Archive for February, 2014
40 Days for Life Changed My Life
By Tom Dalrymple
I have heard it said that people don’t change their minds on important issues that people need to make up their minds for themselves, that we can’t change people through facts and logical discussions. By the grace of God, I know this to be false; because I am not the man I was six years ago. Six years ago I was an avowed Protestant and mildly pro-life. I used to tell my wife that I would never become Catholic.
All that changed when my brother-in-law and mother-in-law began to be active in the pro-life movement. They would speak with powerful arguments that we know from science that the unborn are human beings, and we know from philosophy that they are not different in any way that justifies taking their lives by abortion. I found these arguments to be both compelling and consistent. If the unborn are human, shouldn’t something be done to protect them? What happened next was a call to action: 40 Days for Life.
My mother-in-law announced that she planned to pray for a full day at the abortion facility in Kettering. I decided to spend the day with her – I was a bit worried of what might happen out on the sidewalk, and I was a bit curious as well.
What I found on the sidewalk that day is the side of the pro-life movement that most people don’t see. There on the sidewalk, you witness life and death. In the parking lot you find mothers and fathers who are heading to an appointment for an abortion, many times out of fear and a lack of love. And what you find on the sidewalk is the call of life, the outpouring of love and prayers for the child, the mother, the father, the abortionist, and all those involved in the act of abortion. That is what 40 Days for Life is all about: prayer and fasting, peaceful vigil, and community outreach. It is about showing the love of Jesus Christ where love is so badly needed.
That day propelled me from mildly pro-life to passionately pro-life. The other thing it did was cause me to question everything that I believed about God. Just like abortion, I had reasons for what I believed about my Protestant faith, and I thought they were good ones. But were they true? This moment opened my mind to the Catholic faith. Within a few months of study, speaking with friends, and looking very closely at the Bible, I realized I was in trouble again! The priesthood, the Pope, the 7 Sacraments, Catholic teaching on morality, the saints, the Eucharist – you can find all of these in the Bible, and you find that the Catholic Church has been miraculously consistent for 2000 years.
That sealed the deal for me, and I joyously joined the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil five years ago. If I had to pinpoint one moment that changed my life, it was that day on the sidewalk outside the abortion clinic almost six years ago. There is another 40 Days for Life starting this spring on March 5. Come out to see what it is all about, and perhaps your life will be changed as well. I’ll see you there.
—Tom Dalrymple, Holy Angels Parish, Dayton Ohio
Nigerian archbishop: Church will not compromise its moral teachings to placate Western elite
BY THADDEUS BAKLINSKI, Fri Feb 14, 2014
JOS, Nigeria, February 14, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria says the Catholic Church’s position on sexual ethics and the defense of life cannot be compromised to placate Western governments, and said critics of Catholic moral teaching are prejudiced and ignorant.
“The Catholic Church has been criticized over her stance on such issues as abortion, condoms, homosexuality, cloning, stem cell research, etc.,” Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Jos told a recent meeting of Catholic doctors, nurses and health workers, according a report by the Catholic News Service of Nigeria.
“The Catholic Church is often judged by people who do not care to know what we really believe. Prejudices inherited from one generation to another have blinded critics of the Catholic Church so much that they cannot be objective about Catholic beliefs and traditions,” the archbishop said in his opening remarks at a seminar titled “The practice of health care and the social teachings of the Catholic Church.”
He urged health care providers to resist the influence of Western governments and international organizations who want to force their debased moral and cultural values on the continent of Africa and especially Nigeria.
“We must not be swallowed up by the tyrannical imposition of some governments or international non-governmental organizations who wish to dictate the moral trend of the world based on their secular values,” the archbishop said.
“In Africa, whether it is about population control, use of condoms, homosexuality, etc sometimes, the views of the West are forced down the throats of Africans through financial inducement. Africans must not be copy cats, believing that whatever comes from the West is ideal,” he warned.
The archbishop stressed that Nigerians and all Africans must look at the impact of Western coercion with “cultural or intellectual discernment … or else we run the risk of losing our values and becoming neither Africans nor Westerners.”
“We must be faithful to our religious heritage even at a time when some of the people who introduced Christianity to us have become its ardent critics and some of them nurture a pathological hatred for Church directives or moral judgments,” he pointed out.
While reminding Catholic doctors, nurses and other health workers that their work is not only a career but a vocation, Archbishop Kaigama urged them to delve deeply into the social teachings of the Church to enable them to render their services “according to sound moral and ethical principles.”
He also used the occasion to praise Catholic doctors who have stood in defense of life in conformity with the teaching of the Church. “They do not trade their faith for anything, no matter the economic inducements or physical threats,” the archbishop said.
American Heart Month
February is “American Heart Month”. The campaign is designed to raise awareness about risks factors for heart disease and stroke and how to stay “heart healthy” for yourself and your loved ones.
The campaign mentions cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, smoking, obesity and sedentary lifestyle, but little or no emphasis is given to an important preventable risk factor for heart disease: the use of hormonal birth control.
Recent research studies indicate that hormones in birth control are linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and strokes. Although the risk of heart attack is rare in young women, the use of birth control doubles the risk. Women younger than 35 years who smoke and use birth control hormones have a 10-fold increased risk of heart attack. The risk is much higher for women over 35 years.1 One study found that women who smoked more than 15 cigarettes a day and used oral contraceptives had an increased risk of dying from heart disease.2
Researchers have analyzed the risk of heart attack among women who use oral contraceptives and have additional risk factors. They found that the risk of heart attack increased 6.1 times for oral contraceptive users suffering hypertension, 13.6 times for smokers, 17.4 times for diabetics, 24.7 times for oral contraceptive users who have high cholesterol.3
You can spread this message to your family, friends, and colleagues. See our info graphics and share them on Facebook, Twitter, or your favorite social network. Tell us if you or someone you know has suffered heart disease while using birth control pills. This testimony could help your friend, sister, cousin or somebody else to save their life.
Mom Expecting Identical Triplets Gets Surprise When Doctor Shouts, “More Feet!”
by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 2/17/14
Kimberly Fugate was expecting identical triplets. After a grueling labor process and the birth of three children, Fugate was ready for some much-needed rest. But rest would have to wait as the doctor shouted, “More feet!”
“They had got the three out and they said, ‘More feet,’” the Mississippi mother said. Fugate is now the proud mother of a statistical improbability – four identical newborn babies.
A fourth identical quadruplet had somehow been missed by numerous ultrasounds, managing to keep her existence hidden until she popped out behind three of her identical sisters last week at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
“It’s one surprise after another,” Fugate said.
The Fugate four, named Kenleigh Rosa, Kristen Sue, Kayleigh Pearl and Kelsey Roxanne after family members, arrived three months earlier than expected, and just a day before their mother’s 42nd birthday.
All four are currently doing well in neonatal intensive care after being born nearly 13 weeks premature. The girls will need to remain in observation, but Kimberly says she hopes to have them out by early May, on their original due date.
“I haven’t been able to hold them yet,” Fugate said. “It will be very exciting to get to take them home and love them.”
Dr. James Bofill, a professor of maternal fetal medicine at the hospital said the odds of conceiving identical quadruplets is astonishingly rare, especially in a case like Fugate’s, where she became pregnant without the use of fertilization drugs or treatments.
“The odds of spontaneous quadruplets is one in every 729,000 live births,” Bofill said. “The chances of having identical quadruplets [are] almost incalculable.”
Kimberly Fugate and her husband Craig are also parents to another daughter Katelyn, 10. The pair have set up a Facebook page to keep relatives updated on the quadruplets’ progress.
A Reflection on the Muñoz Tragedy
Posted on February 13, 2014 by LLDF Staff
Many in the pro-life community are reflecting on two tragic stories with very different outcomes: the Munoz situation in Texas and the Benson situation in Canada. In both, the wife and mother was declared brain dead. In the Benson story, Iver Benson, son of Dylan Benson and his now deceased wife, Robyn, has been allowed to live. Read more on the still-developing story at, http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/11/son-is-born-after-husband-keeps-brain-dead-pregnant-wife-alive-to-give-birth/
In the Munoz situation, the result was the heartbreaking loss of both mother and child. We offer our sincere condolences to both families faced with these tragic situations.
Texas Attorney Jeff Turner is a long-time friend of Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF) who has supported our work over the years. His reflection on the tragedy of the Baby Munoz situation is compelling and he has allowed LLDF to share it.
On Friday, January 24, the 96th District Courtroom in Tarrant County, Texas was the stage for a tragic tale, not told by idiots, but still one “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” And by nothing, I mean a profound absence. The tale is one that will be retold more often as medical technology advances to keep people alive, in this case, Marlise Munoz, who in November 2013 suffered a pulmonary embolism when she was fourteen weeks into her pregnancy. Her husband and her parents asked John Peter Smith Hospital to discontinue all life-sustaining treatment for her, which action indirectly would cause the death of her (and his) child in utero. They contend that the very doctors treating her reported that she was brain dead and recommended the withdrawal of such treatment. The hospital did not oblige their request, relying solely on a provision of the Texas Health & Safety Code that provides that a “person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatmentunder this subchapter from a pregnant woman.” (emphasis added).
Absent from the courtroom, however, was any mention of God as the Author of all human life, including that of Baby Munoz. The mystery of God’s purpose in permitting this tale to unfold will remain that—an impenetrable mystery. What can be known is that He willed Baby Munoz’ life into existence and that fact deserves some weight. It is congruent with America’s Judeo-Christian heritage that God be included in her judicial determinations. The United States Supreme Court still opens each session with “God save the United States and this honorable court.” Edith Jones, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, placed a replicated Harlan Bible (named after Justice John Marshall Harlan’s personal Bible which he donated to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1906) prominently in her chambers “as a reminder to all who visit that we … remember our judgments are ultimately subject to a Divine standard.” The “Divine standard” is love: love of God and of neighbor, and love sometimes requires sacrifice of one’s own rights, interests, and desires for the benefit of another, like Baby Munoz. Love sometimes requires one to “wait for the Lord with courage.” Psalms 27:14. There was no mention of this “Divine standard” in the 96th District Court in determining the fate of Baby Munoz.
Also absent was any advocate for Mrs. Munoz or for Baby Munoz. Larry Thompson, the Assistant District Attorney who represented JPS Hospital, informed this writer that the appointment of an attorney ad litem or guardian ad litem had been considered; however, no such appointment was sought. This decision was a glaring error. An attorney appointed to zealously represent each party would have forced Mr. Munoz’ attorneys to prove his case. For example, does Mrs. Munoz’s medical condition satisfy the legal definition for “death?” The same Health & Safety Code states that a person is dead “when, according to ordinary standards of medical practice, there is irreversible cessation of the person’s spontaneous respiratory and circulatory functions.” It further states that “if artificial means of support preclude a determination that a person’s spontaneous respiratory and circulatory functions have ceased, the person is dead when, in the announced opinion of a physician, according to ordinary standards of medical practice, there is irreversible cessation of all spontaneous brain function. Death occurs when the relevant functions cease.” Death must be pronounced before a doctor can discontinue artificial or mechanical means of supporting a person’s respiratory and circulatory systems. Because artificial means of support had been initiated when Mrs. Munoz first arrived at JPS Hospital, the fact whether “all” of her spontaneous brain function had stopped became a critical issue.
“Brain death” was introduced in 1968 by an ad hoc committee of the Harvard Medical School in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was introduced mainly to facilitate “organ harvesting” and to reallocate resources away from patients whose prognosis was unfavorable. Unfortunately, after three decades of clinical implementation, this standard has proven to be “conceptually flawed,” according to medical ethicist Dan Wikler of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a member of a 1981 presidential commission that recommended a uniform law defining death. There is no reliable way to determine “irreversible cessation of all spontaneous brain function” unless and until the entire brain has been destroyed; but, in order for this destruction to occur, the respiratory and circulatory functions must stop. Cases have occurred in which the patient met the test for “brain death” because an EEG could not detect electrical activity on his brain’s surface, but the patient clearly had functioning of the mid-brain and brain stem, and maybe even of the cortex. The brain may not be the exclusive central organizing organ of the human person. Doctors have reported over thirty cases of protracted survival of “brain dead” patients, ranging from one week to fourteen years.
No expert witness was called to testify on behalf of Mrs. Munoz. Instead, the assistant district attorney, representing the state and not Mrs. Munoz or Baby Munoz, simply stipulated that the mother was “brain dead.” That stipulation practically decided the case.
An advocate for Baby Munoz not only would have challenged the allegation of “brain death” but also would have raised the equally crucial question of whether his client was viable. Viability refers to the gestational age at which a child in utero has a 50% chance to survive outside the womb. Most doctors believe viability is reached around 24 weeks of gestation. However, there is no hard and fast rule. Amillia Taylor, for example, was born in 2006 at 21 weeks, 6 days of gestation (but under 20 weeks from fertilization). At nine inches and 10 ounces, she faced digestive and respiratory issues and a brain hemorrhage. Today, “she runs, she plays, she does things she’s not supposed to do.” But, again, the assistant district attorney essentially threw the case by stipulating that Baby Munoz was not viable.
Another gaping absence was any discussion of medical ethics. As soon as a woman becomes pregnant, there are two patients. The first rule of medical ethics is: Do no harm. Removing the ventilator (which supports but does not substitute for the respiratory system) from Mrs. Munoz obviously caused harm to Baby Munoz. He died. The second rule is: Take all reasonable action to give the patient a fair chance to live. All that Baby Munoz needed was 3 to 4 more weeks. This would not have been the first time a brain-dead pregnant woman delivered a baby. In 2012, in Michigan, Christine Bolden delivered twins before her respirator was removed. Dr. Cosmas Vandeven, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies at University of Michigan hospital, said that an important ethical issue in such cases is whether a brain-dead woman would suffer by being kept on a respirator and undergoing a C-section. “Almost every parent would give their life for their child,” Dr. Vandeven opined. “But you need to get truly independent opinions: Are we sure we’re not causing harm to the mom?” Ms. Bolden’s brother said, “I know she wants the babies to be with us. This has brought our family together.”
In contrast, the Texas courtroom stage was filled with provocative commentary on Mrs. Munoz’ allegedly decaying corpse and the “smell of death.” Mr. Munoz’ attorneys pursued a backhanded ad hominem attack against JPS Hospital employees by accusing them of engaging in a scientific experiment with Mrs. Munoz’ body, thus questioning their motives. The defense failed to offer any alternative argument to its insistence that the Texas Health & Safety Code applies to a pregnant woman, whom it already had stipulated was dead, when the relevant subchapter at issue concerns only “qualified patient[s]” who have been diagnosed with a terminal or irreversible condition, Implicitly, it does not apply to a dead patient.
This writer does not question the motive of either the hospital employees or Mr. Munoz. This writer does question whether Mrs. Munoz or Baby Munoz received a fair hearing and whether all available legal and ethical arguments were presented.
In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth found no meaning or purpose in life after his wife’s death. Let us pray that Mr. Munoz will find meaning and purpose after the death of his wife and child. Let us pray further that our culture, including our judiciary, will strive to meet the Divine standard by which we all will be judged.
The author, Jeff Turner, is a lawyer, poet, and human rights activist. This article appeared in Texas for Life Coalition’s Blog at http://texlife.org/2014/01/rest-in-peace-mrs-and-baby-munoz/. Used with permission.
Pro-marriage young people do exist, say youth fighting for Indiana same-sex “marriage” ban
BY KIRSTEN ANDERSEN, Thu Feb 13, 2014
Over 100 young adults held a press conference Tuesday at Indiana’s state House calling for an amendment protecting true marriage.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN, February 13, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “The media claims we don’t exist. Freedom Indiana claims there are none of us left. But as young Hoosiers, we are here today.”
Those were the words of Shane Weist, 33, who along with a group of more than 100 other young adults, held a press conference Tuesday in which they sought to prove that – despite media reports to the contrary – not every young person in America backs legally-sanctioned same-sex “marriage.”
Weist and his companions make up Young Hoosiers for Marriage, an Indiana-based group fighting for passage of HJR-3, an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Also at issue in Indiana are so-called “civil unions,” which give many of the legal benefits of marriage without the name or federal recognition.
The House passed a version of the marriage amendment that stripped a provision banning civil unions, but the Senate must now debate whether to add the provision back in. A vote on the issue was expected late Thursday. If the two houses can come to an agreement on wording, the final version will appear on the general election ballot in November for approval by voters.
Weist told reporters that Young Hoosiers for Marriage support the amendment as it was originally conceived. He urged the Senate to add the language banning civil unions back in the bill.
“The Senate should restore the second sentence because without it, marriage remains vulnerable to redefinition and will more likely face prolonged litigation in court,” Weist explained.
“We are committed to rebuilding culture to ensure that children are not intentionally deprived of a mother and a father,” he added.
The Young Hoosiers’ public debut was met with mockery and derision by homosexual activists, who quickly launched a competing Facebook page called “Young Hoosiers 4 Marriage” serving up personal attacks on Weist and his allies, whom they dubbed “Stepford Kidz.”
Jennifer Wagner, spokeswoman for Freedom Indiana, a gay activist group fighting the proposed ban, accused the Young Hoosiers of “astroturfing,” or pretending to be grassroots when they are not. “Where have they been the last six months?” Wagner asked the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. “Some of the national groups … have realized their voice has been lacking.”
In an interview with LifeSiteNews Thursday, Isaac Cramer, 24, said neither he nor his fellow Young Hoosiers have any connections with national organizations, and if they are late to the party it is due to their very lack of organization or funding.
“It is never too late to take a stand for something you believe in,” Cramer told LifeSiteNews. “Right now Indiana is in the middle of this debate. We are the only State this year that would have a marriage amendment potentially on the ballot. Everyone is looking at Indiana. We want to show that there is a strong contingent of young Hoosiers who believe in preserving the truth about marriage.”
“It’s really hard with a grassroots, kind of organic coalition to thrive without funding and without any kind of networking outside of the people we know and the people they know, which is kind of how we grew,” Cramer said. “We knew people who knew people, and we kind of just kept forming by word of mouth. Before we knew it, we had people contacting us, saying ‘Hey, can I participate in your group?’”
Cramer says he believes the real number of young people who oppose redefining marriage is much higher than media reports would have people believe, but that the controversy over the issue is so intense that many are afraid to speak up. Even Cramer himself was hesitant to speak on the record for this article, citing concerns about how his employers might react. But ultimately – stressing that his personal beliefs are his own, and should not be taken as representing his employers’ – he said he decided to go on the record because “it’s important to be willing to stand up.”
While the Young Hoosiers for Marriage are currently focused on getting the marriage amendment passed, they believe that is just the first battle in a larger war for the future of the culture. After the vote, they plan to expand their activism from the State House to Indiana’s college campuses and church youth groups, giving talks on the importance of traditional marriage and participating in debates with supporters of same-sex “marriage.”
Cramer said he hopes that by publicizing the fact that young people who support traditional marriage do exist, Young Hoosiers for Marriage will give others the courage to stand up, too.
“I think any time there is an issue that seems controversial, other people are going to be a little bit hesitant to speak out about it,” Cramer said. “I think that it takes somebody to be bold, and somebody to be courageous to take a stand for something, and … other people see that and they realize that, ‘You know what, I can join forces.’ There’s always strength in numbers.”
Cramer told LifeSiteNews that since Tuesday’s press conference, their group – which includes the 100+ young people at the press conference, plus “around another 100 who couldn’t make it because they worked or had class” – has received many more requests from other young people in Indiana wanting to join. Most of them are in their early 20s, juniors and seniors in college.
Asked what he would say to young people who oppose gay “marriage” but are afraid to speak out, Cramer said, “It takes courage to stand up for something you believe in. Sometimes you’re going to receive negative backlash for a stance you take, but that shouldn’t discourage you from taking a stand.”
Cramer encouraged young people who want the safety in numbers provided by Young Hoosiers for Marriage to start their own groups.
“You know friends, you know people in your community, you know kids in school, or college classmates who would be on your side, and that’s how you start,” he said. “You talk to people and you get their opinions, and a lot of times, your friends will share the same positions as you. You start small, and then you grow. It seems like it would be really hard, but really, you find that small group, and you just kind of build from there. That’s how we came together.”
For more information on Young Hoosiers for Marriage, you can e-mail the group at younghoosiersformarriage@gmail.com.
To read an opinion editorial supporting traditional marriage by a college student named Julie Kitchel, one of the group’s founders, see http://www.jconline.com/article/20140212/OPINION03/302120017/Guest-column-Why-marriage-HJR-3-still-matter-young-Hoosiers?nclick_check=1
National Marriage Week USA
This year National Marriage Week is celebrated in the United States from February 7-14.
National Marriage Week
The idea to celebrate National Marriage Week’s originated with a group of couples who made the World Marriage Weekend in Louisiana in 1983, and later established the International Marriage Week. This is a collaborative campaign to strengthen individual marriages, reduce the divorce rate, and build a stronger marriage culture, which in turn helps curtail poverty and benefits children. Marriage works. It makes people happier, live longer, and build more economic security. Children with married parents perform better in school.
One More Soul joins this collaborative to celebrate the blessing of marriage and to support engaged and married couples.
Please visit our online store to find some resources that can help you celebrate marriage.
The Pope and the Culture of Life
by HALEY STEWART on JANUARY 29, 2014
On the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord Pope Francis baptized 32 babies in the Sistine Chapel. He encouraged the new mothers to breastfeed their babies right then and there if the infants were hungry. This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has promoted public breastfeeding. He recently invited a mother who was waiting to meet him, to please nurse her hungry baby.
The Holy Father told those gathered at the baptism, “Today the choir sings, but the most beautiful choir is [the choir] of children…Some are crying, because they are uncomfortable, or because they are hungry. If they are hungry, mothers, give them something to eat…”
The sound of a crying baby might not be objectively beautiful. However, in our modern culture of death, it should fall on our ears differently, as more precious and dear than ever before. Pope Francis’ words reminded me of British author P.D. James’ dystopian novel, Children of Men, in which mass infertility has prevented procreation and the youngest members of the human race are adults inhabiting a bleak and dying world. Against all odds, one woman becomes pregnant and the idea of a new life is a shocking and miraculous prospect. In the film adaption, there is a scene in which the newborn child begins to cry and the characters on-screen look as if the whole world has stopped–it is a sound that defiantly screams “Life!” in a world of death and darkness.
Our world is not as troubled as James’ fictional future, but tragically, modern society views children as inconveniences to be avoided rather than gifts of life and hope from God. We are fed lies that make contraception the norm and abortion a common “solution” to a pregnancy. In our culture of death, the cry of a baby takes on new meaning. The crying is the sound of the parents’ faithfulness to avoid contraception and the courage of a mother who carries her child to term. It is the sound of a woman who has rejected the cacophony of lies and has bravely whispered, “fiat!” instead. Could there be a more beautiful sound?
In light of this, we must consider what it really means to be pro-life. Is it merely a bumper sticker or a vote on a ballot? We must examine how our culture’s idolization of efficiency, convenience, and peace and quiet have warped us into seeking out “child-free” restaurants, airplane flights, and lives. If we truly reject the culture of death and seek to honor life, our actions will speak louder than our words. We must be reminded that a crying baby and the sight of a mother breastfeeding her child are the blessed fruits of the culture of life–and yes, that includes when that baby and mother are sitting beside you in Mass. It is wildly inconsistent to fight for the right of the unborn child and then give that child’s mother the stink eye when he has been born and she nurses him in the pew next to you.
We cannot allow the lies of a contraceptive culture to seep into our churches and sour us against the whispering toddler and the fussy baby who are also there to receive grace. We must see children as more than inconveniences or distractions. We must give thanks for the noise of life in a world of death.
I recently discovered the sad truth that the presence of children in Mass is still a heated debate when I wrote about the great blessing our parish family is to us and how they support young families. I was shocked and alarmed with not only the claims that children should be left at home so that the grown-ups could worship in peace, but more disturbingly, the anger some of the commenters expressed over the presence of infants and children at their Mass. One commenter even expressed outrage about a young mother nursing her child near his pew, an act he found repulsive and perverse.
But it seems that the Holy Father doesn’t see it that way. In fact, not only does he tolerate public breastfeeding, he openly encourages it (yes! even in church). Why? Because meeting the needs of infants demonstrates that they are important and precious, not only to their immediate family, but their larger family, the Church. By refusing to elevate convenience over life by such a tiny act as supporting public breastfeeding, you can promote the culture of life in a selfish world that sees children as inconveniences to be avoided, or worse, problems that can be solved by abortion.
Indeed we’re so immersed in this poisoned mindset that it makes the news when the Pope says the sound of babies crying is more beautiful than the music of the choir singing and urges mother to feed their babies if they are hungry. The Holy Father’s words are a startling reminder that those squawks and cries are precious sounds to Our Lord and should be the same to all of us. They remind us that we should rejoice that our churches are filled with life and encourage parents to care for those children, not show young families the door because they’re bugging us.
Whether we realize it or not, our attitude at Mass can serve or hinder a culture of life. If we hear a fussy baby in Mass and groan and fume because she’s bothering us, we must re-evaluate our priorities. If we are infuriated because a new mother nurses during the Consecration, we should remember that we are ourselves helpless infants preparing to receive the grace of Our Lord. If you seek to further the culture of life, I urge you to consider how you can love and encourage young families at your parish and beyond. A revolutionary stand for life in the culture of death might begin with something so simple as a pat on the shoulder and a “we’re so glad you’re here today.”
image: giulio napolitano / Shutterstock.com
By Haley Stewart
Haley Stewart lives in the deep south with her bearded husband, three kids, and seven backyard chickens. She went to a Baptist college and surprised herself by coming home Catholic. When she gets a moment to herself, she loves to read Austen, Waugh, and O’Connor with a strong cup of coffee in hand. Haley muses about cultivating a Catholic family through literature, liturgical living, and urban homesteading at her blog Carrots for Michaelmas and just released her first ebook: Feast! Real Food, Reflections, and Simple Living for the Christian Year.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers Gives Pro-Life SOTU Response: Children Are a Gift From God
by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 1/28/14
While President Barack Obama defended Obamacare, which has taxpayer-funding of abortion and has rationed health care already by canceling Americans’ health care plans, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers gave a compassionate pro-life response.
Rodgers, representing the State of Washington, is another high-profile mother in the political realm, who also chose to give life to her son with Down Syndrome. Cole was born in the spring of 2007. She talked about him when she said that children are a gift from God.
I was single when I was elected – but it wasn’t long before I met Brian, a retired Navy commander, and now we have three beautiful children, one who was born just eight weeks ago. Like all parents, we have high hopes and dreams for our children, but we also know what it’s like to face challenges. Three days after we gave birth to our son, Cole, we got news no parent expects.
Cole was diagnosed with Down syndrome. The doctors told us he could have endless complications, heart defects, even early Alzheimer’s. They told us all the problems. But when we looked at our son, we saw only possibilities. We saw a gift from God.
Today we see a 6-year old boy who dances to Bruce Springsteen; who reads above grade level; and who is the best big brother in the world. We see all the things he can do, not those he can’t. Cole, and his sisters, Grace and Brynn, have only made me more determined to see the potential in every human life – that whether we are born with an extra twenty-first chromosome or without a dollar to our name – we are not defined by our limits, but by our potential.
Tomorrow, I’ll watch my son Cole get on the school bus; others will wait in the doctor’s office or interview for that first job. Some of us will celebrate new beginnings… Others will face great challenges… But all of us will wake up and do what is uniquely American… We will look forward to the boundless potential that lies ahead. We will give thanks to the brave men and women who have answered America’s call to freedom, like Sgt. Jacob Hess from Spokane, who recently gave his life to protect all of ours.
So, tonight, I simply offer a prayer… A prayer for Sgt. Hess’s family, your family, and for our larger American family. That, with the guidance of God, we may prove worthy of His blessings of life … liberty … and the pursuit of happiness. For when we embrace these gifts, we are each doing our part to form a more perfect union. May God guide you and our President, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
Nurse Sees Baby Survive Failed Abortion, Left to Die at Hospital
by Melissa Ohden | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 1/29/14
“There are other people who are haunted by
abortion, too. Nurses and doctors.”
No sooner had the woman in the crowd after a recent event quietly spoken these words to me, when the tears began to fall down her face. Without even saying another word, I knew that she was speaking from personal experience.
As the woman wept and I held onto her forearm, in an attempt to let her know I was listening to and supporting her, I was both grief-stricken for her and simultaneously shocked to hear her story. Sadly, I have met many nurses, in particular, who have been put in the position to complete an abortion, whether knowingly or unbeknownst to them initially, but this was the first nurse that I have met who had admittedly completed one at the very same hospital where I was aborted and survived.
“If I would have been there in 1977, you can be sure I would have been one of those nurses fighting to save you,” she shared. As I thanked this pro-life nurse, wife and mother for her commitment to lives like mine, I learned that although she has always been pro-life, she had a very good reason to have wanted to try and save me: because she had been put in the position to leave a child to die after a failed abortion just one year prior to when I survived.
If anyone reading this doubts for a second that abortion affects us all and silently haunts millions, including medical professionals and former clinic workers, I would encourage you to read the testimony of Dr. Bernard Nathanson or watch the film The Voice of John, which shares the story of a nurse much like this one that I spoke with recently. As hard as it is for me to live with the truth of what was done to me in the abortion and after it was discovered that I had survived, these former abortionists and nurses, along with so many like them around the world, have to live with the memories of what they’ve seen, heard, and done. And it stays with them and changes them. By this nurse’s own account, it certainly changed her to not only attend to the delivery of a baby after a saline infusion abortion, but in it, to come face to face with a child who survived.
Sadly, it was reaffirming for me to hear about this little boy who had survived the same type of abortion procedure, at the very same hospital, that I did. It was reaffirming simply to hear that I was not alone in my survival there. My affirmation was short-lived, however, as the nurse’s tears continued to fall and I found the nerve to ask her what had happened to the baby boy that she helped deliver.
I should have known. I should have known by her emotional state that she hadn’t just assisted in the delivery of an aborted baby; she hadn’t just come face to face with a survivor; she had witnessed first hand what often happens when a child survives.
“Where did you take him? Where were the surviving children taken?” I asked her, both anxiously awaiting her response and dreading it at the same time. Before she responded, I knew. I knew that I already knew where that little boy was taken.
“The utility closet.” In my mind’s eye, I could picture what that closet must have looked like, and I shuddered at the thought. “There was a bucket on the shelf there, filled with formaldehyde,” she continued.
Despite my knowledge of such practices, I had to force myself not to grimace. Once again, all of this was hitting far too close to home for me.
“You wrote the last name on the bucket, and you left them there to be picked up later, as, you know, waste,” the nurse finished, visibly lost in the memory of what she had experienced. “All these years later, I remember him. I remember everything that happened that day.”
Like so many nurses in similar shoes, this nurse’s experience that fateful day in 1976 forever changed her, and she has worked for the protection of lives ever since.
After meeting this nurse and hearing of the fate of this little boy at the very same hospital where I survived, I have no doubt this nurse would have done whatever she could to save my life. And I have no doubt that God had on hand exactly who He knew would do just that on the day that I survived. To say that I am thankful for all of that would be an understatement. Today and everyday, I offer my sincerest thanks to the nurses who rallied for me so that I wasn’t just another survivor left in a bucket to die.
Russian Health Ministry plans to set up pregnancy centers to lower abortion rate
BY THADDEUS BAKLINSKI, Wed Jan 29, 2014
MOSCOW, January 29, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In its continuing effort to boost its birth rate, the Russian government is looking at setting up crisis pregnancy centers to help dissuade women from abortion.
“The Health Ministry supports the creation of crisis centers for pregnant women, where they can get professional counseling from social workers. We think that this is the most promising and humane way of reducing the number of abortions,” said Elena Baibarina, the head of the Health Ministry’s Department for Health Care for Children and Obstetric Aid, according to a RIA Novosti report.
“The number of abortions in Russia is going down. The 2008 figure was 1.2 million, while in 2012 it dropped down to 935,000. But it is still too high, which also contributes to infertility issues,” Baibarina said.
Prominent Russian demographer Veniamin Bashlachev toldRossiyskaya Gazeta that Russia’s population loss through abortion in the decades leading up to the fall of communism was two and a half times the number of lives Russia lost in the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the Second World War combined. Abortions in the 1960s to the end of the 1980s averaged more than 4.5 million a year.
By 2011 the Russian population stood at 143 million people, down by 5.7 million since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
To combat the abortion epidemic, the Russian government has proposed legislation that would ban free abortions at government-run health clinics, require prescriptions for the ‘morning-after’ pill, require parental consent for teenagers and a husband’s consent for married women, and mandate a one-week waiting period before an abortion is performed.
Other proposals have included increasing the 2,000 ruble ($70) monthly government subsidy offered to pregnant women.
Late last year Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning abortion advertising.
The abortion ad ban was part of broader changes to Russia’s Federal Law on Advertising that tightened up many aspects of advertising seen as having a negative impact on the population, such as campaigns offering free drug samples if these samples contain narcotic or psychotropic substances, and restrictions on the advertising of traditional “folk medicine” practices.
Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute, pointed out that despite government incentives such as a baby bonus that offers the equivalent of $9,000 upon the birth of every child after the first, and calls from President Putin for families to have at least three children, abortion is still occurring in epidemic proportions.
“As long as society fails to recognize the value of human life, and wantonly destroys it in large numbers, it will be difficult to establish a new three-child norm. Abortion must cease being a way of life in Russia if her people are to survive,” Mosher said.
Pro-life legislation aimed at rolling back Russia’s abortion culture has been strongly supported by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia proposed a series of measures on the Moscow Patriarchate’s website, urging the Ministry of Health and Social Development to make “preservation of pregnancy a priority task for the doctor” and discourage incentives for abortion.
The Russian patriarch also advocated state support for pro-motherhood media campaigns, and early on suggested setting up crisis pregnancy centers in every maternity hospital to help “lonely mothers in difficult life situations. ”
Strangers on a train: an accidental tale of the beauty and selfless love that is adoption
BY JEWELS GREEN, Wed Jan 29, 2014
“Adoption is real–and it’s forever.”, – Dr. Bill Platypus, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: Season 16, Episode 4: “Families”
Jan. 29, 2013 (JewelsGreen) – I’ll talk to anyone. No, really. I chat up the other shoppers in line at the grocery store, then carry on a conversation with the cashier and the fella bagging the groceries. I’m Facebook friends with a couple I met on the four-hour bus ride home from last year’s March for Life. So it was this year.
I’ve only taken the train a couple of times, so I must have been visibly befuddled at the Amtrak kiosk, holding my eTicket printout and staring at the screen waiting for it to tell me what to do. (Insert joke about me being over 40 here.) A pretty young woman offered to help me. She showed me how to scan my paper and voila! my boarding passes printed out. I thanked her and glanced at her boarding pass and noticed she was also headed to Washington, DC. This was my chance! I’ve done this in line at the bus terminal many times when traveling alone. I start a conversation with a woman and then ask her if we can sit together “so neither of us has to sit next to a big sweaty man” for the trip. It works every time. (THANK GOODNESS.)
“Oh, I see you’re going to DC, too!”
“Yes, I am.”
“Would you like to sit together so neither of us has to sit next to a big sweaty man?” (cue: laughter)
“OK.”
“Great! My name’s Jewels.”
That’s how it started.
This lovely young lady (I’ll call her Angela) was 19 years old and going to D.C. to visit with a friend she hadn’t seen since summer. I told her I was bound for the March for Life and some of the attendant conferences, as well as meeting up with friends I hadn’t seen in some time. Her friend had participated in LIFE Runners last year. Smiles, nods, and we both went back to checking our phones and arranging our coats and handbags.
The silence between us didn’t last very long. She looked out the window and beaming said, “I just love snow!” ME TOO! This instantly kicked off a delightful conversation about how everyone else seems to be complaining about the cold and the snow and how much we both just love it. There wasn’t any silence after that (I hope we weren’t in the Quiet Car!)
She is the middle of a year off from college to work as an adoption advocate. She told me that she was adopted and wanted to help others as a way of expressing gratitude for her own life. How cool is that? She told me about her parents, and how just a couple of years ago she and her mom went together to meet her birthmother, half-siblings, and assorted extended family. She told me about her favorite success story from her work in a private adoption firm, and shared a bit of the downsides, too. Clearly proud, she clicked on her phone and brandished a photo of a smiling happy family she had helped through the adoption process. She was planning to continue working through college because she disliked the idea of piling up debt. I was so impressed by her realistic attitude and how far-sighted her goals were. She was sensible and determined, with a level of self-possession and insight rarely found in people her age (indeed, rarely found in people my age!). I admired her.
She clicked her phone again and I asked if the picture of a brand new baby girl (pink hat, it was a girl) was another of her “success stories” from work. She smiled and shook her head, but said nothing at first.
“I don’t tell people this, I haven’t even told my grandpa yet, but I’m also a birthmom.”
(cue: tears)
She showed me photo after photo of this gorgeous little baby girl (just born in December!), then a shot of her hugging the adoptive parents while she was hugely pregnant, all smiling in the sunlight. I cried.
For the final months of her pregnancy, she’d moved to the state where the adoptive parents live, and invited them into the delivery room for the birth of their daughter. She didn’t want pain medication right away, because she said she “wanted to remember what it was like to go through this,” so she wouldn’t put herself in that position again until she was married. Moments after this precious baby took her first breath she was placed into the arms of her adoptive mother, skin-to-skin.
I cried.
(I’m still crying. )
We arrived. The train came to a stop and I nearly fell over myself hugging her. We walked into the station together and her friend spotted her right away – her friend who hadn’t seen her since she’d moved away, pregnant – and they hugged each other fiercely.
What a gift life is! What a gift that pretty young woman gave that baby girl and her parents. What a gift she gave me by sharing it all.
I walked away and realized Angela wasn’t pretty, she was beautiful.
Editor’s Note: Jewels Green is a post-abortive mother of three who worked in an abortion clinic before becoming pro-life. Read her original testimonyhttp://www.lifesitenews.com/news/former-abortion-clinic-worker-speaks-out-for-life. This article is reprinted with permission from her blog.
Pope baptizes children on Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
2014-01-12 Vatican Radio
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis baptized 32 children on Sunday, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The celebration took place, as is customary, in the Sistine Chapel.
Included among those baptized by the Holy Father were primarily the new-born children of Vatican employees.
In his homily at the Mass, Pope Francis noted that Jesus Himself had no need of Baptism, but that with His Divinity, united to His human body, Jesus blessed the waters and gave them the ability to be used in Baptism. Ascending into Heaven, the Lord commanded His followers to go into the world to baptize – a command that the Church fulfils even to the current day.
The children baptized today, he said, are a link in the chain; in time, they will return to have their own children baptized. This implies a duty on the part of parents, the duty of transmitting the Faith to their children, so that they in turn can pass it along to their children.
The Holy Father concluded his homily with a special word of affection for the newly baptized children. “Today the choir sings,” he said, “but the most beautiful choir is [the choir] of children” making noise. He continued, “Some are crying, because they are uncomfortable, or because they are hungry. If they are hungry, mothers, give them something to eat… they are the central figures, the protagonists [of this celebration].” It was with this “awareness of being the transmitters of faith” that Pope Francis continued on to the ceremony of Baptism.
Jesus did not need to be baptized, but the first theologians say that, with His body, with His divinity, in the Baptism He blessed all the waters, so that water would have the power to give baptism. And then, before ascending to Heaven, Jesus told us to go into all the world to baptize. And from that day until the present day, this has been an unbroken chain: they baptized their children, and their children [baptized] their children, and their children [and so on]… And even today this chain continues.
These children are a link in a chain. You parents have the baby boy or girl to be baptized, but in a few years it will be they who will have a baby to be baptized, or a grandchild… And so goes the chain of faith! What does this mean? I would just tell you this: you are the ones that transmit the faith, the transmitters, you have a duty to pass on the faith to these children. It ‘s the most beautiful legacy that you leave to them: the faith! Only this. Today, take this thought home with you. We must be transmitters of the faith. Think about this, always think of how to transmit the faith to the children.
Today the choir is singing; but the most beautiful choir is that of the children, who are making noise… Some cry because they are not comfortable, or because they are hungry: if they are hungry, moms, give them something to eat, calmly, because they are the central figures, the protagonists [of this celebration]. And now, with this awareness of being transmitters of the faith, let us continue the ceremony of Baptism.
FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
MASS AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS
Sistine Chapel, Sunday, 12 January 2014
Jesus did not need to be baptized, but the first theologians say that, with his body, with his divinity, in baptism he blessed all the waters, so that the waters would have the power to confer baptism. And then, before ascending to Heaven, Jesus told us to go into all the world to baptize. And from that day forward up until today, this has been an uninterrupted chain: they baptized their children, and their children their own, and those children… And also today this chain continues.
These children are a link in a chain. You parents have a baby boy or girl to baptize, but in some years they will have a child to baptize, or a grandchild… Such is the chain of faith! What does this mean? I would like to tell you only this: you are those who transmit the faith, the transmitters; you have a duty to hand on the faith to these children. It is the most beautiful inheritance you will leave to them: the faith! Only this. Today, take this thought home with you. We must be transmitters of the faith. Think about this, always think about how to hand on the faith to your children.
Today the choir sings, but the most beautiful choir is the children making noise… Some of them will cry, because they are uncomfortable or because they are hungry: if they are hungry, mothers, feed them with ease, because they are the most important ones here. And now, with this awareness of being transmitters of the faith, let us continue with the rite of Baptism.
REPORT & REFLECTIONS on NFP PROMOTIONAL TRIP to HONG KONG
HONG KONG
REPORT & REFLECTIONS on NFP PROMOTIONAL TRIP In Hong Kong, 9-21 Jan 14
Fr. Matthew Habiger OSB
OUTLINE:
Intro
The Initiators: John and Yrene Lewis
Background on Hong Kong
The Speaking Tour
Some Results and Hopes
Introduction
If you make yourself available to promote God’s plan for Marriage, Spousal Love and Family, you never know where you might be called to go next. Recently I returned from Hong Kong where I spent 11 days (9-20 Jan) promoting Natural Family Planning to a wide variety of audiences. Why Hong Kong?
The Initiators: John and Yrene Lewis
Last September (2013) John Lewis emailed Fr. Dan McCaffrey and me, suggesting that we come to Hong Kong and help promote NFP. John is a private pilot, stationed now in HK, from where he flies businessmen by private jet all over Asia, and all over the world. We met in 2002 when he, his wife Yrene, and two sons (now there is four) lived in Wichita, Kansas. John and Yrene are NFP teachers, and are very active in whatever parish they are in. John is a convert. He and Yrene have studied their Faith in depth, and are committed to living it. They see the devastation that contraception and sterilization have brought to the marriages of their friends, and they understand how NFP accords so well with God’s plan for marriage and family. Having lived two years in HK, they recognized the great blessings that a stronger program in NFP could bring to the Catholic parishes in HK, as well as elsewhere in Asia.
John and Yrene are the ideal “persons of contact on location” that NFP Outreach is looking for. They know the area they live in, and are known to the major players in the local Church. They are able to set up a busy speaking tour that maximizes Fr. Dan McCaffrey or my time while we are there. They know how to network, how to find the people who can best support the promotional effort, and where to find the talent (e.g. making attractive fliers). In HK, people everywhere are using their cell phones and smart phones. Likewise, during most every free moment, John and Yrene were reading or texting emails, or making live calls to their network of friends. Add four sons, 13 years of age and younger, to the mix and you get a picture of their “connectedness” with the local culture.
Background on Hong Kong
Hong Kong is located off the southern coast of mainland China and in many ways is a gateway to China. 7 million people live there. That is three times as many people as live in Kansas, my home state. The Heritage Foundation rates it as the world’s freest economy. It is the financial capital of all Asia, and one of the great cities of the world. Everything bustles there with economic activity. Every five minutes a 747 airbus, or an air cargo jumbo jet, takes off from the Hong Kong International airport. This airport has the largest air cargo traffic in the world. It is also built on reclaimed land.
I spent my first two days in the Lewis’ apartment, on the 55th floor of Tower 5, south of the airport. From there I could observe the constant activity of the gigantic airplanes at the airport, and also one of the harbors where large container cargo ships and ocean liners were in abundance.
Hong Kong is the world’s most vertical city, where office buildings and apartment towers go upwards to compensate for scarce space. The standard of living there is very high. Real estate is very high. Public transportation provides 90% of the local travel, and it is very efficient. The subway system, the double-decker buses, cabs and ferries are very clean. A $5,000 fine is posted for littering (8 HK dollars = 1 US dollar). This city probably has the greatest number of elevators in the world, and most elevators are sanitized every four hours.
Everything here speaks of competence and resourceful planning. The opportunities which accompany economic freedom have drawn great talent into the city. Old buildings have been replaced with modern and attractive high structures. The architectural designs for the exterior and interior of major buildings are first class. The bridges, tunnels and roads are aesthetically pleasing and very functional. During rush hour, Central Station is a marvel to see as hundreds of thousands of people make their connections with the MTR (Mass Transit Railway). Photos of the city’s skyline would impress anyone. Here is a great Chinese success story.
Hong Kong also has the lowest fertility rate in the world: 1.1 babies per woman. Many women put off having their one baby until they are in their 40s, and then discover they have many infertility problems. You don’t see many pregnant woman or babies. You do see lots of dogs and pets. HK has a high rate of contraception usage: 75%. China has 84%.
The Chinese people are very lean and healthy. You hardly see one that is over weight. That is because people here walk abundantly, and eat moderately. Perhaps using chopsticks contributes to slower eating! 90% of all foods are imported; for example, the milk I used for breakfast cereal came from Switzerland.
The United Kingdom took over HK as a colony after the First Opium War in 1842, and transferred ownership of HK back to the Chinese government in 1997. The English infrastructure is very evident, and is a major contribution to the HK success story. Chinese officials would like to have full control over this economic powerhouse, but it is cautious with how it handles the “goose that lays golden eggs.” The official policy is: “One government with two systems.” HK residents defend their freedoms from outside intrusion with robust firmness. Economists think that Mainland China has adopted some of the traits of democratic capitalism found to be so successful in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, HK and Singapore. That is why China today has the second largest economy, right under the USA. With growing economic freedoms, greater political freedoms usually follow. It is reasonable to think that if the Chinese leaders adapted HK’s democratic capitalism for the mainland, China would now be the world’s foremost superpower. Under Communist pretensions, it is fortunate that they are not the leading superpower.
But all of this economic prosperity in China would be of no avail if there were only weak marriages and forced small families. The one child policy, enforced with mandatory abortion for a second pregnancy, has recently been softened a trifle, but the demography of China still has serious problems. 50 million men will never have wives, because of Chinese leaders’ social engineering. The distribution of age groups is problematic. 12.5% of China is over 60. By the year 2030 that percentage will double. There are already too few workers and young people. That will have serious economic consequences. If baby girls can be aborted at will by parents who want a son in preference to a daughter, then consider what that does for the advancement of women.
Mainland China has 50 thousand trained NFP teachers. The Chinese government invited Drs. John and Evelyn Billings to come to China many times to teach the Billings method. This was an attempt to soften the brutal one child policy enforced by mandatory abortion.
What China needs is to discover God’s plan for Marriage, Spousal Love and Family. For too many years Communist China has tried to weaken the family and redirect all attention to the State. State propaganda, re-education centers, and a one-child policy have done great damage to marriage and family life in China. God’s plan for marriage, spousal love and family is a magnificent plan. It applies to all cultures, and to every generation. Strong marriages lead to healthy families. Healthy families produce young productive citizens, who have been led into the various natural and civic virtues that a stable citizenship requires. Marriage and family predate any government. The State exists for marriage and the family, not the other way around.
Teaching God’s plan for Marriage, Spousal Love and Family is the work of the Church, which was established by God to do this. NFP is part of the picture because couples must have an effective, and completely morally good, means of spacing their pregnancies. The good exercise of sexuality and a prudent use of fertility is a vital part of God’s plan. NFP is part of the big picture. Contraception and sterilization frustrate God’s plan, and have brought serious damage to anyone who uses them.
The Speaking Tour
The week was packed with events. I celebrated Mass and preached at one Sunday Mass at the Cathedral, and also one Mass on Friday at St. Joseph’s Church (near the Cathedral) to 300 Filipinos, and at two other locations during the week. The second weekend I preached at three Masses at Epiphany parish centers in Tung Chung, and after each Mass, John and Yrene gave a personal testimony to the many values of NFP in their marriage.
The Hong Kong Catholic Marriage Advisory Council made arrangements for these presentations:
Monday evening 7-9 PM I spoke to 22 permanent Deacons at the Pastoral Center on the theme: How to Preach God’s Plan for M, SL and F.
Tuesday evening 7-9 PM I spoke to 15 NFP teachers at the Grand Millennium Plaza on the themes: The Spirituality of NFP, and How to Encourage People to Discover NFP.
Friday evening 7-9:30 PM Dr. Lek-Lim Chan and I addressed 4 Catholic medical doctors, two social workers and other medical personnel at the HK Catholic Marriage Advisory Council on the theme: The Vital Role of NFP trained Doctors in Promoting Marriage and Family.
Sunday afternoon 2:30-4:30 there was a Conference at Epiphany Parish Catholic Secondary School in Tung Chung on the topic, God’s Plan for Love & Life. 75 attendees came, many of whom were parish leaders. At this Conference, I spoke on the beauty of God’s plan for marriage, family and spousal love, which NFP enriches and contraception injures and degrades. The Lewises gave an expanded personal testimony of the many values that NFP has brought to their marriage and their relationship. Then Dr. Lek-Lim Chan gave a PowerPoint presentation on how the various contraceptives harm a woman’s reproductive system, followed by a case by case presentation of how charting can be used to diagnose hidden problems within a woman’s fertility, and then find a natural cure for them.
Dr. Chan lives in Malaysia, is trained in the Billings Method, treats patients, trains teachers and promotes NFP at every opportunity in Southeast Asia, Australia, the UK, USA and elsewhere. When he heard about the Conference in HK, he immediately volunteered his services.
The diocesan paper, the Sunday Examiner carried advertisements on the Conference. A beautiful flier on the Conference was widely circulated.
Some Results and Hopes
Christians are 12% of the HK population, or 830,000, and the ratio between Protestants and Catholics is 4:3. I am told that there are 240,000 Filipinos there. Many Filipina women work as domestic helpers, and others perform as musicians. The Chinese Catholics that I met impressed me with the strength of their Faith. Perhaps they understand what religious persecution means.
What is the greatest contribution that the Catholics in Hong Kong can make to their country? The Catholic faith stresses the basics of humanity: a deep relationship with God, integral human fulfillment, strong marriages, healthy and happy families, education, health care, productivity, patriotism and culture. Catholics make a great contribution to whatever country and culture they live in. Perhaps the greatest contribution Catholics can make in HK is to foster all these qualities, especially strong marriages and healthy families, open to the gift of life. The Chinese people naturally respond to these values. Perhaps the Mainland leaders will come to appreciate these values and not consider Catholicism as a threat to their authority. Education and health care have always been strong Catholic assets, and the native people always request them.
In promoting religious freedom, the Catholic Church is really defending human dignity and human rights against an otherwise unchallenged government. Governments are totally incompetent in granting, or withdrawing, human dignity and human rights, or defining marriage and the family. If a country is to flourish, then there must be a just political order, which provides all the necessary services that a society requires.
We can hope that this speaking tour made a contribution to building stronger marriages and healthy, happy families. The contraceptive culture is entrenched in HK and on the mainland. The birth dearth and the fear of the child is a major problem in China. We can hope that many couples will discern God’s plan for their families. Many will be called to become trained teachers of NFP. Some Catholic doctors may become trained as NFP physicians. Perhaps this speaking tour will lead to others in Southeast Asia and in Southwest Asia. The perfect venue for this mission is working through diocesan structures and the parishes.
On a personal note, I celebrated my 72nd birthday on Sunday, Jan 19. This is one birthday I will not forget. After all Masses and the afternoon Conference, Fr. Henry SVD, the pastor of Epiphany Parish, took all the speakers to a Thai restaurant near the airport. Andrew Kong from Singapore, who had just given a two-day seminar on the Theology of the Body in Kennedy Town, HK, and several friends, joined us for a delightful evening. Truly, there are many enjoyable benefits that come with a speaking tour.
A shorter report by John Lewis:
HONG KONG — “We can learn NFP – God’s way and nature’s way of spacing the pregnancies naturally. NFP is in accord with God’s plan. It is 99% effective. It does not place powerful chemicals in a woman’s body. It is a responsibility shared by both husband and wife. It is inexpensive. It builds strong marriages, and healthy happy families,” preached NFP Outreach missionary Fr. Matthew Habiger, OSB, at “God’s Plan for Love & Life” seminar and Masses at Epiphany parish in Tung Chung on Sunday, January 19, 2014. Other speakers included Dr. Lek-Lim Chan of Malaysia, an expert in the Billings Ovulation Method of NFP, and John and Yrene Lewis, a couple who formerly lived in Wichita, KS, and taught NFP for the Couple to Couple League International and who now live in Hong Kong.
“There is widespread contraception and sterilization. This is a serious abuse of God’s plan for spousal love. Each marital act is to be open to 1) the goodness of love and, 2) the goodness of life. The two dimensions are inseparable,” said Fr. Matthew.
This seminar concluded Fr. Matthew’s 10-day preaching tour throughout Hong Kong, which included preaching NFP at Masses at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (chair of Cardinal John Tong and home of relics of Blessed John Paul II) as well at churches in Discovery Bay, Central, and Mui Wo. Other venues included talks given to doctors, permanent deacons, and NFP teachers, arranged by the Hong Kong Marriage Advisory Council.
“Every couple, and every young adult should learn NFP. They should learn God’s plan for marriage, spousal love and family,” said Fr. Matthew, who mentioned that Hong Kong has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world at only 1.1 children per woman (whereas 2.1 children per woman is the minimum required just for a society’s replacement).
“NFP is good medicine!” Fr. Matthew told doctors and nurses during a talk where he and Dr. Chan explained the good bioethics of NFP for couples in contrast to the very harmful bioethical consequences of contraception.
Quotes from Dr. Chan:
“Intra-uterine devices work as abortifacients by preventing implantation of embryos and the oral contraceptive pill works part of the time in the same way.”
“Married couples who truly love each other know in their hearts that sexual relationship is meant to be a beautiful experience and not to be degraded with condoms, withdrawal or other artificial interference.”
” In 2005, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of WHO has stated that combined oral contraceptive pill is highly carcinogenic to humans based on review of scientific publications.”
” Modern natural family planning methods are based on science and have a reliability of over 99 % for avoiding pregnancy and up to 70 % for helping to achieve pregnancy in couples facing difficulty conceiving.”
“Billings Ovulation Method in which I am specialized can be used monitoring follicular activity and ovulation and thus serves as a tool for diagnosis of disorders. And once a disorder is identified and treatment commenced, the Method can be used to monitor recovery.”
Quote from Lewis:
“NFP is more than just a method, it’s a way of life, a language of love!” said John and Yrene Lewis during their couple testimony, “We like to use the acronym LOVE to describe what we believe to be the best four benefits of NFP: 1) Listen; it has taught us to Listen better to each other, our bodies, and to God. 2) Other-centered; it has helped us to focus on the other instead of selfishly only on ourselves. 3) Very low divorce rate; in fact, NFP couples have the lowest divorce rate in the world of around 4% and why some call it their “marriage insurance.” 4) Effective; NFP has been 100% effective for us at both postponing and achieving pregnancy over our 15 years of marriage and we have been blessed with four wonderful sons, each planned with NFP.”
Other…
“Cardinal John Tong wants to promote NFP to help married couples,” said Joseph Tang Cho Fai, a reporter who interviewed Fr. Habiger for The Examiner diocesan newspaper.
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