Friday, March 30, 2012

The Real Christ?

What Jesus looked like based on the Shroud of Turin:

https://picasaweb.google.com/108229353832675928522/WhatTheChristJesusProbablyLookedLikeBasedOnTheTheShroudOfTurin


A                                                                                                           B



Tuesday, March 27, 2012

One thing lead to another with Catholic complicity.



How U.S. government got tied up with contraception

In many cases, the shift toward family planning came through the assistance of Catholic groups

By Russell Shaw - OSV Newsweekly, 4/1/2012
As the end of his two-term presidency approached in 1960, Dwight Eisenhower looked at the idea that the government should promote birth control and said it wasn’t good. Family planning was no business of the American government, Eisenhower pronounced.
What a difference a half-century makes. Back then, Catholic opposition was the chief obstacle to government involvement in family planning. Today, a different president wants to force Catholic institutions into a national system for providing family planning.
Lobbying efforts
Nixon family planning
President Richard M. Nixon, seen meeting with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in 1970, pressed ahead with family planning during his time in the Oval Office. CNS file photo
Numbers illustrate the change. According to a 2008 study, public spending for family planning “client services” in the United States totaled $1.85 billion in fiscal 2006, with Medicaid accounting for 71 percent of that figure and other federal programs for much of the rest. Inflation-adjusted public funding rose 18 percent between fiscal 1980 and fiscal 2006, although there have been some cutbacks since.
Now President Barack Obama proposes co-opting Church-sponsored schools, hospitals and charities as elements of a national health care program for covering not only contraceptives — as the media regularly report — but also sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, something the media often leave out.
This shift is a result not only of a cultural revolution but of maneuvering over many years by the birth control-abortion lobby, government officials and major foundations — with assistance sometimes coming from within the Catholic community.
In the early 1960s, family planning’s relationship to the federal government was that of an outsider looking in. After a presidential commission headed by investment banker and Planned Parenthood enthusiast William H. Draper Jr. proposed government support for birth control, President Eisenhower issued his no.
The Catholic Church was considered the chief opponent. Yet a 1953 poll had found 53 percent of American Catholics in favor of the idea. Opinion on what to do was divided within the National Catholic Welfare Conference, predecessor of today’s U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The abbreviated presidency of John F. Kennedy brought private talks between administration officials and family planning groups, but the big change set in with the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. Two Catholic administration officials, Joseph Califano and Kennedy brother-in-law R. Sargent Shriver, were assigned to cultivate the bishops.
Catholic complicity
Tracing these events in his book “Intended Consequences” (Oxford University Press, $60), historian Donald T. Critchlow says leaders of the campaign to get the government into birth control were “upper-class, Protestant, and white.”
A major object of their efforts was the Catholic Church, where there already were efforts to persuade Pope Paul VI to say yes to birth control in his forthcoming encyclical on the subject. The encyclical, Humanae Vitae (“Of Human Life”), appeared in 1968 and condemned artificial contraception. But by 1965, Catholic support for government birth control had reached 78 percent.
Helping the process along was a series of off-the-record conferences sponsored at the University of Notre Dame from 1963 to 1967 by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, with the cooperation of Notre Dame president Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., and his assistant, George Shuster.
These talks brought together liberal Catholic academics, Planned Parenthood officials and leaders from the foundation world like John D. Rockefeller III, a determined supporter of contraception and, later, abortion. Participants understood from the start that, in Critchlow’s words, they “were coming together to formulate an acceptable liberal position for the church on family planning.”
Turning point
President Johnson’s 1965 State of the Union address marked major turning point. In it Johnson called population growth an international problem that needed addressing, and soon the U.S. Agency for International Development was introducing family planning into its overseas programs. At home, birth control became a major component of Johnson’s War on Poverty.
Concern for the poor moved the Catholic hierarchy to support the anti-poverty campaign while muting opposition to family planning. The bishops merely insisted that it should be “non-coercive,” with other methods besides contraception also available.
By the time Johnson left office in 1969, Critchlow says, a sea change in government policy had occurred.
It continued and expanded in the Nixon years. In one high-visibility incident, President Richard Nixon, with an eye on the Catholic vote, publicly repudiated the final report of a presidential commission on population headed by Rockefeller. At the same time, though, Nixon pressed ahead with family planning. In 1970, it was a $32.8 million federal budget item, but by 1975 the figure had jumped to $159.7 million.
Shifting priorities
By now, too, Catholic opposition to government birth control had wilted, with attention — and opposition — shifting to abortion, which the Supreme Court had declared legal in its Roe v. Wade decision of 1973.
After Roe, the bishops worked harder — and much more successfully — to mobilize opposition to abortion than they’d done a decade earlier in the case of birth control. But family planning was firmly established as an instrument of government policy by now both overseas and at home.
Memories of this less-than-glorious history, involving an earlier generation of the hierarchy, may be among the reasons for the bishops’ firm resistance now to Obama’s plan for making Church-related institutions elements of his system of mandated health coverage for birth control, sterilization and abortifacients.
Newly-named Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the USCCB religious liberty committee, says the bishops “will not rest” until protection under the law is guaranteed to the Church and institutions. If the story of government involvement in family planning is any indication, the bishops may not be getting much rest.
Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.
© 2011 Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.  All rights reserved.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Urgent

Hi Pro-Life Friends

The Illinois House comes back on Monday, March 26 and will be in through Friday [after which they are off for two weeks]. We need your help now on the two pro-life bills on the House floor:

HB 4085 (Joe Lyons) Ultrasound Opportunity Act -- simply requires that a woman having an ultrasound before getting an abortion be offered the opportunity to view the ultrasound imaging of her unborn baby. It is her decision [choice] whether to see it or not. This bill does not say what kind of ultrasound to be used [except that the quality must meet certain industry standards]. 99% of abortions from 7 weeks on [which is when this law's requirement kicks-in] are preceded by ultrasounds. Ultrasounds are the best way to determine gestational age [and from this the method of abortion], if an ectopic pregnancy, or multiple unborn lives. Since this is done routinely, there is no added cost to the woman.

The pro-aborts have decided to concentrate on this bill to try and defeat it. Pro-Life legislators are telling us at the State Capitol that the pro-aborts are sending in faxes and emails urging them to vote NO on HB 4085. These legislators are asking Pro-Life to get in calls and emails to them to support the pro-life legislators' positions to vote YES on this. Sometimes, we think that since our legislator is pro-life we don't have to contact him/her or we don't want to bother them or their secretaries. They are telling us"Please Bother Us!"
PLEASE SEND OUT AN ALERT TO YOUR PHONE TREES, EMAIL LISTS AND LET THEM KNOW TO CONTACT THEIR STATE REPRESENTATIVES NOW EVEN THE PRO-LIFE ONES. It can't wait!

Also, five hostile amendments have been sent to the House floor from a very bad House committee to try and kill HB 4085. There will be a battle by pro-life legislators on the House Floor to keep the hostile amendments off of the pro-life bill. One amendment requires that there be informed consent before prescriptions for erectile dysfunctions be given and another amendment requires that for any ultrasound, the person must be asked if he/she wants to view it. Ultrasounds are done for numerous kinds parts of the body like liver, kidneys, lymph nodes and on and on. These amendments while sounding silly will hurt the bill's passage.

HB 4117 (Tom Morrison) Requires that any medical facility that does 50 or more abortions meet all the health and safety standards as all other outpatient clinics [known as ambulatory surgical treatment centers].

Why Was This Rally Not Covered???






Rally to protest President Obama's attack on religious freedom. Held on March 23, 2012, in Federal Plaza in Chicago.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Illinois State Legislation


Advocacy Witness and Education



URGENT LEGISLATIVE ALERTS

HB 4085 (Ultrasound Opportunity Act). This bill requires that before any woman can get an abortion, she be offered the right to see the ultrasound imaging of her unborn child. This bill is on the floor of the House and is on 2nd reading, which means the bill could be amended. Opponents, have in fact, filed hostile amendments trying to kill the bill.

Ugent! Call your state representative and urge them to vote Yes on HB 4085 with no amendments. This bill must be voted on before the end of March. Otherwise, it will die.

HB 4117 (Amends The Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center Act) This bill would require that any facility that does 50 or more surgical abortions, must meet ALL the rules and regulations under the Act, as Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Centers. Thus, abortion clinics must meet the same health and safety requirements as do other out-patient surgical facilities. The bill is on 2nd reading, which means that the bill could be amended. Opponents, have in fact, filed hostile amendments trying to kill the bill.

Urgent! Call your state representative and urge them to vote Yes on HB 4117, with no amendments.

HB 4141 This bill would amend the Illinois Health Benefit Exchange Law (For implementing the Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act 'Obamacare' ) to give authority and powers to oversee health insurance plans in Illinois. The bill is draft for discussion by insurance industries, business communities, governor's office, state agencies, advocacy groups, medical associations and pro-life groups.

Our task as pro-lifers is to see that an Abortion Opt-Out provision is included within any legislation to implement Obamacare. The Opt-Out would prohibit any tax dollars for any plan that covers abortion. More information to follow.

HR 744 This bill recognizes "Reproductive Rights Awareness Week" from January 22nd thru 28th (January 22nd is the anniversary of Roe v Wade). This bill supports "publicly funded contraceptive services" and says "A majority of American voters believe that matters related to women's reproductive rights, including contraception and abortion, are personal issues that should be decided by women with their families, health care providers and clergy members ... " This bill is on the floor of the House and can come up at any time.  

Urgent! Call your representative and tell them you oppose HR 744. It's a matter of freedom of conscience.

HB 3027 / HB 4616 (Comprehensive Sex-Education Bill).   This bill requires that all public schools that teach sex-education in grades 6 thru 12, must "place substantial emphasis on both abstinence ... and contraception ..." The programs that will be approved are the condom-training type programs, while the abstinence education programs will not be approved. HB 3027 passed the Senate last year, but has not been voted on in the House. HB 3027 is on the House floor for concurrence; HB 4616 is dead.

Urgent! Call your state representative and urge them to vote No on HB 3027.

The General Assembly comes back for two more weeks before a two week Easter Break. (they probably won't call it an Easter Break) The two pro-life bills are on the House floor and must have a vote within the next two weeks before the legislators leave for the Easter Break.

There are two bad abortion related bills that need your attention. Our lobbyists are busy trying to pass the Ultrasound bill and the Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center Act, and at the same time opposing HR 744 and HB 4141. They need your help. All it takes is picking up the phone and making a call to your representative. Babies are counting on you.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Condemmed Prisoners Not The Only Ones Given Choice of Last Meal (VSED)

 If you thought condemned prisoners were the only ones given the chance of choosing a last meal, think again.

Most of us should remember the case of Terri Schaivo, a 41 yr. old brain damaged woman, who was legally euthanized by a court order, at the requested of her husband.  The case garnered national coverage as pro-life groups banded together to try and save Terri, all to no avail. The judge ruled in favor of her husband's request that Terri's life be ended, and barred her family from all attempts to save her  - even though Terri's family had generously offered to care for her on their own, with no cost to her husband. Terri's family were forced to witness their daughter die a long slow agonizing death by dehydration and starvation, which took 13 days for her to finally succumb.

Now, VSED (short for 'voluntarily stopping eating and drinking) is being suggested for those who have decided it's time to die - and there need not be any terminal life-threatening condition to choose VSED.  Medical publications and law journals, as well as the popular press are already reporting positively on the option of VSED.

The New York Times posted on 12/15/08, Estelle's story in their "New Old Age" blog:  "Estelle wasn't dying of anything". With her daughter's help, Estelle searched for ways to "organize her own death."  So, after researching various options for ending one's life, Estelle and her daughter finally opted for V.S.E.D., voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.  The NY Times blog continued to report, that both women were very impressed with their amateur decision.

Like Estelle, Virginia, who was also in her 80's, with no life-threatening conditions, was guided by her adult son, (himself a physician) to research ways of ending her life, finally settling upon VSED as the best way to dispose of mom. Virginia enjoyed her last piece of chocolate cake, as she celebrated her 85th birthday with her family, before she stopped eating and drinking.

Lily, another woman in her 70's, also stopped eating and drinking, after seeking advice from a suicide advocacy group. Her last meal - homemade raspberry ice cream.

Advocates of VSED, contend that it is a painless death, where one just peacefully slips away - as the husband of Terri Schiavo protested to the world, on how Terri passed away.  Terrie's family however, who witnessed her slow and torturous death, tell a different story.  Death from VSED  comes about through the devastating effects of dehydration, and can take anywhere from five to twenty-five days to occur.  One can go without food for quite some time - but the body's need for water, of which we are mainly comprised of, is far more crucial.  The famous Gandhi of India, who went on long fasts, in his attempts to gain peace among his peoples, never deprived himself of fluids.  If he had, he would never have survived his long fasts ... and the fasts would have been a lot more excruciating.

Terri Schiavo was administered medications, in an attempt to alleviate her discomfort, and Estelle's daughter explained that her mother received medications as she died. Virginia's son, as a physician, was able to provide her with morphine and a sedative to relieve her discomfort. Lily's physicians also provided her with morphine and a sedative - however - Lily's daughter later admitted, that her mother howled with anguish during her final days of death by dehydration.  And Terri Schaivo's family describe Terri's long agonizing death, as anything but peaceful and painless. 

Now, the assisted-suicide advocacy group, 'Compassion & Choices' (formerly called the Hemlock Society) has launched a nation-wide campaign to promote VSED as a legal option to hasten death.  Compassion and Choices, in their promotional material, "Peace at Life's End" describe VSED as a "gentle natural passing."  To this end, some medical and legal publications are now suggesting that health care professionals be obligated to inform patients of the availability of VSED, as an end-of-life option.

Nursing home residents, the frail, the elderly and people with disabilities will be at particular risk for being offered the option of VSED.

In Vermont, last May, a law was passed creating a statewide, single-payer health care system, titled: "Green Mountain Care".  Discussions soon followed on how to ensure ways for Vermont to cut health care costs.  Healthcare rationing was one suggested measure - can you guess what the other cost-saving measure was?  Yes, you guessed it -  passing a law that allows physicians to  help end a patient's life under controlled circumstances, known as "death with dignity," was the other proposed cost-saving option.

So, now, not only condemned prisoners will have the option of "choosing a last meal".  Now, if you or your loved ones decide that your life is no longer worth living ... VSED ... (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking) can be one of your options - and you or your loved one, will have to decide what your "last meal" will be ... before you die of starvation & dehydration.  What will your last meal be?

Information in this blog was derived from the "Patients Rights Council" newsletter - 2011-  Vol. 25, No. 4.  The Patients Rights Council (formerly the International Task Force on Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide) is a human rights group formed to promote and defend the right of all patients to be treated with respect, dignity and compassion and to work with individuals and organizations to resist attitudes, programs and policies which threaten the lives of those who are medically vulnerable.
                                                      www.patientsrightscouncil.org



Friday, March 9, 2012

Obama's Act of Supremacy - Those Who Cannot Remember the Past are Condemned to Repeat It!


 
Mark Steyn, hit the nail on the head with a very scintillating article on Obama’s HHS Mandate, and what it really means to religious liberty.  As I myself have personally noticed how today's religious liberty issues mirror the days of Henry the XVIII, I was totally impressed with Mark’s erudite descriptions of the same.

The comparisons between what happened in Henry XVIII’s England of 1534 are not merely similar - we are paying the price of what George Santayana’s famous statement promised:  “those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it,”  Today, we are definitely repeating history.

Obama has gone Henry XVIII on us, with his HHS Mandate's governmental usurpation of religious liberty.  This is an exact repeat of the history of what the people of England experienced when Henry XVIII issued his “Act of Supremacy” making himself Supreme Head of the Church in England in 1534.  For those of you who are not familiar with the history of the Reformation in England, here is a brief excerpt of what Henry’s Act of Supremacy states:  “The King’s Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the Church in England.”  So, Elizabeth II of England is the present head of the Church in England today, and  Henry’s Act of Supremacy further grants her the following:  “The sovereign is the only supreme head on earth of the Church, and shall enjoy all honors, dignities, pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities,  profits and commodities to the said dignity, shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit, repress, redress, record, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offenses, contempts and enormities, whatsoever they may be.”   Wow!  

So today, as with Henry XVIII, the beliefs of religious institutions, particularly regarding the matter of what is ‘erroneously’ termed “women’s health”, will suffer their pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities and immunities to be usurped by their new supreme head of the Church in America. His Majesty Barrack Obama, will now have the authority to repress, redress, restrain and amend what he determines to be heresies.    

BUT! As in the days of Henry XVIII, up to today’s 2nd coming – there is plenty of blame to go around.  St. Thomas More proclaimed: “The clergy of England would have slept through the Sermon on the Mount,” placing much of the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Bishops of England themselves, who, instead of being martyrs for the faith, acquiesced to Henry in order to save their hides.  Today, we could ask ourselves, where was the voice from the pulpit for the past 40 years?  Not that all bishops and priests were remiss in proclaiming the doctrine of the Catholic faith – but there were enough of them who didn’t - that the results have led us to the brink of where we are today.

Mark Steyn’s article goes on to warn all those who may be atheists or lapsed Catholics, who think this new Act of Supremacy won’t affect them, to guess again.  The Obamacare bill contains 700 references to “the Secretary (currently Kathleen Sebelius) may and shall have full authority” to determine pretty much anything she wants … with the particular phrase “tooth level surveillance,” a term indicating a tooth by tooth assessment of a patient’s need for treatment … ie … health care rationing. 

You can read the full text of Mark Steyn’s article here: http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/290806

We are definitely repeating history”  with the new American Church of Obama.

IVF Treatment, “Selective Reduction,” and the Scarring of a Father’s Soul | Illinois Family Institute

IVF Treatment, “Selective Reduction,” and the Scarring of a Father’s Soul | Illinois Family Institute

Monday, March 5, 2012

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY IN CHICAGO AND OTHER CITIES !


Lake County Right to Life is joining with the Pro-Life Action League and other organizations, for a Religious Freedom Rally on Friday, March 23, 2012, to protest President Obama’s mandate, that all insurance coverage must include contraception, sterilization and abortion causing drugs.  

These Rallies for religious freedom are being coordinated nationwide, by the Pro-Life Action League. So far there are over 70 cities in 35 states that will be participating.  Here is the website,  so that you can check on updates regarding the Illinois and Nationwide Rallies:  www.standupforreligiousfreedom.com.

Here in Chicago, the Rally will be in the Federal Plaza at Dearborn and Adams Street at noon on March 23rd.   This location is in front of the building, where Barack Obama and his transition team plotted their agenda between Election Day, 2008 and inauguration day, 2009. The Rally will only be one hour in length, and will feature a broad spectrum of religious and political leaders, who respect our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees. Our own Congressman, Joe Walsh, will be among the many speakers.

This is not only a Catholic issue:   There is a well-known quote from Pastor Martin Niemoller, who stated the following after the Nazi rise to power:   “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Communists - and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists - and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews - and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.”  Today we can add - "Then they came for the Catholics - and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Catholic.”  Pastor’s Niemoller then ends his quote with these prophetic final words:  “Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Call our office at (847) 223- 7022, if you are interested in attending this Rally. Lake County Right to Life is planning to provide a bus, at a minimal charge, for those who need transportation.    




Fr Robert Barron: The HHS Mandate is Anti-Catholic and Un-American,

Watch This Video on Contraception vs Religious Liberty

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Breakling News - Blunt Amendment Defeated by 3 Votes!



  
The U.S. Senate, just hours ago, rejected an initial attempt to prevent the Obama Administration from forcing employers to provide health care insurance that covers drugs or procedures, to which they are morally opposed.

In a very tight vote of 51 to 48, the Senate killed (tabled) an amendment offered by pro-life Senator Roy Blunt. This amendment was strongly supported by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), as well as many national pro-life organizations, including National Right to Life. The Blunt Amendment would have amended the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S1467, HR1179). It would amend the Obama Health Care Law, to prevent the imposition of regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance.

The Obama Administration has issued an initial mandate that covers all FDA approved methods of birth-control. This mandate could be employed by the Administration, in the future, to order all health plans to cover all abortions.

The Blunt Amendment was supported by every voting Senate Republican, except Senator Olympia Snowe, and Senator Mark Kirk, who is on medical leave and could not vote. Every Senate Democrat voted to kill the amendment, except Senator Bob Casey, Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Ben Nelson.

The focus now shifts to the House, where the same legislation, introduced as H.R., 1179 by Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, currently has 220 co-sponsors (more than half of all House members).

ACTION ALERT   :H.R. 1179 will probably be voted on in the very near future. We will keep you informed, but, it is necessary for you to call your U.S. Congressman and urge them to vote YES on the amendment.

Very Moving Congressional Medal of Honor Winner With a Message for All