Terri's Day

Five years ago on this day, Terri Schindler Schiavo was the victim of a court ordered murder, starved and dehydrated to death by the culture of death that pervades our society.  Her murder was finally completed on Easter Thursday.  She suffered as the Church meditated on the sufferings of Christ, and died as the Church celebrated His resurrection. 

We can be confident that she shared in Jesus' victory over death.  But, the culture of death still pervades our society.  We, as people of God, cannot allow this to happen.  It's time to fall to our knees in prayer.

Let us pray for the defeat of the culture of death and the victory of the culture of life, for Terri and all who are the victims of the culture of death.

Prayer to Defeat the Culture of Death
Lord Jesus Christ, throughout this Lenten Season we meditate on your Passion and death on the Cross for our redemption.  By the merits of your Passion and suffering, we pray for the defeat of the culture of death in our society.  So many innocent of unborn have been murdered in the womb, and on this day an innocent woman's suffering and starvation came to an end by court-sanctioned murder.  By the merits of the suffering by which they shared in your Passion, have mercy on those who promote the culture of death and bring them to repentance.  O Sacred Heart of Jesus, burning with love for all mankind, have mercy on them.

Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for those who promote the culture of death in our society.  By your intercession drive back the scourge of abortion and make our society one that celebrates all life, from birth until natural death, for your Son will not refuse a request from you.

All martyrs and saints in heaven, pray for the end to the culture of death!

We ask this through our Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Planned Parenthood Tears at Catholicism

The folks at Planned Parenthood are at it again. 

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has released a new report on sex education.  Wait do you hear what they have to say.

IPPF uses the terms young people, youth and adolescents interchangeably to refer to people who are between 10 and 24.

In other words, elementary school kids should be treated the same as college graduate students when it comes to sex education.  Any word on the right of parents to choose how best to educate their children?  None that I can see.

It gets better than that though.  Hat tip to the Catholic League.

The entire program is based on a faulty assumption. IPPF says that “The taboo on youth sexuality is one of the key forces driving the AIDS epidemic and high rates of teenage pregnancy and maternal mortality.” Nonsense. In the 1950s, there was no sex education in the schools, the pill was not commercially available and AIDS didn’t exist. Yet the out-of-wedlock birth rate was comparatively miniscule and sexually transmitted diseases were relatively rare. All because of taboos.

According to IPPF, it’s those Catholics—who are indistinguishable from radical Islamists—who are the problem. “Fundamentalist and other religious groups—the Catholic Church and madrasas (Islamic schools) for example—have imposed tremendous barriers that prevent young people, particularly, from obtaining information and services related to sex and reproduction.”

So, let me see if I get this straight; a kid who goes to a parochial school and learns about responsible sexual behavior (such as chastity before marriage) are analogous to Imam Amir's madrasa students who are denied any sort of sex education and are taught that homosexuals are to be put to death?  I fail to see the similarity.

I bring this up not because it's new, but because it's just another example of the extent that the culture of death is going to achieve its aims.  Planned Parenthood and other abortion chains around the world have been arguing for "youth sexual rights" for years.  Why, do you ask?  The reason is simple: money.  More people having sex means more unintended pregnancies (ever notice it's the "sexually liberated" types that have the highest rates of illegitimacy, abortion and STDs?), and more unintended pregnancies means more desperate women coming into their abortuaries, which means more cash for the chains.

Another reason why Catholics and others must stand loud and proud for the virtue of chastity.  Lives depend on it.

You can read the report straight from the horse's mouth here.

Here's Another Gem from the Greenies

Once again, courtesy of LifeSiteNews.

December 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Population control groups have been using the hype surrounding the Copenhagen climate change conference to promote their solution to hypothetical impending environmental catastrophes. Earlier this month, two pieces appearing in the same edition of the Guardian revisited a report by Britain's Optimum Population Trust (OPT) that suggests that people in wealthy first-world countries should "offset" the carbon cost of their jet-setting lifestyles by paying to prevent the births of poor children in the developing world.

John Vidal, the Guardian's environment editor, wrote that the OPT's report suggesting a "radical" plan to cut carbon emissions was the "best bet" to reduce global warming trends. In August, the OPT issued a report claiming to have made a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis to work out exactly how much "carbon emission" a child born in the developing world costs.

Anyone else starting to think this whole Copenhagen thing was a bad idea?

Once upon a time, such a Malthusian outlook on the value of human life was regarded with either suspicion or, more commonly, outright contempt, and for good reason; every single human life is sacred.  Now, in today's secularized, de-Christianized culture, such a thing barely makes a ripple.

Even the far-left, normally ones to jump to the third world's defense at the slightest hint of "oppression", have been conspicuously silent.   No cries of "Western racism", no calls for boycotts or anything like that.  Just silence.

Could it be that radical green rhetoric, with it's near religious devotion to "sustainability" and unspoiled nature and its contempt for human development, if not human existence, be having a negative effect on our culture?  I would say it is.

I pray that people come to their senses.