Support Irish Senator Rónán Mullen

Senator Rónán Mullen at the Council of Europe April 2010

I've never used my position as a priest to influence people on how they should vote. In private conversation with friends, yes, I've often shared my views on political positions and on politicians. I'm making a kind of exception here. And this is a personal blog where I represent nobody but myself, though I hope that no matter what I write about it brings people closer to our Lord Jesus Christ and that I am faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The Irish Senate, Seanad Éireann [SHANad AIRun], unlike the senates of the Philippines of or the USA, has little power and only six of the 60 senators are elected by a large number of people. Eleven are nominated by the Taoiseach [TEEshock] (Prime Minister), 43 by supposedly vocational panels, eg, Agricultural, Labour, which consist of elected members of county and city councils, most of whom belong to political parties.

However, six graduates of our two older universities, three from Dublin University (Trinity College) and three from the National University of Ireland (NUI), are elected by their fellow graduates. The university senators are usually independents, though not always so, unlike those elected by the panels who are often people who have lost their seats in the elections for the Dáil [DHAWil] (parliament) or promising young politicians being groomed by their parties for the next Dáil election.

Rónán Mullen, whom I met before he was elected in 2007 and with whom I had been in email correspondence before that, is a truly independent voice, steeped in the social teaching of the Catholic Church and not afraid to speak out, despite the hostility he sometimes meets. As a senator he has been active in highlighting the plight of trafficked women, the needs of those who are dying, the dignity of the life of every human being from the moment of conception and so on. He has highlighted these issues also at European level.

Some, including the new Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, want the Seanad abolished while others want it reformed so that it can play a bigger role in Irish life instead of being a powerless talking-shop, as many see it to be.

There are, I think, 27 candidates running for the three NUI seats. The system of voting is the single transferable vote where you put No 1 after the name of your top candidate, No 2 after your second, and so on as far down as you wish to go. There's a complicated system of transfers with the purpose of ensuring a balanced reflection of the will of the total electorate.

As I'm not a graduate of the NUI, I can't vote for Rónán Mullen. But I truly believe that at a time of great social change in Ireland, at a time when the bishops have lost most of their moral influence, the voice of authentic Christian values needs to be heard from articulate lay people assuming their proper role in public life, as Vatican II challenged them to do. Rónán Mullen doesn't represent the Catholic Church in the Seanad. He represents the graduates of the NUI. But he is absolutely clear about what he stands for and his principles aren't determined by the opinions of those who vote for him.

You can find out about Rónán's policies and record on his website.

If you have friends who are graduates of the NUI encourage them to give Rónán their No 1 preference and to make sure that their ballot papers will be in by 27 April. Meanwhile we can all pray that he will be re-elected and continue to be a truly independent voice in the Irish legislature.

Here's Rónán's campaign video:

 



Two US Church Statements on Election of Obama

Two Church Statements from the USA on Election of Barack Obama

Two days ago the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a statement on the election of Barack Obama as 44th President of the USA. A statement of a conference doesn’t carry the same authority as that of an individual bishop to the people in his own diocese. Clearly, before the US elections, bishops in the USA were of different minds but in this statement they emphasis that they are of one mind and one heart.

The second statement, that of Fr Jay Scott Newman to his parishioners in St Mary’s, Greenville, South Carolina. It is clear and to the point. A parish priest's authority doesn't extend beyond his parish the but authority of God's truth holds everywhere.

I have emphasized some parts.

STATEMENT of the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 12 November 2008

"If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor; if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil." (Psalm 127, vs. 1)

The Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States welcome this moment of historic transition and look forward to working with President-elect Obama and the members of the new Congress for the common good of all. Because of the Church's history and the scope of her ministries in this country, we want to continue our work for economic justice and opportunity for all; our efforts to reform laws around immigration and the situation of the undocumented; our provision of better education and adequate health care for all, especially for women and children; our desire to safeguard religious freedom and foster peace at home and abroad. The Church is intent on doing good and will continue to cooperate gladly with the government and all others working for these goods.

The fundamental good is life itself, a gift from God and our parents. A good state protects the lives of all. Legal protection for those members of the human family waiting to be born in this country was removed when the Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade in 1973. This was bad law. The danger the Bishops see at this moment is that a bad court decision will be enshrined in bad legislation that is more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision itself.

In the last Congress, a Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) was introduced that would, if brought forward in the same form today, outlaw any "interference" in providing abortion at will. It would deprive the American people in all fifty states of the freedom they now have to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry. FOCA would coerce all Americans into subsidizing and promoting abortion with their tax dollars. It would counteract any and all sincere efforts by government and others of good will to reduce the number of abortions in our country.

Parental notification and informed consent precautions would be outlawed, as would be laws banning procedures such as partial-birth abortion and protecting infants born alive after a failed abortion. Abortion clinics would be deregulated. The Hyde Amendment restricting the federal funding of abortions would be abrogated. FOCA would have lethal consequences for prenatal human life.FOCA would have an equally destructive effect on the freedom of conscience of doctors, nurses and health care workers whose personal convictions do not permit them to cooperate in the private killing of unborn children. It would threaten Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Charities. It would be an evil law that would further divide our country, and the Church should be intent on opposing evil.

On this issue, the legal protection of the unborn, the bishops are of one mind with Catholics and others of good will. They are also pastors who have listened to women whose lives have been diminished because they believed they had no choice but to abort a baby. Abortion is a medical procedure that kills, and the psychological and spiritual consequences are written in the sorrow and depression of many women and men. The bishops are single-minded because they are, first of all, single-hearted.

The recent election was principally decided out of concern for the economy, for the loss of jobs and homes and financial security for families, here and around the world. If the election is misinterpreted ideologically as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by President-elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of crisis will be impossible to achieve. Abortion kills not only unborn children; it destroys constitutional order and the common good, which is assured only when the life of every human being is legally protected. Aggressively pro-abortion policies, legislation and executive orders will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans, and would be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.

This statement is written at the request and direction of all the Bishops, who also want to thank all those in politics who work with good will to protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us. Those in public life do so, sometimes, at the cost of great sacrifice to themselves and their families; and we are grateful. We express again our great desire to work with all those who cherish the common good of our nation. The common good is not the sum total of individual desires and interests; it is achieved in the working out of a common life based upon good reason and good will for all.

Our prayers accompany President-elect Obama and his family and those who are cooperating with him to assure a smooth transition in government. Many issues demand immediate attention on the part of our elected "watchman." (Psalm 127) May God bless him and our country.

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

Fr Jay Scott Newman to his parishioners in St Mary’s, Greenvilee, South Carolina.
9 November 2008

H/T Fr John Zulsdorf.

Dear Friends in Christ,

We the People have spoken, and the 44th President of the United States will be Barack Hussein Obama. This election ends a political process that started two years ago and which has revealed deep and bitter divisions within the United States and also within the Catholic Church in the United States. This division is sometimes called a “Culture War,” by which is meant a heated clash between two radically different and incompatible conceptions of how we should order our common life together, the public life that constitutes civil society. And the chief battleground in this culture war for the past 30 years has been abortion, which one side regards as a murderous abomination that cries out to Heaven for vengeance and the other side regards as a fundamental human right that must be protected in laws enforced by the authority of the state. Between these two visions of the use of lethal violence against the unborn there can be no negotiation or conciliation, and now our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president. We must also take note of the fact that this election was effectively decided by the votes of self-described (but not practicing) Catholics, the majority of whom cast their ballots for President-elect Obama.

In response to this, I am obliged by my duty as your shepherd to make two observations:

1. Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.

2. Barack Obama, although we must always and everywhere disagree with him over abortion, has been duly elected the next President of the United States, and after he takes the Oath of Office next January 20th, he will hold legitimate authority in this nation. For this reason, we are obliged by Scriptural precept to pray for him and to cooperate with him whenever conscience does not bind us otherwise. Let us hope and pray that the responsibilities of the presidency and the grace of God will awaken in the conscience of this extraordinarily gifted man an awareness that the unholy slaughter of children in this nation is the greatest threat to the peace and security of the United States and constitutes a clear and present danger to the common good. In the time of President Obama’s service to our country, let us pray for him in the words of a prayer found in the Roman Missal:

God our Father, all earthly powers must serve you. Help our President-elect, Barack Obama, to fulfill his responsibilities worthily and well. By honoring and striving to please you at all times, may he secure peace and freedom for the people entrusted to him. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Amen.

Father Newman

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”?

Which one of these four texts does NOT represent God's will?

From the first reading at Mass today: For a bishop must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to confute those who contradict it (Titus 1:9).

From today’s gospel: And Jesus said to his disciples, "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung round his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive him" (Luke 17:1-4).

(St Paul, left, St Titus, right)

St John of Ávila, spiritual director of St John of God: If the simple folk live in a lukeward state, the situation is regrettable. They hurt themselves, but a remedy is possible. If, however, it is the teachers who are lukewarm, then the Lord’s warning must needs be considered: ‘Woe to him by whom they come!’ Great harm can come from lukewarmness, because it will easily spread to others and dampen their spiritual fervour’. (Sermon 55, from In Conversation with God, vol 5, Francis Fernandez, p 436).

From the editorial, The Tablet, 8 November 2008: In many respects Mr Obama's policies resonate with the social justice that the Judaeo-Christian tradition promotes, such as the relief of poverty, health care for all, new jobs to replace those lost, affordable housing, care for the environment and so on. He is a Christian, although not of the fundamentalist kind, and he has Catholic connections in his background. But it appears that some leaders of the Catholic Church, America's largest denomination, failed once more to read the signs of the times, and tried to insist that this inspiring and epoch-transforming election, this turning point in American history, was once again just about abortion. [Comment: only 46,000,000 since Roe v Wade in 1973, including 9,000,000 African-Americans who would have been of voting age, 37 percent of those aborted even though African-Americans form only around 13 percent of the population.] The laity saw things differently; indeed this time the Catholic vote was almost indistinguishable from the population as a whole. [Comment: No doubt, for The Tablet, the Holocaust is just 'one issue'.]

'One Issue' Voters?

"One Issue” Voters?

The author is a Columban priest from Ireland who has been in the Philippines most of the time since 1971. Since October 2002 he has been based in Bacolod City as editor of Misyon, the magazine of the Columbans in the Philippines. This column is in the 3-5 November 2008 issue of Negros Times.

In the Philippines we are familiar with the word “salvaging” which, according to the dictionary, means saving cargo or lives on a stricken ship. But here it means murder, usually by government-linked agents. Over the gates of Nazi concentration camps were the words “Arbeit macht frei”, German for “Work makes you free”, mocking the millions who died in them.

The Guttmacher Institute, which promotes abortion under the guise of “Advancing sexual and reproductive health worldwide through research, policy analysis and public education”, estimates the number of deaths by abortion in the USA since the Supreme Court’s “Roe v. Wade” decision in 1973 as around 46 million.

Abortion is promoted by those who describe themselves as “pro-choice”. There’s no choice for the unborn child and, in many instances, no choice for the father. The perversion of language promotes the perversion of a society.

Senator Barack Obama promised Planned Parenthood that the first thing he will do as president is to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would bring back so-called “partial birth abortion”, infanticide in all but name, and force taxpayers to pay for all of this. Laws restricting abortion passed by elected legislators in all 50 of “these United States” would be trampled on. All in the name of “choice”.

One of the ironies is that Planned Parenthood, the biggest abortion provider in the USA, was founded by Margaret Sanger who said, “Colored people are like weeds and are to be exterminated”. 78 percent of their clinics are in minority areas. While Blacks make up only twelve percent of the population, 35 percent of children aborted are Blacks.

Some Catholics are criticizing their bishops for speaking the truth about. Ironically, 50 years after his death, some Catholics are criticizing Pope Pius XII for allegedly not having spoken out clearly against the genocidal policies of the Nazis. Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City – St. Joseph in October wrote in the diocesan paper, The Catholic Key:

When a candidate supports ready access to abortion on demand, they are inviting Catholics to put aside their conscience on this life and death issue. Such a candidate is inviting conscientious Catholics to look elsewhere for moral leadership. When a candidate promotes total unhindered “choice,” he or she discourages the Catholic vote, and at the same time tempts the voter to betray one of the most obvious intuitions of our humanity and to support the continuation of the willful destruction of human life.

If the candidate has supported partial birth abortion, he or she asks the voter to affirm the continuation of an act that 75% of the population has rejected as repulsive.

When a candidate regards the unborn child as unworthy of the defense of law, then he or she asks us to join them in ignoring the lessons of history by which African Americans in this country were once regarded as non-persons; or the Jews of Europe were once marked for genocide or racial purification. Had we known, would we have supported the “choice” to enslave or destroy these brothers and sisters of ours? Can a candidate expect us as Catholics to ignore the classification of the unborn as non-persons? Will he or she expect us to look aside while these babies are quietly exterminated at a rate of 4000 per day? This is precisely what they are asking us to do.Some groups calling themselves “Catholic” have suggested that generous programs for the poor will reduce abortions more than the repeal of Roe v. Wade. But a candidate who pledges that he or she will seek to immediately ratify the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), signals to voters that the reduction of abortions is not a goal. They are asking voters to suspend the effort to constitutionally protect human life, and – at the same time - to discard all the good progress we have made to actually reduce the number of abortions in the last thirty-five years. Such a candidate is asking Catholics to “give up” on abortion. They want us to deny our conscience and ignore their callous disregard for the most vulnerable human life.

If the candidate has addressed their legislative assembly, urging opposition to the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, then it must be concluded that this candidate wishes Catholic voters to be complicit in infanticide. Rejection of this Act, which would require that a baby who survived an unsuccessful abortion attempt be cared for and not laid aside to die with no medical assistance, is a convincing example of the numbing of our moral sensibility. The candidate who supports this fatal neglect of life and asks our vote, asks too much of any fellow human being.

Our country is at the edge of the precipice concerning the protection of the life and dignity of the human person. A significant new attack on innocent human life will likely send us into a moral freefall that would rival any financial decline. The price for such a “walk over the cliff” is millions more human lives for many more years to come.A candidate who asks us to add our weight to such a destructive momentum in our society, asks us to be participants in their own gravely immoral act. This is something which, in good conscience, we can never justify. Despite hardship, beyond partisanship, for the sake of our eternal salvation: This we should never do.

One meaning of the word “issue” is “offspring”. Senator Obama told Planned Parenthood that what is at stake in the election is the nomination of judges to the Supreme Court who might overturn Roe v. Wade. Can American voters, appalled by the willful killing of 46 million such issues in the last 35 years and who want to change this be described as “one issue” voters?

undertheacacia@gmail.com

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

Because of a decision of the US Supreme Court in 1973, more than 9,000,000 Black Americans have been denied a vote in today’s elections in the USA. These are the Black children aborted between 1973 and 1990 who would have been of voting age today. 37 percent of abortions in the USA are of Black children. Black Americans constitute 13.4 percent of the overall population. About 16,000,000 other Americans have also been denied the right to vote.

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 ‘Advancing sexual and reproductive health worldwide through research, policy analysis and public education’. Alan F. Guttmacher was president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The founder of Planned Parenthood was Margaret Sanger. Some quotes and references:

On blacks, immigrants and indigents: "...human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,' 'spawning... human beings who never should have been born." Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants and poor people

On sterilization & racial purification: Sanger believed that, for the purpose of racial "purification," couples should be rewarded who chose sterilization. Birth Control in America, The Career of Margaret Sanger, by David Kennedy, p. 117, quoting a 1923 Sanger speech.

On the right of married couples to bear children: Couples should be required to submit applications to have a child, she wrote in her "Plan for Peace." Birth Control Review, April 1932

On the purpose of birth control: The purpose in promoting birth control was "to create a race of thoroughbreds," she wrote in the Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921 (p. 2)

On the rights of the handicapped and mentally ill, and racial minorities:"More children from the fit, less from the unfit -- that is the chief aim of birth control." Birth Control Review, May 1919, p. 12

On religious convictions regarding sex outside of marriage: "This book aims to answer the needs expressed in thousands on thousands of letters to me in the solution of marriage problems... Knowledge of sex truths frankly and plainly presented cannot possibly injure healthy, normal, young minds. Concealment, suppression, futile attempts to veil the unveilable - these work injury, as they seldom succeed and only render those who indulge in them ridiculous. For myself, I have full confidence in the cleanliness, the open-mindedness, the promise of the younger generation." Margaret Sanger, Happiness in Marriage (Bretano's, New York, 1927)

On the extermination of blacks (Mr Obama, please note):"We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population," she said, "if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America, by Linda Gordon

On respecting the rights of the mentally ill: In her "Plan for Peace," Sanger outlined her strategy for eradication of those she deemed "feebleminded." Among the steps included in her evil scheme were immigration restrictions; compulsory sterilization; segregation to a lifetime of farm work; etc. Birth Control Review, April 1932, p. 107

On adultery: A woman's physical satisfaction was more important than any marriage vow, Sanger believed. Birth Control in America, p. 11

On marital sex: "The marriage bed is the most degenerating influence in the social order," Sanger said. (p. 23) [Quite the opposite of God's view on the matter: "Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." (Hebrews 13:4)
On abortion:"Criminal' abortions arise from a perverted sex relationship under the stress of economic necessity, and their greatest frequency is among married women." The Woman Rebel - No Gods, No Masters, May 1914, Vol. 1, No. 3.

On the YMCA and YWCA: "...brothels of the Spirit and morgues of Freedom!"), The Woman Rebel - No Gods, No Masters, May 1914, Vol. 1, No. 3.

On the Catholic Church's view of contraception: "...enforce SUBJUGATION by TURNING WOMAN INTO A MERE INCUBATOR." The Woman Rebel - No Gods, No Masters, May 1914, Vol. 1, No. 3.

On motherhood: "I cannot refrain from saying that women must come to recognize there is some function of womanhood other than being a child-bearing machine." What Every Girl Should Know, by Margaret Sanger (Max Maisel, Publisher, 1915) [Jesus said: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep... for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed (happy) are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts which never gave suck." (Luke 23:24)]

Senator Barack Obama’s Promise to Planned Parenthood:

"The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do." -- Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007

This bill, if enacted into law, would abolish laws restricting abortion in the 50 states of the USA.
Mr Obama, whose father was from Kenya, is not descended from American slaves, although his wife and children are. The slaves were all from west Africa. Kenya is in east Africa. It’s ironic that someone supported by an organization whose founder hated people of African origin is being seen by many unthinking people as a savior of Black Americans.

Today’s gospel:

Lk 14:15-24

One of those at table with Jesus said to him,
“Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.”
He replied to him, “A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.
When the time for the dinner came,he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready.’
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.
The first said to him,‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them; I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have just married a woman,and therefore I cannot come.’
The servant went and reported this to his master.
Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried outand still there is room.’
The master then ordered the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedgerowsand make people come in that my home may be filled.
For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

In Mr Obama’s USA it is becoming more and more difficult to find ‘the crippled, the blind and the lame’ since they are being aborted. More than 90 percent of pregnancies of children with Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) in the USA now end in abortion.

A Pro-life Filipina Miss America

I'm not a fan of beauty contests but I was inspired by the item below from LifeNews.com especially when I discovered that a first-generation Filipino-American, Angela Perez Baraquio, Miss America 2001, whose parents came from Pangasinan, had made a video appealing to American voters to know how one vote can bring life or death to millions. Since 1973 about 46,000,000 unborn Americans have had their lives cut short because of a decision a 5 to 4 decision made by the judges of the US Supreme Court on 22 January 1973. Probably about 20,000,000 of those would have been eligible to vote and make a choice on Tuesday if their lives hadn't been snuffed out by 'pro-choice' proponents.

If this decision is challenged it could possibly be overturned - provided a majority of judges on the Supreme Court vote that way. The present make-up of the Court makes that unlikely. However, it is probable that at least one judge, and maybe two or even three, would be replaced during the term of the next President, who appoints judges to the court, with the approval of the Senate. President George W. Bush appointed two who are believed to in favour of overturning the 1973 decision.

Senator Obama, who is extremely pro-abortion, has said that this is a central issue in the presidential election. He has a 100 percent pro-abortion voting record. Senator McCain has a 100 percent pro-life voting record, apart from his position on stem-cell research.

Just One Judge is a simple website that hammers that point home with a number of short videos, including one by Angela Perez Baraquio. Another is by Norma McCorvy, 'Jane Roe' of the Roe v Wade case.

Former Miss America Angela Perez Baraquio Urges Pro-Life Vote for President

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 31, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former Miss America Angela Perez Baraquio has released a new election video urging Americans to vote pro-life on election day. The 2001 beauty pageant queen and former Miss Hawaii 2000 is asking voters to "end the reign of Roe v. Wade" which allows virtually unlimited abortions.

Baraquio urges voters to vote pro-life on the presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain because of the far-reaching effects of the Supreme Court nominations by the next president.

"As a teacher and mother I see just how important it is to protect children," she says in the new video. "Did you know that in the United States, the most dangerous place for a child to be is in the mother's womb?"

"If Roe is not overturned, the children I teach will likely grow up as part of a culture of death learning that when we had our one real chance to end this atrocity, we didn't do enough," Baraquio adds.

The new video is for the Just One Judge campaign to remind voters how crucial this year's elections are because the high court could decide the fate of abortion for decades based on the results of the presidential election.

Jason Jones, founder of Just ONE Judge campaign, told LifeNews.com that Roe needs to be overturned so the American people, through their state legislatures, can determine their own abortion laws instead of an unelected Supreme Court.

"This issue needs to return to the states, so citizens can lobby their state legislatures for laws that protect the dignity of all human life from the moment of conception through natural death," he said.

The Baraquio video follows an ad for the campaign that former Roe plaintiff Norma McCorvey did.

In that clip, McCorvey said she is concerned that now is the best chance to overturn the case that allowed virtually unlimited abortions for any reason throughout pregnancy.

"Most every American alive today has heard of Roe vs. Wade and knows what that means. But few people know that I was Jane Roe in the case 35 years ago that legalized abortion on demand," McCorvey says in her ad.

"On November 4th, we will have the best chance in a generation to end Roe and one vote -- your vote -- could determine who the next Supreme Court justice will be. Our next president and U.S. Senate will appoint and confirm the one justice who will either vote to continue Roe as the law of the land or vote to overturn that decision," she says.

"That's why I'm asking you to do just one thing before November 4th -- to make a pledge to study all the candidates and to vote for those will support the nomination and confirmation of Supreme Court judges who value life," McCorvey adds.

The candidates have contrasting views on judges and abortion with Obama having a pro-abortion litmus test and McCain supporting the kind of judges who are more likely to oppose abortion.

Related web site: Just One Judge