Defending Life, Faith and Family

Article by Most Reverend Raymond L. Burke
Archdiocese of St. Louis

On Our Civic Responsibility for the Common Good

 See the letter by clicking here.

My dear friends, my name is Damian McLeish, a retired attorney from Victory Park parish. I would like today to discuss abortifacient birth control, the method most commonly used, which can destroy new human life, and is thus a form of chemical abortion.

As a result of the Papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae, most Catholics know that all forms of artificial birth control are forbidden by the Catholic Church. However, many Catholics are not aware of the vast and crucially important distinction between CONTRACEPTIVE birth control, which involves the use of contraceptives only which prevent new life being formed, and ABORTIFACIENT birth control, which involves the use of abortifacients, which destroy new life after its formation.

We are delighted to announce that WOLFGANG HERING, founder of Euro Pro-Life, Director of the Life Centre in Munich, and leader of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants in Germany will be visiting South Africa in February 2011. Please see below for Wolfgang’s schedule. We have the opportunity to offer these talks by someone highly experienced, particularly in sidewalk counselling and post abortion counselling. Please come along and listen to this dynamic and engaging speaker on this vitally important issue.

By: Father Raymond J. de Souza

In October, Barack Obama signed a new law that prohibits the U.S. government from referring to the “mentally retarded” in any of its laws and regulations. The term to be used instead is “intellectual disability.” Given the harshness with which it strikes the ear, the word “retarded” has long since dropped out of common usage, but it still survives in official policies.

The law is called Rosa’s Law, after a nine-year-old Maryland girl with Down’s syndrome. Her official classification at school was “mentally retarded,” which struck her mother as hurtful. The U.S. Congress passed the law in response to Rosa’s case, but also in response to a long campaign by the Special Olympics to end the use of the “R-Word,” as their campaign puts it.

Lord Jesus,

You who faithfully visit and fulfill with your Presence
the Church and the history of men;
You who in the miraculous Sacrament of your Body and Blood
render us participants in divine Life
and allow us a foretaste of the joy of eternal Life;
We adore and bless you.

Prostrated before You, source and lover of Life,
truly present and alive among us, we beg you.

Reawaken in us respect for every unborn life,
make us capable of seeing in the fruit of the maternal womb
the miraculous work of the Creator,
open our hearts to generously welcoming every child
that comes into life.

Bless all families,
sanctify the union of spouses,
render fruitful their love.

Accompany the choices of legislative assemblies
with the light of your Spirit,
so that peoples and nations may recognize and respect
the sacred nature of life, of every human life.

Guide the work of scientists and doctors,
so that all progress contributes to the integral well-being of the person,
and no one endures suppression or injustice.

Give creative charity to administrators and economists,
so they may realize and promote sufficient conditions
so that young families can serenely embrace
the birth of new children.

Console the married couples who suffer
because they are unable to have children
and in Your goodness provide for them.

Teach us all to care for orphaned or abandoned children,
so they may experience the warmth of your Charity,
the consolation of your divine Heart.

Together with Mary, Your Mother, the great believer,
in whose womb you took on our human nature,
we wait to receive from You, our Only True Good and Savior,
the strength to love and serve life,
in anticipation of living forever in You,
in communion with the Blessed Trinity.

By Janet E. Smith DETROIT, Michigan, DEC. 1, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Most people remember their grandmothers at some point telling them that pointing a finger at someone means that three fingers are pointing back at you. The media are obsessed with the issue of the Catholic Church and condoms because they seem to believe that condoms are the solution to preventing the transmission of the HIV. Might it be time they began to think about other organizations, such as themselves, that might bear some responsibility?

FRONT ROYAL, Va., Nov. 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Human Life International (HLI), the world’s largest pro-life organization, today called on all defenders of life to join its international affiliates and leaders in the “Prayer Vigil for All Nascent Human Life” on November 27, coinciding with vespers of the First Sunday of Advent. Earlier this year Pope Benedict XVI announced the worldwide vigil, and urged all dioceses around the world to participate as much as they are able. As part of its effort to raise awareness about the event, HLI has sponsored an international petition of solidarity with the pope. “We hope that Catholics understand the historical significance of Pope Benedict’s invitation,” said Joseph Meaney, HLI’s director of international coordination. “The Holy Father for the first time in history has asked the Universal Catholic Church to gather together in a common liturgical event and pray for our preborn brothers and sisters who are being slaughtered around the world by abortion and other attacks of the culture of death.”

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

BURGOS, Spain, July 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Archbishop of Burgos, Francisco Gil Hellín, has issued a call to Spanish Catholics to resist the country’s new abortion law, which he says is no law at all.

In a statement published on the bishops’ Catholic Information Service, Gil Hellín laments the recent promulgation of the law, an “evil law which is directly opposed to right reason and the most elemental justice. Such is the law that establishes that the Spanish have the right to kill the unborn, as long as they do it before 14 weeks.”

March 23, 2010 (pop.org) – Introduction: Only a few days before he died, Father Paul Marx returned to the topic that had so often occupied him during his long decades as a pro-life missionary - namely, the great encyclical Humanae Vitae. He sent this short article, in which he underlines the accuracy of Pope Paul VI’s predictions about what would happen, if contraception became prevalent in society. We send it out now both because it contains timeless truths, and also to honor our Founder and long-time Chairman, Fr. Marx, who has gone to be with the Father.

Anti-abortion march attracts thousands

‘The hands of South Africa’s lawmakers are dripping with blood.’ said Archbishop Buti Tlhagale to more than 2,000 anti-abortionists who marched on Saturday 13 March with the Archbishop from the Cathedral of Christ the King to Constitution Hill where officials from the Department of Health accepted a petition addressed to the Minister of Health calling for an end to abortion.