“Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless.” ​
                          Proverbs 31:8  ​​

​“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
​                      Dietrich Bonhoeffer
​

​"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it."
                  Martin Luther King, Jr.

THESE ARE OUR "SANCTITY OF LIFE" WEEKLY BULLETIN REFLECTIONS

12.31.2017     GK Chesterton wrote that “a society is in decay, final or transitional, when common sense really becomes uncommon “. The title of Planned Parenthood’s sex education program, “It’s Your Game”, already implemented in many area public schools, is an indicator that America is in such a state. Far too many, including Christians, have forgotten or chosen not to know that human sexuality is a gift from God. The level of our societal  decay is   evidenced by the disappearance of Christian mystical tradition where conjugal love has always been considered a symbol of the image of God's love for us. Instead, we are indoctrinating our youth to treat sex as a game that can be distorted, rather than the precious gift it is. ​

12.24.2017     Those who push euthanasia (the killing of the seriously ill by act or omission) are all around.  Our country is on a collision course with euthanasia Increasingly, in the courts and the media and in conversation, we are hearing about euthanasia and the so-called "right to die."  We do not have a "right to die." A "right" is a moral claim. We do not have a claim on death. Rather, death has a claim on us. What we do have a right to is proper care. It is never "care" in any sense of the word, to terminate life, even if that life is full of suffering. We have no right to terminate life. We do not decide when our life will end, any more than we decided when it began. Much less does someone else -- a relative, a doctor, or a legislator--decide when our life will end. None of us is master over life and death.   

​12.17.2017     On any given day, we are bombarded with arguments that try to convince us that abortion can be justified depending upon individual circumstances, and that "one man, one woman marriage" is just an antiquated philosophy with no place in our modern world.

Candidate for sainthood, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen begs to differ with this modernist view. "Christ said, not a single iota of the truth He gave was to be changed.  Then, by what right do we sit in judgment on Divinity and say, "This much of Your truth we will accept because it pleases us, and this much we will reject because it doesn't? We are not the creators of Divine truth; we are only the trustees and guardians. God's truths are not optional any more than the right to happiness is optional; they are not debatable any more than the multiplication table is debatable."

12.10.2017       ​Catholic teaching is that the intentional killing of a preborn child at any stage of development is never permissible. Aborting a child is  always a grievous act. More than 18,000 'very late term' abortions are performed every year on perfectly healthy unborn babies in America. These are innocent and defenseless children who can not only feel pain, but who can survive outside of the womb in most cases, and who are torturously killed without even basic anesthesia. Many of them cry and scream as they die, but because it is amniotic fluid going over their vocal cords instead of air, we don't hear them.

12.03.2017      ​Hardship or inconvenience to the mother is often cited as justification for an abortion.The same "logic" is being increasingly applied as a reason for ending the life of elderly persons.  Under the guise of palliative care, it is a growing practice in some facilities, with or without the complicity of the families, to administer "terminal sedation" - or more accurately - "late term" abortion for the elderly.  Antibiotics are delayed or not given for easily treatable infections.  Add starvation, dehydration and terminal sedation, abortion completd. Everyone is saved anxiety, money, hassle (except, perhaps the patient.) But he is drugged, so whatever objections he may of had, no one has to hear them. Welcome to the realities of the culture of death.

11.26.2017       ​It can take years to correct social injustice - the shameful fact of slavery serving as a prime example. While our generation may not see the end of abortion, the next generation is becoming increasingly pro-life and it is vitally important that we rear pro-life children.  Teaching children to have a pro-life attitude is an indispensable antidote to today's selfish, "me-first" society, with many people more concerned about pleasure or material possessions than the inherent value and dignity of every human life. We should be teaching them - at each opportunity - that all human beings, at all stages of development from fertilization to life's natural end should be protected, cherished, respected and loved at all times.

11.19.2017        The debate over the personhood of preborn children has been a central issue of the abortion debate. Ever since Roe v Wade in 1973, pro-life advocates have been trying to establish constitutionally protected rights for the preborn. In the ruling's majority opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that the ruling would collapse if "the fetus is a person."

Now, 44 years later on October 13, 2017, the U.S. Department of Health has acknowledged unequivocally that life begins at conception and deserves protection. We would prefer that the word "fertilization" replace "conception" but that will be a future discussion.

Pray that the collapse of Roe v. Wade predicted by Blackmun will finally become a reality. ​

11.12.2017       Conception and fertilization used to mean the same thing. The formal change in the definition by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology came in 1965–a time when abortion was against the law in most of the US. Without that, abortion laws might have covered hormonal contraception.

​In 1965, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology redefined conception saying, “Conception is the implantation of a fertilized ovum.” Previously, however, conception was universally defined in the scientific community as the fertilization of an ovum. The consequent redefinition of contraception has allowed the morning after pill to be labeled an “emergency contraceptive,” despite its potential to eliminate a fertilized ovum, a human being in its earliest stages of development.

11.05.2017        ​For Saddam Hussein's attempt to eradicate an ethnic group in Iraq , so-called "ethnic cleansing",  he was tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity.  Margaret Sanger, a eugenicist in Hitler's mold, stated, "Negroes are like human weeds and need to be eliminated." Sanger founded Planned Parenthood which today continues the process of Black Genocide in America.  This evil is also "ethnic cleansing" and we allow it to continue as its reality remains hidden under the names of  "health care", "reproductive choice", and "women's rights".  Even worse, the American taxpayer funds  this systematic murder of innocent, preborn, children  to the tune of a half billion dollars each year.

10.29.2017     Civilized societies restrict individual freedoms when that "choice" would harm an innocent person. Does a man have the freedom to rape a woman if that is his choice? After all, it is his body, why do we have a right to tell him what to do with it? Why do we have a right to impose our morals on him? By emphasizing a rapist’s right to choose, we clearly are completely ignoring the rights of the woman. The pro-choice position always overlooks the victim’s right to choose. Women don’t choose rape. African Americans didn’t choose slavery. The Jews didn’t choose gas chambers. And babies don’t choose to be aborted.​​

10.22.2017     Professing to believe that abortion, euthanasia, and illicit sexual unions are mortal sins and failing to speak or act when faced with these sins, we are like the man who would stand by and watch as another person is beaten. He can rationalize in his mind that he bears no responsibility and say, “Don’t blame me. I didn’t do anything.” His statement explains exactly why he shares in the blame for the man being beaten. He did nothing. Until we begin to take responsibility not only for not doing evil, but also for doing what is right, we as individuals, our Church, our country, and our society will never get back on the right track. When good men stand, evil men are restrained. When good men sit idly by, evil men prevail. If we fail to stand against evil, we have no one to blame but ourselves when evil triumphs. As Plato said, “The price of apathy is to be ruled by evil men.”

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05.14.2017     Prolife legislation almost without exception will have what is known as a "life of the mother exception." This common deception that abortion is sometimes necessary to save the life of the mother is totally false. While there are maternal health risks that require a treatment that can cause the  indirect and unintentional death of an unborn child,  the intention in these procedures is first and foremost to save the life of the mother, and in order to do so, a physician must perform a procedure that indirectly causes the death of her unborn child. The critical difference is this is not an abortion where the direct intention is to end the life of a human being. The destruction of a preborn child never saves its mother. Procedures that may lead to a child’s death may save the life of the mother.   

05.07.2017     "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil but by those who watch them without doing anything."  Albert Einstein

Not to diminish in any way  St. Paul's admonition, "Pray without ceasing", it is sometimes necessary for Christians to get off our knees and to get on our feet.

Looking at all of the evil in the world today, I am sometimes tempted to ask God, "Why don't you do something to fix it." Then, I stop short of making that request afraid that God would rightly ask me the same question. 

04.30.2017     As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence,  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Human rights are not privileges conferred  by men or their governments. By virtue of each human being's humanity, those rights belong to all at every stage of human development. These God-ordained rights are not contingent upon the approval of anyone else to bestow them.

04.23.2017     Politicians in both political parties urge people defending the sanctity of human life to work together to find "common ground" on the abortion issue. Such abstract rhetoric has no substance and abjectly denies the fact that there is no "common ground". What common ground could possibly exist when the humanity of a preborn  child isn’t recognized? There is no common ground between heaven and hell,  light and darkness, good and evil and certainly not between either defending or destroying innocent children. These concepts are contradictory by their very nature and have no common ground.  St. Paul tells us that "light and darkness have nothing in common" (2 Corinthians 6:14) Each and every day, we must preach the Truth of the Gospel of Life because light and darkness have everything in common if we allow the light to be eliminated.

04.16.2017     As we defend our "sides" in this increasingly polarized and politicized world, remember that we truly have a common enemy---the devil.  He despises gays and straights alike. He hates blacks and whites with the same intensity.  He detests men and women too. As Jesus taught in Jn. 8:44, "He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the Truth because there is no Truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

04.09.2017     Today, we often hear  that we are engaged in a spiritual warfare. That statement is not a mere metaphor nor is it hyperbole. The body count of that warfare increases daily through putting innocent preborn children to death in the womb. There is increasing talk of accepting "post-birth abortion" - executing children already born. The blood lust from the culture of death not being satisfied, putting the elderly and disabled to death when their living becomes inconvenient or too costly when a cost/benefit formula enters the equation and  the death toll mounts. For Christians, this spiritual warfare demands that we return fire. Apathy or aloofness is not acceptable. As Christian soldiers, retreat is not an option. God is the one who placed us in this time so he gives us what we need to return fire. And if we are tempted to feel overwhelmed, instead, give thanks to God for the grace that puts us on His side in this battle.  We are at  one with His Church and that is no small thing.                                                                         ​

04.02.2017     The  often heard mantra , "There isn't really any place else for these folks to go if they can't go to Planned Parenthood" is not only an outright lie, it's an insult to the intelligence of millions of Americans who know that there aren't just other options for women -- there are better options that provide comprehensive pregnancy care. Planned Parenthood has 662 abortion mills across the country whose very reason for existing is to kill preborn babies. But  there are 13,540 community health centers that offer a full spectrum of services that PP doesn't including pre-natal care and  mammograms. Those same centers annually serve millions more women than does Planned Parenthood.  So when PP claims that defunding them would be catastrophic for women, the truth is that it would be catastrophic for their abortion business.

03.26.2017     Euthanasia:  "The deliberate killing of someone with or without that person's consent." That reality sounding harsh, softer terms are invented to obscure the truth. It is renamed  "PAD---Physician Aid in Dying" or "Assisted Suicide". America is well down the slippery slope of embracing this atrocity. Already it  is legal in  Washington DC, and the states of California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington and likely soon in Montana. The killing is legally done by a person with a medical degree---a physician. Since in 1973 when men in black robes deemed it legal for physicians to kill innocent preborn human life at any gestational age, this newest chapter is now upon us when doctors may kill a human person justifying it as a noble act that eliminates suffering. Killing a suffering person to end their suffering is as morally flawed as eliminating starvation by getting rid of the hungry.

03.19.2017     ​The rhetoric of the pro-death side has evolved. For decades we heard "abortion is a personal choice"; "it should be safe, legal and rare"; "it should be strictly between a woman and her doctor.” Today the nice sounding words from public figures and those entering abortion mills have been replaced by the statement, "I like abortion."  This is what happens when people defend abortion. It starts out as some kind of necessary evil that we should tolerate … but eventually it becomes something that people defend, support, and even like. When those entering to abort their babies and the abortion mill staff scream their love for slaughtering innocent human life, we are silent other than our prayers. We pray and trust Christ -- who often responded to the world with silence.

03.12.2017     During a recent well-attended Religious Education Conference on the West Coast one speaker was quoted as saying that people concerned about abortion were not pro-life but only pro-birth, and sadly his comment brought a loud round of applause from the audience of laymen and clerics. What a slap in the face to enormous numbers of unselfish Christians whose involvement in living out the Gospel message that human life is sacred by donating  money and supplies and time to single-mom baby shelters to help struggling mothers, who voluntarily staff pregnancy centers to help moms with unplanned pregnancies and  who spend large amounts of time and personal resources organizing fundraising events. When these attacks come from those professing to be Christians they are especially disconcerting. It is a fact that such  insults  are the last resort of people defending a false  position. The charge is a blatant lie from the pit of hell.

03.05.2017     The first law of moral conduct is to do good and avoid/resist evil. Life is good.  Human fertility is good. Babies are good. We are to love these. It is wrong to turn against our fertility, a good, and consider it an evil. When contraception treats fertility as if it were a disease, it says that a baby is not a blessing but a curse. Children are the greatest blessing God can give to a couple and their marriage. Contracepting couples fail to do good when they deprive themselves of God’s blessing of His gift of children.

02.26.2017     Politicians in both political parties urge people defending the sanctity of human life to work together to find "common ground" on the abortion issue. Such abstract rhetoric has no substance and abjectly denies the fact that there is no "common ground". What common ground could possibly exist when the humanity of an unborn child isn’t recognized? There is no common ground between heaven and hell,  light and darkness, good and evil and certainly not between either defending or destroying innocent children. These concepts are contradictory by their very nature and have no common ground.  St. Paul tells us that "light and darkness have nothing in common" (2 Corinthians 6:14) Each and every day, we must preach the Truth of the Gospel of Life because light and darkness have everything in common if we allow the light to be eliminated.

02.19.2017     Those who control the language control ideas. By controlling ideas, you can control the way people think and act. Perhaps like no other time, language now has this power and we must be constantly on guard against this evil potential. If we fail to safeguard the personhood of human beings from life's earliest beginning to its natural end, the infant in the womb will be labeled a "pre-person", the person with a severe brain injury will be labeled a "non-person", and seniors with any age related maladies will be labeled "post-persons". And these dehumanizing labels will become justification for destroying the human lives with the new labels.     ​

02.12.2017       Time is a precious gift from God. It is equally available to those who oppose God's will and those who would do His will.  When we see hundreds of thousands demanding to continue America's 44 year shameful history of killing innocent preborn children, it may seem that these people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the pro-death people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of those willing to be co-workers with God. Without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of  evil. Today, join the those Christians who vow to be silent no more. Today, speak up and speak out for innocent human life.

02.05.2017     By taking a public stand against the unspeakable evil that is  44 years of aborting innocent babies, the hundreds of thousands who went to the Marches for Life  on both coasts stood on the side of good. As Christians we are obligated to take a position when faced with moral questions. Being  "lukewarm" is not an option especially when the other side is dedicated to continuing the evil. (Rev 3:16 )"The refusal to take sides on great moral issues itself is a decision.  It is a silent acquiescence to evil.  The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction. "     Ven. Fulton J. Sheen                 

​01.29.2017     Holding graphic images of the horror of abortion, we are often roundly criticized by both pro-life and pro-death supporters as being callous and insensitive to the public who might inadvertently glimpse the images depicting the reality of abortion. Contemplating a sign  seen at our memorial for the preborn recently where the images were displayed might give those who object a reason to pause and evaluate their objections. The sign reads,
"When something is so horrible that we can't stand to look at it, perhaps we should not be tolerating it."                          

​01.22.2017      HELP and Lake County Right to Life both support Mya Women's Center, 517 W. Prospect Rd., Ste. C, Ashtabula, OH 44004, (440) 990-9107, 8am to 10pm daily. Mya is a non-profit offering free, confidential medical testing & compassionate services plus unbiased information to women who find themselves in the midst of an unplanned pregnancy. Unlike any Planned Parenthood or Cleveland's Preterm abortion mill, at Mya there is no required cash up-front, no uninformed procedures, no pressure because of the need to turn a profit, no unsanitary facilities and no untrained staff.  Rather Mya is a modern,  medical, confidential, caring and supportive Health Center that we confidently recommend.                                                                                     

​01.15.2017     The proponents of legalizing "physician assisted suicide" portray it as a compassionate action to afford the dying with a "dignified death". Euthanasia is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person and constitutes a grave violation of God's law.  It runs counter to unchanging value of the commandment "You shall not kill." True compassion demands that all of us love and support one another regardless of our functional capacity or appearance, and prepare the dying for their ultimate meeting with God. This is the true definition of living with dignity, even when in the last stages of dying. 

01.08.2017     If we were to honor each American baby killed by abortion since the Roe vs Wade decision on January 22, 1973 with a moment of silence, we would be silent for over 100 years.

01.01.2017      Our nation recently observed the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 where 2403 died. Each year on September 11th we remember another assault on innocent Americans and the loss of 2996 lives in 2001.  The dates are deeply etched in our collective national conscience.  Another infamous date is approaching, the anniversary of Roe v Wade, January 22, 1973. Unlike other dates we commemorate, the death toll continues to mount almost without notice by most.  The death toll from abortion since that court decision is comparable to executing the attendees at America's largest football stadium, Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, with a capacity of 107,000 and killing ten times more than the capacity---every single year---year in and year out. If a series of  terrorist bombs in an ongoing horror were detonated ten times each year and destroyed 100,000 lives each time would we be able to virtually ignore that tragedy?