Thursday, November 18, 2010
'Pro-Life' - Activist Frank Pavone: Tea-Party is the 'Home' of Defending Life
Vienna (kath.net/KAP) An insight in the engagement of the US-American "Pro-Life" - movement was given by activist and President of "Priests for Life" - initiative, Frank Pavone this Thursday in Vienna. The principle goal of the movement remains in any case, to make abortion legally unallowable, said Pavone during an encounter with a journalist. The movement also has in any case to raise consciousness in the population: "We want to make abortion unthinkable." He could himself "not imagine a situation, in which abortion [were] a solution to a problem", says the priest. That does not indicate that there will be a denial of the obligation to care for every woman, who has undergone an abortion and been traumatized.
Pavone has come to Vienna on the invitation of Cardinal Schönborn and "International Technical Institute" (ITI). The purpose of his visit is the comprehensive concern of the Pro-Life movement, which has more than 300,000 activists and thousands of action groups, to make it more well-known in Austria" and the strengthen the Church as well, which will be a consequence of protecting life," says Pavone. Concrete steps for instance will be in the founding of Austria's own "Priests-For-Life" group and a spiritual center for the care of women traumatized by abortion.
A legal no to abortion does not aim to, "touch a woman's rights to be free", said Pavone. It is much more through the demonstration of alternatives in the face of an abortion in the foreground to facilitate her decision not to abort. The actual liberal legal situation does not allow freedom, rather immediately removes the freedom of the woman because of erroneous information and advice.
As the question for the legal punishment Pavone said, it is the goal of the movement, to fine and punish Doctors who perform abortions. Women on the other hand, who have procured an abortion, will not be punished, as these are "already in prison" in a figurative sense and at the most must suffer the psychological and physical consequences of such an attack.
Critic of Obama's Healthcare Policies
Pavone has been critical of the health care policies of US President Brack Obama. He holds to the liberal position on abortion and strengthens it, for instance through the "Supreme Court" replacement of American justice with personal choice. Under Obama "a lot has been changed", says Pavone regarding the introduction of Universal Health Insurance. This is not per se bad, he foresaw -- like the American Catholic Bishops -- but there is the danger that in the coming foreseeable State provisions of government funds could be used for abortion.
The Obama-Politic is favorable declares Pavone that the people are increasingly motivated to be strengthened by the themes of the Pro-Life movement. So, the "Tea Party" is also a movement which serves as a reservoir for a wide circle of the Pro-Life movement. It is also that the there are "countless overlaps", even as the "Tea Party" at the most recent "Mid-term" - vote put the focus on the social questions, says Pavone. Principally, the "Pro-Life" movement is therefore "at home with the Republicans".
Despite his critique of Obama's politics, he sees the USA though "on the right way in the direction toward our goals", said Pavone finally with great conviction. So there is consequently legal proposals which is aimed to the protection of the child in the mother's body and to advise women about a possible abortion. If one advised women over the health risks of an abortion, for example the danger of cancer formation, sterility etc., then the numbers would sink, according to Pavone's expectation.
No to Embryonic Stem Cell Research
The movement takes a clear position on the area of bioethics. They pronounce an emphatic "no" to every form of embryonic stem cell research, which will result in the death of the embryo with this kind of research. In place of this the "Pro-Life" position is for the use of adult stem cell research - found consequently from umbilical cord blood. This is morally permissible and is also even more promising of success.
There is support for the movement, says Pavone, in all religious communities --from the Catholic to the Protestant, Evangelical to the Baptists, Methodists, Judaism and Islam. For this reason the supporters from Judaism or Islam, however, are infrequently in the public, that the "Pro-Life - movement is conceived as a Christian movement. His goal is then also not to unite these Pro-Life voices, rather to strengthen them, for the theme of defending life is part of any respective religion and to give each and every one his own voice.
Pavone is also accompanied on his visit to Austria among others, by the foundress of the "Pro-Life" associated help organization for traumatized women, "Rache's Vineyard", Theresa Burke, as well as Janet Morana of the "Silent no more awareness" campaign.
Read original German, kath.net...
Monday, November 15, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Dutch Bishop Advocates Defunding of Abortion to Parliament
By Patrick B. Craine
Roermond, Netherlands, November 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Dutch bishop has made waves in the country after he called on politicians to defund abortion in the face of impending budget restrictions, reports French journalist Jeanne Smits.
Several members of the Dutch House of Representatives have complained after Bishop Everard de Jong, auxiliary for the Roermond diocese, sent a letter earlier this fall to each representative along with a plastic 10-week fetal model.
In the letter, the bishop suggested that the government could save money “on the backs of bloody abortion clinics.” The bishop also suggested that given the Netherland’s aging population, the country will need a younger generation to take care of the elderly; however, he said, there is no younger generation because “we have already ‘cleansed’ them” through abortion.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
True Environmentalists Are Pro-Life, Says Pope
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 11, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says efforts to protect the environment cannot be opposed to human life and safeguarding the dignity of the person.
The Pope took up this theme today when he delivered his traditional New Year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.
The Holy Father's address for 2010 centered on the issue of respect for creation and the environment, the same theme he highlighted in his Jan. 1 World Day of Peace message.
He noted not humanity in this new year "continues to be marked by the dramatic crisis of the global economy and consequently a serious and widespread social instability."
The "deeper causes" of this situation, the Pontiff contended, "are to be found in a current self-centered and materialistic way of thinking which fails to acknowledge the limitations inherent in every creature."
Read further...
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Reputedly Catholic Organizations Support Casey Proposal
Washington D.C., Dec 18, 2009 / 06:56 pm (CNA).- Sen. Bob Casey's office released a statement to CNA on Friday afternoon claiming that the senator's abortion compromise has received “widespread praise” from health groups and faith leaders around the country. However, the U.S. bishops' head of pro-life issues, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, charged that Casey's language does not address the fact that the Senate bill still fails to comply with “longstanding Hyde restrictions on federal funding of elective abortions.”
Following the defeat of the Nelson Amendment in the Senate, Sen. Casey (D-Penn.), who helped co-sponsor it, sent a new compromise proposal to Sen. Nelson that would hopefully garner enough votes to pass the Senate.
After reviewing the Casey proposal, Nelson rejected the language, saying that it “does not yet ensure that a longstanding federal standard barring public funding of abortion would be maintained in the Senate health care bill the Senate has been debating this month.”
Speaking in a press release on Friday, Sen. Casey underscored that “It is critical to maintain restrictions on federal funding of abortion. But we must also focus on the needs of vulnerable pregnant women and do all we can to assist them at a time when they may find themselves alone and without support.”
[chop]
The following is a list of individuals who support the Casey proposal:
Despite the fact that no one has actually seen the proposed language of the compromise, Sen. Casey's office released a list of religious groups who have come forward in support of the illusory language. The list includes U.S. Ambassador to Malta Douglas Kmiec, Sr. Simone Campbell of NETWORK, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, the Catholic Health Association and professors from Boston College, Fordham University, Marquette University, the University of Dayton, the Catholic University of America and the University of Notre Dame
Link to original...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Bishop says Kennedy is 'erratic' and a Liar
PROVIDENCE, R.I. –– Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin on Monday said Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy has shown “increasingly erratic and unpredictable behavior” during their escalating dispute, but said he was “not at all” referring to the congressman’s well-publicized mental-health issues.
Kennedy
The bishop also said he was not suggesting that Kennedy was unfit for office. He said he was “not familiar” or only “generally familiar” with mental-health and drug-addiction problems Kennedy has openly acknowledged and sought treatment for — most recently four weeks of addiction treatment at a medical facility in June.
“His fitness for office is nothing that I would ever comment on,” said Bishop Tobin. “I think that’s up to the voters to make that decision. But I am concerned about his statements and his reactions to some of these recent events. No, I’m concerned about him and I’m praying for him. As I said before, my door is always open, and I hope we can bring a good reconciliation to all this.”
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Catholic Church pushes Bill in House, Chapels.
Boston Herald
WASHINGTON — For weeks, the Catholic Church has asked its parishioners to work toward ensuring tough language restricting federal funding of abortion is included in the federal health care overhaul.
The church has gone so far as to insert a prayer into the weekly bulletins in the pews of its dioceses across the country, one that implores Congress to "act to ensure that needed health care reform will truly protect the life, dignity and health care of all."
But while the church is trying to rally its forces outside of Congress, it is also using its leverage within.
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