Each and every human life is sacred, because each
and every human life is made in the image and likeness of God. Judie Brown is the president of the American
Life League and a former member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. In our Brave New World, Judie reminds us that we who care about
the sacredness of human life must broaden our understanding of how and when
human life can begin:
“Sexual reproduction means ‘fertilization’—the union of a human sperm with a human egg resulting in the reproduction of a genetically distinct human being. This can happen naturally within a woman’s body, or artificially in an IVF (in vitro fertilization) or ART facility (artificial reproductive technology).
“Asexual reproduction simply means ‘without the immediate use of fertilization’; it is the combining of parts of a human sperm, egg, embryo, or synthetic genes to reproduce a new human embryo. Most of the time this happens in IVF/ART facilities….
“The ‘3-parent-embryo’ now in the news involves the asexual reproduction of human embryos by several techniques (e.g., mitochondrial transfer, another kind of cloning). The mitochondria are found in the female’s oocyte (egg) and if they are defective, the mitochondria from a third party’s egg can be used instead. Thus three parents for one embryo!
“These forms of asexual reproduction exist and do result in human beings whose lives should be protected by law and in the culture….The terms ‘fertilization’ or ‘conception’ do not cover all human beings. Laws protecting only those reproduced by ‘fertilization’ would not protect those asexually reproduced” (4/22/14).
Plan B in Catholic Hospitals
It may come as a surprise to some,
but – heretofore – the Plan B so-called “emergency contraceptive”
has been allowed in Catholic hospitals, under certain circumstances. As per this past Wednesday’s press release,
“[The] American Life League is calling on Catholic bishops who allow their Catholic hospitals to dispense Plan B to reconsider in light of new evidence. A major scientific review by Christopher Kahlenborn, MD, et al, published this week in the Linacre Quarterly, found that levonorgestrel emergency contraception, also known as Plan B, has ‘significant potential of working via abortion.’ The review also revealed that arguments claiming Plan B is not an abortifacient are not scientifically defensible….’Catholic bishops have been assured, by Plan B proponents, that the drug does not cause an abortion,’ stated Judie Brown, president of American Life League. ‘We now know this is not true. There is a grave risk that preborn human lives are being killed by Plan B, and Catholic hospitals need to immediately halt dispensing these drugs and review their policies.’
Please email
Archbishop Kurtz (USCCB president), Archbishop Chaput and the National Catholic
Bioethics Center, to ask that an end be put to any use of “Plan B” in
Catholic hospitals.
Childhood vaccines
The vaccines for certain childhood
diseases were developed with tissue from aborted children! In 2008, the Vatican's Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith told us that "danger to the health of children
could permit parents to use a vaccine which was developed using cell lines of
illicit origin, while keeping in mind that everyone has the duty to make known
their disagreement and to ask that their healthcare system make other types of
vaccines available " (Instruction
Dignitas Personae). Let us indeed
follow up on our “duty to make known [our]…disagreement and to ask [for]…other
types of vaccines:
- Urge Merck to offer alternative vaccines that are NOT derived from the tissue of aborted babies: https://www.change.org/p/centers-for-disease-control-urge-merck-to-revive-single-dose-measles-and-mumps-vaccines
How can it be that we are preparing
to host a World Meeting of Families, when our pulpits are so mum about
authentic teaching – so mum about simple truths which have been reiterated with
particular beauty over the past 135 years?[i]
Jesus Christ called us back to marriage as "in the beginning" and raised Marriage to a sacrament. Entrusted by our Lord with teaching the Truth, the Church’s constant teaching and her Catechism reiterates that marriage is a lifelong, exclusive, indissoluble bond and sacrament. In fact, Marriage and Holy Orders are the only Sacraments of Vocation. And just as the priesthood has been attacked/devalued in recent years, faithful married couples have suffered the pain of similar mistreatment of marriage. They want the Truth proclaimed.
Sexual acts are exclusively for marriage, for uniting the couple and for procreating new life. As each sexual act must include those unitive and procreative dimensions, contraceptives are absolutely excluded. Despite all the confusion that reigned after Humanae Vitae, that teaching is NOT open to debate; people have a right to know this truth!
Married couples who have serious reasons for postponing pregnancy may abstain from sexual relations during fertile times. And utilizing fertility awareness to abstain during fertile times is infinitely physically safer than using chemicals or placing foreign objects in or on the body!
While the Church proclaims the wrongness of all contraceptive use, some products which are called “contraceptives” can work in an abortifacient manner. This is especially true of Plan B and other so-called “emergency contraception”, but it is also true of the Pill and the IUD.
Since 1973, it is often noted that there have been more than 57 million abortion in the U.S. As hideous and horrible as that number is, it is an underestimate. When you count abortions from "contraceptive" chemicals and objects, Pharmacists for Life International puts the number at 308 million.
“In other states, this law [HB 300 / SB 300] has shuttered Catholic adoption agencies and trampled religious liberty….Simply put, this legislation is intolerant and prejudiced against people of faith" (Pa Catholic Conference, 10/3/13)
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As per the Pennsylvania Family Institute, "if we don’t see the persecution happening across this country and if Pennsylvania families sit idle, out state government is going to force us to conform our beliefs or face the consequences....Contact your state lawmakers to encourage them to oppose HB 300 and SB 300:
[i]
“So the LORD God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and
all the birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would
call them; whatever the man called each living creature was then its name. The
man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the air, and all the
wild animals; but none proved to be a helper suited to the man. So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place
with flesh.The LORD God then built the rib that he had
taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man, the man
said: ‘This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one
shall be called “woman,” for out of man this one has been
taken.’ That is why a man leaves his
father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body. The man and his wife were
both naked, yet they felt no shame.’” (Genesis 2: 19-25)
“Some Pharisees approached him, and tested
him, saying, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any
cause whatever?’ He said in reply, ‘Have you not read that from the beginning
the Creator “made them male and female” and said, “For this reason a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become
one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.’
They said to him, ‘Then why did Moses command that the man give the
woman a bill of divorce and dismiss [her]?’ He said to them, ‘Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce
your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is
unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.’ [His]
disciples said to him, ‘If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is
better not to marry.’ He answered, ‘Not all can accept [this] word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some are
incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made
so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of
the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.’” (Matthew 19: 3-12)
Pope Leo XIII's Arcanum
(2/10/1880),
Pope Pius XI's Casti
Connubii (12/31/1930),
Pope Pius XII's Dear
Newlyweds,
Blessed Pope Paul VI's Humanae
Vitae (7/25/1968),
St Pope John Paul II's Theology
of the Body (1979 - 1984), addresses
to the Roman Rota (1979 - 2005), Familiaris
Consortio, and just about any of
his talks and writings,
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's Letter
to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Concerning the Reception of Holy
Communion by the Divorced and Remarried Members of the Faithful
(9/19/1994),
Pontifical Council for the Family's Preparation
for the Sacrament of Marriage (5/13/1996) ,
Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts' Dignitas Connubii
(1/25/2005),
Pope Benedict XVI's Deus
Caritas Est (12/25/2005) and addresses
to the Roman Rota (2006-2013),
Pope Francis' Lumen
Fidei (6/29/13), Evangelii
Gaudium (11/24/13), General
Audience of 4/2/14, Discourse
to the Delegation of the International Catholic Office of Children
(4/11/14), and addresses to the Roman
Rota (1/24/14,
1/23/15),
III Extraordinary General Assembly’s Instrumentum
Laboris (2014),
Pontifical Council for Culture’s "Women's
Cultures: Equality and Difference" (2015)
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