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"I would like to say, humbly, to those who suffer and to those who struggle and are tempted to turn their backs on life: turn towards Mary! Within the smile of the Virgin lies mysteriously hidden the strength to fight against sickness, in support of life. With her, equally, is found the grace to accept without fear or bitterness to leave this world at the hour chosen by God".
~ Pope Benedict XVI, Lourdes 9/15/08 ~
Initiative 1000 Opponents Debut Actor Martin Sheen in Commercials
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2008
Olympia---Today, the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide announced it has started a $750,000 broadcast advertising campaign, featuring actor Martin Sheen. Sheen agreed to help publicize the dangers of Initiative 1000, the assisted suicide measure on the November ballot in Washington State. Read more...
On Friday, September 26, a positive story about 40 Days for Life Seattle was featured on the front page of the UW Daily. The organizers of the Seattle campaign would appreciate it if more people could sign up to pray, especially between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. Their vigil hours calendar can be found here.
September 29, 2008
THIS PAST FRIDAY 40 DAYS FOR LIFE OLYMPIA WAS VERY BLESSED.
Ed Sauley of Show the Truth Washington shared the following:
A girl was going into Planned Parenthood in Olympia to have an abortion when one of our Show the Truth sidewalk counselors, Tom Hruska, reached out to her verbally and she responded. After some soul searching, the girl decided to accept his offer of help. She is now receiving that help.
PRAISE GOD!
Sadly, another girl was not so fortunate. She arrived at Planned Parenthood at 8:30 a.m. and left their parking lot, nine hours later, in an ambulance. Please pray for her recovery.
September 27, 2008
THANK YOU to Diego and Kim Wendt, the volunteers, and everyone who participated in and/or made a donation to 4US. It was a great success! Approximately 1100 people rode, ran, or walked 4US in the rain, and over $100,000 was raised to "illuminate hope" for pregnant women in crisis. There are only 359 days until next year's event on September 19. We hope to see you there!
"Vote Pro-Life" radio ad begins airing nationwide today
The ad features the sound of an unborn baby's heartbeat at 10 weeks, and the voice of a woman saying, "Listening to this makes me wonder - why would anyone question that her life has begun?" It concludes with the words, "Vote your heart. Vote Pro Life."
"The fact that the child whose heartbeat we hear is alive is simply a matter of science," Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson said in announcing the beginning of the ad campaign. "We believe that it is vital that America's pro-life community make it clear that they will reserve their votes for candidates of either party who are committed to protecting life from conception to natural death."
Anyone can listen to or download the ad from the Knights of Columbus website, www.kofc.org.
A similar ad is planned for broadcast in Canada, where general elections are set for October 14, 2008.
Knights of Columbus Communications Office
Trig's Breakthrough
By Michael Gerson
Washington Post, Wednesday, September 10, 2008; Page A15
In addition to Barack Obama making history as the first African American to be nominated for president and Sarah Palin taking her shotgun to the glass ceiling, there was a third civil rights barrier broken at the political conventions this year.
Trig Paxson Van Palin -- pronounced by his mother "beautiful" and "perfect" and applauded at center stage of the Republican convention -- smashed the chromosomal barrier. And it was all the more moving for the innocence and indifference of this 4-month-old civil rights leader. Read more...
September 25, 2008
There are some exciting and powerful programs coming your way on Sound Insight this week. Don’t miss this opportunity to be informed and inspired about Initiative 1000 and all that is at stake on November 4. Below are the details:
Live streaming radio via www.catholicnotes.com
Trinity Formation Resources
September 23, 2008
Please consider helping the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide in one of the following ways:
- Take a handful of their palm cards around to your neighborhood and talk about the dangers posed to Washingtonians if Assisted Suicide becomes public policy. Let Carrie know if you need her to mail materials to you. You will need to furnish her with your name, address, city, zip, phone and email for assignment purposes.
- Spend some time at local events or stores handing out information.
- Write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper against I-1000. If you need some background information for your letters, visit the coalition's website.
- Make a contribution to their campaign.
“In God’s Time” is a 14 minute, moving presentation of Catholic teaching on life as well as the alternatives to assisted suicide. The video can be viewed at www.thewscc.org/LifeEd/edresources
Bishop Vasa of Baker, Oregon, and Archbishop Naumann and Bishop Finn of Kansas City recently addressed the issue of faithful citizenship. Please read Bishop Vasa: Pro-Abortion Candidates are "Disqualified" - Clarifies "Faithful Citizenship" and Kansas City Bishops Say No "Proportionate" Reason to Vote for Pro-Abortion over Pro-life Candidate to learn what they had to share.
Thanks to the UK-based Christian Institute, Google will allow religious pro-life advertisements. Until a few days ago, searching "abortion help" brought up only pro-abortion advertisements. Today, that search brings up Birthright, Optionline, and StandUp Girl, too. Please visit Catholic News Agency for the full story.
USCCB APPLAUDS PROPOSED CONSCIENCE REGULATIONS FROM HHS
WASHINGTON—Proposed government regulations to protect the conscience rights of health care professionals and institutions drew applause September 12 from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Read more...
September 18, 2008
Vote NO on I–1000
One of Fr. Ed White’s parishioners shared her reflections with him on the last few moments of a friend’s life. He thought it appropriate to share them with you as well during this time when we face this issue in our own state, of who ought to be in control at that last moment of life on this side of the line. Thanks to bmc for sharing this:
“Birth to Birth”
Birth..…into life. Slow. Fatiguing. Messy. Painful. Emotional. Exhausting. Exhilarating. And sometimes…Fast And Furious.
Birth..…into everlasting life. Slow. Fatiguing. Messy. Painful. Emotional. Exhausting. Exhilarating. And sometimes…Fast And Furious.
Both births that we will all experience, not our time but God’s.
I was part of something powerful, that has changed me forever. There has been a shift in the sand. The line once drawn there, has been washed away…With a certainly that I cannot ignore, nor deny. I was drawn into this birth process unaware of the outcome that would unfold in my heart. With birth comes purpose, what will it be? When will it be?
We cannot challenge those questions. It cannot be hastened with human hands. It may happen in the last breath of our life here on earth…intended to teach one final lesson to another.
Her purpose for me came without a word spoken…in total sacred silence. I wrapped my “lifeline to God” in her warm hands and I prayed with her. I know in my heart we were in solidarity. At that moment, the gifts poured out to me in a silence that could deafen. I knew why I was called to her that day, it was my moment to receive parts of her purpose.
The urgency of my own mortality. To embrace a new level of awareness of my own senses. Smelling…Seeing…Tasting …Touching…Hearing…All that were slipping away from her. A deeper gratitude, for all that has been given to me…and acceptance for what has been taken. To just Stop. Breathe. Receive, and celebrate my own birth and life so far.
What time is it? Not ours. That’s what time it is. It is God’s moment for us, when He will call us home for our infinite embrace. We will all drink from this cup, our second birth will come.
It may be…Slow. Fatiguing. Messy. Painful. Emotional. Exhausting. Exhilarating. It may come fast and furious. Either way, it will be filled with purpose.
I understand now. It is not for, me, or you, or “they” to decide that moment, but for the one we call “I AM”.
bmc
September 11, 2008
Some issues are more important than others!
Catholic Vote
September 10, 2008
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 www.usccb.org/prolife/whatsnew.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.
USCCB Pro-Life Secretariat
September 9, 2008
BISHOPS’ PRO-LIFE OFFICE DEBUTS STEM CELL RESEARCH, ABORTION ADS
WASHINGTON -- The Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is offering dioceses and others print ads on stem cell research and abortion.
One newly created ad highlights scientific advances that are making the use of human embryonic stem cells obsolete and calls attention to the development of “Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells” (iPSCs). These are virtually identical to embryonic stem cells, derived from ordinary body cells and so can be obtained without destroying human embryos. Picturing a commuter running for a train, the ad asks: “Science is moving on. Isn’t it time for public policy to get on board?”
A second ad on stem cell research features advances already being made to treat patients with adult stem cells and directs readers to www.stemcellresearch.org for more information. Its tagline is: “Adult Stem Cell Research. Let’s Find Cures We Can All Live With.”
A third ad underscores the extreme nature of current abortion policy under Roe v. Wade: “The human heart begins to beat at 22 days. Roe v. Wade says a doctor can stop it for the next 244….Have we gone too far?” The full-color ad directs readers to www.secondlookproject.org for more information on abortion law.
The final ad, newly designed, calls on Congress to “Pledge now to oppose FOCA” -- the “Freedom of Choice Act,” that is designed to mandate taxpayer funding of abortion and eliminate virtually all current laws regulating abortion. The ad features the eye-catching graphic of a red octagonal sign with the word “GO” instead of “STOP,” and reads: “You can’t reduce abortions by promoting abortions. If you agree, oppose the ‘Freedom of Choice Act’.”
The ads appeared first in the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, which was distributed at the Democratic Convention in Denver, and at the Republican Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The ads are available at www.usccb.org/prolife/media. Catholic dioceses and other pro-life groups nationwide may download and print the unaltered ads free of charge.
USCCB Pro-Life Secretariat
September 4, 2008
