Obama at Notre Dame: some good?

MARY FULL OF LIFE

On 20 December I had a post about Mary Full of Life. Today I received the press release below. One sign of hope from the Notre Dame debacle.

Contact: Valerie Aschbacher FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 18, 2009 Email: info@maryfulloflife.org

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A FRESH RAY OF HOPE at the Crossroads in South Bend Indiana

This past week, overshadowed by controversy and adversity, apart from the arrests and protests, unshaken by President Obama’s arrival to South Bend, Indiana, and approximately a mile away from the center of Notre Dame University, a fresh ray of hope made its way to shine upon the community from higher ground. At the crossroads of North Hill Street and East LaSalle Avenue, an unusual image, a fully and visibly pregnant Mother Mary is literally “showing” life. Presented on a billboard in the vicinity of St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, Jesus, as an unborn child, is portrayed under the protection of his mother’s mantle. In its message, Mary Full of Life appears to bear the weight of humanity into the world and to bring new life.

In 2004, Valerie Aschbacher, a Catholic woman in Portland, Oregon, commissioned a sculpture through an anonymous artist, requesting an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be “barely showing”. The intended purpose of this artwork was to reproduce and sell it, as a way to raise funds for starting a charitable, nonprofit organization.

As the process evolved, it became clearer that the emerging image had a distinctly different mission, which was not, after all, to be barely showing, but rather to be quite apparently “with child”. With each new development, Mary Full of Life proved to have a life of its own. When Aschbacher began researching the thousands of titles and works of Mary throughout the centuries, she discovered, Mary Full of Life was undoubtedly special and she began to pursue copyright protection for the works. Over 250 photos, taken by a professional photographer, uniquely captured the cleverly crafted piece of art, which seems to be full of life from every angle. An inspired prayer, patterned after the Hail Mary, accompanies the image. The collected works are culminated into a website where visitors can engage in a virtual, spiritual experience - www.maryfulloflife.org

The expectant mother, Mary Full of Life first appeared November 13th, 2008, on a similar billboard, atop the city landscape, against a dark backdrop, among the poor and lost souls of Portland, Oregon. From that single billboard, the message of its mission continues to make its way around the globe, with daily visitors to the website in places where it might be least expected – such as China, Myanmar, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Indonesia, Belgium, Chile, Ivory Coast, as well as across the United States.

When several individuals from around the nation, including Jeanette O’Toole of Elmhurst, Illinois expressed an interest in having a similar billboard displayed in South Bend, Indiana, Valerie Aschbacher agreed to pursue it with a local advertising company. Donors from around the country helped to defray the costs. Now, for at least a month, it will stand, larger than life, and speak for itself, with the hopes of furthering its mission - to unite humankind to uphold the sacredness of human life.
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I must confess that I have been thinking very uncharitable thoughts about many members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, who run the University of Notre Dame. I was aware that some members of the congregation had publicly dissociated themselves from the university's decision to invite the militantly pro-abortion President Obama and to gove him an honorary doctorate.

Fr Wilson Miscamble CSC, an Australian who teaches at Notre Dame, spoke at the alternative ceremony held in another part of the campus while Mr Obama was speaking. Thsi must have been very painful for him as he was publicly criticising some of his own confreres but not out of spite or anger, but in order to proclaim the truth of the Gospel and the integrity of the mission of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Though the University of Notre Dame was founded by French missionaries of the Congregation of Holy Cross, it has acquired the nickname of 'The Fighting Irish', especially in the context of the American gridiron game which Americans, for some strange reason, call 'football'. Archbishop Charles Chaput OFMCap of Denver, Colorado, has no Irish blood, though he has visited that blessed land. His paternal ancestors are of French-Canadian background and he is part Native American on his mother's side. But in his comments on the award to Mr Obama he could match any 'Fighting Irishman', though in a charitable way.

For too long, perhaps, we've had too much of a distorted Jesus 'meek and mild' and a total absence of the Jesus who called some persons 'a brood of vipers' and who overthrew the tables of the money-changers in the Temple.

One sign that President Obama may be listening to what some are saying is this brief extract from his Notre Dame speech: Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.

Maybe he's pulling back from his previous position of wanting to deny medical personnel the right to follow their consciences and refuse to be involved in abortions.

I think too that Judge John Noonan, the stand-in speaker for Dr Mary Ann Glendon who turned down the Laetare Medal because she judged she was being used by the university in the context of the honorayr doctorate to the pro-abortion Mr Obama, spoke clearly, in a kind of 'Vaticanese' with an American accent. He very clearly implied, to me at least, that one day Americans, and others, would see clearly that abortion is wrong just as most of us see clearly today that slavery is wrong, that torture is wrong.

This whole episode has been shabby, not only a failure to preach the Gospel and to defend basic human rights, but an open defiance of the Gospel, an insult to Our Lady in the university that carries her name, an insult to Jesus who died on the Cross by a university run by the Congregation of Holy Cross. But all is not lost.

A choice for life at Notre Dame

Golden Dome Statue of Our Lady, University of Notre Dame

The decision of the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, USA, to invite President Obama receive an honorary doctorate and to be its commencement speaker on 17 May has caused great controversy. The university has been one that all Catholic Americans were proud of and is run by the Congregation of the Holy Cross of which Father Patrick Peyton, ‘The Rosary Priest’, was a member.

The controversy is due to the fact that Mr Obama is militantly pro-abortion, as his record and his promises show. Mary Ann Glendon, former US ambassador to the Vatican, was to have received the Laetare Award at the same graduation but has now declined to do so because of her perception that she was being used to supply ‘balance’ on an issue on which the Church is absolutely clear: abortion is always intrinsically evil.

First Things features an article by a Notre Dame graduate, Lacy Dodd, who knows exactly what’s at stake and who concludes her article with a question for Notre Dame president, Fr John I. Jenkins CSC: There have been many things written about the honors to be extended to President Obama. I’d like to ask this of Fr. John Jenkins, the Notre Dame president: Who draws support from your decision to honor President Obama—the young, pregnant Notre Dame woman sitting in that graduating class who wants desperately to keep her baby, or the Notre Dame man who believes that the Catholic teaching on the intrinsic evil of abortion is just dining-room talk?

Read the full article to get the impact of Lucy's question.

H/T Catholic Culture

Former US Ambassador to Vatican declines top award from University of Notre Dame

Zenit reports today that ‘the former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Mary Ann Glendon, sent a letter today to Notre Dame's president, declining to accept the university's Laetare Medal award.‘Glendon, currently the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, wrote to Father John Jenkins, that she was "profoundly moved" when she was first informed of the decision to award her the medal at this year's commencement ceremony.’

The Laetare Medal is the highest award given by the University of Notre Dame.

Fr John I. Jenkins CSC; Mary Ann Glendon

Here is the text of Mrs Glendon’s letter to Father Jenkins CSC, President of the University of Notre Dame:

April 27, 2009

The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.

President

University of Notre Dame

Dear Father Jenkins,

When you informed me in December 2008 that I had been selected to receive Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, I was profoundly moved. I treasure the memory of receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1996, and I have always felt honored that the commencement speech I gave that year was included in the anthology of Notre Dame’s most memorable commencement speeches. So I immediately began working on an acceptance speech that I hoped would be worthy of the occasion, of the honor of the medal, and of your students and faculty.

Last month, when you called to tell me that the commencement speech was to be given by President Obama, I mentioned to you that I would have to rewrite my speech. Over the ensuing weeks, the task that once seemed so delightful has been complicated by a number of factors.

First, as a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I could not help but be dismayed by the news that Notre Dame also planned to award the president an honorary degree. This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops’ express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions “should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles” and that such persons “should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution’s freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it.

Then I learned that “talking points” issued by Notre Dame in response to widespread criticism of its decision included two statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event:

• “President Obama won’t be doing all the talking. Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be speaking as the recipient of the Laetare Medal.”

• “We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about.”

A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision—in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops—to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.

Finally, with recent news reports that other Catholic schools are similarly choosing to disregard the bishops’ guidelines, I am concerned that Notre Dame’s example could have an unfortunate ripple effect.

It is with great sadness, therefore, that I have concluded that I cannot accept the Laetare Medal or participate in the May 17 graduation ceremony.

In order to avoid the inevitable speculation about the reasons for my decision, I will release this letter to the press, but I do not plan to make any further comment on the matter at this time.

Yours Very Truly,

Mary Ann Glendon

Mary Ann Glendon is Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. A member of the editorial and advisory board of First Things , she served as the US Ambassador to the Vatican from 2007 to 2009.

St Gregory the Great with St Ignatius of Loyola and St Francis Xavier

Guercino, c.1626

One can see only a willful betrayal of the gospel in the decision of Notre Dame to give an honorary degree to a politician, albeit the elected president of the USA, whose pro-abortion record is utterly appalling. One can only rejoice that a new sense of direction, of purpose, of courage, is awakening in the Catholic Church in the USA and elsewhere.

The decisions of a number of ‘Catholic’ universities to honour persons who promote the killing of the pre-born child, some of them like Vice-President Biden calling themselves ‘Catholics’, remind me of what St Francis Xavier wrote to St Ignatius from India: Very many out here fail to become Christians simply because there is nobody available to make them Christian. I have very often had the notion to go round the universities of Europe, and especially Paris, and to shout aloud everywhere like a madman, and to bludgeon those people who have more learning than love, with these words, Alas, what an immense number of souls are excluded from heaven through your fault and thrust down to hell!' (This is part of the Office of Readings for the feast of St Francis Xavier).

What would this great missionary think of some of his Jesuit brothers in Georgetown University, Washington DC, giving an award last week to a ‘Catholic’ Vice-President of the USA who sees no justification ever for violence against women and children but who actively promotes abortion?

'Reproductive Rights' include the 'right' to abortion: Hillary Clinton

Last Wednesday US Secretary of State clarified at a congressional hearing what most of us have known for a long time: 'Reproductive Rights' include the 'right' to abortion.

You can see a video of part of the hearing.

Mrs Clinton is mealy-mouthed in her praise of Congressman Jeff Fortenberry for having raised five daughters who would probably be 'pro-life' - her words. I wonder if she reflected that the opposite to 'pro-life' is 'pro-death' or 'anti-life'. She saw the Fortanberry girls as making a choice.

Unfortunately, girls and boys who have been aborted aren't in a position to make any choice.

She also condescendingly told Congressman Chris Smith that he and other pro-lifers had the right to speak their opinion anywhere in the world, just as pro-abortion people did.

Yes, I can share with the whole world that my choice is strawberry ice-cream, even if yours is chocolate ice-cream. After all, it's a free world.

And it's also officially part of the Obama-Clinton policy to work for the 'right' of women in every part of the world to abort her child. It's interesting that these two people - the president who is the first 'African-American' holder of the office and his secretary of state - are admirers of Margaret Sanger who said, among other things, 'The most merciful thing a family does for one of its infant members is to kill it.' And Congressman Fortanberry pointed out to the secretary of state: 'She [Sanger] advocated for the elimination of the disabled, the downtrodden, and the Black child. I don't believe these ideologies have a place in our pluralistic society.'

Here is a full report from LifeSiteNews:

Secretary of State Clinton Admits Obama will Work to Dismantle Abortion Laws around the World

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was confronted on her avowed commitment to eugenicist Margaret Sanger's global agenda, and asked whether the Obama administration would work to overturn pro-life laws around the world - a priority that Clinton confirmed.

In a hearing to discuss the Obama administration's foreign policy, New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith questioned Clinton on her statements upon receiving Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger award on March 27. Clinton had said she was "really in awe" of the Planned Parenthood founder.

"The 20th century reproductive rights movement, really embodied in the life and leadership of Margaret Sanger, was one of the most transformational in the entire history of the human race," Clinton had said. She also said that Sanger's work "is not done."
Smith yesterday asked Clinton about her praise for Sanger's eugenic agenda, saying "it is extraordinarily difficult [to see] how anyone could be in awe" of Sanger, who "made no secret whatsoever" of her views.

"With all due respect, Madam Secretary, Sanger's legacy was indeed transformational, but not for the better if one happens to be poor, disenfranchised, weak, disabled, a person of color, and unborn child, or among the many so-called undesirables Sanger would exclude and exterminate from the human race," said Smith.

"Sanger's prolific writings dripped with contempt for those she considers to be unfit to live," he continued. "Sanger was an unapologetic eugenicist and racist, who said, and I quote, 'The most merciful thing a family does for one of its infant members is to kill it.'

"She also said, on another occasion, quote, 'Eugenics is the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.'"

Smith asked, "As part of Sanger's work that remains undone," whether the Obama administration seeks "in any way to weaken or overturn pro-life laws and policies in African and Latin American countries, either directly or through multilateral organizations, including and especially the United Nations, African Union, or the OAS, or by way of funding NGOs like Planned Parenthood?"

Clinton replied: "It is my strongly held view that you are entitled to advocate and everyone who agrees with you should be free to do so anywhere in the world, and so are we."

Clinton confirmed that the Obama administration's definition of "reproductive health" includes abortion, and that, "We are now an Administration that will protect the rights of women, including their rights to reproductive health care."

Congressman Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska also told Clinton he was "stunned" by her commitment to Sanger, and that he was "deeply grieved" at her answer to Congressman Smith.
"She [Sanger] advocated for the elimination of the disabled, the downtrodden, and the Black child," Fortenberry objected. "I don't believe these ideologies have a place in our pluralistic society."

Decrying taxpayer funding of abortion overseas as "a form of neo-colonialism" that is "elitist, paternalistic, and an assault on the dignity of the poor," Fortenberry challenged Clinton to instead pursue foreign policy that "upholds the genius of womanhood and the life nestled within her."

Clinton responded by emphasizing that the "choice" to carry or kill an unborn child should be available "for all women."

Commenting in a later statement on Clinton's remarks, Smith said: "It is evident that Mrs. Clinton and President Obama want to force the tragedy of abortion upon women around the world especially and including in countries where democratically elected leaders want to continue to protect their unborn children.

"There are other ways in which both mother and baby are protected, cared for and helped - with food, nutrition, clean water and life-affirming healthcare," he said.

"Secretary Clinton's inability to see this will mean more babies will die and more women will suffer the consequence of abortion as a result of U.S. foreign policy overseas."

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Secretary Clinton "In Awe" of Racist Eugenicist Margaret Sanger

32 million excess males in China - because of abortion

President 'above my pay grade' Obama, who, despite being head of the most powerful nation on earth doesn't know when life begins and has a well-documented career of preventing the births of pre-born children, and his abortion-pushing Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who while on her way to pick up an award from the abortion-promoting Planned Parenthood in Texas, recently asked in Guadelupe, Mexico, who had painted the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of the Pro-Life movement, might take a look at the AFP story in MSN News today: Selective abortion causes 32mln excess China males

Obama is no champion of science

Father Raymond J. de Souza is a Canadian priest who writes a weekly column in the National Post, a daily newspaper. He also has his own website where you can access all his articles.

Father de Souza's topic yesterday was Obama is no champion of science. He makes the point that research with adult stem cells, which involves no ethical difficulties, has been producing results in terms of treatment for various diseases. Stem cell research, involving human embryos, which involves killing human life, is going nowhere in terms of leading to cures for anything. He begins thus:

The scientists were jubilant, as men are when dividing the spoils. On Monday, President Barack Obama signed an executive order making available federal funding for stem cell research that destroys human embryos. It was widely described, erroneously -- even on the front page of the Post -- as a reversal of George W. Bush's "ban" on embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). Bush never banned ESCR; it has always been legal in the United States to create and destroy human embryos in order to harvest their stem cells. Bush only prevented federal funding from being used for embryo-destructive research.

That should not have been a problem in a wealthy country that spends hundreds of millions to advertise Viagra. If ESCR was going to be the thaumaturgical wonder its proponents claimed, the gateway to cures for every malady known to man, then private funding should have been plentiful. A cure for Parkinson's (Michael J. Fox was enthusiastic), for spinal injuries (Obama spoke about the late Christopher Reeve), for Alzheimer's (Nancy Reagan agrees too) -- what Big Pharma company wouldn't invest in research that would yield such lucrative therapies?

You can read the whole article here.

Father de Souza is writing about a man who said on national TV while campaigning to become president of the USA that knowing when life begins was 'above my pay grade'. (He later apologised for his 'flippancy').

One thing about Barack Obama is that so far he is keeping his campaign promises to promote abortion, not only in his own country, but overseas. One is tempted to say 'Yankee Imperialist'.

World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations' Statement on Obama

FIAMC STATEMENT ON OBAMA AND LIFE ISSUES

17 February 2009. Sources: Zenit and CatholicCulture.org

The FIAMC is the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations. They issued this statement on 11 February, World Day of the Sick and the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Strangely, the federation's own English-language website doesn’t carry the statement. Their latest statement there is one of good wishes for Christmas 2008. They surely need to do something about this.

I have highlighted one paragraph in the statement as there is a growing pattern of lack of respect for the consciences of medical personnel, eg, Australia .

President Obama didn’t hide his extreme pro-abortion views during his campaign but so many refused to take on board what he was saying, what he has done and what he promised to vies. Can you trust any politician, black, white or brown, who in the first couple of days of his administration decides to fund the killing of pre-born babies in developing countries?

The election of Barak Obama as President of the United States marked an important watershed in American history and culture. Running for office in a time marked by economic and geo-political turmoil, Obama promised to be a force for positive change, political reconciliation and effective government. Unfortunately, President Obama has begun his term with actions that will undermine respect for human life, human dignity and religious freedom. We call upon Catholic physicians and health care providers, and all people of good will, to spare no effort in convincing President Obama to reverse these decisions.

During the 2008 campaign, some Catholics and self-identified Catholic advocacy groups endorsed Barak Obama for President based in part on his support for economic justice and foreign policy, and in part on his pledge to try to reduce the number of abortions by increased social spending on support for pregnant women. Yet as a legislator and as a candidate, Obama had taken positions utterly opposed to respect for human life. For example:

-- Obama has long been an advocate of abortion on demand, and has touted his 100% approval rating from Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion in the United States;

-- Obama opposed every limitation on abortion, including laws requiring parental notification and consent before minors could obtain abortions;

-- Shockingly, as a state senator, Obama actively opposed any protections for infants born alive after failed abortion procedures and misrepresented his record on this issue during the 2008 campaign;

-- Finally, during the campaign, Obama proudly proclaimed his support for the “Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA) -- the most radical expansion of abortion license in the world -- and promised to sign the law as President.

In addition to his unqualified support for abortion, Obama has promised to provide federal funding for stem-cell research that destroys human life at the embryonic stage.

Since taking office, President Obama has engaged in a series of actions that indicate that he is prepared to implement his prior support for abortion.

-- Within the first few days of taking office, Obama overturned the “Mexico City Policy,” a U.S. government policy that denies federal funding to international agencies that promote or perform abortion as a means of birth control;

-- More ominously, when overturning this policy, President Obama indicated his willingness to provide financial support to the United Nations Population Fund, an organization that lost U.S. government funding after it collaborated with the Chinese government’s coercive “one child” population policy.

-- President Obama is filling his Cabinet and Administration positions with supporters of abortion, including Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State (who has long been a proponent of abortion “rights” in the United States and around the world); Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff (who had a 100% voting record with the National Abortion Rights Action League as a member of Congress and a reputation as an aggressive pro-choice politician); Dawn Johnsen, nominee for Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (who was the Legal Director for NARAL and part of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project); Eric Holder, Attorney General (who has been a longtime supporter of abortion “rights”); Melody Barnes, Chair of the Domestic Policy Council (who has been a member of the boards of directors for both Planned Parenthood and Emily's List); Ellen Moran, White House Director of Communications (who is the current executive director of Emily's List); and Thomas Perelli, nominee for Associate Attorney General (who collaborated with pro-euthanasia attorney George Felos to successfully starve Terri Shiavo to death).

-- While he has made no move to encourage the passage of FOCA, many are still concerned that the provisions of FOCA will be added piecemeal to other bills and legislative acts.

-- Finally, President Obama has declared his opposition to the new HHS rule that protects the conscience rights of health care providers. The rule was enacted in the last days of the Bush administration in response to many threats to the conscience rights of physicians, pharmacists and health care providers in the United States.

In light of these actions and appointments, we are issuing an urgent appeal to President Obama to reconsider his support for abortion and research that can succeed only by destroying innocent human life. In addition, we offer our prayers, encouragement and appeals to Catholic physicians in the United States to educate the public and to oppose these efforts to promote abortion. Finally, we appeal to all members of FIAMC to be vigilant in opposing the new threats to human life and dignity that could now come from the Obama administration officials in foreign policy positions and at the United Nations.

Dr. José-Maria Simón, President
Rome, February 11, 2009
http://www.fiamc.org/

I won't be blogging for the next three or four days as I will be attending the national board meeting of Worldwide Marriage Encounter, Philippines.

Obama pushes abortion in the USA and in other countries

Among President Obama’s first acts as president:

On Anniversary of Roe v. Wade Obama Issues Statement Defending “Right to Choose”

Obama Revokes Abortion Funding Policy, Will Fund Overseas Abortions with Taxpayer Money

Both articles are by John Jalsevac.

Neither story should surprise anyone since Mr Obama has never hidden the fact that he is one of the most extremely pro-abortion politicians in the USA. But it seems that because of the colour of his skin many have chosen to ignore this. The story below shows the devastation that Roe v Wade and the pro-abortion mindset has had on the African-American population in the USA. While Mr Obama's wife and children are descended from slaves he isn't. The original slaves were taken from west Africa whereas he is the son of a Kenyan who was doing third-level studies in the USA. Kenya is in east Africa and has no historical connection whatever with slavery in the Americas.

LifeSiteNews also carries the following article:

At March, Black Pastor Warns Obama not to Preside over “Genocide” of American Blacks



WASHINGTON, DC, January 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The most well received speech at the March for Life this year was that of an African American pastor from Frederick Maryland. Pastor Luke Robinson began noting that the election of the first African American President of the United States was a fulfillment of “part” of the “Dream” of Dr. Marin Luther King Jr.


Speaking of the inauguration of the “first black President” of the United States, Pastor Robinson explained: “So many African Americans and other folks cried and shouted because the inauguration was part of the deferred dream come true.” But, he added, “we come here to deal with some unfinished business as it relates to the ‘dream’.” Then, using Barack Obama’s own rhetoric, Pastor Robinson used the phrase “We need change now more than ever” which would accentuate the rest of his talk. “We are calling on the President of Change, President Barack Obama,” he said, “to be an agent of change as it relates to the lives of over one million children who will be slaughtered in this, his first year as President, by a horrible practice called abortion and ‘a woman’s right to choose’.”

The most striking portion of Robinson’s speech came as he begged Obama not to preside over the genocide of African Americans. “We need change Mr. President because every day about 4000 babies die by abortion. Every day Mr. President, people with your ethnic background any my ethnic background die in astounding numbers. Abortion is the number one killer of African Americans in this country.”

“We make up about 12% of the population and about 34% of all abortions are black babies. In the last 36 years over 17 million African American babies have died by abortion alone. We need to change this picture. We need to stop this slaughter of the innocent preborn.“Please Mr. President, be that agent of change that can commute the sentence of over 1400 African American children and over 3000 children from other ethnic groups sentenced to die every day in this country by abortion.”

“We need change and we need it now.”“I pray with so many others,” he said, “that your administration will preside over the end to abortion and to the black genocide in America.” “At the conclusion of your term in office, may it never be said that you presided over the largest slaughter of innocent children in the history of the country and that African Americans became an ever increasing minority under your hand.”

Among those present at the March for Life was Frank Padilla, founder of Couples for Christ:

Frank Padilla, founder of the international pro-family organization Couples for Christ, spoke to LifeSiteNews about the "global attempt to destroy the family, destroy marriage, and destroy life". In the Philippines, where the group began, pro-life groups are fighting a "reproductive health" bill that would fund and promote the distribution of contraceptives, including those that cause abortion.

9,000,000 Black Americans Denied Vote in US Elections

Under the Acacia
By Father Seán Coyle

9,000,000 Black Americans Denied Vote in US Elections

The writer edits www.misyononline.com . You may contact him at undertheacacia@gmail.com . This column published in Negros Times 10-11 November 2008.

Because of a decision of the US Supreme Court in 1973, more than 9,000,000 Black Americans were denied a vote in the recent elections in the USA. These are the Black children aborted between 1973 and 1990 who would have been of voting age on November 4. 37 percent of abortions in the USA are of Black children even though Black Americans constitute only 13.4 percent of the overall population.

22 percent of abortions are of the children of white women and 34 percent of Hispanics and 8 percent to women of other races. These are the statistics of the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute Alan F. Guttmacher was president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

On July 17, 2007, Senator Obama addressed a Planned Parenthood Action Fund meeting. He articulated what he saw as the most important issue in the presidential election: “With one more vacancy on the (Supreme) Court, we could be looking at a majority hostile to a woman’s fundamental right to choose for the first time since Roe versus Wade and that is what is at stake in this election.” He spoke of his ongoing efforts to keep abortion legal: “I have worked on these issues for decades now. I put Roe at the center of my lesson plan on reproductive freedom when I taught Constitutional Law. Not simply as a case about privacy but as part of the broader struggle for women’s equality.”

In answer to the question, “What would you do at the federal level not only to ensure access to abortion but to make sure that the judicial nominees that you will inevitably be able to pick are true to the core tenets of Roe v. Wade?” Mr. Obama said, “Well, the first thing I’d do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.”

The website of Priests for Life, says that the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) goes beyond Roe v. Wade. “It would establish abortion on demand with no restrictions whatsoever as the law of all 50 states.

“FOCA, which has been introduced in Congress since the 1990s but is now regaining attention, would wipe out all state laws on abortion, including parental notification or consent acts, public funding restrictions, 24-hour waiting period requirements, and women’s right to know measures, whereby a woman must be told of the risks caused by abortion and about the development of her unborn child. If the next Congress has a pro-abortion majority, a pro-abortion president could sign FOCA into law, eliminating 35 years of laws that have reduced the number of abortions in the United States.”

Priests for Life also points out that “a pro-abortion Congress and a pro-abortion President could repeal the federal ban on partial-birth abortion passed and signed into law by President Bush in 2003 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007. Earlier versions were either vetoed by President Clinton or struck down by the Supreme Court.” President George W. Bush’s two appointees, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., and Chief Justice John G. Roberts, were among the five who voted against four to uphold the ban on partial-birth abortion, which is really infanticide, as the baby is killed during the actual process of birth.

It is generally agreed that George W. Bush hasn’t been one of the greater presidents in the history of the USA but he has left the potential legacy of a Supreme Court that could overrule the utterly evil Roe v. Wade decision. Obama appointees – and he almost certainly will have at least one, since Associate Justice John Paul Stevens is 89 – could bring the USA further back into the Dark Ages for a generation or two.

The recently passed Abortion Law Reform Act of the State of Victoria, Australia, in the words of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, “requires health professionals with a conscientious objection to abortion to refer patients seeking an abortion to other health professionals who do not have such objections. It also requires health professionals with a conscientious objection to abortion to perform an abortion in whatever is deemed an ‘emergency’”. In other words, legislators chose to deny doctors, nurses and pharmacists the choice not to be involved in killing without becoming criminals. It is a crime in Victoria to dock – “cut” - a dog’s tail and now a crime for a doctor or nurse not to be involved in an abortion in certain circumstances.

The UK recently passed a law allowing the use of hybrid human-animal embryos for research.

The USA, the UK and Australia are three countries with a Christian tradition but that have become aggressively secular and anti-life, though politicians in the USA invoke God on their side, whatever it is, while, in the words of an aide to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, “We don’t do God”.

The election of Barack Obama as President of the USA, may help that country move beyond its shameful past of slavery, even though the new occupant of the White House, unlike his wife and children, isn’t descended from slaves. His father was from Kenya, in East Africa, while the slaves were taken from West Africa. I can understand the euphoria of so many older Black Americans who have experienced the legal discrimination that no longer exists in seeing a man with darker skin being elected president.

But I wonder how many of those who are moved by this event, which is undoubtedly significant, ask themselves why nine million descendants of slaves from West Africa were denied a vote on November 4 because of the pro-abortion policies that Mr. Obama has so vigorously dedicated his life to. When will they see that “pro-choice” means “no choice”?