Evangelium Vitae Novena Day 4 - Commodification of Unborn Children and Mothers #EVN2016

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Welcome prolife prayer warriors!

As we recall the gift of the great encyclical from Pope John Paul II - Evangelium Vitae - let us call to mind the great need our world has for prayer.

The spilling of innocent blood through abortion and other atrocities against humanity can only be reparated by the pure and Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. With this Novena we contribute our own small effort by petitioning God for the healing of our culture of the following ills.

Contraception * Abortion * Euthanasia * Exploitation (embryonic stem cells, cloning, etc.) * Sex trafficking * Legislators * Clergy * Laity * Chastity

Welcome to Day 4 of our Evangelium Vitae Novena! Please join us in praying for today's intention: an end to the contraceptive mentality which has brought so much chaos into the world. And please remember to pray the daily prayer. God bless you all.

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Daily prayer: Pope Saint John Paul II's Prayer to our Lady.

O Mary
bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause
Look down, O Mother,
upon the vast numbers
of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women
who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of Life
with honesty and love
to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel
as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it
resolutely, in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilisation of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life.

Day 4: March 19, 2016 - For an end to commodification of unborn children and mothers

This moral condemnation also regards procedures that exploit living human embryos and fetuses - sometimes specifically 'produced' for this purpose by in vitro fertilization - either to be used as 'biological material' or as providers of  organs or tissue for transplants in the     treatment of certain diseases. The killing of  innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act. EV 63

Heavenly Father, You designed conception to take place within the conjugal context of  marriage. Please grant your grace of fortitude to all medical professionals who seek solutions to the problems of infertility. May they reject using immoral techniques when assisting with the creation of new life. We also pray that unborn   human beings will no longer be used for experimentation and that existing frozen embryos will be treated with dignity. Father, please enlighten the world to see that surrogacy is not part of Your plan for motherhood, and help us to end all industries that commodify Your   children.  AMEN

Please share this effort with your family and friends and continue to work toward the hopeful goal of a world that respects all life - from fertilization to natural death. 

Remember to us hashtag #EvangeliumVitae when using Twitter.

You may also join the Evangelium Vitae Novena Facebook event  for daily reminders and the opportunity for interaction with like-minded prolife advocates.

If you'd like a bit of history behind the struggle for the respect of life, check out my column at Catholic Stand.

You can also find the daily meditation graphics for sharing on Facebook on the Designs by Birgit fan page. 

In His Name for Life, BirgitJ

Please Join the 2nd Annual Evangelium Vitae Novena

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Last year, the Feast of the Annunciation, marked the twentieth anniversary of a prolife gift given to the Church and to the world by Saint Pope John Paul II – Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life). In an effort to bring the light of Truth to the darkness of the Culture of Death, a Novena was created and shared in honor of this powerfully prolife encyclical. This worldwide effort reached all corners of the globe and sought a common prayer to restore the respect for life.

This year, the second annual Evangelium Vitae Novena is at hand – beginning on March 16 – and promises to be an even larger success. Prolife people from around the world have already signed up on the Facebook Evangelium Vitae event page. More will be following along on this blog or on the Designs by Birgit fan page, where daily petitions will be published.

Won’t you prayerfully consider not only joining us yourself, but inviting your friends and family to do the same?

"For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."  Matthew 18:20

What Is Evangelium Vitae?

The encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) sought to bring attention to the innocent blood spilled through abortion and other atrocities against life. The Culture of Death had taken a firm grip on the world and the life-affirming message of Humanae Vitae, by Pope Paul VI was being largely ignored. In addition to abortion, the world had embraced other forewarned evils such as contraception, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, and commodification of women as well as children.

We Are Sliding Deeper Into the Abyss

Now, as the depravity continues to build, is a time ripe for a concerted effort of united prayer. Recently it has come to light that Planned Parenthood is selling aborted baby parts, even to the point of harvesting still living preborn to fulfill the ‘orders’ being placed by universities and research labs. Government and surgeons in Great Britain are considering an effort to convince mothers to bring disabled babies to term – not to save their lives, but to use them for spare parts in organ donation.

There Is Much We Can Do

The spilling of innocent blood through abortion and other atrocities can only be reparated by the pure and Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. As a plea for healing in our world we share a special Novena here. It was an inspired group effort, initiated by my friend in Australia. Her blog, Light Up the Darkness, shares a treasure trove of prolife information. The meditations were written by her hand and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

  

Each day also brings a relevant excerpt of Evangelium Vitae. The text was approved and foreword written by Father Vincent Edward Mark Bertrand, MA, MDiv, JCL Founder/Director of Marian Advocates for Life.

My part in this endeavor is the creation of the graphics and a bit of publicity.

What Is the Plan?

We will be praying daily for issues relevant to the respect for life. Each day will have a unique intention and excerpt of Evangelium Vitae:

           Petitions (Come back for daily updates):

· Day 1 March 16 - Contraception

· Day 2 March 17 - Abortion

· Day 3 March 18 - Euthanasia

· Day 4 March 19 - Exploitation (embryonic stem cells, cloning, etc.)

· Day 5 March 20 - Sex trafficking

· Legislators

· Clergy

· Laity

· Chastity

For your convenience, I will also be sharing the daily meditations as graphics daily. They will be available both on the Evangelium Vitae Novena Facebook event and on the Designs by Birgit Facebook fan page, as well as on this blog.

How can you participate?

I'm glad you asked! Here are a few suggestions:

·         Please prayerfully consider joining us, these nine days (March 16 - 24), in praying for the strengthening of respect for all life - from fertilization until natural death.  

·         There is an Evangelium Vitae Novena Facebook event you may join for daily reminders and the opportunity for interaction with like-minded prolife advocates.  

·         If you'd like a bit of history behind the struggle for the respect of life, check out this column at Catholic Stand.

·         The text of Fr. Bertrand's foreword and the prayer by Pope John Paul II and daily meditations can be found here and here. 

·         Use the hashtag #EV2016 when tweeting about this Novena or any prolife issue during this time.

·         Use your own social media to share and promote this prolife effort.

Please join us from March 16 until the final prayer on the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25. Thank you and God bless you for your advocacy for LIFE!

 In His Name for Life, 

Birgit J

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2nd Annual Evangelium Vitae Novena was also published at 365 Catholic

5 Reasons Why Abortion is Still Legal and What We Should Do About It

Forty-two years later the ill-conceived legal right to abortion still targets the most innocent members of our society. Despite fervent prayer, educational efforts, transformative heart-softening pleas, and untold numbers of legal attempts, the beast of abortion lives on.

To be noted in our quest for human dignity for all, is the heavy price paid by society. The cancer that is the Culture of Death, hides in the cavernous, dank recesses of the netherworld. Its tentacles reaching ever further into the very fiber of a guileless society, so empowered by selfish greed, it no longer has an identifiable conscience.

Instead of repeating the abortion advocate's mantra of ‘it’s not really a life’, we now hear them say, ‘it’s a life and I don’t care’.

So what brought us here, to the edge of the precipice? Was it simply the natural progression of a world doomed to fall into the abyss of cataclysm or is there an identifiable culprit? A look at the historical fall into the Culture of Death might help us delve into the unvarnished truth.

Ignoring Humanae Vitae

When Pope Paul VI admonished the faithful in his historic encyclical, Humanae Vitae, he made some dire predictions. The faithful, already in the throes of upheaval due to abuses of the Second Vatican Council, largely chose to ignore his ominous warnings. Unlike the internet resources we enjoy today, the faithful of that era depended almost solely on word of mouth – some of which came from those who wished to project their own, personal desires for reform onto the true meaning of the council.

Due in part to poor catechesis or selectively abridged reporting, the family in the pew soon found themselves disobeying Church teaching – either by naiveté or willful dissent. An entire generation largely missed the enormous impact this would later have on society as a whole – until it was too late.

Allowing Contraception

In ignoring both Church teachings in general and Humanae Vitae in particular, a path of destruction for marriage and family was chosen. It might even be said that contraception was fatal to the Church in that respect. Although the full impact took years, even decades to show, the die was cast. In weakening the nuclear family – the foundation of a healthy society – culture had nowhere to go but down. The moral fiber of individual citizens was soon to follow.

Instead of maintaining the core belief that contraception was immoral, many clerics advanced the notion that sometimes contraception was acceptable. It was a matter of envisioning an end game without acknowledging the illicit path taken.

Up until the Lambeth Conference of 1930 all of the faithful, Catholic and Protestant alike, adhered to the dogma that contraception was sinful – always. As the Protestant churches began following an easier, albeit sinful path, the Catholic Church became the sole follower of this aspect of natural law. Unfortunately, many in the Church began to follow the path to disobedience.

Facilitating Promiscuity

As the natural result and purpose of physical intimacy was overridden, great temptation set in. No longer accountable for the natural repercussions of sexuality, promiscuity became an easy trap. When the consequence of pregnancy could easily be circumvented, marriages and well as single relationships began to devolve and suffer. The nuclear family continued to pay the price – as did society as a whole. Increased divorce, rampant cohabitation, weakening of respect for women, rudderless children, same sex 'marriage' and a focus on selfish sexuality all came to pass.

Science Gone Mad

With rampant promiscuity now a norm for a large portion of society, the masses sought even less accountability. Should contraception fail, a failsafe was called for. Abortion came into play, first in the form of doctors doing the unimaginable in dank clinics or rooms under the cover of night, then legalized as a phantom right to privacy after the inception of Roe vs. Wade.

IVF, cloning, surrogacy, and embryonic research soon followed. If the preborn child was an inconvenience to so many, why not use the body that had been cast aside for some imaginary good? That the end never justifies an immoral means was not considered.

As the value of the human species became more and more debatable, their use as a commodity became the next logical step. Soon inhuman experiments were advocated – vaccines using aborted fetal cell lines, rats implanted with human organs, and finally the sale of unborn baby parts to the highest bidder by abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

Accepting Abortion Exceptions

The commercialization of the human being soon created varying classes of persons – some worth more than others. If a wanted child was worthy of limitless cost, the unwanted child was not – simply on the merit of desire or lack thereof. That the only difference between the two was the ambiguous opinion of someone, with no right to make the distinction, fell to the wayside. Value was determined by the desire of the beholder – not by the Author of Life.

Still, the prolife movement didn’t stand idly by. Marches, prayer vigils, and educational efforts abounded. Yet, there was a chink in the armor of the prolife warriors – exceptions. In their fervor to advance prolife legislation, a system of classes for the unborn was accepted. “If we can’t save them all, at least we can save most of them”, became the rationale. The majority didn’t anticipate the unforeseen consequence of this line of thought. By casting some unborn children as expendable, the security of the whole of their number became endangered.

In the eyes of Almighty God, the Author of Life, each person is immeasurably valuable. There are no favorites. There is no one human who is more beloved than another. Opening the gate to that type of distinction has held us back for all of these years. For, in admitting by our openness to exceptions, we weakened the whole of our argument. If one life is worth saving while due to the circumstances of conception, another is not, we are on shaky ground.

What Can We Learn From Our Mistakes?

Inasmuch as human history has tragically proven that deviating from the narrow path brings chaos, it would be wise to adhere to the hard truths. Abortion is wrong, period. Each and every individual has a birthright, granted by an Almighty God. No mere human has the right to proclaim otherwise. Shortcuts or partially adhered to commands from our God stem from a lukewarm faith. It is ours to bring respect for all life back into the forefront. Fervent prayer, unshakable proclamation of the Gospel, the holy witness of the domestic Church (family), and adherence to the natural law will be our weapons. In order to maintain the respect for every life, we must put on the armor of God and follow the entire Truth – no matter the price!

Dr. Ben Carson: Pro-life or Confused?

I've had the deepest respect for Dr. Ben Carson for many years. The movie about his life was outstanding. Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story showed him to be a hard working, virtuous man who was a pioneer in pediatric neurosurgery after overcoming enormous obstacles.

Dr. Carson's syndicated columns clearly expressed his morally sound principles as well. This soft-spoken man was both a genius and a spokesman of moral convictions.

Based on this, I was overjoyed to see Dr. Carson listed as a candidate for the Republican presidential nominee for 2016. His respect for life and lack of racial prejudices made him an admirable prospect.

When asked by an NPR reporter why he doesn't talk about race that often, Dr. Carson responded, "Because I'm a neurosurgeon. I operate on the thing that make them who they are - the skin doesn't make them who they are, the hair doesn't make them who they are. And it's time that we move beyond that because our strength lies in unity. We're not the divided States of America, we're the United States of America."

Many of his other views, such as a support for natural marriage, also made him appealing to me and many other Christians.

Dr. Ben Carson - Troubling Disclosures

Unfortunately, some troubling disclosures have come to light in the meantime. Sometimes thorough research of our candidates, can be very enlightening to us and yet be a really bad for them. As heartened as I was by his performance in the first republican debate, I was disturbed by his prior comments on some of the major topics.

The first glimmer of doubt came about when a research group found that Dr. Carson's name had appeared on a medical research paper that used fetal tissue from aborted babies. There was a prompt reply on Dr. Carson's Facebook page that quelled some of my unease but, as I dug deeper, his own words (elsewhere) convicted him.

In his defence of the use of aborted fetal tissue, Dr. Carson had this to say:

"To not use the tissue that is in a tissue bank, regardless of where it comes from, would be foolish. Why would anybody not do that?"

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"If it were the only way to do something and there was no other way, there might be an argument. But under these circumstances, there isn't a legitimate argument."

Dr. Carson has also shown a lack of regard for parental rights. His support of mandatory vaccines demonstrates this fact. Below you have the opportunity to hear him discuss his views, beginning at around the 1:57 mark.

As troubling as I find mandatory vaccines to be (perhaps a topic for another day) because they usurp the God-given authority parents have over their children, this last bit of information eliminated Dr. Carson from my list a fitting presidential candidates.

In the video below, Dr. Carson can be heard/seen giving his support for the abortion pill, RU486, as well as admitting rape and incest exceptions to his purported prolife position. He further goes on to say something that sounds as if he's okay with killing an unborn child 'as long as their heart isn't beating' - which would make that child between 18 and 20 days old.

After my article on Catholic Stand, Dr. Ben Carson: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, published, I found an article at Politico with even more incriminating video and quotes from Dr. Carson. He has referred women for abortion and he, as well as his staff, stand by this decision.

Can We Support Dr. Ben Carson?

As I lay out my priorities, when it comes to putting support behind a candidate for any political office, abortion and aborted fetal tissue use rises to the top. Other major issues would certainly include parental rights - especially at a time when they are being threatened from many directions. That Dr. Carson agrees with other important, albeit lesser moral issues, falls to the wayside in light of these revelations. My conscience simply doesn't allow such tradeoffs.