Church issues bioethical document.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has issued a bioethical document addressing many of the current problems and trends in our present times.

It addresses things like:

- Embryonic and adult stem cell research

- Contraception, especially oral contraceptives

- Receiving vaccines which were derived from aborted fetuses

- In vitro fertilization and test tube babies.

- Frozen embryos.

- Gene therapy

- Human cloning

The document can be found here:

Dignitatis Personae (The Dignity of a Person) at the USCCB website. (document in pdf format)

A VERY important document for our times. President-elect Obama needs to read this if he's as open minded as he says he is.

It's also Providential to find the document on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is the patroness of the unborn and who helped convert a nation which practiced human sacrifice. Maybe this document can be a help in converting our own nation of the Untied States from it's human sacrifice of abortion and euthanasia.

Our Lady of Guadlupe, ora pro nobis!


RS

Election Results

Hmmm. I just wonder. Did the Democrats really win, or did the Republicans just really lose? I almost consider that there was a "liking" vacuum. I really wonder what the results would have been had those people who only voted against the Republicans because they hate Bush (even though he wasn't even running) hadn't voted. I often got the feeling that even some of the most vocal Obama supporters just needed someone to like and since Obama wasn't Bush, he was the guy.

I think the Republican party, and all conservatives, need to wake up and start being clearer about their views and more intelligent in their arguments. Well, I kind of take that back, not Republicans in general, but the Republicans who are actually running for office. They need to be more direct in addressing and forcing issues and more intelligent and direct in their explanation of the issues.

It's also disturbing to see that so many people voted in a racist or sexist way too. Not only people voting for Obama only because he's Black, but also people voting for McCain only because he chose a woman as a running mate. That's frustrating to me that people would not vote on issues but only on accidental appearances. Sad.

In my opinion this could be an odd blessing in disguise. I think this country has had some dangerous curiosity about socialism. I think even if McCain had been elected, it would have only delayed an inevitable Obama or Obama-like election. Maybe this will be the time where America will hopefully see that socialism is not good for the country, not good for the States, and not good for the individuals. I pray that the American people will see the bad fruit they have wrought, and realize that we need to stop this country from heading into a socialistic society based on our hedonistic desires. We weren't made to be slaves to our passions, and our society is already on that slippery slope. But, I'm not going to gloom and doom, I still think this country has the ability to open it's eyes and see just where our society is headed. I pray we can also have the fortitude as individuals to stop being selfish and to turn the country around.

Pleasure is the new opiate of the masses, and the Democrats promise and use that quite a bit. Sadly though, it does not lead to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but already to leading to death (abortion and euthanasia), slavery (to the passions in sex, homosexual activity, dependance on welfare and social programs, entertainment), and purusit of pleasures (at any cost, even life and liberty).

Well, life goes on, and so we must prepare to fight against anything that will hurt our country no matter which political "side" it comes from. I'd start with the Republican party getting it's act together over these next four years.

RS

White suprimacists against Obama?

I saw an article in the news yesterday, which honestly surprised me.

Alleged white supremacist plot to kill Obama is foiled

I do not support racism, so my thoughts are just imagining what a white suprimacist would think. My conclusion was that if anything, white suprimacists should love to have Obama as president. Obama has the potential to kill more Blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities than the KKK has done in the last 100 years. Obama supports abortion "rights" so vehemently. And that support means lots and lots of funding for Planned Parenthood. I don't think it's any surprise that abortions are highest among poor minorities, and with Obama's push of things like the "Freedom of Choice Act" it will only increase how many abortions are being done, especially on poor minorities.

Many unborn girls will also be more likely to be aborted by those who hold "values" that they should have more boys than girls. Certain extremist Hindu and extremist Muslim sects, as well as some seculars, hold these views.

I just find it odd that given the views of white suprimacists, they would be against Obama. Because of his proposed legislation, millions of Blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities will die, which puts Obama's agenda of the legalization and encouragement of the killing of minorites in line with those of white supremacists.

For me, I refuse to support Obama's agenda to legalize abortion which hurts and ends human lives especially those of minorites and women. You don't think it does? Hang out in front of an abortion clinic sometime and see how happy all the people are who go in. See who goes in and see how they act. Everyone knows what is going on in there, they just refuse to face the truth.

May God have mercy on all their souls.

RS

Abortion and Politics

The US Bishops have an excellent article addressing the issue of abortion and the political sphere in responding to Senator Biden's recent erroneous statements.

I recently had a small argument with a Catholic friend of mine who kept approaching the abortion issue from the angle of Church teaching. However, the abortion issue falls under natural law. Abortion isn't wrong just because the Church teaches it's wrong. Abortion is wrong because it is an intrinsic evil, that is, it is the termination of an innocent human life. Murder, the killing of an innocent human being, is something that all persons intrinsically know is wrong. The stage of development does not make a person any less human or alive. Thus the Church's teachings on abortion affirm this natural order. Abortion is not a religious issue per se, it is a human rights and justice issue.

Senator Biden was acting like abortion was an issue similar to the Immaculate Conception. A Catholic can't make laws that say everyone has to believe in the Immaculate Conception. But Catholics as well as any human person are obliged to follow the natural law and work to stop the killing of innocent human lives which happen in abortion. This is also why abortion is never morally permissible.

The US Bishop's article follows [with my emphasis]

Bishops Respond To Senator Biden’s Statements Regarding Church Teaching On Abortion

WASHINGTON—Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, chairman, U.S. Bishops Committee on Doctrine, issued the following statement:

Recently we had a duty to clarify the Catholic Church’s constant teaching against abortion, to correct misrepresentations of that teaching by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on “Meet the Press” (see http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2008/08-120.shtml). On September 7, again on “Meet the Press,” Senator Joseph Biden made some statements about that teaching that also deserve a response.

Senator Biden did not claim that Catholic teaching allows or has ever allowed abortion. He said rightly that human life begins “at the moment of conception,” and that Catholics and others who recognize this should not be required by others to pay for abortions with their taxes.

However, the Senator’s claim that the beginning of human life is a “personal and private” matter of religious faith, one which cannot be “imposed” on others, does not reflect the truth of the matter. The Church recognizes that the obligation to protect unborn human life rests on the answer to two questions, neither of which is private or specifically religious.

The first is a biological question: When does a new human life begin? When is there a new living organism of the human species, distinct from mother and father and ready to develop and mature if given a nurturing environment? While ancient thinkers had little verifiable knowledge to help them answer this question, today embryology textbooks confirm that a new human life begins at conception (see www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/fact298.shtml). The Catholic Church does not teach this as a matter of faith; it acknowledges it as a matter of objective fact.

The second is a moral question, with legal and political consequences: Which living members of the human species should be seen as having fundamental human rights, such as a right not to be killed? The Catholic Church’s answer is: Everybody. No human being should be treated as lacking human rights, and we have no business dividing humanity into those who are valuable enough to warrant protection and those who are not. This is not solely a Catholic teaching, but a principle of natural law accessible to all people of good will. The framers of the Declaration of Independence pointed to the same basic truth by speaking of inalienable rights, bestowed on all members of the human race not by any human power, but by their Creator. Those who hold a narrower and more exclusionary view have the burden of explaining why we should divide humanity into those who have moral value and those who do not and why their particular choice of where to draw that line can be sustained in a pluralistic society. Such views pose a serious threat to the dignity and rights of other poor and vulnerable members of the human family who need and deserve our respect and protection.

While in past centuries biological knowledge was often inaccurate, modern science leaves no excuse for anyone to deny the humanity of the unborn child. Protection of innocent human life is not an imposition of personal religious conviction but a demand of justice.

RS

Two Pro-Life Videos, Part II

Here are two very powerful videos that are very well done. Shows the reality of the personal consequences of abortion.

Thanks to dadwithnoisykids for pointing this out (and Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex where he found it).

Flipsyde's "Happy Birthday." (featuring Piper)


"Happy Birthday, I love you whoever you would have been."

This also inspired me to search out another pro-life video that I had posted here before, but whose link was "hijacked." Thankfully, I did find it on youtube.

Apparently, Nick Cannon's mother was contemplating an abortion, but changed her mind. I heard that this was actually quite a popular video on B.E.T.

Nick Cannon's "Can I Live?"


"What you want: morning sickness or the sickness of mourning?"

RS

Saint Basil the Great on abortion

A woman who deliberately destroys a fetus is answerable for murder. And any fine distinction between its being completely formed or unformed is not admissible among us.

-Saint Basil the Great (A.D. 329-379)

This quote is very useful in today's society where the arguments to support abortion often involve trying to redefine the child in the womb to something that is not yet specifically human, or it is "just" a fetus, etc.

Firstly, this quote shows that abortion has been around quite a while, it is nothing new. And the Church has always shown that abortion is wrong.
Saint Basil also cuts through all the legalistic twisting of language and simply puts it that this a human life, and abortion is a wrongful taking of that human life.

I truly believe that the people of America know this in their hearts, and science has shown this to be true. Very simply put, it's axiomatic that when a human egg and a human sperm combine at conception that a human life is created. Genetically you can see it is human, and that it is alive.

Murder is the deliberate taking of an innocent human life and abortion does just that.

This is so serious that the penalty of immediate excommunication is a result of those who have or assist in an abortion. This penalty is immediate, no declaration of excommunication from an authority in the Church is needed. The Church doesn't have to declair it, those who have or participate in this act bring it upon themselves by their actions.

However, the mercy of the Church is also revealed in this. This is the only excommunication, of which I am aware, that can be lifted by a priest if those guilty of this sin sincerely confess this. Given the gravity of abortion, this is an amazing act of mercy on the part of the Church.

As I posted previously, may this day be a day of prayer and penance, not only for those readers in the United States, but those in other parts of the world as well. I am sure that many of you who read this from other countries have legalized abortion where you live as well.

May God bring about a change in laws around the world, so that the right to life, liberty, and the prsuit of happiness will be given to all. May he also convert those who support, perform, or assist in abortions (including the "chemical abortions" that often occur with the use of certain contraceptives, such as the pill). And may he have mercy on anyone who has had or participated in an abortion, and bring about true repentance, conversion, and salvation.

Contrary to popular or media opinion, the Church does not want to damn people to hell. What the Church does want to do is teach mankind God's laws and how to obey them, so that we may all act according to God's Will and obtain His salvation.

May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us.
And may our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the unborn pray for us.



RS

Monday, January 22nd, is a day of Penance

Louis the Pious doing penance.

As a reminder to all readers in the United States (and even for those in other countries as well), Monday, January 22nd is the 34th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade:

On this anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade (1973), this day shall be observed in all dioceses of the United States as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarentee of the right to life (GIRM, #373).

RS

Two Pro-Life Videos

Way back in April, The American Papist posted these two videos, and I thought, now that I have my own blog, I would also post them here.
His original posts are at these two links:
Partial-Birth Abortion "Demo"
and
Rap video

The first is a doctor giving "demonstration" (using a doll) to a group of studens on what actually happens in a partial-birth abortion. Even though many know, it somehow drives home the point seeing it this way. The video in his link still works, so you can watch the video there.

The rap video "Can I Live?" is based on rapper Nick Cannon's true life story where his mother seriously considered aborting him, but decided to not to. It is well done and the video is very powerful. Apparently this was a rather popular video on B.E.T. as well.

EDIT - Links to the rap video have been removed. Nick Cannon's website no longer exists and any links to that bring up links to extremely inappropriate sites instead.

These are definitely videos to "pass around."