Fr. Pavone has preached and taught against abortion throughout the world. In 1996, he was invited to address the pro-life caucus of the United States House of Representatives. He was also invited by Mother Teresa of Calcutta to address the clergy of India on abortion and the sanctity of human life. In the U.S., Fr. Pavone has produced many television and radio programs. He has an ongoing "Defending Life" series on the world's largest religious cable network, EWTN, which is broadcast into 55 million American homes and into 38 different countries. He also appears on the Odyssey Network, and produces regular radio programs for Catholic Family Radio and Vatican radio. He is quoted regularly in the secular media on life issues. He also heads the "Priests for Life" which is an officially approved association of Catholic Clergy who give special emphasis to the pro-life teachings of the Church. "Priests for Life" offers ongoing assistance to the clergy in addressing the topics of abortion and euthanasia, and training and resources to the entire pro-life movement.
Contact: pfl@priestsforlife.org
Website:http://www.priestsforlife.org
In a democratic society citizens choose whom they vest with authority for the common good. A choice for one person over another for public office can significantly affect many lives, especially the lives of the most vulnerable persons in society, such as children in the womb and those who are terminally ill. Therefore, Catholic citizens have a serious moral obligation to exercise their right to vote.
Date posted: 2021-08-13
We are well aware that all too often ... life is exalted as long as it is pleasurable, but there is a tendency to no longer respect it as soon as it is sick or handicapped. Based on deep love for every person it is possible instead to put into practice effective forms of service to life: to newborn life and to life marked by marginalization or suffering, especially in its terminal phase.
Date posted: 2021-08-11
This Gospel rebuke of Jesus to Peter applies to us all. In particular, we tend to think that to be successful in our efforts to win people over to the Gospel and the pro-life message, we have to be popular. This is a human way of thinking, that does not give enough room to the role that the cross, and persecution, play in the plan God has for us.
Date posted: 2021-08-10
The readings of today bring us to the heart of two key principles of our Faith that undergird our pro-life commitment to defend the unborn, and all the marginalized.
Date posted: 2021-08-08
The Culture of Life will come about when we practice the "true religion" of which James speaks in the second reading. "Looking after orphans and widows in their distress" is what the pro-life movement does. The unborn child is the most orphaned of all when he or she is scheduled for an abortion.
Date posted: 2021-08-07
The Church, moreover, does not reject "freedom of choice," properly understood. God demands that we choose, as Joshua told the people (First reading) and as the hearers of Jesus did. Yet when we choose for God, those choices have corollaries and consequences. Choosing God in fact means choosing life.
Date posted: 2021-08-06
Assumption reminds us that in God's plan for life, mother and child go together. The pro-life movement stands with both the mother and the child and asks, "Why can't we love them both?" In bringing Mary to bodily glory with him, Jesus shows that there can be no closer human bond than that between a mother and her child.
Date posted: 2021-08-05
We are to "imitate the mysteries we celebrate" at the altar. The Eucharist teaches us how to live. The food we receive gives us strength for a journey in which we are called to give ourselves away. Some grumble about having to sacrifice, but we see sacrifice as a life-giving gift. Some grumble because things get in the way of their plans for life. But God commanded the Israelites to gather only the manna they needed for the day, and we pray for God to give us "our daily bread." God is already in our future; yes, we must plan certain things, but we must trust for even more. The more we trust, and the more we sacrifice, the more we will give life, and the less we will grumble.
Date posted: 2021-07-14
Embracing life, particularly amidst economic difficulties, requires the kind of trust in God and human solidarity experienced by the Israelites on their journey in the desert. It requires the kind of trust, furthermore, that the promises of Christ inspire in his words in today's Gospel.
Date posted: 2021-07-13
The Church's witness to the sanctity of life is rooted in these two themes - God's dominion over life, and human solidarity. The God who made us entrusted us to the care of one another. No human choice can trample upon his decision that another human should live, or contradict the solemn duty we have to care for each other rather than destroy each other.
Date posted: 2021-07-02
A wide spectrum of issues touches on the protection of human life and the promotion of human dignity. As Pope John Paul II has reminded us: "Where life is involved, the service of charity must be profoundly consistent. It cannot tolerate bias and discrimination, for human life is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation; it is an indivisible good"
Date posted: 2021-07-01
Human life is a relationship. It is only in a relationship, and not closed in on ourselves, that we can have life. And the fundamental relationship is the relationship with the Creator, or else other relations are fragile. Hence, it is essential to choose God.
Date posted: 2021-06-30
While it is always necessary to work to reduce the number of abortions by providing alternatives and help to vulnerable parents and children, Catholic teaching calls all Catholics to work actively to restrain, restrict and bring to an end the destruction of unborn human life.
Date posted: 2021-06-29
NFP does not separate sex from responsibility. The act of intercourse has a twofold meaning: sharing of love and giving of life.
Date posted: 2017-08-15
God entered into a covenant of Life with his people from of old, and the prophets spoke untiringly of the demands of that covenant, both in regard to what the people owed God and what they owe one another.
Date posted: 2014-10-05
People, indeed, can convert. God himself asks us to believe that through today's readings.
Date posted: 2014-09-28
Those who come late to the Kingdom of God (the Gentiles, and those yet in our midst who are far off) can still enjoy its full benefits.
Date posted: 2014-09-21
None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master.
Date posted: 2014-09-14
The task is especially urgent when we are speaking up for defenseless human beings who cannot speak for themselves.
Date posted: 2014-09-07
The Church's efforts to proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of Life are marked by the themes in today's readings.
Date posted: 2014-08-31
The readings of today should help people understand not only why the Church's pro-life teachings are faithful to Christ, consistent and unchangeable, but also why she does not shy away from asserting that her mission is to transform the culture of the death into the culture of life, and is not deterred from pursuing that mission.
Date posted: 2014-08-16
Catholic means "universal." Everyone is called to salvation in Christ; everyone is called to his house of prayer, his Church, his family. The Church, at her core, is missionary, and all her efforts are geared toward an ever-wider expansion and growth, that she may embrace every human being.
Date posted: 2014-08-16
Each event and decision of life, each project and plan, finds its standard, meaning, and fulfillment in him.
Date posted: 2014-07-22
Today's readings are about the Lord providing for our needs, issuing an invitation to us to come to him confidently, to trust that he can fulfill all those needs.
Date posted: 2014-07-19
Part of the "good news" is that we can indeed know the difference between right and wrong, and have the strength to carry it out.
Date posted: 2014-07-19
God gives time for repentance. This is a key theme of today's readings, and it can be applied to the patience that the People of Life need to have as they build a Culture of Life.
Date posted: 2014-07-19
Pope Francis and President Obama met in Rome today, and the meeting has naturally generated commentary, both before and after the fact, including by the President himself at the National Prayer Breakfast last month.
Date posted: 2014-04-06
Whether it's about government incense or a government form, we will obey God rather than men.
Date posted: 2014-04-06
Now I'm not saying anyone is responsible for Gosnell's actions other than Gosnell. But I am suggesting that a certain climate, and a certain set of presumptions, has been created by our current public policy on abortion, and the arguments made to justify it, and that if we are horrified by what Gosnell did to these babies, we have to examine what that connection might be.
Date posted: 2013-04-29
And now it has happened again. Another woman has been killed by so-called "safe and legal" abortion. It happens constantly, in fact, but the abortion industry usually succeeds in covering it up. And even when they don't, the rest of us succeed in keeping it relatively quiet.
Date posted: 2013-02-27
We are living at a time when the Church in the United States must vigorously defend herself against attacks on religious freedom. In particular, the government is trying to force believers to violate their consciences when it comes to what kind of services their companies' health insurance policies will cover.
Date posted: 2012-08-11
Dr. McArthur Hill used to kill babies for a living. Now he has repented. At a conference of former abortionists, he shared the nightmares he had:
Date posted: 2007-08-25
On February 22, 1987 - that is, twenty years ago - the Catholic Church gave our society a tremendous gift, and it's time to open it again. It was a clear trumpet blast of truth and compassion, a ray of Gospel light on problems that continue to be some of the most vexing of our time.
Date posted: 2007-02-12
One of the key reasons that protection to the unborn has not yet been restored in law, and that public officials are not making the case persuasively to their colleagues that protection has to be restored to the unborn, is that the problem continues to be presented as a matter of viewpoints rather than victims.
Date posted: 2007-02-04
The push for prenatal diagnostic tests for pregnant mothers just became stronger.
Date posted: 2007-01-26
Two senators have introduced legislation in Congress that would require an abortionist to provide documentation on the capacity of an unborn child to feel pain to any woman seeking an abortion past the 20th week. After receiving this information, the woman must either accept or refuse the administration of pain-reducing drugs directly to the unborn child.
Date posted: 2007-01-21
More than half of the states have laws that require a parent of a minor to be notified before that minor can obtain an abortion. Some of these parental involvement laws require the consent of the parent; others only require that a parent be informed.
Date posted: 2006-07-25
The goal in war is not to destroy one's enemy, but to destroy the enemy's capacity for waging war. By educating the public, especially medical students, about how ugly life as an abortionist is, we continue to rob them of what they need to keep abortion going.
Date posted: 2006-06-01
Violence done against human beings involves three types of people: the Perpetrator, the Victim, and the Observer. This is known as the "Tragic Triangle." In child abuse, the child is the victim, the abuser is the perpetrator, and those who come to know of the abuse as it is going on are the observers. Abortion also is a tragic triangle. The abortionist, in collusion with the parent(s), is the perpetrator, the child is the victim, and the observers are all the rest of us.
Date posted: 2006-05-08
Abortion destroys everyone it touches, killing a child, and devastating that child's family. Often overlooked, however, is the one who performed the procedure. The abortionist is wounded, too.
Date posted: 2006-02-24
"New Year's Eve is one of my favorite nights of the year, because it is marked by two special words: gratitude and hope.
Date posted: 2005-12-15
Obviously, there are many life issues, and we are all called to see the connection between them. But seeing that connection, we are still free to focus. To have an event or preach a homily today on abortion means we also have the freedom to have an event or preach a homily next week that focuses on world peace.
Date posted: 2005-11-07
Statements of the Pope, various Vatican officials, committees and officials of the USCCB, and the entire body of US bishops, all point to abortion as the fundamental human rights issue of our day. Even Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who during his life was a key spokesperson for the "consistent ethic of life," pointed out repeatedly that the fundamental right is the right to life.
Date posted: 2004-10-23
Never have I seen a more shameless abuse and distortion of somebody's words than in the recent articles that some secular and Catholic publications have run regarding a memo written by Vatican Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger about abortion and voting.
Date posted: 2004-09-19
Laws allowing abortion fail society at the starting gate. If we cannot protect life, we'll never succeed at enhancing it.
Date posted: 2004-08-06
Rachel's Vineyard is a weekend retreat experience for women and men who have lost children through abortion. With the assistance of counselors and clergy, they explore the emotional and spiritual pain of their abortion in the presence of the Lord and in a confidential and supportive atmosphere.
Date posted: 2004-08-02
Simply put, "You shall not kill" applies even to the criminal, but with exceptions. "You shall not kill" applies absolutely to the innocent (born and unborn), without exceptions.
Date posted: 2004-07-16
Prominent pro-abortion politicians have recently been heard repeating the message, "I don't tell Church leaders what to do, and Church leaders shouldn't tell public officials what to do." This is their considered summary of the "separation of Church and state."
Date posted: 2004-06-01
Attorneys, historians, and Constitutional scholars on both sides of the abortion controversy admit that Roe was poorly reasoned. That's what happens when the focus is on an anti-religious crusade for social change rather than on Constitutional reasoning.
Date posted: 2004-05-18
If a baby is killed by a chemical method, or killed at an earlier age than surgical abortion can be done, is that a real child, and is that a real abortion? Morally and philosophically, it is not difficult for us to answer "Yes." Psychologically and emotionally, however, we may find it more difficult. One reason is that a lot of people are aborting their children without realizing it, because of the way birth control pills work.
Date posted: 2004-04-26
I thank God for Alveda's voice on abortion. While Black women constitute about 13% of the childbearing population, they have over one third of the abortions -- not because they favor abortion as a people, but because they have been targeted by the abortion industry.
Date posted: 2004-04-20
If a candidate who supported terrorism asked for your vote, would you say, "I disagree with you on terrorism, but where do you stand on other issues?" I doubt it.
Date posted: 2004-03-29
The power of sin and death has been broken by the Resurrection of Christ. We are called to proclaim, celebrate, and serve that victory, waiting in joyful hope for Christ's return and the full flowering of the Culture of Life!
Date posted: 2004-03-08
As Dr. Bernard Nathanson explains, it is not that contraception causes abortion; rather, both are caused by the perversion of autonomy -- taking freedom and using it to stop rather than to welcome life.
Date posted: 2004-02-09
It is not "telling people how to vote," but rather pointing out the moral implications of voting.
Date posted: 2004-01-28
Abortion is not, and never has been, simply an "issue." It is, rather, the most radical break with civilization that history has ever seen.
Date posted: 2004-01-05
If you've ever written to a pro-abortion politician about the right to life, you've probably received a form letter that utilizes one of several worn-out arguments. Let's review how we answer them.
Date posted: 2003-12-19
One of the Christmas songs you'll hear on the radio during these days is called "Grown-up Christmas List." It speaks of the fact that age does not stop us from dreaming, and that as life goes on, our wishes at Christmas are not for ourselves, "but for a world in need." The list begins, "No more lives torn apart, that wars would never start...that right would always win."
Date posted: 2003-12-16
Pro-abortion groups defend abortion as an exercise of "conscience." But how is it that "conscience" can justify having an abortion, but can't justify refusing to cooperate in helping others have one?
Date posted: 2003-12-01
In predictable fashion, the pro-abortion forces have found judges who say that despite the will of the American public and of the Legislative and Executive branches of government to ban partial-birth abortion, this procedure must be allowed to continue.
Date posted: 2003-11-11
While there are such things as worthless treatments, there is no such thing as a worthless life. Food and water, furthermore, constitute the most basic care. We don't come back from a meal saying we just got our latest "medical treatment."
Date posted: 2003-10-27
One of the great things about our American system is that voters not only select which candidates get elected to public office, but also which of those who want to be candidates actually end up on the ballot. In other words, we get to create the choices we will have on Election Day. That's what primaries are all about.
Date posted: 2003-09-20
You have probably heard the statistic that almost half of the abortions that occur each day in America are repeat abortions. In other words, almost every other woman walking into an abortion mill has had the procedure before.
Date posted: 2003-09-11
Democracy means we govern ourselves, and we can't govern ourselves if we can't tell the difference between what is good for us and what can destroy us. What we need is virtuous democracy -- a self-governing people free to strive for and do what is right.
Date posted: 2003-08-24
Our Holy Father's recent encyclical on the Eucharist reminds us that this central mystery of our Faith has a foot in both worlds, and calls us to be, at the same time, citizens of heaven and citizens of earth.
Date posted: 2003-08-10
If we want to change the way people think, talk, and act toward unwanted unborn children, we will need to change the way they think, talk, and act about wanted unborn children.
Date posted: 2003-07-03
This project applies the spiritual power of the Church against the deadly power of the abortion industry.
Date posted: 2003-06-23
The First Amendment protects our ability to challenge the Culture of Death and its spokespersons. The law cannot forbid our speech just because others may find it disagreeable, offensive, or upsetting.
Date posted: 2003-05-24
"We encourage all citizens, particularly Catholics, to embrace their citizenship not merely as a duty and privilege, but as an opportunity meaningfully to participate in building the culture of life. Every voice matters in the public forum. Every vote counts. Every act of responsible citizenship is an exercise of significant individual power...We get the public officials we deserve. Their virtue -- or lack thereof -- is a judgment not only on them, but on us" (1998, Living the Gospel of Life, n.34).
Date posted: 2003-05-06
It makes sense to me. Religious leaders should have the right to speak from their heart, without fear of governmental stipulations.
Date posted: 2003-04-24
The Holy Father has given a new gift to the pro-life movement.
Date posted: 2003-04-23
Bishop William Weigand of Sacramento has something to say to pro-abortion politicians who claim to be Catholic. So does Doris Gordon, an atheist and the founder of "Libertarians for Life."
Date posted: 2003-04-09
We are quickly approaching the Church's observance of the days of which our Lord spoke -- the days of His betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection. This sacred three-day period begins on the evening of Holy Thursday and concludes on the evening of Easter Sunday. It is packed and overflowing with ancient symbolism and themes for profound meditation, not the least of which is the infinite dignity of human life.
Date posted: 2003-03-29
Presence at the abortion mills, sidewalk counseling, street preaching, and good old-fashioned American picketing are honorable activities, are integral to our movement, and deserve to be promoted by pro-life groups and by the Church at every level.
Date posted: 2003-03-10
The doctrines of the Eucharist, Confirmation, and the Holy Spirit provide profound insights into our pro-life commitment. Meetings with sponsors for baptism and confirmation provide an opportunity to explain their obligation to strengthen others to understand and be faithful to the demands that the sanctity of life places upon us.
Date posted: 2003-03-04
There is no "magic answer" to end abortion, and I interact every day with many pro-life groups and leaders to support many different strategies. But it is a big mistake to think that the pictures "don't work" or "everyone knows" what abortion is. The more you use the photos, the more you learn that the opposite is true. They make a hidden injustice visible.
Date posted: 2003-02-24
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. When we hear the words of this familiar song, we may ask ourselves how peace can begin with us, personally and individually. It begins by listening.
Date posted: 2003-02-10
Stephen Evans has conducted research that shows how babies who hear particular pieces of music while in their mother's womb will remember and recognize that music after birth.
Date posted: 2003-01-27
The notion that Christ does not have a problem with the choice to destroy an unborn child turns the Gospel inside out. By giving His life for us, Christ teaches the essence of love: I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person. Abortion teaches exactly the opposite message: I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself.
Date posted: 2002-12-31
Analysts of public opinion widely acknowledge that the public debate on partial-birth abortion, beginning in 1995, caused many Americans to re-evaluate their assessment of whether abortion should be legal in all circumstances. A key element of the public debate was the fact that illustrations of the procedure were shown on national television and in print ads.
Date posted: 2002-12-24
In Judgement at Nuremberg, one of those responsible for the Holocaust says that he "never thought it would go that far," and was told that it "went that far" as soon as a single innocent life was taken. There is no room for "compromising" about human life. Permitting one life to be destroyed is already extreme. Unless we're all protected, we're all in danger.
Date posted: 2002-12-17
My favorite verse of the hymn "O Holy Night" says, "Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love, and His Gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name, all oppression shall cease." Oppression. Like that which daily enslaves our brothers and sisters still growing in the womb.
Date posted: 2002-12-03
The question of how to respond to a medical problem with an unborn child has become more real in our day because it is more possible to find out that there is a problem before birth. Modern methods of visualization of the unborn child have increased our ability to diagnose medical conditions in the womb. In an increasing number of cases, we are able to intervene to treat and sometimes cure these problems. At the same time, many such conditions cannot be cured.
Date posted: 2002-11-25
The statement of the Bishops calls us to reach the hearts wounded by abortion, and give them hope. Abortion, indeed, is not only a sin against life, but a sin against hope. It says there is no future, no reason good enough to strive for life. To affirm life, on the other hand, is to say
there is room for hope, and room to welcome the unwanted. Welcome opens the door to hope, and hope opens the door to life.
Date posted: 2002-11-19
Every abortion is wrong, and somebody else's sinful choice made them legal, not ours. No vote can end them all today. But a vote that can help reduce the evil is, in fact, a good.
Date posted: 2002-10-21
We in the Church grossly underestimate and under-utilize the power of the pro-life message to confront and transform our culture. Just ask yourself for a moment where the pro-life message is being proclaimed to people who don't want to hear it. If someone in your community does not go to Church and would never go to a public pro-life talk, how and where will they hear the message that abortion is violent and must be stopped?
Date posted: 2002-10-19
After all is said and done, there is one basic rule for carrying out our duties in the political arena: be there.
Date posted: 2002-10-18
This November 5, we Americans have the duty to go to the polls and vote. We have the opportunity, moreover, to elect public officials who will work for policies that reflect Christian teaching on life, marriage and family. Don't be in the dark about where the parties and candidates stand. And don't vote blindly. Vote as an informed Christian.
Date posted: 2002-09-30
In a society which continues to have a legal and cultural blind spot for the unborn, many suffer from the illusion that miscarriage doesn't grieve a parent as much as the loss of, well, a "real child." And that is precisely what hurts so much. We can never console someone in grief if we imply, even remotely, that the person they lost wasn't real.
Date posted: 2002-09-20
We in the Church grossly underestimate and under-utilize the power of the pro-life message to confront and transform our culture.
Date posted: 2002-09-10
I have been privileged to visit crisis pregnancy centers in every one of the 50 states. There is no place where you can quickly meet more modern-day saints than in these centers. Christians sacrifice themselves to provide what the abortion industry consistently fails to provide: the hope that there is a solution to one's problems without killing one's own child.
Date posted: 2002-08-22
The fact that some defend abortion as a sacred act should alert us to the depth of the spiritual warfare that is going on. Abortion has never been merely or even primarily a political issue. It is a false religion. When pro-life Christians, for example, pray in front of an abortion mill, it is not simply a matter of pro-life people opposing false medicine. It is the true Church in conflict with a false Church.
Date posted: 2002-08-13
Saving lives in our day has never been easier, and this is so for the tragic reason that more lives are in danger and easily snuffed out than ever before. The potential victims are all around us: in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our Churches. How do we counsel someone who is pregnant, in need, and tempted to abortion?
Date posted: 2002-07-25
Mrs. Lucille Dippolito knows about large families. She is the mother of twenty children. And you could not find someone happier about that than she is. Talking with her, you see a wisdom which counteracts the folly of the Culture of Death.
Date posted: 2002-06-03
There are men and women in the media who challenge their colleagues to present the truth about abortion, and don't care that their colleagues ridicule them or that in some cases they may lose opportunities to advance in the company ladder. What matters most to them is the victory of the truth.
Date posted: 2002-05-20
The diagnosis that an unborn child has a life-threatening disease or anomaly is a particularly heavy cross for a family to bear. The hopes and dreams that accompany a pregnancy are thrown into chaos, and the joy of the anticipation of the child's birth becomes intense anxiety.
Date posted: 2002-05-09
The way out of this mess is not going to be easy. Sleeping is easy; vigilance has a price. Fundamentally, if the Church is not to be caught asleep again, we have to prioritize our activities, and devote more resources to both education and activism in the defense of life. This work cannot be a hobby; it will require us to give everything.
Date posted: 2002-04-23
Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. (Gospel of Life, n.73)
Date posted: 2002-04-13
We must continue to respond. Eventually this victory will be won. At what time and precisely by what means we do not know, but we know for sure it will be won. And there is something else we know for sure, that God has placed you and me right here, right now in the midst of an unbelievably disastrous tragedy. And He calls us to respond. Let us hear the voice of these unborn babies and their mothers more loudly than ever before and from this day forward let us again respond.
Date posted: 2002-03-26
Christ is coming back to earth, on a day we do not know. It will be a public coming; every eye will see Him -- those who loved Him, and those who hated Him; those who protected the pre-born and those who destroyed them. And all will know the truth; all will know the sacredness of life and the Lordship of Christ. And that will be the day of the final pro-life victory, the day of the ultimate answer to abortion -- for it will be the Day of the Resurrection! All the dead, of every place and time, shall rise! And the saved shall enter into eternal joy with the Lord and one another.
Date posted: 2002-03-26
The issue is that it is wrong to kill babies. You and I, as Christians and simply as decent human beings, have an obligation to do something about this, for the sake of the Babies and for the sake of the Mothers. They, too, are victims of abortion; they suffer, too, and we are called to love them.
Date posted: 2002-03-26
Fortunately, the blood of another innocent victim also speaks. Jesus' blood speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel
(Heb. 12:24). Let us repent of abortion, wash ourselves in Jesus' blood, and get to work defending the innocent.
Date posted: 2002-03-26
We are our brother's keepers; this is not an option. We have responsibilities towards one another, whether we like it or not. We have responsibility especially for the weakest and most defenseless ones in our society, the unborn, who are daily ripped apart in their mothers' womb by abortion.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
A key way to celebrate Advent is to focus on how our daily activity can increase justice and peace in the world. The work of defending human life is central to establishing God's Kingdom. Advent is a perfect time to re-dedicate ourselves to proclaim, celebrate, and serve the Gospel of Life.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
To accept Christ means to accept the whole Christ, to accept and love all those He loves. If we support abortion, we are rejecting those whom Christ loves, and in that respect are rejecting Christ Himself! It is like breaking off part of the Host and giving it back.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
This is the reason that contraception is intrinsically evil. We know that human life begins at conception. But God's dominion over human life does not begin at conception; it begins in eternity.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
Apply the Golden Rule. Put yourself in the child's place. (We were all in the womb at one point ourselves.) Would you want to be cared for and nourished and brought safely to birth, or aborted?
Date posted: 2001-12-31
"If anyone tells you the baby in the womb is not a baby, that person may as well tell you the earth is flat. Pro-lifers have heard the out-of-date, unscientific assertion "It's not a baby" for many years. People who say this ought to be asked when are they going to catch up with the times. These are the days of fetoscopy and fetal surgery. Of course we know when life begins. And we know that the earth is not flat."
Date posted: 2001-12-31
We need to realize that whenever one innocent person is deliberately killed, all of human society is attacked. When the child is a victim of abortion, we are all victims, because our life is protected by the same principle that should protect the child's life.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
In Living the Gospel of Life, our bishops describe abortion as a preeminent threat to human dignity. One of the reasons, they point out, is that it is committed against the weakest and most defenseless... Yet there is another aspect to the weakness, the poverty of the unborn that deserves more attention. It is a weakness in their ability to make a psychological impact on us. When people die in an airline disaster, or troops go into war, prayer services are held and expressions of concern appear.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
We love them … the women who have had abortions. We love them. The Church cares about them, forgives them, heals them, brings them peace with God, with their child, and with themselves. The Church promises any woman who has had an abortion that if she comes to us repenting of her sin, she will find welcome and forgiveness.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
Is my death really mine? The answer has to be yes and no. It is mine in the sense that it has been given to me and nobody else; it is not mine alone, however, because I am not the source of my own existence, and I am accountable for it to another, namely, God.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
A parent is called to love his/her children as Christ has loved us. "Greater love than this no one has, than to lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15:13). A mother who demonstrates this in a particularly striking way is Gianna Beretta Molla, who died in 1962 and was a doctor and mother of three children. When she became pregnant with her fourth, it was discovered that she had a tumor near her uterus. She made it very clear to her doctor and her family that she wanted everything done to save the life of her baby.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
" ...some people say that you can destroy a baby within his/her mother's womb by abortion and still be a good Christian. Something is deeply wrong with this way of thinking... To be Christian means to stand on the side of life. It means that we oppose the killing of the innocent at all times. It means that we respect human life at all its stages and in all its conditions."
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The process is to show that our compassion actually is more inclusive than that of those who would allow abortion. Having established that we care about the rape victim, we then ask the powerful question, Why can't we love them both? Why can't we extend to the child the same practical compassion which we both agree belongs to the woman? Why can't we expand the boundaries of those we welcome and care for? Why should helping and loving one (the mom) mean destroying the other (the child)? In reality, you cannot help one without helping the other and you cannot hurt one without hurting the other.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The right to life, which is inherent and incapable of being annulled by any government, may not be trampled upon in the name of religious freedom. It is a favorite position of the defenders of abortion to claim their "right to believe what they want" and to "have their own opinion" about the status and value of the child in the womb. But the right of someone to live cannot fall simply because someone else's belief does not recognize that right.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
Those engaged in the new evangelization need to understand the dynamics of abortion survivors and the transgenerational harm caused by abortion. They must appreciate the need to rehumanize individuals hurt by abortion, and to help such people recapture their individuality and their worth.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
In section IV of the US Bishops' Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities, A Campaign in Support of Life (November, 2001) we read, "Parishes should include in the petitions at every Mass a prayer that ours will become a nation that respects and protects all human life, born and unborn, reflecting a true culture of life."
Date posted: 2001-12-31
On Tuesday, December 4, 2001, for two sacred and historic hours, about one-third of the US Senate and House of Representatives, with representation from both major parties, knelt together in solemn prayer and repentance. This did not take place in a Church. It took place in the Rotunda of the US Capitol.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The priest needs to be able to respond to the needs of the post-abortion movement. As a help, Rev. Frank Pavone has briefly highlighted some characteristics of post-abortion grief, limiting himself in this article to the mothers, and offering some guidance regarding priest's pastoral response.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
Fr. Norman Weslin, has been in jail since November 5 for peacefully praying on a public sidewalk in front of an abortion mill.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
We must exercise reason, self-control, and virtue in our pro-life work. But to pretend that we should abandon all emotion is the height of absurdity.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
There are people in the world who call upon the one they regard as the world's Creator, and thank Him for the successful destruction of some of His creatures.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
We cannot afford to let our preaching become disconnected from the injustices around us. That is why we cannot afford to be silent about abortion, just as the preachers in Dr. King's day could not afford to be silent about segregation.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
Christmas is about the Gospel of Life. It is about the hope of eternal life offered through the birth of a child, and through our birth into His life by our faith. Christmas illumines the meaning and value of every human person.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
When society trivializes abortion, people suffering from it will, cry out by their actions, "I'm not OK! I'm in tremendous pain! Can anyone help me?" We need to tell them we know that pain, and that it makes sense to grieve. Only then can healing begin.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The direction in which the evidence keeps moving is clearly that an unborn child can probably feel pain earlier than the experts previously thought.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The reason why Roe Can Fall is that the foundation of the Constitution itself, and the direction of its history, is the recognition of the equal dignity of those who, at various times, were deprived of their rights and suffered violence which was given legal cover under a different name.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
While abortionists attempt to reduce the psychological impact of the killing, we need to increase that impact on the public, so that more people will work to stop it.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
A new chapter in the abortion war is opening up, and it focuses on the people who staff abortion facilities, and how they can be in legal trouble for participating in, or not exposing, illegal activities.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The power of death has already been conquered in Jesus Christ. Evil will not have the final word. We will not live in fear.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
If there's one thing the pro-abortion forces in this nation do not know how to do well, it's to play defense. They are so used to taking the first steps, framing the issues, and putting pro-life people and organizations on the defensive, that they hardly know what to do when the tables are turned.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
Reformers do not succeed by being popular. Those who use graphic images don't care what people think about them; they care about what people think about abortion. And if giving people a negative opinion of abortion means having them also reject the messenger, that's a small price to pay.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The teaching of the Catholic Church about the human person respects the rightful autonomy of science and the fact that all truth, whether scientific or religious, comes from the same God.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
And then the Good Samaritan came along, and he reversed the question. He didn't ask, "If I help this man, what will happen to me?" The Good Samaritan asked, "If I do not help this man, what will happen to him?"
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The fact is that Roe vs. Wade did not simply give a woman the right to an abortion. It placed on the physician the responsibility to insure the safety of the woman who gets an abortion. And that's where the supporters of Roe vs. Wade fail to implement Roe vs. Wade. Abortion remains the most unregulated surgical industry in the nation.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
If you are like most of the public, you are somewhat confused about all the debate on "stem cell research." What is a "stem cell"? Why would the Church be against research? Why is the whole matter such a controversy in the first place?
Date posted: 2001-12-31
In our system of government, courts do not make law. Rather, people do, through their elected representatives. This is what constitutes our freedom and our self-governance.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
To put it rather bluntly, effective social reform requires forcing the message on an unwilling audience. It means confronting the culture with what it does not want to hear.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The Church provides a necessary safeguard against the danger that the State becomes totalitarian, and that whatever human power decrees becomes, by that very fact, right and good.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
It is time to attack directly the persistent myth that the first trimester baby is not a baby, and that the first trimester abortion is not really an act of violence that kills a baby.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
Speaking out about politics and abortion is a stumbling block for some, and apparently precisely because they are religious. Yet our bishops have made it clear, particularly in their 1998 document Living the Gospel of Life, that to be silent on these matters is to be silent about the Gospel.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The heart of the Christian, and in particular of the priest, must be the meeting place of a clear and prophetic stand against injustice, and a profound tenderness to those who have committed it.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
There is a great deal of resistance to the notion that we should expose abortion for what it is, bringing it into the light of day for the naked eye to see on television. Yet abortion is the single most frequently performed surgery in America.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The class of 2001 is missing a few people. In fact, it is missing a million and a half people on each level of graduating classes. These missing students deserve a remembrance in the graduation liturgies and ceremonies that will soon take place.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
For the passage of laws that favor the right to life, and for the appointment of Supreme Court Justices who see the justice of our cause, the President cannot act alone. The Senate must vote in a pro-life direction. That will happen only if we vote in a pro-life direction when we elect our Senators.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
As we approach this Feast, celebrated this year on Monday, March 26, we can consider several ways in which its observance illumines the pro-life message.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The Holy Seasons of Lent and Easter provide a framework for preaching and teaching the pro–life message in the context of repentance and of the victory of life.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
Some choices have victims, and when somebody's choice destroys somebody else's life, the experience of the chooser is not the most relevant factor. The most relevant factor is the protection of the lives and rights of those around him or her. The fact that we do not have the same experience should make us compassionate, and motivate us to strive to understand the person. But
Date posted: 2001-12-31
The love of God has no exceptions; the command He gives us to love one another likewise admits of no exceptions. The Christian is not free to discriminate, or to exclude anyone from his or her love. Such exclusion is incompatible with the love of God Himself.
Date posted: 2001-12-31
If the reason for coming together were not to march in Washington, it may well have been a huge family picnic. The attitude of these people toward each other reflected perfectly what they were saying their attitude was toward the unborn: welcome, and love.
Date posted: 2001-12-31