Friday, August 29, 2008

Nat Hentoff on Obama and on Palin positions

One of the longest pro-life people is also one who does not argue from any religious viewpoint at all, but from human rights position, Nat Hentoff.

Last April, he wrote about Obama's stance, and in May, he suggested Governor Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate. I'll let you read both on your own. Hentoff is not a believer in the Eternal. He is a liberal, an atheist. He is a firm believer in the Constitution. He is pro-life, and has been for years. He has written many times on the topic.

God bless!


Jewish World Review April 24, 2008 / 19 Nissan 5768

Infanticide candidate for president

By Nat Hentoff


Jewish World Review May 21, 2008 / 16 Iyar 5768

John McCain, here is your vice president

By Nat Hentoff



Fwd: Pro-Life Woman as McCain's VP Choice

This came a couple hours ago. God bless!!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SBA List President
Date: Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 11:24 AM

SBA List President

 


     McCain Picks Pro-Life Woman for VP


Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska to be John McCain's running mate

August 29, 2008

Dear Marcia L,
In a bold move, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.  We at the Susan B. Anthony List could not be more pleased.  SBA List Candidate Fund endorsed pro-life Palin during the 2006 governor's race.  She is the whole package.

Her own words make a powerful statement:  "We [she and husband, Todd] understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential."

Palin is a staunch supporter of life and has lived out her pro-life convictions in her own personal story.  Just this year, her fifth child was born with Down Syndrome.  She said she and her family felt "privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives." 

Please let us know your thoughts!  Go to our blog by clicking here and chime in on this historic choice. 

For Life,

Marjorie Dannenfelser
Susan B. Anthony List President
703-875-3370
www.sba-list.org


HEY, MEG! Wasilla Alaska is in the national NEWS!

Governor Sarah Palin should be coming out onstage shortly with Senator John McCain.... for the first time, I may even be excited about this election!

I strongly admire her, from what I know of her!

God bless!

Breaking News >> FOX News Confirms Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Will Be McCain Running Mate

AP

After a morning of swirling speculation, McCain campaign confirms to FOX News Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin picked as GOP veep candidate for 2008. | PHOTOS


McCain Picks Palin

URGENT: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is surprise choice to be McCain's running mate; mother of 5 is considered rising star in GOP, known for pro-life stand and being a fiscal conservative

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Speaker Pelosi's spokesman, Brendan Daly, issued a statement

This is an update that can be found in the article, so it seems that she continues to SPIN...via her spokesman...does this mean that she also advocates artificial birth control? yup... Michael Paulson updated his article with an email from Brendan Daly in this story:

Bishops criticize Pelosi over abortion

Posted by Michael Paulson August 26, 2008 05:04 PM


Speaker Pelosi's spokesman, Brendan Daly, e-mails the following statement in response to the bishops:
�The Speaker is the mother of five children and seven grandchildren and fully appreciates the sanctity of family. She was raised in a devout Catholic family who often disagreed with her pro-choice views. After she was elected to Congress, and the choice issue became more public as she would have to vote on it, she studied the matter more closely. Her views on when life begins were informed by the views of Saint Augustine, who said: ��the law does not provide that the act [abortion] pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation�� (Saint Augustine, On Exodus 21.22) While Catholic teaching is clear that life begins at conception, many Catholics do not ascribe to that view. The Speaker agrees with the Church that we should reduce the number of abortions. She believes that can be done by making family planning more available, as well as by increasing the number of comprehensive age-appropriate sex education and caring adoption programs. The Speaker has a long, proud record of working with the Catholic Church on many issues, including alleviating poverty and promoting social justice and peace.�

Cardinal Justin F. Rigali and Bishop William E. Lori Statement on Pelosi

Bishops respond to House Speaker Pelosi's misrepresentation of Church teaching against abortion

WASHINGTON--Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Doctrine, have issued the following statement:

In the course of a "Meet the Press" interview on abortion and other public issues on August 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion.

In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law." (No. 2271)

In the Middle Ages, uninformed and inadequate theories about embryology led some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church's moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.

These mistaken biological theories became obsolete over 150 years ago when scientists discovered that a new human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at fertilization. In keeping with this modern understanding, the Church teaches that from the time of conception (fertilization), each member of the human species must be given the full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the fundamental right to life.

More information on the Church's teaching on this issue can be found in our brochure "The Catholic Church is a Pro-Life Church".  PDF  Text

Other articles on Nancy Pelosi and her false statements on Catholic teaching

These are just a few of the articles I found yesterday (but did not have time to put here until now) Just a FEW. Nancy Pelosi has opened a can of worms, and it is time that her Bishop also speaks out!! Her home Diocese needs to take a stand as well as those who already have done so.

And where are the rest of the US Bishops? We now have a proudly 'Catholic' pro-choice candidate for the Vice Presidency, and Nancy has GIFTED them with a TEACHABLE MOMENT.... USE IT!

God bless!



What Makes a Speaker Catholic?
Buying into Pelosi's personal church.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez

Denver "If you're Catholic and you disagree with your Church. What do you do? You change your mind."

So said Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, archbishop of the Catholic archdiocese of Denver, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception at 6:30 Mass on Sunday night, as the Democratic Convention was set to begin.

Archbishop Chaput puts Nancy Pelosi in her place  by Rod Dreher

Archbishop of Washington Chides Pelosi; Denver Archbishop Warns Biden to Skip Communion  by Bill Sammon

Catholic Bishops responds to Nancy Pelosi on the beginning of life by Dr. Warren Throckmorton

Archbishop Wuerl's Statement

Archbishop Wuerl's Statement

Archbishop Wuerl on the Church's Constant Teaching on Abortion

August 25, 2008

The following statement is from Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl:

On Meet the Press this past Sunday, August 23, 2008, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made statements regarding the teaching of the Catholic Church, human life and abortion that were incorrect.

Speaker Pelosi responded to a question on when life begins by mentioning she was Catholic. She went on to say, "And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition..." After Mr. Tom Brokaw, the interviewer, pointed out that the Catholic Church feels strongly that life begins at conception, she replied, "I understand. And this is like maybe 50 years or something like that. So again, over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy."

We respect the right of elected officials such as Speaker Pelosi to address matters of public policy that are before them, but the interpretation of Catholic faith has rightfully been entrusted to the Catholic bishops. Given this responsibility to teach, it is important to make this correction for the record.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear: the current teaching of the Catholic Church on human life and abortion is the same teaching as it was 2,000 years ago. The Catechism reads:

"Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception…Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law." (Catechism, 2270-2271)

The Catechism goes on to quote the Didache, a treatise that dates to the first century: "'You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.'"

From the beginning, the Catholic Church has respected the dignity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death.


Nancy Pelosi, are you listening?

Cardinal Egan issued a statement yesterday, posted on the Archdiocese website....Nancy, are you listening??


August 26, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 26, 2008

STATEMENT OF HIS EMINENCE, EDWARD CARDINAL EGAN CONCERNING REMARKS MADE BY THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Like many other citizens of this nation, I was shocked to learn that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America would make the kind of statements that were made to Mr. Tom Brokaw of NBC-TV on Sunday, August 24, 2008. What the Speaker had to say about theologians and their positions regarding abortion was not only misinformed; it was also, and especially, utterly incredible in this day and age.

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being "chooses" to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.

Edward Cardinal Egan

Archbishop of New York

August 26, 2008


Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Archbishop Chaput (and Bishop Conley) on Pelosi Statement

He said it so well, and much better than I did last night. I have put emphasis on some things (through color, bold lettering,  and/or italics)...

This is PERFECT!

God bless~


Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Denver

Denver, CO - Monday, August 25, 2008


ON THE SEPARATION OF SENSE AND STATE:

A CLARIFICATION FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE CHURCH
IN NORTHERN COLORADO

To Catholics of the Archdiocese of Denver:

Catholic public leaders inconvenienced by the abortion debate tend to take a hard line in talking about
the "separation of Church and state." But their idea of separation often seems to work one way. In
fact, some officials also seem comfortable in the role of theologian. And that warrants some interest,
not as a "political" issue, but as a matter of accuracy and justice.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a gifted public servant of strong convictions and many professional
skills. Regrettably, knowledge of Catholic history and teaching does not seem to be one of them.
Interviewed on Meet the Press August 24, Speaker Pelosi was asked when human life begins. She said
the following:

"I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time.
And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition
. . . St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have
an impact on the woman's right to choose."

Since Speaker Pelosi has, in her words, studied the issue "for a long time," she must know very well
one of the premier works on the subject, Jesuit John Connery's Abortion: The Development of the
Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola, 1977)
. Here's how Connery concludes his study:

"The Christian tradition from the earliest days reveals a firm antiabortion attitude . . . The condemnation
of abortion did not depend on and was not limited in any way by theories regarding the time of
fetal animation. Even during the many centuries when Church penal and penitential practice was based
on the theory of delayed animation, the condemnation of abortion was never affected by it. Whatever
one would want to hold about the time of animation, or when the fetus became a human being in the
strict sense of the term, abortion from the time of conception was considered wrong, and the time of
animation was never looked on as a moral dividing line between permissible and impermissible abortion."


Or to put it in the blunter words of the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

"Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has
bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a
human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to
create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And
that is nothing but murder."


Ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the
Christian tradition overwhelmingly held that abortion was grievously evil
. In the absence of modern
medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homicide; others that it was tantamount
to homicide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be
animated or "ensouled." But none diminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early Church closely associated abortion with infanticide. In short, from the beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was always, gravely wrong.

Of course, we now know with biological certainty exactly when human life begins. Thus, today's religious
alibis for abortion and a so-called "right to choose" are nothing more than that - alibis that break
radically with historic Christian and Catholic belief.

Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it - whether they're famous or not - fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live
their Catholic faith.


The duty of the Church and other religious communities is moral witness. The duty of the state and its
officials is to serve the common good, which is always rooted in moral truth. A proper understanding
of the "separation of Church and state" does not imply a separation of faith from political life. But of
course, it's always important to know what our faith actually teaches.


+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Denver

+James D. Conley
Auxiliary Bishop of Denver



Tony Melendez

Lee also reminded me of Tony Melendez's singing for JPII so long ago, and I just love the video of that day. Every time I see it, I get emotional. Clearly, ALL life is precious to God.

Against the odds:

Born without arms, Tony Melendez learned to play the guitar with his feet

He now travels around the world, playing for all walks of life.

When Tony Melendez, 46, plays the guitar, it sits on the floor, and he sits in a chair behind it.

This setup allows Melendez to put his left big toe across the neck of the guitar to form a bar chord. He uses his right foot to either hold a guitar pick or pluck the strings, depending on the song.

"It just kind of worked, and I played by ear and I just kept practicing, and every year I got a little better, and a little better, and a little better," Melendez said.

Melendez, who lives in Branson, now travels all over the world playing the guitar and singing.

He plays this way because he was born without arms.

Melendez was a "thalidomide baby," a term used to describe the thousands of babies born without limbs because their pregnant mothers had been prescribed the drug for morning sickness.

But growing up was not as hard as most people assume.

"People think that (my childhood) was really painful, you know, the arms was a big problem," Melendez said. "I would say I was a normal kid without arms, but, you know, there was no pain."

While he was teased a bit as a child, Melendez said other kids were teased too, and that "I just learned to close my ears to it."

Growing up, Melendez was reminded by his father that he had to do things on his own.

"I think that really helped me to get where I am today," Melendez said. "I had to fend for myself. Now, I'm married, I have kids, I travel, I'm a singer – you have to learn how to do things on your own or you'll be asking for help forever."

Melendez has always sung, but he started playing the guitar at 16. He can also play the harmonica and single notes on the keyboard, but does not consider himself a keyboardist.

"Music has kind of been a getaway for me," Melendez said. "It's also been a form of prayer."

He said music reminds him of certain times or places and is a source of income for his family today.

"It's even been a sense of hope, you know, when people hear it," Melendez said. "When I'm singing, they say, 'I'm inspired.'"

In 1987, Melendez played "Never Be the Same" for Pope John Paul II at an event in Los Angeles. When he finished, the pope jumped off the stage to give Melendez a kiss.

"I would say it was a big honor, you know, my heart was ... I felt it was gonna come out of my chest, like ka-boom, ka-boom, ka-boom, just from the moment," said Melendez, who is a fervent Catholic.

Read the rest of the article here...

God bless!

Above My Pay Grade by Fr. Frank Pavone

Another opinion on Obama's "Pay Grade"...

"Above My Pay Grade"

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life

We were recently treated to the remark by Barack Obama that the question of when a baby receives human rights was beyond his pay grade. At the public forum at Saddleback Church, he said: "… whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity … is above my pay grade."

That, of course, is exactly what the Supreme Court said in Roe vs. Wade, the decision that legalized abortion in American throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Faced with a question it found too uncomfortable, the majority said the following:

"We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer" [410 U.S. 113, 159].

So what are we to think of those who speak this way? Is it vice or virtue? Do they display a careful effort not to play God, or a cowardly unwillingness to assert the rights of their fellow human beings?

Some say that the government should not be involved in the personal, private decision of abortion. They don't know how right they are. The government got "too involved" in the abortion decision when it legalized it. Despite its profession of ignorance about whether what is aborted is in fact a human life that has already begun, the Court nevertheless declared, "the word 'person,' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn" [410 U.S. 113, 158]. What part of the pay grade of government is the right to define the boundaries of human rights or the limits of protection for the human family? Since when does the government get involved in deciding who qualifies for human rights?

Claiming ignorance about who has human rights is a frightening abandonment of responsibility. Some may think it's an effort not to "play God," but it is actually just the opposite: the claim to be God. We may claim not to decide, but in practice, we cannot escape deciding: either every human being will be protected, or we will start deciding whom to exclude.

This gives rise to two thoughts, one from common sense and one from Scripture. Common sense tells us that if someone is hunting and doesn't know whether what's moving behind the bush is a bear or a man, he should refrain from shooting until he is sure. Doubt, in other words, leads to an abundance of caution, not an abandonment of it.

Scripture, moreover, tells us that the man who committed the first murder claimed ignorance about the one he had killed. "Where is your brother?" God asked Cain. "I don't know" was his answer. It was a lie, and it doesn't allow either Cain or the Supreme Court or anyone else to escape their responsibility to protect their vulnerable brothers and sisters.



Speaker Pelosi on When Life Begins



Funny, the comment I sent with this didn't come.

Speaker Pelosi is NOT an ardent practicing Catholic regardless of what she says. She is an ardent DISSENTING Catholic. Period.

When St Augustine and the early Church Fathers wrote on life, they did not have the scientific knowledge that we have today. The Church CLEARLY teaches that LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION! And as that life begins, it can ONLY be a human being, endowed with the SAME RIGHTS to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that every other human being is endowed with by GOD HIMSELF.

Gov't did not give us those rights... 'endowed by our Creator'... GOD GAVE THEM TO US SOLELY BECAUSE WE ARE HUMAN, created in HIS IMAGE.

Speaker Pelosi is spewing SPIN. Period.

And as far as Obama's comment goes... his lawyer-ese is solely designed to NOT ANSWER the question, and leave you thinking he had. Above his pay grade?? As a human being, he has the ability to know that the God-given rights to every human being begin as soon as that life begins. CONCEPTION! That's when ALL of our rights begin.

MY RIGHTS END WHERE ANOTHER'S BEGINS. A basic concept I was taught in Civics Class in the eighth grade. "A woman's right to choose" ENDS with Conception of another human being who ALSO has rights to his/her own body. The ONLY DIFFERENCE IS...that baby, in utero, cannot scream "I WANT TO LIVE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! DON'T KILL ME! I HAVE A RIGHT TO LIFE, A RIGHT TO LIBERTY, and a RIGHT TO PURSUE HAPPINESS, TOO!"

Spin. Spin. Lawyer-ese... LIES.

He cannot say when a human being is entitled to human rights??? CHICKEN!

HT to Lee.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Abortion Clinic 911 Emergency Calls - Baby Rowan