|
Federal Election
2006 |
Click Item for More
Information
|
|
Tax funded
Abortions in NS [FAQ's]
|
|
LifeSiteNews.com - Tuesday February 14, 2006 - A
LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes
Polls Distort U.S. Views on Abortion: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/2/14/153052.shtml?s=ic
'Everyone in public life needs prayer. Everyone.': http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0039453.cfm
Stem Cells May Strengthen Failing Hearts: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/2/14/102852.shtml?s=he
Homosexual political advocacy Human Rights Campaign strongly endorses "pro-life"
Democrat Bob Casey, Pennsylvania: https://www.hrc.org/candidateFundraising/
Recently published "The Founders on Religion" disproves frequent
claims that all those gathered at signing of US Declaration of Independence
and Constitution were at best Deists and more probably atheists: http://www.firstthings.com/
Wal-Mart Must Stock Morning After Pill in Massachusetts:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2006/feb/14/021400760.html
Early Exposure to Porn Causes Harm: http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0039524.cfm
Recent Changes May Render Hippocratic Oath Harmful to Patients, Critic Warns:
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/2/afa/132006d.asp
Down Syndrome Children in High Demand for Adoption: http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0039522.cfm
Federal Court Gives Valentine's Gift to Parents, Unborn Children - Upholds
Florida Parental Notification Act: http://www.afa.net/clp/ReleaseDetail.asp?id=116
Letter from Cardinal George asks homosexual active priests to come forward:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=3896911
Catholic bishops' news service 'strikes' again - publishes misleading and damaging
article about Cardinal Newman Society: http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_11690.shtml
Vulgar 'Women's Movement' Disguised as Workshop: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=12272
Denver Archdiocese uncovers sexual abuse bias for public school teachers: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=5988
Opus Dei bracing for 'Da Vinci' movie: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060213/ENTERTAINMENT03/602130315/1005/ENTERTAINMENT
Hospice Attorney, member of St. Petersburg Roman Catholic Diocese marriage
tribunal under Bishop Robert N. Lynch, Facilitates Schiavo-Centonze Marriage:
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/021306SchiavoFacilitator.html
Poll punishes Greens after senator mocks Catholics: http://www.cathnews.com/news/602/78.php
Colorado Catholics blast proposed State Bill many call blatantly anti-Catholic:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=6000
Enlightenment values will not enable West to dialogue with Islam. But there
is a way forward, as Christians have already demonstrated.: http://www.mercatornet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=226
Latest edition of Western Standard magazine with infamous cartoons banned from
Canadian book store shelves: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/national/story.html?id=44ae4f65-ec22-477b-b966-dbd77dc4d051
How the Cartoon Protests Harm Muslims: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21282
The dictators behind those Muslim cartoon protests: http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/hottopic/?id=110007956
The UN's Coming International Code of Unacceptable Speech: http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/klein021406.htm
Annan prepares for privatization of UN: http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Stories.aspx?Annan%20prepares%20for%20privatisation%20of%20UN&StoryID=523E5488-44AB-4751-8EEB-171844A8CC44&SectionID=F3B76EF0-7991-4389-B72E-D07EB5AA1CEE
Boy Scouts Face a Court Battle Five Years in the Making: http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039518.cfm
UNESCO's Chavez Outrage: http://www.heritage.org/Research/InternationalOrganizations/wm995.cfm
Michael Jackson Nixes Papal Duet Rumors: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/2/14/103045.shtml?s=en
Air Force Religion Policy Under Attack: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/2/14/123228.shtml?s=ic
National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) was headed for alliance with more
liberal wing of Christendom over the environment - Cal Thomas: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/calthomas/2006/02/13/186293.html
GOP's cloning rupture: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/robertnovak/2006/02/13/186120.html
Women-in-combat review will not make deadline: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060214-010506-8568r.htm
Intelligent Design is compatible with Christian theology, but it is not the
only such approach to evolution that is: http://www.mercatornet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=227
Christians who pledge abstinence outlast non-pledgers, study says: http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/content/news/2006/02_08_2006/ne080206christians.shtml
U.S. group implants electronic tags in workers: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ec414700-9bf4-11da-8baa-0000779e2340.html
Money really doesn't buy happiness, study finds: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/13/060213161821.uwwo6evl.html
Blood Relatives of Homosexuals Play Second Fiddle to 'Domestic Partners' Under
New NY Law: http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/2/afa/142006d.asp
Back to Top | Email to a Friend
(c) Copyright: LifeSiteNews.com,
a production of Interim Publishing. Permission to republish granted but acknowledgement
of source (use LifeSiteNews.com)
is REQUIRED
Comments, questions, or news tips: lsn@lifesitenews.com
Search LifeSite - http://www.lifesitenews.com/search/
Subscribe - http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/subscribe/
Life And Family Statements Of Pope Benedict's New Cardinal Selections
By Hilary White and John-Henry Westen
VATICAN, February 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On March 25, Pope Benedict XVI will elevate fifteen men to the College of Cardinals. Of the fifteen only twelve will be of an age to vote in the conclave for a new pope and thus the remainder are seen as honorific appointments.
LifeSiteNews.com has compiled a short summary of pro-life and pro-family statements by those twelve. Those statements reveal that that the Pope has placed a high priority on choosing Cardinals who have made a priority of defending the sacredness of life, the natural family and traditional Christian morality. A number of these new cardinals have been especially outspoken and consistent on these issues.
1. Archbishop William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In 1995, the Archbishop wrote a column published in the Sentinel in which he decried the popular political notion of separating religious morality from political life. In the same column he said, "It should be clear, then, that every Catholic is required to accept this teaching (against abortion) as a matter of faith, and that any Catholic who would deny it would separate himself from the unity of Catholic faith and practice which is the fundamental condition for Church membership." (See the column here: http://www.ewtn.com/library/BISHOPS/LEVADA.HTM)
2. Archbishop Franc Rode C.M., prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
The Slovenian Archbishop, the head of the Vatican office that oversees religious orders said that the emphasis on "extreme secularism" has hurt contemporary society, especially in the Catholic religious orders.
Speaking at a symposium on religious life at the Vatican, Rode said this trend has created a serious cultural deprivation. In places like France and Quebec, most of the leadership in public life were educated by Catholic communities of sisters who have succumbed to the secularizing trend. "Today we see the emergence of a generation of politicians or cultural leaders who are completely ignorant of the Christian tradition," Rode said. (Source: http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.ph... )
3. Archbishop Agostino Vallini, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
National Catholic Reporter's John Allen says of Archbishop Vallini that he served 1999 to 2004 as bishop of Albano, scene of a tragedy in 2001 when a mother and her three-year-old son were assaulted and killed by two local youths. Vallini called for forgiveness, but also demanded an "examination of conscience" by a society, which fosters "a false conception of individual liberty which ends up compromising the common good and the right to life." (Source: http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/)
4. Archbishop Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino of Caracas, Venezuela.
In 1999 when Venezuela's legislature was considering legislation to alter the penal code on abortion, the Archbishop railed against the proposal. It "would be like giving a green light to murder," he said. "Apart from the fact that the Constitution does not allow it, there is something fundamental here-life should never be attacked. We cannot allow abortion to be permitted as if it were just another licit activity." (Source: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=482)
5. Archbishop Gaudencio B. Rosales of Manila, Philippines.
Archbishop Rosales was the replacement for Cardinal Jamie Sin, one of the most outspoken church leaders on life and family issues. While Rosales is not nearly as outspoken, LifeSiteNews.com spoke with those connected to the pro-life movement in the Philippines who had said that Rosales was the best replacement possible for Cardinal Sin. Another good indicator of the Archbishop's thinking was his strong recommendation of Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. Rosales said "I think I would recommend it to every Filipino to see it who believes in goodness and accepts the reality of evil." (Source: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/feb/040225a.html)
6. Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, France.
In 2004, Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux and president of the French Episcopal conference, condemned plans by the mayor to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples not only on religious grounds but also as a means "to support the founding principles of social life itself". "If our society gives so much importance to the marriage of a man and a woman, it is not simply to take note of the formation of a couple… marriage also ensures the renewal of generations, the clarity of filial and parental ties and provides security to the adults and the children who are the fruit of that union," he said in a statement.
"A child born of the union of a man and a woman needs a father and a mother. In order to structure his own personality, he needs the model of a father and a mother," he wrote.
He pointed out the ethical problem of same sex couples and single people having children created through in vitro and other artificial techniques. He wrote that the well-being of children was more important than the desire of adults to become parents.
Ricard is among the small cadre of bishops at Cologne's World Youth Day to celebrate Mass for the young pilgrims of the Juventutem group, an organization of youth promoting the traditional, pre-Vatican II rite of the Mass.
At the opening of the plenary assembly of French bishops in Lourdes in 2004, Ricard said that all Catholics, especially the clergy, should have the right to freely express their faith without fear of political reprisals. "There can be no religious freedom if there is no freedom of expression and the possibility to communicate one's thought, not only in personal relations but also in the social realm."
He lamented that in France there is "a complete secularization of society," and that for some people "there is no legitimacy or place for a manifestation of religion in the public realm."
Sources: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/may/04052106.html; http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=61552; http://www.cathnews.com/news/504/96.php
7. Archbishop Antonio Canizares Llovera of Toledo, Spain.
Archbishop Llovera was among the Spanish bishops who vocally defended the institution of marriage in Spain. He wrote in response to the Spanish Socialist government's inclusion of homosexual unions as legal marriage, that "never, in all the history of our country" had something "so serious taken place."
In his pastoral letter, "to inform the Christian conscience" of Spain, he wrote, "The union between people of the same sex has been never, neither is, nor can be marriage… To admit these unions as marriage supposes not only a perversion of language, but also, and mainly, a perversion of the truth and a destruction, consequently, of the truth of marriage in its reality."
"The right to the marriage between a man and a woman always shares the same génesis that all true human rights: it is an act of the genuine freedom of the women and the men that must just be recognized by the political powers. But the political powers neither create it nor destroys it. Only it recognizes it."
When the socialist government threatened to remove the tax-exempt status from the Catholic Church, he replied that the priorities of the church would not allow him to remain silent. "The Church is able to live in poverty," he stated, "but not without proclaiming Jesus Christ and the sole Lordship of God." Source: http://www.reclaimamerica.org/pages/NEWS/news.aspx?story=191...
8. Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk of Seoul, Korea.
As Archbishop of Seoul, Msgr. Nicolas Cheong-Jin-Suk was the leading prelate signatory to a letter the bishops of South Korea addressed to Catholics calling for respect for human life to be given priority in the 2000 election. The letter asked Catholics to choose their candidates "on the basis of respect of life, the truth and charity."
The letter emphasized that the right to the life is the most fundamental right of the man and must be protected from the threats of the culture of death such as abortion and euthanasia. "A democracy which does not respect the right to the life already lost its raison d'être."
9. Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley O.F.M. Cap., of Boston, U.S.A.
Archbishop O'Malley O'Malley is well known to LifeSiteNews.com readers as one of the US most vocal opponents of homosexual unions and abortion. In a personal, recorded interview with LifeSiteNews.com in Washington O'Malley said of pro-abortion politicians that they shouldn't "dare to come to Communion." (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jan/04012301.html)
In November 2005, O'Malley said that acceptance of homosexual behavior was doing nothing to help those afflicted with such temptations. In a pastoral letter, he wrote, "If we tell people that sex outside of marriage is not a sin, we are deceiving people. If they believe this untruth, a life of virtue becomes all but impossible."
"Sometimes we are told: 'If you do not accept my behavior, you do not love me.' In reality we must communicate the exact opposite: 'Because we love you, we cannot accept your behavior," he said.(http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05112807.html)
10. Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland.
As the chief assistant to Pope John Paul II even prior to John Paul's papacy, since 1966, Archbishop Dziwisz is seen as being of one mind with the late Pontiff one of the greatest defenders of life and family of the last century. National Catholic Reporter's Allen characterizes Archbishop Dziwisz as "staunchly traditionalist on most doctrinal questions."
11. Archbishop Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, Italy.
Archbishop Caffarra, is well known as a vehement defender of the Church's traditional teaching on sexuality and life. In numerous speeches, letters and addresses, Caffarra has reiterated that the place for sex education for children is in the family, and that school sex education must be based on Christian moral principles.
In 1995, upon his arrival in his new diocese of Ferrara he met with the city's lawyers and judges. Despite that he knew many of them to be divorced and working to undermine the institution, he said that one thing, and one thing only, separates man from the animals: marriage. In 1968, the young Caffarra was one of the very few defenders of Pope Paul's encyclical on procreation, Humanae Vitae and later worked for Pope John Paul II as a "ghost writer" on statements on life and family. John Paul II named him the first Director of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
In 1988, Caffarra caused a burst of outrage among prominent dissident theologians when he said they were "anti-God" and called for disciplinary provisions against the bishops who authorized them to teach. Liberal Vatican correspondent, John Allen, called Caffarra one of the "fiercest culture warriors" on issues of human sexuality in the Catholic hierarchy. (Source: http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=7006&amp)
12. Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun S.D.B. of Hong Kong, China
Msgr. Joseph Zen, bishop of Hong Kong whose father, he says was converted by a Canadian Jesuit missionary, said in an interview that the highest priority of his ministry is marriage and the family. He said matrimony and the family are "really being threatened in Hong Kong, where the divorce rate is unfortunately high even among Catholics." Marriage and the family, he said, "are the roots of everything else."
Bishop Zen himself offered to say the daily Mass for the Hong Kong house of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity sisters when their priest was no longer available.
In his Lenten message for 2005, Bishop Zen, wrote that "Life is the first
gift of God to a human being, the most fundamental treasure." He wrote,
"The life of each human person is very precious in the eyes of God, but
so many have been deprived of the right to be born. This is a usurpation of
the sacred power of God over human life, a terrible crime!" (Source: http://www.hsstudyc.org.hk/Webpage/Tripod/T127/T127_E03.htm)
Keep The Definition Of Marriage As A Union Of One Woman And One Man
www.FAMILYVOTE.ca
www.FAMILIVOTE.ca
(en français)
MARRIAGE
66% of Canadians support "keeping the definition
of marriage as a union of one woman and one man to the exclusion of all others".(1)
MOTHERS' HEALTH
Women need to know about the health risks of abortion,
a medical procedure.
CHILDREN: AGE OF CONSENT
80% of Canadians support increasing the age of sexual
consent from the current age of 14 to at least 16 years of age(4).
|
Raise Age Of Consent For Children
- Consentual Sex (14 to 16)
|
||||
|
Proportion of MPs who voted to...
|
Liberal
|
Conservative
|
Bloc
|
NDP
|
| Defend MARRIAGE(2) |
24%
|
95%
|
9%
|
5%
|
| Gather health risk data for women(3) |
9%
|
63%(+)
|
3%
|
0%
|
| Increase age of consent to 16 years(5) |
5%
|
85%
|
0%
|
44%
|
HOW DID YOUR MP VOTE ON THESE ISSUES? go to www.familyvote.ca
(le site est bilingue).
(1) COMPAS March 2005 (2) Bill C-38, June 23, 2005. (3)
Motion M-83, October 1, 2003 (4) Pollara, May 2002 (5) Bill C-313, September
28, 2005
(+) Combines Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties votes
LifeSiteNews.com - Tuesday February 14, 2006 - B
"St. Valentines Day is a Celebration of Marriage, Not One Night Stands" Says Priest
Illinois Newspaper Capitulates, Agrees To Run Pro-Life Ads Refused as "Too Graphic"
Gay Activists Ask Canada to Lower Age of Consent for Anal Sex, National Post Agrees
Canadian Bishops Conference Praises New Prime Minister on "Respect to Life and Human Dignity"
Study Suggests Gay "Marriages" Healthy, Ignores Opposing Research
UK Fertility Authority Proposes Allowing Egg Donation as Embryonic Stem Cell Source
Porn Industry Balks at Law Mandating Minimum Age for "Performers"
UK Home Office Accused of Anti-Christian Bias
Same-Sex "Marriage" Proponents Demonstrate Outside Mass Celebrating Marriage
DONATE to LifeSiteNews.com http://www.lifesite.net/contribute/lifesite/
NEWS TIPS to lsn@lifesitenews.com
or call 1-866-787-9947
Change email address - http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/subscribe/update/
Subscribe friends - http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/subscribe/gift/
The Ottawa Citizen - Feb 14, 2006 - Defining The Terms
Before anyone can begin reforming Canadian health care, we need a legal definition of what constitutes a "medically necessary" procedure. Too often such determinations appear arbitrary. In Ontario, for example, whether a procedure is medically necessary can depend on where you have it done. When the Ottawa Hospital's fertility clinic goes independent this spring, a move undertaken to give the clinic more space, patients will have to pay out of pocket for procedures now paid for by the hospital. Same doctors, same patients, same in vitro fertilization process, or IVF. In hospital: effectively free. In a clinic: $3,500, please. Ottawa Centre MPP Richard Patten is working with the health ministry to fix this, but that it happened at all indicates a certain confusion.
Medical necessity is the foundation of publicly funded health services. The Canada Health Act mandates the federal government to transfer vast sums to the provinces, as long as the provinces' public insurance programs pay for all medically necessary procedures. But the act doesn't spell out "medically necessary," essentially leaving the definition up to the provinces.
In most provinces, in vitro fertilization isn't covered at all. One Nova Scotia couple tried to force their province to fund their fertility treatments, but Nova Scotia's top court ruled in 1999 that the decision was up to provincial officials. The Supreme Court of Canada tacitly agreed by refusing to hear the couple's appeal. This despite the fact that infertility is classified as a disability by the World Health Organization. Although infertility may be a genuine and psychologically traumatic medical problem, the Canada Health Act talks about procedures, not conditions. As a doctor argued in the Nova Scotia case, IVF isn't the only response to infertility, and therefore the procedure itself can't be classified as "medically necessary." It's in the vast grey area where provincial authorities get to decide what the system will cover. Dentistry, eye care, physiotherapy and chiropractic therapy also occupy the grey area.
Just as some IVF treatments are covered in hospitals but not outside them, some drugs are covered for hospital patients but not for others equally in need of them. Ontario has a prescription-drug program for the poor and the elderly, though seniors who have incomes over about $16,000 pay a $100 deductible and a dispensing fee for each prescription - a co-payment system that's out of the question for other "medically necessary" services.
We have to clean up this morass. Where a procedure is performed should have
no bearing on how it's paid for. The Ontario Medical Association and the Ministry
of Health already work together to decide what should be covered, but they should
establish clear principles by which they make their decisions and publish them,
like court rulings. The categorical distinction between drugs and procedures
ought to be scrapped, and if the government expects patients to contribute toward
their medicines, there's no moral reason why the same can't be true of other
treatments. The real debate about health care, long overdue, needs to begin
with the question: Who pays for what, and why?
Mr. Schadenberg's Opposition To Bill C 407 - Ottawa, January 19th, 2006
Dear Mr. Schadenberg:
On behalf of Gilles Duceppe, MP for Laurier-Sainte-Marie and leader of the Bloc
Québécois, I want to thank you for your email of January 17th,
2006.
We appreciate the fact that you took the time to share with us your opposition
to Bill C 407, on the right to die with dignity.
In our view, however, everyone has the right to make decisions about the health
care they want to receive, and to expect that their decisions about their own
body will be carried out. People should be able to choose freely to die if it
is clear to them that they no longer have any quality of life and that their
suffering has become intolerable.
For some people, prolonging life involves a loss of independence and control,
which in turns means a loss of dignity that they cannot accept. We have a moral
obligation to respect the preferences of such people, in such circumstances,
as to when and how they wish to die.
The right to kill oneself is recognized in Canadian law, which permits an individual
who is physically capable of it to commit suicide. But a person who is not physically
capable of it has no right to receive help when such help involves the administration
of a medical procedure. While the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees
equality for all, we have here a form of discrimination against people with
certain disabilities.
What is more, assisted suicide in secret is not uncommon. Some patients have
the good fortune to obtain the help of a doctor, and everything goes smoothly.
But there have been cases where no doctor has been available or willing, and
the attempted suicide has failed, involving horrible suffering both for the
patient and for those around him. Legalizing assisted suicide would put a stop
to this kind of situation.
As it happens, a majority of Canadians are in favour of legalizing assisted
suicide. In 1995, 75% of respondents answered Yes to the following question:
"If someone is suffering from an incurable illness, and suffering severe
pain, do you think that the law should allow competent doctors to euthanize
that patient if the patient formally requests this in writing?"
Lastly, other countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium have already legalized
assisted suicide, with a strict legislative framework around the practice. Foreign
experience shows that the legalization of assisted suicide works well and has
not led to a proliferation of requests for assistance in dying.
Please rest assured that the Bloc Québécois will continue to take
a responsible approach and act at all times with respect for the Canadian people.
Yours sincerely,
Nadine Charbonneau
For Marie Bourgeois
Correspondance Coordinator
LifeSiteNews.com - Thursday February 16, 2006
French Government Report Says No to Homosexual
"Marriage"
Ontario NDP Introduces Organ Donor Bill
Which Presumes Consent of all Dying
White House to Cut Overseas "Family Planning"
AID 18%
Australia Votes to Allow Chemical Abortion
Drug RU-486
APA Admits Mental Problems Resulting From
Abortion Ignored by Official Position
British Government doing Pilot Study of
RU-486
Microchips Being Implanted Into Humans;
Concerns About Privacy and Civil Liberty
Georgia Bill Forces Students to
Consult Parents before Joining School Clubs
Donate to LifeSiteNews.com http://www.lifesite.net/contribute/lifesite/
News Tips to lsn@lifesitenews.com
or call 1-866-787-9947
Change e-mail address - http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/subscribe/update/
Subscribe friends - http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/subscribe/gift/
A Valentine for Movie Lovers - February 14, 2006
United Mothers, Fathers & Friends
A Valentine for Movie Lovers
In a day and age when a "G" rated film doesn't mean
what it used to, I want to let you know about a unique movie rental service
my family and I really appreciate.
Family Safe Movies provides professionally edited Hollywood films straight to
your mailbox at prices that meet, or beat, the local video store. That means
we can all watch the biggest Hollywood movies (including Elizabethtown, Cinderella
Man, Braveheart, The Incredibles, and thousands of others) without any profanity,
gory violence, nudity, or sex scenes.
Try it out!
We invite you to visit the website below and take advantage of our special Valentine's
offer: enjoy 30 days of movies for free! Just go to http://www.familysafemovies.ca
and join using the promotional code: momdad
If you like the service and sign up you will be supporting UMFF - without spending
any more money than you are currently spending on movie rentals - as Family
Safe donates a portion of your monthly subscription to helping our War on Pornography
and other pro-family efforts.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS SPECIAL
OFFER TO FAMILY & FRIENDS
RENT EDITED HOLLYWOOD MOVIES
No graphic violence, nudity or profanity!
Here's how!
Visit www.familysafemovies.ca/
Choose movie rentals online.
Movies are then mailed FREE to your door.
Return when finished; no late fees!
Start your 30-Day
FREE Trial today!
Simply enter the promotional code: momdad
at www.familysafemovies.ca
PLEASE SHARE THIS SPECIAL OFFER WITH FAMILY & FRIENDS
Happy movie night!
Michele Dow
WorldNetDaily - Ezra Deals With Another Hypocritical Media Colleague - February 18, 2006
On February the 8th, the New York Times stated why it wasn't right to print the offending Muslim cartoons, and on that same page they illustrated in some form the Holy Mother of God in Elephant dung. Of all the hullabaloo that the local media has had on this subject the attacks on Christian symbols goes on. Go figure.
Herm
Ezra Deals With Another Hypocritical Media Colleague - February 18, 2006
WorldNetDaily
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48885
Media executive shellacked on TV - By Ted Byfield
Ezra Levant, the Calgary lawyer who has become a newsmagazine publisher, got himself and his Western Standard magazine into the national media again last week by becoming the only Canadian news medium to publish the controversial Danish Muhammad cartoons. While he was at it, though himself an active Conservative, he blasted Canada's new foreign affairs minister, Peter MacKay, for issuing a press release congratulating Canadian editors for refusing to publish them. However, he said, he would give MacKay the "benefit of the doubt" by assuming he had merely been duped by his senior departmental bureaucrats, all appointed by the former Liberal administration, into putting the Canadian government into "the business of promoting Islam.
McKay's press release had said: "The government of Canada will continue to promote a better understanding of Islam internationally in partnership with Canadian Muslim communities." Levant replied: "Imagine if the government announced that, in partnership' with the pope and Billy Graham, it was going to 'promote a better understanding of Christianity internationally.'"
In the resulting uproar, Levant found himself facing on CBC radio Scott Anderson, editor in chief of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper and editorial vice president of Can-West Communications, the biggest television-newspaper conglomerate in the country. Anderson was acting in effect as spokesman for the Canadian news media. In a few terrible minutes, Levant performed on Anderson one of the most painful public eviscerations I've ever heard:
Anderson: We don't publish something just to offend somebody.
Levant: Neither do we.
Anderson: I publish a newspaper based on community standards that we decide as editors in the newspaper. Ah, we want to respect, and we do that across all fields and all subject areas.
Levant: Not for Christians! You published "Piss Christ" (the controversial 1989 photograph by the American photographer Andres Serrano, depicting a crucifix submerged in the artist's urine).
Anderson: Yeah, but we didn't... that was a different issue altogether.
Levant: 'Cause it was Christians, who don't kill?
Anderson: No -
Host Anna-Maria Tremonti: Scott Anderson, let's clarify why is it a different issue altogether.
Anderson: It was a different story. There wasn't, it didn't, hadn't become such an iconic symbol of-of-of-ah-you know, poking a stick in somebody's eye.
Levant: Are you kidding me? That image was - it remains - the symbol of gratuitous insult to Christians! Could you be more insulting than putting a crucifix in a jar of your own urine?
Anderson: The issue around that was where can art go, and that's not -
Levant: Oh, that's the issue, eh? It wasn't offensive. I thought you just said you didn't do things that were gratuitously offensive?
Anderson: Alright. Well, I don't think I said that.
Host: Gentlemen, we have to leave it here. Thank you both.
I confess a prejudice here. I write a column for Levant's twice-monthly magazine, which has become the successor to the one I published in western Canada for 30 years. Notice by the way that Levant, a practicing Jew, is speaking up here for the Christians, something he has done repeatedly.
What Anderson and MacKay lack - along with the Canadian media - is what MacKay's
press release says he wants to achieve, namely "a better understanding
of Islam." Raised in a society still imbued with many of its inherited
Christian values, they assume that Islam and Christianity are much the same
in their message and how they convey it. This is a grievous mistake. When Jesus
Christ found his life and his followers threatened, he
rode into Jerusalem, accepted a terrible death, and in the testimony of his
followers thereby triumphed over death itself. When Muhammad found his life
and his followers threatened at Mecca, he rode to Medina, established an army
and set in motion the conquest of the world. For the first 300 years of its
history, Christianity was spread through suffering. It was by their patient
submission to horrendous torture; death and persecution that Christians convinced
much of the ancient world their faith must be true. Islam was spread to the
world at the point of a sword.
When Christianity undergoes a reform, which it has many times done, it tries to return to the message and methods of its Founder - that is, to a path of peace. When Islam undergoes a reform - and al-Qaida is such a reform - it returns to a path of war. That's what's now going on, and that's what these cartoons warned of. MacKay and the Canadian media suppressed the warning. Levant did not. End of story.
Ted Byfield published a weekly news magazine in western Canada for 30 years and is now general editor of "The Christians," a 12-volume history of Christianity.
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Poll: Majority Of Canadians Would Support Conservative Gov't Restricting
Abortion - By John-Henry Westen
OTTAWA, February 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An Ipsos-Reid poll released
by CanWest Global has revealed that a majority of Canadians would oppose opposition
parties toppling the Conservative government over abortion restrictions. The
poll also found that, by an even larger margin, Canadians would oppose ousting
the Conservatives if they tried to pass a law making same sex 'marriage' illegal.
Even though the poll used language biased in favour of abortion and homosexual
'marriage' support, the results found Canadians unwilling to harbour a government
ouster based on the measures.
Rather than speaking of offering protection for unborn children, or even fetuses,
the poll asked, "Would you support or oppose the opposition parties voting
the Conservatives out if they try to pass a law that limits a woman's access
to abortion."
50% of the 1000 Canadian adults surveyed by phone, from January 31 to February
2, said they would oppose it, while 45% said they would support it.
On the marriage question, rather than asking about the restoration of the traditional
definition of marriage, the poll asked, "Would you support or oppose the
opposition parties voting the Conservatives out if they try to pass a law that
makes same-sex marriages illegal."
54% of respondents said they would oppose ousting the government over it and
45% said they would support the ouster.
Far more contentious, according to the poll, was the issue of private health
care. Should the Conservative government "move to give private for profit
health care a bigger role in Canada", a majority of Canadians (48%) would
support their ouster, while only 46% would oppose it.
The poll's margin of error was listed as 3.1%.
Lawyers In Red Dresses Badly Need To Be Taken Down A Peg - February 19, 2006
The Calgary Sun
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Byfield_Ted/2006/02/19/1451300-sun.html
Liberal interpretation of justice - Lawyers in red dresses badly need to be
taken down a peg
By TED BYFIELD
In the last week of the federal election campaign, the ever more doleful Liberal media figured Tory Leader Stephen Harper had finally made a fatal mistake. He had criticized the courts. In the mythology, which liberals have been diligently trying to establish, the courts are sacrosanct. One must not question the courts. And Harper had. The circumstances were these: If the Tories should happen to win a majority, a reporter asked, what protection did Canadians have against radical action by his party? Three protections, replied Harper. Most of the Senate, the whole senior bureaucracy, and almost all the judges were Liberal appointees. It was by including the judges that Harper was deemed to have made his grave error. To suggest there could be a political bias in the appointment of Canadian judges is, well, unthinkable.
It's on occasions like this that I'm glad I subscribe to REALity, the bi-monthly
publication of REAL Women of Canada. In its January / February edition, they
give a sampling of appointees to the courts. When Irwin Cotler
was Liberal minister of justice, the following became judges:
Michael Brown, Cotler's executive assistant and policy adviser.
Yves de Montigny, Cotler's chief of staff.
Randall Echlin, legal counsel to the Ontario Liberal party.
Rosalie Abella, named to the Supreme Court of Canada, wife of Cotler's close friend Irving Abella.
Marsha Erb, Alberta Liberal fundraiser and close friend of Alberta Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan.
John J. Gill, co-chair of the 2004 Alberta federal Liberal campaign.
Vital Ouellette, unsuccessful Liberal candidate in the 1997 and 2000 provincial elections.
Bryan Mahoney, Liberal candidate twice defeated by Calgary Tory Myron Thompson.
Edmond Blanchard, former Liberal minister of finance in New Brunswick.
These are among the appointees whose dispassionate political neutrality Harper was assailed for having questioned.
However, REALity goes beyond this. It quotes at length the description of Canadian judges given by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin in a lecture delivered last November in New Zealand. When a person is appointed to the bench, explained our chief justice, he or she acquires a unique wisdom and knowledge conferring an ability to determine with certainty how Canadians must live. Thus the judge must not feel bound by the precise words of the Charter. Even in the face of a hostile public opinion, the judge must establish "norms" which are "essential to the nation's history, identity, values, and legal system." The judge is able to discern these "norms," she continued, and confer on them the force of law where necessary. Only judges know how to accurately interpret these unwritten concepts.
REALity said it begged to differ. "Judges in Canada are appointed because they or their law firms have paid large sums of money to the party in power, or have personally worked diligently for the party in power," said the magazine.
The intriguing, in fact dangerous possibility, however, is Chief Justice McLachlin
actually believes this stuff. Perhaps she sincerely thinks when a lawyer is
appointed to the bench, a new insight - what Christians call
"grace" - somehow descends upon the appointee. This person is no longer
just a lawyer who backed the right party. He is now a seer, an oracle, a clairvoyant
with new powers and insights into the soul of the nation.
One might understandably suspect, of course, our chief justice has, so to speak,
slipped her moorings. You'd hesitate to say, gone crackpot. But the odd thing
is otherwise sane people, some in the media, support her in this. They actually
think this "gift of prophecy," or whatever you want to call it, has
been bestowed upon our judges. And there's a reason. Every religion must have
some kind of final, absolute, unimpeachable authority. Christians find it in
the Bible, or in the traditions of the church, or in both. Official Canada has
no religion any more, but it still requires this unassailable final voice, and
must therefore endow the Supreme Court with
this indispensable sanctity.
Frankly I can't buy it. All I can see in the Supreme Court are nine lawyers
in red dresses, who need very badly to be taken down a peg. Let's hope - dare
I say pray? - This will happen.
Lifeissues.net Newsletter #263 - February 19, 2006
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
Good news from Asia. Philippine President defies the United Nations. At a meeting of the Interfaith Dialogue and Conference for Peace, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced that all United Nations money coming into the Philippines, to be used for family planning, will be used to promote effective natural family planning. E. g. It will not be used for contraceptives or abortive drugs.
Something is wrong with the leadership in Sweden. A new government report from Sweden states that it will work to become the world's abortion capital. It wants to open itself up to allow free abortions for non- residents who come there. At present, the law in Sweden allows state paid abortion, up through the 18th week of pregnancy but only citizens can take advantage of it. The government report asks that the availability of free abortions be extended to any person who visits the country. What sort of weird satisfaction does Sweden derive by becoming a MECCA for international abortions, the sole purpose of which is to kill tiny human life?
Is the "Morning After Pill" really bad news? Controversy continues worldwide on the use of the morning after pill, and recently that has focused down to whether or not it should be sold over the counter and how old the young woman might be who would purchase it. Claims of those who want wide usage are very consistent. "It will reduce pregnancies," and "It will also reduce abortions," they say. The experience in Britain, however, points rather dramatically in the other direction. A report by Wendy Wright in Washington presented the findings of several studies on this topic. The one from Glasgow stated that morning after pill prescriptions increased 300% from 1992 to 1999 and abortions did not decrease. In one city, Lothian, condoms were handed out to pupils, and they were sent to clinics for morning after pills. Among the 13 to 15 year olds in this school, pregnancies increased 10% in one year. Research from the UK also revealed that, in one study, over the counter sales to minors produced a rise in cases of Chlamydia from 7,000 to 10,000 in three years. Gonorrhea cases climbed 50%. Abortions increased by nearly 6,000 in a one year period, increasing over 3% with the largest increase being among girls under the age of 16. Of specific concern in Britain is the fact that older men are now exploiting underage girls and then giving them these pills to take the morning after.
God Bless,
Jerry Novonty, omi
QUOTE: Thanks to medicine's prowess in sustaining life on the edge, it is harder than ever to know when it is "time to die."... in fueling our love of youthfulness and limitless life, and our hatred of senescence and decline, the campaign for healthy aging also subtly encourages us to devalue the need to give care and comfort to those we cannot cure. When, moreover, aging does not bring the good tidings we were promised, we may seek instead an even more absolute control over death and come to embrace the pseudo-mastery of "death-on-demand" as the cure for our unconquerable miseries... unless we learn how to let loved ones die when the time comes, we will be tempted to kill self-righteously, of course, in the guise of a false compassion." (Eric Cohen & Leon Kass "Cast Me Not Off in Old Age")
Table Of Contents:
1. Children with Down syndrome in demand
2. Woman's Decision Against Abortion of Premature Baby Brings Joy in the End
3. Rejection prompts unwed mothers to resort to abortion
4. Australia Votes to Allow Chemical Abortion Drug RU-486
5. 'Millions more starving' by 2015
6. Stem Cell Potential Said to Be Undimmed
7. Experimental 'IVM' incorporates erroneous Human Embryology 101
8. Adult Stem Cell Research Scientists Find New Stem Cell In Umbilical Cord
Blood
9. John Fleming: Abortion drug's risks a turn-off
10. Babes benefit when HIV+ moms take a multivitamin
11. Abortion Causes Mental Disorders
12. Two infants get transplants in rare procedure at Columbus hospital
"New" Articles Posted Recently at http://www.lifeissues.net
- Dianne N. Irving: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=irv
- Jameson Taylor: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=tay
- Hank Mattimore: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=mat
- Barbara Kralis: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=kra
- David C. Reardon: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=rea
- Ron Panzer: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=pan
- Emmanuel McCarthy: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=mcca
- Theresa Burke: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=bur
Website: Christ-Centered Effort http://www.unbornjesusourhope.com/. To learn more about a new book focused on the preborn Christ, please visit this website.
Item #1. Children with Down syndrome in demand
Seven were not enough for Diane and David Petersohn, so they decided to adopt.
Because one of their seven children has Down syndrome, a type of disorder caused by a genetic malfunction, they decided they wanted another one with that condition.
The Petersohns found that they had plenty of company. The couple from Liberty, Mo., placed their names on national lists of people seeking to adopt children with Down syndrome, and waited.
After waiting nearly three years, they turned to a private agency that facilitates international adoptions. Today, they're raising money and completing paperwork to adopt a 6-month-old boy from Ecuador who has the syndrome.
Most who seek to adopt children with Down syndrome have had a family member, friend or acquaintance with that chromosomal disorder, or work with them in medical or school professions.
"People think they are just great kids; people feel like they are very lovable," said Rachel Crews, a social worker with the Special Additions adoption agency in Stillwell, Kan.
View full article at washtimes.com: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060212-112732-6787r.htm
Item #2. Woman's Decision Against Abortion of Premature Baby Brings Joy in the End
Parents Kristin and Christopher Schalk faced perhaps the toughest decision of their life when faced with a challenge no expecting parents ever dream they'll face. Doctors told them their daughter Ashlynn would be born 15 weeks early and suggested an abortion.
The couple refused and now are glad they did.
"It wasn't my choice whether that baby lived or died," Kristen told the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper.
Still, Kristen tried to "detach" herself from her baby, she told the newspaper - expecting to have to say goodbye to Ashlynn hours or days after her birth.
According to the Tribune, when Ashlynn was born, she was silent and her skinned was darkened by the lack of oxygen. Kristen told doctors they must try at least once to revive Ashlynn, but they could give up if she was unresponsive.
Ashlynn had a will to live.
Now, after a heart surgery, several lifesaving machines and 13 months later, she's finally coming home.
She's now beginning to do what normal six month old babies do - learning to sit and starting to baby talk with her 3 year-old sister. But that she is alive at all is a miracle.
View full commentary at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/state1406.html
Item #3. Rejection prompts unwed mothers to resort to abortion: study
The fear of getting ostracized or being declared an outcast is the most common reason why many unmarried and pregnant women prefer to undergo abortion.
This was the result of a 2002 to 2004 survey conducted by the Prolife Philippines in its bid to understand deeper why many Filipino women resort to abortion.
Based on the Pregnancy Counseling Services report released by the group showed that from 2002 to 2004, 9,510 females sought their assistance and asked for counseling and that even after being despite being advised against resorting to abortion, 231 proceeded with aborting their pregnancy.
"These women and even men thought of resorting to abortion due to fear of being rejected by their parents," the Prolife report added.
Aside from the fear of rejection, another reason cited by those who commit abortion said they are incapable of becoming parents and raising children.
The Department of Health (DOH) said abortion in the country is rampant with 400,000 cases are recorded annually.
View full text at Sun Star Manila:
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/man/2006/02/14/news/rejection.prompts.unwed.mothers.to.resort.to.abortion.study.html
Item #4. Australia Votes to Allow Chemical Abortion Drug RU-486
(LifeSiteNews.com) - Australia's protection against the deadly abortion drug RU-486 came to an end yesterday, as the House of Representatives voted to remove control of the drug from Health Minister Tony Abbott.
For the past ten years, Australia's health minister has held veto power over the drug. Mr. Abbott, a Roman Catholic strongly opposed to abortion, has kept it out of the country. A private member's bill to strip him of that control was raised in the house, and voted in by the Senate almost two weeks ago.
Control of the drug will now pass to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). It has been suggested that chemical abortions will begin in Australia as early as next year.
The controversial drug RU-486, or Mifepristone, has been linked to the deaths of at least ten women in Europe and the United States, as well as multiple cases of severe side effects requiring blood transfusions and surgery. Opponents of the drug say it was never properly tested for safety before it came on the market in France in 1988.
Despite this, abortion advocates are celebrating yesterday's vote as a victory for women to have "safe terminations." The four female senators who sponsored the bill have said this is only the beginning of their efforts to address women's reproductive health issues.
Opposition to abortion among the general public is growing in Australia. A recent poll showed 87% of the general population would like to see a reduction in the number of abortions performed in the country. Australia has one of the highest abortion rates in the world - almost one quarter of all Australian pregnancies end in abortion.
See previous LifeSiteNews coverage: Australian Senate Votes in Favor of Dangerous Abortifacient Drug RU486: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/feb/06020904.html
Item #5. 'Millions more starving' by 2015
The world will have 100 million extra hungry people by 2015, scientists say. They were speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Despite great improvements in food availability in the 1960s and 1970s, these trends are reversing in many developing countries, they say.
The United Nations' goal of halving hunger by 2015 looks unattainable without new technologies and greater financial investment, they add.
Ten pre-school children die every minute from malnutrition and this number has not changed since the early 1980s despite global promises.
View full text at BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4724282.stm
Item #6. Stem Cell Potential Said to Be Undimmed
The South Korean stem cell scandal has set back researchers and eroded public trust, but it has not undermined hopes for treatments for a wide variety of diseases, scientists said Friday.
[Note: Regardless of the objective scientific facts that "patient-specific" stem cells cannot be successfully produced because of the foreign mitochondrial DNA from the oocyte used, and the Hwang scandal that empirically demonstrated that no "patient-specific" stem cells ever were produced, you see how the cloning establishment continues to slip in their same old erroneous claim that "stem cells" from cloned embryos of patients will not cause immune rejection reactions if injected into the patients. What does work is that if they say it enough times in print and in conference presentations the public will continue to "believe" it. - Dianne N. Irving, Ph.D.]
View full article at forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/02/17/ap2535774.html
Item #7. Experimental 'IVM' incorporates erroneous Human Embryology 101
Aside from obvious ethical issues, the following article on experimental IVM - a new method used to mature oocytes in vitro for IVF "fertility treatments" - quotes erroneous human embryology.. Where the article obtained such scientific mis-information - that diploid oocytes become haploid by some "hormonal signal" while still maturing in the ovary - is speculative, but it does raise the question again as to whether or not these IVF / IVM researchers and clinicians are academically credentialed in human embryology and human genetics, and thus really know what they are doing. - Dr. Dianne N. Irving, Ph.D.
View full article at LifeIssues.net: http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/irv/irv_118erroneous101.html
Item #8. Adult Stem Cell Research Scientists Find New Stem Cell In Umbilical Cord Blood
In yet another advance of adult stem cell research, which is more ethical and has proven more effective than embryonic, scientists at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a new population of cells in human umbilical cord blood that have properties of primitive stem cells.
Umbilical cord blood is generally known to contain hematopoietic stem cells that can only produce cells found in blood, though they have already been highly successful in curing or treating numerous diseases and conditions.
The new findings, however, identify a small population of cord blood cells with the characteristics of more primitive stem cells that have the potential to produce a greater variety of cell types.
"We are excited by this discovery because it provides additional insight into how stem cells can restore function in the brain after injury," said Dr. Walter Low, senior investigator of the study, and professor of Neurosurgery and the Stem Cell Institute at the University of Minnesota.
View full text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/bio1320.html
Item #9. John Fleming: Abortion drug's risks a turn-off
The Australian senate's decision to remove ministerial control over applications to use the abortion drug, RU486, does not represent the views of Australian women, according to a study by the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute (SCBI) in Adelaide. Fr John Fleming, who commissioned the research, found that only 17% of people said RU-486 should be introduced now; 18% said it should not be introduced at all; and 59% said the decision should be delayed until more information, especially about the health risks, is available. 61% of women supported a delay, compared with 56% of men. Fr Fleming commented: "The study shows the push to remove democratic oversight of RU486 applications comes from middle aged and older women who are very unlikely to have recourse to the drug themselves. The strongest resistance came from women of reproductive age, that is, younger women, who of course are the very ones who may have the drug prescribed for them."
Read entire article at The Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18135630%5E7583,00.html
Item #10. Babes benefit when HIV+ moms take a multivitamin
Maternal multivitamin supplements containing vitamins B, C and E reduce the risks of motor developmental delays in infants born to HIV-positive mothers in developing countries, according to a study in Tanzania, Africa.
These findings support current recommendations to give multivitamin supplements, in addition to an anti-retroviral treatment, to HIV-1-infected pregnant women in developing countries, note the authors of the study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics.
Supplement administration has already been associated with delays in HIV progression and reduced complications such as low birth weight, preterm birth, and fetal death.
The team of researchers, led by Dr. Nuala McGrath from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, set out to determine the relation between maternal multivitamin use and the mental and motor development of 327 children born to HIV-1-positive mothers.
A population of HIV-1-infected women received daily doses of either vitamin A alone, a multivitamin regimen of vitamins B1, B2, B6, niacin, B12, C, E and folic acid, both supplements combined, or placebo. The treatment lasted throughout pregnancy and continued for 18 months after delivery.
Their results indicate that a multivitamin supplement (B, C and E without A) had significant positive effects on motor scores, as assessed by a validated index.
View full text at Reuters UK: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2006-02-14T174220Z_01_COL463790_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-BABES-MULTIVITAMIN-DC.XML
Item #11. Abortion Causes Mental Disorders
A study in New Zealand that tracked approximately 500 women from birth to 25 years of age has confirmed that young women who have abortions subsequently experience elevated rates of suicidal behaviors, depression, substance abuse, anxiety, and other mental problems.
Most significantly, the researchers - led by Professor David M. Fergusson, who is the director of the longitudinal Christchurch Health and Development Study - found that the higher rate of subsequent mental problems could not be explained by any pre-pregnancy differences in mental health, which had been regularly evaluated over the course of the 25-year study.
Read entire article at afterabortion.org: http://www.afterabortion.info/news/Fergusson.htm
For additional reading: "Evidence Doesn't Matter" - (Studies Showing Emotional Problems Not Relevant to American Psychological Association's Pro-Choice Advocacy): http://www.afterabortion.info/news/APA.htm
Item #12. Two infants get transplants in rare procedure at Columbus hospital
(Organ trasplant: When two seriously ill infants in Ohio became newsworthy because of a third baby, whose parents chose to donate his heart and lungs, the news media touted the "good news" about the two babies who lived because of transplants, but said little about the "donor." American Life League asked a medical ethicist, Father Joseph Howard, and a transplant surgeon, David Hargroder, to explain what might be ethical and unethical about "domino transplant surgery.")
Domino Transplant: From Fr. Joseph C. Howard, Jr., and David Hargroder,
M.D., transplant surgeon:
The term domino transplant derives its name from the familiar visual image of
dominoes lined up in a row. The act of tipping over the first domino affects
the next one in line and the next, until all of the dominoes have tumbled over.
In the case of the infants in Ohio, the heart and lungs were taken from an infant
that had been declared brain dead (Infant A) and were transplanted into an infant
with bad lungs, but a perfectly good heart (Infant B). This is done primarily
for technical reasons, in that the operation has a better outcome if both the
heart and lungs are transplanted together as one unit. The heart and lungs of
Infant B are removed to make room for the heart and lungs from Infant A. If
the second recipient (Infant C), with a bad heart but normal lungs was not available
to received the healthy heart from Infant B (now the donor), that heart would
have simply been discarded.
It is not uncommon to hear about a sibling donating one of his/her kidneys to
another sibling. This is called a Living Related Kidney Transplant. Living kidney
donors are fairly common since the kidney is a paired organ and a donor can
survive with only one kidney. What makes the domino transplant so special to
the transplant community is the fact that the heart donor is actually a living
donor rather than a "brain dead cadaver donor."
In reality, of course, every heart beating donor is a living donor. The concept
of brain death has been popularized over the past few decades as a means to
reduce the utilization of extraordinary life support as well as to allow for
the cultural acceptance of organ transplantation. Certainly we would not expect
a civil society to accept the direct killing of one individual to save another,
yet this is exactly what occurs when the administration of Cardioplegia (Potassium
Chloride) is used to stop the heart from beating so that organs may be taken
and given to recipient(s). Clearly, in the case of the Ohio transplants, this
hastens the death of the one who is dying (Infant A) but not yet dead!
Many today will argue for utilitarianism: why let all 3 infants die when 2 can
be saved. But the correct moral answer is that it is never morally permissible
to intentionally hasten or cause the death of one who is dying but not yet dead
regardless of how many can be saved! Why? Because it is always wrong and in
violation of the fifth commandment to directly and intentionally cause the death
of an innocent human person no matter how many other lives can be saved.
Read: "Domino' heart transplant patients doing well," Columbus Children's Hospital news release, 2/13/06, http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/518033/?sc=rsmn;
Read: "Two infants get transplants in rare procedure at Columbus hospital,"
WTOL-TV, 2/3/06, http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4451024&nav=5Uai.
Action:
1. Pray that all may have the courage to be God's presence in society and support those who have been deemed "unworthy of life".
2. Stay informed at Lifeissues.net website: http://www.lifeissues.net.
3. All past issues of LifeIssues.net Newsletter available online. Click here: http://lifeissues.net/newsletters/mojo.cgi?flavor=archive&list=lifenews&start=0. (These newsletters are an extension of the Website.)
Assistance:
Please consider financially helping our work to spread the Life Issues message, Thank you:
Donation may be sent directly to:
Fr. Jerry Novotny OMI,
LifeIssues.net, Editor,
Akebono-cho 1-15-9,
Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072.
Contact Editor:
Jerry Novotny OMI,
Akebono-cho 1-15-9,
Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072;
[Tel/Fax: 088-843-0406];
E-mail: jerry@lifeissues.net
Websites by Editor:
English site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html
Film 'Thunders' Truth Of Partial Birth Abortion - February 22, 2006
Film 'Thunders' Truth of Partial Birth Abortion as
U.S. Supreme Court Considers Upholding Ban on Partial-Birth Abortion
DALLAS, Texas, Feb. 22 /Christian Newswire/ - Jonathan Flora, writer and director
of the film "A Distant Thunder," which deals with the subject of partial-birth
abortion, commented today on the Supreme Court's decision to review the federal
ban on this procedure. Speaking from Dallas, where he is attending the convention
of the National Religious Broadcasters, Mr. Flora said, "We are very encouraged
by the news that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the partial-birth
abortion case. This highlights the fact that the time for people to see "A
Distant Thunder is now.
Our goal has always been to bring attention to the horrific nature of partial-birth
abortion and to encourage people from both sides of the issue to open dialogue
and reason together that partial-birth abortion us unacceptable and never in
the best interest of the mother and certainly not the child. While we have been
criticized by some members from the pro-abortion camp we take that as confirmation
that they too recognize the impact "A Distant Thunder" is having on
our culture to help touch people and open their hearts and minds by bringing
awareness of this barbaric act."
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, has been promoting
the film and was with Jonathan Flora in Dallas. Fr. Pavone commented, "A
Distant Thunder is one of the most powerful new tools to educate the public
on the abortion issue. Because the film gives special focus to partial-birth
abortion, it is particularly appropriate to use the film widely right now. The
Supreme Court has just decided to review again the ban on partial-birth abortion
and this topic will be in the news for months to come. What better educational
tool can we have than a professionally produced courtroom drama about partial-birth
abortion?"
Christian
Newswire To: National Desk
Contact: Jerry Horn, 540-220-0095, jerry@priestsforlife.org
Forward
this press release to another reporter or news producer
Christian Communication Network | 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW | Washington
| DC | 20006
© Children of Medjugorje 2006
Permission is given to spread the text of these reports under two conditions:
1) No words are changed,
2) "Children of Medjugorje" is cited along with our website: www.childrenofmedjugorje.com
or email address cobrien@childrenofmedjugorje.com)
Children Of Medjugorje
President: Christine O'Brien
Vice-President: Sister Emmanuel
Advisory Board:
Archbishop Frane Franic
Archbishop D. Peter Chung
Bishop Nicholas D'Antonio, O.F.M.
Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer, O.M.I.
Bishop Donald Montrose
Fr. Daniel Ange
Ralph Martin
February 15, 2006
Dear Children of Medjugorje
Praised be Jesus and Mary!
1. The people from Medjugorje who were the first witnesses of the apparitions are leaving slowly, slowly! Marija's mother, Mrs. Pavlovic, went back to the Father after a painful sickness. Within less than 10 years, Marija has lost her dad, her brother Andrija and her mother. Let's pray for them and with them!
2. "You have forgotten the Bible! " In her last message, Our Lady reminded us one of the main points of her teaching in Medjugorje: Put the Bible in a visible place in our home, read a few verses each day, and put those into practice during the day (see PS).
Father Jozo Zovko says that Our Lady appeared to him in tears on five occasions: "You have forgotten the Bible!" she said. Father Jozo explained that he had often met mothers who had lost a child and suffered much grief. Yet, he had never seen such a sorrowful mother as the Mother of God when she said: " You have forgotten the Bible!"
Croatian Christians suffered much under the Communist regime because the Bible was not authorized inside homes. (This explains the Franciscans' long homilies during masses: it was the only way for them to teach faith to the people, and they just kept this good habit, following in Saint Francis's footsteps). Sometimes, the Communists asked the families to hand over all the Bibles to them, and they would burn them in public with blasphemous comments. The believers, who resisted the threats of imprisonment and ill treatment when they did not give up their Bibles, had to bury them at their own risk. This is how courageous they were! On some Feast days, they would take them out in great secret, and whoever knew how to read would read several pages for the whole household. The Bible was treated with veneration, as it was the only treasure of the house. The Word of God was their light, their hope, and their riches! Everyone would try to memorize as much as they could, because these occasions were rare; they knew how much they needed the light from Heaven to survive the pervading atheism and the lies of Communism. Each verse was a joy to them and felt like an injection of courage in the midst of the hardship of life.
When the Gospa appeared in 1981, the Communist regime was still raging, and there she was asking them to put the Bible in a visible place in the homes! Only the locals would realize the great daring of their Mother from Heaven in this unbelievable message. A bomb!
Those of us who can enjoy having a Bible at no risk today, what do we do with it? The place where we put it shows the importance we give it… Is the Bible our treasure?
A witness from last summer is an example of the subtle impact the media has on people's minds and of the paganism that pervades our society's way of thinking.
Eleonora, a young Catholic American girl arrived in Medjugorje. She was very smart and good hearted. Out of the blue, she told me that her cousin (a young woman) in the United States was going to get married to another woman soon. She added, "I honor that decision". I asked her how she could honor such a decision that does not agree with the teaching of the Bible and thus is not honored by God? She answered that, for her, "one should pick and choose from the Bible!" I realized that more words would help, so I suggested asking for the Gospa's opinion, since Mirjana's apparition was to take place on that morning. Eleonora agreed and was going to "ask the question to Mary and keep her heart open".
Some time after the apparition, Eleonora's attitude was changed. She had not felt anything, nor heard nor seen anything, she said, but in her heart there was a conviction: a homosexual marriage was against nature, and such a marriage was not right.
In this we recognize the work of the Mother of God in Medjugorje: she does not make up another Gospel, does not write another Catechism, does not judge the intentions of the heart nor start campaigns for this and against that, no! With patience and much mercy, respecting everyone's journey, she helps us adopt the road of Light that the Holy Scriptures reveals to us.
Doesn't the Bible tell us clearly what the plan of the Creator is for the human family? "The Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and he brought her to the man…Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh." (Gen 2:22-24)There are many passages that we could quote on the subject. The answer is given by the very One who created our body and our whole being. But how can we know about this light and absorb it if we never read the Bible? How can we then live it and teach it to our children? We run the risk of becoming saturated, even perverted, by the many spiritual media viruses, which we ingest a new dose of everyday, unconsciously. The Mother of God sees the damage done by this poisoning, how can she not weep like a mother losing her child!
People who follow her must be ready to suffer, like our Croatian brothers of the past, because of the laws of some western countries.
For example, in Canada, an Evangelical Minister was just sued and heavily fined, even threatened with imprisonment, for having written a simple truth which so many parents would love to hear more often, "Children of 5 or 6 will suffer physiological and psychological damage, which may be irreparable, because of the texts and the pictures that they have to look at with these new laws." These laws are spreading at great speed! They trample the "10 Words" given to Moses on Mt. Sinai by God and repeated by Jesus. A new totalitarianism is not far from us! Are we going to forget the Bible?? Are we going to let our children be drowned under our very eyes by the " spiritual tsunamis" of today?
In the Bible God gives us paths and directions that we may have Life, a Life that does not fail. But we must face the reality: the powers of this world that are opposing His ways, are using human sufferings and the wounds that most of us carry, in order to impose ways which seem attractive at first, but which actually increase suffering, and even destroy the harmonious order of the human race. Their aim is often money, power or human glory!
Truth Behind the Screen
In 1989, I had the opportunity to participate (with
a priest and a medical doctor from my Community) in a very popular French TV
program. The show was a panel discussion on homosexuality. We went there to
witness the Word of God, and one of the participants, the #1 French "Star"
of homosexuality, creator of a huge company, contradicted us with sharp, ironic,
and aggressive words. When the program was over, as we were picking up our coats
to leave, here he comes to shake my hand with a big smile! He was another man!
Then, I was absolutely astounded when I heard him say, " Congratulations!
You were the only ones on the stage telling the truth!!"
Later on I met him again and we had long conversations together. Naturally I asked him why he attacked us so fiercely during the show, since he thought we were telling the truth. "I had to", he answered, "It is part of the game! I had to fulfill my fans' expectations! I was doing my job! But I was drawn to the three of you from the very beginning of the show. You were pure. This rotten world makes me sick!"
On that day, I lost a good part of my naivety about the real goals of these campaigns! Officially, the whole purpose of this program was to "protect Gay Rights" under the guise of compassion and justice. It was indeed compassion towards the huge bank accounts of those promoters!
So the story ends that, after receiving a basic evangelization, when the man died of AIDS two years later, he pronounced himself for Jesus on his deathbed. But this is another story…
Father Jozo recommends that "each day, while saying grace at table, the father of the family should read his children a passage from the Gospel. Then when he is done reading, he should kiss the Book; for when he kisses the Book, it is Jesus he kisses!"
The Bible, New Age Antidote
Here in Medjugorje, many young people share with us how much they suffer from
confusion. So, at the school of Mary, they are so happy to adopt the Bible as
their "daily favorite"! They find answers to their questions and the
food to stand firm in their faith in front of their agnostic friends.
A few examples:
+ Abortion called "freedom"?
They only have to read the Gospel account of the Visitation! (Lk 1: 43). If
Elizabeth was able to call a 3 or 4 day-old fetus "My Lord," then
how can I declare that at this stage it is not a child?
+ Occult practices, ouija board or calling of the
dead, called "society's entertainments"?
God warned his people against these practices that he calls "abominations"
(Dt 18:11 -14). Then how can I participate in things that fill me with death
of the soul!
+ Magic cures, or so-called "medicines from Heaven",
advocated by The New Age?
In Acts 8. 9-25, St. Peter rebukes Simon the magician who asks for his "power",
when he lays on hands. How can I still entrust my health to these people?
+ Divorce, called "normal"?
See what Jesus said about it! (Mt.19:1 -10)
+ Rest on the Day of the Lord, more and more ignored
in the West?
See what God said to Moses about it! (Exodus 20: 8-11))
Saint Elizabeth of the Holy Trinity (Carmel of Dijon,
died in 1906) gave this wonderful prayer:
"O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend
my life listening to you, I want to make myself all-teachable, in order to learn
everything from you. Then, through every night, every emptiness, every powerlessness,
I want to stare at you forever and remain under your great light. O my loved
star, fascinate me so that I can no longer come out of your radiance".
3. I warmly thank all those who prayed for our mission in Africa (PS 2). Of course, only God can know the fruit, but it was indeed one of the most beautiful missions in my life! The next one is in France next month, a land to be evangelized! Thank you for praying with us for France!
4. On February 2, the visionary Mirjana Soldo received her monthly apparition in private, alone in her room, which only happens once a year in February when pilgrims are very few. She can then appreciate some quiet and privacy with Our Lady, instead of the big crowd mingling at the public apparitions! No message was transmitted on that day.
Dearest Gospa, Mother of the Word, you often heard Jesus comment on the Scriptures in the privacy of Nazareth with Joseph, then later in front of crowds. Please help us listen to the sound of His voice in each verse of the Bible, and may our hearts be set ablaze!
Sister Emmanuel +
PS - "Dear Children, also today I call you to be carriers of the
Gospel in your families. Do not forget, little children, to read Sacred Scripture.
Put it in a visible place and witness with your life that you believe and live
the Word of God. I am close to you with my love and intercede before my Son
for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call." (January 25,
2006)
PS2. For the Egyptians, French speaking or Arab speaking: You may get the 9 cassettes or CDs of Sr. Emmanuel's talks in Cairo (French/Arab) during her January 2006 mission. Information: Tel: (202) 63 50 815 in Cairo or: bcangegardien@yahoo.fr. These CDs will be available for Lebanon and every Arab speaking country.
For South Africa: You may get the 15 CDs of Sr. Emmanuel's talks in English (Topics such as Adoration, Family, Youth, Confession, Consecration, Guardian Angels, etc.) during her January mission. Info: Alex Knox, Tel (039)31-72825 or Rob Bothma (082) 497 5192 Emails: alexknox@lineone.net or rob.bothma@bcx.co.za
PS3 Next missions:
- For Youth. Sr. Emmanuel will lead a retreat on March 24-26 at the Beatitudes
center of Bethanie, on Medjugorje. Info at: Burtin, 41600 Nouan le Fuzelier,
France.Tel. (33) 254 88 77 33. Fax: 254 88 67 81. Email: bethanieretraite@beatitudes.
org
- In Paris, on March 27 at 8.30PM, Talk on St. Faustina and Divine Mercy.Salle Rossini, 8 bis rue de l'Annonciation, Paris 16. Info: Tel (33) 145 03 17 60, Email: vwawer@free.fr
- At the Cathedral of Toulon, on March 31. Holy Mass at 6 PM followed by a talk on Medjugorje. Details to be found on the diocese's webpage: www.diocese-frejus- toulon.com.
- In Sicily (Italy), on April 25, Tel: (39) 09 57 31 43 24
- In Naples (Italy), on April 26 and 27, Tel: (39) 08 14 75 532
Sister is most thankful for all the prayers you'll say for these missions! Info can also be found on our French Webpage at: www.enfantsdemedjug orje.com.
Contact Information
E-mail: cobrien@childrenofmedjugorje.com
Phone: 630-406-5833
Web: http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com
February 25, 2006 Message from Medjugorje
"Dear children! In this Lenten time of grace, I call you to open your hearts to the gifts that God desires to give you. Do not be closed, but with prayer and renunciation say 'yes' to God and He will give to you in abundance. As in springtime the earth opens to the seed and yields a hundredfold, so also your heavenly Father will give to you in abundance. I am with you and love you, little children, with a tender love. Thank you for having responded to my call."
E-Mail: cobrien@childrenofmedjugorje.com
web: http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com
Western Catholic Reporter - Amen To God Bless Canada - February 13, 2006
Bishop Henry
A Shepherd Speaks
By BISHOP FRED HENRY
Calgary
The brief prayer, "God bless Canada," uttered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the end of his election victory speech sent shock ways through much of Canadian society.
Although taken aback by such an unexpected conclusion, I was absolutely delighted and yelled out a loud "yes" in the solitude of my living room and pumped my fist in the air reminiscent of Tiger Woods reaction to sinking an impossible putt.
Why? All too many of our politicians and public figures have been inclined to be timid, even apologetic, in professing or witnessing any belief in God.
Rather than forbidding the mention of God, here was a prime minister actually mentioning God and asking for a blessing - this constituted nothing less that a modern day resuscitation.
Accountability and integrity
The prime minister's conclusion, of course, dovetails perfectly with his call for government accountability and integrity, as ultimate accountability must be rendered to God. Furthermore, his reference to God reflects our nation's history, the spirit of the founding fathers and mothers of our nation, our national anthem, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which begins "Whereas Canada is founded upon the principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law." As more and more social issues pass into the courts, there is less of a role for democratically elected bodies.
Immediately, the charter proceeds to list our fundamental freedoms. The first one is the freedom of conscience and religion. The second is freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.
In the Supreme Court case, known as Big M Drug Mart case, Chief Justice Dickson established the nature of religious freedom in broad terms: "The essence of the concept of freedom of religion is the right to entertain such religious beliefs as a person chooses, the right to declare beliefs openly and without fear of hindrance or reprisal, and the right to manifest belief by worship and practice or by teaching and dissemination." Regrettably, it's mostly been downhill ever since.
After asserting our fundamental freedoms, the charter then begins to spell out rights - first democratic rights, then mobility rights, followed by legal rights, then equality rights, etc.
Section 15 (1) reads: "Every individual is equal before and under the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability."
More recently, not only has "sexual orientation" been read into the Section 15 (1) of the charter, but the courts have ruled that protection for homosexual practices is part and parcel of the protection for "sexual orientation."
In 2002, the Ontario Divisional Court ruled that the owner of a print shop, Scott Brockie, could not refuse to provide services to an organization even if the organization's fundamental purpose violated his religious conscience. Brockie, an evangelical Christian, had refused to print letterhead and stationary for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. God help you if you are not on the politically correct side.
The court narrowed the acknowledgment of Brockie's religious beliefs. He could only refuse to print materials the content of which actually offended his beliefs. Meanwhile, he was fined for offending the dignity of his gay-rights accusers.
Puzzling ruling
In 2005, a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled that a Knights of Columbus Council was entitled to cancel a hall rental when the council learned that the rental was for a lesbian "wedding" reception. Nevertheless, beyond comprehension, the panel proceeded to rule that the complainants had suffered an affront to their "dignity, feelings and self-respect" and the women were therefore awarded $1,000 each. All of this despite a number of efforts being made by the Knights to accommodate the couple in question with other options.
In 2002, the B.C. College of Teachers disciplined a distinguished public school educator Chris Kempling for conduct unbecoming a teacher giving him a one-month suspension. His supposed crime boiled down to writing letters to the editor and an opinion piece in the Quesnal Cariboo Observer questioning the wisdom of promoting the homosexual agenda.
Numerous appeals proved unsuccessful.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his freedom of speech case, prompting Kempling to state: "This is a victory for the enemies of free speech and a sad day for all Canadians who value the free exchange of ideas in the public square. Everything that I have publicly written about homosexuality is backed up by solid research data. I stand by what I have written.
"People need to remember that I have never been asked to retract any of my public statements, nor has any human rights complaint ever been laid against me. I was simply expressing a social conservative point of view shared by millions of Canadians."
Since the Constitution Act of 1982 was passed, we have witnessed a new set of trump-rights to sexual gratification and expressive behaviour that override the fundamental freedoms guaranteed in the charter.
As more and more social issues pass into the courts, there is less of a role for democratically elected bodies. As a result, not only is there less government of the people, by the people, for the people, but consensus building and compromise disappear. There are then only winner and losers and God help you if you are not on the politically correct side.
When a prime minister asks for God to bless the country, this gesture symbolizes the hope that the public square, that common place where people of all faiths and walks of life meet, work, study, debate, play and worship, might after all respect and defend our fundamental religious freedoms.
"God bless Canada" deserves a resounding "Amen."
Delaware Refuses to Authorize Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill
Delaware Refuses to Authorize Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill supported by Congressman Mike Castle fails to pass in home state.
DOVER, Del., Feb. 7 /Christian Wire Service/ a - Opponents of embryonic stem cell research and cloning forced Delaware Senate Bill 80 to be "gutted" of its most important elements in order to gain passage in blue-state Delaware.
Legislators in the Delaware House of Representatives today failed to pass Senate
Bill 80 as written, instead passing a severely reduced version of the bill.
Struggling to line up the votes for passage, sponsors were forced to remove
all reference to human embryonic stem cell research and the destruction of frozen
in-vitro fertilization embryos from the bill, handing opponents of the bill
a clear victory. According to sponsors, SB 80 was based on HR 810, Mike Castle's
bill now in the US Senate, but the elements most like HR 810 had to be removed
from the bill.
Christian Inspiration - Cindy Klassen Speeding For 'His' Sake
By Shirley Byers
SHE LOVES classic literature, good music, great art, and visiting new places.
She loves God and her family. And she loves to compete on the ice. Following
in the skate grooves of Catriona
LeMay Doan - once known as the fastest woman on ice - Cindy
Klassen sped her way to a bronze medal in the 2002 Olympic Games in
Salt Lake City and came within a hair of two more.
Surprisingly, however, the Winnipeg native didn't even consider speed skating
until she was 18 years old. She still dreamed of making it to the Olympics,
but as a hockey player. Klassen has held a hockey stick since the age of five.
In 1996, the 17-year-old powerhouse was playing defense for Canada's National
Junior Women's Hockey team.
Then, in 1998, she was invited to try out for Canada's Olympic team. "I
did my best, and was pleased with my performance," comments Klassen. "I
was fairly certain I had made the team." She was at home with her parents
when the devastating news came. Klassen hadn't made the team. "I felt hurt
and angry, sad and confused all at the same time." She recalls. Still reeling
from her disappointment, Klassen received a call from the National Women's Hockey
Team, encouraging her to move to Calgary. Although she wouldn't be on the team,
Klassen could still train with them.
She complied, joining her former teammates in Alberta. However, she admits:
"I couldn't handle being around all the players who had made the team while
I had been cut."
So, soon after she'd arrived in Calgary, Klassen gathered her things and went
home with the intent of playing on a recreational hockey team. Following her
transition home, Klassen's parents - who urged her to speed skate as a child
- broached the subject again.
Klassen had never been thrilled about what she termed "those skin-tight
outfits and strange, long-bladed skates," but because her mother could
get a discount on the equipment, she agreed to give it a try. "It was so
hard to even stand on the skates. I had a lot of trouble learning the technique,"
explains Klassen. "All of my training for 13 years had been geared to hockey
and this was so different. "There were still those weird outfits... For
the better part of my first year in speed skating, I went against the grain,
and wore very baggy clothes," Klassen laughs. "But at the same time,
I was finding that I loved doing an individual sport - because what you put
into it, you get out of it."
And Klassen put her whole self into it. She trained six days a week, her daily
schedule consisting of two and a half hours on the ice in the morning, lunch,
a nap and two hours of either cycling or weights in the afternoon. Her strenuous
work paid off, as Klassen competed successfully in the World Championships and
World Cups.
Then her lifelong dream was realized when she made it to the Winter Olympics.
"The World Championships can be pretty amazing but the Olympics takes this
to a new level," says Klassen. "For a time in Salt Lake, the pressure
was getting to me," she admits. "I wasn't sleeping, I couldn't eat.
I was so nervous."
She registered to compete in four events - the 1,000, 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000
meters. When the time came for the 3,000-metre race, her anxiety skyrocketed.
"But that very day," she recalls, "I received an e-mail from
the students at my old high school (Mennonite
Brethren Collegiate Institute). [It] was packed with notes of encouragement,
telling me they were cheering [and] praying for me." "And that's when
it hit me," Klassen continues. "This is just another race. [God] knows
the outcome. All I can do is use what He's given me. All I can do is do the
best I can. So, that's what I did."
Suddenly it was all over, and Klassen found herself standing on the podium.
Her "best" had been rewarded with an Olympic bronze medal. Since then,
the geography major has only continued to improve, and in 2003 she became the
first Canadian in 27 years to win the overall title at the World Speed Skating
Championships. Klassen now recognizes that, despite being rejected by the Olympic
hockey team, "God was leading me. This was his plan all along. I learned
by getting cut."
As a believer in Jesus Christ, she adds, "even when you want things...
if it's not in God's will, it's not going to happen. I've learned to go along
with that. "Right now in speed skating I'm having the time of my life,
but I have to be ready to move on if He wants me to do something else."
Klassen desires to be as open about her faith as former teammate and gold medalist,
Catriona LeMay Doan, who told City Light News, "It's my relationship with
Jesus that gives me true significance."
Inspired by Doan's boldness, Klassen says, "I want to use the publicity
I've gotten through my success for His glory. I go back to my old high school
and talk to the students. I... let people know I'm a Christian." She adds,
"I've won a medal, but that's nothing compared to the crown I'll get in
Heaven. I see a lot of people in sports who think when they reach a certain
level they've got it made, but really, you can only find happiness in the Lord."
Courtesy of Living Light News - http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/060210klassen
Fr. Frank Pavone Comments On Scheidler And South Dakota
Scheidler Victory - February 28, 2006
We rejoice today with Joe Scheidler and the Pro-life Action League, who were
again victorious at the Supreme Court in the Scheidler vs. NOW case. What this
means is that the Supreme Court has again reaffirmed our First Amendment rights
to protest at abortion mills, and that we can do this without being afraid that
laws originally designed to stop organized crime will be falsely applied to
us.
This was the third time that this case went before the Supreme Court - an historical
record in itself - and the second time in a row that the Supreme Court ruled
in favor of the pro-life activists. Our press release from Priests for Life
can be viewed here.
Now it is up to us to make sure this is not a hollow victory. If pro-life people
just want to fight this battle from the sidelines, staying within the security
of their homes, schools, and Churches, and not venturing out to be at the killing
centers in solidarity with the children and their families, then this victory
does not have the full strength that it should. The Supreme Court respects our
First Amendment rights. So should we. The victory given to Joe Scheidler today
is a result of his decades of persevering presence at abortion mills throughout
the nation, and is evidence of something I have always said: The best way to
defend our First Amendment rights is to exercise them without fear! Joe's victory
today is our victory, too, and our clear invitation to be present at the places
of death - to pray, protest, preach, counsel, intervene, and educate.
The pro-life movement needs no lectures about being "non-violent."
Our entire message
