Oppose Freedom of Choice Act!

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is again before Congress (S. 1173, H.R. 1964). FOCA is a
radical bill. It creates a “fundamental right” to abortion throughout the nine months of pregnancy.

No governmental body at any level would be able to “deny or interfere with” this right, or to
“discriminate” against the exercise of this right “in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.” For the first time, abortion would become an entitlement the government must condone and promote.

FOCA would go well beyond the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in imposing an extreme
abortion regimen on our country. No other piece of legislation would have such a destructive impact on society’s ability to limit or regulate abortion. It would eliminate a broad range of laws—informed consent laws; parental involvement laws; laws promoting maternal health; abortion clinic regulations; government programs and facilities that pay for or promote childbirth and other health care without subsidizing abortion; conscience protection laws; laws prohibiting a particular abortion procedure (e.g., partial birth abortion); laws requiring that abortions only be performed by a licensed physician; and so on. For a careful legal analysis of FOCA by the USCCB’s Office of General Counsel, see: www.nchla.org/docdisplay.asp?ID=190.

In a September 19 letter to Members of Congress, Cardinal Justin Rigali, Chairman of the USCCB
Committee on Pro-Life Activities, raised grave concerns about any possible consideration of FOCA.
“Despite its deceptive title, FOCA would deprive the American people in all 50 states of the freedom they now have to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry,” and would “counteract any and all sincere efforts by government to reduce abortions in our country.” The Cardinal declared: “We can’t reduce abortions by promoting abortion.” He urged all Senators and Representatives “to pledge their opposition to FOCA.” For full text of the letter, see:
www.usccb.org/prolife/FOCArigaliltr.pdf.

Recommended Actions: Contact your U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators by FAX letter, e-
mail, or phone. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: 202.224.3121; or call Members’ local offices.
Full contact info can be found on Members of Congress’s web sites, at: www.senate.gov and
www.house.gov.

Message to all Members: “Please pledge now to oppose FOCA.” Those Members of Congress who
have signed on as cosponsors of FOCA should be asked to remove their names from the bill. To
check the list of current cosponsors, see: nchla.org/docdisplay.asp?ID=191.

Other Actions:
1. Arrange a formal meeting with your Representative and two Senators.
2. Communicate with your Representative and two Senators at town meetings.
3. Place an ad opposing FOCA in your local Catholic paper or other publication. For an ad by the
Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities urging opposition to FOCA, see:
www.usccb.org/prolife/media/docs/foca.pdf.
4. Write letters to the editor or express your views on call in radio talk shows.
Thanks for all you do in support of life!

9/24/08

Filed by admin at 3:10 pm under Commentary
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Some people are confused by this question.  Does it confuse you?  Is it above your pay grade?

Filed by Ben at 12:19 am under Commentary
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“Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but
only one wins the prize?  Run so as to win.” 1 Corinthians 9:24

I am a young man.  I have not witnessed a great many political
reformations in my life.  Born in 1982, my experience has been the narrow
view of a native Houstonian who has never traveled outside the United
States, never has earned a college degree, and certainly has never lived
in a culture other than the commercial-based secular society that
permeates our surroundings today.
Ever since I have been alive, pornography, contraception, divorce,
gang-shootings, ‘neighborhood predators’, abortion, euthanasia, rejection
of Christ and religion, domestic abuse, school shootings, incest and rape,
public swearing and obscenity, and 24 hour news and entertainment, with
its never ending dramatization and incessant speculation, have been the
makeup of the American experience-indeed, not just America, but most of western
civilization.  It is so commonplace that we get irritated with
those who remind us it is not right.  It’s not the way it’s suppose to be.

After all, for those who complain that society is going to hell in a hand
basket, do they see any real chance that these things are going to
subside?  Why not just learn not to complain?

It’s true, complaining does not get us anywhere; unless we take our
complaints to the Lord in prayer.  However, the danger lies in not being
upset by these ’structures of sin’ as Pope John Paul II called them.  If
we become jaded to the evil around us, we may begin to think that things
are not  as serious as an honest assessment with a Christian mentality
would tell us.  Maybe there is a real possibility that with another
election, another victory politically, maybe another change within the
Church, the whole tower of decadence that has been built will crumble.
Perhaps  if we just go about concerning ourselves with our own business the
time will seem to pass by faster and before we know it, we’ll wake up one
morning and the linchpin in this apparatus of deceit and immorality
engulfing our society will be pulled.

But that attitude does not comprise Christian hope.  All hope rests in Him
who does not change.  The One, the True, the Good who awaits our union
with him in Eternal Beatitude.  But that does not mean that our hope is
static.  

Our hope is in the One who does not change, who will help us renew ourselves and to conform to Him.  That renewal requires change here and now.
So yes our hope is already vindicated by God’s changeless Goodness even in
the midst of a crooked and depraved generation.  But our hope spurs us to
effect the change that will conform even our society to Him: the
One, the True, the Good.   We grow up in a society that has always been
against God.  Seemingly, it will be for a long time.  But unless we are
sensitive at all times to this injustice we will not hope for the change
necessary to dismantle the structures of sin.
  How then are we to not exchange true hope in God for false and transient
hopes that society will change with a few more concrete actions-whatever they may be?  To put
it another way, why not hope in God by hoping that the next victory in the
culture war will irreversibly tip the tide of public persuasion in favor
of God?
The answer is very simple.  No change on earth is permanent.  For example,
if we can cause the demise of no-fault divorce tomorrow by getting the
necessary legislation passed, what political structure can portend to
guarantee that this good and worthwhile reform will stay in place. Every
new generation contains a new set of human hearts, of human wills that can
turn to God or move further away from Him.

So  we have a paradox.  We must not hope for any temporal change to cause
a lasting good, but we must  work for change at all times–through
conversion, through renewal of the church, through reform in
government–to effect justice by directing our hearts to changeless
Eternal Good.

As Pope Benedict XVI said so beautifully in his book, Jesus of Nazareth,
the beatitude that Jesus proclaimed, “blessed are those who mourn” is a
recognition of Our Savior that those are truly blessed who are sensitive
to the injustices around them and work to enact change in the culture to
right the wrongs.  But Jesus anticipates that not all good reforms will
remain in this passing world, so he adds that even after all our attempts
to be salt to the earth and light to the world have fallen on deaf ears, we must continue to oppose injustice by being willing to mourn the evil around us.  Did not Our Lord do this? Was he not crucified even though he had done good and labored for renewal?  He would go to the cross mourning the injustices around him, and bearing witness by his willingness to suffer.

God does not give false hopes.  He is the only Hope.  And Jesus hoped in
God; He waited on the Lord.  In the Bible to wait upon the Lord is to work
for justice, while not expecting success.  Waiting on the Lord means
hoping in God even as we mourn.

    For God says,”… they that wait upon the Lord will renew their
strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings.  They will run and not
grow weary, walk and not grow faint.”  Isaiah 40:31

Filed by Daniel at 11:11 am under Commentary
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Blogger Irenaeus from the blog “Catholidoxy” puts to rest (and how!) the ridiculous notion that somehow the Church has in the past been unsure about when life begins.  Check it out.

He lines up quote after quote after quote proving that:

1. The Church has always been against abortion.

2. While there may have been some debate about when the soul entered the body–none the less that body is a human body and thus is human life and it begins when the life of any organism begins: at conception.  That’s not some arbitrary decision by the Vatican, that’s science.

Next time some poorly-catechized, unscientific, not-so-smooth talking political hack tries to pretend that “we’re just not sure”, you’ll have ammo.

Filed by Ben at 9:08 pm under Commentary, Introduction
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Everyone remembers the emphatic and surprisingly profound words John Paul the second quoted from Our Lord on many occasions: “Be not afraid.”  In 1978 these words were most appropriate.  Roughly fifteen years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, the world was spinning-and no one knew where the wheel would stop.  The Holy Spirit had stirred the stock of humanity but so had the adversary.  Intent on not letting the council be correctly understood and accepted Satan orchestrated the concupiscence of man to allow his passions to dominate his reason, starting with the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.  Reason being jettisoned from the culture, the world was antagonistic soil for the seed of Truth which the Church tried to sow into the hearts of men, namely, the seed of a true Christian humanism that gave due respect for the integrality of the human person, as well as do justice to the relationship each person owes to the Living God.  Society, dominated by passions, emotions, and the centrality of the will, unfortunately, shaped the Church’s attitude very often more than this Christian Humanism and the Institutional Church established by Christ shaped society’s attitude.  Many were awaiting the arrival of this new Pope from Poland on how he would shape the Church to be able to withstand society.  And right from the beginning, with his first encyclical Redemptor Hominis, John Paul II said we as a church know where to go, we always know where to go, we go back to Christ.  The Living Christ is always our refuge and strength even when the Church is beseiged from without and within.  The Catholic Church is Christ’s body and if we remain faithful to Him, He will remain faithful to us.  This is one enduring lesson of His pontificate as well as a lesson for anyone who has tried to remain faithful to the Church’s teaching, especially her emphasis on the sacredness of human sexuality, in the 1960s,70s,80s,90s.

But I believe it is insufficient moving forward to simply remind ourselves we do not have to be afraid of the society that scorns Christ’s teaching.  Yes, society finds ways to persecute religious observance, to expunge Christianity from Christmas, to rob children of innocence and the unborn of life, to openly mock the hierarchy, and even to blame the decadence around us on the antiquated moral teachings of the Church.  We will survive all attacks and nothing can separate us from Christ’s love, provided we remain faithful to his teachings. “You are my friends, if you do what I command you, ” Jesus told us at the last supper.

But now is the time to go on the offensive.  Now is the time to fight for the very souls that seek us harm.  We need to build on our new found courage by ‘not being afraid’ and begin to be not ashamed to openly call, question, invite, discourage, encourage, persuade, and influence-whatever is necessary, the sinful behavior around us and the sinners around us.  Now that we know we must not fear the societal whirlwinds that can be downright perverted, let us confront head on the errors in others thinking and introduce them to the absolutely foreign, radical, and shocking truth of Jesus Christ.  Since we are no longer afraid of persecution in general of the Church, we, as members individually of the Body under attack should not be ashamed if we are openly derided by fornicators, abortion advocates, eugenicists, atheists, agnostics, nominal christians, or members of other groups.  Do we not possess the truth in Jesus Christ.  Therefore we have no fear, we have no shame in proclaiming him loudly from the rooftops.

Filed by admin at 12:14 pm under Commentary
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Greetings to all seekers of the Truth! Today on the Solemnity of Mary’s Assumption I thank all that Christ has done for each one of us.  The Assumption reveals what Our Lord will do for those who remain faithful.  ”And I will raise you up..” Christ tells us in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John.  Our Lady is raised up with Christ in complete Eucharistic unity.  She was the one who conceived the Bread of Life.  It was Our Lady’s body and blood that was partaken in the Person of Christ and offered on Calvary.  It was Mary’s Son who rose from the dead on the third day.  Now the Son, who humbled himself to share in our humanity by taking a human nature through Mary, calls His own mother to Himself.  She was created by Him, she gave herself to Him, and now she has been called by Him into the fullness of bodily and spiritual glory in His presence.  O Mary, pray for us, pray for each one of us. Amen

Filed by admin at 4:50 pm under Commentary
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