abortions.
Peng Xing and other researchers in the Department of Oncology at the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University enrolled in their study 1,417 patients diagnosed with breast cancer and 1,587 women without a prior breast cancer.
The researchers’ findings indicated that induced abortion increased a woman’s risk of breast cancer by a “statistically significant” rate of 17 percent.
According to the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer (CABC), U.S. researchers have said that Chinese studies on a link between abortion and breast cancer exclude “report bias” because abortion isn’t stigmatized in China and Chinese women are considered reliable reporters for their abortions.
The CABC said a Turkish study published earlier this year reported a 66 percent increased breast cancer risk among women who have had abortions.
Karen Malec, CABC president, said the Chinese and Turkish studies are relevant to the debate in the U.S. over government-funded abortion.
“Government-funded abortion means more dead American women from breast cancer," she charged.
The CABC claimed that both studies show “honest research” in contrast to U.S. and Western governmental agencies or organizations that the coalition believes are “tethered to abortion ideology and politics.”
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17693&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Peng Xing and other researchers in the Department of Oncology at the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University enrolled in their study 1,417 patients diagnosed with breast cancer and 1,587 women without a prior breast cancer.
The researchers’ findings indicated that induced abortion increased a woman’s risk of breast cancer by a “statistically significant” rate of 17 percent.
According to the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer (CABC), U.S. researchers have said that Chinese studies on a link between abortion and breast cancer exclude “report bias” because abortion isn’t stigmatized in China and Chinese women are considered reliable reporters for their abortions.
The CABC said a Turkish study published earlier this year reported a 66 percent increased breast cancer risk among women who have had abortions.
Karen Malec, CABC president, said the Chinese and Turkish studies are relevant to the debate in the U.S. over government-funded abortion.
“Government-funded abortion means more dead American women from breast cancer," she charged.
The CABC claimed that both studies show “honest research” in contrast to U.S. and Western governmental agencies or organizations that the coalition believes are “tethered to abortion ideology and politics.”
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17693&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Spanish bishop encourages women who have aborted to receive Sacrament of Reconciliation
Madrid, Spain, Nov 12, 2009 / 07:52 pm (CNA/Europa Press).- The secretary general of the Spanish bishops' conference, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino of Madrid, encouraged women who have aborted to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
During a breakfast in the Spanish capital, Bishop Martinez Camino said the Church reaches out to women who are feeling tempted to have an abortion or have already experienced this tragedy.
He then stressed that God’s mercy awaits those tormented by abortion. “Those who have not gone to confession are encouraged to do so because God wants to offer them a solution and deep peace,” he said. The Church “defends the rights of the innocents,” and is “conscious of the problem that [abortion] entails.”
“She is not merciless towards those who fall into sin,” he continued.
Bishop Martinez Camino warned lawmakers that support of the proposed law on abortion would constitute “public sin” and would place them in an “objective state of sin.” While “the Church cannot judge their subjectivity,” he added, those who “directly collaborate” in an abortion incur excommunication.
The bishop said lawmakers and voters must consider the issue of life above their own political party platforms and party leaders. Those who affirm that an innocent life can be taken find themselves “in contradiction with Divine and Catholic law,” he added.
He then praised health care workers and others who have exercised their right to conscientious objection “with civic and moral courage,” and he warned against the “grave manipulation” of portraying abortion as a medical procedure, as “abortion is never a cure because pregnancy is not a disease.”
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17686&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
During a breakfast in the Spanish capital, Bishop Martinez Camino said the Church reaches out to women who are feeling tempted to have an abortion or have already experienced this tragedy.
He then stressed that God’s mercy awaits those tormented by abortion. “Those who have not gone to confession are encouraged to do so because God wants to offer them a solution and deep peace,” he said. The Church “defends the rights of the innocents,” and is “conscious of the problem that [abortion] entails.”
“She is not merciless towards those who fall into sin,” he continued.
Bishop Martinez Camino warned lawmakers that support of the proposed law on abortion would constitute “public sin” and would place them in an “objective state of sin.” While “the Church cannot judge their subjectivity,” he added, those who “directly collaborate” in an abortion incur excommunication.
The bishop said lawmakers and voters must consider the issue of life above their own political party platforms and party leaders. Those who affirm that an innocent life can be taken find themselves “in contradiction with Divine and Catholic law,” he added.
He then praised health care workers and others who have exercised their right to conscientious objection “with civic and moral courage,” and he warned against the “grave manipulation” of portraying abortion as a medical procedure, as “abortion is never a cure because pregnancy is not a disease.”
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17686&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
Italy's Bishops Irate over Crucifix Ban by European Court
VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) - Italy's bishops are saying the European Court of Human Rights is guilty of a partial and ideological outlook with its Tuesday decision that crucifixes in public school are a violation of freedom.
The Vatican and the Italian government expressed dismay with Tuesday's decision and Italian bishops expressed their own perplexity.
The court ruled in favor of an Italian citizen of Finnish origin who complained in 2002 that the state school where her two children studied violated their freedom by displaying crucifixes.
The school's administration refused to remove them, contending that the crucifix is part of Italian cultural patrimony; Italian courts subsequently backed this claim.
Now, the Strasbourg-based European court has asked the Italian government to compensate the woman with €5,000 ($7,300).
Judge Nicola Lettieri, who defends Italy in Strasbourg, assured that the Italian government will appeal the decision.
Obligation
The Italian bishops' conference said the decision "causes distress and many perplexities."
"It ignores or neglects the multiple meaning of the crucifix, which not only is a religious symbol, but also a cultural sign," a communiqué from the conference stated. "It does not take into account the fact that, in reality, in the Italian experience, the display of the crucifix in public places is in harmony with the recognition of the principles of Catholicism as part of the historical patrimony of the Italian people, confirmed by the Concordat of 1984."
The bishops cautioned that the ruling "runs the risk of artificially severing the national identity from its spiritual and cultural origins."
The episcopal conference statement maintained that the decision goes beyond a separation of Church and state, and becomes "hostility toward any form of political and cultural relevance of religion."
For his part, jurist Giuseppe Dalla Torre, rector of the LUMSA University of Rome, told the bishops' SIR news agency that the court's argument is "mistaken reasoning based on an assumption that the crucifix might oblige a profession of faith. However, the crucifix is a passive symbol, that is, it does not oblige anyone in conscience."
This can be found at: http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=34759
The Vatican and the Italian government expressed dismay with Tuesday's decision and Italian bishops expressed their own perplexity.
The court ruled in favor of an Italian citizen of Finnish origin who complained in 2002 that the state school where her two children studied violated their freedom by displaying crucifixes.
The school's administration refused to remove them, contending that the crucifix is part of Italian cultural patrimony; Italian courts subsequently backed this claim.
Now, the Strasbourg-based European court has asked the Italian government to compensate the woman with €5,000 ($7,300).
Judge Nicola Lettieri, who defends Italy in Strasbourg, assured that the Italian government will appeal the decision.
Obligation
The Italian bishops' conference said the decision "causes distress and many perplexities."
"It ignores or neglects the multiple meaning of the crucifix, which not only is a religious symbol, but also a cultural sign," a communiqué from the conference stated. "It does not take into account the fact that, in reality, in the Italian experience, the display of the crucifix in public places is in harmony with the recognition of the principles of Catholicism as part of the historical patrimony of the Italian people, confirmed by the Concordat of 1984."
The bishops cautioned that the ruling "runs the risk of artificially severing the national identity from its spiritual and cultural origins."
The episcopal conference statement maintained that the decision goes beyond a separation of Church and state, and becomes "hostility toward any form of political and cultural relevance of religion."
For his part, jurist Giuseppe Dalla Torre, rector of the LUMSA University of Rome, told the bishops' SIR news agency that the court's argument is "mistaken reasoning based on an assumption that the crucifix might oblige a profession of faith. However, the crucifix is a passive symbol, that is, it does not oblige anyone in conscience."
This can be found at: http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=34759
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Contraception in History
Historically, Christians always have condemned contraceptive sex. The two forms mentioned in the Bible, and sterilization, are condemned without exception (Gen. 38:9-10, Deut. 23:1). The Fathers of the Church recognized that in natural law the purpose of sexual intercourse is procreation; contraceptive sex, which deliberately blocks that natural purpose, is therefore a violation of natural law.
Every church in Christendom condemned contraception until 1930, when, at its decennial Lambeth Conference, Anglicanism gave permission for the use of contraception in a few extraordinary cases. Soon all Protestant denominations had adopted the secularist position on contraception. Today not one stands with the Catholic Church to maintain the ancient Christian faith on this issue.
How badly things have decayed may be seen by comparing the current state of non-Catholic churches, where most pastors counsel young couples to decide before they are married what form of contraception they use, with these quotations from the Fathers, who condemned contraception in general as well as in particular forms of it (sterilization, oral contraceptives, , and orally-consummated sex).
Many Protestants, perhaps beginning to see the inevitable connection between contraception and divorce and between contraception and abortion, are now returning to the historic Christian position and are rejecting contraceptive sexual practices.
Letter of Barnabas
"Moreover, he [Moses] has rightly detested the weasel [Lev. 11 :29]. For he means, 'Thou shalt not be like to those whom we hear of as committing wickedness with the mouth with the body through uncleanness [orally consummated sex]; nor shalt thou be joined to those impure women who commit iniquity with the mouth with the body through uncleanness"' ( 10:8 [A.D. 74]).
Clement of Alexandria
"Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted" ( 2:10:91:2 [A.D. 191]).
Clement of Alexandria
"To have coitus other than to procreate children is to do injury to nature" (ibid. 2:10:95:3).
Hippolytus
"[Christian women with male concubines], on account of their prominent ancestry and great property, the so-called faithful want no children from slaves or lowborn commoners, they use drugs of sterility [oral contraceptives] or bind themselves tightly in order to expel a fetus which has already been engendered [abortion]" ( 9:12 [A.D. 225]).
Lactantius
"[Some] complain of the scantiness of their means, and allege that they have not enough for bringing up more children, as though, in truth, their means were in [their] power . . . or God did not daily make the rich poor and the poor rich. Wherefore, if any one on any account of poverty shall be unable to bring up children, it is better to abstain from relations with his wife" ( 6:20 [A.D. 3o7]).
Lactantius
"God gave us eyes not to see and desire pleasure, but to see acts to be performed for the needs of life; so too, the genital ['generating'] part of the body, as the name itself teaches, has been received by us for no other purpose than the generation of offspring" (ibid. 6:23:18).
Council of Nicaea I
"[I]f anyone in sound health has castrated [sterilized] himself, it behooves that such a one, if enrolled among the clergy, should cease [from his ministry], and that from henceforth no such person should be promoted. But, as it is evident that this is said of those who willfully do the thing and presume to castrate themselves, so if any have been made eunuchs by barbarians, or by their masters, and should otherwise be found worthy, such men this canon admits to the clergy" (canon l [A.D. 325]).
Epiphanius
"They [certain Egyptian heretics] exercise genital acts, yet prevent the conceiving of children. Not in order to produce offspring, but to satisfy lust, are they eager for corruption" ( 26:5:2 [A.D. 375]).
John Chrysostom
"[I]n truth, all men know that they who are under the power of this disease [the sin of covetousness] are wearied even of their father's old age [wishing him to die so they can inherit]; and that which is sweet, and universally desirable, the having of children, they esteem grievous and unwelcome. Many at least with this view have even paid money to be childless, and have mutilated nature, not only killing the newborn, but even acting to prevent their beginning to live [sterilization]" ( 28:5 [A.D. 391]).
John Chrysostom
"[T]he man who has mutilated [sterilized] himself, in fact, is subject even to a curse, as Paul says, 'I would that they who trouble you would cut the whole thing off' [Gal. 5 :12]. And very reasonably, for such a person is venturing on the deeds of murderers, and giving occasion to them that slander God's creation, and opens the mouths of the Manicheans, and is guilty of the same unlawful acts as they that mutilate themselves among the Greeks. For to cut off our members has been from the beginning a work of demonical agency, and satanic device, that they may bring up a bad report upon the works of God, that they may mar this living creature, that imputing all not to the choice, but to the nature of our members, the more part of them may sin in security as being irresponsible, and doubly harm this living creature, both by mutilating the members and be impeding the forwardness of the free choice in behalf of good deeds" (ibid. 62:3).
John Chrysostom
"Why do you sow where the field is eager to destroy the fruit, where there are medicines of sterility [oral contraceptives], where there is murder before birth? You do not even let a harlot remain only a harlot, but you make her a murderess as well.... Indeed, it is something worse than murder, and I do not know what to call it; for she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you condemn the gift of God and fight with his [natural] laws? . . . Yet such turpitude . . . the matter still seems indifferent to many men—even to many men having wives. In this indifference of the married men there is greater evil filth; for then poisons are prepared, not against the womb of a prostitute, but against your injured wife. Against her are these innumerable tricks" ( 24 [A.D. 391]).
John Chrysostom
"Observe how bitterly he [Paul] speaks against their deceivers . . . 'I would that they which trouble you would cut the whole thing off' [Gal. 5:12] .... On this account he curses them, and his meaning is as follows: 'For them I have no concern, "A man that is heretical after the first and second admonition." If they will, let them not only be circumcised but mutilated' [Titus 3:10]. Where then are those who dare to mutilate [sterilize] themselves, seeing that they drawn down the apostolic curse, and accuse the workmanship of God, and take part with the Manichees?" ( 5:12 [A.D. 395]).
Jerome
"But I wonder why he [the heretic Jovinianus] set Judah and Tamar before us for an example, unless perchance even harlots give him pleasure; or Onan, who was slain because he grudged his brother seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children?" ( 1: 19 [A.D. 393]).
Jerome
"You may see a number of women who are widows before they are wives. Others, indeed, will drink sterility [oral contraceptives] and murder a man not yet born, [and some commit abortion]" ( 22:13 [A.D. 396]).
Augustine
"You [Manicheans] make your auditors adulterers of their wives when they take care lest the women with whom they copulate conceive. They take wives according to the laws of matrimony by tablets announcing that the marriage is contracted to procreate children; and then, fearing because of your [religious] law [against childbearing] . . . they copulate in a shameful union only to satisfy lust for their wives. They are unwilling to have children, on whose account alone marriages are made. How is it, then, that you are not those prohibiting marriage, as the apostle predicted of you so long ago [1 Tim. 4:1-4], when you try to take from marriage what marriage is? When this is taken away, husbands are shameful lovers, wives are harlots, bridal chambers are brothels, fathers-in-law are pimps" ( 15:7 [A.D. 400]).
Augustine
"For thus the eternal law, that is, the will of God creator of all creatures, taking counsel for the conservation of natural order, not to serve lust, but to see to the preservation of the race, permits the delight of mortal flesh to be released from the control of reason in copulation only to propagate progeny" (ibid., 22:30).
Augustine
"For necessary sexual intercourse for begetting [children] is alone worthy of marriage. But that which goes beyond this necessity no longer follows reason but lust. And yet it pertains to the character of marriage . . . to yield it to the partner lest by fornication the other sin damnably [through adultery].... [T]hey [must] not turn away from them the mercy of God . . . by changing the natural use into that which is against nature, which is more damnable when it is done in the case of husband or wife. For, whereas that natural use, when it pass beyond the compact of marriage, that is, beyond the necessity of begetting [children], is pardonable in the case of a wife, damnable in the case of a harlot; that which is against nature is execrable when done in the case of a harlot, but more execrable in the case of a wife. Of so great power is the ordinance of the Creator, and the order of creation, that . . . when the man shall wish to use a body part of the wife not allowed for this purpose [orally or anally consummated sex], the wife is more shameful, if she suffer it to take place in her own case, than if in the case of another woman" ( 11-12 [A.D. 401]).
Augustine
"This proves that you [Manicheans] approve of having a wife, not for the procreation of children, but for the gratification of passion. In marriage, as the marriage law declares, the man and woman come together for the procreation of children. Therefore, whoever makes the procreation of children a greater sin than copulation, forbids marriage and makes the woman not a wife but a mistress, who for some gifts presented to her is joined to the man to gratify his passion" ( 18:65 [A.D. 388]).
Augustine
"I am supposing, then, although you are not lying [with your wife] for the sake of procreating offspring, you are not for the sake of lust obstructing their procreation by an evil prayer or an evil deed. Those who do this, although they are called husband and wife, are not; nor do they retain any reality of marriage, but with a respectable name cover a shame. Sometimes this lustful cruelty, or cruel lust, comes to this, that they even procure poisons of sterility [oral contraceptives] . . . Assuredly if both husband and wife are like this, they are not married, and if they were like this from the beginning they come together not joined in matrimony but in seduction. If both are not like this, I dare to say that either the wife is in a fashion the harlot of her husband or he is an adulterer with his own wife" ( 1:15:17 [A.D. 419]).
Caesarius
"Who is he who cannot warn that no woman may take a potion [an oral contraceptive or an abortifacient] so that she is unable to conceive or condemns in herself the nature which God willed to be fecund? As often as she could have conceived or given birth, of that many homicides she will be held guilty, and, unless she undergoes suitable penance, she will be damned by eternal death in hell. If a women does not wish to have children, let her enter into a religious agreement with her husband; for chastity is the sole sterility of a Christian woman" ( 1:12 [A.D. 522]).
This can be found at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/FKBCONTR.HTM
Every church in Christendom condemned contraception until 1930, when, at its decennial Lambeth Conference, Anglicanism gave permission for the use of contraception in a few extraordinary cases. Soon all Protestant denominations had adopted the secularist position on contraception. Today not one stands with the Catholic Church to maintain the ancient Christian faith on this issue.
How badly things have decayed may be seen by comparing the current state of non-Catholic churches, where most pastors counsel young couples to decide before they are married what form of contraception they
Many Protestants, perhaps beginning to see the inevitable connection between contraception and divorce and between contraception and abortion, are now returning to the historic Christian position and are rejecting contraceptive sexual practices.
Letter of Barnabas
"Moreover, he [Moses] has rightly detested the weasel [Lev. 11 :29]. For he means, 'Thou shalt not be like to those whom we hear of as committing wickedness with the mouth with the body through uncleanness [orally consummated sex]; nor shalt thou be joined to those impure women who commit iniquity with the mouth with the body through uncleanness"' (
Clement of Alexandria
"Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted" (
Clement of Alexandria
"To have coitus other than to procreate children is to do injury to nature" (ibid. 2:10:95:3).
Hippolytus
"[Christian women with male concubines], on account of their prominent ancestry and great property, the so-called faithful want no children from slaves or lowborn commoners, they use drugs of sterility [oral contraceptives] or bind themselves tightly in order to expel a fetus which has already been engendered [abortion]" (
Lactantius
"[Some] complain of the scantiness of their means, and allege that they have not enough for bringing up more children, as though, in truth, their means were in [their] power . . . or God did not daily make the rich poor and the poor rich. Wherefore, if any one on any account of poverty shall be unable to bring up children, it is better to abstain from relations with his wife" (
Lactantius
"God gave us eyes not to see and desire pleasure, but to see acts to be performed for the needs of life; so too, the genital ['generating'] part of the body, as the name itself teaches, has been received by us for no other purpose than the generation of offspring" (ibid. 6:23:18).
Council of Nicaea I
"[I]f anyone in sound health has castrated [sterilized] himself, it behooves that such a one, if enrolled among the clergy, should cease [from his ministry], and that from henceforth no such person should be promoted. But, as it is evident that this is said of those who willfully do the thing and presume to castrate themselves, so if any have been made eunuchs by barbarians, or by their masters, and should otherwise be found worthy, such men this canon admits to the clergy" (canon l [A.D. 325]).
Epiphanius
"They [certain Egyptian heretics] exercise genital acts, yet prevent the conceiving of children. Not in order to produce offspring, but to satisfy lust, are they eager for corruption" (
John Chrysostom
"[I]n truth, all men know that they who are under the power of this disease [the sin of covetousness] are wearied even of their father's old age [wishing him to die so they can inherit]; and that which is sweet, and universally desirable, the having of children, they esteem grievous and unwelcome. Many at least with this view have even paid money to be childless, and have mutilated nature, not only killing the newborn, but even acting to prevent their beginning to live [sterilization]" (
John Chrysostom
"[T]he man who has mutilated [sterilized] himself, in fact, is subject even to a curse, as Paul says, 'I would that they who trouble you would cut the whole thing off' [Gal. 5 :12]. And very reasonably, for such a person is venturing on the deeds of murderers, and giving occasion to them that slander God's creation, and opens the mouths of the Manicheans, and is guilty of the same unlawful acts as they that mutilate themselves among the Greeks. For to cut off our members has been from the beginning a work of demonical agency, and satanic device, that they may bring up a bad report upon the works of God, that they may mar this living creature, that imputing all not to the choice, but to the nature of our members, the more part of them may sin in security as being irresponsible, and doubly harm this living creature, both by mutilating the members and be impeding the forwardness of the free choice in behalf of good deeds" (ibid. 62:3).
John Chrysostom
"Why do you sow where the field is eager to destroy the fruit, where there are medicines of sterility [oral contraceptives], where there is murder before birth? You do not even let a harlot remain only a harlot, but you make her a murderess as well.... Indeed, it is something worse than murder, and I do not know what to call it; for she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you condemn the gift of God and fight with his [natural] laws? . . . Yet such turpitude . . . the matter still seems indifferent to many men—even to many men having wives. In this indifference of the married men there is greater evil filth; for then poisons are prepared, not against the womb of a prostitute, but against your injured wife. Against her are these innumerable tricks" (
John Chrysostom
"Observe how bitterly he [Paul] speaks against their deceivers . . . 'I would that they which trouble you would cut the whole thing off' [Gal. 5:12] .... On this account he curses them, and his meaning is as follows: 'For them I have no concern, "A man that is heretical after the first and second admonition." If they will, let them not only be circumcised but mutilated' [Titus 3:10]. Where then are those who dare to mutilate [sterilize] themselves, seeing that they drawn down the apostolic curse, and accuse the workmanship of God, and take part with the Manichees?" (
Jerome
"But I wonder why he [the heretic Jovinianus] set Judah and Tamar before us for an example, unless perchance even harlots give him pleasure; or Onan, who was slain because he grudged his brother seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children?" (
Jerome
"You may see a number of women who are widows before they are wives. Others, indeed, will drink sterility [oral contraceptives] and murder a man not yet born, [and some commit abortion]" (
Augustine
"You [Manicheans] make your auditors adulterers of their wives when they take care lest the women with whom they copulate conceive. They take wives according to the laws of matrimony by tablets announcing that the marriage is contracted to procreate children; and then, fearing because of your [religious] law [against childbearing] . . . they copulate in a shameful union only to satisfy lust for their wives. They are unwilling to have children, on whose account alone marriages are made. How is it, then, that you are not those prohibiting marriage, as the apostle predicted of you so long ago [1 Tim. 4:1-4], when you try to take from marriage what marriage is? When this is taken away, husbands are shameful lovers, wives are harlots, bridal chambers are brothels, fathers-in-law are pimps" (
Augustine
"For thus the eternal law, that is, the will of God creator of all creatures, taking counsel for the conservation of natural order, not to serve lust, but to see to the preservation of the race, permits the delight of mortal flesh to be released from the control of reason in copulation only to propagate progeny" (ibid., 22:30).
Augustine
"For necessary sexual intercourse for begetting [children] is alone worthy of marriage. But that which goes beyond this necessity no longer follows reason but lust. And yet it pertains to the character of marriage . . . to yield it to the partner lest by fornication the other sin damnably [through adultery].... [T]hey [must] not turn away from them the mercy of God . . . by changing the natural use into that which is against nature, which is more damnable when it is done in the case of husband or wife. For, whereas that natural use, when it pass beyond the compact of marriage, that is, beyond the necessity of begetting [children], is pardonable in the case of a wife, damnable in the case of a harlot; that which is against nature is execrable when done in the case of a harlot, but more execrable in the case of a wife. Of so great power is the ordinance of the Creator, and the order of creation, that . . . when the man shall wish to use a body part of the wife not allowed for this purpose [orally or anally consummated sex], the wife is more shameful, if she suffer it to take place in her own case, than if in the case of another woman" (
Augustine
"This proves that you [Manicheans] approve of having a wife, not for the procreation of children, but for the gratification of passion. In marriage, as the marriage law declares, the man and woman come together for the procreation of children. Therefore, whoever makes the procreation of children a greater sin than copulation, forbids marriage and makes the woman not a wife but a mistress, who for some gifts presented to her is joined to the man to gratify his passion" (
Augustine
"I am supposing, then, although you are not lying [with your wife] for the sake of procreating offspring, you are not for the sake of lust obstructing their procreation by an evil prayer or an evil deed. Those who do this, although they are called husband and wife, are not; nor do they retain any reality of marriage, but with a respectable name cover a shame. Sometimes this lustful cruelty, or cruel lust, comes to this, that they even procure poisons of sterility [oral contraceptives] . . . Assuredly if both husband and wife are like this, they are not married, and if they were like this from the beginning they come together not joined in matrimony but in seduction. If both are not like this, I dare to say that either the wife is in a fashion the harlot of her husband or he is an adulterer with his own wife" (
Caesarius
"Who is he who cannot warn that no woman may take a potion [an oral contraceptive or an abortifacient] so that she is unable to conceive or condemns in herself the nature which God willed to be fecund? As often as she could have conceived or given birth, of that many homicides she will be held guilty, and, unless she undergoes suitable penance, she will be damned by eternal death in hell. If a women does not wish to have children, let her enter into a religious agreement with her husband; for chastity is the sole sterility of a Christian woman" (
This can be found at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/FKBCONTR.HTM
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Spiritual healing
From a interview with Vicki Thorn. Thorn says there is more awareness today about the long-term negative effects of abortion than when she began her ministry. Yet there is still "huge denial in the psychotherapeutic community" regarding links between abortion and harmful behaviors such as depression, eating disorders and suicidal tendencies.
Although every woman who has had an abortion is "a mother who has lost a child," the circumstances can affect the way a woman grieves. For example, a woman who has had an abortion because a doctor told her something was wrong with the baby "will be a wreck immediately....The woman who has a late-term abortion will probably grieve right away, too, because she bonded more."
Regarding RU-486, known as the "abortion pill," Thorn says, "We have some potential for serious post-traumatic stress disorder there.... You can't be sitting at home, have all this blood, and then pass the baby, and think you're not going to be traumatized by it!"
Thorn refers to women who have had abortions as "aborted women." She says they need to understand some of the things that can trigger painful emotions. For example, an aborted woman might believe that God can't forgive her. Attending a wedding or graduation of someone who is the same age her aborted baby would have been can cause anguish. Early menopause for a woman with no living children is another reminder.
Most aborted women who contact Project Rachel "want to start with a priest," says Thorn. These women feel the urge for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Some believe they have committed an unforgivable sin and think they are excommunicated (see "Ask a Franciscan").
The woman is given the names of several priests nearby who have been trained in this healing ministry. If a woman has a special problem such as depression or an eating disorder, she may be referred to a priest who is also a therapist. Thorn tells women, "Trust the Holy Spirit to get you to the right person."
In order to protect the priests and the women, "The priest list is highly confidential," explains Thorn. For example, if it is known that a specific parish priest is trained in Project Rachel, people might think that every woman making an appointment with him has had an abortion. In addition, some people might mistakenly think that a priest involved in Project Rachel is pro-abortion.
Thorn believes aborted women feel isolated and have a strong drive to heal: "They think they're crazy because where in the media do you see that there's a problem afterward?" She tells them, "If you give God permission to heal you, God is going to honor your request." When they are healed, these women "are such a gift to the Church because they understand the Church's teaching on abortion. They may even come to understand the Church's teaching on contraception."
Many women were pressured into having abortions, either directly or indirectly, she explains. Thus, it's important that they make the decision to seek healing on their own, without pressure. And that may be many years after an abortion. "The day that she's ready to heal, God is going to put somebody or some book or some Web site there," she says. "It's about bereavement. It's about grieving. It's about establishing a relationship with that lost child. The real gift of our faith tradition is the Communion of Saints, because you can talk about that child as an intercessor for the family."
this can be found at: http://www.americancatholic.org/messenger/jan2002/feature2.asp
Although every woman who has had an abortion is "a mother who has lost a child," the circumstances can affect the way a woman grieves. For example, a woman who has had an abortion because a doctor told her something was wrong with the baby "will be a wreck immediately....The woman who has a late-term abortion will probably grieve right away, too, because she bonded more."
Regarding RU-486, known as the "abortion pill," Thorn says, "We have some potential for serious post-traumatic stress disorder there.... You can't be sitting at home, have all this blood, and then pass the baby, and think you're not going to be traumatized by it!"
Thorn refers to women who have had abortions as "aborted women." She says they need to understand some of the things that can trigger painful emotions. For example, an aborted woman might believe that God can't forgive her. Attending a wedding or graduation of someone who is the same age her aborted baby would have been can cause anguish. Early menopause for a woman with no living children is another reminder.
Most aborted women who contact Project Rachel "want to start with a priest," says Thorn. These women feel the urge for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Some believe they have committed an unforgivable sin and think they are excommunicated (see "Ask a Franciscan").
The woman is given the names of several priests nearby who have been trained in this healing ministry. If a woman has a special problem such as depression or an eating disorder, she may be referred to a priest who is also a therapist. Thorn tells women, "Trust the Holy Spirit to get you to the right person."
In order to protect the priests and the women, "The priest list is highly confidential," explains Thorn. For example, if it is known that a specific parish priest is trained in Project Rachel, people might think that every woman making an appointment with him has had an abortion. In addition, some people might mistakenly think that a priest involved in Project Rachel is pro-abortion.
Thorn believes aborted women feel isolated and have a strong drive to heal: "They think they're crazy because where in the media do you see that there's a problem afterward?" She tells them, "If you give God permission to heal you, God is going to honor your request." When they are healed, these women "are such a gift to the Church because they understand the Church's teaching on abortion. They may even come to understand the Church's teaching on contraception."
Many women were pressured into having abortions, either directly or indirectly, she explains. Thus, it's important that they make the decision to seek healing on their own, without pressure. And that may be many years after an abortion. "The day that she's ready to heal, God is going to put somebody or some book or some Web site there," she says. "It's about bereavement. It's about grieving. It's about establishing a relationship with that lost child. The real gift of our faith tradition is the Communion of Saints, because you can talk about that child as an intercessor for the family."
this can be found at: http://www.americancatholic.org/messenger/jan2002/feature2.asp
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Church cannot remain silent when human life is in danger, says Peruvian bishop
Ayaviri, Peru, Nov 4, 2009 / 02:09 am (CNA).- Bishop Kay Martin Schmalhausen of Ayaviri, Peru reminded the faithful this week that the Church cannot remain silent when human life is attacked, because “it is her duty to raise her voice when it comes to fundamental issues about man.”
Amidst the recent debate in Peru over the legalization of abortion, Bishop Schmalhausen explained that the Church cannot remain silent “when it comes to the fundamental issues of man, when the good of a people or of humanity itself, its present and its future, is in danger.”
“Nobody, no man, no human authority has power over another man to decide the life of another,” the bishop said. “At the root of all debate over allowing abortion and relativizing the primordial right to life of every unborn child is the logic of Cain who, hidden though always culpable, kills his brother.”
On an issue as delicate as this one, the Church is speaking in defense of all of her children, especially all women, Bishop Schmalhausen continued. More than anyone, “the Church understands the joys and sufferings of families, the joys and tragedies of young people,” and especially of women who are pregnant and even women who have experienced abortion, he said.
“Any society that justifies killing its own will end up corrupting itself and will be guilty of the threatening spread of a culture of death,” the bishop stated. It is well known that the strategy of pro-abortion groups at the national and international level is to see that the first legislative concessions to abortion lead to a wider liberalization of the practice, to make it institutionalized in third world countries,” he said.
Bishop Schmalhausen called for improved policies aimed at assisting pregnant mothers and families in difficult situations to prevent them from suffering from the tragedy of abortion.
He praised and encouraged efforts by the Church to reach out to women through assistance centers and other projects aimed at preventing abortion and helping women who are suffering from post-abortion stress syndrome.
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17575
Amidst the recent debate in Peru over the legalization of abortion, Bishop Schmalhausen explained that the Church cannot remain silent “when it comes to the fundamental issues of man, when the good of a people or of humanity itself, its present and its future, is in danger.”
“Nobody, no man, no human authority has power over another man to decide the life of another,” the bishop said. “At the root of all debate over allowing abortion and relativizing the primordial right to life of every unborn child is the logic of Cain who, hidden though always culpable, kills his brother.”
On an issue as delicate as this one, the Church is speaking in defense of all of her children, especially all women, Bishop Schmalhausen continued. More than anyone, “the Church understands the joys and sufferings of families, the joys and tragedies of young people,” and especially of women who are pregnant and even women who have experienced abortion, he said.
“Any society that justifies killing its own will end up corrupting itself and will be guilty of the threatening spread of a culture of death,” the bishop stated. It is well known that the strategy of pro-abortion groups at the national and international level is to see that the first legislative concessions to abortion lead to a wider liberalization of the practice, to make it institutionalized in third world countries,” he said.
Bishop Schmalhausen called for improved policies aimed at assisting pregnant mothers and families in difficult situations to prevent them from suffering from the tragedy of abortion.
He praised and encouraged efforts by the Church to reach out to women through assistance centers and other projects aimed at preventing abortion and helping women who are suffering from post-abortion stress syndrome.
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17575
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Honduran Congress prohibits morning-after pill
Tegucigalpa, Nov 3, 2009 / 07:26 pm (CNA).- A new law has taken effect in Honduras prohibiting the consumption and marketing of the morning-after pill in the Central American country.
The law was passed by the Honduran Congress at the beginning of the year with backing from the Medical College of Honduras, which pointed out that the pill has an abortifacient effect making it unconstitutional.
The Honduran Congress argued that the drug would “gravely endanger the health of the Honduran population, especially women who are able to get pregnant.”
Lawmakers pointed to a 2008 report by the Medical College of Honduras that warned of the drug’s anti-implantation effect, making it an abortifacient. The new law prohibits “the promotion, consumption, sale and purchasing of the emergency contraceptive pill, as well as its distribution, whether for sale or free-of-charge.”
Commenting on the historic decision, which is similar to measures taken by other countries in the region, Carlos Polo, Latin American director of the Population Research Institute, told CNA that this decision is “a milestone for another Latin American country” saying that Honduras has freed itself from the pressures of pharmaceutical companies and feminist organizations.
“In Latin America, where abortion is illegal, the only option left for the promoters of this pill was to misinform the people by denying the so-called ‘third effect.’ Now we see that pressure and misinformation can last a while but in the end, deceit fails on its own. We will certainly see the morning-after pill eradicated from Latin America, thus freeing ourselves from an inoperative and costly method that has grave adverse effects for women,” Polo said.
This can be found at http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17573
The law was passed by the Honduran Congress at the beginning of the year with backing from the Medical College of Honduras, which pointed out that the pill has an abortifacient effect making it unconstitutional.
The Honduran Congress argued that the drug would “gravely endanger the health of the Honduran population, especially women who are able to get pregnant.”
Lawmakers pointed to a 2008 report by the Medical College of Honduras that warned of the drug’s anti-implantation effect, making it an abortifacient. The new law prohibits “the promotion, consumption, sale and purchasing of the emergency contraceptive pill, as well as its distribution, whether for sale or free-of-charge.”
Commenting on the historic decision, which is similar to measures taken by other countries in the region, Carlos Polo, Latin American director of the Population Research Institute, told CNA that this decision is “a milestone for another Latin American country” saying that Honduras has freed itself from the pressures of pharmaceutical companies and feminist organizations.
“In Latin America, where abortion is illegal, the only option left for the promoters of this pill was to misinform the people by denying the so-called ‘third effect.’ Now we see that pressure and misinformation can last a while but in the end, deceit fails on its own. We will certainly see the morning-after pill eradicated from Latin America, thus freeing ourselves from an inoperative and costly method that has grave adverse effects for women,” Polo said.
This can be found at http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17573
Monday, November 2, 2009
Planned Parenthood Director Quits After Watching Abortion on Ultrasound
Fox News report at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571215,00.html
The former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Texas says she had a "change of heart" after watching an abortion last month — and she quit her job and joined a pro-life group in praying outside the facility.
Abby Johnson, 29, used to escort women from their cars to the clinic in the eight years she volunteered and worked for Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas. But she says she knew it was time to leave after she watched a fetus "crumple" as it was vacuumed out of a patient's uterus in September.
'When I was working at Planned Parenthood I was extremely pro-choice," Johnson told FoxNews.com. But after seeing the internal workings of the procedure for the first time on an ultrasound monitor, "I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart ... a spiritual conversion."
Johnson said she became disillusioned with her job after her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more and more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.
"Every meeting that we had was, 'We don't have enough money, we don't have enough money — we've got to keep these abortions coming,'" Johnson told FoxNews.com. "It's a very lucrative business and that's why they want to increase numbers."
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood told FoxNews.com that it offers a range of services at it 850 health centers nationwide, providing pregnancy tests, vaccinations and women's health services, "including wellness exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception, and STD testing and treatment."
"Planned Parenthood's focus is on prevention," wrote Diane Quest, the group's National Media Director. "Nationwide, more than 90% of the health care Planned Parenthood affiliates provide is preventive in nature," explaining that a "core component the organization's mission is to help women plan healthy pregnancies and prevent unintended pregnancies."
But Johnson said her bosses told her to change her "priorities" and focus on abortions, which she said made money for the office at a time when the recession has left them hurting.
"For them there's not a lot of money in education," she said. "There's as not as much money in family planning as there is abortion."
Without a doctor in residence, she said, her clinic offered abortions only two days a month, but the doctor could perform 30 to 40 procedures on each day he was there. Johnson estimated that each abortion could net the branch about $350, adding up to more than $10,000 a month.
"The majority of the money was going to the facility," she said.
Johnson said she never got any orders to increase profits in e-mails or letters, and had no way to prove her allegations about practices at the Bryan branch. She told FoxNews.com that pressure came in personal interactions with her regional manager from the larger Houston office.
But she said she got involved with the clinic "to help women and ... [do] the right thing," and the idea of raking in cash seemed to go against what she felt was the mission of the 93-year-old organization.
"Ideally my goal as the facility's director is that your abortion numbers don't increase," because "you're providing so much family planning and so much education that there is not a demand for abortion services.
"But that was not their goal," she said.
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood refused to answer questions about Johnson's accusations, but released a statement noting that a district court had issued a temporary restraining order against the former branch director and against the Coalition for Life, an anti-abortion group with which Johnson is now affiliated.
"We regret being forced to turn to the courts to protect the safety and confidentiality of our clients and staff, however, in this instance it is absolutely necessary," said spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla.
It is unclear what made Planned Parenthood seek the restraining order. Johnson said she did not intend to release any sensitive information about her former patients at the clinic.
A hearing is set for Nov. 10 to determine whether a judge will order an injunction against Johnson and the Coalition for Life, which has led protests outside the clinic and joined her in a prayer vigil there last month.
Johnson hasn't found a job since she quit on Oct. 6, but she said she's enjoying the time off to be with her 3-year-old daughter.
"It's been great just to spend some time at home and get a break," she said
The former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Texas says she had a "change of heart" after watching an abortion last month — and she quit her job and joined a pro-life group in praying outside the facility.
Abby Johnson, 29, used to escort women from their cars to the clinic in the eight years she volunteered and worked for Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas. But she says she knew it was time to leave after she watched a fetus "crumple" as it was vacuumed out of a patient's uterus in September.
'When I was working at Planned Parenthood I was extremely pro-choice," Johnson told FoxNews.com. But after seeing the internal workings of the procedure for the first time on an ultrasound monitor, "I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart ... a spiritual conversion."
Johnson said she became disillusioned with her job after her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more and more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.
"Every meeting that we had was, 'We don't have enough money, we don't have enough money — we've got to keep these abortions coming,'" Johnson told FoxNews.com. "It's a very lucrative business and that's why they want to increase numbers."
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood told FoxNews.com that it offers a range of services at it 850 health centers nationwide, providing pregnancy tests, vaccinations and women's health services, "including wellness exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception, and STD testing and treatment."
"Planned Parenthood's focus is on prevention," wrote Diane Quest, the group's National Media Director. "Nationwide, more than 90% of the health care Planned Parenthood affiliates provide is preventive in nature," explaining that a "core component the organization's mission is to help women plan healthy pregnancies and prevent unintended pregnancies."
But Johnson said her bosses told her to change her "priorities" and focus on abortions, which she said made money for the office at a time when the recession has left them hurting.
"For them there's not a lot of money in education," she said. "There's as not as much money in family planning as there is abortion."
Without a doctor in residence, she said, her clinic offered abortions only two days a month, but the doctor could perform 30 to 40 procedures on each day he was there. Johnson estimated that each abortion could net the branch about $350, adding up to more than $10,000 a month.
"The majority of the money was going to the facility," she said.
Johnson said she never got any orders to increase profits in e-mails or letters, and had no way to prove her allegations about practices at the Bryan branch. She told FoxNews.com that pressure came in personal interactions with her regional manager from the larger Houston office.
But she said she got involved with the clinic "to help women and ... [do] the right thing," and the idea of raking in cash seemed to go against what she felt was the mission of the 93-year-old organization.
"Ideally my goal as the facility's director is that your abortion numbers don't increase," because "you're providing so much family planning and so much education that there is not a demand for abortion services.
"But that was not their goal," she said.
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood refused to answer questions about Johnson's accusations, but released a statement noting that a district court had issued a temporary restraining order against the former branch director and against the Coalition for Life, an anti-abortion group with which Johnson is now affiliated.
"We regret being forced to turn to the courts to protect the safety and confidentiality of our clients and staff, however, in this instance it is absolutely necessary," said spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla.
It is unclear what made Planned Parenthood seek the restraining order. Johnson said she did not intend to release any sensitive information about her former patients at the clinic.
A hearing is set for Nov. 10 to determine whether a judge will order an injunction against Johnson and the Coalition for Life, which has led protests outside the clinic and joined her in a prayer vigil there last month.
Johnson hasn't found a job since she quit on Oct. 6, but she said she's enjoying the time off to be with her 3-year-old daughter.
"It's been great just to spend some time at home and get a break," she said
Lawyer says resources should be used to build daycare centers in Mexico rather than to promote abortion
Mexico City, Mexico, Nov 2, 2009 / 02:53 pm (CNA).- Constitutional lawyer Ingrid Tapia called on the Mexico City government last week to set aside public resources for the building of daycare centers instead of promoting abortion.
Speaking to Matutino Express, Tapia, who is a member of the Center for the Comprehensive Study and Formation of Women, underscored that human life exists from the moment of conception and that “abortion is a crime in 31 entities of the country.”
Tapia noted that 16 Mexican states have passed laws defending human life and that according to recent polls, 80 percent of Mexicans respect life.
She also said that women who seek abortions “do not do so in order to exercise a right, but rather because they are living in conditions of misery and deprivation.” For this reason she called for improvement of the country’s social and health policies.
Referring to groups that promote abortion, Tapia said, “Instead of promoting a law to see how women can get rid of their children, there ought to be a law creating more daycare centers.”
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17558
Speaking to Matutino Express, Tapia, who is a member of the Center for the Comprehensive Study and Formation of Women, underscored that human life exists from the moment of conception and that “abortion is a crime in 31 entities of the country.”
Tapia noted that 16 Mexican states have passed laws defending human life and that according to recent polls, 80 percent of Mexicans respect life.
She also said that women who seek abortions “do not do so in order to exercise a right, but rather because they are living in conditions of misery and deprivation.” For this reason she called for improvement of the country’s social and health policies.
Referring to groups that promote abortion, Tapia said, “Instead of promoting a law to see how women can get rid of their children, there ought to be a law creating more daycare centers.”
This can be found at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17558
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