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Many of you have seen the appalling hidden-camera videos of two Planned Parenthood physicians bantering cheerfully with interlocutors posing as prospective buyers of the body parts of aborted infants.
While they slurp wine in elegant restaurants, the good doctors — both women — blandly talk about what price they would expect for providing valuable inner organs and how the skillful abortionists of Planned Parenthood know just how to murder babies so as not to damage the goods.
Q As a follow-up to your column last month, I am a long distance caregiver as well.
Although my mother tells me repeatedly that she is doing well, I need some specific things to look for when I visit her later this month.
What should I notice to give me a better idea for how well she is caring for herself? (From a daughter in Beloit)
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When one considers the many ways countless human beings are treated like cheap disposable products — from children exploited by pornographers, to young sweatshop workers exploited by wealthy corporations — it’s hard to imagine how much worse it can get for the poor and vulnerable.
But dismembering and vacuuming babies out of their mother’s wombs, and then selling their body parts, is as low as it gets.
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On August 15, we celebrate Mary’s Assumption into heaven.
In no. 966 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church it says, “The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.”
Editor’s note: During this Year of Consecrated Life, this is the sixth in a series based on the Second Vatican Council’s document, Perfectae Caritatis (Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life) written by Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, former abbot primate of the Benedictine order who now resides in Madison.
In this commentary on the Second Vatican Council’s Decree On the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life, we have reflected upon the general principles underlying the very existence of all Religious Life.
These include patterning the life on the doctrine and example of Jesus; giving a sign on earth of the heavenly Kingdom; binding the vowed individual in a special way to the Lord; and openness to the action of the Holy Spirit.
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In 1986, after serving in a variety of capacities in the Jesuit province of Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio commenced doctoral studies in Germany.
The focus of his research was the great 20th century theologian and cultural critic Romano Guardini, who had been a key influence on, among many others, Karl Rahner, Henri de Lubac, and Joseph Ratzinger.
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| Patrick Hardyman |
On September 21, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which had earlier passed in the Senate by a vote of 85-14 and in the House of Representatives by a vote of 342-67.
DOMA had two major effects, “No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) need treat a relationship between persons of the same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state and secondly the federal government may not treat same sex relationships as marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.”
Legislative hearings are valuable means of educating the public. During a June 2 hearing in the State Capitol for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (companion bills Senate Bill 179 and Assembly Bill 237), those present learned about a little-known but invaluable program known as perinatal hospice.
The bills would protect unborn children at and after 20 weeks from painful abortions and would require that families be informed about perinatal hospice. (Governor Scott Walker signed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act into law on July 20.)
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In the wake of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ and the pope’s recent speeches in Latin America, many supporters of the capitalist economy in the West might be forgiven for thinking that His Holiness has something against them.
Again and again, Pope Francis excoriates an economy based on materialism and greed, and with prophetic urgency, he speaks out against a new colonialism that exploits the labor of those in poorer countries.
In a speech in Bolivia, a country under the command of a socialist president, the pope seemed, almost in a Marxist vein, to be calling on the poor to seize power from the wealthy and take command of their own lives. What do we make of this?
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| Sr. Constance Carolyn Veit, LSP |
In September, thousands of Catholics from all over the world will gather in Philadelphia for the Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families.
We Little Sisters of the Poor are looking forward to participating in this great event, the culmination of which will be a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis.
In preparation for the World Meeting, our Holy Father has been dedicating his weekly audiences to family issues, including the role of the elderly in family life.
