Understanding our “enemy”
In order to defeat one’s enemy, one must understand them. In order to heal a disease, we must understand what that disease is. To most of us pro-lifers, it is nearly impossible for us to fathom what is going on in the head of someone who is “pro-choice”.
That is why this article is so very important. The article is written by Jennifer Fulwiler, who I have mentioned before in this blog, and explains the reasons why she was pro-choice before her conversion. To sum up a great article into three words, the reason was: the contraceptive mentality. This insidious mentality is behind nearly all of our sexual and family problems in the Western world today, and during Lent, I will be posting a series on how each problem is traceable back to contraception as the root.
If we are going to heal our society and once again instill a reverence for life, it will have to start with rooting out the contraceptive mentality. As people are starting to realize the harmful effects of non-natural foods, lotions, etc., this task may not be as overwhelmingly difficult as it seems.
Mourning today; hope for tomorrow
Today is a day of mourning for all loving people across the United States of America. 37 years and over 50 million lives have been snuffed out in the womb, and that doesn’t even include contraception-induced early abortions.
Pray the Rosary today that God will end this scourge. National opinion on the abortion issue seems to be trending in the right direction, and even the Democrats, with full control of our government, has thus far been mostly thwarted in their attempts to expand access to abortion. I attribute this to the 130,000+ Rosaries that have been pledged here, and the many millions of Rosaries that have surely been said throughout our land for pro-life intentions in the last 15 months or so.
It is unclear how Roe v. Wade will be overturned at this point, but with God and with unceasing prayer, all things are possible. Please recruit others to join the Rosaries for Life cause, and watch for exciting news over the next few months about the expansion of our apostolate.
Prayer, our powerful weapon
My posts usually don’t include recommendations of other blogs, but there’s a relatively new one that I’ve found to be extremely inspiring and insightful called Conversion Diary. The author of the blog is Jennifer Fulwiler, who was a lifelong atheist up until a few years ago. She deserves to be read by a wide audience, not only for her own insights, but other inspiring articles that she passes on. Kudos, Jennifer, and please keep it up!
Here is something she recently wrote regarding prayer, which I suspect a lot of us can identify with. We don’t pray, or we pray halfheartedly, because we don’t really fully believe or understand the importance of our prayers, or we don’t believe that we are doing anything important enough to pray fervently for. Both ideas are so far off the mark.
I am convinced that the main reason our society and our world are going “down the drain” right now is a lack of prayer. Certainly, we don’t DO enough to evangelize, help the unborn, etc. but the graces to do these things and for them to bear fruit come through prayer. These foundational thoughts are the very bedrock of Rosaries For Life. A better world for us, our children, and our grandchildren will come about only through unceasing prayer.
In my next post, I will endeavor to explain why the Rosary, in particular, is such a mighty weapon of spiritual warfare.
Crunch Time to defeat Obamacare
Well, the latest is that the Senate version of Obamacare will be voted on this week or next by both the Senate and the House. If this is true, then the pro-life victory in the House which prohibited abortion coverage has been wiped out, and the version that will come to a final vote DOES contain coverage for abortion. Don’t be confused by claims that the bill is abortion-neutral or does not contain funding of abortion. The Senate bill, as currently stands, definitely DOES allow for abortions to be covered in the health care plan, and the most likely scenario is that the House will simply be voting on the Senate version without any chance to reinsert the pro-life Stupak amendment.
Public opinion is against this bill because of abortion, as well as other reasons. NOW is the time to make your voice heard to your Senators and Congressmen. For those of you that have Senators or Congressmen that will not be convinced by arguments about abortion (such as is the case with the Senators here in Minnesota), try using other reasons to make the case, such as the angle that the health care bill is a major expense at a time when our country can’t afford another money pit.
The best chance to defeat the bill is still in the House, so focus on your Congressmen, especially those of you who live in districts with more moderate Democrats who voted for the original Stupak amendment. Move your cursor over the Contact header on the main Rosaries for Life site to contact your Senators and Congressmen!
Don’t forget to fast and pray the Rosary for our nation in this critical time! If you have not already pledged your prayers, please do so!
Update: At US News and World Report, there is this informative report about the current abortion related issues in the health care bill.
Personhood
Personhood is a dangerous word. It is a legal term, and any time it is used, it is usually used to EXCLUDE a given group of human beings from the group of “persons”. This enables them to be considered property, or to not have the very right to live. Recent examples, of course, include slavery, the Jews and others under Hitler, and now abortion throughout the world.
With advances in science, we should have progressed to the point where all human beings have the right to life and freedom just by virtue of being human beings. Unfortunately, this is not yet the case.
Fortunately, there’s a group called Personhood USA doing some good work in attempting to define the unborn as persons. This approach has already had success in North Dakota, Montana, and Mississippi. Given that it shifts the focus onto the unborn child, it would seem to be a promising strategy. Please check them out, and get involved if you feel so called.
Urgent action needed - stop federal funding for abortions
Congress is, as we speak, debating health care reform. While the advisability of this is debatable in itself, there is one thing that we MUST take action on. Right now, Democrats are trying to sneak federal funding for abortion in to the health care reform bill, and that is UNACCEPTABLE. If successful, this would be as bad as, maybe worse than FOCA. Studies have shown that government funding of abortion increases the abortion rate by at least 20%.
Unless we all act by contacting our elected representatives now, WE will be footing the bill for abortions, to the tune of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of abortions. Please contact your Congressman and your two Senators!
One might phrase their letter to say that most people are opposed to abortion and even MORE people are opposed to having their tax money go to pay for them. However you phrase your letter, please contact them today! You should be able to find your representatives using our “Contact” section on the main website.
Abortionist George Tiller murdered
If you haven’t heard it already, abortionist George Tiller, one of the few who performed partial birth abortions in the United States, was murdered today while attending his Lutheran Church(!?).
At Rosaries for Life, of course, we totally deplore such violence. Violence and injustice cannot be solved by more violence and injustice. Also, the murderer sent Mr. Tiller to face his Maker with very little chance to repent for his sins. That is not the mark of a true Christian. Please pray for the soul of Mr. Tiller.
At this point, we do not even know for sure if the murderer was part of the anti-abortion movement. (Of course, obviously, he was not truly pro-life.) At any rate, now we must pray even harder that this violent action does not harm the pro-life movement as a whole, and that pro-life advocates as a whole are not seen as “terrorists” because of this.
I close with a quote from the late John Cardinal O’Connor (hat tip to Mark Shea):
If anyone has an urge to kill someone at an abortion clinic, they should shoot me. … It’s madness. It discredits the right-to-life movement. Murder is murder. It’s madness. You cannot prevent killing by killing.
Survey says….America turning pro-life!
A new Gallup poll shows a major shift towards the pro-life view as compared to pro-choice. Other recent surveys have confirmed this shift. It isn’t easy to determine what has caused this major shift. It may very well be at least partially related to the attention that has been given to the abortion issue with the Notre Dame flap.
It is DEFINITELY related to the perseverance of you prayer warriors, so let’s keep it up, and even step it up another notch!
Archbishop Burke endorses Rosaries for Life (sort of)
One of our heroes, Archbishop Raymond Burke, the highest judicial official in the Catholic Church other than the Pope himself, gave a talk today at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
I strongly encourage everyone to read the entire talk, he hit upon the Notre Dame Scandal and much else, but he spoke these words, which one might have thought were addressed directly to Rosaries For Life:
Remember, too, how Pope Saint Pius V, in 1571, called upon the whole Church to pray, especially through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when the Christian world was under attack by the Turks. After the victory of the Battle of Lepanto, on October 7, 1571, he established October 7th as an annual feast in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary and introduced the title of Mary Help of Christians into the Litany of Loreto. In the present crisis, praying daily the Rosary for our nation and invoking daily the intercession of Mary Help of Christians will be powerful forces for the victory of life and love….
All Catholics throughout the nation should take part in Eucharistic adoration and in the praying of the Rosary for the restoration of the respect for human life and for the safeguarding of the integrity of the family. In our prayers, we should seek, above all, the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception. Mary Immaculate is the patroness of our nation. In a most wonderful way, she appeared, on our continent, in what is present-day Mexico City, in 1531, as the Immaculate Mother of God, in order to manifest the all-merciful love of God toward His children of America. Through her example and intercession, the Native Americans and Europeans, who were on the brink of a most deadly conflict, were brought together to form one people under her maternal care, and the widespread practice of human sacrifice among the native people was brought to an end. In our time, in many parishes and dioceses there are campaigns of prayer for our nation and her leaders. May these powerful spiritual works continue and prosper, so that, through prayer and fasting, the grave evils of contraception, procured abortion, euthanasia, the experimentation on embryonic human life, and so-called same-sex marriage may be overcome in our nation.
Great new ad
Fast Tube by Casper
This ad was made by Catholic Vote, and is going to air on American Idol! Wow!
