Archive for January, 2014

Our Lady of America Trial‏–Update

By Al Langsenkamp, Update 1/26/2014

This past week we seated our jury on Tuesday Morning.  Opening statements were made in the afternoon and Kevin McCarthy was on the stand for the remainder of the week for direct examination.  Cross examination will start tomorrow afternoon.

Anyone thinking of attending the proceedings on Monday morning, please be advised that the trail has been postponed until 1:00 PM due to weather.

God Bless you and keep praying that truth prevails in all of these proceedings.

_Al–317-713-8633 (O), 317-946-0495 (C)

BACKGROUND 1/19/2014

Dear Friends and Family,

Once again, please allow me to ask for your prayers.

Starting this past Tuesday, January 21, I have been in a Federal Court Trial (as a Plaintiff) that revolves around the question: does a certain person own a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.   This trial has certain constitutional and religious issues which have already set legal precedent (and may set more) concerning separation of Church and State issues.  The fundamental question however is does the defendant own copyrights and trademarks concerning the Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of America.

Many of you know that I have been dedicated to promoting this devotion to The Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of America.   This devotion originates with appearances of the Blessed Virgin as Our Lady of America to a Sister Mary Ephrem, C.PP.S. (8/2/1916-1/10/2000) in 1956 in Rome City, Indiana and continuing until 1960 in other locations.  The devotion was approved by the Archbishop of Cincinnati, Paul Francis Leibold.

The messages are a call to purity for our county.  There are certain requests made by Our Lady of us individually and of our Church collectively.  If we respond, she has promised graces greater than those given at Fatima and Lourdes.   During the course of these apparitions Jesus, St. Joseph, Our Lady, and St. Michael all appeared.  You can learn more about the devotion and additionally download the messages atwww.ourladyofamerica.org.

In late 2005 Kevin B. McCarthy (a friend of mine) was asked by two U.S. bishops to find out why this devotion had fallen into dormancy and to “Get it going”.    Terry and I discerned that we should help in this charge by the Bishops.

Starting in late 2005 we started collaborating with a Sr. Mary Joseph Therese, C.I.T. (Patricia Fuller) from Fostoria, OH.  She was in the cloister of the Precious Blood Sister with the visionary.  In the late 70’s the Precious Blood Sisters closed the cloister and the visionary left the Order.  Sr. Joseph represented that a new Order was founded called the Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity that she and the visionary went to after leaving the Precious Blood Cloister and that she was the last living member of that Order.  She claimed copyrights and trademarks concerning the messages and devotionals.  Unfortunately, I never met the visionary.

Kevin & I collaborated with Sr. Mary Joseph Therese and many things were accomplished to promote the devotion from 2006-2007.  The statue of Our Lady of America attended the U.S.C.C.B. Conference in 2006.  It was displayed in the Archdioceses of New Your, Galveston-Houston, St. Louis, Newark, Indianapolis and Milwaukee.  Additionally, many Dioceses also promoted the devotion to some level.   While it was a struggle working with her, we continued our collaboration until late 2007 when the relationship broke down and we simultaneously learned that Sr. Mary Joseph Therese was not recognized as a Catholic Religious by the Holy Roman Catholic Church and did not live in a convent.  Subsequently, we also learned that Sr. Mary Joseph Therese was dismissed from religious life in 1982 for “incorrigible disobedience”.    In other words she misrepresented her status and in essence who she was.

This caused a serious threat to the devotion.   As a nun under a vow of poverty, Sr. Mary Joseph Therese could own trademarks and copyrights in her name that would through the operation of a vow of poverty belong to the Church.  However, as a lay person, if those copyright and trademarks were allowed to stand then a lay person would own, under the laws of the United States, what may be one of the greatest gifts of grace available through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin.

In 2005, Kevin McCarthy, BVM Foundation, Inc and I filed a lawsuit in Federal Court, primarily seeking to overturn these copyrights and trademarks arguing that they were either owned by the Catholic Church or were in the public domain.  Patricia Fuller and her co-defendant countersued with anything they could imagine producing a laundry list of illegal and immoral activities with which the created claims in the lawsuit.

This case has spanned over 5 years and has involved statements from 2 Bishops, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, a diplomatic note from the Apostolic Nunciature, an Amicus Curie brief from the Vatican and a successful appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  Truly this has been a battle of “Powers and Principalities”.

The trial will last 4-6 weeks and is being held in the courtroom of William T. Lawrence at the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Indianapolis.

Terry and I sincerely implore your prayers that truth will prevail in this trial and that the evil one will be prevented from influencing anything about this trial resulting in a devotion which is free for the faithful and the bishops to practice.

The trial is open to the public.  Should you be able to attend and pray silently during the proceedings, it would certainly be appreciated?  If you are not able to attend, please offer your prayers for our success.  The trial is expected to last for the next 3 weeks or beyond.

We need prayer warriors, so feel free to forward this message or post it.

May Jesus bless you and Our Lady of America intercede for you!

My Recent Incredible Encounter with Late Term Abortionist Leroy Carhart

by Monica Miller, PhD

I want to tell you a story—one that this pro-life activist leader finds incredible—one which I believe was guided by the providence of God.

On Saturday, Jan. 18th I traveled by plane from Detroit, MI to Omaha, NE to deliver the keynote address at the Nebraskans United for Life banquet.  A young twenty-three year-old female college student sat next to me on the flight.  She asked me why I was traveling to Omaha and I told her that I was going to give a speech at a pro-life event.  I had hoped to share with her a promotional card for my book Abandoned—The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars—as a way to evangelize on the issue of abortion—but I failed to put any of those cards in my coat pocket—and was kicking myself for missing the opportunity to give one to her.

When I was at the banquet I made a point of holding one card back from the table upon which my books were displayed and put it in my coat pocket—just in case I would meet someone on the flight back to Detroit to whom I could give the card.  Well—not only did I have the card ready to take back—but two books remained unsold and I said to my Nebraskan host, Ann Marie Bowen (a great lady!)  “Let me just take these books back with me since there are only two that will easily fit in my suitcase.”

During the banquet I met great pro-lifers and many of my conversations with them centered on the nationally-known notorious late-term abortionist Leroy Carhart who operates an abortion clinic in Omaha.  I spoke with pro-lifers such as Larry Donlan, who are dedicated to keeping a heroic pro-life witness outside of his clinic. Carhart also does late term abortions in Germantown, MD at his clinic Germantown Reproductive Health Services.  Not only does Carhart kill the unborn but at least 2 women have died due to complications from the abortions they received from him: Jennifer Morbelli and Christin Gilbert.  See link at end of this memo or click here.

The next day I arrived at the Omaha airport for my 8am flight. The airport was de-populated and very quiet, the atmosphere relaxed on this Sunday morning.  Eventually my Delta flight to Detroit was called and I got into line for “zone 3” boarding.  Suddenly I noticed a gentleman get in line for “zone 2” and my heart nearly burst out of my chest. The man was none other than Leroy Carhart!  I said to myself:   “Oh, my gosh, I am about to share a flight with one of the most notorious, committed abortionists on planet earth—this is a golden opportunity to say something to him!”

We boarded the plane. Carhart was seated 4 rows behind me on the other side of the aisle. A woman, about the same age sat next to him.

All through the 90 minute flight I prayed that God would give me courage to approach him and that Carhart would be open to listening to me. I rehearsed in my mind what I would say—and now, unlike the flight to Omaha, I was ready—not only with a card about my book—but with actual copies of the book itself!  This was no accident. This, as the late Fr. Norm Weslin was fond of saying, was a “divine set up”!

The plane laabandonednded.  Since I was 4 rows ahead of Carhart I got off the plane before him. Once inside the concourse I quickly unzipped my suitcase, grabbed one of those “unsold” copies of Abandoned—took the promo card waiting in my pocket, slipped it into the book and watched the gate for Carhart to emerge.  In a matter of minutes he was entering the concourse with the woman seated next to him on the plane now walking at his side.

 

He passed right in front of me and I asked stepping forward: “Are you Dr. Carhart?”  He immediately stopped. “Yes, I am,” he answered. “Hello, I’m Monica Miller.” Carhart held out his hand to shake mine—and we shook hands. “I want to give you my book.” I handed it to him and he took it without a bit of hesitation.  Indeed, it seemed I had caught him completely off guard.

Then I said, “Please Leroy, I want to urge that you leave the business of abortion.”

“Yeah, you and about ten thousand other people.”

We began to walk down the concourse together. It became apparent that the woman with him was none other than Mrs. Carhart. Together Leroy and I entered the moving walkway standing side by side.

“Leroy you can change—I believe you have a heart and a soul that can be reached.”

“Yes, I do, and I believe in God and I am doing his will.”

“Ok, Leroy, I want to understand—I want to understand why you think abortion is justified. I want to understand your view.”

“The fetus is not human until birth,” was his answer.

“So you’re saying that the unborn child has no human or moral status until the baby is born?”

“That’s right.”

The moving walk way ended and we together entered the next one—with his wife tagging behind.

He asked me: “Why do you think the fetus is human?”

“I think science demonstrates to us that the fetus is human—a full human being.  What is your basis for believing otherwise?”

“Everything,” was his short non-answer.

“Leroy—when you kill the unborn you are involved in terrible violence and injustice—you need to get out.”

At that point he tried to give me back my book.  Indeed, by now what was happening to Carhart had to be an abortionist’s worst nightmare, un-expectantly being confronted by a pro-lifer at an airport—and one who has given him a book no less!

I said, “No, please keep that book, it’s for you. Put it in your suitcase.”

Then I turned to his wife. “You need to encourage your husband to stop killing the unborn—that’s your place, you need to influence him.”

Then Carhart said to me: “You are the definition of insanity.”

At first I wasn’t quite sure to what he was referring. Was I insane because I believed abortion was the killing of innocent human beings? But then I quickly understood his meaning.

“You mean to say that I am the definition of insanity because an insane person keeps doing the same thing over and over again even when there is no result—such as pro-lifers trying to talk you out of doing abortions.”

“That’s right. You’re insane.”

“No. I am not insane. It is not insane for someone to encourage another person to do the right thing.”

Then his wife said to me: “We are more committed to our position than you are to yours.”

I said: “I don’t think so.”

And then—with my book still in his hand, Leroy and his wife ducked into the Delta Sky Club—and disappeared—but not before I was able to tell him: “I am praying for you.”

I remain amazed that this encounter with one of the most notorious abortionists took place. I believe that it was divinely arranged. I find it funny that I was intent on being prepared for a pro-life exchange, 35 thousand feet above the earth—with maybe just another college student.  But, instead I would share the divinely arranged flight to Detroit with none other than Leroy Carhart, I would have a copy of my book available to give to him and I actually GAVE IT TO HIM.  It seems like a dream.

I pray that he did not simply toss my book into the nearest trash receptacle at the Detroit Metro Airport.  Something tells me he didn’t. If for no other reason he kept it out of curiosity.  Furthermore, I believe God arranged that I would have a copy of the book to give to this abortionist—and so whatever good may come of my airport meeting with Carhart it is in God’s hands.

I ponder some of the statements that Carhart made to me—such as “The fetus is not human until birth.” I don’t believe Carhart does not know that the unborn are human. What I think he was really saying is that as long as the “fetus” remains in the womb of the mother the “fetus” has no rights. But let’s keep in mind this is a man who once committed partial birth abortions, thus even by his own definition these babies were at least “partially human”!

And indeed, if Carhart who sees up close every day the broken bodies of the innocent unborn really does deny that they are human-then he is the one who suffers from insanity.

Now—you may be wondering why Carhart was on that flight to Detroit. I am absolutely sure, and after talking to pro-life activists in Germantown, MD, that he and his wife, who aids him in the abortion practice, were simply catching a connecting flight to D.C. with their final destination that Germantown abortion center.  That Sunday night Carhart would already be prepping his female clients for their late-term abortions.

Most likely Carhart is on that 8am flight out of Omaha, NE every Sunday morning with a stop-over at the Detroit Metro Airport.

Pray for him.  And let’s also pray and make sure that Carhart’s wife’s remark is NOT true—“We are more committed to our position than you are to yours.”

http://abortiondocs.org/clinic/abortionist/113/leroy-h-carhart/

19 Beautiful Reminders Why Americans March for Life

PicMonkey Collage4by Kelsey Harris | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 1/22/14

Today, tens of thousands of people from around the country will gather in Washington to brave the cold for a cause they believe in. Some are marching for the first time, and others have been traveling to the nation’s capital since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. For the 41st year, they’ll meet again for the same reason — the sanctity of life.

We’re also celebrating life today, and we hope you will, too. Here are 19 moving reminders of the beauty of new life:

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Learn more: “How to Speak Up for Life,” produced by Heritage in collaboration with Alliance Defending Freedom, Americans United for Life, Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, March for Life Education and Defense Fund, and the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund

LifeNews Note: Kelsey Harris writes for the Heritage Foundation.

Pro-life March 2014

Yesterday hundreds of thousands marched on Washington DC for the Right to Life in the United States. This year marks the 41st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion in every state in the United States. Since Roe v. Wade went into effect on January 22nd, 1973, more than 56 million human beings have been killed by abortion in the United States.

 

In the United States today, there are…

1.382 million Abortions every year
115,167 Abortions every month
26,577 Abortions every week
3,786 Abortions every day
157 Abortions every hour
2.6 Abortions every minute

The Pro-Life movement has not yet succeeded in reversing Roe v. Wade, but the Pro-Life movement is stronger than ever, even 41 years later.

This year One More Soul gave some people who attended the March for Life a short questionnaire. We wanted to know their personal reasons for attending the march in their own words. We will post their answers here and report how the annual March for Life changes lives.

Our mission is to encourage people to welcome “One More Soul”. Please consider to make a donation to One More Soul to continue to be a voice for the culture of life.

Trent Horn-Catholic Apologist on Radio Maria

Dear One More Soul and Radio Maria Friends,

Wednesday, 22 January 2014, marks the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs Wade and Doe vs Bolton decisions legalizing the killing of pre-born children in America.  Trent Horn is an appropriate Guest for this week’s “The Quest for a Culture of Life in America” program.

Trent holds a Master’s degree in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and is currently an apologist and speaker for Catholic Answers. He specializes in training pro-lifers to intelligently and compassionately engage pro-choice advocates in genuine dialogue. He is the author of Answering Atheism and Making the Case for Life (DVD), both published by Catholic Answers.
Making the Case for Life is a very valuable teaching tool for transforming any abortion debate into a fruitful conversation–one that opens minds and hearts to the humanity of the pre-born child while maintaining a non-confrontational environment. Trent’s approach has been developed by refining ideas of seasoned pro-life leaders and applying them with hundreds of college students.  Please listen at NOON ET, 9:00 am PT, at   radiomaria.us   or on your local Radio Maria station.  You will be better prepared to engage–without rage–family, friends and strangers in discussing America’s most divisive issue.
Blessings to all.
Steve Koob,
Director One More Soul, and Host for
“The Quest for a Culture of Life”

PS  I thank all  of our listeners who made end-of-year donations to Radio Maria and One More Soul.  You have given us a  running start on the New Year.  We are very grateful!

The Blessings of Children Project

Every month, we will post a quote about why babies, children, and new lives are a wonderful, beautiful blessing. We hope that, one positive quote at a time, we can change our society’s attitude towards children. If you like the quote, please post it on facebook, tweet it, pin it, or email it to your friends and family. We hope that, one message at a time, we can change peoples’ attitude towards having another child and children in general.

Click on the image to Share it on Facebook

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The Blessings of Children

 

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We believe babies, children, and new lives are a wonderful, beautiful blessing. We hope that, one positive quote at a time, we can change our society’s attitude towards children. If you like the quote, please post it on facebook, tweet it, pin it, or email it to your friends and family. We hope that, one message at a time, we can change peoples’ attitude towards having another child and children in general.

 

 

Ballerina Dances With Her Pre-born Baby

‘It’s a beautiful time’: 9-months-pregnant ballerina is breathtaking

Dec. 19, 2013 at 3:31 PM ET

At nine months pregnant, Mary Helen Bowers is dancing a lovely pas de deux with her unborn baby.

The former ballerina glows in photos and videos showing her twirling, stretching and moving to the music, her baby bump along for the ride. She has chronicled her growing body on her Instagram account, balletbeautiful.

“I just love knowing that when I’m dancing, the baby is dancing,” Bowers, 33, told TODAY Moms. “It’s just been awesome to know there’s this little life that’s sharing in everything you do every day.”

With her doctor’s approval, Bowers has been dancing and working out right until the last days of her pregnancy. She’s due to give birth next week.

Noting she’s been lucky to have a very healthy and comfortable pregnancy, Bowers said the most important thing she has done is listen to her body throughout the process. During her first trimester, she still felt like she could do almost everything, but she soon started to modify her dancing to accommodate her growing belly.

How does she balance with all that extra weight in the front?

“It’s not everything that it was,” Bowers admitted with a laugh. But she said she’s always paid great attention to having a good posture and focusing on her core, which has allowed her to maintain lots of control over her body.

“I feel like that’s really helped me with my balance and helped prevent back pain and a lot of other aches and pains that are really common with pregnancy.”

Bowers spends most of her day in a leotard and tights. “I’ve really been amazed by how active I’ve been able to be and how much my body has been able to do,” she says.

The dancer has also embraced watching her body change, noting she spends most of her days in a leotard and tights so there’s really no hiding a bump.

Bowers, who danced with the New York City Ballet for 10 years and helped train Natalie Portman for her role in “Black Swan,” now owns Ballet Beautiful, a New York fitness company designed to help regular women get a dancer’s lean and toned physique.

She’s also developed a prenatal workout, which she hopes will help women in the same way her dancing routine has helped her. “I’ve really been amazed by how active I’ve been able to be and how much my body has been able to do,” Bowers said.

“It’s a beautiful time. You feel connected to your body on a level like never before.”

Judge Grants Request From Jahi McMath’s Family to Extend Life Support

by Steven Ertelt | Oakland, CA | LifeNews.com | 12/30/13 8:39 PM

The judge who is adjudicating the case of Jahi McMath has granted an extension for life support after a legal request from her family’s attorney.

A county judge extended the order for Oakland-based Children’s Hospital to keep Jahi McMath on life support until 5 p.m. on January 7. Her mother and family say she is alive following a tonsillectomy gone awry that has left her in an incapacitated state since early December.

Jahi’s family has a door-to-door ambulance flight contracted to take her to a New York facility that will care for her.

“The family has located a licensed facility in the state of New York which has agreed to take Jahi,” Jahi’s uncle, Omari Sealey, said Monday afternoon, only about an hour before an Alameda County judge’s order keeping the girl on a ventilator was set to expire. “We have contracted with an air ambulance willing to take her from door to door. We have a doctor here in California who will be with her throughout the transfer.”

Sealey said Jahi has been responsive to her mother’s voice.

“Jahi is moving when her mother speaks,” he said. “We have video our attorneys have just produced it to the hospital’s attorney. We have a pediatrician who has seen Jahi who has sworn that she is not dead. We are hopeful that one of these (legal) actions will forestall the hospital’s rush to extinguish Jahi’s chance at life.”

Meanwhile, just three hours before the deadline today for removing her life support, the girl’s grandmother, Sandra Chapman spoke to the media and suggested Jahi was moving her body, saying there was leg and body movement as well as response to touch and voice.

“I know one’s [an alternative care facility] gonna come through. I know it. I feel it. Jahi’s moving. If she’s moving, the doctor should pay attention to that,” she said.

Jahi McMath’s family had found a new care facility that will continue her medical care and treatment. But the hospital she is at now won’t cooperate to move her.

A judge had ruled that a hospital in Oakland, California can remove life support from Jahi McMath, 13, who has been declared brain-dead days after undergoing surgery to have her tonsils removed. Her family is already devastated enough but has had to fight the hospital, which wanted to take her off life support against their wishes.

On Thursday, the lawyer for the family, Christopher Dolan, asked Children’s Hospital of Oakland to cooperate by performing a few procedures needed to move Jahi McMath. The hospital said no.

The Los Angeles-area long-term care facility that had been willing to accept Jahi has withdrawn its offer, leaving a New York hospital as the only apparent option for. That is happening as a deadline of 5 p.m. today reaches, whereby the hospital will officially cut offer her life support.

“I just found out that the facility my daughter was supposed to be going to has backed out! Children’s hospital has once again interfered with the placement of my daughter we still have a chance at 1 more facility so let us all pray,” family member Latasha Nailah Winkfield said.

The San Jose newspaper has more on this teenager’s case:

“I just found out that the facility my daughter was supposed to be going to has backed out,” Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, wrote on the family’s fundraising website early Sunday. “My family and I are still striving to find a location that will accept her in her current condition.”

That leaves an unnamed New York hospital “as our last, last hope,” Jahi’s lawyer, Christopher Dolan, said. The facility is run by an “organization that believes in life,” Dolan told The Associated Press.

But in a statement issued Sunday, a spokeswoman for Children’s Hospital Oakland said its doctors said no one from any other medical organization has been in contact with it to discuss a transfer of the 13-year-old.

“Our physicians have yet to receive a single call or message from the facility under consideration,” Cynthia Chiarappa wrote. “We have been waiting since Friday — when we were first told by the family lawyer of a potential facility that might accept the body of Jahi — for a call from a physician to discuss with our medical staff what may be necessary to transfer the deceased.”

Dolan said the unnamed Los Angeles-area facility withdrew its offer because it didn’t want media attention or to jeopardize its relationship with its doctors, who refused to treat someone who’s been declared brain dead.

As Jahi’s family prepared for a Sunday afternoon fundraiser at an Oakland church to help pay for a possible airlift, it remained unclear what will happen in the hours ahead.

Doctors at Children’s Hospital have refused to perform a tracheotomy for breathing and insert a gastric tube for feeding, procedures that are needed in order to transfer Jahi, saying it is unethical to perform surgery on a deceased person.

Jahi’s family is raising funds for her support. You can help by going to www.gofundme.com/jahi-mcmath

Jahi arrived at the hospital on a Monday and was supposed to be released Tuesday, the family said.

A member of Jahi’s family , a veteran nurse at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, noticed her granddaughter was bleeding from her mouth and nose. She later went into cardiac arrest. Jahi spent Tuesday on a ventilator. By 2 a.m. Wednesday, doctors said she had swelling in her brain, and Thursday, she was declared legally brain-dead, family members said.

Judge Evelio Grillo ruled that Jahi must be kept on the breathing machine until at least 5 p.m. December 30. The verdict came after hearing testimony from two doctors, one an independent expert appointed by the judge on Monday and the other a 30-year veteran of the hospital. Both testified that the teen is brain-dead and that her body is alive only because of a ventilator hooked up to her since December 12.

The family has appealed the decision but pro-life attorney Wesley Smith said it is unlikely they will prevail.

“The judge gave the family, still fighting the determination, until Monday to appeal or adjust to the tragic reality,” he said. “I hope the family spends the remaining time loving Jahi and making preparations, as there is zero chance in my view that the court’s ruling will be overturned on appeal. If a miracle is to happen, it will have to be when the breathing assistance is removed. People who are brain dead have no ability to breathe on their own.”

“It’s also a shame the hospital has handled the tragedy so maladroitly. I was speaking about this to a former pediatric nurse who used to work in Children’s Hospital Oakland’s ICU. She said the facility has a real calling to serving the African-American community, and this has hurt trust. That’s why I was upset to hear a hospital spokesman say he was “gratified” that the court validated the hospital’s diagnosis,” Smith continued. “No, the proper and decent thing would have been to say that they were sorry the original diagnosis was affirmed. Good grief.”

 

 

Woman Conceived in IVF Mourns the Loss of Her Sibling Embryos Who Died

by Rebecca Taylor | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 1/1/14

This e-mail from a reader broke my heart. It is a cry for help from a young IVF-conceived woman who mourns the loss of her siblings that didn’t make it. It is also a look at the darker-side of IVF that no one wants to talk about: the massive loss of life inherent in the IVF process.

She writes:

I was wondering if you knew of any websites or resources that support people struggling after being conceived using IVF. I’ve been searching and searching online, and I’ve been unable to find a single source of advice.

I was one of three embryos created in the process, but I was the only one who survived. I mourn my siblings every single day. I can’t talk about them with my parents, because bringing the subject up inevitably causes fights, and they don’t feel the way I do. They don’t regret what they did, they don’t see anything wrong with IVF, and they don’t count my siblings as members of the family.

They never bring them up in conversation, and when I talk about them, they’ll concede that they are my siblings, but it’s only to make me feel better. I don’t think they really believe it. If they did, they’d regret what they did. When people asked how many children they had, they’d say three. They’d talk about them as members of the family, and say how much they wished they could be there at Christmas and birthdays. My mum would light candles for them at church and have Masses said for them. But it’s just me. I’m the only one who seems to care about them.

It hurts me every time I see in the news something about IVF, because the media treats it as if it’s okay. There’s never any mention that people die during the process. I don’t even know if there’s anyone else out there who feels the same way I do. If there is, I’ve never met them. Sometimes, I feel like a freak. The only person I’ve found who understands me at all is my local priest, who I’ve spoken to about everything, but I can’t be bothering him all the time! It’d be nice to have someone else who understood.

The support groups I know of are for those conceived with donor gametes. I do not know of any support groups for those conceived with IVF without donor sperm or egg.

Does anyone know of a group that could help this young woman? Her pain is very real and she needs others who can understand what she is feeling.
Contact Rebecca:  rhtaylor@marymeetsdolly.com

Pope Francis’ doctrine chief: Bishops conference presidents are not ‘vice-popes’

BY PATRICK B. CRAINE

ROME, December 30, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Francis piqued the curiosity of many members of the faithful in his November 24th exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, when he said national bishops’ conferences should be granted “genuine doctrinal authority” as part of his effort to reform the papacy and decentralize authority in the Church.

The idea raised concern for many Catholics, including those active in the battle for life and family, who expressed misgivings about giving more authority to institutions that, in many countries, have often been used to undermine the Church’s teachings on life and family issues.

Now the Pope’s prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has weighed in on the issue. Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller says that while the conferences can exercise a certain doctrinal authority – in preparing local catechisms, for example – they exist to serve individual bishops and will never act as an intermediary between bishop and pope.

In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Serapublished December 22nd, Archbishop Müller said there is no such thing as “national churches,” and the president of a bishops’ conference cannot be a “vice-pope.”

“Some interpret Evangelii Gaudium as if the Holy Father wants to promote a certain autonomy of the local churches, the tendency to distance themselves from Rome,” he said. “But this is not possible. Particularism, like centralism, is a heresy. It would be the first step towards autocephaly.”

The papacy and the role of bishop are “by divine right, instituted by Christ,” but the bishops’ conference, he said, “both historically and today, belong only to the ecclesiastical law,” which he noted is a “human” creation.

“The presidents of the episcopal conferences, while important, are coordinators, nothing more, not vicepopes!” he said. “Each bishop has a direct and immediate relationship with the Pope.”

A “decentralization” of power to the conferences would only create a new centralization, he said, in which the conference president “has all the information and the bishops are inundated with documents without time to prepare.”

In a paragraph of his exhortation, Pope Francis spoke of the need for a “conversion of the papacy” and the way in which papal primacy is exercised. In particular, he said there was a need to better elaborate “a juridical status of episcopal conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority.”

“Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach,” he added.

However, bishops conferences have often been criticized for harboring dissidents or being used to try to silence strong episcopal voices in the name of ‘collegiality,’ and producing statements that are vague, confusing, or even misleading.

One of the most famous examples is the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ 1968 Winnipeg Statement, which dissented from Humanae Vitae’s prohibition of contraception by claiming that Catholics could use contraception in “good conscience” provided they had “tried sincerely” to obey Church teaching.

Most recently, the German bishops’ conference has been embroiled in controversy after signaling that they would allow Communion for some Catholics who are “remarried” despite an existing Catholic marriage.

Many fear that increasing power at the conferences could undermine the efforts of outspoken bishops within their dioceses, and increase the tendency for bishops to yield their proper authority to the conference.

In the lead-up to the 2008 U.S. election, Bishop Joseph Martino, then the ordinary in Scranton, was forced to intervene when a liberal Catholic group at a parish used some vague lines from the USCCB document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship to justify voting for a pro-abortion candidate. “No USCCB document is relevant in this diocese,” the bishop said, noting that he had produced his own pastoral letter insisting that Catholics must vote pro-life.

Perhaps the most incisive criticism of modern bishops’ conferences was offered by Pope Benedict XVI himself before his election.

In The Ratzinger Report, his 1985 book-length interview with journalist Vittorio Messori, Cardinal Ratzinger explained that while the Second Vatican Council sought to restore the role of individual bishops, in practice the post-Conciliar period saw a reduction of their role because of the greater emphasis on the conferences.

“The decisive new emphasis on the role of the bishops is in reality restrained or actually risks being smothered by the insertion of bishops into episcopal conferences that are ever more organized, often with burdensome bureaucratic structures,” he said.

Echoing Müller’s observation that the conferences are of human origin, Cardinal Ratzinger said they “have no theological basis, they do not belong to the structure of the Church, as willed by Christ, that cannot be eliminated; they have only a practical, concrete function.”

“No episcopal conference, as such, has a teaching mission: its documents have no weight of their own save that of the consent given to them by the individual bishops,” Cardinal Ratzinger added.

To what extent Müller’s view reflects that of Pope Francis, and to what extent it will impact the discussion going forward, is unclear.

The prefect made similar remarks at the end of September, days after Pope Francis confirmed him in his post.

Bishops’ conferences lack “a teaching competency over and above the authority of individual bishops,” he said, according to The Tablet. “They are not a third authority between the Pope and the bishops. So I don’t think we will see a sort of federalist reform similar to that in the Federal Republic [of Germany] where key competences are relayed from the central state to the individual states. That is not how the Church is constituted!”

When I found out my wife was pregnant with our 9th, I wasn’t happy: then something happened…

by Thaddeus Baklinski, Tue Dec 24, 2013

COMBERMERE, December 25, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com)–Amid all the joyful bustle of family preparations in anticipation of the holy day of Christ’s birth, Christmas time always brings to my mind the deep regret that I feel over the one child my wife and I lost due to miscarriage, because it reminds me that at the time I was like the Bethlehem innkeeper who said there was no more room.

I was having a lot of trouble accepting that my wife was pregnant with our ninth child. It’s not that we were against having children–we had eight boys already–but when Theresa told me she was pregnant again, something inside me rebelled against the thought of another baby.

You know: “Oh no, another mouth to feed; our house is too small, and full to the rafters, literally, with kids; we’ll have to build an addition; we can’t afford this; I’m already the brunt of tacky jokes (don’t you folks in the country having anything else to do?); I can’t take this…there’s just no more room!”

You can see where this was going–from a lack of trust in God’s  purposeful generosity, to a miserly outburst of selfishness.

Most of Theresa’s pregnancies were planned, some were surprises, and although much to my later shame I once added my name to a “zero population growth” petition while at university (ah, how foolish I was when I was young!), we welcomed each baby as he came along.

And when things got out of hand, as things with piles of children often do, I reminded myself that they were, after all, God’s children first, and given to us to look after the best we could for really only a short while, if you consider the reality of eternity.

But with this pregnancy something in me didn’t rejoice.

I worked myself up to such a state of negativity that I began saying “Why me Lord?” while I brooded over the new life that was growing in Theresa’s womb with misgiving rather than hopeful expectation. “Isn’t eight enough Lord? How could You do this to me?!”

Then without warning–Theresa was always so healthy when she was pregnant–I got a call while at work that Theresa was taken to the hospital, bleeding.

The next days were a blur of frantic prayer, tears, uncertainty and dread, and then the final reality that we had lost him. We named him Stephan.

In the midst of trying to be strong and supportive for Theresa in our grief, I was overwhelmed with guilt. It seemed to me that my lack of acceptance of Stephan was the cause of his death–like God saying, “You don’t want him? Okay, I’ll take him back.”

We buried Stephan’s remains (there wasn’t much, he was in the first trimester) in a garden behind our home where we have a statue of Our Lady, and planted a rose bush over him.

Then God in His mercy let something change in me again.

Through the tears of sorrow and guilt I began to understand the reality of the wondrous, almost unimaginably generous gift from God that every child is.

A gift that is given to parents to love and nurture and enjoy, certainly, but also a gift to all of humanity in that the future is held in the tiny hands and minds and souls of the children that parents, with God’s help, bring into the world.

Of course with such an awesome gift also comes an awesome responsibility, and God never said raising children was supposed to be easy.

I sometimes ponder on God’s judgement of me when I die, and always come round to a scenario where the Lord looks at me with love and compassion, and then says, “Lets talk about how you did with the children I gave you…”

I have come to a deeper understanding that God does in fact give us exactly what we need, just when we need it, to live out the responsibilities that we have. But implicit in this is TRUST.

The reality finally dawned on me that there is always room for one more child, because if we trust in God’s providence, then we trust that He will give us the grace we need to persevere. A wise man once described this as the “grace of state” we are freely given and can freely accept, simply by virtue of being parents, and trying to live out God’s will in our lives.

Every child conceived is loved into existence by God and wanted by God, even if we choose not to want that child.

What changed in me after Stephan’s death was that I felt a grateful joy the next time we were pregnant that was somehow so much more profound than anything I had experienced before. I knew our little Stephan was praying for me in heaven, and I knew that however many children God sent us, we would always have love and room for them.

After Stephan we were blessed with four more wonderful sons, and two absolutely gorgeous daughters. We are also now blessed by 32 grandchildren with one more on the way, so far…

So now when we gather for Christmas at home we are always packed to the rafters, but unlike the inn in Bethlehem, there is always room for one more.

Dear friends of LifeSiteNews, I wish you a very merry and blessed Christmas. May this joyous season of Jesus’ birth be a time of wonder and renewal for all of us.

May I offer you a Christmas gift of a prayer, adapted from “Blessing Prayers: Devotions for Growing in Faith” by Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., that speaks profoundly of Christ’s coming to us as a baby born in a stable and the Father’s love and care for us all:

O Emmanuel,
may the assurance of your unfailing Presence
be for me the source of unending peace.
May I never fear my weakness, my inadequacy, or my imperfection.
Rather, as I gaze with faith, hope, and love upon your incarnate littleness,
may I love my own littleness, for God is with us.
Endow my life with a holy wonder
that leads me ever more deeply into the Mystery of Redemption and the meaning of my vocation and destiny.

May I make of my life a total gift of self.
May my humble worship of your Nativity
manifest how much I seek the Father’s Kingship
and his way of holiness.
The beauty of your holy face bears the promise
that your Father will provide for us in all things.
This Christmas, I renew my trust
in God’s goodness, compassion, and providence.

Ted Baklinski is a Canadian-based reporter for LifeSiteNews.com.