Students for LIfe’s Kristan Hawkins
Let’s say the COVID-19 vaccine had these side effects:
- Cramping and vaginal bleeding should be expected.
- Sometimes the bleeding is so heavy that surgery may be necessary.
- Nausea, weakness, fever, chills, vomiting, headaches, diarrhea, and dizziness are common the first two days after getting the vaccine.
- Adverse consequences include hospitalization and blood transfusions to address excessive bleeding.
- Physicians report that hysterectomies following complications from taking the COVID-19 vaccine have occurred.
- Women have even died from it.
IF this vaccine, which has so dominated the news in recent months, had side effects like these, do you think the FDA would be rushing to approve it and subject women to it?
Of course, we’re NOT actually talking about the COVID vaccine, are we? We’re talking about RU-486, ‘the abortion pill’.
The side effects listed above are cited by Students for Life’s Kristan Hawkins in a December 12th essay published by Real Clear Politics. She reports that California’s Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, calls for the expansion and deregulation of this dangerous abortion inducing drug.
Becerra has convinced 21 additional state attorneys general, including Iowa’s Tom Miller, to:
“join him in pressuring the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration to drop health and safety standards for the pills.”
Hawkins continues:
“As the Biden administration has now nominated Becerra to head HHS, it’s seems clear that the current advice of medical professionals at the FDA will be ignored and that common-sense health and safety standards known as a REMS (risk evaluation and mitigation strategy) to reduce the death and injury rate of women undergoing abortions are now at risk.”
RU-486 is poison for women and the babies they carry in their wombs. The new HHS Secretary is driven to politicize the poison and expand its tentacles to more at-risk women, including Iowa women.
How bad is it? As Hawkins reports, one woman described her experience like this:
“I wish they told me these pills wouldn’t end the baby’s life. It came out in a sack, with all the limbs and eyes … heart still beating. If I knew that would be the outcome, I would’ve never done it.”
Abby Johnson characterized it like this:
“My bathroom looked like a crime scene.”
This is what we can look forward to from the incoming administration.
Tomorrow, Iowans for LIFE will reveal the results of our survey asking people if they’ll take the new COVID-19 vaccine, which is just beginning to be rolled out.
[Support IFL’s pro-life educational outreach. Make a donation today. Thank-you.]
[This is the third in a series of profiles on pivotal figures in the abortion debate. Be sure to read our previous profiles on Margaret Sanger and Larry Lader.]
Linda Couri wants those who attend her presentation to see the face of a Planned Parenthood counselor and understand compassion drew her to work for the organization. Couri is an LCSW, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She is bright, serious and thoughtful. Her work as a volunteer and then counselor for Planned Parenthood ultimately ended with her decision to reject abortion and leave the organization, but she believes her experience can help others understand the commitment and loyalty of millions to the pro-choice cause.
Couri describes what initially led to a position within the Planned Parenthood organization. As a college student at Drake University, she relied on their clinic for basic screenings and tests, and by her account the staff created a supportive and affirming environment. She respected them for educating young people on reproductive and sexual issues and advocating for women.
A community of shared mission
As an employee, Couri describes a workplace of dedicated colleagues and a community of shared experience and mission. She recalls her coworkers, her fellow “worker bees,” as some of the kindest people she has ever known. Like most of her peers, they were “idealistic, motivated and ready to change the world.” She worked with women willing to forgo better employment simply for the chance to be part of what they considered a vital cause.
To further explain the profile of many of the clinic employees, she offers insight into her own. Couri describes herself as possessing a “liberal” temperament. In her words, by simple definition, she prefers “compassion to standards.” Building on that profile, she recalls as a young woman being “absolutely baffled by the statement ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions.'” In her worldview, intention ruled as the measure of virtue and actions taken, and in a world without objective truth, “what I willed and intended to be good, was good.” Her assessment of religious, pro-life people, although she had been raised “marginally Catholic,” was unsparing- “dull, unforgiving and anti-intellectual.”
Personal and professional
The community of shared experience Couri described at Planned Parenthood had two components, one personal and one professional. The first, the personal, was her past decision to undergo an abortion, an experience she said she shared with other women who worked for the pro-choice cause.
Couri was in graduate school and in a relationship with a new boyfriend when she discovered she was pregnant. She initially resolved to keep the baby as the responsible course, but then recalls the moment when, after a few weeks of unrelenting anxiety, she realized, “I can have an abortion.” She recounts “it was such a wave of psychological relief it verged on feeling right.” It would be anonymous and immediate. The power of a relatively simple procedure to lift the burden and end the crisis was overwhelming. It allowed her to “switch off the voice that was asking ‘what about the baby’?”
With the support of a close friend and her boyfriend she had the abortion, and by her account was “fine.” “And fine for the 11 years that followed. So fine I was a volunteer and eventually counselor at Planned Parenthood.”
A decision to leave
It was events over the course of her professional time as counselor at Planned Parenthood that affirmed her appreciation for her clinic community but ultimately led to her decision to leave. She describes three that were the most consequential, creating what she describes as the “dissonance” that increasingly become a feature of her professional life.
Couri describes the vivid memory of a 16 year-old girl, frantic with news of a positive pregnancy test, who she had been called to counsel. Couri carefully stepped through the options, ending with what she considered the best for the circumstance, abortion. As she concluded her discussion with the girl, “she surprised me as she reached out and touched my arm and asked, ‘can you please just tell me if I’m killing my baby’?” Couri was aware of her ethical and professional responsibility, she and had no doubt the procedure ended a human life, but chose to present it as “you are terminating the products of conception.” The description eased the concerns of the girl enough to proceed with the abortion. Following the exchange, Couri was disturbed and reached out to a supervisor. Together, they discussed the incident, and acknowledged abortion was a “necessary evil, a reasonable sacrifice to protect the lives and interests of women.”
Next, a long-time clinic worker of 20 years-“a really nice, lovely woman,” came to her following an abortion procedure, tearfully apologizing for her reaction while confessing her distress at “‘seeing a little hand’ in the collection of tissue.” They consoled each other but affirmed their commitment, “resolving that what they did was right and good.”
‘What have I done?’
Finally, one day she noticed an unread stack of journals left in the recovery room for women to record their abortion experience. No one had collected them so she gathered them up thinking they could potentially be a resource for future doctoral research. Although women reported relief at undergoing the procedure, Couri was completely unprepared ‘‘for the crazy, scrawling writing, the ‘oh my god what have I done?’ of many others.” She went to the manager and they discussed the problem at length, the manager even suggesting there could be funding for post-abortive care, but Couri found the likelihood of making those contacts next to impossible.
Reconnecting with her faith
In the years since her time at Planned Parenthood Linda Couri has reconnected with her religious faith and found the courage to face down the unyielding dissonance she experienced in her personal life as a result of her abortion. Her description of moving from pro-choice to pro-life is as thoughtful as her description of her time as a dedicated employee of Planned Parenthood, and just as insightful. She describes many challenges, from admitting the pain of her abortion to overcoming the challenge of finding new friends and associates as she faced the rejection of those she once admired. As an academic and accomplished professional, gaining the humility to accept that what she previously believed and counseled was wrong, and an assault on those she hoped to serve, was a great personal challenge. She credits her participation in the Project Rachel program for eventually finding the peace and restoration she sought.
Couri closes her presentation by returning, for emphasis, to what she knows and has lived-that “pro-choice is an identity, an ideology” as well as culture and community of shared experience. And the movement “is made up of millions . . . like myself, who have made the choice for abortion” or participate in facilitating it, all deeply invested in the cause as a consequence.
Linda Couri asks us again to remember it was compassion that initially drew her to Planned Parenthood. It is her hope that as compassion is a virtue common to both sides of the debate, it may be a starting point for discussions that can gain ground with our pro-choice sisters and brothers.
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We’re receiving phone calls from concerned pro-lifers seeking insights on the upcoming availability of a COVID-19 vaccine. Two questions abound: were fetal cells of aborted babies used in the process of testing and manufacturing these medicines; and if yes, is it moral to take them?
Let’s take a closer look with information reported by the Charlotte Lozier Institute:
How many vaccine candidates received “Operation Warp Speed” funding and were submitted to the FDA for emergency use approval? Eight. They include Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novavaxab, Sanofi, Inovio, and Merck.
Pfizer and Moderna have their emergency use FDA application pending. The others are still in phase trials.
Do any of these companies use abortion-derived cell lines in the development and production of this vaccine? Yes: AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. The rest do not.
Did any of these companies conduct lab testing using abortion-derived cell lines? We don’t know about Sanofi or Merck. AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson did use abortion-derived cell lines. The rest used a combination of testing that did and did not use abortion-derived cells.
Is it ethical to receive a vaccine made possible by utilizing abortion-derived cell lines in either the testing or manufacturing process of the vaccine? The Iowa Catholic Conference quoted the USCCB Committees on Pro-life and Doctrine:
People may in good conscience use the vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, which made only limited use of those unethical cell lines (for lab testing of the vaccine).
Morally speaking, the vaccine offered by these two companies is relatively remote from the evil of abortion, and so need not trouble anyone’s conscience to use either one.
In contrast, some other companies use a cell line from the fetal tissue of an aborted baby in the design, development, production, and lab testing of their COVID vaccines.
If possible, those vaccines should not be used. If there is no alternative available, however, people may in good faith use them against the serious health risk of COVID.
The common good of public health takes precedence over any reservation about being treated with vaccines; they will not be effective if people do not use them.
Since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines don’t use abortion-derived cell lines in the production process, are they morally superior to the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson products that do, even considering that all use these lines in testing? In other words, is their an ethical hierarchy among vaccines?
The National Catholic Bioethics Center says yes:
The NCBC recognizes an ethical hierarchy among COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines that do not use abortion-derived cell lines in any phase of design, manufacture or testing are the best ethical choice if they are reasonably available, safe, and effective. Vaccines that do not use abortion-derived cell lines in the manufacturing process but did use them at one point in development, such as for confirmatory testing, are preferable to those that utilize abortion-derived cell lines in more than one phase of development and, in particular, in the manufacturing process.
So should people of conscience and faith take this vaccine in light of the terrible impact the pandemic has had on the world?
The NCBC concurs with the USCCB:
Nonetheless, for grave reasons, people could decide in good conscience to accept vaccines that use abortion-derived cell lines in their development and production to protect their own lives and health and that of others in the absence of any satisfactory alternative.
Should you take this vaccine under protest? The NCBC says yes, but only after careful discernment. And your carefully formed conscience may prevent you from moving forward with the vaccination:
The use of an ethically problematic vaccine, however, may be done only “under protest.” A person who discerns in conscience that he or she can take such a vaccine has an obligation to make known his or her opposition to abortion and the use of abortion-derived cell lines.
People may legitimately discern in conscience that they cannot use a vaccine with some connection to abortion and such a refusal can be a courageous witness to help build a culture of life. The Catholic Church neither requires nor forbids the use of ethically problematic vaccines, but instead urges people to discern what decision to make after having carefully formed their consciences about the moral and prudential issues surrounding the vaccines that become available.
How can we lodge our protest to these pharmaceutical giants for using abortion-derived cell lines in testing? Pfizer provides good contact information here. You can actually reach their directors. Be respectful. Be clear. Be concise. Moderna provides only general contact information here.
Iowans for LIFE will continue to monitor the progress of these vaccines. Be sure to subscribe to our blog to remain informed.
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By Maggie DeWitte
Well, here we are. It’s not where we wanted to be tonight, but none-the-less, here it is. Thank you so much for joining us! Thank you to our generous sponsors and a special thanks to Karen and Tom Quiner who helped put this production forward.
Our opening song this evening was written by no other than Mr. Quiner himself as well another song you will be hearing tonight called The Christmas Lullaby. What an amazing talent he is and IFL is blessed to have him on our team.
I know we are all anxiously awaiting with hope a time when mask-free visits can occur; let me tell you I am ready to give people some hugs. Heck, I will be giving strangers hugs when all is said and done!
Psalm 27 tells us not to fear
We are living in a challenging time right now. What keeps coming back to me is FEAR. We know as Christians, that we are not to live in fear. Scripture tells us this clearly in Psalm 27:1-3:
“The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh – my adversaries and foes – they stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; Though war rise up against me, even then do I trust.”
We simply cannot live in fear. In reflecting on my remarks this evening, the word fear came to me loud and clear, but a prayer also came to me. It’s a prayer that I have a love/hate relationship with. In fact, I have it hanging on my wall in my office as a constant reminder to pray it. It’s called the Litany of Humility.
In part, it asks Jesus to deliver us from the fear of being humiliated, despised, rebuked, forgotten, ridiculed, wronged, or suspected.
We desperately need Jesus to deliver us from our fears and humbly walk in His path. I encourage you to pray it and pray it often! And in walking in His path, I have the privilege of sharing with you all the great work IFL has done this last year! I start with the 2020 Legislative Session….
The Legislative Session
The beginning of the session, we worked hard in garnering support for the Protect Life Amendment; the best and most direct path toward undoing the judicial overreach in 2018.
For those not quite up to speed, the pro-life movement in the state of Iowa was finally seeing some major successes. We began with the 20-week abortion ban and 72-hour waiting period. While the 20-week abortion ban became law, the 72-hour part of the bill was immediately contested by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.
While this lawsuit worked its way through the court, the next legislative session we passed the first in the nation Heartbeat law. After this bill was signed into law, the court finally made their ruling on the 72-hour waiting period. The court ruled the law unconstitutional and that it was an undue burden for women. However, they went a step further in creating law: they determined that we had a fundamental right to abortion in our Iowa Constitution.
Fundamental right, you ask? Yes, here is the evidence of a right to abortion in the constitution.
[Holds up blank notebook.]
May the dogma live loudly within you!
Yes, I copied that from my new BFF Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. She doesn’t know we are BFF’s, but that’s fine. As a side, her confirmation was the bright light at the end of this seemingly dark tunnel of 2020…. May the Dogma Live Loudly in each of you! My new favorite phrase.
Getting back to this devastating ruling, the Iowa Supreme Court effectively took the role of creating law out of the hands of our duly elected legislators and took it upon themselves to determine the law of the land in the great state of Iowa.
Because of this ruling, the heartbeat law never went into effect. A Polk County District Judge ruled on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade that because of this 72-hour ruling, the Heartbeat bill was ruled unconstitutional.
It was clear; an amendment to the constitution the only way that we could be assured that if or when Roe vs. Wade falls and abortion law is given back to the individual states, that Iowa would not become the mecca of abortion in our country.
The Protect Life Amendment passed the Senate. It passed out of the House subcommittee and committee but was stalled on the floor vote.
COVID disrupts the session
Then due to Covid-19, the session would be suspended. When session resumed, we learned that the amendment would not move forward and that the House was now presenting a new pro-life bill, a 24-hour waiting period before obtaining an abortion.
Unfortunately, The Protect Life Amendment failed to pass. The hope is that the 24-Hour bill will attempt to do what our Protect Life Amendment was to do – reverse the 2018 court ruling.
Right on cue, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a hearing for an injunction on the bill. The judge granted the motion, and the bill will not go into effect at this time in Iowa.
In the meantime, Iowans for LIFE and the Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders will continue to push for The Protect Life Amendment in the 2021 session. IFL will be working and educating as we have done for the last 48 years in the state of Iowa. This also includes educating on the new pilot program in Iowa to have the dangerous RU-486 abortion pill mailed to women in Iowa through the US Postal System. I hope you will stand with us as we continue this battle.
March for Life update
As you all know, IFL has been leading the charge in taking Iowans to the March for Life for well over 30 years. This last year was a monumental event in that the first time ever, a sitting president, President Donald Trump, addressed the March for Life in person – the largest march in the country that occurs every year.
It was a historic event, and I was proud that IFL was able to bring Iowans, particularly our young people, to witness this moment in history!
As Covid entered our world, it was heavy on my heart as to whether we could safely offer our trip to DC. With regret, we determined that this year we would not be able to provide this mission pilgrimage. However, true to how IFL has operated for over 48 years, we adapted to this situation, and I am excited to announce that in 2021 we will offer a local Iowans for LIFE March here in Des Moines.
You are invited
We invite you to join us on Saturday January 9 at the Iowa State Capitol at 10am for our march for life! We will have more details on our website in the coming weeks and I hope you will join us – even in the cold, and even in the snow. Because we need to be present, we need to bear witness, and we need to be a voice for the thousands of Iowa boys and girls who have been snuffed out of their mother’s womb.
IFL is an educational leader
Iowans for LIFE is the leader on educating Iowans on the life issues of our time. We are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to combat this culture of death. Last year, we introduced you to our Pro-Life Apologetics Tool Kit. We assembled the top 20 most common arguments made on the topic of abortion and concise answers to those arguments. It was so successful we decided to add to it this year. Our newest project is to take these life topics and put them to video. Here now is an example of our work:
[Video plays]
You will be seeing more of these videos in the coming months, so if you are not following IFL on social media, please do. We want to equip you with the tools necessary to engage your friends and neighbors on this most important issue. It takes everyone having these conversations; and IFL is there to help!
Although we were not able to have the Iowa State Fair this year, be assured we used this time to think of bigger and better ways to reach Iowans next year! And don’t forget our Respect Life Curriculum for schools and churches. IFL will continue to promote our curriculum throughout Iowa!
Hope abounds!
Its easy to get discouraged by the never-ending hits that 2020 has given us all; Don’t! There is hope. We should try our best to follow the words of my favorite saint, St. Padre Pio, Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry.
In Iowa, the election went exceptionally well for the pro-life movement. Coupled with a newly constituted Iowa and US Supreme Court, we have many things to look forward to, even despite a potential Biden presidency looming around us.
But we know that the battle is not won just in elections, legislation, or law. The battle is won by changing the hearts and minds of every human being we encounter.
Every. Single. One.
Food for thought …
For those who have attended our banquets in the past, you know that I like to leave you with something to think about, and it is usually from someone much smarter and more well spoken than I. Tonight, it is St. John Henry Newman. Please consider these words for yourself as I read them:
“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.”
Be a link in our pro-life chain. Preach the truth of life, even when it’s difficult. You all have a mission friends- do your part and rest assured Iowans for LIFE will be right by your side helping you all along the way.
Thank you!
[You can watch our Gala in its entirety on this website. If you’re able, please make a tax-deductible donation. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog!]
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By Bishop William Joensen
I am pleased to join you as bishop and pastor of the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, as a brother in Christ, and a witness to the dignity of every human life. While we would obviously prefer to be together in person sharing a meal and feasting on the musical fare our fine musicians serve us tonight, we are grateful that we can draw together virtually and deepen our unity as Iowans for Life.
We know that it is a scientific fact that when we look to the skies and behold the heavenly lights, we may be seeing stars that have long since been extinguished. But to us, they “live,” exist, even if only in a sort of cosmic memory. In the Scriptures, when the word of the Lord comes to Abram and tells him to “look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can,” it is not an exercise in imagination or futility (see Gen. 15:5). Abram’s faith lifts our sights to the stars, whose light does not primarily reflect what is past, but points to the future: to the furthest generation of descendants who will keep God’s promise alive, and in the process, reveal and fulfill God’s glory. We cannot count all the stars in the sky, for which perhaps some first light has yet to be received. We cannot ultimately eclipse the glory of God, who continues to bring forth children in fact and in faith, and to transform them by Spirit ever more into the image of his Son.
What is God’s glory?
Oh, in every generation there are those who try to conceal or suppress God’s glory by either stealing the spotlight for themselves or by trying to extinguish the light reflected off of every human face that bears God’s image and likeness. Such people are often consumed by their own arrogance; mostly they are unaware of the glory of God– such people need purgation which can be achieved by delving deeper into Church Resources or pursuing Bible studies.
Upon going through the resources, they would know that glory is the burning reality of God’s holy presence, radiating God’s simple, infinite perfection. For human beings, even hiddenness, littleness, the disarming vulnerability of the royal child is the shekinah, the sacred cloud that at first conceals, but then wonderfully reveals the glorious artistry of a God who won’t sit back and watch us like some cosmic babysitter who gets distracted and then decides to let the angels run the show. There are good angels, and there are fallen angels. The latter enlist those who seek to squelch glory in the person of their sisters and brothers, and in the process cut themselves off from all light and hope.
“Glory be to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests,” sing the angels at Bethlehem. Christianity, as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us, has always understood that the speech of angels is song, in which all the glory of the great joy they proclaim becomes tangibly present” (Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, p. 73). How angels sing without vocal cords is among the minor mysteries connected with Christmas. But surely, to be turned toward God, delighting in what God wills with the fullness of one’s being, imaging God as he ordains without hesitation, fear, or duplicity, is a sort of metaphysical music-to God’s ears, and to whomever is joined with us in like chorus or ensemble. The angels can do no less. William Blake suggests, “It is not because angels are holier than men or devils that makes them angels, but because they do not expect holiness from one another, but from God only” (internet source).
The new ark of a covenant
We humans, except for Mary, the blessed woman who trusts God with all her being, and for those who know keep company with her in heaven, still have a ways to go along the path of holiness, beatitude. Mary is not a marsupial creature like a kangaroo or bandicoot, who carries offspring and nurtures them external to her own body-being. Mary enfleshes Jesus within, and becomes the new ark of a covenant in which God’s glory enfolds her. Later, after his birth, through his death and resurrection, until her own assumption, she will later take every audible note, every gesture, every encounter with her Son, to heart. We, too, must be entirely transformed by the Lord who is Spirit, replenished with grace, from within, until all is completed in Christ, the ruler and king long prophesied, who will then hand over all things to his heavenly Father.
Peace on earth is possible only because God has visited his people in the person of his Son, the royal child. Jesus did not refuse childhood; in embracing infancy he accepted our infirmity, our disability, our ambivalence in tendering kindness and respect to one another. The deterioration of cultures and cities results when the truth of human dignity splendidly revealed by God-inscribed in the most genuine human, Jesus Christ-is not at the center of civic order. Isn’t that what the Summer of 2020 has reminded us all too vividly, as we witnessed the asphyxiation of George Floyd and other acts of lethal force fomented and intensified by racial differences?
As we try to get our bearings and seek out renewed reservoirs of peace, we hearken back to the Hebrew Bible, to 2 Samuel 7, when King David, having come into his own, aimed to build God a dwelling worthy of his Name, when the prophet Nathan received the message meant for David and for us, who feel ourselves afflicted and troubled by pandemic, by social unrest, by natural calamity seemingly connected with our disregard for our neighbor and creation? “The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. . . I will raise up an heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.” And Isaiah amplifies our expectations in chapter 11 as the prophet speaks of the shoot that shall sprout from the stump of Jesse. This child shall not judge by appearances, or rely on hearsay. “He shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. . . . Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.”
The ‘Magna Carta’ of our salvation
Here is the magna carta of our salvation, the encoding of the promise from which issues the Royal Child about whom we sing tonight. God approaches us in our own personal history; God cannot resist intimacy with us in his longing for perfect presence. The Father unveils his mercy in the Royal Child Jesus foretold and made real in Mary, the blessed woman who readily believes, boldly hopes, and ceaselessly sings her hymn that magnifies God’s greatness and favor to her-to us.
Before he became Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio invoked some rather bracing imagery to describe the process of transformation we must still undergo as individual persons and as a people: “We rejoice in letting God’s scalpel fashion us a face, even if it effaces certain grins we were fond of”! (In Him Alone is Our Hope, p. 67). And is his most recent message to the world as pope, Fratelli Tutti/ “Fraternity and Social Friendship,” Francis challenges what he calls a “throwaway culture,” a “throwaway world”:
“Some parts of our human family, it appears, can be readily sacrificed for the sake of others considered worthy of a carefree existence. Ultimately, ‘persons are no longer seen as a paramount value to be cared for and respected, especially when they are poor and disabled, ‘not yet useful’-like the unborn, or ‘no longer needed’-like the elderly” (FT n. 18).
The ‘hidden exiles’
Further, he mentions “some of those ‘hidden exiles’ who are treated as foreign bodies in society. Many persons with disabilities ‘feel that they exist without belonging and without participating’. . . . Our concern should be not only to care for them but to ensure their ‘active participation in the . . . community. That is a demanding and even tiring process, yet one that will gradually contribute to the formation of consciences capable of acknowledging each individual as a unique and unrepeatable person.” He concludes, “I think, too, of ‘the elderly who, also due to their disability, are sometimes considered a burden’. Yet each of them is able to offer ‘a unique contribution to the common good through their remarkable life stories” (FT n. 98).
I may share the Holy Father’s Catholic Christian faith, but I have referred earlier to the play of nature and grace. Here I would like to emphasize that as humans endowed with senses and reason, intellect and will, we cannot claim we do not have access to the perception of human dignity inhering in every member of the “Royal Family” who shares the same humanity that Jesus adopted. There is an intuition available to everyone who is inclined to the truth, to goodness and beauty radiating from every human person. The renowned French Geneticist Jerȏme Lejeune, who discovered the Trisomy 21 genotype that is causally responsible for Down’s Syndrome, was a man who believed there was no inherent tension between faith and science. On the one hand, he observed, “Faith tells us to respect the image of God; hope helps us to defend it; charity judges all” (Life is a Blessing, p. 111). Yet with biblically poetic flair, he also contends: “Modern genetics can be summed up in an elementary creed as follows: in the beginning is a message, and the message is in life and the message is life. A veritable paraphrase of the first sentence of a very old book that you know well, this creed is still the creed of even the most materialist geneticist” (LB 44).
He further affirms the accessibility to natural human reason regarding the goods and values that should inform our choices involving the generation of life, our way of loving one another as male and female, and our defense of life at every stage of development:
“To dissociate the child from love is, for our species, a methodological error: contraception, which is to make love without making a child; artificial/in vitro fertilization, which is to make a child without making love; abortion, which is unmake the child; and pornography, which is to unmake love: all these to varying degrees, are incompatible with natural law” (LB p. 31).
Faith and reason are natural partners
Faith and science, reason and the heart: these are not strange bedfellows but natural partners, immanent co-principles our creator God has instilled in us. We need not speak abstractly, but relate the compelling account of Sally Read, a nurse and one-time non-believer who writes to her eventual daughter in the context of reflecting on the annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to Mary, the mother of Jesus. She speaks in the first person to her daughter as she recalls that early in her pregnancy, she was burdened by anxiety to the point of being unable to swallow food, and so she took the drug prescribed by her doctor that might help. “It would have no negative consequences on any pregnancy, she reassured me, when I told her that we were trying to have a baby.” She did the math, and realized that she ingested the pill in her earliest days after conception. She looked up the drug online, and read that the pill could cause a harelip in children whose mothers took it in the first trimester of pregnancy. She called a friend in dry-mouthed panic, who suggested she have an abortion. “Why don’t you begin again with a clean slate?” Sally Read observes that she was not against abortion then, and would have certainly defined her daughter as a little “cluster of cells” at that point. But in spite of this easy solution, nothing within her could consent to it. She had the insight that no pregnancy was perfect-that nothing was perfect. As she fitfully tossed and turned, a word came to her: “Trust.”
“As an atheist, it was a word I was totally unfamiliar with. . . I felt a certain lightness. I could not bear this alone and had no control. . . It was a fleeting sensation, but it was a foretaste of the trust I would later put in God.”
The calm did not last, and she sought another physician friend who reassured her that one pill was unlikely to do damage, and that many women did things in pregnancy they regretted.” ” ‘Welcome,’ my Jewish doctor friend told me, ‘to the guilt of motherhood. It begins now, and it never ends.'” Hardly good news, but Read found in her words the beginning of her own personal fiat that was an atheistic echo of Mary’s: she acknowledged her powerlessness; she accepted chaos and imperfection with its inherent call to suffering: a letting go and step out into darkness. Yet it was also the moment when she began to fall in love with her nascent daughter, to know her and to lose her heart completely. “You see how important flesh can be?” (Annunciation: A Call to Faith in a Broken World, pp. 87-90).
Uncertain times
For all human persons, for all Americans, for all Iowans, these are uncertain times, filled with chaos and imperfection, darkness and the call to deeper trust in the transitional process of executive administrations that is far from seamless or secure. The presumptive president-elect portends changes in policies dealing with immigration and DACA, access to affordable health care, international and race relations, and renewable energy. Some of these changes may sit well with many of us. But as Iowans for Life, we are profoundly disturbed with the preliminary indications regarding the defense of human life-particularly that of the unborn. The eroding of conscience protections, the reinstitution of Title X and United Nations Population Fund funding for Planned Parenthood and similar organizations, the retreat from the Mexico City Policy, the overturning of the longstanding Hyde amendment, the restoration of the HHS mandate, and the promise to seek to codify Roe v. Wade in federal law: all raise a spectre and send a shiver down the spine of every apostle of life, every witness to the truth of the dignity of all members of our race.
Such policies strike us as inherently, structurally racist in themselves, as abortion has massively disproportionate effects upon women of color in the U.S., both African American and Hispanic. These policies would substantially reduce births to women of color to a much greater extent than births to European-American women. Who are the enlightened ones? Who are the true champions of diversity? Certain not politicians or their supporters who seek to enact such regressive changes.
God’s enduring promises
Fortitude, political advocacy, prayer-fueled faith in God’s enduring promises made to Abram, to David, to the people of Israel and to us, their descendants, AND great patience are called for; the Spirit of God will supply all these needed qualities in abundance. With holy boldness, we will not be daunted, as tonight we dare to sing of a Royal Child who is both Savior and King. There is a holy compact between the act of listening to music, and the cause of life in our chapter of salvation history. Balthasar observes: “You cannot interrupt music in order to catch and hoard it. Let it flow and flee, otherwise you cannot grasp it. You cannot condense it into one beautiful chord and thus possess it once and for all. Patience is the first virtue of the one who wants to perceive. And the second is renunciation. For look: you cannot grasp the melody’s flight until its last note has sounded. . . Only what has set in the ear can rise in the heart” (Heart of the World, p. 24).
Patience both embraces and endures longing as it awaits the vindication of the Royal Child who shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. We press on until the last note of God’s saving plan is sung. God’s justice AND mercy are magnified in the hearts of women, men, and children whose image the Spirit continues to shape and raise in relief. We wonder. . . and we wait for what God’s enduring love will do next. As we listen tonight we long to hear you yourself declare, God, even by a baby’s cry, “I am here,” in the midst of an otherwise silent night.
[Many thanks to Bishop William Joensen for his keynote address at Iowans for LIFE’s Royal Child virtual Christmas Gala. You can support IFL’s pro-life educational outreach here. Thank-you.]
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By Tom Quiner, Iowans for LIFE Board President
King of the unborn
It is fitting that this Royal Child virtual Christmas Gala coincides with the Feast of ‘Christ the King.’
The Church also calls this sacred day the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe!
Not just King of Vatican City! Not just king of Beaverdale, Iowa, where I live!
King … of … everything, including the unborn!
The Royal Child is an apt metaphor for Iowans for LIFE’s pro-life outreach, and why I am so comfortable asking you for money tonight.
We view each child as ‘royalty’ from the instant of fertilization to their natural death.
After all, he or she is made in God’s image.
After all, “the People of God shares in the royal office of Christ,” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us.
So each child … is royal.
Creation is good
We don’t view this instant of ‘fertilization’ as a random act which produces a ‘clump of cells’ whose worth is determined by another person’s desire for it.
No, this instant is creative; it is good; and it begets the beauty and bounty of Royal office.
The Royal Child.
Iowans for LIFE began working on the Royal Child Christmas Gala in January.
You have no idea how much effort has gone into creating a festive event to thank our stakeholders for supporting the cause of life, while raising critical funds to maintain and expand our pro-life educational outreach.
Yes, we are disappointed we can’t meet with you in person tonight. On the other hand, thanks to technology, we are actually able to reach more people virtually than we ever could in person.
Can you support us?
How to support Iowans for LIFE
Simply go to IowansForLife.org and hit the donate button.
This is our largest fundraiser of the year. We need to raise $100,000 to continue our efforts to mold our Iowa culture into one that respects the dignity of the human person in the womb.
Because of the pandemic, other fundraising events have been cancelled.
We need your support right now, more than ever.
Let me tell you why.
Good news
I’ll start with good news. The abortion rate in Iowa has been plummeting for two decades. Why do you think that is?
The media and Planned Parenthood will tell you it’s because of contraception.
Don’t believe that lie.
Even the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s own research arm, admits that half the women who have abortions were contracepting when they conceived.
No, the abortion rate has plummeted like a rock because pro-life education works.
Do you want the rate to continue to drop like a rock? Then support Iowans for Life right now at IowansForLife.org.
More good news: Iowa has elected more pro-life legislators than ever, including picking up 6 pro-lifers in the Iowa House while maintaining a 32 to 18 advantage in the Iowa Senate.
The Respect Life Amendment is alive and well!
You’ll fine Iowans for LIFE at the Capital next session fighting for this Amendment and the rights of our unborn brothers and sisters.
But it takes money. That’s why I’m asking for your support.
Bad news
Some bad news.
At the federal level, the Senate hangs in the balance.
Run-off elections in Georgia will determine whether pro-lifers control the Senate … or not.
If not, the party of abortion promises to end the filibuster and impose taxpayer-funded abortion for the full nine months of pregnancies, conscience-protections be damned.
IFL’s strategy
Here’s our strategy: if no one wants an abortion, it doesn’t matter what the laws are.
That’s why we offer age appropriate pro-life curriculum.
That’s why we offer timely, weekly blogposts. By the way, be sure to subscribe.
That’s why we offer a pro-life apologetics tool kit, as well as compelling pro-life video content on social media.
That’s why we’re leading a local March for Life right here in Iowa’s capital on January 9th.
Iowans for LIFE stands in the gap for the unborn, for each Royal Child.
Iowans For LIFE needs your financial support right now. As board president, I can promise you that each dollar is invested wisely to promote a culture of life.
Together, as members of the royal family of Christ, let us stand up for the Royal Child.
Thank-you.
[IFL Board President, Tom Quiner, gave this talk at THE ROYAL CHILD Christmas Gala on November 21st. You can watch it above, along with two beautiful Christmas songs. Support life. Donate now online.]
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Wall Street Journal columnist, Peggy Noonan, made an astute observation four years ago. There are two classes in this country: the protected class and the unprotected class. In Noonan’s words:
“The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it. The unprotected are starting to push back, powerfully.
The protected are the accomplished, the secure, the successful—those who have power or access to it. They are protected from much of the roughness of the world. More to the point, they are protected from the world they have created. Again, they make public policy and have for some time.”
Members of the protected class
The protected class includes the Big Media, academia, the entertainment industrial complex, Silicon Valley, and the Democratic Party. Their polling companies told us that the pro-abortion candidates they lavishly supported with their lucre were going to win the White House, retake the Senate, build bigger majorities in the House, and regain control of state legislatures across the land.
By contrast, the ultimate unprotected class are the unborn, the innocent victims of so much of the seething rage that defines the political Left in this country.
Protectors of Big Abortion poured millions into the Iowa Senate race, providing the abortion candidate, Theresa Greenfield, a $12 million edge over the pro-life candidate, Joni Ernst. Despite huge donations for Greenfield funneled into Iowa by coastal elites, Joni Ernst won her reelection campaign decisively.
The unprotected class strikes back!
Even more, Iowa Republicans increased their advantage in the Iowa House from 53 to 47 to 59 to 41, as they picked up six seats, while maintaining their whopping 32 – 18 advantage in the Senate.
Suddenly, the possibility of passing a Protect Life Amendment is back on the table. Iowans for LIFE will be at the forefront of this movement.
Big Media’s prognosticators gushed about a “Blue Wave” that would start with the presidency and wash over the the state legislatures of the land. Again, they were wrong.
Republicans pick up control of 4 more states
Republicans came into the election controlling both houses of 28 state legislatures. After this week, those numbers have increased to 32 states now controlled by the pro-life party, the most ever by Republicans.
This is significant. According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute:
“More than one-quarter of the 1,074 state abortion restrictions since Roe v. Wade were enacted between 2011 and 2015.”
Those dates coincide with a Republican surge in state legislatures when the pro-life party picked up 816 legislative seats nationally and 13 governorships, beginning with the 2010 elections. In other words, serious pro-life legislation is taking place at the state level, and the 2020 election will build on that trend.
Pro-lifers will control redistricting in more states
Even more, these are the legislatures that will control redistricting prior to the 2022 elections. Politico said this gives Republicans a big advantage:
“The results could domino through politics in America, helping the GOP draw favorable congressional and state legislative maps by ensuring Democrats remain the minority party in key state legislatures. Ultimately, it could mean more Republicans in Washington — and in state capitals.
By Wednesday night, Democrats had not flipped a single statehouse chamber in its favor. And it remained completely blocked from the map-making process in several key states — including Texas, North Carolina and Florida, which could have a combined 82 congressional seats by 2022 — where the GOP retained control of the state legislatures.”
All of this is good news for pro-lifers who want to elect public servants who actually stand up for the unprotected class.
MSNBC’s Joe Reid views election results through the prism of racism
MSNBC’s Joe Reid viewed could only view the ‘red wave’ through the prism of racism:
“I think even though we intellectually understand what America is at its base, right? That there is a great amount of racism, anti-blackness, anti-wokeness, this idea that political correctness is some sort of scheme to destroy white America, right? Like, we know what this country is, but still part of you — I think part of your heart says, ‘You know what, maybe the country’s going to pay off all of this pain,’”
“As the night went on, and I realized, and it sunk in, OK that’s not happening. We are still who we thought, unfortunately. It’s disappointing. I emerge from this disappointed.”
She has no clue how the loathing of abortion affects the vote in this country. President Trump has been the most pro-life president in history. And despite four years of racially-tinged slurs directed at the president AND his supporters, by the protected class, Mr. Trump’s support among Hispanic and Black voters increased this cycle, according to exit polling.
The profound impact of President Trump
Whether President Trump pulls this election out or not, his impact is profound, as Politico reported:
“It’s clear that Trump isn’t an anchor for the Republican legislative candidates. He’s a buoy,” said Christina Polizzi, a spokesperson for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, on Wednesday. “He over performed media expectations, Democratic and Republican expectations, and lifted legislative candidates with him.”
Decent Americans are fed up at being called racist, un-woke, and anti-woman by the protected class.
Decent Americans are fed up at being judged by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character by these coastal elites.
Decent Americans have had enough of the culture of death.
The unprotected class strikes back. It’s about time.
***
2020 Election Results:
Iowa Senate~ 32 Republicans/18 Democrats:
- Picked Up (1) Seat- District 42; (R) Jeff Reichman defeated (D) Rich Taylor
- Lost (1) Seat- District 22; (D) Sarah Trone Garriott defeated (R ) Cirksena
- District 2 (R) Jeff Taylor
- District 4 (R) Dennis Guth
- District 6 (R) Craig Steven Williams
- District 8 (R) Dan Dawson
- District 10 (R) Jake Chapman
- District 12 (R) Mark Costello
- District 14 (R) Amy Sinclair
- District 16 (D) Nate Boulton
- District 18 (D) Janet Petersen
- District 20 (R) Brad Zaun
- District 24 (R) Jesse Green
- District 26 (R) Waylon Brown
- District 28 (R) Mike Klimesh
- District 30 (D) Eric Giddens
- District 32 (R) Craig Johnson
- District 34 (D) Liz Mathis
- District 36 (R) Jeff Edler
- District 38 (R) Dawn Driscoll
- District 40 (R) Ken Rozenboom
- District 44 (R) Tim Goodwin
- District 46 (R) Mark S. Lofgren
- District 48 (R) Dan Zumbach
- District 50 (D) Pam Jochum
Iowa House of Representatives~59 Republicans/41 Democrats: (pick up of 6 seats to R’s)
- District 1 (R) John H. Wills
- District 2 (R) Megan Jones
- District 3 (R) Dennis Bush
- District 4 (R) Skyler Wheeler
- District 5 (R) Thomas Jeneary
- District 6 (R) Jacob Bossman
- District 7 (R) Henry Stone
- District 8 (R) Terry Baxter
- District 9 (R) Ann Meyer
- District 10 (R) Mike Sexton
- District 11 (R) Gary Worthan
- District 12 (R) Brian Best
- District 13 (D) Chris Hall
- District 14 (D) Steve Hansen
- District 15 (D) Charlie McConkey
- District 16 (R) Brent Siegrist
- District 17 (R) Matt Windschitl
- District 18 (R) Steven Holt
- District 19 (R) Carter Nordman
- District 20 (R) Ray Bubba Sorensen
- District 21 (R) Tom Moore
- District 22 (R) Jon Jacobsen
- District 23 (R) David Sieck
- District 24 (R) Cecil Solecheck
- District 25 (R) Stan Gustafson
- District 26 (R) Brooke Boden- Pick Up for R
- District 27 (R) Joel Fry
- District 28 (R) Jon Thorup
- District 29 (D) Wes Breckenridge
- District 30 (R) Brian Lohse
- District 31 (D) Rick Olson
- District 32 (D) Ruth Ann Gaines
- District 33 (D) Brian Meyer
- District 34 (D) Bruce Hunter
- District 35 (D) Ako Abdul-Samad
- District 36 (D) Marti Anderson
- District 37 (R) John Landon
- District 38 (R) Garrett Gobble- Pick Up for R
- District 39 (R) Eddie Andrews- Pick Up for R
- District 40 (D) John Forbes
- District 41 (D) Jo Oldson
- District 42 (D) Kristin Sunde
- District 43 (D) Jennifer Konfrst
- District 44 (D) Kenan Judge
- District 45 (D) Beth Wessel-Kroeschell
- District 46 (D) Ross Wilburn
- District 47 (R) Phil Thompson
- District 48 (R) Robert Bacon
- District 49 (R) Dave Deyoe
- District 50 (R) Pat Grassley
- District 51 (R) Jane Bloomingdale
- District 52 (D) Todd Prichard
- District 53 (D) Sharon Steckman
- District 54 (R) Shannon Latham
- District 55 (R) Michael Bergan
- District 56 (R) Anne Osmundson
- District 57 (R) Shannon Lundgren
- District 58 (R) Steven Bradley- Pick Up for R
- District 59 (D) Bob Kressig
- District 60 (D) Dave Williams
- District 61 (D) Timi Brown-Powers
- District 62 (D) Ras Smith
- District 63 (R) Sandy Salmon
- District 64 (R) Chad Ingels- Pick Up for R
- District 65 (D) Liz Bennett
- District 66 (D) Art Staed
- District 67 (D) Eric Gjerde -Pick up for D (Hinson’s former seat)
- District 68 (D) Molly Donahue
- District 69 (D) Kirsten Running-Marquardt
- District 70 (D) Tracy Ehlert
- District 71 (D) Sue Cahill
- District 72 (R) Dean Fisher
- District 73 (R) Bobby Kaufmann
- District 74 (D) Dave Jacoby
- District 75 (R) Thomas Gerhold
- District 76 (Rish) David Maxwell
- District 77 (D) Amy Nielsen
- District 78 (R) Jarad Klein
- District 79 (R) Dustin Hite
- District 80 (R) Holly Brink
- District 81 (R) Cherielynn Westrich- Pick Up for R
- District 82 (R) Jeff Shipley
- District 83 (R) Martin Graber- Pick up for R
- District 84 (R) Joe Mitchell
- District 85 (D) Christina Bohannan
- District 86 (D) Mary Mascher
- District 87 (D) Dennis Cohoon
- District 88 (R) David Kerr
- District 89 (D) Monica Kurth
- District 90 (D) Cindy Winckler
- District 91 (R) Mark Cisneros
- District 92 (R) Ross Paustian
- District 93 (D) Phyllis Thede
- District 94 (R) Gary Mohr
- District 95 (R) Charlie McClintock
- District 96 (Rish) Lee Hein
- District 97 (R) Norlin Mommsen
- District 98 (D) Mary Wolfe
- District 99 (D) Lindsay James
- District 100 (D) Charles Isenhart
Constitutional Convention- No
All Iowa Supreme & District Court Judges were retained
US Senate/Representative Seats:
- Senator Joni Ernst defeats Theresa Greenfield
- Representative Randy Feenstra defeats J.D. Scholten-District 4
- Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeats Rita Hart- District 2
- Representative Cindy Axne defeats former Representative David Young-District 3
- Representative Ashley Hinson defeats Abby Finkenauer- District 1
Arizona
U.S. House District 8: Debbie Lesko
Colorado
U.S. House District 3: Lauren Boebert
Florida
U.S. House District 4: John Rutherford
U.S. House District 27: Maria Salazar
U.S. House District 3: Kat Cammack
State House District 24: Paul Renner
State Senate District 7: Travis Hutson
Georgia
U.S. House District 14: Majorie Taylor Greene
Illinois
U.S. House District 15: Mary Miller
Michigan
U.S. House District 10: Lisa McClain
Minnesota
U.S. House District 7: Michelle Fischbach
Montana
Governor: Greg Gianforte
U.S. Senate: Steve Daines
U.S. House District MT-AL: Matt Rosendale
New Mexico
U.S. House District 2: Yvette Herrell
New York
U.S. House District 11: Nicole Mallotakis
North Carolina
U.S. Senate: Thom Tillis
U.S. House District 7: David Rouzer
State House District 26: Donna White
Oklahoma
U.S. House District 5: Stephanie Bice
South Carolina
U.S. House District 1: Nancy Mace
Tennessee
U.S. House District 1: Diana Harshbarger
Texas
U.S. House District 21: Chip Roy
Louisiana
Amendment 1, stating abortion is not a “right” and blocks taxpayer funding for abortion-PASSED!
‘What would Jesus do?’ became a powerful catch phrase with Christians in the 1990s. The question easily morphs into ‘who would Jesus vote for?’ during each election cycle, each side convinced that the Son of God is on their side. Just as interesting a question is, who would Satan vote for?
Jesus is the Word made flesh, and the Word is Truth. By contrast, Satan is the great Deceiver, the prince of lies.
Truth vs. deceit
The clash between Christ and Satan pits Truth against deceit. It’s a fool’s errand to claim to know the mind of God or the depth of the devil’s deviousness. And yet if Jesus and Satan are theoretically polar opposites, their respective votes should cancel each other out, right?
Let’s look at the qualifications of each presidential contender through the prism of the character qualities modeled by Christ the King in contrast to those encouraged by the King of Hell.
Donald Trump’s character
Donald Trump has much going for him in Satan’s eyes. It often seems as if our president’s god is wealth and fame. He wears pride and narcissism on his shirt sleeve almost as a badge of honor. He is a serial adulterer who has been a boor in his relationships with the opposite sex throughout his storied career.
Mr. Trump’s effusive bombast is a stark contrast to the virtue of humility preached by Christ at the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
Satan finds much to admire in Donald Trump.
Joe Biden’s character
Although Joe Biden’s character shortcomings have been aggressively downplayed by the press, the former vice president has some. Satan would love Mr. Biden’s serial thievery, as demonstrated by his comfort at plagiarizing (stealing) other people’s work.
Biden’s theft was put on full display at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 23, 1987, when he shamelessly pilfered a speech by English politician, Nile Kinnock.
Biden’s theft went beyond mere words, he stole Mr. Kinnock’s life story. Kinnock’s father was a coal miner, Biden’s sold cars. In fact, even though Biden lived in coal country, none of his immediate forebears were actually miners.
Satan surely would have admired that this wasn’t just theft, it was a lie. Biden even lied about him being the first in his family to get a college degree. In fact, a number of his relatives on his mother’s side had earned such degrees.
Theft was nothing new to Biden. He was disciplined in the 1960s during law school in another plagiarism incident. Just last year, his climate plan cut and pasted from work done by climate activists without attribution.
In another fabrication, Biden said he attempted to visit Nelson Mandela when the future South African president was still in prison (a lie), that Biden was arrested making the attempt (a lie), and that subsequently, Mandela later thanked him for making the attempt (a lie, because the former never occurred).
Beyond plagiarism, Mr. Biden has been accused by eight women for inappropriately touching them or violating their personal space. One woman, Tara Reade, graphically describes the incident as a sexual assault.
A Biden tragedy
Biden experienced profound tragedy when his first wife and baby daughter were killed in a traffic accident in 1972. Police said Mrs. Biden drove into the path of the truck. Mr. Biden told a different story on many occasions over the years:
“I got elected when I was 29, and I got elected November the 7th. And on Dec. 18 of that year, my wife and three kids were Christmas shopping for a Christmas tree. A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly — and I never pursued it — drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly, and killed my daughter instantly, and hospitalized my two sons, with what were thought to be at the time permanent, fundamental injuries.”
The chief prosecutor on the case, Jerome O. Herlihy, shot down that claim:
“The rumor about alcohol being involved by either party, especially the truck driver (Dunn), is incorrect.”
The truck driver, Curtis C. Dunn, went to his grave in 1999, having been publicly … and dishonestly … vilified by Joe Biden for 27 years.
Again, there is much for Satan to find admirable in Joe Biden’s character deficiencies. Would he find Trump or Biden the better pick?
How about Jesus? He sees in Mssrs. Trump and Biden two seriously impaired men in the character department.
The tipping point
The tipping point most likely lies with public policy. For Christ, He wants to vote for the candidate who best upholds Catholic social justice teachings, with its deference towards the care of the weak and the poor.
The two candidates disagree on which policies to pursue in fulfilling social justice goals. But most of these are legitimate disagreements, as they depend on prudential judgement. A writer for The American Catholic defined the term like this:
“A prudential judgement is the application of moral principles to a particular case in order to achieve good and avoid evil.”
Honorable people can disagree on the size of the welfare state, on the size of the minimum wage, and on which approach to immigration balances the needs of our country while respecting the dignity of the immigrant.
The problem of abortion
It is the first social justice teaching that presents a problem:
“The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching.”
Biden and Trump have no common ground on this front. Trump opposes abortion; he opposes public funding of abortion; and he believes in conscience protections for people of faith who believe abortion to be a grave sin.
Candidate Biden disagrees on each front, but the Church doesn’t allow prudential judgement on abortion.
Jesus talked often about His ‘little ones’
Jesus expressed strong feelings for His little ones, and spoke about them often:
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. [Matthew 18:10]
“If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” [Matthew 18:6]
“In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” [Matthew 18:14]
“But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” [Luke 18:16]
Biden won’t stand up for the ‘little ones’
Mr. Biden says he accepts his church’s teachings on when life begins for these little ones and their opposition to abortion, but that he can’t impose it on anyone else. In other words, he won’t stand up for Christ’s ‘little ones’, 60 million of whom have perished under the policy Mr. Biden embraces.
So to the question: Would Satan and Jesus vote for different candidates? And if yes, why? What do you think?
[Don’t forget Iowans for LIFE’s upcoming pro-life Christmas Gala, THE ROYAL CHILD. Reserve your seat today.]
Larry Lader, one of the founders of the abortion movement
Lawrence “Larry” Lader (1919-2006) was an evangelist and strategist, a lifelong atheist with the heart of a revolutionary. His talent and privilege allowed him to devote decades to his life’s passion, abortion on demand, and he lived to see it succeed beyond his expectations. A Harvard graduate and prolific author, his influence was evident in the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade in 1973, which cited his book Abortion more than seven times. He was co-founder of what is now NARAL Pro-Choice America.
The ‘Father’ of the Abortion Movement
There are many notable contributors to the success of the national abortion movement, but Larry Lader was unique. To calculating shrewdness and intellect he added tenacity and passion. Many of his colleagues may have been even smarter or more accomplished, but Lader, who would come to be called the “father of the abortion movement,” possessed a coherent vision and the ability to persuade others to join him. He campaigned for a bold approach, offense when others counseled defense, advocating for a shock platform of radical ideas that few would defend publicly to that point. Lader lived in Manhattan and traveled in top social and academic circles. He was Margaret Sanger’s biographer and friend, referring to her as “the greatest influence on his life.”
Unlike Sanger, however, Lader considered abortion the legitimate recourse for contraceptive failure and essential to the success of other intersecting social movements of the time—the sexual revolution and the campaign to limit human population, both of which abortion on demand would underwrite.
Strategy
Lader determined at the outset the cause was too important to allow the interference of fact and law. Consequently, together with Dr. Bernard Nathanson, his associate of many years, he created a strategy to advance the abortion movement, which according to Dr.Nathanson, relied on neither.
One of Lader’s most consequential achievements, surpassed only by his influence on the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe five years later, was convincing Betty Friedan, the president and co-founder of the National Organization of Women (NOW), to make abortion a central feature of the emerging women’s movement. Friedan had risen to national fame as the author of the Feminine Mystique, published in early 1963, but the first edition did not include a reference to abortion. To the extent support for abortion on demand was publicized at that point, it was aligned with the new right of sexual expression, with Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine initiating a mainstream campaign in support in the early 1960’s. It was Lader who came to the conclusion it was essential the women’s movement be the public face of the abortion movement if it was to succeed, and Friedan’s cooperation was key.
Keeping radical factions at bay
Lader had discovered Marxism during his time at Harvard, and as with Sanger, met Friedan through his association with progressive groups. He used their common political interests and Friedan’s concern for keeping radical factions at bay to lobby her to add abortion on demand to the platform of the National Organization of Women (NOW). Ironically, Lader overcame her resistance with the same persistence Dr. Nathanson later testified he had lobbied his pregnant girlfriend to make the choice for abortion decades before—persuading and promising—but instead of over a course of days, years—and instead of proposing one abortion, millions.
Friedan gives in
After those years of effort, Friedan acquiesced, over the objections of other prominent members and many in the rank and file of the movement who opposed it in principle and for its heavy-handed implementation. They rejected the messaging that would make abortion on demand a condition of their advancement or in any way responsible for their success. They recognized the position as a far outlier and opposed it not only on the grounds of its gruesome reality, but out of concern for the social chaos it could create. In many respects, Lader welcomed the chaos. He expressed the belief that legalizing abortion “struck at the whole system of sexual morality to which the middle class gave lip service.” “He maintained that ‘to tamper with [abortion] meant the whole system of [sexual morality] would come tumbling down.’”
A “New Order”
Ultimately, in spite of the opposition, Friedan’s organization and its message prevailed. Lader believed the message had power as he had aligned it with the spirit of the time and identified the proper vehicles to deliver it at both the top levels and on the ground. At the grassroots level he relied on a network of faith-affiliated ministers and rabbis, particularly the Reverend Howard Moody, pastor of Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan and the Clergy Consultation Referral, “ministers of a higher law,” to spread the message and direct women to local abortion centers.
Moody was an ideological ally and their message was unambiguous—they were proposing a “new order of things,” advocating for the unrestricted freedom of sexual expression enabled by a right to unrestricted access to abortion. It envisioned a new and radical autonomy for men, women and even children. At the end of her life, Betty Friedan expressed regret for some of the unforeseen consequences of their narrative and the path it had ultimately taken.
Moving Catholics to the sidelines
Although their paths diverged starkly in the late 1970’s, Dr. Nathanson acknowledged Lader as the creator of what he believed to be “one of the most brilliant strategies of all time”—the well-crafted messages and tag lines that would permit Catholics—considered their most formidable opponents at the time—to stay off the field of debate and on the sidelines. At its center, a phrase ultimately adopted throughout the entire culture –“Although I personally would not make that choice I will not judge another’s right to do so.” Nathanson testified they were aware at the time that with that phrase the battle was largely won.
Abortion’s future
Lader’s final years were dedicated to the effort to secure what he believed would be abortion’s future—access to RU-486, part of a drug regimen that causes an abortion. After he left NARAL he founded and served as president of the Abortion Rights Movement (ARM), which campaigned for its legalization.
As his legacy, Larry Lader believed he had succeeded in removing abortion’s social stigma. He had made the case for its public funding and made support for abortion on demand a condition of support for women’s advancement, which he believed would insure its protection. The procedure that most prominent feminists of the nineteenth century rejected had become the cornerstone in the twentieth, as Eleanor Smeal, president of NOW, called abortion on demand “the most fundamental right.” Lader had succeeded in dismissing the humanity of the second party to every abortion, vanishing burdensome lives by the millions, many conceived as a consequence of his campaign. And if he was correct, in the future the abortion decision would become an incidental and unremarkable option for birth control, simply one among many, as unrestricted access to chemical abortion made its human victims even more anonymous.
Sources:
Robert P. George, “Bernard Nathanson: A Life Transformed by Truth,” Public Discourse, The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute, February 27, 2011.
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/02/2806/
Serrin Foster, “The Feminist Case Against Abortion,” Professor R. Ben Brown’s Law and History Site, University of California, Berkeley
http://www.benbrownshistoryandlaw.com/feminists-against-roe
Sue Ellen Browder, Subverted—How I Helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women’s Movement (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015)
Bernard Nathanson, The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind, Regnery Publishing; Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed Edition (April 1, 1996)
Elaine Woo, “Lawrence Lader, 86; Activist for Abortion Rights Whose Book Was Cited in Roe Case” Los Angeles Times, May 14, 2006. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-14-me-lader14-story.html
“Men Launched the Movement to Legalize Abortion,” Feminists of Life for America, https://www.feministsforlife.org/men-launched-the-movement-to-legalize-abortion/
Lawrence Lader, Breeding Ourselves to Death, foreword by Dr. Paul R. Erhlich (Seven Locks Press: 30th anniversary ed (2002))
[Iowans for LIFE ran a video of Fr. Edward Meek’s remarkable homily on October 13th and had a record number of visitors to our website. Many requested a transcript. Here it is.]
By Fr. Edward Meeks
I’ve been mentioning for the past two Sundays that I’m going to be speaking today on the November 3rd election, and I want to give you a little heads up as I begin. I will be going a little bit long this morning because I have a lot of ground to cover.
We are “staring into the abyss”
This will be for me, personally, the 14th presidential election I will have voted in since reaching the age of majority, and this one is unlike anything I have ever seen. I actually said this same thing about the last election in 2016, but the events of the last 4 years—in fact, of the past 6–7 months—have cast this upcoming election in a whole new and ever more dire light. I believe that at this moment in time and history, you and I find ourselves as part of a society that is staring into the abyss. And, how our nation votes on November 3rd will determine whether we collectively step off the cliff into that abyss or step back from it, if only temporarily.
Your vote should align with Church teachings
Now, let me preface my remarks by saying [that] it is not my place to tell you how you must vote. We do, after all, still live in a free country with free elections—at least for the time being. But, it is my place as your priest and pastor to help you see how your vote may or may not line up with the teachings of the Church. So, I will tell you emphatically that what I’m about to say to you should not be taken as an implicit endorsement of any candidate by Christ the King Church or by the personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.
I’m taking this opportunity to speak to you personally, to share with you my own personal opinion. But, it’s an opinion both formed and informed by the Word of God and by the crystal–clear teaching of the Church for the purpose of helping you think through the choices. Because, again, there are certain realities about the candidates and their parties that directly impact our Catholic faith. And so, we must be aware of these realities before we cast our vote. And, my first allegiance is not to any political candidate or party, but to the truth of God and His Church. So, what I’m going to say is not politically- motivated because the stakes involved far transcend politics. But, what I’m going to say, I believe, has to be said.
“I grieve for what has become of America”
Now, let me begin by telling you that I have struggled mightily with this message—not because I’m afraid of the Truth (I think you know me better than that!)…To the contrary, the Truth is what motivates me every day of my life. I resonate completely with St. Paul who said, “Woe is me if I do not preach the truth of the Gospel.” (1 Cor. 9:16) Frankly, if I were not sold out to the truth, I wouldn’t even be standing in front of you today because I would not be a Catholic priest.
No, the reason from my struggle has to do with the vitriol and the vicious animosities that are evident in our society today…animosities that have played out tens of millions of times daily on social media and in the violence that has overtaken so many of America’s cities, and was even on full display in the recent Presidential Debate.
Brothers and Sisters, we live in a nation that is—sadly, tragically—divided; a nation at odds with itself. Jesus’ words in the Gospel of this past Friday (Oct. 9, 2020 from Luke 11:15-26) were never more true: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I grieve for what has become of America. And so, the last thing I want to do is to have this message contribute to that division in our country, and—least of all—to have it cause division in our parish. You and I are children of the same Heavenly Father. You and I are servants of the same Lord and Master. We are first Christians, Catholics; we are second, American; and, then, somewhere down the line from there we are Republicans or Democrats or Independents or whatever. Never forget that order.
And so, it has almost become a cliché to declare that we have “reached the tipping point” in our nation, but it is also true. And, it is time for faithful Catholics and other Christians to stand up courageously and forthrightly to confront the evil that has overtaken our culture and say, “Enough is enough!” Because whether you are aware of it or not, there are powerful forces in government at every level, as well as in the mainstream media, and in the Silicon Valley technocracy that are working aggressively to silence the Church through legislation, lies, intimidation, and censorship.
“Think with the Church”
So for us faithful Catholics, the starting point of our choice of whom to vote for needs to be that we intentionally think with the Church. Think with the Church!—something that too many Catholics have failed to do for far too long—a fact that has largely contributed to the dire condition of our culture today. The Church has clearly and consistently based Her teaching on the Sacred Scriptures and on the living tradition embodied in 2,000 years of Her Magisterium. That teaching has led to an array of foundational principles when it comes to us as Catholics and our moral and civic responsibilities.
It’s not always easy to sift through the myriad of issues at play in Presidential politics. So, it becomes crucial, then, that we properly prioritize those issues, because some are clearly more important than others. We can respectfully disagree. And, we can have differences of prudential judgment and opinion around issues like the economy, taxation, immigration, national defense, trade, health care, climate change, and so on. But, don’t get side-tracked by the spurious “seamless garment theory” espoused by many in the Church that asserts that issues like immigration and the environment are of equal weight with abortion.
“Non-negotiable values”
Because, there is a set of issues upon which Catholics must not disagree. Pope Benedict XVI specified those issues in his 2012 Apostolic Constitution entitled Sacramentum Caritatis, in which Benedict defined what he called our “non-negotiable values”—a concept which he repeated countless times during his pontificate. Among the list of “non-negotiable values” which he identified, chief among them are: 1) the sanctity of life from conception to natural death; 2) the sanctity of marriage as a life-long sacramental union of a man and a woman; 3) the preservation of religious liberty. They are “non-negotiable” because they are of paramount importance in Catholic moral theology. They are the moral principles where the Church draws a clear line in the sand. In all of the fog and the confusion and spin that surrounds every political season, we must, as faithful Catholics, conscientiously vote in such a way that best upholds and protects these “non-negotiable” values. Again: 1) the sanctity of life; 2) the sanctity of marriage; and 3) religious liberty.
Not that other issues are unimportant, but these three are foundational to who we are as human beings and to what kind of society we are constructing. As Pope Benedict wrote regarding these values (quote): “In the face of fundamental and inalienable ethical demands, Christians must recognize that what is at stake is the essence of the moral law, which concerns the integral good of the human person.” On these and other critical issues, there is one presidential candidate who stands in very public, very obstinate opposition to Church teaching, namely, former vice-president Joe Biden, along with the Democratic Party. And so, I’d like to share with you the five things that every Catholic needs to know about “Catholic” Joe Biden, and how these line up with the “non-negotiables.”
And, by the way, before I begin, and for the sake of those of you who might be a little bit squeamish about what I’m about to say, let me quote for you a principle from the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, entitled Gaudium et Spes. The Council Fathers wrote this (quote): “At all time and in all places, the Church should have the true freedom to teach the Faith, to proclaim its teaching about society, to carry out its task among men without hindrance, and to pass moral judgments even in matters relating to politics whenever the fundamental right of man or the salvation of souls requires it.” (paragraph 76)
Five things that every Catholic needs to know about “Catholic” Joe Biden
OK, then. The five things that every Catholic needs to know abou“Catholic” Joe Biden;
#1—Joe Biden is unabashedly pro-abortion. This fact is clear from his
long voting record, his public pronouncements, his allegiance to and
support of groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL, and from his party’s platform not only in this election year but in their platform going back decades. He and they support abortion for any reason or for no reason, right up to and even beyond the moment of birth. He and they oppose the effort in Congress to pass legislation requiring doctors who perform abortions to provide medical care to babies who survive the abortion, opting, rather, to let such babies simply die outside the womb with no care. He and they are pushing for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, and action which would force all American taxpayers, including you and me, to fund abortions, to pay for them. Along with their anti-life positions on euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research, and other issues, the Democrat Party has become the party of death. And, “Catholic” Joe Biden is their standard-bearer—or, as he said in the first Presidential Debate: “I am the Democratic Party!”
#2—Joe Biden opposes the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of marriage. While he was vice-president, he publically endorsed same-sex marriage in 2012, three years before the Supreme Court ruling. And, in 2016 (while still the vice-president) he officiated over the “wedding” ceremony of two men, posting a photo of the ceremony on Twitter, with the captions: “Proud to marry Brian and Joe at my house. Couldn’t be happier! Two long-time White House staffers, two great guys!”
#3—A Biden presidency would be a danger to our already dwindling religious liberty. He and his party advocate for the repeal of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which protects the religious conscience rights of healthcare workers who decline to participate in abortions, and of Church-based adoption agencies that choose to place children only with married, heterosexual couples, among other things. Biden is also on record committing to restoring the Obamacare mandate requiring religious ministries and orders like the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraceptive and abortifacient drugs to their employees, despite the fact that that is a direct violation of their faith conviction and of Church teaching.
And, by the way, on the subject of religious liberty, Joe Biden is on the record as saying that as President he would not hesitate to re- institute a nation-wide pandemic lockdown if the science demands it.
Undoubtedly, such a lock-down would once again close our churches. Let me remind you of what it was like for us to have no public Masses and no sacraments for 11 weeks this past Spring.
#4—Although Joe Biden rejects the label of “socialist” his presidency would undoubtedly open the door for America to very quickly become a socialist country. Evidence for this assertion is in his signing on to the self-avowed socialist Bernie Sanders’ agenda. His selection as a running mate of Senator Kamala Harris, identified by bi-partisan groups, by non-partisan groups as the THE most leftist member of the U.S. Senate. His months’-long silence on the murder and mayhem being inflicted on America’s cities by Marxist–Socialist organizations, as well as the all-too-obvious and serious influence being exercised within the Democrat Party by leftist extremists.
“So, why,” you may ask, “should that be an issue of concern for Catholics?” One has only to consider the lessons of history and the teachings of the Popes to answer the question. For more than 200 years, wherever Socialism has sought to gain a foothold—in France (following the French Revolution), in the 20th Century and today in Latin America, in Eastern Europe, in Asia, or wherever—the Socialists have viewed the Church—especially and specifically, the Catholic Church—as an enemy to be destroyed, or that the very least, to be silenced and marginalized. Socialism is a soul-robbing ideology that always and inevitably leads to totalitarianism, where the government presumes to put itself in the place of God in the lives of its subservient citizens. For this reason, Socialism has been clearly and vigorously condemned and denounced by an unbroken string of no less than 11 consecutive Popes, from Pius IX in 1849 to Benedict XVI in 2005.
Mob rule is one of the chief tactics and strategies of Socialism. And, in a perverse twist of ironies, the same Socialist mobs who like to chant “Silence is violence”, reaped the benefits of the several-months- long silence of Joe Biden and his party as the mobs carried out their orchestrated campaign of violence in America’s cities. Again, Joe Biden is probably personally not a Socialist. But he and the Democrat Party can validly called out for giving aid, comfort, and encouragement to those who are, whether they be the demonic forces unleashed in the streets of America’s cities by Marxists, Nihilists, Anarchists, Revolutionaries or those in elected office in his own party who seek to push America so far to the left as to make it unrecognizable and to establish a socio-politic, socio-economic and political system that is openly hostile to the Church.
#5—Joe Biden’s position on these 4 moral issues as a very high-profile Catholic—a man who served in the U.S. Senate for more than three decades and then as vice-president for eight years, and now as a candidate for President—a very high-profile Catholic. His positions, then, serve to subvert and undermine the faith of nominal and poorly- catechized Catholics. As, for example, it gives rise to the misinformed effort known as “Catholics for Biden.” At least one of Biden’s campaign ads pictures his with Pope Francis and with a group of smiling nuns in an effort to portray himself as a devout Catholic. And, by the way, when you have to tell people what a good Catholic you are, does that not make you question how good a Catholic the person really is? Ironically, it’s another group of nuns—namely, the Little Sisters of the Poor—who would once again be targeted by a Biden presidency for enforcement of the Obamacare mandate. Furthermore, Senator Kamala Harris, [Biden’s] running mate, is on record calling the Knights of Columbus, quote: “An all-male extremist group”— “Extremist” because of the Knights’ clear support of Church teaching on the “non- negotiables” that we’re talking about here. And, by the way, Deacon Bud, Father Rob and I are all members of the Knights of Columbus…and, yeah!—we’re all male. What of it? I leave it up to you to decide if we’re also “extremists.”
Also, isn’t it interesting that the same leftist media which gives high praise to Joe Biden’s “Catholicism”, while characterizing the Catholicism of Judge Amy Coney Barrett as “dangerous and extremist.” The perennial failure of many of our Bishops to call out Biden and other Catholic politicians who publically defy the Church’s most cherished moral teachings only serves to confuse many Catholics and many others in our society, causing them to think, “Oh, I guess what he holds isn’t that bad.” Isn’t that bad?—: the willful destruction of 61 million babies in the womb, including, by the way, 23 million black babies—Isn’t that sad? I ask you, “What could be worse?”
In its document entitled, “Living the Gospel of Life,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declared abortion to be the pre- eminent moral issue of our time. The right to life undergirds all other rights. That’s why it’s mentioned first in the Declaration of Independence. And, it represents government’s most important responsibility. So, don’t let anyone—be he a priest, a bishop, or a cardinal—tell you otherwise. Abortion is, I believe, spiritually-speaking both the primary cause and the primary symptom of a society in a downward death spiral. As I said, it’s time for faithful Catholics to stand us and say, “Enough is enough,” to all office-holders and politicians who claim to be devout Catholics while publically and obstinately contradicting the Church and subverting her teachings.
Sobering reflection by Archbishop Fulton Sheen
In conclusion, we are as a nation—as I stated earlier—I believe, staring into the abyss, stemming from our culture’s wholesale rejection of God and His law—a rejection manifested most tangibly in five decades of legalized abortion. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once wrote these words almost 60 years ago–quote: “A nation always gets the kind of politicians it deserves. If a time ever comes when the religious Jews, Protestants, and Catholics ever have to suffer under a totalitarian state which would deny to them the right to worship God according to the light of their conscience, it will be because for years they thought it made no difference what kind of people represented them, and because they abandoned the spiritual in the realm of the temporal.”
And so the bottom line, Brothers and Sisters, is: VOTE! And, when you do, think with the Church—while also understanding this: that no one running for public office is ultimately the solution for what ails America. Only God is! That’s not a statement of resignation to the inevitable. It is, rather, a statement of hope. The late Father Richard John Neuhaus once wrote: “Christians have not the right to despair, for despair is a sin. And, we have not reason to despair, quite simply because Christ is risen.” You and I are called to be salt and light in a dark and dying world. And, you and I as faithful American Catholics are engaged in the battle for the soul of our beloved Nation. Let’s take that call seriously.
I’d like to conclude this homily with a quote from the Old Testament that you’re no doubt familiar with. It’s one of my very favorite Scripture quotes and one which is most pertinent and most compelling for today—2 Chronicles 7:14—Almighty God declares this: “If my people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then…then…will I hear from Heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.” God bless you! And may God continue to bless America!
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