40 Days: Collegeville

NOW IS THE TIME...

For those who have not signed up at the www.40daysforlife.com/collegeville website it is not to late! Simply click on the upper right hand side - SAVE LIVES - add your name and email address and you will receive throughout the prayer campaign a devotional and occasional updates from the 40 Days for Life National Leadership team. Please take advantage of this added gift of prayer and devotional's by participating in our local Planned Parenthood in Collegeville peacefull prayer campaign.

40 Days For Life

This Wednesday, the largest spring 40 Days for Life in
history kicks off in 165 cities across the United
States, Canada, Australia, and Northern Ireland.

Many of these local cities will be holding kick-off
events between now and Wednesday (and some locations
already held rallies over the weekend to get things
started early.)

If possible, be sure to attend your nearest 40 Days for
Life kickoff rally to get inspired -- and get involved
-- in this historic effort!

Find the location nearest to you, sign up for updates,
and attend their kickoff event by visiting:

http://40daysforlife.com/location.cfm

For those who cannot get to a 40 Days for Life kick-off
rally -- or for those whose local kick-off event does
not conflict -- we have EXCITING news about something
we have never been able to do before!

We wanted to make sure that EVERYONE could be a part of
the excitement from the very start of this 40 Days for
Life campaign, so on Tuesday evening, at 7 PM Eastern
(6 PM Central, 5 PM Mountain, 4 PM Pacific) we are
going to hold a national 40 Days for Life kickoff event
that will be live-video-streamed on the Internet!

We have a video crew joining Shawn Carney (40 Days for
Life campaign director), Abby Johnson (former Planned
Parenthood abortion facility director who experienced a
conversion during last fall's 40 Days for Life), and me
at a live event in Jackson, Mississippi and they'll be
streaming the whole event to you online!

If you have a local 40 Days for Life kick-off at that
time, please be sure to attend your local event (we'll
be recording everything) but otherwise, we'd love to
have you with us online to kick off this campaign!

Here are the details:

WHAT: Video-Streamed National 40 Days for Life Kickoff

DATE: Tuesday, February 16

TIME: 7 PM Eastern (6 PM Central, 5 PM Mountain,
4 PM Pacific)

HOW: At start time, watch the streaming video feed at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/40days

Hope to connect with you online Tuesday evening for an
inspiring and hope-filled event!

For Life,

David Bereit
National Director
40 Days for Life

Latest 40 Days for Life Pro-Life Campaign Kicks off Wednesday in 165 Cities

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 15, 2010

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The latest 40 Days for Life pro-life campaign is set to begin nationwide on Wednesday with pro-life advocates reaching out to their local communities. The pro-life campaign kicks off in 165 cities across the United States and also cities and towns in Canada, Australia, and Northern Ireland.

Some of the local pro-life campaigns will hold kick off events today and tomorrow while others begin on Wednesday.

David Bereit, the national director of the 40 Days for Life campaign is encouraging pro-life advocates to participate in a national video feed from a live rally on Tuesday evening.

"We are going to hold a national 40 Days for Life kickoff event that will be live-video-streamed on the Internet," he told LifeNews.com today.

"We have a video crew joining Shawn Carney (40 Days for Life campaign director), Abby Johnson (former Planned Parenthood abortion facility director who experienced a conversion during last fall's 40 Days for Life), and me at a live event in Jackson, Mississippi and they'll be streaming the whole event online," he said.

The 40 Days for Life is a community-based campaign that draws attention to the evil of abortion through the use of a three-point program of prayer, presence outside local abortion centers, and community outreach.

Julie Petersen of Holy Family Prolife Committee in Wisconsin, encouraged people to get involved.

"Just think of the transformation God could accomplish if individuals and communities across America unite together during Lent, for 40 days of prayer and fasting, pulling out all the stops to end the violence of abortion," she said.

The most recent 40 Days for Life campaign last fall concluded with news that it has helped prevent at least 2,000 confirmed abortions.

Since 2004, 678 campaigns have been conducted in 282 communities, covering all 50 American states, the District of Columbia and American Samoa, as well as Canada, Australia, Northern Ireland and Denmark.

Related web sites:
40 Days for Life - http://40daysforlife.com
Video feed - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/40days

Lenten Pro-Life Prayer

Father of all mercy,
We thank you for this season of grace and light.
We know that sin has blinded us.
Draw us ever closer to you, in prayer and penance.

Since you, O God, are light itself,
Give all your people a clearer understanding
Of what is sin, and what is virtue.

Grant in particular that we may see, as never before,
The profound dignity of every human life,
Including the vulnerable unborn children.

Give us grace to defend
Our brothers and sisters in the womb
By our prayers, our words,
And our self-sacrificing actions.

We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Obama's 2011 Budget Includes Abortion Funding (SBA)

Obama just doesn't get it.

Poll after poll shows that Americans are increasingly pro-life, and even more Americans don't want their tax dollars spent on funding abortion.

Yet, Obama's proposed 2011 budget doesn't reflect this sentiment. In fact, it does just the opposite, and actually increases taxpayer funding for abortion on-demand both domestically and around the globe.

Under Obama's proposed budget, he asks that American tax dollars are used to:

--Fund the Title X "Family Planning Program" which sends money directly to Planned Parenthood. Obama asked that Title X funding be increased by $10 million this year, which would bring total funding to a staggering $327 million

--Fund Abortions in the District of Columbia because of the loss of the Dornan Amendment

--Fund the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) which promotes Abortion worldwide and works with Population Control officials in China who have promoted Forced Abortions and Sterilizations to enforce their oppressive One-Child Family Planning Policy

--Fund People or Groups that engage in Abortion Litigation under the Legal Services Corporation

You see, we have a big budget fight ahead of us, and the Susan B. Anthony List must be prepared to act quickly to mobilize pro-life Americans to fight Obama's dangerous agenda.

We can't do it alone. The Susan B. Anthony List operates solely on your continued generosity.

And while we've been able to put all our weight behind defeating abortion funding in the health care bill, we now have another war to fight, and we must replenish our war chest.

Because the truth is, the battle to defend human life in the pending health care bill isn't over, either.

During the pregame Superbowl show, President Obama stated to Katie Couric: "I want to come back [after the Presidents' Day congressional recess] and have a large meeting -- Republicans and Democrats -- to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there, and move it forward."

carol, We have to keep up the pressure on the White House and Congress to ensure that abortion is not included in health care reform. The abortion lobby is so entrenched within the Democratic Party there is no doubt that they'll do everything they can to get their way.

In fact, the National Organization of Women (NOW) recently urged President Obama to "... hold tight to the values and ideals that he trumpeted" which includes "passing health care reform that recognizes every woman's fundamental right to have access to the full range of health care services, including abortion..."

And President Obama's political arm, Organizing for America, wrote to its members: "It's clear that we're in the fight of our lives to pass real reform" and "we're fighting for our families and our country -- and we don't quit."

Thanks to your efforts, Susan B. Anthony List has:

--Sent over 600,000 petitions to Congress to Keep Abortion Funding Out of Health Care

--Aired over $215,000 in hard-hitting TV and radio commericials urging Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) to stand up and protect Women and the Unborn.

--Aired radio commercials in key Congressional districts of pro-life Democrats thanking them for voting for the pro-life Stupak Amendment and urged them to hold strong against party pressure.

--Completed a whirlwind tour in seven states headlined by Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave covering twenty Congressional districts, rallying pro-life women against abortion funding in health care reform and garnering local media attention

--Placed over 630,000 targeted robo-calls allowing pro-life citizens -- with the push of a button -- to lobby their Representatives in Congress

All these efforts have been made solely because of your continued prayers and financial commitment. But, carol, we simply cannot stop. We must keep up the pressure!

With a pending budget battle to protect our tax dollars from funding abortion and our continued efforts to keep abortion out of health care, our efforts must multiply and therefore our war chest must increase immediately.

Help us get over the finish line. We are so close to stopping the biggest expansion of abortion on-demand since Roe v. Wade and must get the word out about Obama's budget proposal.

I know I am asking you to stretch yourself. We cannot afford to be caught off guard. We're winning the battle for Life. Let's keep the momentum going!

Onward to Victory,

Marjorie Dannenfelser
President, Susan B. Anthony List
www.sba-list.org

P.S. Over 106 million Americans tuned in to watch last Sunday's Superbowl game. How many of those Americans are aware of President Obama's dangerous agenda to fund abortion in health care reform, expand taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, and use our tax dollars to fund forced abortions in China?

Is Embryo Adoption Wrong?

A Debate On
Dignitas Personae, Part Two, nn 18-19

Stephen Napier, Ph.D. says Yes
John M. Haas, Ph.D., S.T.L. says No

The National Catholic Bioethics Center offers the following exchange between two of its ethicists to illustrate how certain moral questions are still open to further theological reflection.

Does the Vatican Document Dignitas Personae (DP) of September 2008 allow for the adoption of frozen embryos remaining from in vitro fertilization procedures?

Stephen Napier, Ph.D., says, Yes.

In Section 19, DP says the following:

It has also been proposed, solely in order to allow human beings to be born who are otherwise condemned to destruction, that there could be a form of “prenatal adoption”. This proposal, praiseworthy with regard to the intention of respecting and defending human life, presents however various problems not dissimilar to those mentioned above. (n. 19).

Some have taken this note to reject embryo adoption. I do not think that is correct.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops says, “The document raises cautions or problems about these new issues but does not formally make a definitive judgment against them.” Also, the current president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, has said that the issue of embryo adoption was still an open question. If the USCCB and the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life got the interpretation wrong, the Vatican would have corrected them publicly. But there has not been any correction; consequently, the question on embryo adoption remains open.

Embryo adoption is clearly an act by which a young human being is saved. The fact that the woman must gestate the child in order to save the child does not change the moral quality of the action. Childhood adoption, after all, is not only permissible but is encouraged by the Church. Adopting a child that happens to be younger, and thus requires implantation in a mother’s womb, means only that the woman must sacrifice more, thus growing in charity. But it also means that the woman can form a greater bond with the child.

Those who say that embryo adoption violates the conjugal act or that it achieves procreation apart from the marital union misunderstand the obvious fact that the child already exists! The child has already been procreated. He or she awaits a loving couple to save him or her.

It is true that the Church says that the child has a right to be gestated by his or her own parents. But who violates that right? Clearly, the parents who went through IVF, and abandoned him or her to life in a freezer. In fact, the embryo-adopting couple cannot violate this right. The right to be gestated by one’s own parents places duties on one’s own parents, and no other.

Adopting an embryo is a way to love a child in a very vulnerable state. Additionally, it gives witness to the inherent dignity of all human beings no matter how small.

John M. Haas, Ph.D., says, No.

DP states in Section 19:

The proposal that these embryos could be put at the disposal of infertile couples as a treatment for infertilityis not ethically acceptable for the same reasons which make artificial heterologous procreation illicit as well as any form of surrogate motherhood; this practice would also lead to other problems of a medical, psychological and legal nature.

The Holy See acknowledges the good motivation of those proposing pre-natal adoption of frozen embryos but states that not even an infertile couple may have them implanted for the various reasons already stated: that in vitro fertilization, artificial heterologous procreation and surrogate mothering (a woman not the mother the child “renting” out her womb for gestation) are wrong. The “problems not dissimilar to those mentioned above” are fundamentally the fact that embryos are manipulated and subjected to the decisions and actions of others that do not respect the inviolability of their personhood.

First of all, some frozen embryos will be chosen to live while others will be allowed to die. What will be the criteria used as to which will live and which will die? Would just boy embryos be chosen, or just Asian or Caucasians ones? These are arbitrary criteria used to decide who will have a chance at life and who will not.

Second, the “thawing” process itself will result in the deaths of some embryos. And then, after they have been thawed, the surviving embryos will be judged as to which will have the greatest chance of survival. Again, arbitrary judgments will be made as to which will be given a chance to live and which not. And how are the ones not chosen for implantation discarded?

Third, single women have advanced the same arguments for rescuing the embryos by offering their bodies to gestate them even though they do not have husbands. This would deny the child the good of an integral family.

Finally, husbands and wives give the procreative powers of their bodies to one another as a gift to be open to the engendering of new life between them. As St. Paul said, “The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but to his wife.” To place someone else’s child into the body of the wife would violate the integrity of the marital union unique to that husband and wife.

As regrettable as it is, as DP says, “ it needs to be recognized that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved.”

A Lenten Reflection (Ministry of the Arts)

Touching the Sacred Within

It's the early 1960s. Inside the front door of my 8th grade classroom, the bulletin board shouts in bold letters: "I LOVE LENT!" Imagine the kids' reactions! But it was true! And still is. The gloom and doom of earlier Lents gave way to the truer experience most of us have. . . 40 focused days of reflection, joy, hope, freshness, Springtime! Energy erupts unbidden, pushing up from the center of creation, surging in body, soul, and spirit. Thus we discover that the Anglo-Saxon word for Springtime is the root word for Lent.

How do we come to the new stories, the truth, our truth, which are longing to be told in our lives? How can we enter our lives anew during this holy time, shedding old labels and discomforts which keep us in prison? How can we touch that sacred place within us so full of love and possibility? How can we become more attentive to God, Great Mystery, the One in whom we live and move and have our being?

No matter what practices we choose for our Lenten journey (it's only for 40 days after all), allow them to bring freshness to our days and our thinking. Let them bring us to a greater awareness of the "within" of things.

We fast from technology one day each week and experience a liberation(!),
an uncluttered bit of time to be.

We listen to Earth awakening; allured out of doors to participate in spring's great promise.

We listen reflectively to our written scriptures and their Promise of Life.

We practice a fast or almsgiving that brings us into solidarity with the hungers of our world.

We practice happiness, the joy of remembering how deeply we are loved.

May this Lent bring us all to a deeper attention to the Sacred WITHIN of things, God's within, your own "within" and the ever-widening circle of our Love and Compassion.

Mary Southard, CSJ

www.ministryofthearts.org