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

Sliding Deeper Into the Culture of Death

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Planned Parenthood's Culture of Death

By now most of us have seen or heard about Planned Parenthood committing abortions and using the body parts of these little victims as a commodity. The videos are presented, each one worse than the previous, by The Center for Medical Progress. They incrementally drive home the point until the depravity can only be denied by accusations that the videos were somehow forged.

They were not falsified, however. An outside firm, experienced in such matters, has authenticated that what we are seeing and hearing is indeed the brokering for aborted baby parts. In one video a tiny yet fully formed baby is actually still moving, his heart beating, as he lays in a basin waiting to be butchered.

British Culture of Death

Now enter the British government and a group of transplant surgeons. According the Life News, "British government officials are considering a new program to encourage women to consider giving birth to babies diagnosed with fatal illnesses, rather than have an abortion, so that the babies’ organs can be harvested after they die."

Upon first reading the headline to this story, my mind simply refused to process what the words were portraying. While asking these mothers to reconsider abortion, the plan to use these little ones as spare parts is as inhuman as it is inhumane. Women are being asked to bring their children to term for the express purpose of harvesting their organs.

Of course, the excuse is similar to one often given for abortion in general. The baby falls short of what society calls normal. In some form or fashion, this Child of God is considered less worthy of life because of some physical and/or mental variation.

Let that sink in, because it seems to me that we have become so inundated with the horrors of the Culture of Death, that we no longer want to ponder the issue. It is just too painful. It is just too unbelievable. It is too difficult to comprehend and still go about our normal daily lives.

There's More

As reported in the Daily Mail “In some cases, where donation has been agreed, babies could be certified brain dead but their bodies kept alive by artificial ventilation. Surgeons could then remove organs from these so-called ‘heartbeat babies’ when they are fresh, maximising what can be used and the chance of successful transplant.”

This idea presents yet another problem to the already horrific idea. Declaring someone as brain dead isn't always as clear cut as it may sound. There are many cases of injured people who have been pronounced brain dead or in a vegetative state, who later recovered and lived on to tell about it. We must remember that non-paired organs (the heart, for example) are useless unless there is a supply of oxygen to keep them viable. Brain death, then, isn't necessarily a flawlessly precise call - the reason I'm not designated as an organ donor.

A Doctor Speaks Out 

Via Life News: 

Dr. Trevor Stammers, director of bioethics at St. Mary’s University, called the proposal “a ghoulish suggestion” in an statement to the news media.

“It would be frankly abhorrent if transplant doctors were to ask women whose unborn children have been diagnosed with severe defects to let their baby go to term for the sole reason that its body can be raided for its organs,” Stammers said. “The concept reduces the baby to nothing more than a utilitarian means to an end – a collection of spare parts – rather than respecting life for its own sake.”

“Yes, I know those organs can potentially save the lives of others, but at what cost to our humanity?” he continued.

What Can We Do About the Culture of Death?

God, however, has specific plans for us. His gift of Free Will is being abused in ever increasing ways and depths of depravity. But His promise of grace and strength for those who become His Body, here on earth, remains. If our faith is stalwart and true, we will take up the gauntlet and battle the Culture of Death in His Name. We will fearlessly, armed with Faith and Hope, face the giant as did David.

Where to Start?

• Pray for inspiration

• Listen to God for instruction

• Pray for tjhe courage to act

• Arm yourself with knowledge

• Pray for the grace to act justly

• Act in charity

The entire series of eleven videos of Planned Parenthood and their baby body part commerce can be viewed here. There are also many articles that inform readers about the details of the commodification of aborted babies.

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. 

Hearts from Aborted Babies Grown in Rats

No, you didn't read this incorrectly. Functioning hearts and kidneys from aborted babies are being transplanted into rats. Mad scientists are loose all over the world. Even though some purport to have humanitarian goals, their methods are morally bankrupt.

The end game, they claim, is to grow viable organs for transplant - from unborn human babies, to animals, and then back to human recipients.

That organ failure is a death knell for many cannot be denied. Heart disease and kidney failure claim tens of thousands of lives each year. Yet, even this sad statistic doesn't excuse experimentation on babies - sometimes without their mothers' knowledge - whose lives have been taken before birth.

We've heard it said, and rightly so, that 'the end doesn't justify the means'. How true! Rationalizing that these babies are unwanted and it would be wasteful to simply throw their little, tortured bodies away, doesn't excuse this morbid experimentation. In fact, it threatens to produce an even more active marketing of their parts.

Deriving something arguably good from an act as heinous as abortion, doesn't justify the abortion. Nor does it justify the lack of respect for the human remains of these littlest victims.

These revelations also beg the question: Are the babies really dead before this procedure is begun? For more information, please read Ganogen’s Aborted Human Fetal Kidneys and Hearts Living in Rats and Some Ethical Questions. 

It would seem that, whether you consider yourself prolife or pro-abortion (pro-choice), this information would be deeply troubling, to say the least!

Unquestionably, this is not a pleasant subject. Your friends and family might even complain about your sharing of these horrific scientific experiments. Yet, if we Catholic Christians don't speak up, don't share, who will? As we've already observed, the media won't...