Tag Archives: abortion

Babies, Babies, and more babies

26 Thursday Apr 2012

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So I’m sitting in Starbucks right now, and was at a loss on what to write, so my friend, Chris Anderson, suggested that I write about babies.  So, without further ado, here are my thoughts on babies.

Babies are beautiful.  Babies are wonderful.  I love babies.  Even more, I love watching babies.   The best part about watching babies is that I get to give them back to their parents after I am done watching them.

Honestly though, babies are wonderful, and I truly do not understand how someone could murder an unborn baby.  Besides the fact that this person is a living , breathing, little human being with a beating heart, they are just so darn cute.  How could anyone harm someone that cute????   And so, I pray, that everyone who God has given the grace to become pregnant, whether the pregnancy was planned or not, to have the courage and strength to carry the baby to term, and allow the cute little baby to be raised with as much, if not lots and lots more, love that they were given while being raised.

A Sermon on HHS

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

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So, as I was walking out of class today, I was talking to my professor, asking her how many posts we are supposed to have class related, and when I received the answer, I commented that when I sit down to write a class related post, I usually end up ranting about something else.  Well, today is no different.  As I was sitting down to write a post on the aristocratic marriage practices, specifically the Marriage of Giovanni and Lusanna, I instead starting listening to a youtube video of a Sermon about the attack on Religious Liberty.  Well, as you can see, that posts on Giovanni and Lusanna didn’t happen (though I promise it will soon Dr. S!)   Below is the video of the sermon.  It is well worth 10 minutes of your time.

 

 

P.S.- I will get back to my Lenten Series soon!   I have had to take a break due to midterms, though I am sorta keeping up with Matins!  

The Family and The State

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

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In my history class today, we were discussing Calvinism, and, in part, how it led to the growth of not only the State, but also the State’s involvement in Family life.  As I was contemplating this idea, I jotted down on an extra sheet of paper the following:

Calvinism leads to the Consistory in Geneva
Consistory in Geneva leads to State Intervention in the Family Life
State Intervention in the Family in Calvinism relates to The Obama Administration
One of the many atrocities of the Obama Administration is the HHS Mandate
 

So, before I can get all the way through this, I guess that I had better start at the beginning.  While in the midst of starting a new religion, John Calvin fled to Geneva, Switzerland.  After a number of years, began to reform the city.  This led to the creation of the Consistory.  The Consistory was the judicial body in Geneva, and, due to the strict order that Calvin wanted in his city, chances are that one would be called before them for one reason or another within a ten year span.  

Due to the fact that most people were called before the consistory for one thing or another, the Consistory not only slowly began to get more involved in family life.  Because of this, punishments became much more harsher.  There were small penalties for things like not knowing your prayers in French (God help the poor woman who goes and recites Ave Maria, gratia plena… in Latin) to death for repeated adultery.  I get that it’s the 16th century and there were different beliefs about punishment, but really?  Death because someone couldn’t keep their damn pants on???   

I continue, lest I begin digressing about this.  So we see that the Consistory led to state intervention in family life, especially since the Consistory was certainly running the show in Geneva.  How does this connect to today, you may be asking.

Well, in November of 2008, a very confused American People, and in that group, the majority of Catholic voters, elected a man named Barack Obama to the White House.  Since day one, he has been doing all he can to interfere with the private life of families in America.  Fast forward to January 20, 2012.  Kathleen Sullivan, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, a “Catholic”, [For the record, due to her clear public stance on Abortion, I fully support the Prelates of the Church that have told her not to receive Holy Communion, but I digress yet again.] decreed that the Obama administrations original mandate requiring all institutions to provide birth control at no cost.  This isn’t the state intervening in family life, per-say, but it is intervening instead on RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.  One of the founding principles of this country.  We see history repeating itself.  The state interfering in things it really has no right to interfere on.  Religious Liberty is why we are fighting the Obama administration on this.  Yes, being forced to provide birth control is horrible, but it is not the heart of the issue at stake here. Religious Liberty is.  

So, history always seems to repeat itself.  500 years ago, we had the consistory of Geneva interfering in people’s lives and killing them for not being able to keep their pants on.  Now, we have the Obama administration interfering in people’s lives, and ultimately, Religious Liberty, forcing those who object to artifical birth control to pay for it so their employees don’t.  Ironically, this also leads to people’s deaths, yet again because people can’t keep their pants on.  There is no need to be providing birth control, let alone free birth control.  But, yet again, I start digressing… This is a topic for another post.

P.S.  The only good kind of Consistory will happen this Saturday.  That is the Elevation of new Cardinals to the Sacred College of the Holy Roman Church.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us!

“Catholics for Choice”

11 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by in Catholicism, Family, Politics, The Kitchen Sink

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As I was reading blogs and reflecting on the excellent lecture that His Eminence, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C., I got thinking about why I haven’t posted on the debacle that is the Health and Human Services announcement like The American Papist, Thomas Peters, Rocco Palmo, and smaller bloggers, like my friend here, who took the time to examine specific statistics which have been thrown around a lot these past few days.  I, however, won’t be posting links to official statements, like Rocco or Thomas, or examining specific statistics that have been thrown around these past few days.  I will be talking about something else.  Something, while related, has a little following of itself.

There is a group that calls themselves “Catholics for Choice”.  This “choice” that they are talking about is not a good choice at all, for they claim that it is necessary to be able to not only have birth control, but abortions as well.  These Catholics, who say that they are for choice, do not understand that there is only one logical choice that they can be for.  That choice is that of life, and not using contraceptives and abortifacients, which is what this group pushes for.

Today, in the inaugural lecture on Faithful Citizenship, hosted by The Catholic University of America Knights of Columbus, in conjunction with the Catholic Apostolate Center and The Catholic University of America, His Eminence mentioned many things that stuck with me, and a few of them apply to this topic that I am speaking of here.

First off, His Eminence mentioned that “one cannot be authentically Catholic and not be pro-life at the same time.”  He then went on to say that not only are out consciences freeing things, even though it may not seem that way, and that being pro-life is not enough, it’s about the dignity of every human person.  These three statements really bring out that points about why Catholics cannot be for choice in the areas that these so called “Catholics for Choice” are calling for.

Number one, they have consciences.  While we may think that their consciences are poorly formed, they still have them.  Number two, we need to approach these people on the streets.  We need to talk to them.  With love.  None of this I’m right and you’re wrong.  Yes, we may be right in some respects, but we need to dialogue with them about these issues.  We need to sit down with them face to face, find out why they believe that it is right to have a choice in these issues,  and then, using nothing but love and care, explain why they hold the wrong positions.  This isn’t accomplished by yelling and screaming, or by denying communion.  For, how do we know that these “Catholics for Choice” didn’t go to confession 15 minutes ago, or have a change of heart 20 minutes ago before entering the Church for Mass?  There are issues that we need to turn to Rome to, and I believe that the one of invoking Canon 915 is one of them.  For, we, as Catholics follow the lead and example of His Holiness.  The fact that not only has he not denied anyone communion, but he has not said that it should be done either is a pretty clear sign that we shouldn’t either.

So, as Catholics, can we chose?  Well, to use contraceptives, abortifacients, and to have abortions- the answer is no.  These were spelled out very clearly in the encyclical letter of Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae.  He states very clearly the Church’s position on the issues regarding human life.  However, I come bearing great news!  There are things that you can choose!  You, as a Catholic can choose whether to go to a Mass that is sung or said.  You can choose to go to a Mass with incense or no incense.  You can choose to pray the rosary or the divine office, charisimatic or quiet prayer.  However, we cannot choose to use these evil contraceptives, abortifacients, or to have abortions.  That is clear.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for us.

N.B. I refuse to link to the group Catholics for Choice.  They get enough traffic as it is, and I have no need or desire to increase that traffic.

Families: A Modern Attack on a Historical Institution

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Be attentive to our prayers, O Lord and in your kindness uphold what you have established for the increase of the human race, so that the union you have created may be kept safe by your assistance.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.
(Collect for the Nuptial Mass, Editio Typica Tertia, ICEL 2010)

In my prior post on families, I quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states that a family is a covenant by which a man leaves his family and takes a wife, in which they become one, and their purpose is to procreate the world.  The Catechism goes on to say that the family is a “domestic church.”  Specifically, it states

 1656 In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the family the Ecclesia domestica.168 It is in the bosom of the family that parents are “by word and example . . . the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with special care any religious vocation.”1691657 It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children, and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way “by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity.”170 Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and “a school for human enrichment.”171 Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous – even repeated – forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one’s life.

These two quotes pack a large amount of information in them, and they go back a long time, even before the Catechism of the Council of Trent was published.  The church truly believes that the family is, first and foremost, the place of education and learning, one of nurturing, one of the witness of the love that Christ gave for his bride, his family- The Church.

The family has been a generally protected institution until modern times.  This is seen all throughout history, especially in the Medieval Era.  Throughout the High Middle Ages, one saw the family getting the respect that they deserved, even if they happened to be very different practices than we today are used to.  The families of old were very oriented towards protecting themselves, which is the opposite of what we see today.  Yes, they were worried that the name might not continue or that money might be lost.  Heck, most of the time love wasn’t even the main concern.

Today, we see many different attacks on the family from all different parts of society.  It is no longer considered the sacred institution that it once was, no longer understood as a domestic church whose sole purpose is to protect the children.  Chances are, these days, that one runs into someone trying to redefine what marriage is, and, by proxy, the family.  To protect the family, marriage must be protected as a Sacred Institution between one man and one woman.  The state MUST stop interfering in families, and must respect Right of the Religious Institutions to protect the family, especially since the State is dead set on destroying it.

I would like to end this post with two things.  The first is a quote on the Holy Family from Father Z.  He says, on the Holy Family, that,

God Incarnate chose to begin manifesting this sacrificial love, which reached its culmination on the Cross, in the family home.

Together with Mary and His earthly father Joseph, Christ began to reveal something of the unity of love within the most perfect of communions, the Holy Trinity.

It is fitting to celebrate the Holy Family within the Octave of Christmas when we contemplate the coming of the Lord in imitation of that final, perfect communion with God to be enjoyed only by the blessed in heaven.

The family is a paradigm of all other human relationships. The Holy Family teaches us, who are still in this world but moving inexorably toward our judgment and final goal, how to live – together – in this present state of “already, but not yet”.

The second is the Collect for the Feast of the Holy Family.

O God, who were pleased to give us
the shining example of the Holy Family,
graciously grant that we may imitate them
in practicing the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity,
and so, in the joy of your house,
delight one day in eternal rewards. Amen

(Editio Typica Tertia, ICEL 2010)

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Ora pro Nobis

St. Joseph, the Most Chaste Spouse, Ora pro Nobis

St. Anne, Ora pro Nobis

St. Joachim, Ora pro Nobis

Just a short aside:  As you may know, the Department for Health and Human Services gave Religious Institutions one year to comply with regulations that violate their consciences.  Regulations that force religious institutions to demean families, and, specifically women, by forcing them to provide free birth control, and eventually, abortion, to these women who deserve much better.  Please take 5 minutes to sign this petition to rescind the HHS mandate.  Every signature counts.