The War on Families

Mass Resistance photo

A concerted campaign is under way to portray being pro-family, pro-marriage as "anti-gay" and pro-family, pro-marriage groups as "hate groups". Chick-fill-A has been caught in the midst of this. Today I received an email from a pro-family group with the subject header:

Chick-fil-A caves in to gay movement - disgraceful!

And the text was headlined:

Chick-fil-A caves in to homosexual pressure. Agrees not to donate to pro-family groups in exchange for permission to put restaurant in Chicago. Slap in the face to pro-family supporters.

And it went on to describe Chick-fill-A's apparent betrayal of marriage and the family.

I found this volte-face difficult to comprehend. So, following the advice in that same email, I emailed info@winshape.org, the charitable wing of Chick-fill-A asking "Is it true?"

I wrote:

That Chick-fill-A and you have caved in to pressure and renounced support of pro-family organizations to secure permission to open your restaurant in Chicago? Pro-family is not "anti-gay".

Please let me know the truth on this. Our families are being made to feel very vulnerable. If being "pro-family" is going to be equivalent to be "anti-gay" we will be living in a dangerous world.

If you have caved in to political pressure when setting up a restaurant is a perfectly legal thing and should not involve politics, then a dangerous precedent has been set. Even "gays" should be worried, for any group will be able to threaten law abiding individuals and businesses who do not happen to conform to the latest politically correct fad.

Which group of people behaved more agreeably when families flocked to your restaurants in large numbers and just a few engaged in a public display of behavior that should be kept to the private sphere, if carried out at all?

Yous sincerely

Within minutes I had a reply. They had obviously been receiving many enquiries. And here is text of the reply:

Thanks for your interest and concern.

Despite recent mischaracterizations in the media, neither Chick-fil-A nor WinShape Foundation has changed our giving strategy. We will continue to focus our efforts on programs that educate youth, strengthen families and enrich marriage, and support communities.  Chick-fil-A plans to release the information below to the media.

Chick-fil-A, Inc. – Who We Are

For many months now, Chick-fil-A’s corporate giving has been mischaracterized. And while our sincere intent has been to remain out of this political and social debate, events from Chicago this week have once again resulted in questions around our giving. For that reason, we want to provide some context and clarity around who we are, what we believe and our priorities in relation to corporate giving.

A part of our corporate commitment is to be responsible stewards of all that God has entrusted to us. Because of this commitment, Chick-fil-A’s giving heritage is focused on programs that educate youth, strengthen families and enrich marriages, and support communities. We will continue to focus our giving in those areas. Our intent is not to support political or social agendas.

As we have stated, the Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. 

This reply satisfies me.

We can wait and see if they are playing with words - will their promotion of programs that "enrich marriage" be broadened to include any modified definition of marriage? I trust not. And I hope not.

But let us make no mistake about it: supporters of marriage according to the natural law can expect to be treated by a minority as bigots and haters. Be prepared.

The hypocrisy of dictating to a private business whom they should and shouldn't give money to, and labeling pro-marriage and pro-family groups as holding "political agendas" defies reason. Do those groups promoting "marriage equality" not hold a "political agenda"? And yet the pro-gay lobby praises Microsoft and other corporations for supporting them.

Local Catholic's letter to local paper on contraception

Congratulations to Fae Presley, a parishioner at St Peter Cathedral Marquette, for her letter published in the August 21 edition of the Mining Journal.

To the Journal editor:

Thanks to Sandy Bonsall for her letter to the editor in the Aug. 5 Mining Journal in which she shares her thoughts regarding Catholicism and contraception. I, too, am a Catholic convert of the 1970s. I did not understand why the Church teaches artificial contraception is wrong, but I was attracted to natural family planning because of the health risks from hormonal contraceptives, risks known even in the 1970s. (The insert which accompanies the pill is a lengthy list of side effects.)

This danger compelled me as a young woman to investigate and practice NFP. When I did so, I discovered an age-old principle: faith precedes understanding. Though I didn't understand the church's teaching, I followed it for practical reasons. Then, and only then, did I begin to understand the wisdom and beauty of this ancient, yet current teaching.

Of human life, the church's primary document explaining the rationale behind its condemnation of artificial contraception, lists the certain fallout from widespread use of contraceptives. These include marital infidelity, general lowering of morals, men's loss of respect for women and coercion on the parts of governments regarding their use. Anyone can see that this has occurred in our society and around the world.

I taught NFP for over 20 years. Couples spoke candidly to me about their experiences with contraception, about how the woman felt used and taken for granted; about how their sex lives were boring and even divisive, leading to pornography use, infidelity, and divorce; and extreme regret from those who had been sterilized.

Today we know that the birth control pill is a class 1 carcinogen like asbestos which increases the risk of breast and cervical cancer, and possibly liver cancer as well. Recent research also indicates a nearly doubled risk of HIV transmission with pill use.

The Catholic Church offers a vision of human sexuality that is truly liberating in the freedom from negative health effects and that revels in the beauty of our sexuality, yet encourages responsible parenthood. The ways of goodness and truth are not always easy, as the martyrs and saints of our church show us.

Fae Presley

Negaunee

Chick-fill-A funds hate groups?

So the protestors in this video allege. But I couldn't see the hate group. Could you? All I could see was a never ending line of people showing their appreciation for Chick-fill-A's pro-family stance.

Here's what Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, famously told the Baptist Press on June 16:
"Well, guilty as charged. We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of  the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. We intend to stay the course. We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles."

Attribution: MassResistance email update.

Walmart "Mom of the Year" nominee refused abortion during cancer treatment

From Catholic News Agency

Yarmouth, Canada, Jul 13, 2012 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The women who were nominated for Walmart’s Canadian “Mom of the Year” contest have many outstanding qualities, but few can claim they fought off breast cancer and gave birth to their seventh child at the same time.

“We knew right from the beginning that God wouldn't give us this life and then ask us to take it,” Maria Pitman told CNA July 10, explaining that the doctor wanted her to abort her child.

Pitman, a Canadian homeschooling mother of seven, was diagnosed with breast cancer early on in her most recent pregnancy.

Medically, the doctor said it “made sense” because it would make testing and treatment easier than if she were carrying a child. “We came home that day knowing we couldn't make that decision, and that God wouldn't be asking us to do that,” Pitman said.

Doctors continued to encourage Pitman to have an abortion, even up until the day before she underwent a full mastectomy 20 weeks into her pregnancy.

The day of surgery, however, the doctors stopped asking Pitman if she wanted to abort, because “they realized we were not about to change our minds.”

During that time, Pitman and her husband Jeff learned that, after one daughter and five boys in a row, they were having another girl.

“Those were the only tears I cried that day; in joy that it was a girl,” she said. After the mastectomy, Pitman endured three rounds of chemotherapy, in between which she delivered her daughter Johannah at 36 weeks.

Weighing in at seven pounds and four ounces, “she came out perfectly healthy.”

Pitman faced one of her hardest trials when, after Johannah's birth, she and her family had to travel three hours from their home in Yarmouth to Halifax for six weeks of radiation therapy while still homeschooling four of her children.

“I kind of figured things would be easier (since) I wasn't pregnant anymore,” Pitman explained, “but things got so much worse.”

Pitman said she would ask God just “for strength to get out of bed and spend some time with the kids.”

And God did support Pitman and her family, even during the toughest trial. “The Lord provided and orchestrated everything for us for the entire year,” especially by bringing “all the right people into our lives at the right time,” she said.

Pitman found particular strength in the scripture passage Matthew 21:21-22, which says in part, “ ... but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

“God was able to move the 'cancer mountain' for our family,” she said.

After her battle with breast cancer, Pitman's 17 year-old daughter, Jocelyn, nominated her for Walmart's “Mom of the Year” award, which is a “celebration of the 9.2 million Canadian Moms who work tirelessly every day to provide for their family.”

The winner will receive $10,000 in cash and a $100,000 donation will be made to the charity of her choice. The top mom will also be honored with a “day of pampering,” a photo shoot and a “special red carpet gala” in Toronto.

Should she win, Pitman will give her donation to Camp Peniel, a nearby Christian camp where her daughter Jocelyn works.

“This camp is amazing and is doing a fabulous job of sharing Jesus Christ to so many each year,” Pitman said.

Nominations closed July 8, but the judges will deliberate the 16,909 entries and announce a winner “around August 15.”

Do you think she'll get it?

Teenage mother gives her life for her unborn child: a legacy of sacrifice, not tragedy.

A young teenage mother, when diagnosed with cancer, refused any further treatment once she discovered she was pregnant and died soon afterwards. The story has, apparently gone round the world. May others be inspired by Jenni's example.

See LifesiteNews for the full story.

The following video is from kpvi.com

St Andrew's Day pro-marriage rally in Edinburgh

BBC News carries this report on a rally protesting against same-sex marriage held today outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Cardinal O'Brien's stance seems to be somewhat different than that of a prelate in a neighbouring episcopal conference. Let's not kid ourselves about civil partnerships being different from same-sex marriages. They amount to the same thing and those promoting civil partnerships clearly want to move in the direction of "marriage."

The cardinal said: "As an institution, marriage long predates the existence of any state or government.

"It was not created by government and should not be changed by them. Instead, recognising the innumerable benefits which marriage brings to society, they should act to protect and uphold it, not attack or dismantle it."

Archbishop of Westminster backs civil partnerships

“We would want to emphasise that civil partnerships actually provide a structure in which people of the same sex who want a lifelong relationship [and] a lifelong partnership can find their place and protection and legal provision,” Archbishop Vincent Nichols said at a press conference after the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales’ meeting last week.

and

“As a Church we are very committed to the notion of equality so that people are treated the same across all the activities of life … The Church holds great store by the value of commitment in relationships and undertakings that people give. Stability in society depends upon the reliability of commitments that people give. That might be in offering to do a job but especially in their relationships with one another. Equality and commitment are both very important and we fully support them.”

As quoted in The Tablet, London, UK.

He's wrong. Civil partnerships are deeply discriminatory. A brother may not enter into a civil partnership with a brother, or a sister with a sister. Or a man may not enter into one with a woman. The impediments of consanguinity to entering into a partnership are analogous to, if not exactly the same as, those of marriage.

Let us keep the question of chastity out of it for a moment. Let us not even enquire into the nature of the relationship between the parties to a (potential) civil partnership. Why do these need the protection of the law? One can be in a committed and stable relationship of friendship which, it could be argued, is good for society. But these neither need nor merit any legal recognition.

As the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith pointed out in its 2003 document Considerations regarding Proposals to give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons:

By putting homosexual unions on a legal plane analogous to that of marriage and the family, the State acts arbitrarily and in contradiction with its duties. The principles of respect and non-discrimination cannot be invoked to support legal recognition of homosexual unions. Differentiating between persons or refusing social recognition or benefits is unacceptable only when it is contrary to justice. The denial of the social and legal status of marriage to forms of cohabitation that are not and cannot be marital is not opposed to justice; on the contrary, justice requires it. (No. 8)

If it is true that all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way, in keeping with their responsibility as politicians. Faced with legislative proposals in favour of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are to take account of the following ethical indications.
When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic law-maker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favour of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral.
When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is already in force, the Catholic politician must oppose it in the ways that are possible for him and make his opposition known; it is his duty to witness to the truth. If it is not possible to repeal such a law completely, the Catholic politician, recalling the indications contained in the Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, “could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality”, on condition that his “absolute personal opposition” to such laws was clear and well known and that the danger of scandal was avoided.(18) This does not mean that a more restrictive law in this area could be considered just or even acceptable; rather, it is a question of the legitimate and dutiful attempt to obtain at least the partial repeal of an unjust law when its total abrogation is not possible at the moment. (No. 10)

See comment by William Oddie of the Catholic Herald, and Father Ray Blake, and His Grace's interventions in the following interview:

A large family just got larger

Way back in August, I received an email from Tania, then a mother of nine expecting twins. As I recall, I picked up her email at Marquette International Airport as I was waiting for a flight to Chicago which would connect me to a flight to Burlington, Vermont, for my vacation in Stowe with my English priest friend Father Benedict Kiely, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church.

Well, the email stayed in my inbox in spite of my assurance that I would give publicity to Tania's book entitled Larger Family Life - Living life the large family way. Now I have received an email about the birth of the twin daughters pictured above. Read more at Tania's blog.

Tania and her family attend Holy Family Catholic Church in Hoo, Kent, which is a satellite church of English Martyrs, Strood, which happens to be where my brother served as curate (assistant priest/parochial vicar/associate pastor) for a number of years before becoming parish priest (pastor) at Good Shepherd Church, New Addington.

So, congratulations to Tania and her husband on their beautiful babies.

53 year old father of 14 battling with cancer

Lifesite News always carries wonderfully edifying stories. This one is too even as it calls us to pray for Jim Littleton and his family. Not only are there the fourteen children in the picture above but they lost five others due to miscarriages.

“[T]hanks to God, we have been consoled by the reality of our crosses having a redemptive value,” they say. “In and of itself the cross would be worthless, a great loss, but the crosses and difficulties, crises, and disasters of our lives all have the capacity to bear much fruit, and culminate in our own growth and purification as well as in the overall redemption of mankind.”

The greatest cross the Littleton’s are now bearing is Jim’s illness, which has affected his ability to work and provide for his family. The extensive demands of his medical treatment as well as 6 hospitalizations have consumed his family’s resources.

Read their story at Lifesite News. There is also the opportunity to contribute to a benefit fund to help the family pay for Jim's continuing treatment.

Pope asks forgiveness for 'cradle Catholics' who did not evangelize

“We who have known God since we were young, must ask forgiveness,” said Pope Benedict to a gathering of his former students at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, on Aug. 28.

The Pope said an apology is due because “we bring people so little of the light of His face, because from us comes so little certainty that He exists, that He is there, and that He is the Great One that everyone is waiting for.” (CNA)

The Holy Father's brief address may be found here in Italian.

I know of many parents (and grandparents) who grieve over the fact that their children and grandchildren are not practising catholics. Some would confess: "I failed!" Others agonize: "I did all the right things, I sent them to catholic school, they went to CCD..." I never encourage parents to beat themselves up (figuratively) over the lapse of their children for I know the pressures that young people face, and perhaps the parents just found themselves ill-equipped and poorly prepared for passing on the faith in a modern age.

Father Z mentions that amongst those who did not evangelize were some priests who failed to pass on the faith in its fullness. At the same time I am privileged to have known priests who were faithful and who profoundly influenced me as a young boy and young man. As Father Z also suggests, the liturgical chaos that reigned in many places served to destroy the faith of many and the restoration of Sacred Liturgy is key to effective re-evangelisation.

There are many fine catholic schools and fine catholic teachers who strive with a passion to pass on the catholic faith. But I personally know many parents who consider that the catholic schools to whom they entrusted their children failed them. I have expressed elsewhere my concerns about catholic education.

I went to one of the best catholic schools in London - Cardinal Vaughan  but it is primarily thanks to my parents who schooled us in right conduct and family prayer and protected us from some of the strange teachings that were doing the rounds in the 60's and 70's that I am a catholic. Of their six children, two are priests, three are practising catholics, one has departed from the fold of the Church. Why did he depart? He received the same upbringing as the rest of us. He even frequented the Opus Dei centres that my brothers attended. The mystery of human freedom! My parents grieved over this, as any good catholic parent would/should. Hopefully their prayers from heaven will assist their son's return to the Church.

Secondarily I thank the fine formation I received through Opus Dei at the local Kelston Boys Club in Wandsworth Common, London, as a youth and at other OD locations and through the Faith movement later in my life. Only later did I go to the Seminary for final preparation for the priesthood.

There are great signs today (e.g. World Youth Day) that the young are responding to an integral presentation of the faith that will enable them, as Pope Benedict puts it, to bring people the light of Christ's face, to communicate to them with certainty that God exists, that He is there, and that He is the Great One that everyone is waiting for.

Larger families are the answer to the economic crisis,

 This is not just the view of the President of the Vatican bank Ettore Gotti Tedeschi but also that of Steven Mosher, the head of the Population Research Institute based in Virginia.

If Americans averaged three children, the Social Security Trust Fund would be solvent forever, without recourse to raising taxes, postponing the age at retirement, or reducing benefits. America would possess a more robust economy and our standard of living would be higher.

See CNA Daily News for their report.

One of our families in Gwinn is certainly doing its bit for the nation. The Winkler family has recently welcomed into the world their ninth child Philip Joseph whose baptism we will be celebrating very soon.

I have also had the joy in recent weeks of being at a birthday party for three children from two large and related families, and dinner with another one. It's such a joy to witness life in abundance, for that is what Christ came to give us.

John Paul II - truly the Great

This superb video is on the USCCB website.

What a powerful defender of human life.

All human life is sacred. Whenever it is endangered we will stand up to defend it.

Will we?

On the TV6 website (see my previous post) there is a comment to the effect that there are too many Catholics in Marquette. Just think if all those Catholics stood up to defend endangered human life, what a transformed society we would be.

Celebrating and honouring marriage

Last Saturday evening there took place a dinner in celebration of marriage. Married couples of the parish were invited to be served a nice dinner provided by Coco's. Here's a slide show - captions hopefully added later.

Apologies to anyone who does not appear - I didn't manage to photograph every table.

"Doctors kept telling me I should have a termination but as her mum I had to protect my baby."

British mother Victoria Webster delayed aggressive leukemia treatment for the sake of her baby daughter Jessica who was born last April. She had the support of her husband Martyn. Read all about it at the Daily Mail and LifeSiteNews.

Does there exist an 'internal forum' solution for divorced and remarried Catholics?

The situation of those whose marriages have, sadly, broken down and who have entered into new unions without the Church's blessing is a common object of the pastoral attention of priests. It can be very tempting to propose a solution that does not reflect the Church's constant teaching in this regard. It is not 'pastoral' to admit people in this situation to absolution and Holy Communion unless they undertake to live as 'brother and sister' and, then, to only receive the sacraments in places where scandal would be avoided.

A couple of years ago I wrote a paper on the subject. I have now provided a link to it in the sidebar of this blog. I hope it is helpful.

Couple of jokes - home schoolers and sex ed

The following via a friend from Catholic-pages.com.

Sts Dominic, Francis and Ignatius of Loyola are transported back in time and place to the Birth of Our Lord. St Dominic, seeing the Incarnation of the Word, is sent into ecstasy. St Francis, seeing God become a helpless child, is overcome with humility. St Ignatius of Loyola takes St Joseph and Our Lady aside and asks "Have you given any thought to His education?"

And this, longer, and funny but serious too....
School Sex Ed

I was holding a notice from my 13-year-old son's school announcing a meeting to preview the new course in sexuality. Parents could examine the curriculum and take part in an actual lesson presented exactly as it would be given to the students.

When I arrived at the school, I was surprised to discover only about a dozen parents there. As we waited for the presentation, I thumbed through page after page of instructions in the prevention of pregnancy or disease. I found abstinence mentioned only in passing. When the teacher arrived with the school nurse, she asked if there were any questions. I asked why abstinence did not play a noticeable part in the material.

What happened next was shocking.

There was a great deal of laughter, and someone suggested that if I thought abstinence had any merit, I should go back to burying my head in the sand. The teacher and the nurse said nothing as I drowned in a sea of embarrassment. My mind had gone blank, and I could think of nothing to say. The teacher explained to me that the job of the school was to teach "facts," and the home was responsible for moral training. I sat in silence for the next 20 minutes as the course was explained. The other parents seemed to give their unqualified support to the materials.

"Donuts, at the back," announced the teacher during the break. "I'd like you to put on the name tags we have prepared-they're right by the donuts-and mingle with the other parents."

Everyone moved to the back of the room.

As I watched them affixing their name tags and shaking hands, I sat deep in thought. I was ashamed that I had not been able to convince them to include a serious discussion of abstinence in the materials. I uttered a silent prayer for guidance.

My thoughts were interrupted by the teacher's hand on my shoulder. "Won't you join the others, Mrs. Layton?" The nurse smiled sweetly at me. "The donuts are good." "Thank you, no," I replied.

"Well, then, how about a name tag? I'm sure the others would like to meet you." "Somehow I doubt that," I replied.

"Won't you please join them?" she coaxed. "I'll just wait here," I said.

When the class was called back to order, the teacher looked around the long table and thanked everyone for putting on name tags. She ignored me.

Then she said, "Now we're going to give you the same lesson we'll be giving your children. Everyone please peel off your name tags." I watched in silence as the tags came off. "Now, then, on the back of one of the tags, I drew a tiny flower. Who has it, please?"

The gentleman across from me held it up. "Here it is!" "All right," she said.

"The flower represents disease. Do you recall with whom you shook hands?" He pointed to a couple of people. "Very good," she replied. "The handshake in this case represents intimacy. So the two people you had contact with now have the disease." There was laughter and joking among the parents.

The teacher continued, "And whom did the two of you shake hands with?"

The point was well taken, and she explained how this lesson would show students how quickly disease is spread. "Since we all shook hands, we all have the disease."

"Speak now, I thought, "but be humble."

I noted wryly the latter admonition, then rose from my chair. I apologized for any upset I might have caused earlier, congratulated the teacher on an excellent lesson that would impress the youth, and concluded by saying I had only one small point I wished to make.

"Not all of us were infected," I said. "One of us ... abstained."

Twelve Days of Christmas for Large Families

Enjoy!

The Church is called to be a believing movement of resistance - Archbishop Chaput

In a remarkable speech to the Canon Law Association of Slovakia earlier this week, Archbishop Chaput speaks about the challenges of secularism and its attack upon the Church both in the US and in Europe. He notes however that the situation in Europe is much more serious than that in the US.

Among the many incisive comments he makes is this one:

The temptation in every age of the Church is to try to get along with Caesar. And it’s very true: Scripture tells us to respect and pray for our leaders. We need to have a healthy love for the countries we call home. But we can never render unto Caesar what belongs to God. We need to obey God first; the obligations of political authority always come second. We cannot collaborate with evil without gradually becoming evil ourselves. This is one of the most vividly harsh lessons of the 20th century. And it’s a lesson that I hope we have learned.

And so it is impossible to seek to 'negotiate' with a state that preaches tolerance and diversity but cannot live with the fact the Church actually preaches intolerance of evil:

This explains the paradox of how Western societies can preach tolerance and diversity while aggressively undermining and penalizing Catholic life. The dogma of tolerance cannot tolerate the Church’s belief that some ideas and behaviors should not be tolerated because they dehumanize us. The dogma that all truths are relative cannot allow the thought that some truths might not be.

I think we have many lessons to learn in Great Britain in this regard: the Church's acceptance of sex education into our schools' curricula; the acceptance of 'diversity' legislation when it comes to employment in our schools; the climb-down that many adoption agencies made in the face of anti-Catholic legislation forcing them to open adoption to same-sex couples; the backing of 'compromise' legislation to reduce the time limits on abortion when such legislation still legislates for abortion and usually results in further relaxation of the abortion law... This is hardly the stuff of 'resistance'.

Archbishop Chaput says that "abortion is the crucial issue of our age" and that "it is no accident" that

the Catholic beliefs that most deeply irritate the orthodoxies of the West are those concerning abortion, sexuality and the marriage of man and woman... These Christian beliefs express the truth about human fertility, meaning and destiny.

These truths are subversive in a world that would have us believe that God is not necessary and that human life has no inherent nature or purpose. Thus the Church must be punished because, despite all the sins and weaknesses of her people, she is still the bride of Jesus Christ; still a source of beauty, meaning and hope that refuses to die -- and still the most compelling and dangerous heretic of the world’s new order.

Hence these issues are the key issues of our age that we must be concerned with.

Archbishop Chaput uses the issue of abortion to illustrate the problem we face today in a rights-orientated culture that does not acknowledge the source of human rights:

My point in mentioning abortion is this: Its widespread acceptance in the West shows us that without a grounding in God or a higher truth, our democratic institutions can very easily become weapons against our own human dignity...

If human rights do not come from God, then they devolve to the arbitrary conventions of men and women. The state exists to defend the rights of man and to promote his flourishing. The state can never be the source of those rights. When the state arrogates to itself that power, even a democracy can become totalitarian.

What is legalized abortion but a form of intimate violence that clothes itself in democracy? The will to power of the strong is given the force of law to kill the weak.

Read the whole speech at the Archdiocese of Denver website. (With thanks to Rev. James Mackay for bringing it to my attention.) See also Lifesite News.

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Larger Family Life

A blog by a mother from Kent, UK, who is expecting her ninth child. Check out Living Life the Larger Family Way.

Frassati Society Barbecue

Thursday 22nd St Peter's Cathedral Frassati Society held a barbecue followed by a Q&A session with Bishop Sample.

The Frassati Society is inspired by Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati who was born in Turin, Italy in 1901. He died at the young age of 24 in 1925 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990.

Pier Giorgio was a

vibrant young outdoorsman who combined a deep love for Christ, a desire to serve the needy, and a mission to imbue society and politics with Christian ideals.(Go here or to EWTN for further information.)

As you can see from the pictures (one a photo, the other the official beatification picture) he even smoked a pipe. In many images of him now, the pipe has been airbrushed out, sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.

The society was started here at the Cathedral a year ago and is an opportunity for young adults to come together and be inspired to live coherent Christian lives, bearing witness to Christ in their states in life.

Dustin Katona, parish youth and Life Teen co-ordinator, with Pastor Fr Mike Steber and Deacon Ryan. I was here last year when Deacon Ryan (not yet a deacon) announced the setting up of the Frassati Society.

One of the reasons the Church is alive here is because of the number of large families. I have met serveral families of eight and six children, and young couples who are embarking on raising families, trusting in God's plan for them regarding the number of children they should welcome as gifts from the Lord. I have also met parents who have moved from rejecting to embracing the Church's teaching on family life and now rejoice in the blessing of many children. The six children in the above photo are siblings (Mom behind them) and there are two more who were running around somewhere. Deacon Ryan to the right and, on the extreme right, seminarian Brad.

Bishop Sample answering the questions from young people, e.g. 'Who is on the diocesan Pastoral Council?' 'What's your vision for the Frassati Society?' 'What chance of having a Catholic High School in the diocese?' 'Why is Father John Boyle here?' The Bishop spoke about his own experience of growing up as a young Catholic and his hope that young people would receive and bear joyful witness to the fullness of the Catholic faith.