The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral, a dwelling place for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body.
"The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new souls to Heaven. Only a human mother can. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature. God joins forces with Mothers in performing this act of creation. What on God’s earth is more glorious than this…to be a mother!"
These powerful words by Cardinal Josef Mindszenty comprise one of my favorite dedications to mothers. This inspiring reminder of the extraordinary gift of motherhood is particularly important in a culture that treats women’s fertility as a burden and stay-at-home moms as unenlightened.
Another inspirational voice on the subject of motherhood is Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. At the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995), Blessed Teresa enlightened the world with this insight about motherhood:
"God has created each one of us, every human being, for greater things-- to love and to be loved. But why did God make some of us men and others women? Because a woman’s love is one image of the love of God, and a man’s love is another image of God’s love. Both are created to love, but each in a different way. Woman and man complete each other, and together show forth God’s love more fully than either can do it alone.
"That special power of loving that belongs to a woman is seen most clearly when she becomes a mother. Motherhood is the gift of God to women. How grateful we must be to God for this wonderful gift that brings such joy to the whole world, women and men alike!
"Yet we can destroy this gift of motherhood, especially by the evil of abortion, but also be thinking that other things like jobs or positions are more important than loving, than giving oneself to others. No job, no plans, no possessions, no idea of ‘freedom’ can take the place of love. So anything that destroys God’s gift of motherhood destroys His most precious gift to women-- the ability to love as a woman."
Of course, no discussion of motherhood is complete without referencing our Blessed Mother. In the conclusion of his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Blessed John Paul II says, "The one who accepted ‘Life’ in the name of all and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin Mother…Mary’s consent at the annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow on humanity."
Therefore, the Church’s mission, John Paul II says "was made possible by the motherhood of Mary, who conceived and bore the one who is ‘God from God’, ‘true God from true God.’" This critical role of motherhood, he says, is punctuated in the Book of Revelation: "And the dragon stood before the woman…that he might devour her child when she brought it forth (Rv. 12:4)."
"[T]he powers of evil," John Paul II says, "before affecting the disciples of Jesus, [are] directed against his mother…who has to flee with Joseph and the child into Egypt (cf. Mt 2:13-15). Mary thus helps the church realize that life is always at the center of a great struggle between good and evil…The dragon wishes to devour ‘the child brought forth’…a figure of Christ....[and] every child, especially every helpless baby whose life is threatened…"
I extend my profound gratitude to my mother and to all mothers for the unique love and selflessness that you show to your children and through them to the whole world. Never has our world needed your example more than now. As our Blessed Mother’s love and selflessness showed us, every human mother’s "yes" to life can help transform our culture of death to a culture of life and love.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Over the past few years there have been a growing number of concerns expressed about materials and practices of the Girl Scouts. Some of the concerns emanate from the national level (Girl Scouts USA or GSUSA) and some from state councils and individual troops.
Concerns about the Girl Scouts have appeared in numerous articles on pro-life or Catholic websites and have gotten the attention of Catholic parents and bishops. The concerns include: GSUSA’s associations with groups that espouse morally offensive policies and practices, and GSUSA publications that contain web links or references to groups and/or individuals that espouse views contrary to Catholic teaching.
At the request of the Nebraska Bishops I have undertaken an effort to examine and verify these concerns and to determine if the Girl Scouts are responding to them in a satisfactory manner. Similar examinations are underway by some dioceses in other states as well as by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.
I am very fortunate to have a knowledgeable and experienced collaborator in this examination. Mrs. Michele Chambers has been a troop leader in Lincoln for the Girl Scouts for many years in addition to being a pro-life activist and natural family planning coordinator for the Diocese of Lincoln. Consequently, she is uniquely positioned to critically and credibly examine the practices and materials of the Girl Scouts.
Last week, Mrs. Chambers and I met with two top leaders for the Girl Scouts of Nebraska. The purpose of the meeting was to gather facts and to begin discussing the various concerns mentioned previously.
The first part of our discussion centered on organizational and financial matters. The Girl Scout Council of Nebraska (known as "Spirit of Nebraska" Council) is one of 112 councils in the United States. Each council is fairly autonomous from GSUSA—more of a franchise than an affiliate—and is responsible for its own fundraising and programming.
As for its fundraising, all proceeds raised from local troop dues, product sales, individual or corporate donations or other activities (except Girl Scout logos, pins, etc) stay with the local troop and the state council. This includes all proceeds from cookie and nut sales. GSUSA does not receive any of these funds.
In addition to troop dues, each girl and adult member pays $12 in national dues annually, all of which goes to the national office (GSUSA). GSUSA says that all of the funds raised from these dues are used to pay for administrative services provided to state councils free of charge or at a discount.
The second part of our discussion focused on concerns about content in some of the Girl Scout publications as well as its associations with organizations that espouse immoral policies and practices such as Planned Parenthood and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS).
Regarding the first matter, I was informed that decisions about programming materials and activities are made by individual troops with assistance from the state council and GSUSA. The only programming materials produced by GSUSA are the Journey Books and Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouts.
The problematic web links or references to groups and/or individuals that espouse views contrary to Catholic teaching are contained in the older girls Journey Books. However, GSUSA has begun to make changes to these books to remove most, if not all, of these references.
Regarding the second matter, the decision to associate with Planned Parenthood appears to be made by state councils or local troops. The Nebraska leadership (confirmed by Mrs. Chambers) assures that the Spirit of Nebraska Council will not associate with Planned Parenthood. GSUSA’s association with WAGGGS, however, remains problematic.
There is more work to be done in examining the Girl Scouts, particularly at the national level. In this regard, I eagerly await the results of the USCCB’s efforts. In the meantime, it doesn’t appear that parents of Girl Scouts in Nebraska need to take any immediate action other than keeping a watchful eye on the programs and activities in their local troops.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Two years ago, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) was notified that it had been improperly providing prenatal care through Medicaid for the unborn children of certain categories of low income mothers. Although the state had to stop providing prenatal care to these populations through Medicaid it was possible to continue the coverage under other programs.
However, one of those categories of pregnant mothers—those who are in our country illegally—presented lawmakers with a clash of two goods. On one hand, there was the good of upholding and enforcing our immigration laws.
On the other hand, there was the good of providing important prenatal care to innocent and vulnerable unborn children who have no immigration status and who will be United States Citizens upon their birth in this country.
Furthermore, the federal/state program under which these unborn children qualify for prenatal coverage—called CHIP (Childrens’ Health Insurance Program)—regards the child as the recipient of health care services and includes unborn children from conception. This is known as the "unborn child option" under CHIP and was established by the George W. Bush Administration.
The NDHHS decided they wouldn’t pursue the "unborn child option" without the Legislature’s authority. Perhaps due to some naiveté on my part, I thought a largely prolife Legislature and Governor would choose the good of prenatal care over strict adherence to immigration laws, especially since the primary beneficiary of prenatal care is not the undocumented mother but her unborn child who is without immigration status and, it could be said, is a presumptive citizen.
My assumption turned out to be wrong. The Governor and several pro-life senators, including some who have introduced and/or prioritized past pro-life legislation, made a judgment call to err on the side of upholding immigration laws. As a result, Legislation introduced in the 2010 Unicameral session to restore funding for prenatal care for the unborn children of undocumented mothers never even received a vote.
Now fast forward to 2012 when another bill to restore prenatal care funding came before the full Legislature as LB 599. The issue was no less contentious this time around. Several pro-life senators and the Governor still opposed taxpayer funds being used to pay for prenatal services for unborn children of impoverished and undocumented mothers.
However, several previously undecided senators chose to support LB 599. And, perhaps most important, the Speaker of the Legislature, pro-life Sen. Mike Flood, put his considerable influence and credibility behind passage of LB 599.
As a result, the Legislature, following several hours of debate, advanced LB 599 through three rounds of debate with no less than 30 votes each time. This is a remarkable turnaround given that there was insufficient support for the bill two years ago to even get a vote of the full Legislature.
Twenty-five votes are needed to advance most bills in our Legislature. However, with the Governor threatening to veto this bill, the 30 vote threshold was important as this is the minimum number of votes needed to override a Governor’s veto. The Governor did veto the bill and, in the end, 30 senators voted to override and enact LB 599 into law. A report of how each senator voted can be seen on the Nebraska Catholic Conference website at www.nebcathcon.org.
This was an extraordinarily contentious and challenging debate for the Legislature given this clash between two goods. It was also more challenging for my office and some other pro-life groups given that we were on opposite sides of LB 599 with some senators who are usually the pro-life movement’s strongest allies. For reasons my office and the Nebraska Catholic Conference articulated on our website, we disagree with, and are disappointed by, these senators’ votes against LB 599.
Nonetheless, I recognize that it would be unusual for like-minded individuals to never disagree on a public policy matter, especially where there is a clash of two goods. Consequently, this debate over LB 599 punctuated the importance, particularly in the legislative arena where opponents on one issue can be allies on another, to disagree with charity.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Beginning last fall and ending this spring, the three dioceses of Nebraska participated in an educational and healing project called VirtueMedia. This is the third time in five years that the dioceses of Nebraska have participated in this wonderful and effective pro-life project.
According to its website (www.virtuemedia.org), "VirtueMedia™ is a Christian values-based not-for-profit that uses highly creative advertising to create proven-effective, compassionate and educational pro-life commercials through efficient stewardship backed by collaboration with crisis pregnancy centers, Right to Life groups, and churches."
VirtueMedia’s goal is "to provide compelling information through the mass media, to help encourage parents to choose life for their babies. Additionally, we hope to educate our culture, so that more people will fully support the sanctity of all human life."
Last fall, information about VirtueMedia was presented to parishioners by their bishop, either in the form of a DVD presentation or in the form of a letter. Those who saw the DVD presentation got a preview of the amazing VirtueMedia commercials. Donation envelopes were distributed to parishioners at that time.
As a result of these presentations, Nebraskans donated more than $93,000 to this project. This total included $9,000 from the State Council of the Knights of Columbus which was similarly generous in our previous VirtueMedia initiatives.
As a result of VirtueMedia’s ad-buying expertise, these funds purchased nearly 1,900 ads in most of the major television markets in Nebraska. That’s an astonishing number of ads and at a cost of less than $50 per ad.
The initial plan was to feature three of VirtueMedia’s ads in this media buy: a post-abortion ad, a crisis pregnancy ad and a general sanctity of life ad. All of these ads can be viewed online at www.virtuemedia.org.
Based on VirtueMedia’s advice, we decided to focus the entire ad buy on the post-abortion ad. VirtueMedia’s judgment was that given the amount of money we had to spend, it would be more effectively utilized focusing on one message rather than diffusing it among three different messages.
The ad, called "post abortion healing" features several post-abortive women communicating powerful messages about the pain and trouble their abortions caused them. The ad concludes with a group picture of these and other post-abortive women saying:
"You see, abortion didn’t solve our problems, it just created different ones. That’s why we are silent no more. We found help and healing, and you can too. Call or go online to 1-866-88-WOMAN or www.silentnomoreawareness.org."
As a result of these ads, nearly 400 post-abortive Nebraskans responded by calling or going to the website. Although we don’t know the ultimate outcomes of those 400 inquiries, it is our hope and prayer that their inquiries began the process of spiritual and psychological healing through Project Rachel or other post-abortion ministries.
On behalf of the bishops of Nebraska, I extend my deepest gratitude to all individuals and the Knights of Columbus who contributed so generously to this effective educational and healing initiative.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
My daughter, know that My Heart is mercy itself. From this sea of mercy, graces flow out upon the whole world. No soul that has approached Me has ever gone away unconsoled. All misery gets buried in the depths of My mercy, and every saving and sanctifying grace flows from this fountain…Sooner would heaven and earth turn into nothingness than would My mercy not embrace a trusting soul."
These words from the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (#1777) are a beautiful expression of God’s Divine Mercy, which we celebrate this Sunday. For those who suffer from a past abortion, however, God’s mercy can seem incomprehensible.
Personal and intensely emotional stories of women struggling with a past abortion give testament to this sad reality. I’ve received such letters in my office and many others can be seen on post-abortion websites like www.hopeafterabortion.com (Project Rachel). Here is an excerpt from one of those letters:
"My personal journey of healing began after six long years of the most deafeningly silent pain…I remember during those dark years, I would wake up each morning, and for a few brief seconds, all was well. Then I would remember what I had done. The grief was all-consuming. But, like so many other women, I kept it locked inside. I had accepted my fate. I was unforgiveable.
"The enormity of what I had done actually made my steps heavier…I cried alone almost daily. For brief periods I could take my mind off of it. Sometimes I would even forget long enough to try and enjoy a comedy at the movies, but then mid-laughter I’d remember and my laughing would stop because, well, I didn’t deserve to laugh.
"Growing up in a Catholic family that attended Mass every Sunday, I never expected that I, of all people, would be in this situation. I convinced myself that I had committed an unforgiveable act. I felt utterly alone. I desperately needed to connect with other women who were suffering as I was, and I longed to be the woman I used to be.
"And then one fateful Sunday morning during Mass, my husband handed me a church bulletin, pointing out the words on the back: "Project Rachel — a program for post-abortion healing through the archdiocese." I couldn’t believe my eyes.
"It took me several months to muster up the nerve to call. I had done a fine job of beating myself up for years and I certainly didn’t need the person on the other end of the phone to make me feel any worse. But, when I finally called, it was not like that at all. The voice on the other end was warm and full of hope for me. My journey of healing began on that day that I made that phone call.
"Thanks to Project Rachel, I am me again…The power of forgiveness is life altering. I am happy again, and the people whom I love sense that. I will always regret my decision, and I will continue to carry my quiet secret with me. It has become a part of who I am, but it no longer defines who I am."
Project Rachel is comprised of specially trained clergy and professional counselors who provide individual, confidential counseling and reconciliation to women and men suffering from a past abortion. In Nebraska, Project Rachel can be accessed by calling 1-888-456-HOPE (4673). Information on Project Rachel and abortion’s emotional and spiritual aftermath is also available online at www.hopeafterabortion.com.
In his 2009 homily on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict XVI cautioned that "without the healing of souls, without the healing of man from within there can be no salvation for humanity. How essential then to the mission of the Church are the pastoral and apostolic activities that draw women and men burdened by the sin of abortion closer to God’s merciful heart. It is no exaggeration to say that the Church’s ministry of healing and reconciliation after abortion is at the heart of the Church’s mission at this time in her history."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Blessed John Paul II identified and explained the origin and roots of what he called "the culture of death." The origin of death in our world was the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Death entered the world in a violent way when Cain killed his brother Abel.
"The Lord’s question, ‘What have you done?’ which Cain cannot escape, is addressed also to the people of today," John Paul II says, "to make them realize the extent and gravity of the attacks against life which continue to mark human history, to make them discover what causes these attacks and feeds them…"
One of those causes, according to John Paul II, is the distorted view that freedom means absolute license—do whatever you want, however you want, whenever you want. This distorted freedom is characterized by radical individualism (self-centeredness; viewing others as obstacles/burdens and not as opportunities to give/receive love).
Other characteristics of distorted freedom are relativism (no recognition of objective truth) and materialism (valuing possessions above people). The deepest root cause of the culture of death, or, as John Paul II calls it, the "heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man," is "the eclipse of the sense of God and of man, typical of a social and cultural climate dominated by secularism."
"Those who allow themselves to be influenced by this climate easily fall into a sad, vicious circle: When the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to lose the sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in turn, the systematic violation of the moral law, especially in the serious matter of respect for human life and its dignity, produces a kind of progressive darkening of the capacity to discern God’s living and saving presence."
Blessed John Paul punctuates this point with this quote from the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et spes: "Without the Creator, the creature would disappear…But when God is forgotten, the creature itself grows unintelligible."
"Man is no longer able to see himself as ‘mysteriously different’ from other earthly creatures," John Paul says. "Life itself becomes a mere ‘thing,’ which man claims as his exclusive property, completely subject to his control and manipulation."
It is pretty easy to see how these root causes lead to contempt (or at least utter disregard) for human life. And the attacks on human life seem to expand and deepen almost daily.
Abortion expands to infanticide and euthanasia/assisted suicide. Laboratory production of human life (i.e. in vitro fertilization) leads to eugenic screening and destruction of inferior embryos as well as research that treats embryos as "mere things" to be manipulated and destroyed in the pursuit of medical treatments.
Contraception expands to "emergency contraception" and is characterized, euphemistically, as women’s healthcare. And now, under "Obamacare," contraception is defined as "preventive services" that must be provided free of charge in every healthcare plan (including those sponsored by Catholic institutions).
As distressing and overwhelming as these attacks against human life can be, Easter reminds us that we Christians are a resurrection people. As the familiar Easter hymn says: "The strife is over, the battle won." Our Lord has defeated death, once and for all.
Therefore, as we battle against the culture of death, we do so with the extraordinary confidence and joy of knowing that we operate from victory, not just for victory. As the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus put it, "we have not the right and we have not the reason to despair if we understand that our entire struggle is premised not upon a victory to be achieved but a victory that has been achieved.
"If we understand that, far from despair we have right and reason to rejoice that we are called to such a time as this, a time of testing, a time of truth. The encroaching culture of death shall not prevail, for we know, as we read in John’s Gospel, ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ The darkness will never overcome that light."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Several weeks ago I started seeing advertisements on pro-life websites about nationwide rallies for religious freedom to be held March 23. These rallies, sponsored by an ad hoc coalition of pro-life and religious groups, were organized to protest President Obama’s mandate that all health insurance plans cover (without co-pay or deductible) female sterilization and contraceptives, including those that can cause abortions.
I checked out the coalition’s website at www.standforreligiousfreedom.com and noticed that rallies were being planned in Lincoln and Omaha. I immediately e-mailed the organizers to find out who was organizing these two Nebraska rallies. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive a response for quite some time, and then only a generic one with no names of the local organizers. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks prior to last Friday’s rally that I found out that Nebraskans United for Life and the Respect Life Apostolate of the Omaha Archdiocese were organizing the Omaha rally. And I didn’t find out until about a week before the rally that there was no local organizer in Lincoln.
Despite this lack of communication and organization by the national coalition, the groups in Omaha put together, on very short notice, a highly professional and successful rally outside the Federal Building in downtown Omaha. The rally began with the singing of "God Bless America," followed by Archbishop George Lucas who led the opening prayer and provided introductory remarks about the serious threat the president’s mandate poses to religious freedom.
Next up was Edward A. Morse, a professor of law at Creighton University College of Law. Professor Morse spoke about the time-honored tradition of religious freedom and conscientious objection in the United States. I was next on the program and provided some background on the president’s mandate, explaining what it is and is not.
Father John Brancich, FSSP, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Omaha, gave an informative speech on St. Thomas More and the role of the conscience. Dr. Lloyd Pierre from Sancta Familia Medical Apostolate followed with a physician’s perspective on the medical provider/patient relationship and how this and other health care mandates will impact that relationship.
Next up was a powerful pair of priests: Father James Buckley, pastor of St. Patrick Church, and Father Michael Voithofer, parochial vicar at St. Robert Bellarmine Church, both from Omaha. Father Buckley provided a call to action with numerous suggestions for prayer, fasting and action. Father Voithofer gave an inspirational and rousing close to the presentations with the important reminder that Jesus Christ is victor!
The rally concluded with a prayer by Denny Hartford from Vital Signs Ministries. Denny and his wife Claire, who are evangelical Christians, were among numerous Protestants in attendance to show their support for religious freedom. Estimates put attendance at anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000, a very impressive turnout for limited planning and promotion.
The Lincoln event, because no organizer was identified in time to plan a rally was more of a "Life Chain-style" demonstration. But despite no real organization or leader and only last-minute promotion, around 500 people showed up and held signs surrounding the Federal Building in Lincoln.
The relative success of both events, given the short amount of time for planning and promotion, is extraordinary. It demonstrates the passion and energy that exists locally and nationally toward opposing the Obama Administration’s unprecedented and reckless trampling of religious freedom.
The Catholic Bishops, and the offices like mine that represent them, will be tireless in defending religious freedom and in equipping Catholic parishes and individuals to participate in this epic battle. One excellent resource that currently exists is the U.S. Bishops’ website at www.usccb.org/conscience. From this page one can link to another page that provides many excellent prayer, liturgical and educational materials. May God bless and guide us to be courageous, persistent and faithful.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
There are few liturgical feasts that are more directly relevant to the pro-life cause than the Solemnity of the Annunciation. The Word became Flesh at the Annunciation, when the Virgin Mary is told that she has been chosen to be the Mother of the Savior and gives her consent.
Luke’s Gospel (1:26-38) tells us that "the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, ‘Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you… Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus."
For Christians, the Annunciation should be a rich source of reflection on the sacred dignity of human life from its very beginning at conception. Our Lord didn’t descend from Heaven as a 30-year-old adult and begin His ministry. He "became man" like every human being, as a single cell embryo.
Single Cell Embryo
Our Lord did nothing by chance. Therefore, the fact that He began His earthly life as an embryo and experienced every subsequent stage of human life (fetus, infant, child, adolescent and adult) necessarily gives significant meaning and dignity to each of these stages.
Scripture (Luke 1:41-44) also tells us that after the Annunciation, Mary went in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth. "When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
"And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy." Hence, it was an unborn child (John the Baptist) who first recognized Christ’s presence on earth.
In his meditations on the Annunciation, Father Frank Pavone asks these provocative questions: "Would it long be possible for believers, who meditate on the unborn child who was God, to fail to see that unborn children are made in God’s image?
"Would it be likely that those who ponder that our Almighty Protector was a baby in the womb will fail to see that babies in the womb deserve protection? Would it happen that Christians, who acknowledge that their Lord and Brother was an embryo and fetus, will fail to see that every embryo and fetus is a brother and sister in the Lord?"
Six Weeks
"Yet the marvels revealed by the Annunciation do not stop there," Father Pavone continues. "There is also the mystery of Mary’s freedom, her ‘Fiat’ – ‘Let it be done to me according to your word’ (Lk. 1:38).
"This is freedom of choice which serves the truth, as opposed to ‘pro-choice’ which claims to create its own truth. This is choice at the service of life, rather than the perverted choice to take life. This is the moment when Mary gave her body to the One who would bring life to the world by saying ‘This is My Body,’ forever undoing the sin of those who justify abortion by saying, ‘This is my body!’
My office has a flier entitled "The Word Became Flesh" that contains fetal development pictures and Father Pavone’s reflections. Contact my office at necatholic.org.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
There is a saying (not sure of its origin) that "verbal engineering always precedes social engineering." Even a casual observer of our society and culture should be able to recognize the truth in this saying. And no one has mastered verbal engineering (aka verbal deception or euphemism) better than the apologists of the culture of death.
"Choice" or "reproductive rights" is substituted for "abortion." "Fetus," "product of conception" or "clump of cells" is substituted for "unborn baby." "Death with dignity" is substituted for "euthanasia" or "assisted suicide."
Even the organizational names reflect verbal deception. The American Birth Control League became Planned Parenthood. The Hemlock Society (which advocates for euthanasia and assisted suicide) now calls itself Compassion and Choices.
According to feminist author Pamela Haag, who supports President Obama’s contraceptive mandate, "The phrase ‘women’s health’ in the birth control dispute is the latest nimble euphemism." In a Feb. 17 essay published on the "Marriage 3.0" blog, Ms. Haag went on to say that access to contraception "isn’t really about my ‘health.’ It’s not principally about the management of ovarian cysts or the regulation of periods.
"Birth control isn’t about my health unless by ‘health’ you mean, my capacity to get it on, to have a happy, joyous sex life that involves an actual male partner," wrote Haag, criticizing White House supporters for discussing contraceptives mainly as "preventing services" for women’s health.
"The point of birth control," Haag continued, "is to have sex that’s recreational and non-procreative. It’s to permit women to exercise their desires without the ‘sword of Damocles’ of unwanted pregnancy hanging gloomily over their heads."
Although this feminist’s candor about the "point of birth control" is refreshing, she still seems to look at contraception’s impact on women and society through rose-colored lenses. First, the assertion that widespread availability of contraception reduces unintended pregnancies has little more than intuitive appeal to back it up. Studies proving my point are available online at www.nebcathcon.org (under pro-life, printed materials). How can this be? A well-documented fact sheet produced by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life office provides this explanation: "Contraceptive effectiveness is often estimated on a misleading per-use basis, or as failure rates over 12 months of typical use for all women of reproductive age. This greatly understates failure rates among teens, and fails to account for cumulative risk from more frequent sexual activity."
"Numerous studies examining sexual behavior and STD transmission have demonstrated risk compensation behavior, i.e., a greater willingness to engage in potentially risky behavior when one believes risk has been reduced through technology. Increasing access to contraception gives teens a false sense of security, leading to earlier onset of sexual activity and more sexual partners, which counteracts any reduction in unintended pregnancies."
Second, Ms. Haag makes no mention of the explosion of sexually-transmitted diseases that has occurred since contraception has become ubiquitous. In the 1960s, there were two or three "venereal diseases." Today, there are more than two dozen "sexually-transmitted diseases" (STDs). Contraception provides no protection from STDs and even condoms provide little protection from many STDs. Undoubtedly, this is why there are 19 million new cases of STDs in the United States each year.
Third, hormonal contraceptives pose many health problems themselves. Hormonal contraceptives (HCs) do not cure a disease, they are powerful steroids intended to disrupt a normal, functioning reproductive system. There is ample evidence that HCs can cause fatal blood clots, heart attacks and strokes.
Furthermore, how many women know that the World Health Organization has identified estrogen in combined oral contraceptive pills (COCs) as carcinogenic? In the article "Contraception: The Fine Print," Susan Wills points out that "women who began taking COCs before age 20 increased their risk of dying from breast cancer by 820%. Evidence of increased heart attack and breast cancer risk halted a trial of women taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) halfway through its five-year trial period. Note that the dose of estrogen in HRT is 4-8 times lower than in many COCs."
So the next time you hear someone refer to birth control as "women’s healthcare," expose the term for what it is: verbal—and cruel—deception.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The drumbeat of deception by supporters of President Obama’s mandate attacking religious freedom is breathtaking. And the deception starts at the top, with President Obama himself.
Last November, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), met with President Obama to express serious concerns about the proposed mandate under Obamacare that forces all insurance plans (including those of religious organizations) to pay for sterilizations and contraception, including abortifacient drugs. President Obama assured Cardinal Dolan that he would make changes to address those concerns.
However, Jan. 20, the president announced his contraception mandate would go into law without any changes. Only after a firestorm of protest by conservatives and liberals did the president announce Feb. 10 that he would make "an accommodation" for religious groups that oppose the mandate. Incredibly—and unknown to most Americans—on the very same day that the president announced to the country his (completely inadequate) accommodation, his Administration quietly finalized the mandate into law without any changes. That duplicitous act by our president was the height of deception.
In a March 2 letter to his brother bishops, Cardinal Dolan announced that although the bishops had accepted an invitation from President Obama to "work out the wrinkles" in his mandate, "this seems to be stalled: the White House Press Secretary, for instance, informed the nation that the mandates are a fait accompli (and, embarrassingly for him, commented that we bishops have always opposed Health Care anyway, a charge that is scurrilous and insulting, not to mention flat out wrong.)"
Cardinal Dolan also reported that at a meeting between staff of the bishops’ conference and the White House staff, the bishops’ staff was told that revisiting the mandate or broadening the religious exemption was off the table. "So much for ‘working out the wrinkles,’" Cardinal Dolan lamented.
Even more galling, Cardinal Dolan said the White House staffers told the bishops’ staff that they "should listen to the ‘enlightened’ voices of accommodation" coming from liberal Catholic publications. Cardinal Dolan cited a "hardly surprising yet terribly unfortunate editorial in America."
"The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching and so, taking a cue from its own definition of religious freedom, now has nominated its own handpicked official Catholic teachers," the Cardinal said.
The deception by this White House and supporters of its mandate has spilled into the debate over legislation in Congress to provide proper conscience protection in Obamacare. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry introduced the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179) in the U.S. House and Sen. Roy Blunt introduced its companion in the Senate (S. 1467).
Last week, the Senate narrowly defeated Sen. Blunt’s effort to amend S. 1467 onto a Transportation bill. The debate over the Blunt amendment produced some incredibly irresponsible accusations.
For example, some tried to portray the Blunt/Fortenberry conscience act as "your boss getting to decide which prescriptions you can get filled and which medical procedures you can have." Among the most asinine comments I saw was this from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA): "Women are not going to be dragged backward to the days when they were denied access to contraception and other essential services."
These accusations overlook one simple fact. The Blunt/Fortenberry bill does not modify state or federal laws that are now in effect. It only amends the new mandated benefits provisions in Obamacare with the same conscience protection found in other federal health programs. Let me repeat: Blunt/Fortenberry merely applies the same conscience protections to Obamacare that have been a part of other federal health programs for many years.
In closing the letter to his brother bishops, Cardinal Dolan said "we know so very well that religious freedom is our heritage, our legacy and our firm belief, both as loyal Catholics and Americans. There have been many threats to religious freedom… but these often came from without. This one sadly comes from within. As our ancestors did with previous threats, we will tirelessly defend the timeless and enduring truth of religious freedom. Stay tuned and informed by checking online at www.usccb.org/conscience.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In his encyclical, "The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II said a "great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God… Let us therefore discover anew the humility and the courage to pray and fast so that the power from on high will break down the walls of lies and deceit: the walls which conceal from the sight of so many… the evil of practices and laws which are hostile to life."
The Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities, the official pro-life program of the Catholic Church in the U.S., also emphasizes that prayer and fasting is an essential component to our efforts to build a culture of life:
"Prayer is the foundation of all that we do in defense of human life. Our efforts—whether educational, pastoral, or legislative—will be less than fully fruitful if we do not change hearts and if we do not ourselves overcome our own spiritual blindness. Only with prayer—prayer that storms the heavens for justice and mercy, prayer that cleanses our hearts and our souls—will the culture of death that surrounds us today be replaced with a culture of life."
As we settle into the Lenten season, I want to present some worthy suggestions for our prayer and fasting efforts:
40 Days for Life
Implemented throughout the United States and in several other countries, 40 Days for Life urges prayer and fasting for an end to abortion. In Nebraska, 40 Days for Life has been implemented twice a year, during Lent and in the fall, at the abortion mills in Omaha and Lincoln. Participants are asked to commit to one hour of prayer outside an abortion mill.
The impact of 40 Days for Life has been nothing short of extraordinary. Its website (www.40daysforlife.com) features stories of women who changed their mind about having an abortion, of abortion mill workers who quit the grisly business, and of abortion mills that have shut down.
Abortion Mill Prayer Project
For those individuals who do not live in reasonable proximity to Lincoln or Omaha and can’t directly participate in 40 Days for Life, there is a way to participate in the prayers and fasting from home.
The Abortion Mill Prayer Project asks individuals to pray for the conversion of a specific abortionist and his/her staff and for the closure of a specific abortion mill. In Nebraska there are three abortion mills and three dioceses. Therefore, I am asking the parishes in each diocese to pray for one of these abortion mills as follows:
Parishes in the Diocese of Lincoln are asked to pray for C.J. Labenz, who does abortions on Tuesdays at Planned Parenthood in Lincoln. Parishes in the Archdiocese of Omaha are asked to pray for LeRoy Carhart, who does abortions on Fridays and Saturdays in Bellevue. Parishes in the Diocese of Grand Island are asked to pray for Nicola Moore, who does abortions on Wednesdays at Planned Parenthood in Omaha.
Prayer cards for this project along with other prayer activities are being distributed by my office to parishes around the state for use during Lent and beyond. They are also available online at www.nebcathcon.org (under Pro Life, Printed Materials).
Regardless of whatever limitations we may have (e.g. time, physical, geographic, etc.) each of us can make a significant contribution toward building a culture of life through our prayers and fasting. In fact, there is no more simple or efficacious contribution.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
President Obama’s edict forcing insurance plans to cover sterilization and contraception, including drugs that can cause abortions, has exposed a couple of very sensitive nerves in our society: religious freedom and contraception.
Although the president and his collaborators at Planned Parenthood want this debate to be about contraception and not religious freedom, the fact that he is forcing religious institutions and people of faith to comply has made the debate about our Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom. The long list of non-Catholic religious leaders opposing the edict punctuates this point.
But wait, some will say, the president heard this concern and announced to the nation that he will "accommodate" those concerned that their religious liberty is being trampled upon. Left-leaning Catholic groups (e.g. the Catholic Health Association) and individuals (and a willing media) were delighted and pronounced the matter settled.
The only official voice of the Catholic Church, the Bishops, said the president’s "accommodation" was "hogwash" (loosely translated of course!). First, few people likely know that while the president was publicly announcing the "accommodation" (which has no force of law), his administration finalized the mandate (which does have the force of law) without any accommodation.
Second, the president’s accommodation does not remedy the edict’s infringement on religious freedom since contraceptive coverage would still have to be provided as a part of someone’s employment with a religious institution. And third, the president takes an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" not to "accommodate" it.
The other nerve the president’s edict exposed is just how entrenched and invested in contraception our society has become. We hear the euphemistic references to contraception as "women’s health care" or "preventative health care services" as though pregnancy is a disease.
Then we hear the oft-repeated line that "98 percent of Catholics use contraception." Though I suspect that percentage is fabricated and inflated, no one would dispute that a large majority of Catholics use contraception, disregarding (or unaware of) the Church’s teaching that the use of contraception is a grave sin. How sad.
It is especially sad that generations of Catholics have, at best, been minimally catechized about the Church’s teaching on the truth and meaning of human sexuality. The truth of this teaching was demonstrated, in part, by how Pope Paul VI rejected the recommendation by a Vatican Commission (and perhaps his own personal views) and reaffirmed the Church’s consistent teaching that contraception is contrary to God’s design for human love and life.
Near the end of his pontificate, Pope Paul VI defended his decision, expressed in his encyclical Humanae Vitae, as an act of fidelity to his teaching responsibility as the Vicar of Christ. And President Obama’s coercive act further demonstrates how prophetic Paul VI was when he predicted in Humanae Vitae that widespread use of contraceptives would result in the following: General lowering of moral standards; a rise in infidelity, and illegitimacy; the reduction of women to objects used to satisfy men; and government coercion in reproductive matters.
The meaning of the Church’s teaching on human sexuality was explained, with a profound depth, in a series of talks given by Pope John Paul II at his Wednesday audiences over the first five years of his pontificate. This teaching, known as Theology of the Body, came from an undeniably extraordinary figure in Church history, beatified only a handful of years following his death.
For the good of our nation, I hope and pray that our president’s attack on religious liberty is soundly defeated. For the good of achieving a civilization of authentic love and life, I hope and pray that this attack serves as a pivotal moment when Catholics sincerely and prayerfully examine—and commit to—the transcendent beauty of the Church’s teaching on sexual morality.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
What a whipsaw of emotion the Susan G. Komen Foundation created with its vacillating decision regarding grants to Planned Parenthood (PP). For years, some of Komen’s state affiliates have provided grants to PP, operator of America’s largest abortion chain.
In large part due to the enormous controversy and ill will that was generated by Komen allowing funding to go to PP, Komen’s leadership apparently tried to find a way to extricate itself from the "culture wars." Komen changed its grant-making criteria such that PP would no longer be eligible for grants.
But Planned Parenthood and its shills in the secular media would have none of that. Both entities unleashed a firestorm that Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic and Human Rights Institute, characterized as "nothing short of a Mafia shakedown campaign."
Mr. Ruse said Planned Parenthood essentially told the Komen Foundation "either give us money or we will destroy you." Princeton professor Robert P. George and Notre Dame professor O. Carter Snead wrote this in a Wall Street Journal editorial:
"Faced with even the tiniest depletion in the massive river of funds Planned Parenthood receives yearly, the behemoth mobilized its enormous cultural, media, financial and political apparatus to attack the Komen Foundation in the press, on TV and through social media.
"The organization’s allies demonized the charity, attempting to depict the nation’s most prominent anti-breast cancer organization as a bedfellow of religious extremists. A Facebook page was set up to ‘Defund the Komen Foundation.’ In short, Planned Parenthood took breast cancer victims as hostages."
Why would PP, which has annual revenues exceeding $1 billion, go to such extremes to attack Komen over losing a relative small amount ($650,000) of its budget? I think the answer is simple.
Planned Parenthood is our nation’s largest abortionist, is the leading opponent to even the most modest (and popular) pro-life laws, and is a purveyor of extremely offensive and dehumanizing "sex education." This puts PP on the radical fringe of society. Hence, it is necessary for PP to link itself to more reputable entities like Komen and to offer non-controversial health services in order to deflect attention and criticism from its wicked activities.
Komen should have never allowed itself to be connected to such a morally bankrupt and controversial organization. And while Komen deserves some credit for trying to extricate itself from PP, unless and until it decides to do so permanently, pro-lifers should cease their support for the organization.
Making a decision to cease support for Komen does not mean ceasing support for programs and research that benefit persons with breast cancer. In Nebraska, for example, four Catholic hospitals sponsor breast cancer-related programs that currently receive funding from Komen’s Nebraska affiliate. Thus, contributors could give directly to these programs instead of going through Komen.
These hospitals/programs are as follows:
Alegent Health Cancer Center (Omaha) - "Image Recovery Center Patient Assistance Fund." This Center helps breast cancer patients manage the serious side effects that accompany the treatment of breast cancer.
Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation (Kearney) - "Breast Health Screening and Testing for Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer." This program provides services to women who don’t meet the age requirements for the Every Woman Matters Program.
Saint Elizabeth Foundation (Lincoln) - "Early Detection in Minority Populations." This project will provide 75 no-cost mammograms for low-income, uninsured or underinsured women who do not qualify for the State of Nebraska’s Every Woman Matters Program.
Saint Francis Medical Center (Grand Island) - "The Outreach Risk Awareness Project" This project seeks to increase breast cancer awareness of patient risk, diagnosis and treatment for minority and low-income women with the use of kiosks, breast models and other education materials.
Please pray for Nancy Brinker and her colleagues at Komen. And send the following message to her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.: "I am gravely disappointed that Planned Parenthood will again be eligible for grants from Komen. Please work to concentrate your efforts on lifesaving care for women and to end all ties with Planned Parenthood."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Nebraska Legislature is debating a bill (LB 540) that would require the state of Nebraska to expand taxpayer funding for birth control and other "family planning services." The bill was introduced by the Health and Human Services Committee which is chaired by Sen. Kathy Campbell.
The federal Medicaid program already covers such services for women who are at or below the federal poverty income level. However, Medicaid allows states to apply for a waiver in order to provide free (or discounted) birth control to women, men and adolescents, who have incomes above federal poverty guidelines.
LB 540 would expand income eligibility to 185 percent of the poverty guidelines. This would expand Medicaid payments for contraceptive family planning services so that approximately 26,000 more women would become eligible for these taxpayer-funded services. And Planned Parenthood, which operates the nation’s largest abortion chain, would be a major beneficiary of these guaranteed taxpayer-funded payments.
I testified, on behalf of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, in opposition to this bill when it received a public hearing last year. Unfortunately, the bill was voted out of committee a few weeks ago and was debated earlier this week on the floor of the Legislature. At the time of this writing its outcome was not certain.
One of the prime arguments used to promote the expansion of taxpayer funding for birth control is that it will reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions. I understand the intuitive appeal of this argument. However, there is little, if any, hard evidence to back it up. And the evidence that is provided is embarrassing in its reliance on estimates and assumptions, not on empirical data.
In contrast, there are dozens of published studies (i.e. "hard" data), conducted by birth control apologists, concluding that increased access to contraception does not reduce unintended pregnancies or abortions. Here are a few examples:
The January 2011 isssue of the journal Contraception (Volume 83, Issue 1, pages 82-87) featured a 10-year (1997 to 2007) study that examined the use of contraceptive methods in order to reduce the number of elective abortions. During the study period the overall use of contraceptive methods increased (from 49.1% to 79.9%) but the elective abortion rate doubled (from 5.52 to 11.49 per 1,000 women).
In a September 2006 editorial in the British Medical Journal Anna Glasier, a leading contraception researcher said: "Ten studies in different countries have shown that giving women a supply of emergency contraception to keep at home ... increases use by twofold to threefold ... but [has] had no measurable effect on rates of pregnancy or abortion."
In a May 2004 article in the publication Contraception Anna Glasier said about emergency contraception that "[e]stimates of efficacy are unsubstantiated by randomized trials. Efficacy is based on rather unreliable data and a great many assumptions and have been questioned both in the past and more recently. ... While advanced provision of EC probably prevents some pregnancies for some women some of the time, the strategy did not produce the public health breakthrough hoped for."
James Trussell who originated the claim that easier access to emergency contraception could "result in a greater than 50% reduction in abortion rates" has conceded that 23 published studies from 10 countries disprove his claim. According to every one of the 23 studies, published between 1998 and 2006, easier access to EC fails to achieve any statistically significant reduction in rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion.
And then there is this inconvenient statistic: a majority of women having abortions were using contraception in the month they got pregnant. Here’s how the Alan Guttmacher Institute (i.e. Planned Parenthood) explained this phenomenon: "because women who are using contraceptives are motivated to prevent an unplanned birth, they are more likely than women who were not using contraception to seek an abortion should they accidentally become pregnant."
LB 540 may have enough support to be enacted. And senators may provide a variety of reasons for supporting the bill. But an interest in reducing abortions shouldn’t be one of them.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
On Friday, Jan. 20, the Obama Administration leveled a direct and unprecedented attack on religion and First Amendment rights. Dismissing the pleas of Catholic and non-Catholic religious leaders and institutions, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, issued a regulatory mandate forcing all health insurance plans to pay for sterilizations and contraceptive drugs and devices, including those that can cause abortions.
Cardinal-elect Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York City and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said "[t]o force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable. It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom."
In a Jan. 25 Wall Street Journal editorial, Cardinal-elect Dolan cited the fierce defense our nation’s Founding Fathers gave to religious liberty, presenting it as the first freedom in the Bill of Rights.
His Eminence cited George Washington who said this: "The conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness; and it is my wish and desire, that the laws may always be extensively accommodated to them." And James Madison, who authored the First Amendment, said: "Conscience is the most sacred of all property."
His Eminence also pointed out the bitter irony that the Obama Administration issued its edict only two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court "unanimously and enthusiastically reaffirmed these longstanding and foundational principles of religious freedom" in its Hosanna-Tabor ruling. "The court made clear that they include the right of religious institutions to control their internal affairs."
The Obama Administration’s attack on religious liberty will and must be fought vigorously. Even many non-Catholic religious leaders and institutions that may not share Catholic teaching on contraception are weighing in.
As Cardinal-elect Dolan said in his editorial, "Americans of other faiths, or no faith at all… recognize that their beliefs could be next on the block. They also recognize that the cleverest way for the government to erode the broader principle of religious freedom is to target unpopular beliefs first."
In addition to fighting this attack on religious liberty, we must also fight the Obama Administration’s radical ideology which views pregnancy as a disease and contraception as preventive "healthcare." This view, that wider and easier access to contraception will reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions, is simply baseless.
First, the Guttmacher Institute (which has ties to Planned Parenthood) acknowledges that more than half of women seeking abortion in the United States are using contraception in the month they become pregnant. Guttmacher’s explanation: "because women who are using contraceptives are motivated to prevent an unplanned birth, they are more likely than women who were not using contraceptives to seek an abortion should they accidentally become pregnant."
Second, dozens of studies conducted by those who were trying to prove that contraception reduces unintended pregnancy and abortion found this not to be the case. For example, James Trussell, who originated the claim that easier access to emergency contraception could "result in a greater than 50% reduction in abortion rates" has conceded that 23 published studies from 10 countries disprove his claim. According to every one of the 23 studies, published between 1998 and 2006, easier access to emergency contraception fails to achieve any statistically significant reduction in rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion.
Our bishops are asking us to pray and do penance that the Obama Administration’s attack on religious freedom will be reversed. They also urge us to contact our members of Congress to protest this outrage and to insist on the passage of the "Respect for Rights of Conscience Act."
Nebraskans are fortunate that Congressman Jeff Fortenberry introduced this Act in the House (H.R. 1179) and Congressmen Lee Terry and Adrian Smith co-sponsored it. And both of our Senators, Mike Johanns and Ben Nelson, have co-sponsored the Senate version of the Act (S. 1467). Please thank them and urge them to do everything possible to get this critical policy enacted.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
As I’m writing this column, the March for Life in Washington, D.C. is about to get started. Prior to the March, tens of thousands of young people are attending youth rallies and Masses around Washington before heading down to the Mall where they will join hundreds of thousands for the March.
The March for Life has been around for nearly 40 years, beginning in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion rulings of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. The March is part of a long tradition in our country of marching in the streets to protest and draw attention to the violation of basic human and civil rights.
By itself, a march is limited in its ability to right the wrongs of our culture of death. But as a part of a larger initiative or program to build a culture of life and love, a march can get our society’s attention and shake it from its complacency or ignorance.
The Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities, the U.S. Bishops formal pro-life program, provides this larger initiative to guide us. The Pastoral Plan has four components: Prayer and Worship, Public Information and Education, Pastoral Care and Public Policy. The March for Life in D.C. and similar state-level marches are an important part of our public information and education efforts.
I’m very pleased that Nebraska is being well represented at the March for Life in D.C. Participating in the March are six bus loads of high school students from the Archdiocese of Omaha, two bus loads from the dioceses of Lincoln and Grand Island and two bus loads of college students from the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (UNL). And there are dozens of adults from Nebraska participating as well.
This Saturday, Jan. 28, there is another opportunity for Nebraskans to stand up and march for life at the annual Walk for Life in Lincoln. The Walk is sponsored by Nebraska Right to Life and begins at 10 a.m. with a march from the west steps of our Capitol building to the student union on the UNL campus.
The Walk for Life also features a keynote speaker at the student union following the march. This year’s speaker is Ryan Bomberger. According to his bio, Mr. Bomberger was conceived in rape and adopted into a bi-racial family.
Bomberger started the billboard campaign, Too Many Aborted, aimed at attacking Planned Parenthood’s targeting of minority babies for abortion. And, along with his wife Bethany, Bomberger founded The Radiance Foundation to work on pro-life issues.
Preceding the Walk for Life, a pro-life Mass will be held at St. Mary Church (just across the street from the Capitol at 14th and K streets) beginning at 9 a.m. Most Reverend William J. Dendinger, Bishop of Grand Island, will be the main celebrant for this Mass. Father Sid Bruggeman will be the homilist.
Father Bruggeman is a life-long native of Nebraska and a former ordained Protestant minister. He began formation for the priesthood in 2005 and was ordained for the Diocese of Grand Island in 2009. Father now serves the St. Libory Catholic parish in St. Libory, Nebr., and is the Catholic chaplain of the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Grand Island.
This Mass and Walk for Life provide a great opportunity to pray and walk for unborn children, their mothers and fathers, and our entire nation, that the injustice and violence of abortion will end soon. Please make every effort to come to Lincoln this Saturday and join me and thousands of other Nebraskans in standing up for human life.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
January 22, 1973. This is the day that the United States Supreme Court issued its infamous rulings in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. Most people have heard of Roe, but few have heard of its companion case Doe.
Roe v. Wade legalized abortion for virtually any reason during all nine months of pregnancy. In its ruling, the Court broke the nine months of pregnancy into three trimesters.
In the first trimester, the Court ruled that abortion may not be restricted in any way. In the second trimester, the Court said that abortion may be regulated only in ways that benefit the mother’s health. In the third trimester, the Court said that abortion could be prohibited except when the mother’s "health" might be endangered by the pregnancy.
The Court didn’t define "health" in Roe, it defined "health" in Roe’s lesser-known companion case Doe v. Bolton. In Doe, the Court defined "health" as: "all factors—physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age—relevant to the well-being of the patient."
Obviously, this definition of "health" is so broad that virtually any reason can fit within it. A 1983 United States Senate report acknowledged this permissiveness when it said that "[n]o significant legal barriers of any kind whatsoever exist today in the United States for a woman to obtain an abortion for any reason during any stage of her pregnancy."
In Roe, the Court claims that it "found" a right to abortion in the Constitution. But even legal experts who support legal abortion dispute that claim. John Hart Ely, a Yale Law School professor said this: Roe v. Wade is "a very bad decision… because it is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be."
Edward Lazarus, former clerk to Justice Blackmun (who authored Roe) said, "As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible… [It is] one of the most intellectually suspect constitutional decisions of the modern era."
And Harvard Law School professor, Lawrence Tribe, said this: "One of the most curious things about Roe is that, behind its own verbal smokescreen, the substantive judgment on which it rests is nowhere to be found."
Of course, the biggest casualty of Roe and Doe is not intellectual or legal integrity, but real human lives—and souls. According to the abortion industry’s own estimates, more than 50 million abortions have been committed in the United States since 1973. And every year more than one million unborn human beings are added to the death toll.
In Nebraska, more than 175,000 abortions have been reported since 1973. That is an average of more than 4,600 per year, or almost 90 per week.
Such cold statistics don’t reflect the reality that every abortion destroys a unique and unrepeatable human life; a sacred gift given by, and made in the image and likeness of, our Almighty and Ever-living God.
And every abortion wounds the child’s mother, father, family and society. These wounds include physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual wounds for those involved. For our society, one wound is a dulled collective conscience that has degraded all human life and opened the door for attacks against vulnerable humans at other stages of life.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373, says that "In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or Jan. 23, when Jan. 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion."
On this 39th anniversary of Roe and Doe please commit—or recommit—yourself to fighting the insidious evil of abortion. And please join me in offering prayer and penance on Monday, Jan. 23, for this intention. For surely abortion is one of those demons that our Lord said (Mt. 17:21) could only be expelled with prayer and fasting.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For more than 30 years, the Knights of Columbus in Nebraska has sponsored an annual fundraising project known as One Rose One Life. Conducted on or around the anniversary of Roe v Wade (Jan. 22), this project takes its name from the paper roses that were handed out by the Knights as part of this project.
Several years ago, the Knights replaced the paper roses with a prayer card. In addition to a pro-life prayer, this prayer card features a winning poster from the Knights-sponsored pro-life poster contest for students in Kindergarten through the sixth grade.
According to the Knights, an impressive 94 percent of all the funds raised go to support various pro-life organizations and activities in Nebraska. My office, since its inception 21 years ago, is a major beneficiary of these funds. And, in the last four years, more than 50 other pro-life organizations, events and initiatives throughout Nebraska have received funding from One Rose One Life.
These recipients include numerous pregnancy-help centers, Lincoln Right to Life, MavCatholics Students for Life (UNO), Pope Paul VI Institute, McCook Right to Life, St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center (UNL), Thomas More Society, and pro-life billboards throughout Nebraska.
In addition, the Knights have provided significant funding to the Virtue Media pro-life television ad campaign each of the three times my office has sponsored it in Nebraska.
One of the special projects that the Knights have funded recently is the purchase of a 4-D ultrasound machine for the Collage Center, a pregnancy-help center in Kearney. The positive results of this new machine are extraordinary.
According to the Collage Center, many lives have been saved because of the ultrasound machine. In fact, the Center has found that 90 percent of abortion-prone women who have an ultrasound decide against abortion.
The Knights intend to build on the success of the Collage Center by purchasing two more ultrasound machines for pregnancy centers. One will be for Essential Pregnancy Services in Omaha and a second one for the Women’s Resource Center in North Platte.
There are no formal pro-life collections conducted by the Church. Consequently, the Knights’ One Rose One Life project provides an excellent opportunity to donate to not only the Church’s pro-life efforts, but many pro-life efforts outside the Church as well.
There are two ways that Catholics can give. First and foremost, if you attend Mass at a parish where a Knights of Columbus council is present, check with your parish KC Council for the dates when they will be conducting One Rose, One Life.
If your parish does not have a Knights Council, it can still participate by requesting and distributing donation envelopes in the parish. Bob and Anita Finger, the state pro-life chaircouple for the Knights can assist by contacting them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
A second way to donate to One Rose One Life is to simply write a check payable to: Knights of Columbus Pro-Life Foundation of Nebraska and send it to: Knights of Columbus, One Rose One Life Campaign, PO Box 451157, Omaha, NE 68145. Please put One Rose, One Life on the memo line. The Knights of Columbus Pro-Life Foundation of Nebraska is a 501(c)3 charitable organization.
On behalf of all the recipients of the Knights’ pro-life funding, I encourage you to be as generous as possible toward One Rose One Life.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
January will, as usual, be a busy month for pro-lifers. On Jan. 4, the Nebraska Legislature starts its 2012 session. There will undoubtedly be a pro-life bill or two debated in this legislative session. More on that in coming weeks.
On Jan. 11 and 12, my office is bringing Leah Darrow to speak to all-school assemblies at Grand Island Central Catholic, Skutt High School (Omaha), Pius X High School (Lincoln) and Scotus High School (Columbus). Ms. Darrow went from being a star on a hit reality TV show, American’s Next Top Model, to being a Catholic speaker focusing on her conversion, modesty and chastity.
A promotional flier with more details is on my website at: www.nebcathcon.org (under "Pro-Life"). It also appears on page 13 of this issue of the Register. Ms. Darrow’s presentations are open to the public so if you live near one of these schools, please feel free to join us.
On Saturday, Jan. 14, Nebraskans United for Life is hosting its annual Celebration of Life Dinner at the Scott Conference Center, 6450 Pine St., Omaha. The featured speaker is Rita Diller from Stop Planned Parenthood. The social begins at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $45/person and can be obtained by calling NUFL at 402-399-0299. Clergy and religious can attend for free.
Every year on a Saturday near Jan. 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, Nebraska Right to Life sponsors a Walk for Life in Lincoln. This year it will be Saturday, Jan. 28 at 10 a.m. on the west steps of the State Capitol building.
The featured speaker is Ryan Bomberger. Ryan was conceived in rape and adopted into a bi-racial family. He started the billboard campaign, Too Many Aborted, aimed at attacking Planned Parenthood’s targeting of minority babies for abortion. He and his wife Bethany founded The Radiance Foundation to work on pro-life issues.
Preceding the Walk, my office sponsors a pro-life Mass at St. Mary Church (14th and K streets in Lincoln) across the street from the Capitol. Most Reverend William Dendinger, Bishop of Grand Island will be the main celebrant for the Mass. Father Sid Bruggeman will be the homilist.
Father Bruggeman is convert to the faith, having been a Protestant minister previously. Father was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Grand Island in 2009. He serves as pastor of St. Libory parish in St. Libory, and as chaplain of the V.A. Medical Center in Grand Island.
A promotional flier for the Walk and Mass is also available on my website, and on page 11 of this Register. Please make every effort to attend—and bring a bus or van load of people with you!
Finally, Virtue Media’s post-abortion healing ad began airing this week on television stations in Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Hastings and North Platte. You can view the ad at www.virtuemedia.org. Stations in Omaha are KETV, KMTV, WOWT and Cox Cable. Stations in the other communities are KLKN (Lincoln), KHGI (G.I.), KHAS (Hastings), KOLN/KGIN (Lincoln and G.I.), KNOP (North Platte) and Time Warner Cable (Lincoln). A detailed advertising schedule is posted on my website and provides the stations, programs and timeframe for the ads.
A total of 1,132 Virtue Media ads have been bought on various stations during the first three weeks of January. This number could increase as donations continue to be made by Catholics throughout Nebraska.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The holy season of Christmas is nearly upon us. One of the ways that we can truly celebrate this amazing act of our loving God to take on human form is to reflect on the value, dignity and meaning of human life. In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life"), Blessed John Paul II provides many profound reflections.
In the introduction, Blessed John Paul reminds us that "At the dawn of salvation, it is the Birth of a Child which is proclaimed as joyful news:
"I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11). The source of this ‘great joy’ is the Birth of the Saviour; but Christmas also reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation and fulfilment of joy at every child born into the world (cf. Jn 16:21)."
"Man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God. The loftiness of this supernatural vocation reveals the greatness and the inestimable value of human life even in its temporal phase.
"Life in time, in fact, is the fundamental condition, the initial stage and an integral part of the entire unified process of human existence. It is a process which, unexpectedly and undeservedly, is enlightened by the promise and renewed by the gift of divine life, which will reach its full realization in eternity (cf. 1 Jn 3:1-2).
"At the same time, it is precisely this supernatural calling which highlights the relative character of each individual’s earthly life. After all, life on earth is not an "ultimate" but a "penultimate" reality; even so, it remains a sacred reality entrusted to us, to be preserved with a sense of responsibility and brought to perfection in love and in the gift of ourselves to God and to our brothers and sisters.
"By his incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every human being.’ …This saving event reveals to humanity not only the boundless love of God who ‘so loved the world that he gave his only Son’ (Jn 3:16), but also the incomparable value of every human person" (no. 2).
Another extraordinary source of reflection comes from C.S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory:
"The dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. … There are no ordinary people. ... Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ … is truly hidden."
Another way to celebrate Christmas is to recognize and support the amazing work being done by the more than 30 pregnancy-help centers and maternity homes in Nebraska. I never cease to be in awe and edified by the extraordinary work of these centers, which I believe represent the heart of the pro-life movement.
Among the services these centers provide or facilitate are: housing, instructional programs, provision of maternity and baby clothes, furniture and other necessities, adoption through licensed agencies, parenting classes, job training, medical care including pregnancy testing, prenatal and obstetrical care, social services, including counseling, arrangement for transportation, child health care, assistance in applying for financial help before and after the birth, child support, and chastity education.
A complete list of these centers with contact information is available from my office or online at www.nebcathcon.org (under "Pro-Life"). I can’t imagine a more appropriate way to celebrate the birth of our Lord in a humble stable in Bethlehem than to support your local pregnancy-help center or maternity home.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Abortion and contraception apologists have been relentless in their advocacy of free and easily accessible (at any age) contraceptive drugs and devices. The latest push has been to get the so-called ‘morning-after pill’ or emergency contraception (EC) on drug and grocery store shelves so that girls of any age can have access to it without parental or physician involvement.
The manufacturer of an EC drug called Plan B (Teva Pharmaceutical) petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its approval of distributing this powerful drug off the shelf and without a prescription. Last week, the FDA granted Teva its request.
However, in a move that surprised both sides of this debate, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, rejected the FDA’s recommendation. Sebelius cited a lack of evidence that younger girls could safely use the drug without physician oversight. Current FDA rules require a prescription for Plan B for girls under the age of 18, while those over that age can request it from a pharmacist without prescription.
While the Secretary’s decision is a welcome victory for sanity, some observers are speculating that her decision was politically calculated, given that she has been a radical advocate of abortion and contraception, both as Governor of Kansas and as HHS Secretary.
One dose of Plan B is the equivalent to taking 40 daily Ovrette oral contraceptive pills in a 12-hour period. And like the ordinary birth control pill, Plan B’s side effects are not trivial: vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, diarrhea, dizziness, breast pain, headache, and menstrual changes.
Furthermore, Plan B’s manufacturer notes in its prescribing guidelines that there is a risk of ectopic pregnancy up to five times greater than normal. And, most troubling, Plan B (and EC in general) is more likely than the daily-use birth control pill to cause an abortion by preventing an embryo from implanting if conception occurs.
So why would so many in the medical profession support widespread and easy access to such powerful drugs? Primarily, they claim it could significantly reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions.
However, after years of studies by proponents of EC, this claim has proved baseless. For example, James Trussell, who originated the claim that easier access to emergency contraception could "result in a greater than 50% reduction in abortion rates," has conceded that 23 published studies from 10 countries disprove his claim. According to every one of the 23 studies, published between 1998 and 2006, easier access to EC fails to achieve any statistically significant reduction in rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion.
In the September 2006 British Medical Journal, Anna Glasier said: "[D]espite the clear increase in the use of emergency contraception, abortion rates have not fallen in the U.K. They have risen from 11 per 1,000 women ... in 1984 ... to 17.8 per 1,000 in 2004." She adds: "Ten studies in different countries have shown that giving women a supply of emergency contraception to keep at home ... increases use by twofold to threefold ... but [has] had no measurable effect on rates of pregnancy or abortion."
Even the USA Today newspaper, in an editorial sympathetic to Plan B (12/9/11), acknowledged that such claims "have proved wildly optimistic." The editorial cited the Guttmacher Institute (which has ties to Planned Parenthood) as acknowledging that "there’s no data to show whether Plan B had an impact" on lowering abortion rates.
Abortion and contraception advocates will undoubtedly challenge (legally and politically) this decision by Secretary Sebelius. As they do this, their lie that Plan B will reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions must be exposed. Their own studies (those mentioned above and many others) expose the lie and are available on my website at www.nebcathcon.org (See "Family Planning Fact Sheet" under "pro-life," "printed resources").
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
As a Resurrection people, Christians know that our Lord defeated death. Nonetheless, evil still remains and must be opposed with every ability and resource God has given each of us. Hence, we are constantly searching for effective ways to defend and promote human life and to oppose the culture of death.
Without a doubt, the most essential and efficacious activity is prayer. In particular, a prayerful presence at abortion mills is a proven and effective activity that saves the lives of women and their unborn children from abortion. What follows is one anecdote to punctuate this assertion. It is written by a man who spends most of every Tuesday praying at the Lincoln abortion mill.
"This young couple arrived shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday. They parked their car on the street, and walked into the abortion clinic. They appeared to be in their early 20s, and the Helpers counselors greeted them with a smile and ‘Good morning,’ but were unable to get them to stop to talk.
"About 10 a.m., the Helpers on duty changed, and there were now two women and one man on watch. The couple had been in the clinic more than an hour, when they appeared outside and stood talking by the entrance door to the clinic. While the two sidewalk counselors prayed and watched for more traffic, the man kept praying and watching the young couple.
"He watched as the couple stood and talked, and the young woman wrapped her arms around the young man’s waist. As sometimes happens… a Helper will sense a special tugging or appeal to his or her heart for a particular client in the clinic.
"The male Helper said he felt a strong pull to walk into the clinic grounds to ask the young couple to come out and ‘talk with us.’ He told one of the women counselors about it, and she suggested that he not walk in but that they pray together to ask Jesus to send the couple out to them.
"So they began praying for that, and within a minute, the couple walked out to where the Helpers were standing next to the clinic driveway. The male Helper asked the young woman if she had an abortion, and she replied, ‘No! No! We’re going to keep the baby.’
"The Helper said that he then saw the most radiant look on the face of the young woman… As the couple walked toward their car, the young woman stopped at the third female Helper, and said, ‘It’s because of your prayers.’"
This story is compelling evidence that our prayerful presence at the abortion mills can and does save lives. And this story is not the first time that an abortion-minded woman left the abortion mill and gave the credit to those who were praying outside the mill.
There is a great need for more people to pray at the three abortion mills in Nebraska (or from home if this is not feasible). Planned Parenthood does abortions in Lincoln on Tuesday and in Omaha on Wednesday. Leroy Carhart does abortions in Bellevue on Friday and Saturday. For more information on locations and specific times contact Jack at 402-465-8423 (Lincoln) or Liz at 402-614-0496 (Omaha/Bellevue).
Another efficacious and proven pro-life activity is airing Virtue Media’s television ads. These extraordinary pro-life ads touch the hearts and souls of women contemplating abortion as well as those who suffer from an abortion experience. They can be viewed at www.virtuemedia.org.
In 2007, when Virtue Media was first introduced to parishes in Nebraska, nearly $230,000 was donated which purchased almost 9500 television ads. Because of Virtue Media’s tracking system, we know that these ads prompted 580 women to call for help with their pregnancies and prompted 1120 individuals to seek post-abortion help.
In October, parishes in the Lincoln and Grand Island diocese were given another opportunity to see and contribute to airing Virtue Media’s pro-life ads. Parishes in the Archdiocese of Omaha will have an opportunity in early December.
Unfortunately, donations from the Lincoln and Grand Island Dioceses are a fraction of the 2008 donations. If you didn’t see these ads in your parish or have an opportunity to donate, you can do so online at www.virtuemedia.org. All donations originating from Nebraska will be used to buy airtime in Nebraska. Please make a contribution before the end of December and know that every dollar you give may save a life or a soul from the evil of abortion.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
A couple of weeks ago, on consecutive days, two major announcements were made in the realm of stem-cell research. The first announcement was by the American Heart Association reporting new evidence that adult stem cells can repair a damaged heart.
The new evidence came from some recent clinical studies. In one of the studies, conducted at Cedars Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles and the University of Louisville’s Jewish Hospital in Kentucky, 33 subjects had laboratory-grown stem cells (derived from their own heart tissue) deposited into the damaged area of their hearts. The other 15 subjects received standard heart care.
According to news reports, all of the stem cell recipients at Cedars Sinai (17) had their heart attack scars reduced dramatically. These recipients saw, on average, almost 50 percent of their damaged heart muscle replaced by new healthy heart tissue. The control subjects (8) saw no improvement in their heart function.
"This is unprecedented, the first time anyone has grown living heart muscle," says Dr. Eduardo Marban, who directed the study. "No one else has demonstrated that. It’s very gratifying, especially when the conventional teaching has been that the damage is irreversible."
Likewise, the Jewish Hospital subjects who received an infusion of their own heart stem cells (16) saw marked improvement in their hearts’ pumping ability while those subjects given standard medications (7) showed no improvement.
According to the Do No Harm Coalition, there are more than 70 different diseases or conditions that have been favorably treated (not necessarily cured) in human patients with adult stem cells. A list of these diseases and the published studies documenting the successful treatments can be seen on its website at www.stemcellresearch.org.
The second major announcement was that a key player in embryonic stem-cell research, Geron Corporation, will stop conducting this immoral research which involves the destruction of embryonic human beings. Geron said that its decision was based on economic (not ethical) considerations and it still believes in the promise of embryo-destructive research.
One of the reasons that Geron’s decision is such big news is the prominence of this company in the realm of embryonic stem cell research. Geron, a Califonia-based company, was the first to get approval by the Food and Drug Administration for a human trial using embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Less than three years after getting FDA approval, Geron not only announced that it was canceling this study, but is abandoning the ESC field completely.
Geron’s claim that this shocking decision is economically-based is incredible to me. For one thing, the company has already invested tens of millions of dollars into ESC research and had just started the first-ever human trial. To give it all up now is inexplicable and begs the question, is the real reason economic or something else?
The economic reason cited by Geron is also questionable given that several years ago, a majority of California voters approved a ballot measure to appropriate $3 billion for embryonic stem cell research precisely to assure that sufficient funds would be available to support ESC research. And just last year, Geron received $25 million from this California taxpayer fund to support its human ESC trial. Oops, looks like another lousy investment of taxpayer dollars.
As a footnote to California’s $3 billion dollar investment in ESC research, of the 19 research grants it provided this year, only five were for ESC research and the rest were for adult stem cell research. In the previous round of research grants, only four out of 14 grants were for ESC research. Go figure.
Josephine Quintavalle, founder of a British pro-life group called Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "At long last after 10 years of unremitting hype, reality has caught up with embryonic stem cell claims. If Geron is abandoning this project it is because it is simply not working, despite the millions of dollars and hot air that has been invested in the promotion of this research."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
"What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them ‘ Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (Jas 2: 14-17).
This passage from Scripture introduces the section (no. 87) in the encyclical "The Gospel of Life" in which Pope John Paul II presents mankind’s call and responsibility to serve the Gospel of life. "By virtue of our sharing in Christ’s royal mission," says JP II, "our support and promotion of human life must be accomplished through the service of charity, which finds expression in personal witness, various forms of volunteer work, social activity and political commitment."
Unfortunately, in a secular culture dominated by radical individualism and materialism there is a strong inclination to view persons in need of our assistance and charity as impediments to our autonomy rather than opportunities to demonstrate our faith and love. A naval-gazing culture also tends to overlook God’s expectation that we give back to Him, in serving others, what we’ve been given; and that those to whom much is given, much will be expected.
"We must care for the other," says John Paul, "as a person for whom God has made us responsible. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to become neighbors to everyone (cf. Lk. 10:29-37) and to show special favor to those who are poorest, most alone and most in need. In helping the hungry, the thirsty, the foreigner, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned—as well as the child in the womb and the old person who is suffering or near death—we have the opportunity to serve Jesus. He himself said: ‘As you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me’ (Mt. 25:40)."
"Hence we cannot but feel called to account and judged by the ever relevant words of St. John Chrysostom: ‘Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not neglect it when you find it naked. Do not do it homage here in the church with silk fabrics only to neglect it outside where it suffers cold and nakedness."
John Paul II provides many examples of practical ways in which we can serve the Gospel of life through service of others: centers that promote and teach natural methods of regulating fertility, marriage and family counseling agencies, pregnancy-assistance centers and maternity homes, communities for treating drug addiction, residential communities for minors or the mentally ill, care and relief centers for AIDS patients, associations for solidarity especially for the disabled."
He also mentions the important work of social welfare agencies, palliative and hospice programs, hospitals, and convalescent homes. "A unique responsibility belongs to health care personnel: doctors, pharmacists, nurses, chaplains, men and women religious, administrators and volunteers. Their profession calls for them to be guardians and servants to human life."
Finally, John Paul II says that "[i]f charity is to be realistic and effective, it demands that the Gospel of life be implemented also by means of certain forms of social activity and commitment in the political field as a way of defending and promoting the value of life in our ever-more complex and pluralistic societies. Individuals, families, groups and associations… all have a responsibility for shaping society and developing cultural, economic, political and legislative projects which… will contribute to the building of a society in which the dignity of each person is recognized and protected and the lives of all are defended and enhanced."
In addition to fulfilling our call as Christians, when we serve those in need we give thanks to God for His blessings and we receive a therapeutic dose of love, grace and peace in return. Therapeutic? Yes, somehow when our focus is on the needs, pain, grief, and worry of others, our own concerns diminish or are at least placed into perspective.
As we give thanks for all God has given us, let us examine how faithfully and generously we are returning His gifts through service to others, particularly His least ones.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
A couple of months ago, many Catholics (and others) were shocked to find out that the Obama Administration had issued regulations mandating the coverage of contraception (including abortifacients) and sterilization in all private health insurance plans. The so-called religious exemption provided in the regulation is so narrowly defined as to be practically meaningless.
This action by the Obama Administration is not only foolish but is a heavy-handed assault on religious liberty. Disturbingly, this assault on religious liberty is just one of many by this Administration in recent months.
The number and gravity of assaults on religious liberty are so great that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has formed an Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. In a letter to his fellow bishops, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the USCCB, stated that this new committee "will work closely with national organizations, charities, ecumenical and interreligious partners and scholars to form a united and forceful front in defense of religious freedom in our nation."
Archbishop Dolan emphasized that religious liberty is "inherent in the dignity of the human person" and is a "foundational principle of our country, one that has been enshrined in the United States Constitution, further enumerated in the First Amendment, and explicitly extended to all U.S. citizens.
"The Framers of the Constitution themselves understood this ‘First Freedom’ to be based on the norms inherent in Natural Law—namely, ‘that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,’ Archbishop Dolan stated.
However, the Archbishop warned, "this basic right, in its many and varied applications for Christians and people of faith, is now increasingly and in unprecedented ways under assault in America. This is most particularly so in an increasing number of federal government programs or policies that would infringe upon the right of conscience of people of faith or otherwise harm the foundational principle of religious liberty."
Archbishop Dolan cited several examples. In addition to the Obama Administration’s mandated coverage of contraception and sterilization in all health insurance plans, the Archbishop cited the following:
* The Department of State is increasingly requiring that all international relief and development programs include "comprehensive HIV prevention activities" that includes condom distribution and "reproductive health activities" that includes provision of artificial contraception.
* The Department of Health and Human Services is also requiring that Migration and Refugee Service provide the ‘full range of reproductive services’ to trafficking victims and unaccompanied minors in its cooperative agreements and government contracts. "Reproductive services" means provision or referral for abortion and contraception.
* The federal Department of Justice has ratcheted up its attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as an act of bigotry. In March, the Department stopped defending DOMA against constitutional challenges, and the USCCB spoke out against that decision. But in July, the Department started filing briefs actively attacking DOMA’s constitutionality, claiming that supporters of the law could only have been motivated by bias and prejudice.
Nebraska’s 1st District Congressman, Jeff Fortenberry, introduced the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179, S. 1467) which would provide conscience protection from the Administration’s mandated coverage of contraception and sterilization in health insurance plans. I’m pleased to say that Nebraska’s other two Congressmen (Smith, Terry) and two Senators (Johanns and Nelson) have co-sponsored this bill.
This bill, if enacted, would provide some protection from the Obama Administration’s assault on religious liberty. However, many other assaults will need to be countered as well. The efforts of the Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty will be extraordinarily critical in countering these assaults, as will the voice of every Catholic and believer in religious freedom.
For more information on this topic, check out the U.S. Bishops’ website: www.usccb.org/conscience.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I recently had the privilege of attending a portion of a post-abortion conference called Healing Visions. This conference, which brings together experts on the various facets of post-abortion trauma, is sponsored by Vicki Thorn and the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation and Healing. Mrs. Thorn is also the founder of the post-abortion ministry called Project Rachel.
The experts featured at Healing Visions addressed the psychological, physical and spiritual dimensions of post-abortion trauma as it impacts women and men from various cultures and races. And the conference was attended by people from all over the United States and the world, a very encouraging sign that the hope and healing of post-abortion ministry is spreading.
For those who suffer from post-abortion trauma, it is often most difficult to take the first step toward healing from this trauma. Tragically, many believe, wrongly, that abortion is an unforgiveable sin and that they will be condemned if they seek help from the Church. This mistaken perception is addressed directly in the Project Rachel brochure produced by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat:
"Don’t be afraid. Draw close to my heart. There you will find the peace and happiness you seek. Jesus speaks these words to every human being in every generation. He knows well that each of us is broken by sin and burdened by selfishness and past hurts.
"As St. Paul has written, ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Yet we are saved ‘by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. You may be thinking, ‘I don’t deserve to be forgiven. My sins are too great!’ Thankfully, God’s love is greater than all the sins of all time. Jesus offers his grace and forgiveness to every repentant heart. All we have to do is ask and begin to trust in his mercy.
"As Pope John Paul II wrote: ‘No human sin can erase the mercy of God, or prevent him from unleashing all his triumphant power, if we only call upon him. A great 20th-century apostle of Divine Mercy, St. Faustina, recorded in her Diary the consoling words of Jesus:
"I want ‘all souls to trust in the unfathomable abyss of My mercy, because I want to save them all.’ And He assured her that ‘the greater the misery of a soul, the greater its right to My mercy.’ The misery of a soul grieving from abortion calls forth an outpouring of God’s mercy."
I like to refer to the network of pro-life pregnancy centers as the heart of the pro-life movement because they embody the love and support that’s necessary to make abortion unthinkable. If pregnancy centers are the heart of the pro-life movement I think it is appropriate to refer to post-abortion ministry as the soul of the movement.
Our faith tells us that the devil both tempts us to sin against God and, when we fall, accuses and shames us so that we won’t seek God’s limitless mercy. As grievous as abortion is in the eyes of God, equally grievous to God are the souls lost because they didn’t avail themselves of His Divine Mercy.
The beauty of Project Rachel, and post-abortion ministry in general, is that it helps those souls wounded by abortion to discover and avail themselves of God’s mercy. As Theresa Bonapartis ("Healing After Abortion") said, "The process of healing from abortion isn’t about who you are and what you’ve done; it is about who God is and what He’s done."
What’s more, by healing these wounded souls, post-abortion ministry greatly diminishes the likelihood of repeat abortions, which comprise more than 40 percent of all abortions.
If you or someone you know is suffering from an abortion, please take that critical first step toward hope and healing by calling Project Rachel at 1-888-456-HOPE (4673).
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
My office is frequently contacted by Catholic individuals, parishes or groups asking about the funding policies of various medical charities. These conscientious individuals and groups want to know if a charity funds immoral research before they agree to donate to that group. These requests are particularly frequent this time of year when there are significant fundraising events taking place
These regular inquiries prompted me some years ago to do my own inquiry into the funding and advocacy policies of several major medical charities. In some cases, a simple query of a group’s website provided clear information on its policies. In other cases, a letter was sent to the charity.
What I found is that many of the major medical charities have some morally problematic policy and/or practice. The most common is funding or lobbying for human embryonic stem cell research. Unfortunately, this creates a dilemma for those who want to support medical research without funding immoral practices. The charities I found to have problematic policies and/or practices are:
ALS Association(Lou Gehrig’s disease), American Association for Cancer Research, American Diabetes Association, American Lung Association, Glaucoma Research Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes, Muscular Dystrophy Association, National Hemophilia Foundation, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, National Spinal Cord Injury Association, Parkinson’s Action Network, Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
The following charities indicate that they do not fund or advocate for embryonic stem cell research: Alzheimer’s Association, American Cancer Society. American Heart Association, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, National Kidney Foundation.
The actual policies/positions of these groups and the link or citation for them are posted on my website at www.nebcathcon.org (click on "Pro Life" and then "Medical Charities Survey"). A hard copy of this list with citations can also be obtained from my office.
In providing this information, I am always quick to qualify it as a first step in the process of determining whether to support a charity or not. Policies can and do change. Consequently, I urge those who request this information to ask the charity to confirm or refute my information before making a decision on whether to donate.
In my questioning of charities, I look for their policy on funding and on advocating for human embryonic stem cell research. Both policies are important because our donations could be used to directly fund immoral research or to lobby our elected officials to use our tax dollars to fund it.
In my experience contacting charities, I’ve also found it important to request the official, published policies produced by the national office. In some cases, I have received different answers from representatives at different levels of the organization.
I’m pleased to say that there are some research enterprises that are specifically committed to only conducting or funding ethical stem cell research. For example, the John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute (www.jp2sri.org) is a non-profit research institute whose mission is to advance research and education on stem cell research in a manner consistent with pro-life bioethics. The Institute strictly focuses on adult and cord blood stem cell research and education.
The Thomas Hartman Foundation for Parkinson’s Research(www.hartmanfoundation.org) was founded by Father Tom Hartman who is co-host, along with Rabbi Marc Gellman, of radio and TV’s popular "God Squad." Father Hartman has Parkinson’s disease which led him to establish this foundation, which excludes any funding for human embryonic stem cell research and supports research using adult stem cells to treat Parkinson’s.
My summary of medical charities policies also includes information on a couple of other ethical research projects focused on spinal cord injuries, juvenile diabetes and auto-immune disorders. In addition, a list of diseases that adult stem cells have treated with some level of success in humans is available (with citations) at www.stemcellresearch.org and www.stemcellresearchfacts.org.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Twelve years ago, my office and other pro-life groups in Nebraska were fighting to prohibit the use of fetal tissue from abortions in research. This was prompted by the revelation that the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) was conducting research using fetal tissue it obtained from abortionist Leroy Carhart.
Sadly, our effort to persuade the Legislature to ban this research was unsuccessful. Some senators who had voted for other pro-life measures opposed this ban largely due to heavy lobbying by UNMC officials who portrayed themselves as the only credible voice of science.
This experience made it evident to me and others that the pro-life movement needed help from pro-life researchers and doctors to more effectively challenge unethical biomedical research. Thankfully, several doctors and researchers stepped up and formed the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research (NCER) in April 2001.
This group is dominated by men and women of science who understand both the importance of medical research and its strict adherence to fundamental ethical principles such as "first do no harm." The group’s mission is "to advocate for biomedical research that promotes the life, dignity and rights of every human being at each developmental stage."
In commentary on its website (www.ethicalresearch.net), NCER says the following: "Biomedical research undermines human dignity when it discriminates against certain human beings based on their developmental stage, or when it treats humans as mere physical objects that can be harvested for their parts.
"To treat the human being as too old, too young, too feeble or as a mere body is to treat the person in an unequal, discriminatory and dehumanizing manner. Therefore, biomedical research must respect the whole person, body and spirit, at every stage of development and guarantee the basic human rights of equality and nondiscrimination."
It has been a privilege for me to have served on the board of NCER since its inception. The dedication and generosity I have witnessed from NCER’s board members and staff—all of whom are accomplished and busy professionals—is edifying. And their contributions to advancing ethical research and opposing unethical research have been significant.
On Nov. 10 and 11, NCER is hosting a fundraising banquet and breakfast to raise needed funds to continue its great work. The banquet will be held Thursday evening, Nov. 10 at Scott Conference Center in Omaha. The breakfast will be held the next morning, Nov. 11, at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln.
Featured speaker at both events is David Limbaugh, younger brother of talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and author of the New York Times bestseller Crimes Against Liberty. Also featured at both events is Doug Rice, who has testified before Congress about the successful adult stem cell treatment he received to treat his congestive heart failure.
Tickets for both events can be purchased on NCER’s website, www.ethicalresearch.net, or by calling NCER at 402-690-2299. If you can, please attend one of these events and support the important work of the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
One of the most encouraging and effective assets of the pro-life movement is the next generation of Americans coming into adulthood. Several years ago, in a study of those who are now between the ages of 18 to 33 (so called Millennials, Gen Y or Echo Boomers), it was revealed that this generation strongly opposes abortion.
Our nation is seeing this belief among young people demonstrated in a variety of youth-led pro-life organizations such as Live Action (led by Lila Rose), Students for Life of America, Generation Life and Generations for Life. The commitment, enthusiasm and ingenuity of this generation to promote the dignity of human life and to oppose abortion and other attacks against this dignity are truly impressive.
Last Saturday, at the Bishops’ Pro Life Conference banquet, the pro-life conviction of young people was also on display. The banquet program included presentation of the State Pro-Life Essay Contest awards and reading of the essays by the winners.
In January each year, the pro-life directors in the three dioceses of Nebraska sponsor a pro-life essay contest for students in grades 7 through 11. The winners of each diocesan contest automatically compete in the state essay contest, sponsored by the State Council of the Knights of Columbus and my office, the State Office of the Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities.
The theme for this contest, and the winning essays for the state contest, are chosen by the State Coordinating Committee of the Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities, which is comprised of the diocesan pro-life directors, the pro-life chair couple for the Knights of Columbus, diocesan representatives for the Council of Catholic Women and directors of the diocesan Family Life offices.
The theme chosen for this year’s essay contest was the following: Mother Teresa said "How can there be too many children? That’s like saying there are too many flowers." Various national and international groups say that the world is overpopulated. Make a persuasive case as to why this is not the case.
The winners of this year’s state essay contest are:
7th Grade: Emily Kimball from St. Boniface Parish in Callaway
8th Grade: Tina Le from St. Mary School and Parish in Lincoln
9th Grade: James Hytrek from St. James Parish in Cortland
10th Grade: Alyssa Hurd from Lourdes Central Catholic School and St. Benedict Parish in Nebraska City
11th Grade: Marie Wathen, from Pius X High School and St. Peter Parish in Lincoln
On behalf of the Bishops of Nebraska and the entire Church, I congratulate these fine young people for their exceptional essays and enthusiasm for the pro-life cause.
At World Youth Day in Denver (1993), Pope John Paul II challenged young people to "Offer your youthful energies to building a civilization of Christian love. Be witness of God’s love for the innocent and the weak, for the poor and oppressed."
"At this stage of history," he continued, "the liberating message of the Gospel of life has been put into your hands. And the mission of proclaiming it to the ends of the earth is now passing to your generation. Like the great apostle Paul, you too must feel the full urgency of the task: "Woe to me if I do not evangelize" (1 Cor. 9:16). Woe to you if you do not succeed in defending life.
"The church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your youthful ideals, in order to make the Gospel of life penetrate the fabric of society, transforming people’s hearts and the structures of society in order to create a civilization of true justice and love. Now more than ever, in a world that is often without light and without the courage of noble ideals, people need the fresh, vital spirituality of the Gospel."
Blessed John Paul expressed his confidence in young people’s "faith in Christ" and ability to rise to this challenge by recalling the words of St. Paul: "I have great confidence in you, I have great pride in you; I am filled with encouragement, I am overflowing with joy" (2 Cor. 7:4).
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities, the official pro-life program of the Catholic Church in the U.S., calls for pro-life organization and activity at the national, state, diocesan and parish levels. In Nebraska, we are blessed to have about 375 parish pro-life coordinators who implement the Pastoral Plan in their respective parishes.
The pro-life efforts by these parish coordinators are critically important to the Church’s mission of building a culture of life and love. And the amazing dedication and enthusiasm of parish coordinators is a constant source of inspiration and encouragement to me and, undoubtedly, to many others.
In 2007, my office initiated the Gospel of Life Award to recognize the exemplary efforts by parish coordinators or other Catholics to promote the Gospel of Life in their parish and community. One individual is chosen annually from each of the three dioceses in Nebraska and honored at the Bishops Pro Life Conference banquet in October.
At this year’s pro-life conference banquet Oct. 15, the following individuals will be presented with the 2011 Gospel of Life award:
JoDee Westling, from Holy Spirit Parish in North Platte, will receive the award for the Diocese of Grand Island. Since 1989, JoDee has been involved with the Women’s Resource Center, a pregnancy center in North Platte, where she has served as a board member and peer counselor.
JoDee and her husband Steve have opened their home to women and children who had no other place to go and opened their hearts with love as adoptive parents. JoDee has also been actively involved as a pro-life coordinator for her parish for the better part of 20 years, initiating such programs as the spiritual adoption of unborn children, the collection of needed items for mothers and their babies and Life Chain.
Carolyn LaGreca, from St. Patrick Parish in Omaha will receive the award for the Archdiocese of Omaha. Carolyn was one of the first parish and diocesan pro-life leaders I met after being hired as the pro-life director for the Bishops of Nebraska. At that time she was a parishioner of St. Thomas More Parish where she assisted Father John Vernon who was the Archdiocesan Pro Life Director.
In addition to providing pro-life leadership at the parish and archdiocesan level for more than 20 years, Carolyn served for many years on the board of Nebraskans United for Life where she chaired the Celebration of Life banquet, edited the newsletter and coordinated trips to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Carolyn and her husband Steve have faithfully prayed at the abortion centers in Omaha and opened their home for pregnant women.
Sondra Jonson, from St. John Parish in Cambridge, will receive the award for the Diocese of Lincoln. Sondra has served as pro-life coordinator for St. John for many years where she organized Life Chain, Respect Life Month events, letter-writing to elected officials, and various educational projects.
Ms. Jonson passionately strives to involve young people in pro-life activities, often taking students to pray at the abortion center in Lincoln and to the annual Walk for Life. And as a high school catechist, Sondra has incorporated many pro-life activities into her teaching.
Ms. Jonson’s pro-life leadership extends beyond her parish as she has organized regional pro-life presentations in McCook, placed ads for Project Rachel in her local paper and organized pro-life billboards in the Cambridge area. And as a professional sculptor, Sondra produced a "Rachel Weeping" statue about 10 years ago which serves as a beautiful symbol for Project Rachel, the Church’s outreach of hope and healing to post-abortive women and men.
On behalf of the Bishops of Nebraska and the entire Church, I extend our gratitude and admiration to these three women for their exemplary commitment to the Gospel of Life and to the Church’s mission of building a culture of life and love.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jim Sedlak, founder of Stop Planned Parenthood International, spent several days in Nebraska recently to educate and equip citizens in six Nebraska communities on how to resist Planned Parenthood’s expansion into their community. These cities are North Platte, Kearney, Hastings, Grand Island, Fremont and Norfolk.
A critical part of mobilizing citizens against Planned Parenthood is to expose its dark and evil origins and underbelly. Mr. Sedlak did this quite convincingly, not with speculation or hyperbole, but with information gleaned directly from Planned Parenthood’s own public documents.
What follows are ten reasons Mr. Sedlak presented to oppose Planned Parenthood:
In addition to Stop Planned Parenthood (www.stopp.org), some other organizations have exposed the nefarious activities of PP, including Lila Rose at Live Action (www.liveaction.org) and Americans United for Life (www.aul.org) (see also www.ExposePlannedParenthood.net). As a result of the work of these groups, Congress is now investigating PP.
Representative Cliff Stearns, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Investigations, announced last week that his Committee will examine PP’s policies and actions "relating to its use of federal funding and its compliance with federal restrictions on the funding of abortion." Let’s pray that the light of this investigation will expose the real Planned Parenthood and result in the revocation of tax payer funding to this evil organization.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Four years ago, in the summer of 2007, I was introduced to a new pro-life media organization called Virtue Media. I met with its founder, Tom Peterson, viewed his pro-life ads, and discussed his vision and philosophy for producing them. I was completely impressed and inspired.
Tom Peterson spent most of his life as an advertising executive until he felt the call from God to use his talents to help build a culture of life. Virtue Media quickly grew from a small organization to a national and international pro-life media apostolate. More recently, Tom expanded his mission to reach fallen-away Catholics with his powerful Catholics Come Home ads.
On its website, Virtue Media states that "since 99 percent of U.S. homes own a television and radio, and the average American spends more than five hours every day using these media, it’s easy to see how VirtueMedia™ can reach millions of people each day using powerful broadcast commercials to positively affect culture.
"VirtueMedia™ commercials have aired on broadcast and cable stations in over 1,500 cities throughout the U.S., as well as in many foreign countries. The results are nothing short of phenomenal, with thousands of babies saved from abortion and countless post abortive mothers offered hope and healing.
"VirtueMedia™ pro-life campaigns are thoroughly researched prior to production, tracked during airing, and studied after each campaign to ensure that the maximum positive impact is achieved. The result? These powerful messages are making a tremendous difference in the lives of so many people and helping to serve as a positive, life-affirming influence in a troubled culture."
According to Mr. Peterson, "educational advertising was the key to reducing prejudice, littering, drunk driving, and smoking… and educational advertising can help lead the way back to a culture of life in America."
The first year the Virtue Media project was implemented in all three dioceses, more that $230,000 was raised statewide. These funds purchased nearly 9,500 television ads covering much of the state. These ads prompted at least 580 women to seek help from pro-life pregnancy centers in Nebraska. And at least 1,120 women and men sought help for post-abortion trauma.
After a two-year hiatus, the Catholic bishops of Nebraska graciously agreed to implement another Virtue Media project in all three dioceses. Each bishop recorded a DVD containing their message of support, a sampling of the television ads and an appeal for donations.
These DVD presentations will be shown in parishes in the dioceses of Grand Island and Lincoln sometime during October, Respect Life Month. Parishes in the Archdiocese of Omaha will make the presentation on the first weekend of December.
Hence, parishioners will get a chance to see some of the inspiring ads and make a donation to this worthy and effective project.
If I’ve piqued your interest in these amazing ads and you can’t wait until you see them in your parish, I encourage you to check them out at www.virtuemedia.org. The television ads that will be shown in Nebraska can be viewed under the category of "Pregnancy Help," "Worth," and "Post Abortion Healing."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Blessed John Paul II outlines several activities he believes are necessary to build a "new culture of human life". One of those activities is to celebrate the Gospel of Life. "Because we have been sent into the world as a ‘people for life’, our proclamation must also become a genuine celebration of the Gospel of life.
"For this to happen, we need first of all to foster, in ourselves and in others, a contemplative outlook…[that] arises from faith in the God of life, who has created every individual as a "wonder" (cf. Ps 139:14). It is the outlook of those who see life in its deeper meaning, who grasp its utter gratuitousness, its beauty and its invitation to freedom and responsibility.
"It is the outlook of those who do not presume to take possession of reality but instead accept it as a gift, discovering in all things the reflection of the Creator and seeing in every person his living image (cf. Gen 1:27; Ps 8:5). This outlook does not give in to discouragement when confronted by those who are sick, suffering, outcast or at death’s door. Instead, in all these situations it feels challenged to find meaning, and precisely in these circumstances it is open to perceiving in the face of every person a call to encounter, dialogue and solidarity."
To help prompt reflection on the deeper meaning and beauty of human life, starting in 1972, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designated October as Respect Life Month. More particularly, they designated the first Sunday in October as Respect Life Sunday.
Since the first Respect Life Month in 1972, the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Office has produced a Respect Life Program Packet to assist dioceses and parishes in celebrating the miracle and sacred dignity of human life; in celebrating the Gospel of life. This program packet has evolved in its presentation over the years but has always contained educational materials on timely respect life issues, liturgical resources and program ideas.
This year’s program packet contains eight very attractive educational brochures featuring these topics: contraception, abortion, death penalty, persons with disabilities, embryo research, end-of-life issues, reproductive technologies, and marriage. Accompanying the educational brochures are program models that provide suggested activities to help reinforce and live the teaching presented in the brochures.
A liturgy guide provides a variety of prayer and liturgical resources. This includes homily notes to assist priests and deacons in preaching about the dignity of human life on Respect Life Sunday and on January 22nd, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous abortion rulings. Several years ago, the U.S. Bishops declared that "January 22 shall be observed as a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion."
Furthermore, at the request of the U.S. Bishops, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament recently approved a Mass for Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life which may be used on such occasions to celebrate the dignity of human life. This new Mass setting will be included in the Revised Roman Missal.
The key message of this year’s Respect Life Program is captured in this concluding paragraph of the program’s signature flyer:
"Although it seems a paradox, the greater the sacrifices made out of love, the greater is our joy and peace. Whether it is the brave decision of a pregnant woman to reject abortion and allow a loving family to parent her child when she cannot, or the daily sacrifices of parents in raising young children, or the hard work of caring for an elderly relative with dementia, when we step up to these challenges, God can stretch our hearts and fill them to overflowing with his love, joy, and peace. With hearts so transformed, we can become living witnesses to the meaning of Jesus mission: I came that all might have life, and have it to the full!
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, celebrated Sept. 15, is a good time to address the sorrow experienced by women and men following abortion and the hope and healing available to them through Project Rachel.
The abortion industry tries mightily to downplay or even dismiss any negative physical or emotional consequences from abortion. While there is certainly plenty of credible research exposing real consequences from abortion, the most compelling evidence comes from the personal testimonies of post-abortive women and men.
One woman who shared her story with me said, "I was so taken back by the pain and the thought that my baby had just been sucked out of me… a year later, I don’t feel a sense of relief, I feel a sense of loss, of emptiness and panic…. I constantly have nightmares about bad things happening to babies, or I hear them crying and I can’t help them…. This baby is a piece of me that I have lost and cannot get back."
Another woman told me: "My life has never been the same. I mourn every single day for the child I don’t have, a child who would have maybe had my eyes, or his nose…. People will tell you that you will forget, you will never have any regrets, but that is not true."
Many other testimonies from post-abortive women are available on various websites such as www.hopeafterabortion.com and www.silentnomoreawareness.org.
Homily notes provided by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Office reflect on Jesus’ Divine Mercy with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and apply it to those tempted by abortion.
"Jesus knows the weakness of the human heart. He knows that our fears – often arising from a lack of trust in God’s love and support – can lead us into grave sin. Fear, not cruelty, is the force that motivates the majority of abortions.
"Teens and young women are afraid to tell their parents about their pregnancy for fear of disappointing them, or fear of being rejected or punished. They fear not being able to complete their education and the loss of the future life they had planned. They fear that they lack the resources and maturity to care for a baby. They fear that an adoptive family may not love their child as they would.
"Some single fathers want to marry their pregnant girlfriend or at least support their child, but others fear that they’ll be stuck with the young pregnant woman they never planned on marrying and stuck paying child support for 18 years.
"Parents whose daughters are young or still dependent on them, fear the struggles their daughters may face in trying to raise a child alone; they fear that their daughters will be kept from reaching their full potential when their studies or career are sidetracked by an unplanned pregnancy. Some parents fear how their friends will react to the family’s "shame" of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
"And expectant parents whose unborn child has been diagnosed with a serious genetic condition, may fear that their child will suffer in life, that they won’t be capable of caring for a child with special needs, or that the emotional pain of carrying a child to term only to witness its death will be more than they can bear.
"But in every case, our Lord is ready to provide all the grace and help we need if we simply ask him for the courage and strength to act in ways that affirm the priceless gift of life. He willingly died for us. Why do we doubt that he’d help us through any crisis, that he’d bring people into our lives who can offer the support we need through difficult times?
"And should we fail to do the right thing, sacramental Confession is always available to us.There we come face to face with God’s Divine Mercy – Mercy that forgives our worst sins, removes our guilt and our shame, fills us instead with God’s grace."
Project Rachel, a post-abortion outreach available in Nebraska (toll free at 888-456-HOPE), helps facilitate God’s Divine Mercy. Project Rachel is based upon the Old Testament figure who mourned the loss of her children (Jeremiah 31:15-17): "Thus says the Lord, Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward… there is hope for your future."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The federal healthcare law enacted last year requires almost all private health insurance plans to provide coverage of "preventive care for women" and without a co-pay. Last month, the Obama Administration announced that among the "preventive care" services it will mandate are "All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity."
Even worse, the new policy contains an extremely narrow and inadequate religious exemption. It covers only a "religious employer" that has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose, primarily employs and serves persons who share its religious tenets, and is a church organization under two narrow provisions of the tax code.
Plans offered by many religious organizations, including Catholic colleges, universities, hospitals, and charitable institutions that serve the general public, would be ineligible under these terms. Some Catholic leaders have even suggested that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) itself may not qualify under this definition of "religious employer."
In comments submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services, the general counsel of the USCCB, Anthony Picarello, strongly urged DHHS to rescind this mandate calling it an "unprecedented attack on religious liberty." A government mandate to cover "all FDA-approved contraceptives" most of which can cause early abortions, constitutes a "nationwide government coercion of religious people and groups to sell, broker or purchase ‘services’ to which they have a moral or religious objection," the general counsel said.
"Until now," Picarello continued, "no federal law has prevented private insurers from accommodating purchasers and plan sponsors with moral or religious objections to certain services. Plans were free under federal law to accommodate those objections by allowing purchasers to choose not to buy coverage for…procedures that the purchaser or sponsor found religiously or morally problematic.
"Likewise, federal law did not forbid any insurer, such as a religiously-affiliated insurer, to exclude from its plans any services to which the insurer itself had a moral or religious objection. Indeed, the freedom to exclude morally objectionable services has sometimes been stated affirmatively in federal law."
All of these conscience protections will end under this Obama Administration mandate, Picarello said. "Individuals with a moral or religious objection to these items and procedures will now be affirmatively barred… from purchasing a plan that excludes [contraception and sterilization].
"Religiously-affiliated insurers with a moral or religious objection likewise will be affirmatively barred from offering a plan that excludes them to the public, even to members of their own religion. Secular organizations (insurers, employers, and other plan sponsors) with a moral or religious objection to coverage of contraceptives or sterilization will be ineligible for the exemption."
The Department of Health and Human Services is accepting public comments on its new policy through Sept. 30. The U.S. Bishops are asking Catholic individuals, organizations, institutions, business owners, etc. to submit comments urging DHHS to rescind its outrageous contraceptive mandate.
Comments can be submitted very easily through the website of the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (www.nchla.org), an affiliate of the USCCB. Background information is provided along with a sample message and the ability to add additional comments. Those who use this service will also be able to send a message to our elected representatives in Congress urging them to support the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179/S. 1497) to ensure that such federal mandates do not violate Americans’ moral and religious convictions.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Blessed John Paul II repeatedly referred to a "new springtime" for the Catholic faith in the 21st Century. Given this pope’s love of young people, which was manifest in his initiation of World Youth Day in the 1980s, it is likely that his "springtime" optimism emanated (at least in part) from the characteristics he saw in young people.
Evidence to substantiate John Paul’s optimism is plentiful. My first introduction to the encouraging characteristics of "Generation Y" was about eight years ago when I saw the results of a study conducted by the Caring Foundation. Generation Y–also known as "Millennials" or "Echo Boomers" (because they are children of the Baby Boomer generation)—are now between the ages of 16 and 31.
According to Sandra Choate Faucher, who helped direct this study for the Caring Foundation, the study provides many reasons for the pro-life movement to be optimistic about Gen Y. "Gen Yers are spiritual, optimistic, ambitious and idealistic," Ms. Faucher said. "They want the truth and want to do what’s right."
"This generation does not want to be like their parents. They want to be and do better. Since many come from homes of divorce and/or are latchkey kids, they want stable marriages and homes for themselves and their children. Gen Yers are also primarily pro-life on abortion. They believe the unborn child is "pure potential" and could be the very person who finds a cure for cancer or AIDS," Faucher said.
The pro-life inclinations of Gen Y are reflected in recent polling from Gallup and other pollsters showing a pretty dramatic shift toward the pro-life position. In 2004, 54 percent of 18 to 29 year old persons identified themselves as "pro-choice" versus just 40 percent identifying as "pro-life." In 2010 those numbers flipped with 47 percent identifying as "pro-life" and 45 percent as "pro-choice."
Gen Y’s interest in pro-life activities was evident locally as the UNL Newman Center’s survey of incoming freshman Catholics this fall revealed. Of the 594 students who replied, 336 indicated an interest in pro-life activities. This was the fourth-highest response out of 31 choices. Only FOCUS Bible studies, intramural sports and a Facebook group garnered more interest by students than pro-life activities!
There is other dramatic evidence of the pro-life "fruit" of Gen Y. For example, a significant reason why Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider and apologist, is under increasing public scrutiny for its nefarious activities is thanks to the courageous work of a recent college graduate, Lila Rose. These exposés (see them at www.liveaction.org) have led several state governments to discontinue taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. And the U.S. House of Representatives voted 241 to 185 to defund Planned Parenthood, although the measure failed in the U.S. Senate.
Live Action is joined by several other outstanding youth-led organizations like Students for Life of America (www.studentsforlife.org), Generations for Life (www.generationsforlife.org), Generation Life (www.generationlife.org) and Rock for Life (www.rockforlife.org) to name a few.
Another aspect of Gen Y that provides much reason for hope, given the positive characteristics just mentioned, is its size. There are 60 million Gen Yers, compared to just 17 million in the previous generation, known as Gen X.
As Ms. Faucher noted, "everything from politicians to church groups are studying, analyzing and trying to influence this upcoming generation of young adults. They all recognize that the sheer numbers provide this generation with the ability to change society and political landscapes of the future."
While all of these characteristics of Gen Y provide much reason for hope in the pro-life movement, we cannot take them for granted. The culture of death is working overtime to undermine the pro-life and pro-family inclinations of Gen Y. Hence, the culture of life must work even harder to engage, form and equip young people to live the truth about love and life that God has written on our hearts.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Exterior engagement is drawn from and is based upon a deep and interior relationship with Christ." These words from Cardinal Francis Arinze provided a framework for a talk given by Msgr. James Moroney at the Diocesan Pro-Life Leadership Conference which I attended in Atlanta last week.
In his talk, appropriately titled "Praying for Life: Our Most Important Work," Msgr. Moroney reinforced what every pro-life activist quickly discovers: that prayer is our most essential and powerful weapon against the culture of death.
Blessed John Paul II, in his great encyclical Evangelium Vitae, explained that the deepest root of the culture of death is alienation from God. "In seeking the deepest roots of the struggle between the ‘culture of life’ and the ‘culture of death,’" John Paul said, "[w]e have to go to the heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God and of man, typical of a social and cultural climate dominated by secularism."
"Those who allow themselves to be influenced by this climate," John Paul says, "easily fall into a sad, vicious circle: When the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to lose the sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in turn the systematic violation of the moral law, especially in the serious matter of respect for human life and its dignity, produces a kind of progressive darkening of the capacity to discern God’s living and saving presence."
To emphasize the point, John Paul II quotes the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et spes which says: "Without the Creator, the creature would disappear… But when God is forgotten, the creature itself grows unintelligible."
"Man is no longer able to see himself as ‘mysteriously different’ from other creatures," John Paul II continues. "Life itself becomes a mere ‘thing,’ which man claims as his exclusive property, completely subject to his control and manipulation."
All of this points to the essential role of prayer in fighting the culture of death and rebuilding a culture of life and civilization of love. Our conversation with God, through prayer, will deepen our relationship with God and our understanding of the sacred dignity of human life which is made in His image and likeness.
Therefore, the first and most critical action item in our pro-life efforts must be prayer. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pro-Life office provides many excellent prayer and liturgical resources to assist us in praying for life—individually and as a community.
These resources include a variety of blessings, intercessory prayers, litanies, novenas, rosaries for life, pro-life stations of the cross, meditations and holy hours for life. In addition, the Bishops’ Pro Life office produces a Liturgy Guide as part of its annual Respect Life program packet.
This year’s Liturgy Guide provides homily notes to assist priests and deacons in preaching about the dignity of human life. The homily notes, as well as intercessions for life, are provided for Respect Life Sunday (observed the first Sunday of October) and for January 22, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion rulings (Roe v. Wade and Doe v Bolton).
The Liturgy Guide also provides a prayer format for conducting a holy hour for life, which is based on reflections of Blessed John Paul II on the elderly. A nuptial rosary, based upon the Nuptial Blessing from the Rite of Marriage, is also featured in the Liturgy Guide.
All of these materials can be found on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website (www.usccb.org/prolife) which is currently being revamped. During this process, these resources can only be accessed through the "old" site at: old.usccb.org/prolife (click on "prayer resources"). They also can be obtained from my office.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The federal healthcare law enacted last year requires all private health insurance plans to provide coverage of "preventive care for women." And, it requires that these services be covered without a co-pay. If this policy is carried out, every American will be forced to participate in a healthcare plan that pays for "preventive care for women."
So what will these "preventive care" services include? The healthcare law didn’t define them but instead left this determination to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). In turn, the DHHS tasked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) with providing recommendations on what should be included in "preventive services."
A couple of weeks ago, the IOM released its recommendations. Among the "preventive care" services it recommended for mandated inclusion in all private healthcare plans are surgical sterilizations and all FDA-approved birth control drugs and devices, some of which can cause abortions.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Committee issued a statement condemning the recommendation saying: "Pregnancy is not a disease, and fertility is not a pathological condition to be suppressed by any means technically possible… Without sufficient legal protection for rights of conscience, such a mandate would force all men, women and children to carry health coverage that violates the deeply-held moral and religious convictions of many."
The Cardinal not only urged DHHS to reject the IOM’s recommendation, but urged Congress to pass the "Respect for Rights of Conscience Act" (HR 1179) introduced by Congressmen Jeff Fortenberry from Nebraska and Dan Boren from Oklahoma. This bill would permit a health plan to decline coverage of specific items and services that are contrary to the religious beliefs of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering the plan or the purchaser.
Please thank Congressman Fortenberry for introducing the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. His phone number is 202-225-4806 and his website is www.fortenberry.house.gov.
The basis of the IOM’s decision is that unintended pregnancies, and the health-related problems they can produce, could be prevented by greater access to birth control methods. This old, tired argument may have some intuitive appeal, but the research substantiating the argument is very meager. The IOM report cites only two studies that supposedly show that greater access to birth control reduces unintended pregnancies. In reality, as even some birth control proponents acknowledge, most studies show that increasing access to birth control has little or no impact on decreasing unintended pregnancies or abortions.
For example, James Trussell, who originated the claim that easier access to emergency contraception could "result in a greater than 50% reduction in abortion rates," has conceded that 23 published studies from 10 countries disprove his claim. According to every one of the 23 studies, published between 1998 and 2006, easier access to EC fails to achieve any statistically significant reduction in rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion.
In the September 2006 British Medical Journal, Anna Glasier said: "[D]espite the clear increase in the use of emergency contraception, abortion rates have not fallen in the U.K. They have risen from 11 per 1,000 women ... in 1984 ... to 17.8 per 1000 in 2004." She adds: "Ten studies in different countries have shown that giving women a supply of emergency contraception to keep at home ... increases use by twofold to threefold ... but [has] had no measurable effect on rates of pregnancy or abortion."
A list of these and other studies is available on my website at www.nebcathcon.org (under "pro-life," "printed resources").
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mark your calendar for Saturday, October 15. That is the date of this year’s Bishops’ Pro Life Conference and it promises to be exceptional. This year’s keynote speaker is Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop Emeritus from the Archdiocese of New York.
Cardinal Egan was ordained a priest on December 15, 1957 after completing his seminary studies at the Pontifical North American College. He was consecrated a bishop on May 22, 1985, in the Basilica of Saints John and Paul in Rome. From 1985 to 1988 Cardinal Egan served as Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar for Education of the Archdiocese of New York. On November 8, 1988, Pope John Paul II appointed him to be the Third Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport.
On May 11, 2000, then Bishop Egan was appointed Archbishop of New York and on January 21, 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him to the College of Cardinals. Among his numerous responsibilities, his Eminence served as a member of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Pontifical Council of the Family.
This year’s conference will be a bit different from past conferences in that all activities will occur on Saturday, October 15. Past conferences have started on Friday evening with a banquet and continued on Saturday with a variety of speakers and topics.
The day will begin with Mass at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln. Cardinal Egan will preach the homily. The conference talks will begin after Mass and take place in a new venue, Cathedral School.
The topics and speakers for this year’s conference promise to be very engaging and educational. The first topic is the U.S. Bishops’ new statement on assisted suicide entitled "To Live Each Day with Dignity."
In light of renewed efforts by physician-assisted suicide (PAS) proponents to legalize the practice, this document exposes the false freedom and compassion used to sell the PAS agenda. And the document explains an "infinitely better way to address the needs of people with serious illnesses."
Father Christopher Kubat, who was a physician before becoming a priest, will present this topic. Father Kubat is currently director of Catholic Social Services for the Diocese of Lincoln. As a part of this presentation, I will give a short overview of the Church’s teaching on medical treatment decisionmaking and advance directives.
The second topic is "Conscience and the Catholic Voter" presented by Father Damien Cook. Father Cook is a priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha where he is pastor of St. Peter Church. Father also serves as Archdiocesan pro-life director. This topic is quite timely as we move into another presidential election cycle in 2012.
The next topic is "Discovering Hope and Love After an Adverse Prenatal Diagnosis." There seems to be an increase in pregnancies with serious fetal anomalies—or at least public attention to such pregnancies—so this topic is critically important. A panel of experts will address the medical, moral and hospice care options for parents facing an adverse prenatal diagnosis.
Finally, Patricia Bainbridge will bring to Lincoln her extensive experience and knowledge about Planned Parenthood in a talk entitled "Exposing and Opposing Planned Parenthood." Patricia is chairman of the board of Human Life International and recently retired as pro-life director for the Diocese of Rockford, Ill.
The day will conclude with a reception and banquet featuring Cardinal Egan and all three Bishops from Nebraska. The reception and banquet will be held at another new venue, the University of Nebraska East Campus Student Union. More information about the conference is available online at www.nebcathcon.org.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Last week I summarized the U.S. Bishops’ new statement against assisted suicide. The statement is a reflection of the Church’s consistent teaching that assisted suicide and euthanasia are grave violations of the law of God. As Pope John Paul II said in Evangelium vitae, "In its deepest reality, suicide represents a rejection of God’s absolute sovereignty over life and death…"
The Catholic Church’s teaching against assisted suicide and euthanasia is fairly well known. What is perhaps less well known is the opposite extreme: that Church teaching does not require Catholics to utilize every medical intervention or treatment to prolong our lives as long as possible.
Catholic teaching on the meaning of life, suffering and death guides us to avoid both extremes: actions intended to cause death on the one hand, and insisting on useless or disproportionately burdensome treatment to avoid death at all costs on the other hand.
This teaching is embodied in a document by the Nebraska Catholic Conference (NCC) entitled "Medical-Treatment Decisionmaking: Moral Guidance and Considerations from Catholic Teaching." The document’s introduction presents the basic foundation for our moral obligation to be responsible stewards of our lives:
"The Catholic Church affirms the sanctity and dignity of every human life as a precious gift of a loving God. All men and women must respect the lives of others while accepting the duties of responsible stewardship for their own lives and for the lives in their care.
"At the same time, however, faith in the resurrection and hope for eternal life have enabled the Catholic tradition to accept death as the inevitable end to temporal life and to believe that death is the gateway to eternal life. It is for this reason that there is no obligation to utilize all possible medical interventions, all possible means of prolonging life. Death need not be avoided at all costs.
"Although Catholic teaching does not look upon biological life as an absolute value, nevertheless it rejects suicide, assisted suicide and mercy killing because they are intrinsically opposed to the reverence for life that Christians are called upon to manifest and express. Compassion and care for dying and seriously ill or disabled persons must never include the willingness to assist in the direct ending of their lives."
Clearly, most decisions that individuals or families must make about whether to utilize or forego medical treatment fall somewhere between the aforementioned extremes. Therefore, the NCC document provides the following moral principle to assist us in determining whether a medical intervention is morally required or morally optional:
"If a particular medical intervention is necessary or useful for the preservation of life or restoration of health, it is ethically ordinary and there is a moral obligation to use it. If, however, a particular medical intervention is analyzed and judged by the patient to be useless (offering no reasonable hope of benefit) or excessively burdensome, it is ethically extraordinary and therefore morally optional."
The document provides other very useful principles to assist us in making moral medical-treatment decisions. It is available online at www.nebcathcon.org or by contacting my office. My office also has sample healthcare power of attorney forms that incorporate Church teaching and comport with Nebraska law.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In one of his Terminator movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger uttered one of his famous lines: "I’ll be baack." Unfortunately, the assisted suicide movement seems to be saying the same thing.
In 1994, the citizens of Oregon voted to legalize physician assisted suicide (PAS) and PAS proponents hoped this would trigger a domino effect with similar laws in other states. Fortunately, this did not happen, despite similar attempts in several other states. In fact, many states went the opposite way and explicitly banned PAS.
In 2008, however, PAS advocates struck again with a successful ballot initiative in the state of Washington, passing a law like Oregon’s. The following year, Montana’s Supreme Court ruled that PAS for terminally ill patients is not always against public policy.
These events, along with expanded funding from wealthy donors, have breathed new life into the PAS movement. PAS groups are embarking on a new, aggressive campaign using legislation, litigation and advertising to target additional states that may be most receptive to their agenda.
This "renewed threat to human dignity" is the impetus for a newly approved statement on physician-assisted suicide by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It was approved last week by the Bishops at their meeting in, ironically, the state of Washington.
The statement, entitled "To Live Each Day with Dignity", explains this "renewed threat" and then counters the claims by PAS proponents that their agenda is driven by a desire for freedom and compassion. The statement provides three responses to PAS advocate’s "illusion of freedom."
"First, medical professionals recognize that people who take their own lives commonly suffer from a mental illness, such as clinical depression… People who request death are vulnerable. They need care and protection. To offer them lethal drugs is a victory not for freedom but for the worst form of neglect."
"Second, even apparently free choices may be unduly influenced by the biases and wishes of others…This biased judgment is fueled by the excessively high premium our culture places on productivity and autonomy, which tends to discount the lives of those who have a disability or are dependent on others.
"If these persons say they want to die, others may be tempted to regard this not as a call for help but as the reasonable response to what they agree is a meaningless life…In short, the assisted suicide agenda promotes a narrow and distorted notion of freedom, by creating an expectation that certain people, unlike others, will be served by being helped to choose death.
Third, both our founding fathers and our Christian faith identify the right to life as the first and most basic human right. "Therefore one cannot uphold human freedom and dignity by devaluing human life. A choice to take one’s life is a supreme contradiction of freedom, a choice to eliminate all choices."
The statement also responds to the "false compassion" espoused by PAS proponents. "True compassion alleviates suffering while maintaining solidarity with those who suffer. It does not put lethal drugs in their hands and abandon them to their suicidal impulses, or to the self-serving motives of others who may want them dead. It helps vulnerable people with their problems instead of treating them as the problem."
Finally, the statement discusses a "better way to address the needs of people with serious illnesses." "Our society should embrace what Pope John Paul II called ‘the way of love and true mercy’—a readiness to surround patients with love, support, and companionship, providing the assistance needed to ease their physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering. This approach must be anchored in unconditional respect for their human dignity, beginning with respect for the inherent value of their lives."
The statement and other excellent educational resources on this topic are available on the U.S. Bishops’ website at http://www.usccb.org/toliveeachday/.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Nebraska Legislature ended its 2011 session May 26, three days short of its normal 90-day session. Adjourning three days early is pretty remarkable given the weighty issues confronting the Legislature: a nearly one billion dollar deficit, redistricting, reform of the Commission on Industrial Relations, etc.
Equally remarkable—and unprecedented—is the Legislature’s passage of three pro-life bills, all of which were signed into law by Governor Dave Heineman. In the days of Sen. Ernie Chambers, who filibustered every pro-life bill, the pro-life movement was fortunate to get one bill enacted by the Legislature.
The first bill adopted overwhelmingly by the full Legislature (37 to 7) was LB 22. This bill prohibits abortion coverage in health insurance plans offered through state exchanges created by the new federal health care law. It also prohibits private health insurance plans, contracts or policies from providing coverage for an elective abortion except through an optional rider to the policy for which an additional premium is paid solely by the insured.
The second pro-life bill enacted was LB 521, which prohibits so-called "web cam abortions." This bill requires an abortionist to be physically present in the same room with the pregnant woman when the abortion is performed. LB 521 was enacted on a final vote of 38 to 9.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH), which has facilities in Iowa and Nebraska, has killed more than 2,000 unborn babies in Iowa over the last few years by dispensing the chemical abortion drug RU 486 via web cam. LB 521 was introduced to prohibit expansion of this potentially unsafe abortion method in Nebraska, a concern that was heightened by PPH’s announced plan to open offices in six Nebraska communities.
The third bill enacted into law on a final vote of 41 to 6 was LB 690. This bill replaces Nebraska’s parental notification law (in effect since 1991) with the requirement that a pregnant minor (under the age of 18) obtain notarized parental consent from a parent or guardian before obtaining an abortion.
There are many individuals whose hard work was critical to the success of these pro-life bills. First, the senators who introduced and prioritized the bills deserve our gratitude.
Sen. Beau McCoy introduced and prioritized LB 22. Sen. Tony Fulton introduced LB 521 and Sen. Dave Bloomfield prioritized it. Sen. Lydia Brasch introduced and prioritized LB 690, a particularly courageous act given that she was in her first session as a legislator.
Julie Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life and its lobbyist, deserves much credit for leading the lobbying effort on LB 521. Suzanne Gage (state director for Americans United for Life) and Dave Bydalek (executive director of Family First) deserve our gratitude for leading the lobbying effort on LB 690.
For more information about these bills and to see how your senator voted on them, go to www.nebcathcon.org and click on the "Nebraska" link under "Pro Life Legislation 2011." If your senator voted for any of these bills, please e-mail him/her a note of thanks for that vote(s). If your senator voted against any of these bills, please politely express your disappointment to him/her for that vote(s). Senator contact information can be obtained online at www.nebraskalegislature.gov.
Finally, I’m pleased to say that Nebraska is not the only state seeing an increase in pro-life legislation introduced and enacted. In 2011, legislators in 49 states introduced hundreds of bills. As of mid May, 15 bills had been enacted into law.
The increase in state pro-life legislation was due in large part to a sizable pro-life shift in state houses following the 2010 elections. Prior to 2010, 21 governors were considered to be anti-abortion compared to 29 after the elections. Likewise, the 2010 election increased the number of states with both a legislature and a governor that are anti abortion from 10 to 15.
As the saying goes: elections have consequences!
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
One of the great myths in the abortion debate is that pro-life people only care about the "fetus" and do nothing for pregnant women or their children once born. The fact is pro-life people and organizations expend enormous amounts of time and money to address the social and economic needs of pregnant women and their children, before and after birth.
Nationally, more than 3,000 pregnancy-help centers are operated, staffed and funded by pro-life people. There are 31 such centers in 22 communities in or near Nebraska. A list of the centers is available online at www.nebcathcon.org or by contacting my office.
Pregnancy-help centers are the heart of the pro-life movement. They focus solely on helping pregnant women overcome the inadequacies and injustices that drive them to the tragedy of abortion. Pregnancy-help centers embody the ultimate mission of the pro-life movement: to make abortion unthinkable.
Many of these centers are staffed solely by pro-life volunteers. Some of the centers have full-time, paid staff with dozens of volunteers. Pregnancy-help centers provide an impressive number of services, and in most cases are funded entirely with private donations.
The services provided or facilitated include housing, instructional programs, maternity and baby clothes, furniture and other necessities, adoption through licensed agencies, parenting classes, abstinence education, job training, medical care including pregnancy testing, prenatal and obstetrical care, social services, including counseling, arrangement for transportation, child health care, and assistance in applying for financial help before and after birth.
Several of the larger centers are adopting more of a medical model that utilizes a physician medical director (in some cases an obstetrician/gynecologist) or nurse to provide a wider range of healthcare services such as screening and treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases. Some of these centers also offer mothers an ultrasound image of their unborn child, which can make the difference between life and death for the child.
The abortion industry and its apologists apparently don’t like the fact that these centers help many pregnant women to reject abortion as a response to the challenges presented by the pregnancy. They have made numerous attempts to attack and discredit pregnancy-help centers.
The latest national effort launched by NARAL Pro-Choice New York was exposed in pro-life news sources (LifeSiteNews.com and LifeNews.com). In a video that was posted on YouTube, city council members from New York City and Austin, TX disparage all pregnancy centers as "an institution with an agenda" that engage in "emotional bullying" and even "brainwashing" of pregnant women.
According to Melinda Delahoyde, president of Care Net (a national network of pregnancy-help centers), the video "reveals for the first time that these… attacks will be focused on urban areas, the very areas where abortion providers are prevalent, support for abortion alternatives is lacking, and abortion rates are skyrocketing."
Care Net pointed out in the LifeNews.com story that "many [abortion mills] are in predominantly minority-populated communities, thereby contributing greatly to the disproportionate impact of abortion on minorities. Statistics show that African American and Latina women account for only 27% of the female population in the U.S., yet they undergo 59% of all abortions," Care Net stated.
I am regularly contacted by individuals asking me what they can do to help advance the pro-life cause. One very concrete and powerful way we can help make abortion unthinkable is to donate time and money to pregnancy-help centers. Your contribution can literally make the difference between life and death.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Just a few weeks ago, two pro-life bills were stalled in the Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary Committee and a third bill was awaiting further debate by the full Legislature. In the last two weeks, these bills (all supported by my office) are finally moving through the legislative process.
Every bill introduced in our Unicameral must be advanced out of a committee by a majority of its members. Then each bill must receive three votes before final passage. The three rounds of debate/voting are called "General File," "Select File" and "Final Reading."
LB22
The first of the pro-life bills to be debated and adopted by the full Legislature is LB 22. This bill, introduced by Sen. Beau McCoy, prohibits abortion coverage in health insurance plans offered through state health insurance exchanges created by the federal health care law. It also prohibits private health insurance plans, contracts or policies from providing coverage for an elective abortion except through an optional rider to the policy for which an additional premium is paid solely by the insured.
Last week, the Legislature gave final approval to LB 22 by an overwhelming vote of 37 to 7. The bill will now go to Governor Heineman who will likely sign the bill into law.
LB521
The second pro-life bill to advance is LB 521, which prohibits so-called "web cam abortions." Introduced by Sen. Tony Fulton, this bill requires an abortionist to be physically present in the same room with the pregnant woman when the abortion is performed. The bill is a response to an abortion practice being done in Iowa by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which has facilities in Iowa and Nebraska.
A "web cam" abortion involves an internet video connection between an abortion doctor and a pregnant woman at a remote Planned Parenthood facility. After providing the woman with some information, the abortion doctor uses the "mouse" on his computer to remotely open a drawer in the woman’s room which contains the chemical drug regimen called RU 486.
After conducting a public hearing on LB 521 in March, two months went by before the Judiciary Committee advanced the bill to the full Legislature May 4. On May 10, the Legislature voted to advance the bill to the second round of debate on a vote of 34 to 9.
By the time this column is printed, LB 521 will likely have advanced to Final Reading. Given the overwhelming support this bill received on its first vote, I expect that it will easily be adopted by the Legislature and signed into law by our Governor.
LB690
Finally, after also sitting in the Judiciary Committee for two months, LB 690 was advanced to General File May 11. LB 690, introduced by Sen. Lydia Brasch, would replace Nebraska’s parental notification law (in effect since 1991) with the requirement that a minor (unemancipated woman less than 18 years of age) obtain notarized parental consent from a parent or guardian before obtaining an abortion.
This bill is also likely to have strong support in the Legislature and may have received first round debate and approval by the time this column is printed. Information on these and other bills, including how each senator voted, is available on my website at www.nebcathcon.org (click on "Nebraska" under "Pro Life Legislation 2011").
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The State of Nebraska requires by law that those who perform abortions report certain data to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) within 15 days from the end of the month in which the abortions are performed. Every spring, DHHS compiles this data and issues a statewide report of abortions.
The 2010 Nebraska Statistical Report on Abortions reveals that 2,464 abortions were reportedly performed in Nebraska last year. When we contemplate that each abortion represents the killing of a human being and the wounding of his/her mother, father, family and society, this death toll is staggering.
If there is a bright spot in this number of abortions, it is that it is the lowest annual number of abortions on record in Nebraska. In 1974, the first full year after Roe v Wade legalized abortion, there were 3,094 abortions reported in Nebraska. That number steadily increased to its high point of 6,346 in 1990. Since 1990, the number has steadily declined.
Here are the most relevant statistics from the report:
Age Distribution.By far, the most abortions occurred in the 20-26 age group. Nearly 60 percent of all abortions were done on women in this age group. Teenagers (and younger) comprised 14.6 percent of the abortions; women 30 years and over comprised 26.1 percent of the abortions.
A particularly sad statistic is that 15 girls under the age of 15 had abortions. Two of the girls were 12 years old and thirteen of the girls were 14 years old. Another 344 teens (aged 15 to 19) had abortions.
Reasons for the abortions.As is typically the case, only a tiny fraction of the abortions (1.4%) were done for the so-called "hard cases" of rape, incest and to prevent the death of the mother. Even if you add in those abortions done for the broader reason of a woman’s "health" (3.8%), the "hard cases" still only comprise about 5 percent of all abortions done in 2010.
Another revealing statistic is that only 45 percent indicated that "no contraception was used." Therefore, 55 percent of those obtaining abortions were likely using contraception when they got pregnant. This percentage comports with national figures.
This statistic raises serious doubts about the claim that contraception will reduce abortions. In fact, even the Alan Guttmacher Institute (research affiliate of Planned Parenthood) acknowledges that women who use contraception are more likely to have abortions.
Guttmacher explains this phenomenon this way: "because women who are using contraception are motivated to prevent an unplanned birth, they are more likely than women who were not using contraceptives to seek an abortion should they accidentally become pregnant."
Method of abortion.The most notable statistic in this category is that the number of chemical abortions (using RU-486) more than tripled. There were 231 chemical abortions in 2009 compared to 746 such abortions in 2010.
The number of chemical abortions would likely continue to skyrocket if Planned Parenthood (PP) opens satellite offices around Nebraska. As it has done in Iowa, PP would likely offer RU-486 abortions at these offices through use of video conferencing with an abortionist in Lincoln or Omaha or elsewhere. A bill in our state Legislature (LB 521) would prohibit such "web cam" abortions.
Repeat abortions.Another very sad statistic is that nearly one third (31%) of the women obtaining abortions last year in Nebraska had one or more previous abortions. The breakdown of this statistic is incomprehensible: one previous abortion: 512; two previous abortions: 158; three previous abortions: 63; four previous abortions: 13; more than four previous abortions: 10.
The complete report of abortions can be seen online at http://www.hhs.state.ne.us/srd/abort10.pdf. A chart compiling the key data from these annual reports since 1974 can be seen on my website at http://www.nebcathcon.org/abortion%20stats%20%205-4-2011.pdf.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (operating in Iowa and Nebraska) recently announced its intention to open offices in five Nebraska communities: Fremont, Norfolk, Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney and North Platte. This is deeply alarming news coming from our nation’s largest purveyor and apologist of abortion.
Planned Parenthood (PP) has been promoting its degrading, hedonistic view of human sexuality for decades out of its offices in Omaha and Lincoln. In the mid 1990s, PP opened an abortion center in Lincoln and has since killed about 10,000 unborn babies in that one facility.
Nationally, PP abortion centers kill more than 300,000 unborn babies each year. In 2009, PP killed 332,278 unborn babies (more than 25% of U.S. abortions) and that number has been steadily rising for at least the last five years. And it will certainly continue rising as PP announced last year that it intends to increase the number of abortion centers in its franchise.
Unfortunately, many Americans (and Nebraskans) do not know about this dark side of PP because it has done a masterful job of portraying itself as a women’s health provider. Planned Parenthood does provide some health services (e.g. cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment), but by conservative estimates, more than one-third of its annual revenues come from abortion. Unfortunately, another third of its revenue comes from our tax dollars.
Planned Parenthood’s intention to open offices in five Nebraska communities is particularly troubling given the likelihood that it will provide chemical abortions at those sites via web cam (e.g. Skype). Planned Parenthood has been doing this in Iowa for the last few years.
In a web cam abortion the abortionist is in one city and the woman seeking an abortion is in another city. The abortionist speaks to the woman through an internet video connection. After obtaining the woman’s consent the abortionist uses the "mouse" on his/her computer to remotely open a drawer containing the chemical abortion regimen called RU-486.
A bill (LB 521) has been introduced in the Nebraska Legislature this year to prohibit web cam abortions. This bill, however, remains in the Judiciary Committee having failed to get the five votes needed to advance to consideration by the entire Legislature.
Committee members who voted for LB 521 are Senators Steve Lathrop, Scott Lautenbaugh, Colby Coash and Tyson Larson. Senators Brad Ashford, Brenda Council, and Amanda McGill voted against the bill. Sen. Burke Harr abstained from voting.
I and other pro-life lobbyists have been working with Sen. Harr and Sen. Ashford to address concerns they have expressed about the bill. I am still hopeful that we can sufficiently address their concerns and convince one or both of them to vote this bill out of committee. There is likely ample bi-partisan support for LB 521 in the full Legislature.
In addition to working for LB 521, the pro-life movement in Nebraska is mobilizing statewide and in the five communities to fiercely oppose Planned Parenthood’s expansion. The level of concern and mobilization I’ve seen so far indicates that PP’s announcement has awakened a sleeping pro-life giant.
Citizens in those communities (and throughout our state) will be informed about PP’s abortion advocacy and its deplorable view (and programs) of human sexuality. And every possible resource will be marshaled against PP’s expansion in Nebraska. Anyone in those five communities (or any Nebraskan) wishing to join in this effort can contact my office or local pro-life representatives.
In his column in this week’s West Nebraska Register, Most Reverend William Dendinger, Bishop of Grand Island, expressed a simple, yet powerful response to Planned Parenthood’s intention to expand in Nebraska: "WE DON’T WANT YOU." To this, I and many Nebraskans say: DITTO!
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
"My daughter, know that My Heart is mercy itself. From this sea of mercy, graces flow out upon the whole world. No soul that has approached Me has ever gone away unconsoled. All misery gets buried in the depths of My mercy, and every saving and sanctifying grace flows from this fountain…Sooner would heaven and earth turn into nothingness than would My mercy not embrace a trusting soul."
These words from the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (#1777) are a beautiful expression of God’s Divine Mercy, which we celebrate this Sunday. For those who suffer from a past abortion, however, God’s mercy can seem incomprehensible. Consequently, the Church provides a special outreach called Project Rachel to communicate God’s mercy and to facilitate healing for post-abortive women and men.
Project Rachel is comprised of specially trained clergy and professional counselors who provide individual, confidential counseling and reconciliation to women and men suffering from a past abortion. In Nebraska, Project Rachel can be accessed by calling 1-888-456-HOPE (4673). Information on Project Rachel and abortion’s emotional and spiritual aftermath is also available online at www.hopeafterabortion.com.
The name of this outreach comes from the Old Testament figure Rachel who "mourns her children" and "refuses to be consoled because her children are no more." Our Lord, however, tells Rachel to "cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward… There is hope for your future." (Jeremiah 31:15-17)
In his 2009 homily on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict XVI cautioned that "without the healing of souls, without the healing of man from within there can be no salvation for humanity. How essential then to the mission of the Church are the pastoral and apostolic activities that draw women and men burdened by the sin of abortion closer to God’s merciful heart. It is no exaggeration to say that the Church’s ministry of healing and reconciliation after abortion is at the heart of the Church’s mission at this time in her history."
Homily notes provided by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Office for the third Sunday in Lent reminded us that "Jesus knows the weakness of the human heart. He knows that our fears – often arising from a lack of trust in God’s love and support – can lead us into grave sin. Fear, not cruelty, is the force that motivates the majority of abortions.
"Teens and young women are afraid to tell their parents about their pregnancy for fear of disappointing them, or fear of being rejected or punished. They fear not being able to complete their education and the loss of the future life they had planned.
"They fear that they lack the resources and maturity to care for a baby. They fear that an adoptive family may not love their child as they would. Some single fathers want to marry their pregnant girlfriend or at least support their child, but others fear that they’ll be stuck with the young pregnant woman they never planned on marrying and stuck paying child support for 18 years.
"Parents whose daughters are young or still dependent on them, fear the struggles their daughters may face in trying to raise a child alone; they fear that their daughters will be kept from reaching their full potential when their studies or career are sidetracked by an unplanned pregnancy. Some parents fear how their friends will react to the family’s "shame" of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
"And expectant parents whose unborn child has been diagnosed with a serious genetic condition, may fear that their child will suffer in life, that they won’t be capable of caring for a child with special needs, or that the emotional pain of carrying a child to term only to witness its death will be more than they can bear.
"But in every case, our Lord is ready to provide all the grace and help we need if we simply ask him for the courage and strength to act in ways that affirm the priceless gift of life. He willingly died for us. Why do we doubt that he’d help us through any crisis, that he’d bring people into our lives who can offer the support we need through difficult times?
"And should we fail to do the right thing, sacramental Confession is always available to us. There we come face to face with God’s Divine Mercy – Mercy that forgives our worst sins, removes our guilt and our shame, fills us instead with God’s grace."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
There are some celebrations during the liturgical year that naturally relate to the dignity of human life. The Annunciation, Visitation, Christmas, and Respect Life Sunday (first Sunday in October) are some of the obvious ones. But the highest Feast in the Church—Easter—should also be the greatest celebration for the pro-life cause as well.
This Feast reminds us that the victory over death has been won by our Lord Jesus Christ. We know how the battle between life and death ends. Life wins. Death loses.
Father Frank Pavone from Priests for Life expressed this comforting reality quite cogently when he said that as Christians we engage in the pro-life battle not just for victory but from victory. God does not ask us to defeat death. He has already done this.
While our Lord’s victory over death assures us that death will not and cannot overcome life, evil still exists and must be opposed with vigor and constancy. There can even be times when it seems that evil is winning. And many people may be tempted to become discouraged or cynical and, as a result, disengaged from the battle for life.
These are the times when we need to recall our Lord’s ultimate victory over death. We need to regularly be reminded that our responsibility isn’t to defeat the culture of death but to faithfully and persistently oppose it. The fact that we operate from victory, not just for victory should give us all the hope and encouragement we need to persevere.
God gave each of us unique gifts and opportunities to serve Him in bringing Truth and love to our world. At our final judgment we will have to account for how we used these gifts and opportunities from God. In particular, I believe, we will account for our action or inaction in proclaiming and defending the sacred dignity of human life.
If we truly embrace and embody the assurance of our faith, we should be confident and joy-filled in our pro-life efforts, in good times and in bad times. The following quote from the late Father Richard John Neuhaus has long been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me. I pray that it also inspires you as we contemplate our Lord’s passion, death and resurrection.
"So long as we have the gift of life we must protect the gift of life. So long as it is threatened, so long must it be defended. This is the time to brace ourselves for the long term. We are today laying the foundations for the prolife movement of the twenty-first century. Pray that the foundations are firm, for we have not yet seen the full fury of the storm that is upon us.
"But we have not the right to despair. We have not the right and we have not the reason to despair if we understand that our entire struggle is premised not upon a victory to be achieved, but a victory that has been achieved. If we understand that, far from despair we have right and reason to rejoice that we are called to such a time as this, a time of testing, a time of truth. "The encroaching culture of death shall not prevail, for we know, as we read in John’s gospel, ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ The darkness will never overcome that light."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Holy Week is upon us. This extraordinary time in the Church’s liturgical calendar provides a particularly meaningful opportunity to reflect on the Christian view of suffering in light of our Lord’s embrace of suffering and death to redeem us from our sins.
As God the Son, Jesus could have chosen any way to redeem us. So the fact that he chose to redeem us through His suffering and death necessarily gives meaning to every human beings experience with suffering and death.
The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services provides this explanation:
"For the Christian, our encounter with suffering and death can take on a positive and distinctive meaning through the redemptive power of Jesus’ suffering and death. As St. Paul says, we are "always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (2 Cor 4:10). This truth does not lessen the pain and fear, but gives confidence and grace for bearing suffering rather than being overwhelmed by it."
Pope John Paul II provides this insight in his encyclical The Gospel of Life:
"This natural aversion to death and this incipient hope of immortality are illumined and brought to fulfillment by Christian faith, which both promises and offers a share in the victory of the Risen Christ: It is the victory of the One who, by his redemptive death, has set man free from death, "the wages of sin" (Rom 6:23), and has given him the Spirit, the pledge of resurrection and of life (cf. Rom 8:11).
"The certainty of future immortality and hope in the promised resurrection cast new light on the mystery of suffering and death, and fill the believer with an extraordinary capacity to trust fully in the plan of God. The Apostle Paul expressed this newness in terms of belonging completely to the Lord who embraces every human condition:
"’None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s’ (Rom 14:7-8). Dying to the Lord means experiencing one’s death as the supreme act of obedience to the Father (cf. Phil 2:8), being ready to meet death at the "hour" willed and chosen by him (cf. Jn 13:1), which can only mean when one’s earthly pilgrimage is completed.
"Living to the Lord also means recognizing that suffering, while still an evil and a trial in itself, can always become a source of good. It becomes such if it is experienced for love and with love through sharing, by God’s gracious gift and one’s own personal and free choice, in the suffering of Christ Crucified.
"In this way, the person who lives his suffering in the Lord grows more fully conformed to him (cf. Phil 3:10; 1 Pet 2:21) and more closely associated with his redemptive work on behalf of the Church and humanity.[87] This was the experience of Saint Paul, which every person who suffers is called to relive: ‘I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church’ (Col 1:24)."
It is awesome to contemplate the reality that we worship a God who "humbled Himself to share in our humanity" and fully understands the challenges of the human condition. It’s also awesome to know that the graces from our suffering can be offered for the salvation of souls. As mentioned previously, this truth should give confidence and grace for bearing suffering rather than being overwhelmed by it.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
About a month and a half ago, the U.S. House of Representatives did something I didn’t think I’d ever see: it voted overwhelmingly (240 to 185) to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood (PP), America’s largest abortion provider and apologist. The vote was on an amendment to a temporary budget bill called a "continuing resolution."
To their credit, all three of Nebraska’s House members (Fortenberry, Terry and Smith) voted to defund PP. The U.S. Senate, however, rejected the House’s continuing resolution (for a variety of reasons).
The battle to finalize a permanent budget bill for the federal government’s current fiscal year continues today on a variety of fronts, including the proposal to defund PP. It is very much uncertain whether there is sufficient will, or votes, in Congress to actually end funding to PP.
Planned Parenthood should be defunded. According to its most recent annual report, PP performed 324,008 abortions in 2008, which comprised 27 percent of all U.S. abortions that year. Income from these abortions comprised 37.5 percent ($152 million) of PP’s total clinic income in 2008. Furthermore, abortions comprise 98 percent of the "services" PP provides to pregnant women.
Planned Parenthood insists that none of the more than $360 million of federal funding it receives is used for abortion. While this may be technically accurate, since the funding is largely for contraceptive services, it’s irrelevant.
What is relevant, and irrefutable, is that any federal funding PP receives, even if its use is restricted, benefits the entire organization. This is especially true given that federal funding comprises one third of PP’s overall budget.
Therefore, while PP may not use our tax dollars to directly fund abortions, there is no question that our tax dollars facilitate PP’s abortion business and advocacy as well as its vulgar, hedonistic philosophy and programs of sexual education. This philosophy is readily found on its website (especially under "Info for Teens"). Other information about PP and its founder Margaret Sanger can be seen online at www.stopp.org and www.ldi.org/library/.
Planned Parenthood has also tried to shift public attention away from its abortion extremism by insisting that women—especially poor women—will not receive health care services if PP is denied federal funding. This assertion is false. The amendment to defund PP would simply shift the funding to other entities that provide similar healthcare services.
While there have been previous attempts in Congress to defund PP, this year’s success in the House was largely attributable to the efforts of a college student, Lila Rose. Miss Rose is founder and president of Live Action, a group that has used under cover investigations to expose deeply offensive—and potentially illegal—activities by PP.
A couple of years ago, the investigations exposed PP’s willingness to accept racist-motivated donations for the purpose of funding the abortions of black babies. Another investigation exposed PP’s willingness to cover-up cases of statutory rape. Amazingly, these revelations received a collective yawn from most of the media and elected officials.
The most recent Live Action investigations were even more explosive, clearly showing Planned Parenthood’s willingness to exploit the victims of child prostitution. Shocking undercover video footage, from PP clinics in several states, reveals clinic staff assuring a "pimp" that they would secretly offer full access to abortions and other services -- despite knowing full well that the girls were underage victims.
To see video clips of these undercover investigations of PP go to www.liveaction.org. Also check out a new coalition of pro-life groups urging the defunding of PP at www.exposeplannedparenthood.com. This latter website urges (and facilitates) Americans to flood the offices of our Congressmen with e-mails asking them to defund PP. I urge you to do so as well.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
There are few liturgical feasts that are more directly relevant to the pro-life cause than the Solemnity of the Annunciation. The Word became Flesh at the Annunciation, when the Virgin Mary is told that she has been chosen to be the Mother of the Savior and gives her consent.
Luke’s Gospel (1:26-38) tells us that "the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, ‘Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you… Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus."
For Christians, the Annunciation should be a rich source of reflection on the sacred dignity of human life from its very beginning at conception. Our Lord didn’t descend from Heaven as a 30-year-old adult and begin His ministry. He "became man" like every human being, as a single cell embryo.
Single Cell Embryo
Our Lord did nothing by chance. Therefore, the fact that He began His earthly life as an embryo and experienced every subsequent stage of human life (fetus, infant, child, adolescent and adult) necessarily gives significant meaning and dignity to each of these stages.
Scripture (Luke 1:41-44) also tells us that after the Annunciation, Mary went in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth. "When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
"And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy." Hence, it was an unborn child (John the Baptist) who first recognized Christ’s presence on earth.
In his meditations on the Annunciation, Father Frank Pavone asks these provocative questions: "Would it long be possible for believers, who meditate on the unborn child who was God, to fail to see that unborn children are made in God’s image?
"Would it be likely that those who ponder that our Almighty Protector was a baby in the womb will fail to see that babies in the womb deserve protection? Would it happen that Christians, who acknowledge that their Lord and Brother was an embryo and fetus, will fail to see that every embryo and fetus is a brother and sister in the Lord?"
Six Weeks
"Yet the marvels revealed by the Annunciation do not stop there," Father Pavone continues. "There is also the mystery of Mary’s freedom, her ‘Fiat’ – ‘Let it be done to me according to your word’ (Lk. 1:38).
"This is freedom of choice which serves the truth, as opposed to ‘pro-choice’ which claims to create its own truth. This is choice at the service of life, rather than the perverted choice to take life. This is the moment when Mary gave her body to the One who would bring life to the world by saying ‘This is My Body,’ forever undoing the sin of those who justify abortion by saying, ‘This is my body!’
My office has a flier entitled "The Word Became Flesh" that contains fetal development pictures and Father Pavone’s reflections. Contact my office at necatholic.org.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro Life Secretariat recently developed new materials to communicate the Church’s message of hope and healing to post-abortive women and men. The materials promote Project Rachel, an outreach of the Church that provides post-abortion counseling and reconciliation by specially trained clergy and professional counselors.
"Don’t be afraid. Draw close to my heart. There you will find the peace and happiness you seek. Jesus speaks these words to every human being in every generation. He knows well that each of us is broken by sin and burdened by selfishness and past hurts. As St. Paul has written, ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Yet we are saved ‘by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.’"
These are the opening words of the Project Rachel brochure produced by the Pro Life Secretariat. The brochure and other promotional materials are intended to communicate God’s limitless love and mercy to all who are affected by abortion.
The materials feature images representing the age, gender and ethnic diversity of those suffering from a past abortion. The messages include various sentiments from those who struggle with a past abortion and God’s response to those sentiments. For example:
"God will never forgive me for this" – "God’s greatest desire is to forgive"; "I don’t deserve to be happy" – "God wants to restore your happiness"; "I can’t believe I let this happen" – "Never let your past keep you from God"; "I failed as a father" – "Do not despair. All is not lost"; "My heart is broken" – "God will take away your pain"; "I feel so worthless" – "You are precious to God."
In all of the materials it communicates that same message of hope to those wounded by a past abortion: "Come back to God, Who is love and mercy" and "Project Rachel: Peace starts here."
For Lent this year, the Pro Life Secretariat produced a version of their promotional ad that says: "This Lent, make peace with your past" (see below). They also produced bulletin announcements, prayers of the faithful and homily notes for the third Sunday in Lent. These resources can be downloaded for use at www.usccb.org/prolife.
The following excerpt from the aforementioned homily notes should provide all of us with a powerful point of reflection during this Lenten season.
"The story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well is a lesson in Divine Mercy. Jesus did not come for the righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance, and repentance allows us to receive an outpouring of grace, the living water of which he speaks. In this passage, we discover the lengths to which Jesus will go to seek out those who are suffering for their mistakes, so that he can restore their dignity as children of God, their peace of heart, and their hope of salvation."
If you or anyone you know is suffering from a past abortion, invite them to contact Project Rachel at 1-888-456-HOPE (4673) or online at www.hopeafterabortion.org.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Last week, newspapers reported about a Grand Island couple’s pregnancy gone awry and tragic death of their premature child after birth. According to these reports, Danielle Deaver was 22-23 weeks pregnant when she lost most of the amniotic fluid surrounding her unborn child. Her doctors said the condition would arrest the baby’s development, leading to deformities and a slim chance of survival.
The Omaha World-Herald said the couple decided that they "didn’t want to continue putting their unborn baby through what they feared was agony, so they asked the doctors to induce labor early." Inducing labor prior to viability, with the intent that it end the baby’s life, is an abortion.
Consequently, the couple was told that Nebraska’s new abortion law stood in their way. That law, LB 1103, was enacted last year and prohibits abortions after 20 weeks from fertilization, unless it’s necessary to avert the mother’s death. This point was chosen because of strong evidence that an unborn child can feel pain by this stage of development.
The World-Herald story said the couple went public with their story "in the hope of making a difference for other families in similar situations." They are urging law makers in other states to consider their situation before enacting laws similar to LB 1103 and "have not decided whether to mount a legal challenge to the Nebraska law."
In a March 14 editorial in the World-Herald, Dr. Sean Kenney, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist from Lincoln replied to this couple’s situation as presented by the newspaper.
"Although my heart goes out to the Deavers, as a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist who has cared for several patients in similar situations and who testified on behalf of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act, I think it is imperative to make clear that their understanding of the facts is wrong."
"What most specialists try to do in these situations is maintain the pregnancy for as long as possible," Dr. Kenney said. "If she had delivered two days later at 24 weeks, the baby’s chance of survival without profound neurodevelopmental impairment would have increased to 50%, 65% if she had received steroids."
The Deaver’s baby weighed about 740 grams at birth (1 lb, 10 oz). Dr. Kenney said that the "edge of viability is usually felt to be around 400-500 grams. Based on an estimated gestational age of 23 weeks, female infant and 740gms, the National Institute of Child Health and Development …would quote her a 37% chance of survival without profound neurodevelopmental impairment, based on data prior to 2003."
"Tragic as the outcome was," Dr. Kenney continued, "the pessimism that predicted inevitable death for the baby was certainly unwarranted." Unfortunately, some doctors are quick to suggest and even urge mothers like Mrs. Deaver to abort their child instead of letting nature take its course or trying to maintain the pregnancy long enough to increase the baby’s chance of survival.
The mentality underlying the recommendation to abort babies with lethal anomalies is eerily similar to the mentality underlying euthanasia (i.e. it is more humane to deliberately end someone’s life than to let them suffer). Fortunately, as with born humans, unborn babies with life-threatening conditions need not be subjected to a choice between a life of pain and intentional death.
There is a growing utilization of perinatal hospice care which applies the hospice model to unborn babies with fatal anomalies. I’m aware of two such programs in Nebraska (Methodist Hospital in Omaha and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Lincoln) but there may be more. More information on this beautiful service can be seen online at www.perinatalhospice.org.
There are also support groups like Isaiah’s Promise (www.isaiahspromise.net), sponsored by mothers who chose not to abort babies with disabilities. Nancy Mayer-Whittington, a co-founder of Isaiah’s Promise shares these beautiful words about her experience:
"I was so happy I did what I did," she says of her decision to bring Angela to term. "You get to see your child’s birth and death all collapsed in one time frame. What most people want for their kids is for them to go to heaven. You get to complete that journey with them. As a parent, that is unbelievable. Life is about relationship to God. You know that when you literally pass them from your hands to His."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Undoubtedly, many Catholics have already determined what special prayers and sacrifices they will embrace to grow spiritually this Lent. However, I have another suggestion for Catholics to consider: offer special prayers and sacrifices specifically for those women and men contemplating abortion.
Specifically, I encourage Catholics to offer prayers and sacrifices on the days that abortions are done. At the Planned Parenthood abortion mill in Lincoln, abortions are typically done on Tuesdays and Fridays. At the Bellevue abortion mill, abortions are done on varying days but usually Thursday through Sunday.
In both locations, there are dedicated, even heroic, men and women who come (rain or shine, cold or heat) to pray and/or reach out to the mothers with messages of hope and help. This prayerful presence has been extremely powerful and fruitful in prompting mothers to reject abortion and choose life for their children.
For example, on a recent abortion day in Lincoln, seven out of 26 mothers scheduled to have abortions that day changed their mind and left the abortion mill without having an abortion. Praise God! Although 19 women still had abortions, seven "saves" that day was unprecedented; truly a miracle.
That day, like most abortion days, there were various individuals and groups who came to pray at the abortion mill. We know from personal testimonies that the visible witness and blanket of prayer that these "pray-ers" provide has been the catalyst for mothers who changed their mind about abortion.
For those individuals who live within a reasonable drive to the abortion mills in Lincoln and Omaha, there is much need for more volunteers to be present in prayer or, if so called, to help as a sidewalk "counselor." Lincoln Right to Life or Nebraskans United for Life (Omaha) can be contacted for more information about such volunteering.
In addition, both groups have sponsored the "40 Days for Life" prayer event during Lent this year. This event proposes to have a physical presence of prayer at the abortion mills 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Around the country, "40 Days for Life" efforts have been credited with the closure of some abortion mills, and the conversion of abortion mill workers and mothers scheduled for abortions.
For those who cannot be physically present at the abortion mills, prayers and sacrifices can still be offered in solidarity with those who are physically present. For example, consider offering a holy hour (or just a short visit) before the Blessed Sacrament at your local church on one of the days abortions are done.
Or, pray a rosary or some other prayer at home, while you are driving to work or while doing other daily activities. Offering some sort of sacrifice—big or small—in tandem with your prayers is also powerful and fruitful.
Those who are confined to their homes due to illness, age, or frailty or who live in nursing homes can be just as efficacious in their prayers and sacrifices as those who are physically present at the abortion mills. And those who suffer—physically, emotionally, or spiritually—can be particularly powerful intercessors by offering their suffering for the conversion of mothers contemplating abortion.
Our Lord Jesus said that "certain kinds of demons do not leave but by prayer and fasting" (Mt. 17:21). Therefore, our prayers and sacrifices this Lent and beyond can be a very significant contribution toward saving lives and building a culture of life and love.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference,
215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Last week, Dr. Bernard Nathanson died. Dr. Nathanson was co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), played an instrumental role in the effort to legalize abortion, was responsible for 75,000 abortions including the abortion of his own child, and once described himself as a Jewish atheist.
Thanks to the "Hand of God" (the name of a book he wrote), Dr. Nathanson died a revered pro-life activist and a Roman Catholic. Dr. Nathanson’s conversion is nothing short of miraculous; compelling evidence of our Lord’s assurance that "with God all things are possible".
Dr. Nathanson’s conversion as an abortionist occurred after witnessing an ultrasound of an abortion. "I had come to the conclusion that there was no reason for an abortion at any time" he said. "[T]his person in the womb is a living human being, and we could not continue to wage war against the most defenseless of human beings. Having looked at the ultrasound, I could no longer go on as before."
After his abortion conversion, Dr. Nathanson wrote his famous book "Aborting America" in which he acknowledged a number of lies that he and his NARAL collaborators produced. For example, regarding the number of deaths from illegal, "back alley" abortions, he said NARAL claimed that 5,000 to 10,000 women died each year.
"I confess that I knew the figures were totally false," Dr. Nathanson said, "and I suppose the others did to if they stopped to think of it. But in the ‘morality’ of our revolution, it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics."
In 1985, Dr. Nathanson produced a video called "Silent Scream" which used ultrasound to show images of an abortion on a 12-week old unborn child. He later produced a second video entitled "Eclipse of Reason" featuring a late term abortion.
Dr. Nathanson stated repeatedly that his "switch to pro-life had nothing to do with religion." Instead, he said his mind was changed "based on the scientific evidence…based on fetoscopies and ultrasound studies."
However, as he explained in his book "Hand of God", his conversion was not yet complete. After 13 years of spiritual searching, Dr. Nathanson was baptized into the Catholic faith in 1996 by Cardinal John O’Connor, Archbishop of New York.
There is a fascinating local angle to Dr. Nathanson’s conversion to Catholicism. He credits Msgr. Thomas Holoman, a retired priest of the Diocese of Lincoln and former pro-life director for the diocese, with being a catalyst to his conversion.
In 2004 when Msgr. Holoman retired as pro-life director, Dr. Nathanson wrote him a letter saying the following:
"I recall that twenty years ago you found me in personal crisis and with compassion, infinite patience and understanding you helped me to resolve that crisis. I date the beginning of my thirteen-year-long hegira to Christ to that event. I personally owe you an unrequitable debt in helping me to find the peace of Christ."
Joan Andrews Bell, a long-time pro-life activist who was Dr. Nathanson’s godmother for baptism, said "He will be remembered as a very strong advocate for the babies. One factor stood out, knowing him over the years, and that was that he had a deep pain for what he had done in terms of abortion. I remember there were periods he was fasting; he underwent huge amounts of fasting to make up for it."
"He was like St. Paul," Bell continued, "who was a great persecutor of the Church, yet when he saw the light of Christ, he was perhaps the greatest apostle for the Gospel. Dr. Nathanson was like that after his conversion. He went all around the world talking about the babies and the evils of abortion."
Dr. Nathanson’s funeral Mass was held on February 28 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with Archbishop Timothy Dolan as main celebrant. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let the Perpetual Light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference,
215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) is a long-time pro-life leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. Recently, I heard him say that the current House has the most number of pro-life members he has seen in his 30 years as a Congressman.
Furthermore, Cong. Smith said that the House leadership, which determines the legislative agenda, is more committed to pursuing pro-life policies than any leadership he has experienced. Coming from Cong. Smith, this is certainly encouraging news.
What follows is a brief summary of some of the pro-life legislation that has been introduced so far this year in the House. Most of this information is provided by the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (NCHLA), an excellent resource on federal pro-life legislation.
Protect Life Act (H.R. 358)
This bill would correct serious abortion-related flaws in the federal health care reform act (PPACA). First, it would apply the Hyde Amendment policy to the entire act ensuring that no funds pay for abortions (except in cases of rape/incest or to prevent the death of the mother) or subsidize health plans that cover abortions.
SSecond, H.R. 358 would uphold rights of conscience related to abortion. Third, the bill would close a loophole in PPACA’s non-preemption clause so that state laws restricting abortion can’t be preempted by PPACA and so that state laws can’t override pro-life provisions in PPACA. The bill was voted out of committee and awaits action by the full House.
Fiscal Year 2011 Appropriations (H.R. 1) /p>
Since Congress has not produced a budget for fiscal year 2011, it is funding the federal government through temporary continuing resolutions (CR). The next CR, introduced by the House Republicans (H.R. 1), restores three pro-life policies removed by President Obama or the previous Congress.
First, the CR restores a ban on government funding of abortions in the District of Columbia. Second, it restores the Mexico City Policy which prohibits the use of taxpayer funds from going to groups that promote or perform abortions in other nations.
Third, the CR would remove funding for the United Nations Family Planning Agency. The UNFPA has promoted abortion globally and shown support for China’s one-child policy with forced abortions and sterilizations.
IIn addition, two pro-life amendments were offered to the CR. First, Congressman Mike Pence offered an amendment that would deny funds to Planned Parenthood. This amendment was adopted on a vote of 240 to 185. Second, Congressman John Fleming offered an amendment to help maintain conscience protection regulations put in place by the Bush administration for pro-life medical workers.
No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3) /p>
TThis bill would place into permanent law the various appropriations policies that restrict the funding of abortion. For decades, these policies, such as the Hyde Amendment, had to be attached to annual appropriations bills. This bill would eliminate that annual process by enacting these policies, permanently, into law.
Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 361) /p>
A national campaign by abortion activists to force health care providers to participate in abortion threatens the civil rights of health care professionals and other health care entities. This bill would strengthen existing federal conscience protection laws and affirms the principle that no health care entity should be forced by government to perform or participate in abortions.
To follow the progress of these and other pro-life bills in Congress, and to see how our Congressmen vote, check out NCHLA’s excellent website at www.nchla.org. And please join me in praying, fasting and working so that much progress will be made in Congress to protect women and children from the violence of abortion.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference,
215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Last week, I represented the Bishops of Nebraska with testimony against two bills in our State Legislature. The first bill (LB 192), introduced by Sen. Brenda Council, mandates so-called comprehensive sex education in all public schools.
Sen. Council introduced the bill in response to the extremely high rates of sexually-transmitted diseases in various parts of Nebraska, including her north Omaha legislative district. In my testimony I expressed understanding for her legitimate concern but asserted that her bill is the wrong approach to address the problem.
So-called comprehensive sex education that emphasizes, and even promotes, contraception embodies a certain defeatism that presumes young people are incapable of controlling themselves sexually and therefore reduces expectations and education to the lowest common denominator.
In my observations and study of young people today, it is clear to me that they are capable of—and they desire—self-control in this important area of their lives. And they want their parents’ and society’s help to achieve it rather than be abandoned to the mediocrity of risk reduction strategies; strategies that don’t even purport to address the emotional, psychological and spiritual consequences of sexual activity.
Abstinence-based education, by contrast, takes a truly comprehensive approach to human sexuality that conforms better to human nature and dignity. This approach recognizes and addresses all the dimensions and consequences of sexual activity (i.e. the physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, social, economic, and educational consequences). Abstinence-based education does not simply tell students to avoid sexual activity until marriage; it helps them develop the skills and character to achieve this goal.
Nebraska’s State Board of Education and the Association of School Boards also oppose LB 192, primarily due to their opposition to state mandated curricula. Opposition by these heavy hitters will likely dim this bill’s prospects of success.
The second bill (LB 540), introduced by the Health and Human Services Committee, directs our state to apply for a federal Medicaid waiver to expand family planning services in Nebraska. This bill is a priority of Planned Parenthood and its cohorts who are seeking a new funding stream for contraception.
Currently, Medicaid covers "family planning" services for those whose incomes are at or below 100 percent of the poverty guidelines. The Medicaid waiver would allow Nebraska to expand those services to those whose income is at or below 185 percent of poverty guidelines.
One of the main points in my testimony countered the claims that contraception reduces unintended pregnancies and abortions, and, by averting births that would have to be paid for under Medicaid, saves the state money.
To substantiate this claim, proponents of contraception point primarily to a 2004 study commissioned by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The study examined six Medicaid waiver states and claims that every state experienced a cost savings based on births that were averted by expanding access to contraception. A critical examination of this study reveals that it is based on estimates and assumptions not on empirical data.
What’s particularly questionable and troubling is that the study admits that not every state examined saw a reduction in unintended pregnancies nor did every state experience an increase in family planning use. Yet the study claims that every state saved money by increasing funding for family planning and subsequently averting births. It’s doubtful that those states not seeing a drop in unintended pregnancies saw a decline in births. But if they did, the decrease in births had to come from abortions and miscarriages.
I was the only person to testify against this bill although Nebraska Right to Life communicated its opposition to the bill by e-mail. This bill’s prospects are more difficult to predict at this point. For my complete testimony and for updates on these and other bills my office is following, check out the Nebraska Catholic Conference website at www.nebcathcon.org.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference,
215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
One of my favorite pro-life groups—and one of the most effective in my opinion—is Feminists for Life of America (FFL). According to its website, www.feministsforlife.org, FFL was established in 1972 as a "non-sectarian, non-partisan, grassroots organization that seeks real solutions to the challenges women face."
FFL’s "efforts are shaped by the core feminist values of justice, nondiscrimination and nonviolence…Feminists for Life recognizes that abortion is a reflection that our society has failed to meet the needs of women." FFL is "dedicated to systematically eliminating the root causes that drive women to abortion—primarily lack of practical resources and support—through holistic woman-centered solutions."
If we believed the masterful verbal engineering of abortion advocates we’d think that pro-life feminism is an oxymoron. Feminists for Life, however, just as masterfully points out that early American feminists such as Susan B. Anthony were opposed to abortion.
"Without known exception," FFL President Serrin Foster says in The Feminist Case Against Abortion, "the early feminists condemned abortion in the strongest terms." Early 18th and 19th century suffragist writings regularly referred to abortion as "ante-natal murder," "child murder," "ante-natal infanticide," or "infanticide," reports Cat Clark in "The Truth About Susan B. Anthony: Did One of America’s First Feminists Oppose Abortion?"
"These early feminists regarded abortion as violence against women and their children, and attributed its practice to the denial of their rights and a dearth of nonviolent choices for women," Clark said. "Like Feminists for Life today, the early feminists saw abortion as a symptom of, not a solution to, the struggles women face. And the early feminists, like FFL, sought to eradicate abortion by addressing its root causes."
"The most important evidence regarding Anthony’s own stance on abortion", Clark says, "are those writings which may be attributed to her with certainty. Her comments relating to abortion are few, but considered in the broader context of early feminist writings, it is reasonable to conclude that Anthony was truly both pro-woman and pro-life."
In Anthony’s famous speech "Social Purity," delivered on March 14, 1875, abortion is listed with infanticide and other murders among the negative consequences of the "evils" perpetrated by men: "The prosecutions on our courts for breach of promise, divorce, adultery, bigamy, seduction, rape; the newspaper reports every day of every year of scandals and outrages, of wife murders and paramour shooting, of abortions and infanticides, are perpetual reminders of men’s incapacity to cope successfully with this monster evil of society."
"This speech," Clark says, "clearly presents abortion as a symptom of the problems faced by women, especially when subjected ‘to the tyranny of men’s appetites and passions.’"
Another quote attributed to Anthony was recorded by fellow suffragist Frances Willard. After Anthony was complimented by a man who said: "you, of all women I have met, ought to have been a wife and mother," Anthony replied: "I thank you, sir…but sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so that their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them."
A final quote that has been attributed, arguably, to Anthony appeared in her newspaper The Revolution in an article entitled "Marriage and Maternity". "Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!"
Feminists for Life said in a recent e-mail that "Pro-life feminism is under attack on every website that supports abortion." This testifies to the effectiveness of FLA’s efforts to expose the abortion industry’s shameful and erroneous linkage of abortion advocacy to feminism. To counter these attacks, FLA urges pro-lifers to use the excellent resources found on its website to launch an educational effort beginning on February 15th (Susan B. Anthony’s birthday) and lasting through Women’s History Month in March.
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference,
215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Last Monday I had the great privilege of joining hundreds of thousands of pro-life individuals in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. The annual march has taken place every year on or near Jan. 22, the date that the Supreme Court issued its infamous abortion rulings (Roe v Wade and Doe v. Bolton).
On the evening prior to the march, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat sponsors a vigil Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. For Catholics, this Mass serves as an inspirational kick-off to the march, reminding us that at its core the pro-life battle is a spiritual battle.
Every year the enormous Basilica is overflowing, usually several hours before the Mass begins, with mostly young people. This year an estimated 10,000 attended the Mass which began with a massive procession of hundreds of seminarians, deacons and priests followed by 39 bishops and five cardinals.
I’ve had the privilege of attending this vigil Mass many times and it represents Catholic liturgy and culture in all its glory. The opening procession itself took 45 minutes! The homily is typically given by the chairman of the Bishops’ Pro Life Committee, currently Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston.
On the morning of the march, there are several pro-life Masses and youth rallies prior to the march at noon. Years ago, I recall these Masses/rallies being held in several churches around D.C.
These venues were quickly outgrown and a massive Mass/rally has been held at the Verizon Center for several years. Because the crowds continue to grow, this year a second large venue for a Mass and rally was added to the Verizon Center venue.
In addition to these venues a Mass was celebrated at the Basilica with standing room only. Six busloads of high school students and chaperones from the Archdiocese of Omaha, led by Father Damien Cook, attended that Mass, as did I. Archbishop George Lucas concelebrated the Mass.
After the Mass we were bussed down to the National Gallery of Art on the Mall where we waited for the March to begin. During this time, Father Cook fired up the group of more than 300 students with a variety of pro-life cheers that the students produced during the 20-plus hour bus trip from Nebraska.
As the National Mall filled up with marchers, the Omaha group participated in "interactive chanting" with other groups. The most common chant volleyed back and forth between groups was "we love babies, yes we do, we love babies how ‘bout you!"
Another catchy chant that let other marchers know who we were was this: "Who’s on the March? Nebraska’s on the March. And when Nebraska’s on the March we’re gonna de-fend-life, huh!" Great stuff. And it added to the electric environment of the March which was driven by the enthusiasm of the young people who dominated the crowd.
While waiting for the March to begin we were pleased to have Sen. Mike Johanns address the crowd of Nebraskans. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry hosted the Nebraska group in his office building after the March and invited the Nebraska Congressional delegation to address our group. Sen. Johanns was not able to join us after the March so he waded through the massive crowd on the Mall to address our group.
March organizers estimated the crowd at 400,000. Nellie Gray, long-time leader of the March said it was the largest march in her memory. When we consider that the vast majority of the crowd was young people under the age of 25, the pro-life movement has reason to be encouraged and hopeful that the future of our efforts to build a culture of life and love is bright indeed!
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference,
215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
On Jan. 5, the Nebraska Legislature opened the first session of its one hundred and second Legislature. Each new Legislature begins in the odd-numbered years with a long session (90 legislative days) and is completed in the even-numbered years with a short session (60 legislative days).
This year, along with its hefty budget and redistricting work, the Legislature will consider several pro-life bills. One of these bills is LB 521 introduced by Sen. Tony Fulton.
LB 521would prohibit so-called "web cam" abortions being practiced in Iowa by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which also operates abortion facilities in Omaha and Lincoln. This practice allows Planned Parenthood to do chemical (RU 486) abortions in more remote communities without the physical presence of a physician.
The way this practice works is that the pregnant mother interacts with the physician through an internet video (or "web cam") connection. When the interaction is complete, the physician uses the "mouse" on his/her computer to remotely open a drawer containing a dosage of RU 486. The pregnant mother then ingests the first drug which begins the abortion process and takes home the second drug to be ingested later to complete the abortion.
Another subject being addressed is a ban on abortion coverage in insurance plans included in new "state exchanges" established by the federal health care bill. Sen. Annette Dubas introduced LB 132 to accomplish this purpose. Sen. Beau McCoy also introduced a bill, LB 22, which would ban abortion coverage in these "state exchanges" and in private insurance plans, except when purchased through a separate rider.
Freshman senator Lydia Brasch (from Bancroft) has introduced LB 690 to require parental consent before a minor child can get an abortion. Since 1991, Nebraska has had a parental notification requirement before minors can obtain an abortion. In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a parental consent law in Pennsylvania and since then a couple dozen more states have enacted similar legislation. Taking on a controversial subject like abortion is daunting for even veteran senators. Consequently, Sen. Brasch deserves significant credit for stepping up to the plate right after getting into the "game."
Second-term Senator Pete Pirsch has also stepped up to the plate by introducing LB 461. This bill would protect the right of health care professionals and institutions to refuse to perform or in any way engage in the practice of abortion based on moral or religious grounds.
Thankfully, the number of health care professionals and institutions willing to participate in the evil practice of abortion is dwindling. Ironically, the "pro-choice" crowd doesn’t like the trend and is trying to force individuals and institutions to embrace abortion, thus necessitating bills like LB 461.
I was amazed and thrilled that the pro-life movement was able to get two pro-life bills introduced and enacted last year. Getting to address four different pro-life concerns this year with bills introduced by five senators is incredible and hopeful.
Those wanting to stay informed as these bills wind their way through our legislative process have at least a couple of options. One is to get on my mailing and/or e-mail list by contacting my office at 402-477-7517. I will provide occasional updates and action alerts on this legislation.
The other option is to access the Legislature’s website at www.nebraskalegislature.gov. This website is an excellent tool for staying current and connected to what the Legislature is doing. On this site you can read the text of bills, check on their status, watch committee hearings and floor debate, and access your senator’s contact information.
January 22, 2011 marks the 38th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s tragic rulings (Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton) legalizing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for virtually any reason. In a legal brief filed with the Supreme Court in 1994, Mother Teresa (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta) said this about the Court’s ruling:
"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe vs. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society.
"It has portrayed the greatest of gifts—a child—as a competitor, an intrusion and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the dependent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters. And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners."
Criticism of Roe has even come from legal scholars who support abortion. Edward Lazarus, former clerk to Justice Blackmun (who authored Roe) said "As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible... [It is] one of the most intellectually suspect constitutional decisions of the modern era."
This and other quotes (with citations can be found in a pamphlet entitled "Roe Reality Check" produced by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat. It is available from my office and can also be downloaded for free at www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/roevwade (English and Spanish).
On Jan. 24, (because Jan. 22 falls on a Saturday this year) the annual March for Life will take place in Washington, D.C. This massive and peaceful public demonstration has occurred every year since 1973 to witness against the Supreme Court’s destructive ruling.
I, along with hundreds of other Nebraskans (mostly students), will join hundreds of thousands of other Americans (again mostly students) in Washington, D.C. for this year’s March. I highly recommend this experience as it is impossible not to be inspired by it to become more engaged in the cause to build a culture of life and love.
Nebraskans, however, have a more local opportunity to publicly stand up for the dignity of life with the annual Walk for Life sponsored by Nebraska Right to Life. This year’s Walk will be held Saturday, Jan. 29 at 10 a.m. on the west steps of our State Capitol.
Preceding the Walk a special pro-life Mass will take place at 9 a.m. at St. Mary’s Church across the street from the Capitol. We’re privileged to have two of our three Nebraska bishops (Bishop William Dendinger and Archbishop George Lucas) concelebrating the Mass (Bishop Bruskewitz had a previously scheduled commitment).
We’re also privileged to have Msgr. Philip Reilly as the homilist for this Mass. Msgr. Reilly received a People of Life award last year from the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat for his work as founder and director of Helpers of God’s Precious Infants (http://www.helpersbrooklynny.org/mpr.htm), an organization that focuses on sidewalk ministry outside abortion facilities. Having heard his acceptance speech for this award, I can confidently tell you that you won’t want to miss his inspirational words.
For those able to stay after the Walk for Life events, Msgr. Reilly will conduct a workshop beginning at 1:30 p.m. in which he will talk about the methodology and spirituality of the Helper’s approach to sidewalk ministry. There is no need to pre-register and no registration fee for this workshop which will be held at St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center (16th and Q) just a couple blocks from the UNL Student Union where the Walk for Life talk will be held.
A promotional poster for these Walk events is posted on my website (www.nebcathcon.org) and is available in Spanish. Please do what you can to attend and promote this wonderful opportunity to be counted among those standing up, publicly, for life.
The Knights of Columbus, an organization I’m proud to be a member of, is a staunch defender of the right to life of unborn children. Nationally and locally, the Knights have sponsored many powerful pro-life activities and projects.
One of the Knight’s national pro-life initiatives is their "Memorials to Unborn Children." According to the Knights’ website, "the idea for these memorials grew from a challenge made by the late Cardinal John O’Connor in his homily at the opening Mass of the 110th annual Supreme Council Meeting held in New York in 1992."
Since the program’s inception more than 2,000 monuments have been built around the country (dozens in Nebraska). "These monuments, ranging from simple headstones to elaborate memorials, stand as testimony to one simple fact: Human life is a sacred gift from God to be protected and cherished at all stages from conception to natural death," the website states.
In Nebraska, the Knights’ commitment to the pro-life cause is equally evident. In addition to pro-life activities sponsored by local councils, the state council sponsors an annual pro-life art contest, and co-sponsors (with my office) a state-level pro-life essay contest.
Another significant pro-life contribution the Knights make in Nebraska is the funding they provide to numerous pro-life groups, activities and programs. My office is one of the Knight’s major beneficiaries. Another beneficiary in 2009 was the Collage Center, a pregnancy-help center in Kearney, which got a new 4D ultrasound machine from the Knights.
According to the Collage Center, since getting the ultrasound machine on September 10th of 2009, 83 women took advantage of the free ultrasound service. Out of the 83 women who were able to see their child in their womb, 77 chose to continue their pregnancy to full term. Clearly, this ultrasound machine was a life-saving gift.
Furthermore, several other pregnancy-help centers around Nebraska receive financial assistance from the Knights as does the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha. Equally important is the funding the Knights provide to students wanting to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C. For many students, attending the March for Life is the catalyst for a lifetime of pro-life activism.
The Knights primarily raise funds for pro-life activities through a "Buck a Month" collection among its members and through its annual One Rose One Life collection carried out in parishes.
One Rose One Life (OROL) is implemented at weekend Masses on or around Jan. 22, the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s abortion rulings. The OROL name comes from its original activity of distributing paper roses that included a pro-life message to be sent to our Congressmen.
Many years ago, the paper roses were replaced with a prayer card. The artwork for each year’s prayer card comes from the winning entry of the Knights’ pro-life art contest. So in addition to collecting donations for pro-life activities, OROL facilitates the critically important act of prayer for the pro-life cause.
I cannot thank or commend the Knights enough for their extraordinary support of pro-life activities nationally and in Nebraska. Each of us can collaborate with the Knights in supporting pro-life efforts through our generous donations to One Rose One Life. Know that our donations to OROL will benefit many worthy and effective pro-life offices and activities.
I love music. I grew up in a family that was taught an appreciation for music—both vocal and instrumental. As a member of a schola (Canticum Caelorum) I have been exposed to a treasure of indescribably beautiful sacred music from composers like Mozart, Palestrina, Byrd, Victoria, and Morales.
One need not have any particular training in music to recognize and appreciate the objective beauty of this sacred music. What’s more, sacred music can help us to experience and appreciate the supernatural.
One of Mozart’s concertos (Violin Concerto #3 in G major) has particularly captured my attention of late. As I listen to the exquisite beauty of the violin in this piece, it inevitably prompts me to think of (and thank) God. And I find myself trying to imagine that it is me playing that violin.
As I snap back to reality I lament that producing music with such mastery is not likely among my gifts. Nonetheless, it occurred to me that while most of us may not be able to produce music like Mozart, every person (regardless of his/her gifts or limitations) is capable of doing something beautiful in the eyes of our Creator.
For example, every time we demonstrate the simplest act of love or forgiveness to another person I believe that in God’s eyes the beauty of our action far surpasses the beauty of Mozart’s most sublime concerto. Likewise, as our Lord explains in the parable of the Prodigal Son, there is nothing more beautiful to God than a repentant sinner.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta also demonstrated so beautifully in her loving care of the poorest of the poor that every one of us can "do something beautiful for God."
"The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved - they are Jesus in disguise..." she said. "Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don’t only give your care, but give your heart as well...
"The poor give us much more than we give them. They’re such strong people, living day to day with no food, and they never curse, never complain. Really we don’t have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them... Only in heaven will we see how much we owe the poor for helping us to love God better because of them."
"Love does not measure;" Blessed Teresa said, "it just gives. In the world, love cannot remain by itself but must be put into action through service. Whatever we are like, able or disabled, rich or poor, it is not how much we do but how much love we put into the doing... (so)… Put your love in living action.
"The hunger for love is much more difficult than the hunger for bread. In loving others you are loving God Himself... We cannot do great things. We can only do little things with great love... Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet, especially your family."
Blessed Teresa said that "[e]very person is Christ for me, and since there is only One, that person is the one person in the world at that time... I see God in every human being. When I wash lepers’ wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?"
Even something as simple as a kind word can be most beautiful in God’s eyes. "Kind words can be short and easy to speak," Blessed Teresa said, "but their echoes are truly endless. Let no one ever come away without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, and kindness in your smile."
There it is. Blessed Teresa is telling us that every person can be "Mozart" in the eyes of God with the simplest acts of kindness and love. So let’s get to it and do something beautiful for God.
The holy season of Christmas is nearly upon us. One of the ways that we can truly celebrate this amazing act of our loving God to take on human form is to reflect on the value, dignity and meaning of human life.
In the introduction of his encyclical Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life"), Pope John Paul II refers to the Incarnation to remind us about the "incomparable value of every human person":
"‘By his incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every human being.’ … This saving event reveals to humanity not only the boundless love of God who ‘so loved the world that he gave his only Son’ (Jn 3:16), but also the incomparable value of every human person" (no. 2).
In her Life Issues Forum column, Susan Wills from the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat provides another extraordinary source of reflection from C.S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory:
"The dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. … There are no ordinary people. ... Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ … is truly hidden."
Mrs. Wills then provides this encouragement: "At Christmas gatherings, in long checkout lines, and in overcrowded parking lots, let’s remember that Christ lives in the people around us. Let’s celebrate Christmas with profound gratitude that through his Incarnation and birth, Jesus showed us the meaning of love and the priceless value of every human life."
Another way to celebrate Christmas is to focus on the great work being accomplished by the pregnancy assistance centers throughout Nebraska. What could be more appropriate as we contemplate the gestation and birth of our Lord and the many challenges encountered by Mary and Joseph?
There are 31 pregnancy centers that serve the people of Nebraska. A complete list of these centers with contact information is available from my office or online at www.nebcathcon.org (under "pro-life").
These centers provide or facilitate housing, instructional programs, provision of maternity and baby clothes, furniture and other necessities, adoption through licensed agencies, parenting classes, job training, medical care including pregnancy testing, prenatal and obstetrical care, social services, including counseling, arrangement for transportation, child health care, assistance in applying for financial help before and after the birth, including the WIC (Women, Infants, Children) program, Medicaid, and child support.
Over the last few weeks during my weekly Friday morning segment on Spirit Catholic Radio (KVSS) I have interviewed directors from pregnancy assistance centers in Nebraska. These centers truly represent the heart of the pro-life movement and our effort to make abortion unthinkable.
What makes the extraordinary work of these centers even more edifying is that most of them operate with volunteers only. And all of them operate solely, or primarily, with funds from caring, pro-life individuals. By supporting these centers with our time and treasure, we truly celebrate and honor God’s sublime gift of the Incarnation, and we make a concrete contribution to building a culture of life and love.
In last week’s column I provided an introduction to Fr. Robert Spitzer’s Life Principles, which are based upon Aristotle’s four levels of happiness. Fr. Spitzer explains the Life Principles in his book Healing the Culture: A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and the Life Issues.
Happiness level one is focused on "physical pleasure and possession". Happiness level two is based upon "ego-gratification" and personal success. Happiness level three focuses on "commitment and contribution to others" as well as giving and receiving love. Happiness level four comes from "letting God direct our desires toward eternal happiness."
These levels are hierarchical in the sense that a person may be willing to sacrifice a lower level of happiness for a higher one. For example, sacrificing food (level one) and enduring some displeasure from exercising in order to lose weight or improve one’s physical health (level two).
After establishing this foundation for the Life Principles, Fr. Spitzer applies the four levels of happiness to several key cultural concepts such as defining personhood, inalienable rights, freedom, ethics, quality of life, success and suffering. I’ll focus here on personhood and suffering.
The following quotes are taken from a series of articles by Camille Pauley and Marie Harkins found on the Healing the Culture website: www.healingtheculture.com.
If level one happiness is our focus in life, we will tend to define the human person as a "physical, material being who is meant to enjoy pleasure and avoid pain." Therefore, "if someone does not look a certain way, or lacks certain physical function, or cannot experience certain pleasures, I may become convinced that he or she is not a person."
Likewise, a level one view of suffering would conclude that suffering is meaningless and to be avoided at all costs, including recourse to euthanasia and assisted suicide to end suffering.
If level two happiness is our focus in life, we may conclude that to be a person, one must be "independent, accomplished, successful, powerful, in control, admired, and popular." Level two also "leads us to view suffering as a setback. After all, if I can no longer run the fastest mile on the track team, get the highest grades, or outpace my colleagues…I will begin to believe that my life (and my suffering) is meaningless."
If level three happiness is what drives us, we "would probably not exclude any human being from personhood" but would not have "the most complete definition of what it means to be a human person." At this level "we risk convincing ourselves that compassion toward someone who is suffering means to take that person’s life into our own hands and to end the suffering by doing away with the person."
A level three view of suffering is "able to recognize that even in the midst of terrible pain, great good can emerge." Suffering can provide an "opportunity for great growth—growth in wisdom, love, forgiveness, concern for others, compassion, leadership, and humility."
A level four view of personhood would conclude that since "all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore created for His unconditional love, all human beings are human persons. A Level 4 definition of personhood, then, defines one’s end by the eternal destiny for which each of us was created."
Likewise, from "a Level 4 view of life, suffering obtains even greater meaning. "When offered to God in humble trust, our human suffering can be an incredible agent of grace and holiness for ourselves and for the world.
"Level 4 allows us to trust that even in our deepest pain, even when we cannot see it, God can bring about a good that we never thought possible. Such a perception allows us to look to Him with confidence, to surrender ourselves to His perfect wisdom, and to declare with true courage: ‘Thy will be done.’"
A key component to transforming a culture of death into a culture of life and love is having an accurate understanding of the values and beliefs that drive our culture. An invaluable resource for understanding what drives our culture is Fr. Robert J. Spitzer’s book, Healing the Culture: A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and the Life Issues. I read and wrote about this book some time ago but revisited it recently and was amazed and inspired again by its insights.
The core of what Fr. Spitzer calls "The Life Principles" is Aristotle’s four levels of happiness. Fr. Spitzer points out that "Aristotle taught that happiness is the one thing we seek for its own sake. Everything else we want for the sake of happiness. In other words, happiness is the ultimate end of the human person (our ultimate goal), and all our desires are shaped by what we think happiness is.
"Unfortunately," Father continues, "our culture defines happiness in very narrow and tangible ways, causing young people especially to seek fulfillment in material/ego gratification, autonomy, and control. These substitutes for true happiness ultimately lead to emptiness, frustration, and despair."
Aristotle’s four levels of happiness are 1. physical pleasure and possession; 2. ego-gratification; 3. commitment and contribution; and 4. giving our lives over to unconditional, infinite, perfect, and unrestricted Love, Truth, Justice, Peace, and Unity. These levels are hierarchical in the sense that a person can be willing to sacrifice a lower level of happiness for a higher one.
In their article summarizing Fr. Spitzer’s book, Marie Harkins and Camille Pauley explain that level one happiness "is the most basic level of happiness, and comes from physically stimulating the five senses in a positive way. It is experienced as ‘feeling good’ or ‘having things.’"
Although level one happiness is good and necessary, "there is a serious problem if human beings begin to seek physical pleasure and possessions as if they were the only, or the most important good." "If we live only for this type of happiness", the writers point out, "we will find ourselves constantly driven to hoard material goods and to indulge in physical pleasures, and we will be exceedingly unhappy in the long run."
If we are driven by materialism it can lead us to view the needs of others as a burden or obstacle to our pursuit of "things" instead of as an opportunity to demonstrate love.
Level two happiness is characterized by "the desire for being better than others, being successful, or being admired, popular, powerful, or in control." Harkins and Pauley point out that, as with level one, these desires are not bad, per se. "But problems arise again when we seek Level 2 as our ‘end’ [or] most important thing in life."
"If a person’s whole view of happiness comes from gaining a comparative advantage, the result is not happiness, but suspicion of others, fear of losing, resentment toward those who are better, contempt for those who do not achieve as much…[and] an exhausting drive to achieve more and to look better at the expense of personal relationships and growth…"
Level three happiness "is the kind of happiness that comes from trying to make the world a better place, or to make a positive difference in the world through self-sacrifice…But, as good as level three is" if we expect "that our final happiness will come from our own contributions in the world…this will inevitably lead to disappointment, crushed ideals, dashed expectations, and maybe even despair."
This is because "we simply can’t find ultimate fulfillment in other human beings… Nor can we give ultimate fulfillment to others." "We can prevent our Level 3 desires from descending into an ‘I have to save the world all by myself’ mentality," Harkins and Pauley write, "by allowing our Level 4 desire to direct Level 3."
For people of faith, the writers continue, level four happiness is "the happiness that comes from letting go and letting God direct our desires toward eternal happiness." It is "surrender to the unconditional love of God" and the belief that "God always wants what is best for us…"
The point here is not to abandon the lower levels of happiness in favor of the higher ones, the writers stress. "Instead, the point is to identify how we can frequently frustrate our own pursuit of happiness by…pursuing the lower levels without allowing them to be guided by the higher ones."
The University of Nebraska Medical Center continues to offend the moral sensibilities of many Nebraskans with its insistence on conducting, and now expanding, immoral and divisive research involving human embryonic stem cells (ESCR).
The Med Center has been conducting ESCR for several years, but after President Obama expanded federal funding for the research, Med Center officials quickly pounced on the opportunity to expand ESCR at UNMC.
A few weeks ago, UNMC officials announced the creation of a new program called the Nebraska Regenerative Medicine Project dedicated to research using human embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells and other forms of regenerative medicine. Dr. Harold Maurer, UNMC’s Chancellor, defended the move by saying "This is the cutting edge, and UNMC wants to be part of that."
It may be true that "stem cell" research is on the cutting edge of medical research, but even leading ESCR researchers are indicating that the cutting edge of stem cell research is happening with non-embryonic stem cells.
For example, although they publicly defend the merits of ESCR, leading embryonic stem cell scientists like James Thompson and Ian Wilmut (who cloned Dolly the sheep) have shifted their own research enterprises to focus on non-embryonic stem cell research.
Equally compelling evidence can be found with recent funding decisions by California’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The CIRM was established in 2004 when California voters decided to appropriate $3 billion specifically to fund embryonic stem cell and cloning research.
Last year, the CIRM funded 14 "Disease Research Team" grants with only 4 of the 14 grants using embryonic stem cells, and zero grants involving cloned embryos. This year, CIRM approved funding for 19 grants worth $67 million. According to CIRM, this year’s funding is "its second round of awards designed to move good ideas out of the lab and into the clinic." Only five of the 19 funded grants involve embryonic stem cells. Again, zero grants involving cloned embryos.
These funding decisions by CIRM are an acknowledgment that non-embryonic stem cells are likely to provide the best opportunity for helping patients. In fact, the Do No Harm Coalition for Research Ethics has provided evidence from peer-reviewed journals of adult stem cells that have provided some level of success in treating more than 70 diseases in human patients.
And the success of adult stem cells in treating human patients grows almost daily. To see a list of diseases that have benefited from adult stem cell treatments, go online to www.stemcellresearch.org or www.stemcellresearchfacts.org.
Conversely, not a single human patient has benefited from treatments using embryonic stem cells. In fact, until this year, there has never been a human trial involving embryonic stem cells. And even some ESCR advocates are concerned that it is way too soon to safely introduce embryonic stem cells (which have caused tumors in animals) into human patients.
The bottom line is that there is ample and compelling evidence that research enterprises, like UNMC’s, can be "on the cutting edge" of stem cell research without embracing human embryonic stem cell research. This evidence makes UNMC’s expansion of ESCR all the more offensive and inexcusable.
Pope John Paul II referred to the various attacks against human life and the impoverished attitudes, philosophies, world views that undergird theses attacks as a "culture of death." This "culture of death" has significantly undermined society’s regard for the dignity of human life.
Many in our society do not view human life as a sacred gift, nor do they see other people and their needs as opportunities for us to demonstrate true love. Instead, they view human life as a burden, an obstacle to freedom or problem to be eliminated.
This impoverished view of human life has metastasized to an even more troubling violation of human rights and dignity: man’s transgression into God’s domain as the Author of Life. Artificial reproductive technologies that have given man the ability to "produce" human life in a petri dish has exposed nascent human life to a whole new level of abuse (e.g. being frozen, eugenically screened, objectified as biological material to be destroyed and exploited for the benefit of others).
Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat, explained this new challenge as follows: "Today we face a challenge that is more subtle, but even more overpowering, as human beings are tempted to exert ultimate control over the origins and traits of fellow humans. As ethicist Nigel Cameron has said, we are moving from the "Cain and Abel issues" to the "Tower of Babel issues," from denying human lives to denying our human limitations."
The varied and growing attacks against the rights and dignity of our most defenseless brothers and sisters has prompted our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, to open the new liturgical year by celebrating a "Vigil for All Nascent Human Life" at St. Peter’s Basilica Nov. 27. The pope has requested that "all diocesan bishops (and their equivalent) of every particular church preside in analogous celebrations involving the faithful in their respective parishes, religious communities, associations and movements." In the Diocese of Lincoln, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz will lead a prayer vigil Nov. 27 from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariats of Divine Worship and of Pro-Life Activities have developed resources to help parishes, religious communities and organizations participate.
One of those aids is the following prayer of supplication for all nascent human life. This Thanksgiving, let us give thanks for God’s sacred gift of human life, for our own life, and for the lives of our family, friends and parishioners. And let us pray that our society will rediscover a proper sense of awe for the miracle that is human life.
Supplications for Vigil for All Nascent Human Life
Let us pray to God, the Father of Life and Font of all Mercy:
Lord, have mercy on all who have sinned against life.
You knit us in our mother’s womb,
— Preserve all children from bodily harm
From the moment of conception.
Your Son ennobled all human life when he became flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary,
— Enlighten our minds to see the dignity of every human life
From its earliest embryonic beginnings.
You are author of science and knowledge,
— Bring an end to the destruction of human embryos
In research facilities and IVF clinics.
You are the law-giver and ruler of the world,
Help us to overturn unjust laws that permit the destruction of innocent lives,
And guide our public officials to defend the littlest among us.
You love those who are afflicted,
Help parents of unborn children with disabilities
To cherish the baby you have entrusted to their care.
Your Son, Jesus, healed the sick,
— Guide all doctors to be guardians of life,
Especially the lives of unborn children with serious health conditions.
Lord, you are love and mercy itself,
Draw all who have acted against innocent human life
To repentance and forgiveness,
And heal them through an outpouring of grace.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is deliberating on what preventative services will be required under our nation’s new healthcare law (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or PPACA).
There are powerful forces in and out of Congress that are pushing hard for contraceptive drugs and devices to be included among the required taxpayer funded services.
On a recent radio show, Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, argued that not only is contraception good for women’s health but is an "investment" that will save our government money in the long run by reducing unintended pregnancies.
"I think it’s important," Richards said, "to understand that unlike some other issues of cost, birth control is one of those issues that actually saves the government money.
"So an investment in covering birth control actually in the long run is a huge cost savings because women don’t have children that they weren’t planning on having and all the sort of attendant cost for unplanned pregnancy."
Planned Parenthood and its allies have been making this assertion for decades: more contraception means fewer unintended pregnancies, which results in cost savings to states from not having to pay for the expenses related to unintended pregnancies. While this argument may have some intuitive appeal, there is little evidence to back it up.
I know this firsthand because I have done my own search (which is ongoing) of publications by Planned Parenthood and its research affiliate, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, as well as the documentation provided by local groups urging our Legislature to expand funding for "family planning." What I’ve noticed with all the studies I’ve seen is that they draw conclusions based on estimates and assumptions not on hard, empirical data.
The study most often cited by these groups to substantiate their claims is a study commissioned by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This study examined a handful of states that had expanded Medicaid contraceptive services to see if it increased use of such services and reduced unintended pregnancies.
The study claims that every state saved money by averting births, but provides no empirical data linking the expansion of contraceptive services to a decrease in unintended pregnancies. In fact, the study admits that unintended pregnancies actually increased in at least one state and some states didn’t even see an increase in use of contraception.
In contrast, there are dozens of studies (conducted by advocates of contraception) which show that greater access to contraception does not reduce unintended pregnancies and abortion. Abstracts and citations of these studies can be seen on the U.S. Bishops’ website at www.usccb.org/prolife (click on issues, contraception, fact sheets).
One of the studies you’ll find there is by James Trussell, who originated the claim that easier access to emergency contraception could "result in a greater than 50% reduction in abortion rates." According to every one of the 23 studies, published between 1998 and 2006, that Trussell reviewed, easier access to emergency contraception failed to achieve any statistically significant reduction in rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion (see Raymond, Trussell and Polis, "Population Effect of Increased Access to Emergency Contraceptive Pills," Obstetrics & Gynecology 109 (2007): 181-8).
Planned Parenthood has indicated that at both the federal and state level it will make expansion of taxpayer-funded contraception one of its top priorities. To defeat this effort, it will be critical that Planned Parenthood’s flimsy argument for increased government spending on contraception is exposed and challenged with the facts.
The recent solemnity of All Souls Day is an appropriate time
to consider the Church’s teaching on end-of-life care and medical treatment decisionmaking.. Making medical decisions about our care or the care of a loved one, with fidelity to our Catholic faith, can be among the toughest decisions we’ll make in our lives.
Fortunately, the Catholic Church provides the moral guidance we need to make medical treatment decisions in accord with our responsibility as Christians. For example, the Nebraska Catholic Conference (NCC), which represents the Bishops of Nebraska, issued a document many years ago entitled "Medical-Treatment Decisionmaking: Moral Guidance and Considerations from Catholic Teaching."
The document’s introduction presents the basic foundation for our moral obligation to be responsible stewards of our lives: "The Catholic Church affirms the sanctity and dignity of every human life as a precious gift of a loving God. All men and women must respect the lives of others while accepting the duties of responsible stewardship for their own lives and for the lives in their care.
"At the same time, however, faith in the resurrection and hope for eternal life have enabled the Catholic tradition to accept death as the inevitable end to temporal life and to believe that death is the gateway to eternal life. It is for this reason that there is no obligation to utilize all possible medical interventions, all possible means of prolonging life. Death need not be avoided at all costs.
"Although Catholic teaching does not look upon biological life as an absolute value, nevertheless it rejects suicide, assisted suicide and mercy killing because they are intrinsically opposed to the reverence for life that Christians are called upon to manifest and express. Compassion and care for dying and seriously ill or disabled persons must never include the willingness to assist in the direct ending of their lives."
In other words, by applying Catholic teaching on the meaning of life, suffering and death to the use of life-sustaining technology we can avoid two extremes: withholding or withdrawing technology with the intention of causing death on the one hand, and insisting on useless or disproportionately burdensome treatment to avoid death at all costs on the other hand.
Most decisions that individuals or families must make about whether to utilize or forego medical treatment fall somewhere between these extremes. Therefore, the NCC document provides this basic moral principle to assist us in determining whether a medical intervention is morally required or morally optional:
"If a particular medical intervention is necessary or useful for the preservation of life or restoration of health, it is ethically ordinary and there is a moral obligation to use it. If, however, a particular medical intervention is analyzed and judged by the patient to be useless (offering no reasonable hope of benefit) or excessively burdensome, it is ethically extraordinary and therefore morally optional."
With regard to artificially-administered nutrition and hydration (ANH), the Church has a longstanding teaching, reflected in several documents, that ANH should be provided as part of any patient’s normal care, even when the assistance of medical intervention is necessary. This obligation, however, does not apply if the provision of ANH is clinically useless or causes excessive burdens to the patient.
This teaching, specifically applied to persons in a so-called persistent vegetative state, was confirmed by Pope John Paul II in a 2004 address to participants at the International Congress on "Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State". The Pope’s statement prompted the U.S. Bishops to revise their document "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services" in November 2009 to say the following:
"In principle, there is an obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally. This obligation extends to patients in…the ‘persistent vegetative state’" unless such provision becomes useless or "excessively burdensome for the patient."
I strongly urge Catholics to obtain the Nebraska Catholic Conference’s Medical Treatment Decisionmaking document and become familiar with the principles it presents. It can be obtained online at www.nebcathcon.org or by calling my office. My office also can provide a sample healthcare power of attorney document that reflects the Church’s moral teaching.
Four years ago, my office established the Gospel of Life Award to recognize and thank Catholic individuals who have demonstrated exemplary efforts to promote the Gospel of Life in their parish and community. One individual is chosen from each of the three dioceses of Nebraska.
On Oct. 22, at the annual Bishops’ Pro Life Conference banquet, three women were recognized for their decades of extraordinary commitment and leadership to building a civilization of love and life.
Mrs. Bernadine Overman of the Diocese of Grand Island
This year’s recipient from the Grand Island Diocese is Mrs. Bernadine Overman from Scottsbluff. Thirty years ago, Mrs. Overman saw a need for helping pregnant women who saw abortion as their only option out of a difficult situation. After months of prayer and discussion with others, she founded Birthright in Scottsbluff and served as its director for 30 years until her retirement this October.
Over those 30 years Bernadine recruited and trained volunteers, rented space for an office, maintained the accounting and correspondence and gave talks about Birthright throughout the community and region. In addition, she made sure there were at least two scholarships available each year to the local community college for those who gave birth to their babies and needed an education. According to Bernadine, it was a "labor of love."
Mrs. Shirley Lang of the Diocese of Lincoln
The recipient from the Lincoln Diocese is Mrs. Shirley Lang. Mrs. Lang has an extensive background of pro-life leadership with state and local pro-life groups. She was a founding member of Lincoln Right to Life, serving as its president, secretary, treasurer and speakers bureau chairman. She also served as president, national director and lobbyist for Nebraska Right to Life and was the master of ceremonies for the annual Walk for Life in Lincoln for many years.
As impressive as this list of accomplishments is, Shirley’s commitment to the pro-life cause is best exemplified by her willingness to open her home to a pregnant teen in need of help. Shirley’s positive influence on this young mother was evident in a number of ways. The mother eventually married the father of her child, went back to school and became a nurse and, with Shirley as her sponsor, was welcomed into the Catholic Church.
Mrs. Agnes Schleppenbach of the Archdiocese of Omaha
The recipient from the Archdiocese of Omaha is Mrs. Agnes Schleppenbach. If her last name looks a little familiar it’s because she is my mother! Mrs. Schleppenbach built the foundation of Pierce County Right to Life shortly after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973. It was one of the first county pro-life groups in the state.
Despite raising 11 children, she found time to lead the group, recruit members, conduct meetings, develop educational materials, fundraise and serve as a regional director and board member of Nebraska Right to Life. In addition to her community and regional leadership she was a pro-life coordinator at St. Joseph’s parish in Pierce for 25 years and served as a board member of Birthright in Norfolk for 10 years.
In their document "Living the Gospel of Life", the U.S. Bishops said that "Scripture calls us to ‘be doers of the word and not hearers only… [for] faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead’…Life in Christ is a life of active witness. It demands moral leadership. Each and every person baptized in the truth of the Catholic faith is a member of the ‘people of life’ sent by God to evangelize the world."
These three extraordinary women are inspiring examples of this "active witness" and "moral leadership" through their faithful and generous service to our least brothers and sisters. God bless them for their service.
This coming Tuesday, Nov. 2, is General Election day in our nation. Citizens of our nation will choose who will represent us in federal, state and local offices. The privilege we have of choosing our leaders is a right for which millions of our fellow citizens have fought and died.
Our Catholic faith teaches us that we have a serious moral obligation to use our vote to advance the common good. "The Gospel of Life must be proclaimed, and human life defended, in all places and all times. The arena for moral responsibility includes not only the halls of government but the voting booth as well. Every voice matters in the public forum. Every vote counts..." (USCCB, Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, nos. 33-34).
Past elections have demonstrated that a shameful percentage of citizens do not exercise this right and moral responsibility. Perhaps many fail in this responsibility because of carelessness or because of cynicism. Neither of these excuses will hold up when we account before God how we used the gifts He gave us to safeguard His sacred gift of human life.
Our faith not only teaches the importance of voting, but voting with a properly formed conscience. "Conscience," our bishops point out, "is not something that allows us to justify doing whatever we want, nor is it a mere ‘feeling’ about what we should or should not do.
"Rather, conscience is the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us and calling us to do what is good while shunning what is evil. Conscience always requires serious attempts to make sound moral judgments based on the truths of our faith." "At the center of these truths," the Bishops continue, "is respect for the dignity of every person. This is the core of Catholic moral and social teaching" (Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, November 2007, #10, #17).
In the few days remaining before Election Day, I urge everyone (assuming you didn’t vote early) to study the positions of the candidates, giving appropriate weight to their views on such intrinsic evils as abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. For most candidates, these and other positions can be found in the Nebraska Catholic Conferences candidate survey which appeared in the last issue of this newspaper and can be seen online at www.nebcathcon.org.
Equally important in the remaining days is our prayer and fasting for God’s mercy on our nation and that He will give us virtuous leaders who will safeguard the rights and dignity of every human person, from conception to natural death. I certainly urge asking our Blessed Mother’s intercession for this intention through praying the Rosary, especially as we conclude this month of the Rosary.
I also urge praying of this wonderful election prayer from Fr. Frank Pavone at Priests for Life: "O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord, not only of individuals, but of nations and governments. We thank you for the privilege of being able to organize ourselves politically and of knowing that political loyalty does not have to mean disloyalty to you.
We thank you for your law, which our Founding Fathers acknowledged and recognized as higher than any human law. We thank you for the opportunity that this election year puts before us, to exercise our solemn duty not only to vote, but to influence countless others to vote, and to vote correctly.
Lord, we pray that your people may be awakened. Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation, their response to you requires that they be politically active. Awaken your people to know that they are not called to be a sect fleeing the world but rather a community of faith renewing the world.
Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to you in prayer are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth; that the same eyes that read your Word are the eyes that read the names on the ballot, and that they do not cease to be Christians when they enter the voting booth.
Awaken your people to a commitment to justice to the sanctity of marriage and the family, to the dignity of each individual human life, and to the truth that human rights begin when human lives begin, and not one moment later. Lord, we rejoice today that we are citizens of your kingdom. May that make us all the more committed to being faithful citizens on earth. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
On Oct. 3, Respect Life Sunday of all Sundays, the Lincoln Journal Star featured a prominent front page story about Dr. Jill Meadows, the medical director of Planned Parenthood of the Midlands, which operates in Nebraska and Iowa.
Planned Parenthood is the largest advocate and perpetrator of abortions in the nation. Planned Parenthood has operated an abortion facility in Lincoln for about 15 years, during which time it has killed roughly 10,000 unborn babies. And now it is in the process of opening another abortion facility in Omaha.
In the aforementioned story, the Journal Star reporter provides a glimpse inside the mind of Dr. Meadows as an abortion advocate. As I read Dr. Meadows’ rationale in defense of abortion, I was stunned by her incoherent and impoverished arguments.
For example, Dr. Meadows said that "she has come to believe that life begins, not at conception, but when it becomes meaningful, when ensoulment is possible, when viability and taking breath is possible. The miracle of life occurs at birth, she says."
The incoherence and irresponsibility of this statement is breathtaking. First, how can any thoughtful or rational person argue that human life (and its concomitant rights) begins when that life "becomes meaningful"? The danger of this arbitrary and judgmental criteria for recognizing human rights should be obvious.
Second, Dr. Meadows lists a few other criteria for her definition of when life begins (i.e. ensoulment, viability, taking breath, birth). Given that each of these criteria occurs at different points in a human being’s development, her view that these criteria define the beginning of life is painfully incoherent.
Another example is Dr. Meadows saying that women have abortions for "very good and moral reasons." She said that studies show "the No. 1 reason women give for terminating a pregnancy is their sense of responsibility toward others. That includes lack of adequate financial support, existing responsibilities, lack of a supporting partner or estrangement from family."
Elsewhere in the article, a sociology professor from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says that "doctors like Jill Meadows know how important it is to take a stand for people who are vulnerable, who are facing horrible choices in a culture that frequently does not offer a living wage, that does not rise to the obligation to care for children no matter how they come into this world."
Let’s unpack these statements. They are correct about these injustices and that they often play a major role in a woman’s decision to have an abortion. However, their view is impoverished in that they believe it is "good and moral" to respond to these injustices with another injustice—killing the mother’s innocent and helpless unborn child.
Dr. Meadows says that she views the world as a "Christian feminist," but the pioneers of the feminist movement recognized that far from overcoming the injustices that women face, abortion perpetuates and exacerbates the injustices.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton said in 1873 that "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." (Letter to Julia Ward Howe)
Mattie Brinkerhoff said in 1869 that "When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society—so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged." (The Revolution, 4(9): 138-9, Sept. 2, 1869)
Feminists for Life, a modern group that embodies the pro-life ethic expressed by these feminist pioneers, says that "pro-life feminists recognize abortion as a symptom of, not a solution to, the continuing struggles we face in the workplace, educational institutions, at home and in society. Like Susan B. Anthony and other early American suffragists, today’s pro-life feminists envision a better world, where no woman would be driven by desperation into the personal tragedy of abortion."
The late theologian, Msgr. William Smith, once quipped (I’m paraphrasing), that man first did everything possible to have sex without babies and now man is doing everything possible to have babies without sex. That latter pursuit was dramatically advanced in the late 1970s with the advent of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
The IVF technique involves surgically removing eggs from a woman and fertilizing them in a petri dish with sperm from a man. The resulting human embryo is then nourished and grown in the dish for four or five days at which time he/she is implanted in a mother’s womb or frozen for future “use”.
The first human being produced and born using IVF was Louise Brown, in 1978. Since then, about four million babies have been born using IVF.
Robert Edwards, who developed the IVF technique was recently awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine drawing strong criticism from Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, president of the pontifical Academy for Life.
“Without Edwards,” the bishop said, “there would be no market for human eggs; without Edwards there would not be freezers full of embryos waiting to be transferred to a uterus, or, more likely, used for research or left to die, abandoned and forgotten about by all.”
“This scientist is regarded as a hero,” Bishop de Paula continued, “but what he has really done is to create a market for manufactured humanity.” “This is not a gift to humanity, it is a death sentence to millions of tiny human beings who are created only to be destroyed.”
“Edwards supposedly great accomplishment has also created a means for the ultra-rich to tamper with every genetic aspect of the person, creating designer human beings,” the bishop lamented. “Sadly, we are reminded that the very real good of science can be destroyed when fundamental and universal ethical principles are kept out of the scientific process—in this case, the great value and dignity of the human person.”
The Church’s teaching on artificial reproductive technologies like IVF is explained in the Vatican’s 1987 document Donum Vitae and in its 2008 document Dignitas Personae. In an article for the U.S. Bishops Respect Life Program entitled “Begotten Not Made”, Dr. John Haas summarized the Church’s teaching thus:
“In 1987 the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document known as Donum Vitae (“The Gift of Life”), which addressed the morality of many modern fertility procedures. The document did not judge the use of technology to overcome infertility as wrong in itself. It concluded that some methods are moral, while others—because they do violence to the dignity of the human person and the institution of marriage—are immoral.
“Donum Vitae reaffirmed an obligation to protect all human life when married couples use various technologies to try to have children. Without questioning the motives of those using these techniques, Donum Vitae pointed out that people can do harm to themselves and others even as they try to do what is good, that is, overcome infertility. The fundamental principle which the Church used to assess the morality of various means of overcoming infertility was a rather simple one, even if its application is sometimes difficult.
“Donum Vitae teaches that if a given medical intervention helps or assists the marriage act to achieve pregnancy, it may be considered moral; if the intervention replaces the marriage act in order to engender life, it is not moral.”
Donum Vitae, Dignitas Personae and other documents like the U.S. Bishops’ “Married Love and the Gift of Life” that explain this vital teaching on human love and life are available online at www.usccb.org/prolife. Another great resource available to assist those experiencing infertility is the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha (www.popepaulvi.com; 402-390-6600).
The month of October is designated by the U.S. Bishops as Respect Life Month. The objective of designating this month as such is to draw society’s attention to the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition.
It is a sad indictment on our culture that we need a special event to help us rediscover a sense of awe for human life. But there is no question that a variety of factors have contributed to a pervasive view of human life as a burden or problem, rather than as a sacred, precious gift from God and an opportunity for love.
The advent of contraception, the legalization of abortion and embryo-destructive research are three such factors that have violated and degraded the dignity of nascent human life. Probing even deeper, in his encyclical “The Gospel of Life”, Pope John Paul II exposed various roots of what he called “the culture of death.”
These roots include a distorted notion of freedom characterized by radical individualism (self-centeredness, viewing others as obstacles/burdens not opportunities to give/receive love); relativism (no recognition of moral absolutes or objective truth) and materialism (valuing possessions above people).
But the deepest root, John Paul says, is alienation from God, characterized by a society dominated by secularism. If our relationship with our Creator is weak, then our understanding of the value and meaning of human life created in His image is also weak.
Consequently, to counter this deepest root of attacks against human life, we must grow in our relationship with God and help others to do so as well. It is also necessary for us to reflect on what John Paul calls “the incomparable worth of the human person.”
“Indeed, ‘despite its hardships, its hidden mysteries, its suffering and its inevitable frailty, this mortal life is a most beautiful thing, a marvel ever new and moving, an event worthy of being exalted in joy and glory’…Moreover, man and his life appear to us not only as one of the greatest marvels of creation: For God has granted to man a dignity which is near to divine (Ps. 8:5-6). In every child which is born and in every person who lives or dies we see the image of God’s glory…a sign of the living God, an icon of Jesus Christ.” (EV #84)
It is also an extraordinarily compelling point of reflection to ponder the Annunciation when “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” “God was once an unborn child,” says Fr. Frank Pavone in his book Ending Abortion. “Every unborn child, therefore, is in some fashion united with God. As the Second Vatican Council asserted, ‘By his incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every human being’ (Gaudium et Spes, 22).
“In the writings of the Fathers of the Church,” Fr. Pavone continues, “we encounter reflections on the theme that Christ redeemed us by assuming all the different aspects of our life on earth, including our childhood, our life of work, our family life, our sufferings, and our death.” In our modern culture of death, then, “we should also reflect on the fact that the Son of God shared in our life in the womb.”
“Would it long be possible for believers, who meditate on the unborn child who was God, to fail to see that unborn children are made in God’s image?” Fr. Pavone asks. “Would it be likely that those who ponder that our Almighty Protector was a baby in the womb will fail to see that babies in the womb deserve protection? Would it happen that Christians, who acknowledge that their Lord and Brother was an embryo and fetus, will fail to see that every embryo and fetus is a brother and sister in the Lord?”
Planned Parenthood, an organization with racist and eugenic origins, has become infamous as our nation’s largest perpetrator and advocate of abortion (not to mention its hedonistic view of human sexuality). That appalling distinction has been particularly on display in Nebraska in recent days.
In the span of just a few days, Planned Parenthood announced publicly that it intends to open a new abortion center in Omaha and has filed a lawsuit to challenge one of the pro-life laws (LB 594, the Women’s Health Protection Act) enacted by our Legislature this year.
Planned Parenthood (PP) has operated an abortion center in Lincoln for nearly 15 years and in that time span has killed close to 10,000 unborn babies by abortion. Nationally, PP operates 304 centers that do either surgical or medical (RU 486) abortions and, in 2009 alone, PP killed more than 300,000 unborn babies at these abortion "mills."
Apparently, PP of the Heartland (Iowa and Nebraska) doesn’t think it has a big enough piece of the abortion pie in Nebraska, given its intention to open a new abortion center in Omaha. This effort will be vigorously opposed by pro-life groups, public officials, area business owners and a large portion of the neighborhood (and broader Omaha) community.
Planned Parenthood’s distinction as America’s largest abortion perpetrator is matched by its abortion advocacy. Not only is PP the most significant opponent of anti-abortion legislation, but it is often the lead organization filing suit to prevent such laws from going into effect.
On Monday, June 28, PP announced that it filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to prevent LB 594, the Women’s Health Protection Act, from going into effect. The measure, introduced by Sen. Cap Dierks and enacted by a vote of 40 to 9 in our Legislature, is scheduled to go into effect July 15.
The law better protects women from undergoing coerced abortions and clarifies in statute the duty of abortionists to screen women for risk factors that are known to place them at increased risk for psychological or physical complications from an abortion and to inform her of the results of this screening. Such screening is standard practice in every area of medicine and LB 594 simply ensures that women seeking abortions are afforded the same standard of care.
In its lawsuit, PP claims the new law is "an attack on our patients… on providers… and on the ethics and integrity of the medical profession." In fact, just the opposite is true. This law protects women from abortionists who often compromise the standard of care for counseling and screening of patients in order to reduce costs and maximize profits.
According to David Reardon, director of the Elliott Institute, in hundreds of cases each day, known risk factors for physical and psychological complications are not being detected because of negligent pre-abortion screening. As a result, women are suffering from avoidable complications that may have been prevented or minimized if the proper pre-abortion screening standards had been met.
Furthermore, it is PP’s abortion practice—not this law—that attacks the "ethics and integrity of the medical profession." Planned Parenthood’s abortion centers (and others like them) are really abortion "mills" that typically do 20 to 30 or more abortions in one day. In these mills, the doctor-patient relationship is transformed into a technician-customer relationship.
A hearing to consider PP’s lawsuit against LB 594 has been scheduled in federal court July 13. Please join me in praying that this commonsense law will be upheld. And join me in praying that PP’s effort to open another abortion mill will be thwarted.
Coming soon to a store near you: the “week after” pill named “Ella.” This new drug, hailed by some as the next generation of the “morning after” birth control pill or “emergency contraception”
claims to prevent “pregnancy” up to five days after sexual intercourse.
Nearly universal access to contraception apparently wasn’t sufficient for our sexually permissive culture so—shazam!—along comes “emergency contraception”(EC). The “morning after” pill or EC is a high dose (a really high dose, at 40 times the potency) of the ordinary birth control pill. Emergency contraception claims to prevent pregnancy up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse.
Now, apparently EC isn’t enough. On June 17, an advisory committee gave its unanimous recommendation to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow the sale of “Ella” in the United States. This development is another sad indictment of our society’s impoverished view and abuse of human sexuality.
The characterization of Ella (by the FDA and others) as the next generation of “emergency contraception” is also an abuse—of truth in advertising. Ella is, in fact, closer to the abortion drug RU 486 than it is to emergency contraception.
Here is the difference. As just mentioned, EC is a high dose of the hormone progesterone which can suppress ovulation (contraceptive effect) or alter the lining of the uterus so a conceived embryo can’t implant (abortifacient effect). It is not known with certainty how often EC operates as a contraceptive versus an abortifacient.
Ella, on the other hand, is a progesterone blocker called “selective progesterone receptor modulator” (SPRM). This is the same type of drug used in the chemical abortion regimen RU 486. A SPRM works by preventing a newly conceived embryo from implanting in the uterine lining or by starving an already implanted embryo. This is an early abortion—not contraception!
This biological fact hasn’t stopped Ella supporters from claiming that it is a new form of contraception, not abortion. This claim is based on a biological sleight of hand that dates back to the advent of the birth control pill 50 years ago.
When it was discovered that one of the ways in which the Pill works is to alter the uterine lining to prevent implantation of an embryo (abortifacient), its supporters knew that would be a problem for those who might accept contraception but not abortion.
To remedy this, Pill advocates convinced key players in the medical establishment to change the definition of pregnancy from conception to implantation. By doing this, if the Pill prevented an embryo from implanting, they could claim that it was preventing a pregnancy, not ending one. This deceptive act is an example of the maxim that “verbal engineering always precedes social engineering.”
In a letter to the head of the FDA, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, expressed “grave concern” over the FDA’s move to approve an abortion drug as an “emergency contraceptive.”
“Millions of American women, even those willing to use a contraceptive to prevent fertilization in various circumstances, would personally never choose to have an abortion,” said Cardinal DiNardo. “They would be ill served by a misleading campaign to present [Ella] simply as a ‘contraceptive.’
“In fact,” the Cardinal continued, “FDA approval for that purpose would likely make the drug available for ‘off-label’ use simply as an abortion drug—including its use by unscrupulous men with the intent of causing an early abortion without a woman’s knowledge or consent. Such abuses have already occurred in the case of RU-486, despite its warning labels and limited distribution.”
As the “aging sex symbol” Rachel Welch said in a recent editorial challenging the sexually permissive culture created by the birth control pill, “we’re capable of so much better.”
The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha recently announced it had obtained a new embryonic stem cell line for its research enterprise. The Med Center announced more than a year ago its enthusiasm for expanding its embryonic stem cell research after President Obama lifted restrictions on federal funding of this immoral research.
In an Omaha World Herald story (May 25), Dr. George Daley, whose lab provided the embryonic stem cells to UNMC, said he “obtains discarded human embryos and places them in petri dishes filled with a ‘broth’ of nutrients and chemicals that helps embryonic stem cells to grow and divide.”
He called embryonic stem cells “precious tools” in medical research and said that the cells “were derived from unusable embryos” that “were not viable to be implanted in a woman and would have been discarded as ‘medical waste.’”
Dr. Daley’s reference to tiny, defenseless human beings as “precious tools,” “discarded human embryos,” “unusable embryos,”
and “medical waste” should send chills down the spine of any thinking and feeling person.
It is a scientific fact that human embryos are human beings in the initial stage of their lives. This is not religious opinion or moral conjecture, but scientific fact sustained by virtually every human embryology textbook and scientific reference.
Embryos are real human beings, not mere “clumps of cells” or “products of conception.” Therefore, these are real human beings who Dr. Daley and his collaborators at our state University refer to as “unusable” and destined to be “discarded.” These are real human beings who Dr. Daley is vivisecting so he and others can use their cells as “precious tools.”
Sadly, such dehumanizing terms have been employed throughout the history of man to oppress various categories of human beings: Native Americans, African Americans, Jews, and women among others. Sociologist Dr. William Brennan chronicled this history in his book “Dehumanizing the Vulnerable: When Word Games Take Lives” (Loyola University Press, 1995)
As the saying goes, “verbal engineering always precedes social engineering.” In other words, it’s difficult to get a society to embrace killing unborn children (abortion), destroying human embryos for research or killing elderly and disabled persons (euthanasia/assisted suicide).
Hence, advocates of abortion, embryo-destructive research and euthanasia employ verbal deception (e.g. “reproductive freedom,” “pregnancy termination,” “blastocysts,” “precious tools” and “death with dignity”) to advance their destructive agenda.
Another disturbing tactic used by Dr. Daley and other embryo research supporters is to dismiss ethical concerns by saying “the embryos are going to be destroyed anyway.” This response is an appalling cop out.
If supporters of embryo-destructive research had any meaningful regard for human embryos, they wouldn’t simply shrug their shoulders at the prospect of “discarded” humans as they eagerly take advantage of them. Rather, they would question why it is that human beings are being produced and discarded in the first place.
The use of “discarded” human beings as “precious tools” for the benefit of other humans is exactly what happens when man transgresses (e.g. in vitro fertilization) into God’s domain as the Author of Life.
Since CSS covers all of the area south of the Platte River, we receive calls from many locations across the diocese. It seems that over the last six months there have been an increase in house fires and accidents. All of the fires that we are aware of have destroyed the respective homes, tragically with some loss of family members in several. Sadly, there has been loss of life in the accidents as well.
It is edifying how in some of these cases the local communities have stepped up and helped. Since more help was needed, CSS was there to join in the effort with our available resources, including cash assistance and material items (including a vehicle).
You might have heard that some entertainers are holding benefit concerts for the earthquake victims in Haiti. Over the past six years, musicians here in the heartland have donated their time to benefit the poor in southern Nebraska. That said, if cabin fever is setting in and you cannot wait another six weeks for warmer weather, I have just the thing for you, something that will warm your heart – Trumpet Fest 2010!
I am excited to announce that this will be the seventh annual “Trumpet Fest” for Catholic Social Services, a benefit for poor and needy individuals and families who live in southern Nebraska. It is presented by Murray’s for Men of Stature.
Like past years, Trumpet Fest 2010 will highlight some of the areas finest trumpeters including Mac McCune, Darryl White, Dennis Schneider, Dean Haist, Barb Schmit, Tom Kelly, Kevin Murray and more. There will be solo performances, duets by Denny Schneider and Tom Kelly, and another with Darryl White and Kevin Murray. There will also be a family performance by Barb Schmit, her husband and children. There will even be performances by some of the most talented students around! Then to cap off the event, there will be a jam session that I cannot begin to describe, something guaranteed to warm your soul.
Trumpet Fest 2010 takes place Sunday, Feb. 7 at 3 p.m. in Pius X High School, Lincoln. Admission is free but hats will be passed for a free-will offering. All proceeds will be used to assist the numerous needy individuals and families that come to us on a daily basis. Visit www.cssisus.org for more details.
Let me take this opportunity to thank all of the musicians who will be performing, and all of our patrons who are planning to attend. For those who are on the fence, you can ‘kill two birds with one stone’: after hearing the performances of the above musicians, you will walk away amazed and entertained, and with the monies collected by the passing of the hat, you will help us continue to assist those who are in dire need.
Please know that we at Catholic Social Services will keep these musicians, and you in our prayers as we routinely pray for our benefactors every morning at 8:30. See you at Pius High School at 3 p.m. Feb. 7!
The 50th anniversary of the birth control pill (May 9) has prompted some public reflection about its effect on our culture. The most surprising reflection I came across was from none other than Raquel Welch, the famous actress, model, and in her words, “aging sex symbol.”
In her column for CNN.com, Welch begins by referencing the opening of the first American family-planning clinic in 1916 by Margaret Sanger concluding that “nothing would be the same again.” “Since then the growing proliferation of birth control methods has had an awesome effect on both sexes and led to a sea of change in moral values.”
“And as I’ve grown older over the past five decades,” Welch continues, “and lived through this revolutionary period in female sexuality, I’ve seen how it has altered American society—for better or worse.” The only “upside” Welch mentions is that the Pill “made it easier for a woman to choose to delay having children until after she established herself in a career.”
“Nonetheless,” she says, “for young women of childbearing age… there was a need for some careful soul searching—and consideration about the long-range effects of oral contraceptives—before addressing this very personal decision. It was a decision I too would have to face when I discovered I was pregnant at age 19,” Welch continued.
Welch recounts that although she was married, she wasn’t ready to be pregnant and was concerned about putting her career ambitions on hold. Fortunately, her husband (Jim Welch) was “unflinching in his desire to keep our baby and his positive, upbeat attitude about the whole prospect turned everything around.” She says that she has “always loved Jim for how he responded in that moment.”
In a very refreshing and candid statement, Welch says that during her pregnancy she “came to realize that this process was not about me. I was just a spectator to the metamorphosis that was happening inside my womb so that another life could be born. It came down to an act of self-sacrifice, especially for me, as a woman,” Welch concluded.
In another very candid statement, Welch admits that a “significant, and enduring, effect of The Pill on female sexual attitudes during the ‘60s, was: ‘Now we can have sex anytime we want, without the consequences. Hallelujah, let’s party!’ It remains this way,” she says.
“These days,” Welch continues, “nobody seems able to ‘keep it in their pants’ or honor a commitment! Raising the question: Is marriage still a viable option?” Admitting to be ashamed at having been married four times, Welch says that she still believes marriage is “the cornerstone of civilization, an essential institution that stabilizes society, provides a sanctuary for children and saves us from anarchy.”
“In stark contrast,” Welch points out, “a lack of sexual inhibitions, or as some call it, ‘sexual freedom,’ has taken the caution and discernment out of choosing a sexual partner, which used to be the equivalent of choosing a life partner. Without a commitment, the trust and loyalty between couples of childbearing age is missing, and obviously leads to incidents of infidelity. No one seems immune,” Welch asserts.
Welch concludes her column by saying “Seriously, folks, if an aging sex symbol like me starts waving the red flag of caution over how low moral standards have plummeted, you know it’s gotta be pretty bad. It’s precisely because of the sexy image I’ve had that it’s important for me to speak up and say: Come on girls! Time to pull up our socks! We’re capable of so much better.”
Ms. Welch’s personal reflections and candor about the negative impacts of The Pill and the “sexual freedom” it facilitated is rather surprising and refreshing. Equally impressive is her admitting a sense of responsibility to speak up and urge society to strive toward higher moral standards.
One of the most powerful dynamics that stifles an honest assessment of contraception’s negative impact on our society is that most Americans have “bought” into the contraceptive culture. Hence, acknowledging its negative ramifications, as Ms. Welch did, requires some self-incrimination.
Ms. Welch deserves a lot of credit for speaking out so honestly on a very controversial subject. Hopefully her leadership will prompt more people to honestly reflect on and speak out about the negative consequences of contraception. Because as Ms. Welch rightly acknowledges, “we’re capable of so much better.”
I’ve written before in this space about how today’s teens and young adults are fundamentally very pro-life. Multiple surveys over the last several years have revealed the same thing: the current generation of young people (known as Millennials or Generation Y) has considerably more pro-life views than previous generations (Baby Boomers and Gen X).
The latest proof of this reality came from an unlikely source: the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). According to an internal poll NARAL shared with Newsweek (April 16, 2010), young Americans are more passionate about pro-life views than pro-abortion views.
NARAL’s survey of 700 young Americans, conducted earlier this year, revealed a significant “intensity gap” on abortion. According to the Newsweek article, “More than half (51 percent) of young voters (under 30) who opposed abortion rights considered it a ‘very important’ voting issue, compared with just 26 percent of abortion-rights supporters.”
Nancy Keenan, NARAL’s president, expressed concern in the Newsweek article about the aging ranks of pro-abortion activists, which she called the “postmenopausal militia.” “These leaders will retire in a decade or so,” the article says. “And what worries Keenan is that she just doesn’t see a passion among the post-Roe generation—at least, not among those on her side.”
Keenan cites her encounter with pro-life attendees at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. last January as evidence of this phenomenon. “I just thought, my gosh, they are so young,” Keenan recalled. “There are so many of them, and they are so young.” The Newsweek article acknowledges the March for Life estimate of 400,000 participants and compared it to a pro-abortion rally two months earlier that drew about 1,300 attendees.
“Millennials are more likely than their [baby] boomer parents to see abortion as a moral issue,” the article continues. “In the NARAL focus groups, young voters flat-out disapproved of a woman’s abortion, called her actions immoral, yet maintained that the government had absolutely no right to intervene.” That latter sentiment will provide a challenge to the pro-life movement as we work to provide legal protection to unborn children.
The article attributes some of the shift toward pro-life attitudes among young people to the pro-life movement’s focus on the unborn child. It also attributes the increase in pro-life attitudes to the advent of ultrasound technology which provides “increasingly clear pictures of fetal development.”
“The technology has clearly helped to define how people think about a fetus as a full, breathing human being,” admits former NARAL president Kate Michelman. “The other side has been able to use the technology to its own end.”
Michelman’s comment reminds me of this comment made many years ago by Harrison Hickman, former pollster for NARAL, at its 20th anniversary convention:
“Probably nothing has been as damaging to our cause as the advances in technology which have allowed pictures of the developing fetus, because people now talk about the fetus in much different terms than they did 15 years ago. They talk about it as a human being, which is not something I have an easy answer on how to cure.”
In other words, technology is removing the veil of verbal deception that the abortion industry has used to dehumanize unborn human beings and to deny them the most basic human right—the right to life.
The trend toward pro-life attitudes among young people—and even the population at large—is encouraging. If this trend is to have positive consequences for protecting unborn children and their mothers from the violence of abortion, the pro-life movement must nurture and develop those attitudes and translate them into action.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has just issued its 2009 Statistical Report of Abortions. Nebraska law (28-343) requires that certain information be collected on each abortion performed in the state including the pregnant woman’s age, the state of her residence, her history of previous pregnancies, the type of abortion performed and complications.
According to this report, in 2009 there were 2,551 unborn babies killed by abortion in Nebraska. This sobering number of abortions is mitigated only by the fact that it is 10 percent fewer than in 2008.
Since the high water mark of 6,346 abortions in 1990, there has been a decidedly downward trend in the number of abortions in Nebraska. In 2007, the number of abortions fell to its lowest number on record, 2,481, representing a more than 60 percent decline from 1990.
In 2008, there was a surprising and disturbing increase of 13 percent in the number of abortions (2,813). Thankfully, this was largely reversed in 2009 with a 10 percent decline in abortions.
As has been the case since the abortion report began in 1974, the majority of abortions in 2009 (57.2%) were performed on women in the 20-29 age group. The 19-and-under age group and the 30-and-over age group have changed significantly since 1974.
In 1974, teenagers comprised slightly more than 40 percent of the abortions. In 2009 they comprised 16.3 percent. In 1974, the 30-and-over age group comprised 14.5 percent of abortions and in 2009 they comprised 26.5 percent.
Digging deeper into the age statistics one finds some very disturbing information. Ten abortions were performed on girls under the age of 15. One 15-year-old girl already had one previous abortion. Four 16-year-old girls had already given birth to one child before having this abortion. And one 17-year-old girl had one previous abortion and two live births.
The destructive start to these young girls’ lives is heartbreaking. And for all of these young girls, especially the 17-year old, it is hard not to conclude that they are victims of some form of abuse or neglect.
The report also indicates the reasons women gave for having the abortions. Another consistent statistic from year to year is that only a tiny fraction of abortions are sought for the so-called “hard cases.” In 2009, only 80 abortions (3.1%) were done for the following reasons: sexual assault (11), incest (0), maternal life endangered (3), maternal physical health (33), mental health (7), fetal anomaly (26).
Another particularly sad statistic from this report is the number of repeat abortions. The overall percentage of repeat abortions stays pretty constant each year at around one-third of all abortions. Again, a closer look at this statistic reveals some very disturbing information.
Of the 822 women who had previous abortions, 576 had one previous abortion, 168 had two previous abortions, 50 had three previous abortions, 16 had four previous abortions and 12 had more than four previous abortions.
It is impossible to contemplate the level of grief a mother must feel after having one abortion, let alone after having multiple abortions. Thankfully, we serve a God whose mercy and love are limitless to those who seek it. And, thankfully, we have Project Rachel which helps post-abortive women and men to find hope and healing through God’s mercy and love.
Finally, to achieve our goal of making abortion unthinkable, we must always recognize and internalize that the statistics in this abortion report represent real human lives. The lives of 2,551 unborn children snuffed out by abortion. The lives of more than 5,000 mothers and fathers devastated emotionally and spiritually. And the conscience of a nation hardened by acquiescence or ambivalence to this legalized slaughter of the innocents.
April 22, 2010 marked the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. In honor of this anniversary, the pro-life group CatholicVote.org is sponsoring a campaign to celebrate “nature’s greatest gift”: human life. According to LifeSiteNews, “CatholicVote.org is encouraging Americans to rethink how they celebrate Earth Day, and how to go about building a culture that respects the environment.
“Our goal is to use Earth Day to get Americans to think more deeply about what it means to truly respect the Earth and creation,” said Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org Education Fund. In order to “bring this balanced Catholic view of the environment to the streets,” Burch said, the group purchased ads (like the one pictured below) broadcasting their message on more than 50 buses in Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle.
“Prevailing environmental attitudes too often view humans as the enemy of nature,” Burch said. “We believe the human person is God’s greatest creation, and the Earth’s greatest resource. Building up a culture of life is the single most important way to build a culture that respects the environment.”
Burch also points out that “Respect for God’s creation has a long history in Catholic teaching, long before it became popular with our secular culture.”
The LifeSiteNews article cites Pope Benedict XVI as being very vocal in support of proper stewardship of natural resources, pointing out that Newsweek even dubbed him “the green pope.”
Earlier this year, the article continues, Pope Benedict said in his annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corps: “If we wish to build true peace, how can we separate, or even set at odds, the protection of the environment and the protection of human life, including the life of the unborn?”
“The pope has repeatedly emphasized that respect for the environment must be tied to a larger framework, with respect for the human person at its core,” the article said. In a recent encyclical, Pope Benedict XVI wrote the following:
“If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves.”
Like its other recent “Imagine the Potential” ad campaigns promoting the dignity of human life, this CatholicVote.org campaign is brilliant. It uses amazing creativity to remind our culture that human life is not a burden on the earth but rather its greatest gift.
In the nearly 20 years I have been doing pro-life work for Nebraska’s bishops, I don’t ever recall the Legislature adopting two pro-life bills in one year. Undoubtedly, the absence of Sen. Ernie Chambers, who filibustered every pro-life bill, was a major factor in making this unique accomplishment possible.
What makes this accomplishment even more remarkable is that these two substantive pro-life bills went through three rounds of debate within the last 13 days of a 60-day session and were adopted with lopsided votes of 40-9 and 44-5. Furthermore, I really thought I was in the twilight zone when I read a recent Lincoln Journal Star editorial that was favorable toward LB 1103, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
As a lobbyist for the Catholic Bishops, I was most involved with LB 594, the Women’s Health Protection Act. This new law requires that before abortions can be performed, women must be evaluated for evidence of coercion and for a variety of risk factors that place them at higher risk for post-abortion complications.
According to post-abortion researcher David Reardon of the Elliot Institute, who developed this legislation, “in hundreds of cases each day, known risk factors for physical and psychological complications are not being detected because of negligent pre-abortion screening.” As a result, “women are suffering from complications that may have been prevented or minimized if the proper pre-abortion screening standards had been met.”
Even abortion advocates and researchers, as well as the pro-abortion American Psychological Association, have publicly acknowledged the existence of several risk factors that research indicates are predictors of post-abortion complications. These include a history of mental health problems, pressure or coercion to abort, strong religious convictions against abortion, low self-esteem, lack of parental or partner support, and ambivalence about the abortion decision.
This new law better protects women from undergoing coerced abortions, which is a major risk factor for severe post-abortion psychological problems. It clarifies in statute the duty of abortionists to screen for all risk factors that are known to place women at higher risk of abortion complications.
And this law helps ensure that women are given not only general information about abortion risks, but also specific information most relevant to individual women according to their own unique risk factors.
LB 1103, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of gestation with narrow exceptions. This legislation was drafted by National and Nebraska Right to Life with input from its Legislative sponsor Speaker Mike Flood.
As the name of this new law indicates, the 20-week cutoff is based on the reality (substantiated with credible research) that an unborn child is capable of feeling pain by 20 weeks after fertilization. Therefore, by adopting this new law, our Legislature is asserting that the state of Nebraska has a compelling interest in protecting post-20 week babies from abortion because they can feel pain.
Sen. Cap Dierks (Ewing) and Sen. Mike Flood (Norfolk) deserve enormous credit (and our thanks) for introducing and prioritizing LB 594 and LB 1103 respectively. It’s also important to thank those senators who voted for these bills and to express disappointment to those who voted against them. A report indicating how senators voted on both bills can be obtained online at www.nebcathcon.org or from my office.
It is likely that the abortion industry will pursue legal challenges to both bills. LB 594, however, will be more difficult to challenge because it does not impose a criminal penalty. Please pray that these bills will survive any legal challenge and will save many women and their babies from the evil of abortion.
My daughter, know that My Heart is mercy itself. From this sea of mercy, graces flow out upon the whole world. No soul that has approached Me has ever gone away unconsoled. All misery gets buried in the depths of My mercy, and every saving and sanctifying grace flows from this fountain… Sooner would heaven and earth turn into nothingness than would My mercy not embrace a trusting soul.”
These words from the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (#1777) are a beautiful expression of God’s Divine Mercy, which we celebrate this Sunday. Divine Mercy Sunday provides an excellent opportunity to communicate God’s limitless mercy to post-abortive women and men in particular.
The Church communicates and facilitates God’s mercy to those involved in abortion primarily through an outreach called Project Rachel. Project Rachel is comprised of specially trained clergy and professional counselors who provide individual, confidential counseling and reconciliation to women and men suffering from a past abortion.
In Nebraska, Project Rachel can be accessed by calling 1-800-964-3787. Information on abortion’s emotional and spiritual aftermath is also available online at www.hopeafterabortion.com.
The name of this outreach comes from the Old Testament figure Rachel who “mourns her children” and “refuses to be consoled because her children are no more.” Our Lord, however, tells Rachel to “cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward…There is hope for your future.” (Jeremiah 31:15-17)
Project Rachel acknowledges that abortion can be one of the most traumatic experiences in a person’s life. As outlined in our local Project Rachel brochure “feelings of grief, anxiety, guilt and anger are common, not only for the woman who undergoes an abortion, but also for the man involved, relatives, friends, counselors and even medical personnel.
“In many cases, the pain of loss may initially be buried, sometimes for years, but may be manifested by relationship difficulties, depression, or other psychological or spiritual problems. It may even be intensified by a sense of alienation from God and the Church.”
Project Rachel acknowledges that abortion has physical, psychological and spiritual effects, and that knowledge of God’s limitless mercy and love is a significant part of the healing process. Project Rachel allows post-abortive women and men to move toward reconciliation with themselves, their unborn children, their families, their Church and with God.
The foreword of a recently revised Post-Abortion Manual for Priests and Project Rachel Leaders begins with a reference to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 homily on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in which he soberly cautioned that “without the healing of souls, without the healing of man from within there can be no salvation for humanity.”
“How essential then to the mission of the Church are the pastoral and apostolic activities that draw women and men burdened by the sin of abortion closer to God’s merciful heart,” the foreword continues. “It is no exaggeration to say that the Church’s ministry of healing and reconciliation after abortion is at the heart of the Church’s mission at this time in her history.”
The foreword concludes by encouraging us to make this most beautiful prayer of St. Claude de la Colombiere, SJ, the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary, our own:
“Lord, I am in this world to show Your mercy to others.
Other people will glorify You
By making visible the power of Your grace
By their fidelity and constancy to You.
For my part I will glorify You
By making known how good you are to sinners,
That Your mercy is boundless
And that no sinner no matter how great his offences
Should have reason to despair of pardon.
If I have grievously offended You, My Redeemer,
Let me not offend You even more
By thinking that You are not kind enough to pardon me.
AMEN.
The enactment of a seriously flawed health care bill last week was a major blow to the pro-life cause. Tom Grenchik, director of the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Office, acknowledged that this healthcare bill “is clearly the largest legislative expansion of abortion funding and mandates in our country’s history.”
Despite extraordinary efforts to advocate for health care reform that protects human life and conscience rights, is fair to immigrants and improves affordability, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) was forced to oppose this health care bill in the end. The Bishops concluded that despite whatever limited good may come from the bill, its expansion of the intrinsic evil of abortion and failure to protect consciences is too high of a cost.
This sobering reality has caused great concern among pro-life Americans. And many people may be tempted to become discouraged or cynical and, as a result, disengaged from the battle for life.
It is providential that we are celebrating Holy Week in the immediate shadow of this setback to the pro-life cause. This holiest time of the year reminds us that the ultimate battle against death and evil has been won—once and for all—by our Lord’s death and resurrection.
Father Frank Pavone from Priests for Life expressed this comforting reality quite cogently when he said that as Christians we engage in the pro-life battle not just for victory but from victory. God does not ask us to defeat death. He has already done this. But evil still exists and is always on the prowl.
What God asks of us is to faithfully, passionately and unceasingly oppose evil wherever and whenever it appears. And He gave each of us unique gifts and opportunities to serve Him in this way.
At our final judgment we will have to account for how we used these gifts and opportunities from God. In particular, I believe, we will account for our action or inaction in proclaiming and defending the sacred dignity of human life.
If we truly embrace and embody the assurance of our faith, we should be confident and joy-filled in our pro-life efforts, in good times and in bad times. The following quote from the late Father Richard John Neuhaus has long been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me. I pray that it also inspires you as we contemplate our Lord’s passion, death and resurrection.
“So long as we have the gift of life we must protect the gift of life. So long as it is threatened, so long must it be defended. This is the time to brace ourselves for the long term. We are today laying the foundations for the prolife movement of the twenty-first century. Pray that the foundations are firm, for we have not yet seen the full fury of the storm that is upon us.
“But we have not the right to despair. We have not the right and we have not the reason to despair if we understand that our entire struggle is premised not upon a victory to be achieved, but a victory that has been achieved. If we understand that, far from despair we have right and reason to rejoice that we are called to such a time as this, a time of testing, a time of truth.
“The encroaching culture of death shall not prevail, for we know, as we read in John’s gospel, ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ The darkness will never overcome that light.”
Recent public policy developments at the state and federal level can be categorized as the good, the bad and the ugly. I’ll address these in reverse order so I can end on a positive note.
The Ugly
Last Sunday’s vote in the House of Representatives to adopt the Senate’s healthcare bill has pro-life groups and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) deeply concerned about the expanded access and funding for abortion that will result from enactment of this bill.
President Obama’s last-minute promise of an Executive Order supposedly to restrict abortion funding was unfortunately enough to secure the votes of Congressman Bart Stupak and a few other pro-life Democrats. Legal experts seem to agree that an Executive Order is effectively meaningless; it cannot trump statutory law. This means we’re stuck for now with the seriously flawed abortion and conscience language in the Senate bill.
The seriousness of the Bishops’ concern is evidenced by the fact that despite decades of advocacy for healthcare reforms, in the end the USCCB urged House members to oppose the Senate bill because of its serious flaws on abortion and conscience rights. In a statement prior to the vote, Cardinal Francis George said the Senate bill “expands federal funding and the role of the federal government in the provision of abortion procedures.
“In so doing, it forces all of us to become involved in an act that profoundly violates the conscience of many, the deliberate destruction of unwanted members of the human family still waiting to be born.” As a result, the bishops concluded that the “cost is too high” and the “loss too great” to support the Senate bill with its serious flaws.
Sadly, in the closing days before the vote, the Catholic Health Association and a group of nuns announced support for the Senate bill in contradiction of our bishops and based on erroneous claims that the bill does not fund abortions. This dissent from our shepherds undoubtedly contributed to the passage of a deeply flawed bill that many of us fear will be the largest expansion of abortion access and funding since Roe v. Wade.
The Bad
Last week, LB 1110 was pulled from our state Legislature’s agenda by its sponsor Sen. Kathy Campbell due to insufficient support by fellow senators and strong opposition (and veto threat) by Governor Heineman. This bill would have continued Nebraska’s longstanding policy of providing prenatal care services to unborn children in impoverished families regardless of the mother’s immigration status.
Tragically, some providers of prenatal care services are reporting that several women have had or are considering having abortions at least in part due to the loss of prenatal care services. These reports are causing some senators to look for new ways to resurrect and adopt LB 1110, a move my office strongly supports.
In the meantime, we must urgently persuade mothers who may be considering abortion due to the loss of prenatal care services to reject this act of violence. My office is working with others to make sure these mothers know that there are agencies and providers who will find a way to provide them with needed prenatal services.
The Good
Now for some good news. Last week, the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee advanced two pro-life bills for debate and vote by the full Legislature. The Women’s Health Protection Act (LB 594) would require abortionists to screen women for risk factors that could increase their likelihood of having post-abortion complications.
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (LB 1103) prohibits abortions (with narrow exceptions) after 20 of gestation, the point at which compelling evidence suggests the unborn child can experience pain.
These bills could come up for debate as soon as the week of March 29. I urge readers to contact your state senator as soon as possible and urge him/her to support both bills. More information on these bills and an action alert is available online at www.nebcathcon.org.
Two weeks ago in this column I explained the reasons why the Nebraska Catholic Conference supports LB 1110. This bill would allow Nebraska to continue to offer prenatal services to unborn children of low-income women, including those who are undocumented immigrants.
Since then, I’ve received or witnessed a variety of communications from individuals who oppose LB 1110. Some were downright nasty, some were more interested in venting than understanding the Church’s view, and some were challenging but thoughtful.
The third category of communications prompted me to think more deeply about the legitimate concerns on both sides of this debate. On one side is the concern that a nation must have a just and fair immigration policy and this policy must be enforced as best as possible or many social, economic and now security problems can result.
Immigration policy, however, is set by the federal government and states have little authority or ability to affect or enforce this policy. States are largely left to deal with the human realities and injustices of an extremely deficient federal immigration policy.
On the other side is the important good of providing prenatal care to unborn children. It is well documented that providing prenatal care greatly increases the likelihood of a healthy start to a child’s life. It is important to emphasize that the recipient/beneficiary of prenatal care is the unborn child (who has no immigration status and will be a citizen if/when born in this country) not the undocumented mother.
Another good is that providing coverage for prenatal care can be a contributing or even decisive factor in keeping an abortion-vulnerable woman from having an abortion. Sadly, I’ve already heard of a few confirmed cases of impoverished pregnant women in Nebraska who have had or are considering having abortions (at least in part) because of losing this benefit for their unborn child.
A final good is that this area of federal policy/law (Children’s Health Insurance Program or CHIP) which is reflected in LB 1110, recognizes the unborn child as a person and recipient of benefits on his or her own account—separate from the mother’s interests.
Some, however, have presented the straightforward argument that if undocumented pregnant mothers present themselves for prenatal care, why not just send them back to their home countries? Doing this, however, is much more complicated than it appears.
For example, if it becomes known that pregnant undocumented mothers will be deported if they present themselves for prenatal care services, they simply won’t present themselves. The likely result will be that their unborn children will not get needed prenatal care and the mother will continue to stay in our country.
This means that when these children are born, they will be citizens and will likely be eligible for Medicaid. And, because of not getting prenatal care, they will likely need even more expensive medical care at taxpayer expense.
The bottom line is that this is a very complex problem with legitimate concerns and goods (and potential unintended consequences) on both sides of the debate. I find it helpful to consider the fact that this complexity and balance of concerns is present in other areas of serving our least brothers and sisters.
For example, in serving the poor through the St. Vincent de Paul Society or other outreaches, we often find people in dire need because of irresponsible choices on their part. Sometimes federal social policy enables such behavior (or at least provides little incentive to change it).
But when a person is in need of basic human needs (food, shelter, clothing, medical care, etc.) we rightly help them with those basic needs. At the same time we rightly work to address the underlying social and public policy problems that contributed to this situation.
I think that balance of concerns/goods applies to this debate on prenatal care as well. At the very least, when conflicted about the balance of such goods, it seems right to err on the side of helping vulnerable human beings over strict adherence to human laws.
At this year’s Catholic Social Services banquet, I was privileged to present the agency’s annual Cor Christi (The Heart of Christ) award to Bob and Pam McCabe. The McCabes were honored for their work in organizing the “sidewalk counselors” and prayer presence outside the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Lincoln for the past dozen or so years.
I mentioned in my introduction that Bob and Pam’s efforts provide the last line of defense to protect women and their children from the violence of abortion. Being visibly present—with a smile, caring words, kneeling in prayer—as women drive into the abortion facility can literally make the difference between life and death for a baby.
Several years ago, Pam received a letter from a woman who changed her mind about having an abortion because of the presence of people praying outside the facility. Addressing the letter to “My angels sent from God” she said the following:
“As we arrived, we pulled into the parking lot and there was a group of people praying on their knees. I can remember even making a joke of it as we parked the car. We got out, and as we walked to the entrance, I again looked over at this group of people praying. At that point God’s spirit hit me like a ton of bricks.
“I began frantically crying in my sister’s arms. In my 20 years on this planet, I have never felt that before. It felt like a 500-pound weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was no longer afraid, and I knew everything would be okay.
“My family was thrilled I chose to keep the baby, but most importantly I was thrilled. My son was born in August, and he is the BEST blessing God has ever given me. He is my joy, my pride, and my very reason to live… I often look into his beautiful little eyes and many times cry thinking about the decision I almost made. If it had not been for you, well, I don’t even like to think about it.
“Thinking back to that day, I remember it being very cold. Those people who were gathered at Planned Parenthood that day could have very easily stayed at home… Because they didn’t, I was able to see God in them; I was able to see what I was about to do was a terrible mistake.”
“I know how discouraging your fight can be at times, and I hope you never give up… Words cannot express how thankful I am of you and your presence that morning. I will always be eternally grateful for what you have done for me.”
Letters like these punctuate the reality of actual human lives that are at stake in the battle against abortion. Unfortunately, for every life that is spared from abortion, many more are violently destroyed. Roughly 9,000 babies have been destroyed by abortion at the Planned Parenthood facility in Lincoln since it opened in 1996.
However, there is no question that there are people walking this earth because of the dedication of Bob and Pam McCabe and others like them who sacrifice their time, talent, treasure and comfort to be that last line of defense against abortion. And I know that Bob and Pam would say that the best way to honor them is to join them.
Planned Parenthood operates its abortion facility in Lincoln on Tuesdays. On those days there are “sidewalk counselors” present from at least 6:30 a.m. until the last woman leaves the facility (sometimes late in the afternoon).
If you are feeling a call from God to offer your time, talent and heart to this life-saving outreach, please contact Bob and Pam at 402-489-7968. If you’re not ready to make that call, please pray every Tuesday for them, the other “sidewalk counselors” and the women scheduled for abortions that day.
One of the important and “hot” pro-life issues in our Legislature this session is whether Nebraska should continue providing prenatal services to unborn children of undocumented mothers. Nebraska has been providing these important services for three decades under Medicaid.
The federal government, however, notified Nebraska late last year that prenatal services cannot be provided under Medicaid to unborn children in their own right; eligibility for these services is based on the pregnant mother, and undocumented immigrants are ineligible for Medicaid.
Nevertheless, Nebraska can continue to provide this benefit if it relies upon the “unborn child option” under the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Under CHIP, unborn children are viewed as recipients of prenatal services in their own right, regardless of their mothers’ immigration status.
Legislative Bill 1110 was introduced by Sen. Kathy Campbell to authorize our state Health and Human Services Division to apply for this option. Unfortunately, this bill and the senators who are inclined to support it are being subjected to a lot of heat from individuals who oppose providing any assistance to illegal immigrants. Sadly, Governor Dave Heineman is among those expressing opposition to LB 1110.
There certainly are legitimate concerns about our state not enacting policy that encourages illegal behavior. Having (and enforcing) an orderly and just immigration policy is important. However, as with any law, when its application puts vulnerable human lives in jeopardy, there must be a balancing of principles in favor of human life.
An example of a proper balancing between care for vulnerable human lives and adherence to immigration policy already exists in our society. When an illegal immigrant is in need of urgent medical attention we care for them. Our society has correctly decided that caring for a vulnerable person takes precedence over the fact that the person is in our country illegally.
The Nebraska Catholic Conference, representing the three Bishops of Nebraska, testified in favor of LB 1110 saying that it is our “firmly held view… that continuing to provide prenatal services to unborn children, regardless of their mothers’ immigration status” is another example of this proper balance.
The Conference said this “is an important and urgent pro-life matter. Denying prenatal care coverage in these circumstances of family poverty is an affront to human dignity and a terrible injustice, which could do great harm to the lives of children at a very vulnerable stage in their development. What’s worse, the lack of coverage for such care could be a decisive factor in leading some pregnant women to choose abortion over childbirth.”
The Conference testimony also responded to those concerned about providing prenatal care and services to unborn children of undocumented mothers. “It must be emphasized,” it said, “that the true and ultimate beneficiary of this coverage is not the mother but her unborn child, who is not an illegal immigrant and who will soon be a U.S. citizen upon his/her birth.
“The immigration status of the mother should not adversely affect the health and well being of the unborn child. Assisting the unborn child, a presumptive citizen, to have a healthier start to life makes sense not only from an economic standpoint, since this child’s healthcare needs are likely to be greater without the benefit of prenatal care and services, but from a human rights standpoint as well.
LB 1110 received a public hearing last week and it is our hope that the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee will soon advance the bill for consideration by the full Legislature. It could be critical to the enactment of this bill that senators receive a strong message of support from their constituents. It could be equally critical that Governor Heineman receives a similarly strong message of support for LB 1110.
I urge all Catholic Nebraskans to call or e-mail their state senator and Governor Heineman and urge them to support LB 1110; to embrace a proper balance of principles in favor of human life. Senators can be contacted online at www.nebraskalegislature.gov or by calling 402-471-2311. The Governor can be contacted at www.governor.nebraska.gov or at 402-471-2244.
In his encyclical “The Gospel of Life,” Pope John Paul II says that in order to counter the culture of death and form a new culture of life, we must “proclaim the Gospel of Life.” “We need to bring the Gospel of life to the heart of every man and woman and to make it penetrate every part of society.”
To do this, we need not be Scripture scholars or moral theologians. As John Paul says succinctly, “to proclaim Jesus is to proclaim life.” We are called to proclaim Jesus, and the Gospel of life “through service of charity, which finds expression in personal witness, various forms of volunteer work, social activity and political commitment.”
This call to witness, and the effect it can have in building a culture of life was exemplified in a story about an Olympic athlete who was converted by an encounter with a group of pro-life students.
Kirstin Holum was a speed skater in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano placing 6th in the 3,000 meter race. Back then she was, in her words, “a mediocre Christian.” Today, she is Sister Catherine Mary, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, and has devoted her life to working with the poor and homeless.
Her conversion came from an encounter with Crossroads, a group of pro-life college students who make a yearly pilgrimage on foot across the United States to witness against the killing of the unborn. In 2002, Kirstin came across the group and decided to join them for the remainder of the walk to Washington, DC.
Kirstin said her experience with Crossroads “completely changed [her] life.” “I came onto Crossroads as a mediocre confused Christian,” she said, “and finished as a zealous Roman Catholic… I had never experienced such joyful, young Catholics and I was so inspired.”
“It is funny now to think of how different my life is now,” she told Yahoo! Sports. “I had the wonderful privilege of being able to compete as an Olympian, and now I am blessed to be able to serve God and help those less fortunate… Without my Crossroads experience, who knows where I would be!”
This inspiring story of conversion should encourage each of us with the confidence that even our simplest acts of witness can change lives and ultimately our culture. We should also be reassured knowing that God does not ask us to save the world or defeat the culture of death. He did that already.
Instead, God asks us to use the gifts He gave us to faithfully and persistently witness His truth and love to those He puts in our path: family, friends, co-workers, strangers, etc. Each of us has unique gifts that can reach people and inspire conversion in different ways.
As Mother Teresa said, God does not expect us to be successful in all our endeavors on His behalf, but he does expect us to be faithful—and persistent. This means that we must continually discern the gifts God gave us and how He wants us to use them on His behalf. Then, as we hear at the end of every Mass, “go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
In addition to witnessing against abortion or euthanasia or embryo-destructive research, or any number of other attacks against human life, there are many ways we can proclaim the Gospel of life. For some simple, everyday examples of how we can evangelize—and thereby help build a culture of life—check out the book “The Everyday Apostle: Commonsense Ways to Draw Others to Christ” by Father Ed Garesche.
A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God.... Let us therefore discover anew the humility and the courage to pray and fast so that the power from on high will break down the walls of lies and deceit: the walls which conceal from the sight of so many... the evil of practices and laws which are hostile to life.”
As we begin another Lenten season, these words from Pope John Paul II (The Gospel of Life, no. 100) provide a powerful reminder that prayer and fasting are the most powerful weapons we have for combating the culture of death. This is why prayer, fasting and worship form the foundation of the Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities.
The Pastoral Plan is the official pro-life program of the Catholic Bishops in the United States. The program focuses the Church’s attention and resources on “the evil of deliberate killing in abortion and euthanasia.”
It “calls upon all the resources of the Church—its people, services, and institutions—to pursue this effort with renewed energy and commitment in four major areas”: Public Information and Education; Pastoral Care; Public Policy and Prayer/Worship.
Although each of these four areas is important, the Pastoral Plan states that “prayer is the foundation of all that we do in defense of human life. Our efforts—whether educational, pastoral, or legislative—will be less than fully fruitful if we do not change hearts and if we do not ourselves overcome our own spiritual blindness.
“Only with prayer—prayer that storms the heavens for justice and mercy, prayer that cleanses our hearts and our souls—will the culture of death that surrounds us today be replaced with a culture of life.”
Having worked in the pro-life field for nearly 20 years, I would say without hesitation that prayer and fasting are our most powerful weapons to counter the culture of death. There is no question that the battle against the culture of death is, at its core, a spiritual battle.
In The Gospel of Life, John Paul II points to our society’s alienation from God as the deepest root of the culture of death. If our relationship with our Creator is weak, then our understanding of the dignity and meaning of human life which He created in His image and likeness will also be weak. And if we don’t understand and appreciate the dignity and meaning of human life, we are more inclined to violate its dignity and rights.
Therefore, the healthier our relationship is with God, the more profound will be our respect for human life. Prayer, fasting and the Sacraments are the most fundamental tools we can embrace to strengthen our relationship with God and thereby help rebuild a culture of life.
Our Lord told us that “certain kinds of demons do not leave but by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17:21). There can be no doubt that abortion, embryo-destructive research, and euthanasia are among these demons. This Lent, each of us can make a significant contribution to the pro-life cause, to the battle to exorcise these demons from our culture, by offering our extra prayers and sacrifices for the success of this cause.
The Nebraska Legislature convened Jan. 6, and over the next couple of months will consider at least a few pro-life measures. The first bill, the Women’s Health Protection Act (LB 594), was introduced last year by Sen. Cap Dierks from Ewing.
This bill would require abortionists to screen for risk factors which place women at higher risk of physical or psychological complications from abortion. It would better protect women from undergoing coerced abortions and ensure that women are given an individualized assessment of risk factors.
LB 594 also removes legal obstacles which typically make it difficult or impossible for a woman to hold an abortionist liable for injuries which may have been avoided with proper screening and counseling.
The problem is that many abortionists have compromised the standard of care for counseling and screening of patients in order to reduce costs and maximize profits. As a result, known risk factors for physical and psychological complications are not detected and women are suffering from avoidable complications.
Even leading mental health associations like the American Psychological Association, which generally downplay the prevalence of post-abortion trauma, have identified risk factors that predict post-abortion problems. And on March 14, 2008, the British Royal Academy of Psychiatrists issued an official statement endorsing the importance of pre-abortion screening for risk factors.
LB 594 had a public hearing last year and is awaiting action by the Judiciary Committee to move this bill to the full Legislature.
A second pro-life bill, the Abortion Pain Prevention Act (LB 1103), was introduced this year by Sen. Mike Flood, the Speaker of the Legislature. This bill would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of gestation unless the abortion is deemed necessary to avert the mother’s death or to avert serious risk of physical impairment of a major bodily function.
The bill identifies fetal pain as the basis for prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks. It specifically says that “there is substantial evidence that, by twenty weeks after fertilization, unborn children seek to evade certain stimuli in a manner which in an infant or an adult would be interpreted as a response to pain.”
It further states that “there is substantial evidence that abortion methods used at and after twenty weeks would cause substantial pain to an unborn child…even if the pregnant woman herself has received local analgesic or general anesthesia.” LB 1103 is awaiting a public hearing date in the Judiciary Committee.
The third measure has to do with fixing a serious problem related to providing prenatal benefits under the state’s CHIP program (Children’s Health Insurance Program). CHIP provides health insurance coverage for impoverished children whose parents are not eligible for Medicaid.
Because of its focus on children, CHIP counts the unborn child as a family member for eligibility purposes. Medicaid does not allow this. Since Nebraska chose to implement the CHIP program by expanding Medicaid rather than establishing a separate CHIP program, the federal government recently notified our state that it can’t continue counting the unborn for eligibility purposes.
Consequently, on March 1, roughly 6000 pregnant women in Nebraska who currently qualify for CHIP (because their unborn children are counted) will no longer be able to qualify and will lose their prenatal care. Roughly 1000 are undocumented pregnant women who cannot get Medicaid but whose children can qualify for prenatal care under CHIP because they will be citizens when they are born.
This presents a couple of serious pro-life concerns. First, if these pregnant women lose their prenatal care, it could have terrible effects on the health of their unborn children. Second, losing prenatal coverage could cause some women to have abortions.
Fortunately, the research of several advocacy groups discovered that, with a slight change to our state’s Medicaid/CHIP program, the federal government will continue to fund prenatal care for these women. Our state’s health and human services officials are seeking legislative authority to make this change and there appears to be strong momentum in the Legislature to provide that authority.
Stay tuned for further updates and action alerts as the Legislative session moves forward.
I wouldn’t normally think to use a football metaphor to represent the abortion battle. However, the recent flap over a pro-life Super Bowl ad featuring Florida quarterback and Heisman trophy winner, Tim Tebow, begs its use.
The frantic efforts by pro-abortion groups to get CBS to reject the ad are a clear indication that they are on defense. News reports indicate that these groups are blitzing in hopes of sacking Tim Tebow and his life-affirming message.
According to Focus on the Family, which produced the ad, it will convey the story about Tebow’s mother Pam who rejected advice to abort Tim. Mrs. Tebow and her husband were serving as Christian missionaries when she conceived Tim.
After contracting and being treated for an intestinal infection, Mrs. Tebow was told that the medications caused irreversible damage to Tim and recommended that she have an abortion. She refused the abortion citing her Christian faith as the source of her hope that Tim would be okay. Tim was born healthy and has obviously done quite well since.
This is the life affirming story that pro-abortion fanatics are worried about and trying to squelch. Jehmu Greene, president of the Women’s Media Center said the ad will use “one story to subtly dictate morality to the American public” and “encourages women to disregard medical advice, potentially putting their lives at risk.”
“An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite,” she said, “has no place in the biggest national sports event.”
This response is pathetic—morally and intellectually impoverished. No advertisement is capable of dictating morality, subtly or otherwise. The ad will merely present a story about a woman who chose to give life to her unborn child even though the child may have been born with disabilities.
If the ad changes minds and hearts against abortion, it will do so by the compelling and inspiring nature of the story. The ad will not—and cannot—dictate morality as if it were capable of producing some kind of hypnotic, mind-changing trance.
The notion that the ad might encourage women to ignore medical advice that could put their lives at risk is equally ridiculous. Even if Tim did have disabilities as the doctors wrongly predicted, it is extremely unlikely that continuing the pregnancy would have endangered Mrs. Tebow’s life.
Furthermore, had the pregnancy truly endangered Mrs. Tebow’s life, abortion advocates are saying that a mother risking her life for her child is irresponsible and dangerous. Really? I thought that risking one’s life for another, especially one’s own child, was the ultimate expression of love. In fact, if parents didn’t risk their lives to save the life of their born child, most in our society would deem them to be irresponsible—at the very least.
Even the pro-abortion editorial board of the New York Times called the protest of this ad by abortion advocates “puzzling and dismaying.” In an official editorial titled “Super Bowl Censorship” the Times said abortion advocates are making “a lame attempt to portray the ad as life-threatening.” Those “would-be sensors” who “argue that even a mild discussion of such a divisive issue has no place in the marketing extravaganza known as the Super Bowl… are on the wrong track,” the editorial says.
Pro-lifers should be encouraged by these frantic efforts of abortion activists to censor a life-affirming message. It is another strong indication that they are on defense and worried about public opinion moving against abortion. And when abortion activists can’t even celebrate a mother who made a life-affirming choice, it’s proof positive that they are “pro-abortion” not “pro-choice.”
Last Friday, on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s abortion rulings (Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton), I attended the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. I joined thousands of others (one estimate was 300,000) in publicly witnessing against these rulings which legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and for virtually any reason.
The most powerful observation I had was how many young people participated in the March and its related events. On the morning of the March I attended a rally and Mass organized by Father Damien Cook, pro-life director for the Archdiocese of Omaha.
The event was attended by the 350 students and chaperones that Father Cook brought to the March in six buses! It was also attended by students and chaperones from four other dioceses in Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Ohio.
Roughly 1,300 people rocked the gym of Bishop McNamara Catholic High School in suburban Washington, D.C. The students were entertained and pumped up by a seminarian band, and by a bunch of innovative pro-life cheers that could only come from 20+ hours on a bus!
Following the rally, Archbishop George Lucas from Omaha and Bishop Michael Jackels from Wichita concelebrated a beautiful and holy Mass with numerous concelebrating priests. As I surveyed the crowd of teens singing, chanting and then praying with enthusiasm for the pro-life cause, I couldn’t help but get emotional.
It was an enormous gift of hope and encouragement for the future of the pro-life movement to witness this event. And this hope and encouragement was magnified by the fact that tens of thousands of other students were doing the same thing at the Verizon Center in D.C. as well as other venues around the area.
This enthusiasm for the pro-life cause spilled into the streets and National Mall leading up to the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. Prior to the start of the March, I positioned myself in a place where I could observe the marchers before jumping in with one of the Nebraska groups. The experience was breathtaking.
The first line of marchers came by about 2:15. Imagine the entire street filled with people, shoulder to shoulder. The packed line of marchers filed by me for more than an hour and a half before I finally jumped in. And there were still thousands of people behind me.
The unmistakable characteristic of the marchers was their youth. The vast majority of marchers were teens and young adults. Although, as usual, most of the secular media largely ignored the March and its youthful composition, Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney noticed it. Here is an excerpt from his story: “I went to the March for Life rally Friday on the Mall expecting to write about its irrelevance. Isn’t it quaint, I thought, that these abortion protesters show up each year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, even though the decision still stands after 37 years. What’s more, with a Democrat in the White House likely to appoint justices who support abortion rights, surely the Supreme Court isn’t going to overturn Roe in the foreseeable future. How wrong I was.
“The antiabortion movement feels it’s gaining strength, even if it’s not yet ready to predict ultimate triumph, and Roe supporters (including me) are justifiably nervous. In this case, I was especially struck by the large number of young people among the tens of thousands at the march. It suggests that the battle over abortion will endure for a long time to come.”
I have written many times about the current generation of teenagers and young adults (Generation Y) and its strong pro-life inclinations. This was on clear display at the March for Life. It is also, I believe, reflected in the declining number of abortions—especially among teenagers. And, I believe it is one of the reasons why Pope John Paul II said that the 21st Century would be a “springtime in the Church.”
Finally, those unable to go to D.C. for the national March for Life can stand up for life by attending the pro-life Mass and Walk for Life this Saturday, Jan. 30 in Lincoln. Archbishop George Lucas from Omaha and Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz will concelebrate a 9 a.m. Mass for Life at St. Mary Church (14th and K). The Walk for Life follows at 10 a.m. across the street on the west steps of the State Capitol.
Thirty-seven years ago today, the United States Supreme Court rocked our nation by declaring the killing of unborn children through abortion to be a fundamental Constitutional right. The aftermath is nothing short of catastrophic.
Since Jan. 22, 1973, well more than 50 million unborn babies have been killed by abortion in the U.S (more than 170,000 in Nebraska). Millions of mothers have been wounded psychologically, relationally, spiritually and physically. Millions more—fathers, grandparents, siblings, friends—have been wounded and our collective conscience as a society has been numbed by this unparalleled destruction and dehumanization of innocent human life.
In a February 1994 brief to the Supreme Court, Mother Teresa said “America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men.
“It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts-a child-as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered domination over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters.
“And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign.”
In 1995, Pope John Paul II also addressed the serious and unique challenge of abortion in his encyclical, Evangelium Vitae. He explained that among the myriad of attacks against human life throughout history, abortion represents “another category of attacks affecting life” and presents “new characteristics with respect to the past and which raise questions of extraordinary seriousness.”
“It is not only that in generalized opinion these attacks tend no longer to be considered as ‘crimes,’” John Paul said, “paradoxically they assume the nature of ‘rights’ to the point that the state is called upon to give them legal recognition and to make them available through the free services of health-care personnel.
“Such attacks strike human life at the time of its greatest frailty, when it lacks any means of self-defense. Even more serious is that fact that, most often those attacks are carried out in the very heart of and with the complicity of the family…which by its nature is called to be the ‘sanctuary of life.’” (EV #11)
On this anniversary of Roe, it is important to remember that reversing Roe is not the ultimate goal of the pro-life movement. In fact, making abortion illegal is not our ultimate goal. Making abortion unthinkable is our ultimate goal.
To reach this goal, we certainly must address the injustices and behaviors that result in the killing of unborn children. This includes promoting adoption, ensuring that mothers who choose to parent a child have the resources they need, insisting that employers and educational institutions don’t force mothers to choose between children and socio-economic development.
And, as John Paul said in Evangelium Vitae (#97): “It is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not help the young to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection… The trivialization of sexuality is among the principal factors which have led to contempt for new life. Only a true love is able to protect life.”
To make abortion unthinkable we must address all of these matters. But even if doing so would eliminate the incidence of abortion, justice would still demand that unborn human beings be recognized and protected as full persons in our laws. For this to happen, Roe must go.
Making medical decisions about our care or the care of a loved one, with fidelity to our Catholic faith, can be among the toughest decisions we’ll make in our lives. And as medical technology advances and the baby boom generation ages, the frequency of such decision is likely to increase.
Fortunately, the Catholic Church, through its bishops, provides the moral guidance we need to make medical treatment decisions in accord with our responsibility as Christians. For example, the Nebraska Catholic Conference, which represents the mutual interests of the Bishops of Nebraska, issued a document many years ago entitled “Medical-Treatment Decisionmaking: Moral Guidance and Considerations from Catholic Teaching.”
The document’s introduction presents the basic foundation for our moral obligation to be responsible stewards of our lives:
“The Catholic Church affirms the sanctity and dignity of every human life as a precious gift of a loving God. All men and women must respect the lives of others while accepting the duties of responsible stewardship for their own lives and for the lives in their care.
“At the same time, however, faith in the resurrection and hope for eternal life have enabled the Catholic tradition to accept death as the inevitable end to temporal life and to believe that death is the gateway to eternal life. It is for this reason that there is no obligation to utilize all possible medical interventions, all possible means of prolonging life. Death need not be avoided at all costs.
“Although Catholic teaching does not look upon biological life as an absolute value, nevertheless it rejects suicide, assisted suicide and mercy killing because they are intrinsically opposed to the reverence for life that Christians are called upon to manifest and express. Compassion and care for dying and seriously ill or disabled persons must never include the willingness to assist in the direct ending of their lives.”
In other words, by applying Catholic teaching on the meaning of life, suffering and death to the use of life-sustaining technology we can avoid two extremes: withholding or withdrawing technology with the intention of causing death on the one hand, and insisting on useless or disproportionately burdensome treatment to avoid death at all costs on the other hand.
Presumably, most decisions that individuals or families must make about whether to utilize or forego medical treatment fall somewhere between the extremes. Therefore, the document provides this basic moral principle to assist us in determining whether a medical intervention is morally required or morally optional:
“If a particular medical intervention is necessary or useful for the preservation of life or restoration of health, it is ethically ordinary and there is a moral obligation to use it. If, however, a particular medical intervention is analyzed and judged by the patient to be useless (offering no reasonable hope of benefit) or excessively burdensome, it is ethically extraordinary and therefore morally optional.”
A particularly vexing question that has garnered much attention since the tragic killing of Terri Schiavo is whether to provide artificially-administered nutrition and hydration (ANH) to patients in a so-called “persistent vegetative state”. The Church has a longstanding teaching, reflected in several documents, that nutrition and hydration should be provided as part of any patient’s normal care, even when the assistance of medical intervention is necessary. This obligation, however, does not apply if the provision of ANH is clinically useless or causes excessive burdens to the patient.
This teaching, specifically applied to persons in a so-called persistent vegetative state, was confirmed in a 2004 allocution by Pope John Paul II. In an address to participants at the International Congress on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State”, John Paul said that “the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act.”
As a result of John Paul’s allocution, last November the U.S. Bishops revised their document “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” to say this: “In principle, there is an obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally. This obligation extends to patients in…the ‘persistent vegetative state’” unless such provision becomes useless or “excessively burdensome for the patient”.
The Catholic Conference’s document is available online at www.nebcathcon.org. The document, along with sample healthcare power of attorney forms, can also be obtained from my office.
For weeks Sen. Ben Nelson assured the pro-life community that he wouldn’t support a health care bill unless it contained longstanding federal policy that prohibits funding of abortion and health plans that cover abortion. He even provided some leadership by introducing an amendment to the Senate’s healthcare bill that, had it been adopted, would have accomplished that goal.
Before and after that failed amendment, the pro-life movement thanked and encouraged Sen. Nelson for his seemingly firm resolution in predicating his support for the healthcare bill (at least in large part) on it prohibiting funding of abortions and health plans that cover abortion.
In the end, on Dec. 19, he capitulated to pressure by the Democratic leadership and embraced abortion funding language that would expand the federal government’s role of enabling abortions and force citizens to pay for others’ abortions.
In a statement issued that same day, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said that this new abortion language “does not seem to allow purchasers who exercise freedom of choice or of conscience to ‘opt out’ of abortion coverage in federally subsidized health plans that include such coverage.
“Instead it will require purchasers of such plans to pay a distinct fee or surcharge which is extracted solely to help pay for other people’s abortions. Further, the government agency that currently manages health coverage for federal employees will promote and help subsidize multi-state health plans that include elective abortions, contrary to longstanding law governing this agency.”
Nelson defends his language by claiming it will at least prevent federal funds from paying directly for abortions. But his claim is based on a flimsy bookkeeping gimmick which would require all who enroll in a plan that covers abortion (not just those who want abortion coverage) to make a separate payment into an account that will pay for abortions.
This provision means that Americans could be forced to choose between a health plan that doesn’t cover abortions but doesn’t fit their needs and a plan that fits their needs but forces them to make a separate payment specifically to pay for other people’s abortions. That would be a deplorable situation for pro-life Americans.
The Bishops of Nebraska also issued a statement following Sen. Nelson’s vote expressing disappointment and urging opposition to the bill as it stands now. “We are extremely disappointed in Senator Ben Nelson’s decision to accept language in the Senate health care bill that would expand the federal government’s role of enabling abortions and force citizens to pay for others’ abortions,” the Bishops said.
“Senator Nelson gave numerous public assurances that he would insist on abortion-funding language consistent with longstanding federal policies,” the Bishops continued. “Unfortunately, the language he accepted for the so-called ‘manager’s amendment’ fails to fulfill these assurances.” The Bishops concluded that “given its serious problems with abortion funding, this Senate bill should be opposed.”
Now that the Senate passed its healthcare bill, the next step would normally be for a “conference committee” (appointed representatives from the House and Senate) to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate bills and then send a final bill back to both Houses for a final vote. This will likely happen in early January.
Thanks to Congressman Bart Stupak and a coalition of 39 pro-life House Democrats, the House bill has strong language that prohibits funding of elective abortions and health plans that cover abortion. Congressman Stupak expressed strong opposition to Sen. Nelson’s abortion funding language and said that he and his coalition of pro-life Democrats will oppose the final healthcare bill if it doesn’t include the Stupak language.
Please pray and fast that Congressman Stupak and his coalition will not capitulate to a likely full-court press by the Democratic leadership pressuring them to abandon their pro-life language. And, if you haven’t already, I urge you to express your disappointment (respectfully) to Sen. Nelson for embracing unacceptable abortion funding language and to urge him to oppose the final bill unless it contains the House bill’s Stupak language.
