Author Archives: LEC

Getting Accurate Information Is Crucial (Jan. 2021 Newsletter)

by Frank Tinari, Ph.D., Life Education Council Board of Trustees

Pastors: “Shocking, Callous” Proposal

The pro-abortion governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker has vetoed a radical pro-abortion bill after the legislature rejected his amendments.  Without them, the “ROE Act” bill would allow unborn babies to be aborted for basically any reason up to birth, end parental consent for young girls seeking abortions, weaken the state anti-infant side law, & allow non-doctors to abort the unborn.

The Mass. legislature has indicated an intent to override the veto. Doing so requires a two-thirds majority vote in both the state House and Senate.  Recently, more than 400 pastors across the state wrote to Baker slamming the bill as a “shocking and callous disregard for human life and the importance of parental involvement in the lives of children.” Another pro-abortion bill narrowly failed in New Mexico because of strong public opposition. But similar legislation did pass in New York, Illinois, Vermont and Rhode Island last year, prompting massive outrage.

A recent poll by Susan B. Anthony List found that 62% of Mass. voters oppose late-term abortions, including 49% of Democrat & 66% of independent voters. The same number, 62%, also supports the current state law requiring parental consent before a girl under 18 has an abortion. [S. Ertelt, M. Bilger, LifeNews.com, 12/23/20]

Ed.’s Note: New Jersey’s governor and legislators are hoping to push through a similar shocking bill. State residents are urged to contact their elected representatives to vote against it. 

Film: “CHOICE: Who Decides?

Inspired by the courageous efforts of people on both sides of the reproductive justice movement committed to advancing the rights of women and the unborn, this timely film explores the convictions of people fighting for reproductive freedom versus the right to life, which exposes the fears and struggles that divide our nation.

CHOICE aims to educate & inspire viewers to explore women’s rights & how our society, medical science, culture, religion & politics are shaping that conversation. No matter where you stand on the position of reproductive rights, we can all agree it is THE issue at the forefront of our emotional divide. How did we get here? What does our future of challenges look like?

Film-makers spoke to hundreds of individuals who shared their personal, professional & eye opening stories, many for the first time, making the film an unexpected investigative journey.  [https://www.choicethedocumentary.com]

Male-Female Differences 

A 2017 review reported that women outperformed men in memory and learning, while men performed better in spatial & motor tasks. Women were more likely to have a higher rate of cerebral blood flow, a higher percent of gray matter, and more connections between left and right brain hemispheres; men had a higher percentage of white matter and more connections within the left brain hemisphere. [Marri: Faith & Family, www.marripedia.org]

“We may add that it is an act of foolish injustice to pretend the sexes are the same. Justice is exercised in respectfully providing for the due needs of each.” J. Budziszewski, Prof., Univ. of Texas at Austin, author of What We Can’t Not Know: A Guide.

Super Bowl Champ Slams Abortion

Former NFL star Ben Watson criticized Georgia senate candidate Raphael Warnock last week for describing the killing of unborn babies in abortions as “reproductive justice.” Watson, a former New England Patriots tight end & Super Bowl champion, told pastor Warnock that there is nothing just about killing a son or daughter in an abortion: “JUSTICE is the equitable distribution of punishment AND protection. JUSTICE is rooted in the dignity of every human endowed by their Creator.”

Watson and his wife, Kirsten, parents of seven & passionate advocates for life, recently produced a film, “Divided Hearts of America,” to “challenge and also educate America when it comes to the issue of abortion.” They run the nonprofit One More Foundation that focuses on hunger, poverty, prison reform & other matters. [M. Bilger, www.LifeNews.com, 11/23/20]

Doctors said: “Institutionalize her”

Karen Killilea was born 3 months premature. Her parents later discovered she had cerebral palsy.  They finally found a doctor who saw that she was aware of her surroundings. With tireless medication, her family spent at least two hours every day for the next 10 years helping Karen move her limbs. By her early teens, she was walking with crutches, swimming, typing and going to school.  And she lived to be 80, dying in October 2020.

Marie Killilea told the world about her daughter in two best-selling books, which were among the first to detail the challenges of living with a severe physical disability and were an inspiration to many families in similar circumstances. Karen worked for four decades as the receptionist at the Trinity Retreat House in Larchmont NY & traveled to Italy twice, meeting semi-privately both times with Pope Paul VI. She never considered herself “handicapped” but called herself “permanently inconvenienced.”

After the books appeared, Karen & her mother answered at least 15,000 letters from around the world. Some were addressed simply to “Karen, USA” & still arrived. Many wrote to thank the family for telling their story & to say it had inspired them to become nurses, physical or occupational therapists.  Her parents began lobbying for the rights of the disabled, meeting many other parents of children with disabilities. This led to the formation of what is now Cerebral Palsy of Westchester, and eventually led to the founding of the United Cerebral Palsy Association. All this as a result of rejecting doctors’ advice to institutionalize her. [NY Times, D/20/20]

Decline a Covid Vaccine? 

Relying on cell lines from abortions to manu facture a COVID-19 vaccine provokes strong moral objections, so some will refuse the vaccines. The Church, for her part, does not require us to decline it when there is a serious reason such as an elderly person or someone with multiple health issues who faces significant risks if they were to contract the disease.

Any time we decide to receive an unethically produced vaccine, we should push back. We can do our part to apply pressure on the manufacturer, perhaps by sending an email objecting to its methods, and requesting that it reformulate the vaccine using alternative, non-abortion-related cell sources. We could write a letter to our local paper pointing out the injustice of being morally coerced to rely on these cell sources.

The chart compares different vaccine candi dates that are or may become available in the U.S., collated by the Charlotte Lozier Institute. [Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, The Beacon, 12/17/20]

“The greatest destroyer of peace today is the cry of the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder her own child, what is left for you and me but to kill each other?” St. Theresa of Calcutta

Euthanasia for Children? 

Legalizing euthanasia transforms healers into killers. The expansion of euthanasia laws to permit killing sick children by lethal injection is yet another symptom of the culture of death’s profound influence on law & medicine throughout the world.

Belgium extended euthanasia to children by eliminating the age limit for lethal injection. In the Netherlands, in October the Dutch government approved euthanasia for terminally ill children aged 1 to 12. Currently it is legal for babies up to a year old to be killed with parental consent.

The culture of death is spreading rapidly. Could killing people, even children, by lethal injection be legalized in the USA? When will people of every nation raise their voices and demand, “Stop! Enough!”? [Nov. 2020, https://halovoice.org]

Just for Girls/Just for Guys 2020-21

A new edition of HLA’s teen abstinence magazine completely transitions its style to engage Gen Z’rs. New articles share a positive approach to Sexual Risk Avoidance strategies that focus on how waiting to have sex fits into a successful, healthy life. Teens will read both sides of this 16-page appealing flip-magazine! Send for a copy. [https://humanlifealliance.org]

Rally for Life: Friday, January 29th

Although the Exposition of vendors is cancelled because of the pandemic, March for Life organizers are going ahead with the annual Rally & March in Washington DC, the largest pro-life event in the world. A number of well-known guest speakers have been scheduled.

As in past years, many will participate in their local state rallies. For example, the St. Augustine March is scheduled for Jan. 16th. If you live in Florida or southern Georgia, you are encouraged to take a stand for life in the nation’s oldest city.

The Oakland, CA, StandUp4Life rally will be held on Friday, Jan. 22nd. “We walk because abortion in the Black community is a form of genocide, the Civil Rights issue of our day. We walk because abortion does violence, both physically & emotionally, to men and women, to their children, and to their families.”

For Texans, “Join thousands at the Texas Rally for Life on Saturday, January 23, at the Capitol in Austin, starting at 1 pm.”

Perhaps the most unusual & ambitious event is being held throughout January by the March for Life Chicago. “This year, we know many of you can’t travel to Chicago by bus. So we’re bringing it to you in five lead-up events in a city near you!”

Information about all rallies and marches for life may be found at https://marchforlife.org.

This free monthly newsletter is used by dozens of churches as a bulletin insert, and has had over 30,000 readers. To receive a copy in your inbox, email ed. Frank Tinari, Ph.D. at tinarifr@shu.edu

Progress Even in a Covid World (Dec. 2020 Newsletter)

by Frank Tinari, Ph.D., Life Education Council Board of Trustees

The Rise of Pro-life Women 

Thus far the number of newly elected pro-life women in Congress is up to 16. Seven of these candidates flipped seats held by pro-abortionists. The group includes the first Iranian American elected to Congress, a member of the Cherokee nation, a daughter of Cuban exiles, & a first-gene ration Korean American, showing that the life issue brings a diverse coalition together. Including incumbents, the tally of pro-life women in the House is now 27. In the Senate, the ranks of pro-life women continue to grow. Joni Ernst and Cindy Hyde-Smith won competitive reelection races, & Cynthia Lummis will be the first woman to represent Wyoming in the Senate.

This is breathtaking progress with three out standing justices on the Supreme Court, including the court’s first pro-life woman Amy Coney Barrett, and more than 200 new federal judges who will serve for life, providing the best chance in half a century to mount a serious, successful challenge to the status quo under Roe v. Wade

Whatever else happens, the American people have spoken. No “mandate” exists to enact deeply unpopular policies expanding abortion-on-demand through the moment of birth, paid for by taxpayers, or to drastically remake the brilliant system of checks and balances that has existed from the founding of our nation. 

The rise of pro-life women leaves me more convinced than ever that momentum is on our side, and the battle to save unborn children and their mothers is one we can – and will – win. [Marjorie Dannenfelser, Pres. of Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group that fights the well-funded abortion lobby. www.LifeNews.com, 11/20/20] Ed. Note: Famed rock & roller Dion DiMucci objected to being connected to a Catholic Voter Guide in Our October issue, saying the Italian Tribune took it out of context. We extend our apologies. 

Voters Reject Abortion Rights

Although Coloradans rejected a moderate measure to prohibit abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy, when many unborn children are able to survive if delivered premature. Louisiana voters backed an amendment declaring that the state constitution does not protect a right to abortion or abortion funding. It is the fourth state to pass such an amendment, intended to preempt post-Roe v. Wade courts from discovering a right to abortion in state constitutions. If the Supreme Court overturns or even scales back its invented abortion right, expect to see many more such votes across the country. We hope voters take their cues from Louisiana. [National Review, 11/30/20] 

Non-Essential Religious Services?

On Thanksgiving eve, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order limiting occupancy in houses of worship could not stand, saying that “even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten.” It was a win for the Diocese of Brooklyn & Agudath Israel of America, who argued that declaring religious services to be “non-essential,” while labeling pet stores, hardware stores and other secular entities “essential,” was a serious First Amendment infringement on their religious liberty.

We would expect secular militants to be angry, and they were. No organization has exerted more time, money, and energy using Covid-19 as a pretext to abridge religious liberties than Americans United for Separation of Church & State, founded by anti-Catholics after World War II; to this day it remains hostile to Catholics and to other religious affiliations, and filed an amicus brief in this case.

Liberal religious publications and organizations were in a jam: if they approved of the Supreme Court ruling, it would put them on the side of religi ous conservatives; if they disapproved, it would link them to secular militants. So, they said nothing!

America and Commonweal, liberal Catholic media outlets, said not a word. The National Catholic Reporter, a dissident media source that rejects many Church teachings, also said nothing. Sojourners, a liberal Protestant publication, and Religion News Service, which hosts a variety of liberal religion writers, also went mute. 

Religious media outlets should be expected to affirm a special place in constitutional law for religious institutions—that is what the First Amendment ordains! Their failure to do so is telling. [Bill Donohue, Catholic League, 11/30/20]

Child Book “When You Became You”

Teaching little children when life begins is not only vital to helping them understand the morality of life issues, it’s also fundamental in fighting progressive ideology taught to children in schools, authors Brooke Stanton & Christiane West said in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.  “Having a book that starts them off correctly and hopefully keeps them protected against false infor mation later is part of the goal of this book as well.”  Stanton & West co-founded Contend Projects, a “secular, nonpartisan, science education nonprofit for spreading accurate information and awareness about the biological science of human embryology and when a human being begins to exist.” Most pro-life advocates argue that life begins at fertilization. Pro-abortion advocates have various definitions of when life begins, or when unborn babies should be considered human: some argue that life begins with a viable heartbeat, while others argue that life does not begin until birth.

“Your humanity— the fact that your nature is a human nature— is what you have in common with all human beings,” page 1 of the book reads. “It does not matter what you look like, where you are from, how old you are, how young you are, if you can talk, if you can walk, if you can dance, or even if you aren’t born yet. You are a human being.” 

“There are countless children’s books that teach children to care about the environment, but children also want to learn about their own science stories. This is actually the real science,” Stanton told the DCNF. [Mary Margaret Olohan, www.LifeNews.com, 11/20/20] 

Banned for Being Pro-Life – But Victorious

A British midwife student won a legal victory against the University of Nottingham after it threatened to expel her because of her pro-life beliefs. Julia Rynkiewicz, 25, received an apology and won a settlement from the university this fall. She is just one of many pro-life medical workers who are facing discrimination simply for believing that unborn babies are patients who deserve care, too

Earlier this year, Rynkiewicz said she was banned temporarily from finishing her hospital training after her instructors questioned her “fitness to practice.” Their reason was her pro-life Catholic beliefs and her leadership as pres. of the Nottingham Students for Life. She said she filed the lawsuit so that no other student would be unfairly punished for their beliefs. “The settlement demonstrates that the university’s treatment of me was wrong. I hope this means that no other student will have to experience what I have.” She said she had to delay her studies and postpone graduation as a result of the investigation, and did not qualify for financial aid while she was temporarily banned from completing her hospital training.

In a statement, the university said it is considering how to better respond to such situations in the future. It also emphasized that it supports killing of unborn babies in abortions.  Pro-life medical professionals in the USA, UK and other parts of the world are increasingly con cerned about conscience protection rights. 

Dr. Regina Frost, a New York OB-GYN, recently wrote a column for The Federalist describing how her state leaders, Planned Parenthood and others are fighting against her religious freedom via a lawsuit challenging a federal government rule that protects medical professionals’ conscience rights.  Last year, a Vermont nurse said her employer forced her to help abort an unborn baby even though it knew she objected. In South Africa, a medical student was prohibited from practicing medicine for two years while he was prosecuted for ‘unprofessional conduct’ for telling a pregnant woman that an unborn baby is a living human being and an abortion kills a human life. A medical board finally dropped the charges this fall. 

These events demonstrate the importance of conscience protection laws. Without them, medical students can be prevented from practicing, medical workers can lose their jobs and, worse, be prosecuted just for telling the truth. [Micaiah Bilger, www.LifeNews.com, 11/25/20] 

Pope Francis: Fair to Hire a Hitman?

Pope Francis, answering the pleas of Argentine women who are fighting for the rights of unborn babies, wrote a public letter to his home country this week urging its leaders not to legalize abortions.  Their letter and the pope’s response both appeared in the newspaper La Nacion. “Is it fair to eliminate a human life to solve a problem? Is it fair to hire a hitman to solve a problem?” the pope wrote, adding that the pro-life women “know what life is.”

Argentina is facing renewed pressure to aban don its protections for unborn babies. Widespread public opposition stopped a similar bill from passing in 2018. Pro-life advocates hope to do so again.  One survey that the women conducted found that 80 percent of Argentines oppose abortion.

“The country is proud to have such women,” the Pope wrote. “Please tell them for me that I admire their work and their testimony; that I thank them from the bottom of my heart for what they do, and that they keep going.” 

Currently, Argentina protects unborn babies from being killed in abortions, with a few exceptions. Most countries in Central & South America protect unborn babies from abortion. Pro-abortion groups often overestimate the number of illegal and unsafe abortions that occur in countries across the world, & some have admitted to lying about the numbers. Growing research also indicates that access to basic health care, not abortion, is what really helps improve women’s lives. [www.LifeNews.com, 11/25/20] 

This free monthly newsletter is used by dozens of churches as a bulletin insert, and has over 30,000 readers. To receive a copy in your inbox, email editor Frank Tinari, Ph.D. at tinarifr@shu.edu

Cultural Conflicts Continue

by Frank Tinari, Ph.D., Life Education Council Board of Trustees

Violent Pro-abortion Protests

Pope Francis encouraged Christians in Poland to keep standing strong for life as riots continued across the country. “I ask God to inspire in the hearts of all, respect for the life of our brothers, especially of the most fragile & defenseless, and to give strength to those who welcome it, even when it requires heroic love,” Pope Francis said.

Riots have been occurring since the nation’s high court issued a ruling that protects unborn babies with disabilities from abortions. Authorities have arrested at least 76 people for disrupting church services and vandalizing church buildings, the AP reports. On Oct. 22, Poland’s constitutional court struck down one of the few exceptions allowed in its 1993 abortion law – abortions on unborn babies with disabilities, saying that the exception violates the constitution because it discriminates against humans with disabilities.  Mikolaj Pawlak, Poland’s commissioner for child rights, said: “The decision of the Constitutional Court declaring eugenic abortion incompatible with the constitution is a victory of life over death. It is a restoration of equal rights for every human being, including those who have not yet been born.”

In the city of Poznan, dozens of pro-abortion protesters broke into a church service, shouting, “We’ve had enough!” and “Barbarians!” as they held signs up in front of the altar, the Daily Mail reported. [Pope Francis Condemns Abortion…, LifeNews.com, 10/29/20] [Ed. note: Poland’s govt. has delayed implementation due to protests.] 

New York Threatens Adoption Agency

New Hope Family Services, a faith based adoption agency based in Syracuse, won a victory for religious freedom last month when a U.S. District Court judge granted a temporary injunction, saying the state had shown evidence of hostility toward New Hope’s religious beliefs.

Over the last 50 years, the agency has placed 1,000 children for adoption, but in 2018, the NY office of Children and Family Services ordered New Hope to place children with unmarried or same-sex couples – or face closure. This month the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case involving an adoption agency supported by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. We pray that these organizations will be able to continue their mission without having to compromise their First Amendment rights. [Our Sunday Visitor, 10/25/20] 

Did Catholics Vote as Catholics?

Catholics who take citizenship seriously paid attention to the US Bishops’ voting guide called Faithful Citizenship, to help form our consciences by looking at the following goals or issues and acting accordingly. The first three goals are:

  1. Sanctity of life from conception to natural death
    The preeminent requirement to protect the weakest, innocent unborn children, by restricting and bringing to an end their destruction through abortion, & providing women in crisis pregnancies the supports they need to make a decision for life.
  2. Not to resort to violence to resolve issues
    Support policies that stop: a million abortions each year, euthanasia and assisted suicide to deal with the burdens of illness & disability, the destruction of human embryos in the name of research, the use of the death penalty to combat crime, and imprudent resort to war to address international disputes.
  3. Sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman
    Protect the fundamental understanding of marriage as the life-long and faithful union of one man and one woman and as the central institution of society; promote the complementarity of the sexes and reject false “gender” ideologies.

Ardent Feminist Becomes Supreme Court Justice

The confirmation process is a grueling examination of a nominee’s life. Yet, we saw a role model for women, someone who rose to the top in school and in her career while choosing to have the husband, family, and spiritual life she dreamed of. “I never let the law define my identity or crowd out the rest of my life.”  

 We witnessed newly-appointed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a devoted mother whose family was the first thing she talked about at her confirmation hearing. She and her husband have five biological children and two adopted children. One of her children was detected with Downs Syndrome while she was pregnant but the couple refused abortion. Justice Barrett is the oldest of seven children, and attended Catholic grammar and high schools. She graduated at the top of her Notre Dame Law School class.

During the hearings, her opponents distorted her record, launched bad-faith attacks against her religious views, and even attacked her family and her decision to adopt children from Haiti. We saw her compassion as she recounted struggling through the death of George Floyd with her black daughter. We also got a glimpse of Justice Barrett the mentor, who went out of her way to take care of her students and help them launch impressive careers of their own. During her three years on the Seventh Circuit bench, Judge Barrett authored approximately 100 opinions that bolstered her reputation as a textualist and originalist in the mold of her mentor, Justice Anton Scalia. 

“If you can keep in mind that your fundamental purpose in life is not to be a lawyer, but to know, love and serve God, you truly will be a different kind of lawyer.” Amy Coney Barrett 

Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, wrote an opinion piece in the local paper about the prejudicial treatment given to the nomination of Barrett. “Faithful Catholics help many and harm no one; anti-Catholic bigots harm everyone. It is unimaginable that the senators’ harassment be applied to any other religious group. Why is this tolerated? When will it end?”

Barrett is the only mother of young children ever to serve on the high court. She is the only Midwesterner on the court, and the only member of the court who did not graduate law school from either Harvard or Yale. [GianCarlo Canaparo, The Heritage Foundation] 

A new postage stamp for Christmas shows detail from a gorgeous Peruvian painting of Our Lady of Guapulo from the 1700s. Use it as a Christian witness. 

College Pro-Life Group Called “Hate Group”

Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins applauded the decision released today from the University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook to allow a pro-life club on campus after student organizations blocked the effort by saying that fellow students wanted to start a “hate group.” 

“Viewpoint discrimination is both unconstitutional and undemocratic. The free marketplace of ideas is designed to allow for citizens to share their views. For the Pro-Life Generation, a conversation on the human rights issue of our day – abortion – is demanded of all those who care about how our society has devalued life based on location,” said Hawkins. 

Student leader Sophia Schuster had been advocating for a Students for Life club this school year and, with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, appealed the NISG’s decision to the school’s Supreme Court, which ruled against the pro-life students. Said Schuster: ‘They have overstepped their role and tried to use their power to silence us just because they disagree. This is a direct attack on free speech & due process of law, an example of abandoning standards that they claim to hold.” [LifeNews.com, 10/29/20] 

Gene Editing: Big Mistakes in Human Embryos

Scientists using the Crispr gene-editing technology in human embryos to try to repair a gene that causes hereditary blindness found it made unintended and unwanted changes, frequently eliminating an entire chromosome or large sections of it. This is a very adverse outcome. 

In September, an international commission sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.K.’s Royal Society issued a report stating that the gene-editing technology isn’t ready for such a use because scientists don’t understand how to make precise fixes without also introducing potentially dangerous changes. 

Two separate papers published earlier this month indicate that the ethical debate continues over whether and under what circumstances creating genetically modified children could be permissible. Crispr germ-line editing, which involves making changes to eggs, sperm and embryos, is controversial because any changes can be passed to future generations. In her comments on the report, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Jennifer Doudna said the commission’s recommendations reflect consensus in the field that the technology shouldn’t be used for embryo editing in the clinic at this time.

The researchers found 96 of the countries already had gene-editing policy documents, such as legislation, regulations or international treaties; 75 of these countries bar the use of genetically modified embryos for the purpose of starting a pregnancy, an indication that it might be possible to create an international consensus on the issue, the researchers said. [Amy Dockser Marcus, Wall Street Journal, 10/29/20] 

33 Countries Declare “There is No Right to Abortion” 

 The USA and 32 other nations recently signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family, declaring “’there is no international right to abortion” and that the family is “fundamental” to society. The Declaration was co-sponsored by the USA, Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia & Uganda, & signed by countries representing more than 1.6 billion people.  Geneva Consensus Declaration further strengthens a coalition to achieve four pillars: (1) better health for women, (2) the preservation of human life, (3) strengthening of family as the foundational unit of society, and (4) protecting every nation’s national sovereignty in global politics.  The signers of the declaration agree to “reaffirm the inherent dignity and worth of the human person,” that “every human being has the inherent right to life.” [www.LifeNews.com, 11/2/20]

This free monthly newsletter is used by dozens of churches as a bulletin insert, and has over 30,000 readers. To receive a copy in your inbox, email editor Frank Tinari, Ph.D. at tinarifr@shu.edu 

Pro-Lifers Hopeful… and Determined in Public Policy

by Frank Tinari, Ph.D., Life Education Council Board of Trustees

In the Culture

1. Many programs are expanding. For example, 40 Days for Life is now active in hundreds of U.S. cities and is going on right now through Nov. 1st.  People stand vigil, praying outside of abortion clinics. Also, the nationwide one-day Life Chain brings out thousands of people to give silent witness to our concern for a culture of life. And for those who have taken part in an abortion, the Church offers hope through Rachel’s Vineyard, a program of forgiveness and healing. 

Another example: the Archdiocese of Miami’s Respect Life Ministry has been offering a monthly webinar as part of the U.S. Bishops theme of “Walking with Moms: A Year of Service.” September’s webinar was How to Be a Pregnancy Center Volunteer. A number of churches have been installing Love Life and other lawn banners. And other churches have erected memorial plaques for the unborn such as this one from Holy Family Church, Florham Park, NJ. 

2. More people are becoming informed. The fast growing Relevant Radio network is also available anytime through its app, and folks who like to read are accessing papers like the National Catholic Register and Our Sunday Visitor, not to mention worthy websites such as www.lifesitenews.com, www.lifenews.com and www.priestsforlife.org.

3. Inroads made by culture of death policies have  re-invigorated culture of life proponents. More Christians are getting involved and taking action.  For example, in recent years the Knights of Columbus have funded thousands of sonogram machines used by pregnancy centers to help pregnant moms see that they are carrying a growing, developing person, not just a “blob of tissue.” Also, one of the fastest growing order of nuns is the Sisters of Life who work in inner cities helping pregnant girls deal with their crisis, and to help promote a true culture of love and life. More dramatically, one organization changes minds by visiting college campuses with a Jumbatron projector that shows actual grisly abortion procedures. (www.CreatedEqual.org)

In Public Policy

1. Political party platforms are focusing more than ever on life issues. The Libertarian platform states life and abortion issues are strictly private matters.  The Democrat platform says “every woman should have access to … safe and legal abortion.” The Republican platform states: “we assert the sanctity of human life and …the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.”

Respect life groups such as Priests for Life, & the Susan B. Anthony List and others are seeking election volunteers to get out the vote. Log onto their websites if you might like to help. 

On Sept. 20th a full page ad in the NYTimes was signed by hundreds of Democrat leaders urging the party to soften its stance towards abortion.

2. Even after 47 years of Roe v Wade, life issues like abortion are far from settled. U.S. Catholic Bishops have stated that the threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives it destroys.  

3. With an opening to be filled on the Supreme Court, a pro-life nominee could make the difference in pending court cases on religious freedom and abortion, even challenging the legitimacy of Roe v Wade

Respect Life Month 

Each October the Church in the United States celebrates Respect Life Month, and the first Sunday of October is observed as Respect Life Sunday. As Catholics, we are called to cherish, defend, & protect those who are most vulnerable, from the beginning of life to its end, & every point in between. During the month of October, the Church asks us to reflect more deeply on the dignity of every human life. (https://www.respectlife.org/)

“This year the Church celebrates the 25th anniversary of the landmark pro-life encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life). Pope St. John Paul II’s prophetic document passionately reaffirms the Church’s constant teaching on the value and sacredness of every human life. It remains a foundational text for all our efforts to ensure that the life of every human person is protected & cherished.” Bishop Joseph F. Naumann

Archbishop Charles Chaput: “Nothing we do to defend the human person, no matter how small, is ever unfruitful. Our actions touch other lives, move other hearts in ways we can never fully understand. Don’t ever underestimate the beauty and power of the witness you give in your pro-life work.”

Marriage: Pursue Your Spouse

So many times the busyness of life can cause couples to lose their special connection and seem more like roommates than soulmates. Many couples say they find themselves in a place of schedules, finances and household management without real connection. You have to be intentional about pursuing those deeper places, the heart connections. This just doesn’t happen, you have to pursue each other. People feel this distancing due to busyness, exhaustion, neglect, living separate lives, sexless marriage, feeling unsafe, and not feeling a spiritual oneness. So, make time for each other, even a small amount without interruption, e.g., having a cup of coffee together, watching a show together, or reading the Bible together. Also, have conversations occasionally that don’t include the kids or the household. Talk about your wishes, passions and visions. And show a real interest in what is important to your spouse. (Dr. Greg & Erin Smalley, www.FocusOnTheFamily.com) 

We proclaim that human life is a precious gift from God; that each person who receives this gift has responsibilities toward God, self and others; and that society, through its laws and social institutions, must protect and nurture human life at every stage of its existence. (USCCB Pro-Life Committee) 

Rock ‘N’ Roller Dion: A Voter Guide

(Ed. Note: Dion was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989: “With one foot in the Fifties and one in the future, Dion blended R&B with doo-wop and helped ring in the age of rock and roll.” The excerpts here are taken from an Op-Ed piece he published in the Italian Tribune, 9/17/20.) 

“Catholics have a moral obligation to promote the common good. Vote in a conscientious manner. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops identified five current issues that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted: 

  1. Abortion
  2. Euthanasia
  3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
  4. Human Cloning  
  5. Homosexual “Marriage” 

 It can be a serious sin to deliberately endorse a candidate who supports and endorses evil actions. A well-formed conscience will never contradict Catholic moral teaching. If you are unsure of where your conscience is leading, read the unwavering Church teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church & vote in accordance with God’s law. May God Guide Your Voting. God Bless America.”

New Jersey Bishop Speaks Out

A year after NJ’s Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act took effect, Metuchen Bishop James F. Checchio reminded Catholics in the diocese that it is their shared responsibility to respect & defend all human life. During the first five months after the law passed on Aug. 1, 2019, 12 NJ residents ended their lives under its provisions. The law allows those with a terminal diagnosis and a life expectancy of 6 months or less to seek permission from two doctors to end their lives with lethal medicine. Our efforts to save lives amid the corona virus pandemic, Bishop Checchio said, are inconsis tent with this law. “Young or old, healthy or sick, all human life is precious.”(Our Sunday Visitor, 8/30/20)

Why the Hang-Up About Abortion?

Those who support pro-abortion candidates often point to the importance of other issues to justify that support. Some reference the “seamless garment” approach, which looks at a basket of issues that affect human life, and then argue that abortion is just one of those important issues. For example, sometimes Catholics will point to the resumption of the federal death penalty by the current administration as a sort of equivalence.

In the United States in 2020, moral equivalence  just does not hold up. For many years, the Catholic Church has increasingly condemned the death penalty. There were five federal convicts executed in 2020. In the same span, nearly 1 million children will be aborted. Immigration, hunger, poverty are all important, too, but none of them will result in any where near the loss of human life that abortion does. Little wonder the U.S. bishops have listed abortion as “our preeminent priority” on human life, and it should be treated as such when we vote.  Abortion is qualitatively different from other issues because it results in the death of the innocent. Blameless children are wiped out just for being conceived. Abortion denies their inherent, God-given dignity as human beings, and it brings violence & death into the family. It is quantitatively different, too, because of the staggering numbers of lives lost. And, it is completely preventable.

Perhaps a large segment of the population can look the other way because the unborn are so small and invisible. But there is something deeply wrong with us as a society if we look away from the nearly 1 million uniquely vulnerable lives taken in abortion each year, and do not vote for pro-life politicians and legislation as a peaceful way to bring this atrocity to an end. Catholic voters should understand the gravity of the situation and act accordingly when they vote — in races local and national. (Michael Warsaw, Nat. Cath. Register, 9/27/20)

This free monthly newsletter is used by dozens of churches as a bulletin insert, and has over 30,000 readers. To receive a copy in your inbox, email editor Frank Tinari, Ph.D. at tinarifr@shu.edu

Powerful Weapons: Prayer & Prayerful Planning

by Frank Tinari, Ph.D., Life Education Council Board of Trustees

Remembering Aborted Babies

On Saturday, Sept. 12th, Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, Priests for Life & Pro-Life Action League will co-sponsor the 8th annual National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children, calling on pro-life Americans to hofnor the grave sites of our aborted brothers and sisters. Solemn prayer vigils will be conducted at 54 such grave sites as well as at dozens of other sites dedicated in memory of aborted children.

Tens of thousands of these children have been retrieved & buried at grave sites across our nation. The stories of how they were killed, how they were found, and how they were buried, along with the pictures and videos that document those events, are powerful tools to awaken the consciences of our fellow citizens. But while a funeral and burial for an aborted baby may be a relatively rare event, the opportunity to visit the burial places and recall how those children got there shouldn’t be.

The first National Day of Remembrance was held in Sept. 2013 on the 25th anniversary of the solemn burial of the earthly remains of some 1,500 abortion victims in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Videos from past Day of Remembrance memorial services can be found on the National Day of Remembrance Facebook page.

Pro-lifers are also encouraged to carry on the spiritual mission of the Day of Remembrance throughout the year by visiting a grave site of aborted children or other memorial site to offer prayers of mourning for the victims of abortion. You could pray one of the suggested prayers (found at its website): Prayer at a Gravesite or Memorial Site; Prayer of Mourning for Victims of Abortion; Prayer for Those Who Have Lost a Child to Abortion.

“A nation that kills its children in the womb has lost its soul.” Saint Mother Teresa

U.S. Catholic Bishops Speak Out

The U.S. Catholic Bishops have stated: that the threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, because of the number of lives it destroys. Despite all of the other issues we face in this nation, we are urged to pray specifically to end abortion in our country, and for the protection of human life from the moment of conception to natural death. 

A Better Way to Plan Your Family

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is the most effective, natural, healthy & inexpensive system for couples trying to achieve pregnancy, couples having fertility concerns or couples planning to postpone pregnancy – all by observing natural signs of fertility.

Research shows NFP is as effective as the birth control pill (but has no hormonal side-effects), can help monitor your reproductive health, and can help strengthen the couple’s relationship. These methods successfully address: delaying or achieving pregnancy; hormonal imbalance; infertility; menstrual cycle abnormalities; endometriosis; PMS; and polycystic ovarian syndrome.

The two most popular & effective methods are the Creighton Method and the Marquette Method. Creighton relies upon the standardized observation & charting of biological markers that are essential to a woman’s health and fertility. The bio-markers also indicate abnormalities in a woman’s health. It is the only family planning system which has net- worked family planning with gynecologic and procreative healthcare, and health maintenance. Many physicians have been trained to incorporate the Creighton Method into their medical practice. It is great for those with normal or abnormal cycles or those struggling with infertility.

What sets the Marquette Method apart from most other methods is its incorporation of hormone monitoring as well as simplifying sometimes unclear signs of fertility. A woman can track her hormone levels through her cycle using the Clearblue Fertility Monitor together with the Marquette Method to identify her fertile window. This method provides clear and objective hormone readings taking much of the guesswork out of natural family planning. It is great for those with normal or abnormal cycles or postpartum.

For all NFP methods, couples need to be diligent and have plenty of self-control. They have to follow instructions completely to be successful.

To sign up for an NFP intro class, or reach trained medical providers in the NYC metro area, contact the Office of Family Life, Diocese of Paterson, NJ. [https://insidethewalls.org/nfp] 

College and Dorm Life

Students typically spend only 15 hours per week in the classroom. Unfortunately, binge drinking, drug use and hook-up culture are common on most college campuses. College students report high rates of STDs, pregnancies, abortions and sexual assaults.

“That’s no way to grow in faith and maturity” says the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS). It has identified faithful Catholic colleges where “chastity and clean living are encouraged. Most of them provide single-sex dorms, which most other colleges have abandoned. Even more helpful, some preserve the privacy of bedrooms, forbid- ding opposite-sex visitors at all times of the day. We think this is ideal–a common-sense, traditional practice that protects privacy, chastity and safety” and reduces the likelihood of sexual assault against female students. At a truly faithful Catholic college, “you’ll find a culture that respects chastity, charity and virtue. And you’ll make good friends who share your priorities and values–the sort of friendships that can last a lifetime!”

CNS also sponsors a $5,000 essay contest for high school seniors. [www.newmansociety.org]

Learning or a “College Experience”?

Schools across America are fiercely competing to offer the best buildings and recreation centers, the most things to do around campus, all tied together with the biggest scholarships package. We have stopped emphasizing the bachelor’s degree and now emphasize the “college experience.” Yet professors determined to undermine even the most rooted Christians lurk on campuses far and wide. Biases exist in almost all subject areas, many of them propelled by an anti-Christian agenda.

Even if a Catholic Newman Center on a campus is active, college is hard enough without having your beliefs challenged at every turn. Unfortunately, while many colleges claim to be Catholic, few adhere to Church teaching in the classroom and on campus. [Elizabeth O’Donnell, College: a Choice of Life or Death, Ave Maria Magazine, Summer 2020]

U.S. Birthrate Hits New Low

“American women had babies at record-low rates last year and pushed U.S. births down to their smallest total in 35 years, according to federal figures. The total fertility rate, i.e., the average number of babies a woman would have over her lifetime, ticked down to 1.7 in 2019. Almost every year since 1971, that rate has been below 2.1, which is the level needed for the population to replace itself, without accounting for immigration.” [Wall Street Journal, 5/20/20] 

Preparing for October

Each year the month of October is designated as Respect Life Month. Some of the activities that will be available to us include prayerful participation in the one-day National Life Chain, “baby showers” that solicit donations of clothing for pregnant moms, and sign-ups for the March of Life (in January). Some parishes may host guest speakers or discuss films. In addition, the 40 Days for Life campaign for picketing Planned Parenthood will be in full swing during the month, having started on September 23rd.

Jesus, Son of an Unwed Mom

“As Christians we first met Jesus as a stirring embryo in the womb of an unwed mother and saw him born 9 months later in the poverty of the cave. It’s no coincidence that Jesus stood up for what was just and was ultimately crucified because what he said wasn’t politically correct or fashionable. As followers of Christ we are called to stand up for life. Against the politically correct or fashionable of today we must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. The laws we create define how we see our humanity. We must ask ourselves, what are we saying when we go into a room and snuff out an innocent, powerless, voiceless life?”

So said soldier, surgeon and religious sister Deirdre Byrne. A retired colonel in the U.S. Army and a member of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Byrne has done missionary work with the poor and sick across the globe, including in countries like Haiti, Sudan and Kenya. During her time in the military, she discerned a religious vocation, and sought a religious order that would not require her to give up her work in the medical field. Her discernment led Byrne to her order, an Italian pontifical institute founded in the late 19th century with the primary apostolates of teaching and medical care, and present in Washington DC since 1954.

“The largest marginalized group in the world can be found in the U.S. They are the unborn,” she said. “As a physician I can say without hesitation, life begins at conception.”

At his party’s convention, the U.S. President said: “On September 11, 2001, the sister raced to Ground Zero, through smoke and debris, she administered first aid and comfort to all. Today Sister Byrne runs a medical clinic serving the poor in our nation’s capital. Sister, thank you for your lifetime of service. Thank you.” [www.LifeNews.com, 8/27/20] 

This free monthly newsletter is used by dozens of churches as a bulletin insert, and has over 30,000 readers. To receive a copy in your inbox, email editor Frank Tinari, Ph.D. at tinarifr@shu.edu

Fighting for Life and Family

by Frank Tinari, Ph.D., Life Education Council Board of Trustees

The Ghost of Margaret Sanger

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York announced that it would remove Margaret Sanger’s name from its Manhattan Health Center. This is an interesting shift from just a year ago, when Clarence Thomas was criticized for citing Sanger’s writings to suggest that abortion in America today reflects a kind of structural racism — an inherited tendency, which persists even without racist intent, for pro- abortion policies to reduce minority births more than white births.

Planned Parenthood had eugenic ideas close to its root, and while Sanger herself was pro- contraception rather than pro-abortion, her successors championed both abortion rights & global population control policies that were racist by any reasonable definition. Then when abortion was legalized in the United States, with Planned Parenthood’s strong support, its initial effect was a sharp decline in minority births. Fifty years later, the abortion rate is five times higher for African- Americans than for whites.

Further, Roe v. Wade and the sexual revolution changed family structure as well, as George Akerlof and (future Fed chair) Janet Yellen argued in a 1996 paper, by creating a wider space for men to expect sex without commitment and to behave irresponsibly toward pregnant woman. Like the abortion rate itself, this trend — the long rise of fatherlessness — has been steeper in poor & vulnerable communities. So it, too, has helped to sustain racial inequality, by reserving to the whiter upper classes the socioeconomic advantages that two-parent families enjoy. [excerpted from NY Times, Russ Douthat, 7/25/20] Ed. note: Despite this continuing discrimination by Planned Parenthood, our federal taxpayer monies still flow to the agency each year.

A Marriage-Based Culture

Modern social science research reveals clearly that intact marriage makes children (1) happier (mental health), (2) physically healthier and (3) better learners. They become much better citizens, better spouses, parents, workers, soldiers, savers, builders, and caretakers.

It is worth remembering that when Christ formed His first disciples most of the world — in matters sexual – lived polymorphously as Marx, Engels and Lenin envisaged and as we are now living again. Christians born in the West up until recent times have lived in the comfort of a Christian-molded legal order that protected women and children by expecting, and (where necessary) enforcing, monogamy. That day is gone. Welcome back to a hard and violent world of polymorphous sex, where the lifestyle of a Christian can be dangerous according to society’s new rules.

But as followers of Christ, for the good of the child, who from the moment of conception has the right to demand of its parents their lifelong monogamous marriage, we will continue to promote the value of monogamous marriage. [Pat Fagan, Ph.D., The Phenomenal Rise & Fall of a Marriage-Based Culture, www.marri.us/blog, 6/21/20]

Pro-Life Teen Wins Settlement

Covington Catholic High School teen Nicholas Sandman won a second defamation settlement against the Washington Post. The first was against CNN. The pro-life teen was the target of mislead ing, biased news coverage during his Kentucky high school’s trip to the March for Life. In the lawsuit, Sandmann accused the newspaper of “wrongfully targeting and bullying” him “because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ souvenir cap on a school field trip to the January 2019 March for Life in Washington, D.C.”

Many news outlets implied Sandmann and other Covington students were racist based on a short video showing a brief confrontation between them and Native American protester Nathan Phillips near the Lincoln Memorial. The negative publicity led to death threats & temporary closure of his Catholic high school for several days due to security concerns. Later, however, longer video footage of the incident disproved many of the claims against Sandmann & other school students. A report by Greater Cincinnati Investigation, Inc. states that the pro-life teens did not initiate the confrontation or use any racial slurs against Native American Nathan Phillips or the Black Hebrew Israelites group. Lawsuits against other news outlets are still pending, including NBC, ABC, CBS, Rolling Stone, Gannett & the NY Times.

After the initial publicity, Sandmann said he was confused by the whole incident and he smiled only to let the other protesters know that he would not be intimidated. “I am a faithful Christian and practicing Catholic, and I always try to live up to the ideals my faith teaches me – to remain respectful of others, and to take no action that would lead to conflict or violence,” he said. [excerpted from www.LifeNews.com, M. Bilger, 7/24/20] 

Improving Catholic School Education

New standards to improve Catholic school education were issued by the Cardinal Newman Society. The Catholic Curriculum Standards take into account guidance from Church documents regarding Catholic education:

  • To involve the integral formation of the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, in light of his or her ultimate end and the good of society.
  • To seek to know and understand objective reality, including transcendent Truth, which is knowable by reason and faith and finds its origin, unity, and end in God.
  • To promote human virtues and the dignity of the human person, as created in the image and likeness of God and modeled on the person of Jesus Christ. [www.CardinalNewmanSociety.org ]

Ed. Note: Public schools also seek to achieve the first standard, and generally fall short on the other two.

Choose Life Banners Seen Everywhere

The Life Education Council makes available pro-life banners that are typically displayed on church lawns & buildings. Many women have been helped by calling the number shown on the banner. While there is no charge, a donation would be welcomed. Get one for your church today at www.LifeEducationCouncil.com

Teen Health

Psychiatry Research (May 2020) published an article on “Sexual behavior and suicide attempts among adolescents aged 12–15 years from 38 countries.” The authors studied adolescents using data from the Global School- based Student Health Survey 2009–2016. Their key finding was: Engaging in sexual intercourse in early adolescence was associated with increased risk of suicide attempt. And, having had multiple sexual partners may increase the risk of suicide attempts.”

Manifesto from Long-Time Pro-Lifer

The pro-life movement has proven capable of longsuffering in the fight to end abortion. Many of us have been in this fight for decades. I stand on the shoulders of giants who came before me and began their work long ago, & the next generation of pro-life activists is already rising up to carry on the mission. Our ability to adapt and evolve despite lost Supreme Court cases, the silence of religious leaders, and the betrayals of politicians is a testament to the trajectory of this movement toward victory. The pro-life movement will persist until abortion is rejected by both our laws and our culture.

The pro-life movement is outfunded by the abortion industry by orders of magnitude. Our political power is outflanked by pro-abortion super PACs, and tech giants and mainstream media outlets work to silence or mischaracterize us on a daily basis. Yet the truth that it is wrong to kill the innocent is written so deeply into the human conscience that our victory over Big Abortion is only a matter of time. We need only call out what humans know to be true: All of us are equal, and it is wrong to do fatal violence to our society’s youngest, most defenseless members.

America has always led the world in defending human rights. We can restore the paradigm of protection of the preborn child and the dignity of mothers for the rest of the world. What is required of us in these moments, when we feel we have lost a battle, is to recommit ourselves to waking up every morning and saying Yes to winning the war. [Lila Rose, Big abortion may win battles; The pro-life movement can win the war, Voices, 7/7/20]]

What’s Life All About Anyway?

Dr. Edward Sri, Imprint, Summer 2020

Author, Who Am I to Judge?

Jesus Christ said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn 14:6) He’s the fullness of Truth. The truth isn’t simply that abortion and pornography are wrong. That is true, but it’s not the whole gospel message. The whole truth is that God loves you.

Judy Heumann on Disabled People

I was 18 months old when my parents learned I had polio. It was 1949, and things that were typical for children were not so typical for me. I was denied the right to go to school because the staff did not know how to accommodate a student who could not walk. This discrimination continued when I eventually pursued my teaching career. Though I passed all my exams, I was denied a teaching license in 1970 because NYCity’s Board of Education thought I could not safely evacuate my students in case of a fire. Years later I worked to get the Americans with Disabilities Act passed. It opened building doors, allowed us to be educated & made it illegal to discriminate against a qualified person for employment.

But there is still work to do. The way society thinks about disability needs to evolve, as too many people view disability as something to loathe or fear. By changing this mentality, by recognizing how disabled people enrich our communities, we can all be empowered to make sure disabled people are included. [NYTimes, 7/26/20]

This free monthly newsletter is used by dozens of churches as a bulletin insert, and has over 30,000 readers. To receive a free copy in your inbox, email editor Frank Tinari, Ph.D. at tinarifr@shu.edu 

Our Banners were Vandalized

Recently, two of our pro-life banners (set up outside churches) were vandalized.

The first one, depicting drawings of a dead baby and X’s over the infant’s eyes:

The second one, with writing like “Pro-choice” and “abortion is a right”:

While the vandalism is disturbing, it shows that our message is being seen by many, and being heard. We are working to replace the banners that were vandalized to continue spreading the pro-life message.

Choose life.

Pro-Life Legal Victories … and Defeats

by Frank Tinari, Ph.D., Life Education Council Board of Trustees

Supreme Court: No Discrimination Against Religious Schools!

In a 5-4 ruling upholding a Montana program to provide student scholarships for use at religious schools, the U.S. Supreme Court also in effect repudiated a 19th-century monument to anti- Catholic bigotry known as the Blaine Amendment.

The ruling reversed a 2018 Montana Court decision based on the state constitution’s Blaine provision barring aid to any school “controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect or denomination.” That provision is named for Senator James Blaine who in the 1870s argued for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to bar use of public funds at religious schools. Coming at a time when immigration was rapidly increasing the Catholic population and Catholic parochial schools were growing in number, the proposal was widely seen as a reflection of Protestant anxieties about rising Catholic numbers and influence. While Blaine never did become part of the federal Constitution, 37 states eventually adopted their own versions.

In a statement following the decision, Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Michael C. Barber of Oakland, California, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education, said: “This decision means that religious persons & organizations can, like everyone else, participate in government programs that are open to all. This is good news, not only for people of faith, but for our country. A strong civil society needs the full participation of religious institutions. By ensuring the rights of faith-based organizations’ freedom to serve, the court also promotes the common good.”

In his majority opinion, Roberts relied heavily on a 2017 Supreme Court decision (Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer) that held that a Lutheran church in Missouri that operated a day school was entitled to receive funds from a state program for upgrading playgrounds as a safety measure. That decision, Roberts said, held that “disqualifying otherwise eligible recipients from a public benefit ‘solely because of their religious character’ imposes a penalty” on religious free exercise. Thus Montana’s denial of scholarships for use at a religious school did not pass muster. [Russell Shaw, Our Sunday Visitor, 6/30/20]

Supreme Court Rejects Louisiana Abortion Restrictions

The Court struck down the law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of their practice. The opinion in June Medical Services v. Russo is quite fractured and legally technical. It does not bring the pro-life movement any closer to overthrowing Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey; but it does not likely move us further away from that end either. More litigation to that end is still required.

The narrow 5-to-4 ruling agreed that the burdens it imposed upon women were greater than its claimed health benefits. Yet Justice Gorsuch wrote of the dangers that abortionists in Louisiana pose to their patients. He noted the extraordinarily lax reviews the clinics conduct prior to hiring abortionists, reporting that abortion clinics had previously allowed ophthalmologists & radiologists to perform abortions! He also pointed to the many ethical and safety violations that Louisiana abortion clinics had committed in the past.

Employing detailed geographic & doctor-specific details (and even maps, printed in the opinion), the Court concluded that the vast majority of doctors and clinics would go out of business were the admitting-privileges law to stand, leaving many women without a sufficiently-close-by abortionist. But Gorsuch noted that one Louisiana doctor already had such privileges, that one hospital was already changing its admitting-privileges rules in order to make it easier for abortionists to succeed, and that privileges requirements applied to other types of ambulatory surgical centers (for example, colonoscopies, Lasik eye treatments) had not diminished the number of those centers able to continue operating. Also, Gorsuch highlighted the testimony of women abandoned by their abortionists to seek follow-up care, after the doctors had botched their abortion procedures.

Finally, only Justice Thomas took direct aim at Roe and Casey. In memorable language, he referred to the reading of the Constitution on which it is based as “legal fiction” and the “putative right to abortion [as] a creation that should be undone.” He wrote that it is “farcical” to imagine that the legislators who created the 14th Amendment’s “due process” language intended it to protect a procedure nearly completely banned in every state and territory in the U.S. at the time it was passed. He called Roe a “demonstrably erroneous” decision. [Helen Alvaré, Commentary, National Catholic Register, 6/29/20]

Risks of High-Tech Birth Control

In the 1960s, when birth control devices and chemicals became prominent, the only common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were syphilis and gonorrhea. Today, at least 25 STDs are known, some which are incurable, and at least eight new pathogens have been identified since 1980, including HIV. Many of these STDs, such as chlamydia and human papillomavirus (HPV), greatly increase a woman’s risk of cancer. None of the “contraceptives” listed in this brochure prevent or protect against STDs or AIDS. Yet organizations like International Planned Parent- hood Federation thrust these methods upon trusting teenage girls, much to the detriment of their future health. [Concerned Women for America brochure, compiled by Catherine Hurlburt cwfa.org]

National NFP Awareness Week

July 19-25, 2020, the dates of National Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, highlight the anniversary of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25), which articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, married love and responsible parenthood. Very helpful information about the benefits of NFP, how it works and its effectiveness, is available at the www.usccb.org website.

Gerber Baby Photo Contest Winner

The original “Gerber baby” was Ann Turner Cook, now 93. A charcoal sketch of her cherubic face became the company’s official trademark. Since 2010, Gerber has held a photo contest to select a new baby brand ambassador each year. In 2018, the first Gerber baby with Down Syndrome was chosen.

This year, the contest winner is an adopted baby, another first. Magnolia Earl, age 1, charmed the judges “with her joyful expression, playful smile and warm, engaging gaze.” Her mother, Courtney, confirmed in a statement that Magnolia brings “joy to everyone she meets” and recalled speaking on the phone a year earlier with Magnolia’s birth mother, who was in labor. “The real heroes in this story are Magnolia’s birth parents,” she told the Today Show. “They chose her life and they sent her on an incredible journey.” It’s a story, and a photo, worth sharing – kudos for Gerber for recognizing it as much. [National Review, 6/1/20]

Rapper West Upsets Secularists

Kanye West announced last October that he has turned a corner in his life, converting to Christianity. In May GQ magazine interviewed him. “When you’re not in service to God, you can end up being in service to everything else,” he said. That is certainly true of many in the entertainment world. Tinseltown is known for alcoholism, drugs, promiscuity, and high rates of depression and suicide. Responding to a question that religion is a system of control, West said: “I see opportunity for creativity inside our faith.” Christianity may be restrictive, but it is a healthy tonic. It is not restraint that levels people–it is the abandonment of it.

Cultural elites who once embraced West are uneasy with his conversion. Some seem to have liked him better when he was offending people. The secular kings & queens who comprise the entertainment industry prefer raunch to the sacred. Kanye West should be welcomed, not disparaged, for going against the grain of the dominant culture. Given his huge following among young people, maybe he can help to transform it. [Catholic League, The Catalyst, 6/20]

Why Prolifers Resist “Legal” Abortion

A just law is a code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. One has a moral responsi- bility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Aug- ustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.” [Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr., 4/16/1963]

Brief Clips

[Our Sunday Visitor, 5/17/20]

  • The number of new marriages is 6.5 to every 1,000 people in the U.S., the lowest in recent years, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics
  • “Modern society is in the process of formulating an anti-Christian creed, and resisting this creed is punished by social excommunication.” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, quoted in a new biography published in German on May 4.
  • Only 20% of Christian congregations in the U.S. hear sermons that mention abortion, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey that analyzed sermons shared online, April 7 to June 1, 2019.

HALO Helps Disabled & Elderly

The Healthcare Advocacy & Leadership Organiza- tion promotes, protects and advocates for the rights of the medically vulnerable through direct patient & family interactions, community education programs, & development of concrete “life-affirming health- care” alternatives for those facing healthcare rationing and unethical practices, especially those at risk of euthanasia and assisted suicide. [halovoice.org]

Troubled Times for Human Life

by Frank Tinari, Ph.D., Life Education Council Board of Trustees

Diversity Marks Pro-Life Movement

It features prominent female leaders and black activists, and has far more support from non-religious Americans than abortion supporters admit. Late last year, the Church of God in Christ, the largest Pentecostal denomination and overwhelmingly African-American and Democrat, unveiled its “Resolution on the Sanctity of Human Life.”

The resolution stated: “Abortion is genocide. Abortion must end to protect the life of the unborn. This issue of personhood has haunted America since the Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson and Roe v. Wade decisions. Just as slavery was overturned in America, Jim Crow was defeated, and Nazi Germany was overthrown, we pray that the heinous industry of abortion will become morally reprehensible worldwide.”

Pro-life leaders often mention the deep ties between the earliest legal- abortion advocates and the eugenics movement, noting that Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, wanted to decrease what she saw as “unfit” populations including, in her view, blacks. She promoted birth control, though not abortion, to limit low-income & minority groups & proposed mandatory sterilization for those she deemed “feeble-minded.” Such views were widely shared among the earliest abortion advocates.

Secular Pro-Life, found in 2009 by Kelsey Hazzard, represents non-religious pro-lifers. She is assisted by Terrisa Bukovinac, a member of Democrats for Life and founder of Pro-Life San Francisco, which aims to galvanize West Coast young people. After seeing videos of abortion procedures, she became pro-life. “You can’t justify abortion any more than you can justify the killing of a born person. There is no consistent, objective distinction between an unborn person and a human being.” [Alexandra DeSanctis, The Pro-life Movement You’ve Never Heard Of, National Review, 4/6/20. Additional groups are highlighted in her article.]

Pandemic Being Exploited to Loosen Abortion Restrictions

Chemical abortion is a two-step process involving the ingestion of drugs, one to starve the unborn baby, the other to induce labor. U.S. government rules require the first drug to be dispensed in clinics or hospitals by doctors or other medical providers. Women doing this are vulnerable to four times as many adverse events as women undergoing surgical abortions.

Melanie Israel, a research associate at the DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, said the abortion industry’s push to loosen restrictions on chemical abortion amid a pandemic is their move not to “let a good crisis go to waste.” She emphasized: “It’s unfortunate to see this pandemic being exploited to achieve lower restrictions, which for a long time has been on the wish list of abortion proponents, long before the coronavirus was on anyone’s radar.”

“If you’re suffering from severe blood loss or perhaps an incomplete abortion and you need to take another round of drugs to resolve it, that’s all going to require additional follow-up during a pandemic when people are needing to isolate, when hospitals in certain areas are being overwhelmed. It’s sad that the abortion industry is focused on expanding something that could actually com- pound those problems in the effort to fight the coronavirus.” [Lauretta Brown, National Catholic Register, 5/10/20]

Home-Schooling Challenges

According to John Clark who was home schooled as a child and who has home-schooled his own children: “For four decades, home-schooling has always had to prove itself by going over a bar that was higher than the one set for any other form of education – and home schooling has soared over it.” So he was very upset over a recent article in Harvard Magazine.

Home-school parents are called “extreme religious ideologues” who “question science,” “promote female subservience” and encourage “white supremacy.” Nothing could be further from the truth, based on the evidence of decades of home-schoolers throughout the nation. He asks why the writers didn’t do any meaningful field research such as visiting home-schooling families. These writers did not employ the basic tool of science, observation, yet dare to offer all sorts of unfounded criticisms. [John Clark, Commentary, National Catholic Register, 5/10/20]

Doing Evil to Obtain Worthy Ends?

Some things are, in the words of the Church, “intrinsically evil” such as slavery, adultery, abuse of children, and the direct killing of the innocent, Therefore, they can never be used to justify any other goal, no matter how worthy. Yet, many of us can find justification for our behavior by appealing to a good end that we were hoping to achieve.

Society often goes along with this faulty approach, thinking that the righting of a general wrong justifies morally irresponsible behavior in particular cases. This is supremely dangerous because the moment we say that evil can be done for the sake of the good, we have effectively denied that there are any intrinsic evil acts.

So, as we legitimately fight the great evils of our time, we must remember St. Paul’s simple principle: never do evil that good might come of it. [Bishop Robert Barron, Word on Fire Ministries.]

Two Must-Reads

Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons has authored Habits for a Healthy Marriage: A Handbook for Catholic Couples. It presents key habits that foster healing and growth in a marriage, helping couples identify and resolve major emotional conflicts that weaken relationships and hurt their marriages. A book designed to help those newly engaged, recently married, or married for many years.

Described as required reading for anyone interested in the 20th century history of feminism and its manipulation by powerful men, Sex and the Catholic Feminist: New Choices for a New Generation by former Cosmopolitan writer Sue Ellen Browder challenges the notion you can’t be a feminist and believe in God. She uncovers why the pro-life thread of feminism in America has been ignored by the media and left out of public conversation for fifty years. [Ignatius Press, Ft. Collins, CO, www.ignatius.com]

Is the SAT Really the Problem?

The Univ. of California announced it will stop using the SAT and ACT for admissions. “Requiring SAT scores, the argument goes, discriminates against low-income, black and Latino children who perform poorly on the tests because they lack advantages such as prep courses.” But seldom is any recognition given to what research indicates is the most important factor in test performance: living with one’s biological parents under the same roof.

“Family structure is about as important as family income in predicting who graduates from college today,” says W. Bradford Wilcox, sociology professor at the Univ. of Virginia. The data are pretty conclusive. The more intact the family, the better the education outcomes. [William McGurn, Wall Street Journal, 5/25/20]

NY Times Magazine Pandemic Issue

The May 24, 2020, issue included this painting titled “Beneath an Unforgiving Sun.” The painter intended to show that the “trauma that these women are conveying is one that can exist in the context of the 1960s or in the context of Covid-19.”

But the painting could also dramatize the loss of minority children through abortion. Catherine Davis of the National Black Pro-Life Coalition says that 20 million black lives have already been lost to abortion since 1973, more than the entire black population in 1960s America.

Is Faith-Based Foster Care Legitimate?

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and Catholic Charities agencies have joined more than 30 other religious groups, states and a group of Congress members urging the Supreme Court to protect Philadelphia’s faith-based foster care. Becket, a religious liberty law firm, represents the foster women defending the Catholic Social Services policy.

The groups filed friend-of-the court briefs in early June in Fulton v. Philadelphia, which the court will hear next term to determine if Philadelphia can exclude a Catholic social services agency from the city’s foster care program because the agency does not accept same-sex couples as foster parents. Instead, it refers those couples to other agencies. The briefs argued that the court should allow the city’s Catholic social service agency to continue its foster care role and protect faith-based ministries nationwide to ensure they maintain their First Amendment religious exercise rights.

A brief by the Catholic Association Foundation, a group which defends the church and religious liberty, said severing ties with Catholic-run foster care and adoption programs, “under the guise of enforcing ‘neutral’ anti-discrimination laws, is the equivalent of hanging a ‘Catholics Need Not Apply’ sign outside of every state and local health and human services department. Such a precedent is odious to the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and the free exercise of religion, and should not stand.” [Carol Zimmermann, Our Sunday Visitor, 6/9/10]

Prayer Petitions for Father’s Day May expectant fathers lovingly support the mothers of their children in welcoming new life; For married couples longing for a child: May God grant them the grace and strength to place their faith in His loving plan.

This free monthly newsletter is used by dozens of churches as a single-sheet bulletin insert, and is now posted on four diocesan websites. To receive it free, email editor Frank Tinari, tinarifr@shu.edu 

Pregnant in a Pandemic

by Caroline Douglas, LEC Board of Trustees

Today, I’m 32 weeks pregnant—in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So what’s it like? It’s not as bad as the click-bait articles make it seem. Sure, there are downsides. I can’t make a midnight run to the store for a jar of pickles. I haven’t interacted with the outside world for two months, because even though pregnant women aren’t considered high risk for COVID-19, I don’t want to take any chances.

But, for the most part? I’m doing okay.

My prenatal appointments are held over the phone. I bought a blood pressure cuff, a blood sugar monitor, and urine reagent strips on Amazon for less than $100 combined. I measure my fundal height (the size of my uterus, which is an indicator of the baby’s growth) with a tape measure, do kick counts, and weigh myself. My mom, a retired doctor, checks my legs for edema (swelling).

These are the main tests that are carried out at each prenatal visit, and I’ve been doing them once a week at home. My pregnancy is low-risk, though; I’m sure it’s more of a trial for mothers who have a high-risk pregnancy or other complications.

But every pregnancy is difficult in its own way, and is coronavirus really making it so much worse? I don’t think so. Yet, some news outlets have reported higher abortion rates during the pandemic. Because fear is causing new mothers to panic.

This wasn’t how I planned it. This isn’t perfect. The timing isn’t right.

Sound familiar? They’re the words so often repeated to rationalize abortion.

In today’s culture, everything is supposed to be perfectly planned before a child is conceived. Enough money in the bank. Graduate degrees earned. A house bought, a college fund set up, and a nursery all set and ready.

But life doesn’t work that way. Randomness is always part of the equation. Couples who have been told they’re infertile, or who are using contraception, become pregnant all the time. And pregnancy is a long nine months—anything can happen between conception and birth! I planned this second baby, unlike my first. But I never could have predicted that five months later we’d be hit with a global pandemic.

Planning for the perfect pregnancy is impossible.

And resistance to this principle is one of the major factors pushing abortion. “I want to terminate my unplanned pregnancy.” “My baby has Downs Syndrome, which wasn’t expected, and I want to have an abortion.” Why do we chase after perfectly-planned pregnancies? And perfect babies?

When there is no such thing as “the perfect pregnancy”?

Why not instead rely on faith? I’m not talking about religious faith, but faith in the little lives growing inside of us. That they are worth the inconveniences, the complications, the risks. And faith in ourselves—that we’re strong enough to get through a difficult pregnancy, or a pregnancy in difficult times.

We can’t let fear—of coronavirus, or a pregnancy that is “unplanned”, or anything else—take our faith away from us.

We can do this.

And so can all the little unborn children, living and thriving in these uncertain times, waiting to come into the world.