Elections Have Consequences

President Obama has reversed the so-called "Mexico City Policy" instituted by President Reagan & continued under the administrations of Bush I & II. Now the tax dollars of American citizens will be used to fund abortions overseas. Watch out for FOCA...

March for Life '09

Here are some pics we took at the annual March for Life yesterday. As usual, the March was a very powerful experience of solidarity for those of us who struggle for the full recognition of the rights of the unborn. And again, as usual, the only media outlet to give it any substantial coverage was EWTN (they're re-airing their coverage of the March in its entirety tomorrow morning if you want to see any of it). After we completed the usual route to the Supreme Court, we headed over to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception where we met our bus to go back home. We thought it fitting on this important occasion to offer these powerful words from the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus on this the great civil rights issue of our time:

The contention between the culture of life and the culture of death is not a battle of our own choosing. We are not the ones who imposed upon the nation the lethal logic that human beings have no rights we are bound to respect if they are too small, too weak, too dependent, too burdensome. That lethal logic, backed by the force of law, was imposed by an arrogant elite that for almost forty years has been telling us to get over it, to get used to it.
But “We the People,” who are the political sovereign in this constitutional democracy, have not gotten over it, we have not gotten used to it, and we will never, we will never ever, agree that the culture of death is the unchangeable law of the land...
We do not know, we do not need to know, how the battle for the dignity of the human person will be resolved. God knows, and that is enough. As Mother Teresa of Calcutta and saints beyond numbering have taught us, our task is not to be successful but to be faithful. Yet in that faithfulness is the lively hope of success. We are the stronger because we are unburdened by delusions. We know that in a sinful world, far short of the promised Kingdom of God, there will always be great evils. The principalities and powers will continue to rage, but they will not prevail.
In the midst of the encroaching darkness of the culture of death, we have heard the voice of him who said, “In the world you will have trouble. But fear not, I have overcome the world.” Because he has overcome, we shall overcome. We do not know when; we do not know how. God knows, and that is enough. We know the justice of our cause, we trust in the faithfulness of his promise, and therefore we shall not weary, we shall not rest.
-Fr. Richard John Neuhaus

Something to Consider on this Inauguration Day

Courtesy of CatholicVote.com:

A Presidential Proclamation: National Sanctity of Human Life Day

Link

"All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and voiceless among us.

The most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent. My Administration has been committed to building a culture of life by vigorously promoting adoption and parental notification laws, opposing Federal funding for abortions overseas, encouraging teen abstinence, and funding crisis pregnancy programs. In 2002, I was honored to sign into law the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which extends legal protection to children who survive an abortion attempt. I signed legislation in 2003 to ban the cruel practice of partial-birth abortion, and that law represents our commitment to building a culture of life in America. Also, I was proud to sign the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which allows authorities to charge a person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb with a separate offense in addition to any charges relating to the mother.

America is a caring Nation, and our values should guide us as we harness the gifts of science. In our zeal for new treatments and cures, we must never abandon our fundamental morals. We can achieve the great breakthroughs we all seek with reverence for the gift of life.

The sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women. On this day and throughout the year, we aspire to build a society in which every child is welcome in life and protected in law. We also encourage more of our fellow Americans to join our just and noble cause. History tells us that with a cause rooted in our deepest principles and appealing to the best instincts of our citizens, we will prevail.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 18, 2009, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies and to underscore our commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third."

GEORGE W. BUSH

This January 22nd, March for Life!

Apropos of the approaching "regime change"...

"Despite some Catholics’ claims to the contrary, the new president’s approval of legalized abortion is unmistakable. Unlike Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry, Barack Obama refused to make even verbal gestures toward compromise or nuance during the presidential campaign. The flatfooted line he delivered at the Saddleback Forum—that a decision about when life begins is “above my pay grade”—proved that he has internalized the peculiar logic of Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which cast laws against abortion as government’s unconstitutional intrusion into private metaphysical decisions. But his earlier line that he didn’t want young women “punished with a baby” proved that he has also internalized what stands behind those decisions: a worldview in which life is not a gift but a burden to be shouldered only when we will.
On abortion, Obama is the complete man, his support so ingrained that even his carefully controlled public speaking can’t help revealing it. He’s not a fanatic about abortion; he’s what lies beyond fanaticism (emphasis added). He’s the end product of hard-line support for abortion: a man for whom the very question of abortion seems unreal. The opponents of abortion are, for Obama, not to be compromised with or even fought with, in a certain sense. They are, rather, to be explained away as a sociological phenomenon—their pro-life view something that will wither away as they gradually come to understand the true causes of the economic and social bitterness they have, in their undereducated and intolerant way, attached to abortion."
-Joseph Bottom, First Things

"Without the natural law to inform [Obama's] eloquent phrases, they don't mean anything. "Peace" isn't built on violence against the weak. "Unity" isn't acheived without objective truth. "Freedom" can't survive the slavery of sin. "Rights" aren't coherent if they cancel each other out. And true "hope" doesn't exist in a country unless a person can be born into it without an attempt on his life.

The source of America's promise lies in unfolding respect for rights and goods determined by God. That's the measurement of hope. But where those rights and goods are uprooted or redefined by politicians in an affront to God and harm to man, that's an index of despair.

In his victory speech, Obama spoke of realizing the "dream" of America's founders and said Americans "may not get there in one year or even one term, but America-I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you-we as a people will get there." But where is "there"? Is it the fulfillment of a dream or the beginning of a nightmare?"

-George Neumayr, Catholic World Report

This January 22nd, March for Life!