Wednesday is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, also known as the Feast of The Seven Sorrows, commemorating Simeon’s prophesy that Mary’s heart would be pierced, the flight into Egypt, the Loss of Jesus for three days, the Way of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the removal of his body from the cross and holding the lifeless body of Jesus in her arms.
If we ever think we have suffered, we should consider Mary’s suffering, and she was sinless. One of my sorrows was losing my kid brother on this feast three years ago.
RU-486 Safety Questioned
One year ago today Molly Patterson took RU-486 to kill her baby. It killed them both. Since then her father has been trying to get legal restrictions on use of this lethal drug.
He simply wants a parental notification law. He also questions the Food and Drug Administration’s rush to approve this drug without having adequate information on its lethal nature. Patterson is not pro-life.
Congressman Jim DeMint and Senator Sam Brownback are trying to get FDA approval suspended while an investigation of RU-486 is taking place.
Abortion Boat Unwelcome
The poor old “abortion ship,” the “Borndiep” just doesn’t seem to be wanted anywhere. “Women on Waves” has most recently been ordered out of Portuguese waters. Prior to that it was booted out of the North Sea while trying to dispense abortion pills to Irish women, and it isn’t even allowed in its home waters in Holland.
Kerry Quiet on Abortion
Katha Pollitt complains in a Chicago Tribune column Wednesday that Democrat Presidential candidate John Kerry is missing an opportunity to salvage the women’s vote by not speaking out enough on his support of abortion. “Kerry’s positions on issues women care about are good,” she says, but “he has yet to make a direct appeal for women’s votes.”
Maybe Kerry knows more about the value of keeping quiet about abortion than Pollitt does. Perhaps Katha hasn’t been reading the latest polls and Kerry has. Women are less enamored of legal abortion now than they were the last time Katha took a look at the polls. Kerry might be smart not to court women on that issue.
Fr. Pavone Focuses on Election
Our hat is off to Fr. Frank Pavone and Priests for Life who are determined to spend a lot of time and energy between now and election day trying to get out the Catholic, and hopefully the pro-life vote. A major part of his “get out the vote” program is to educate Catholics and others on the importance of electing only pro-life candidates. Fr. Pavone says:
Given the seriousness of this moment, I have made the commitment to spend all my time, energy and resources between now and Election Day to accomplish this task and assist others to do so. While every activity in the pro-life movement has importance and urgency, it is critical that every available resource be utilized to bring about a favorable outcome in this election, and that election-related activities be given priority by every person in the movement.
Each person, organization and church has a serious obligation to influence as many voters as possible, to contact its membership to insure that they are registered to vote and informed on the candidates’ positions on the right to life and to establish mechanisms to facilitate maximum turnout at the voting booths.
IPPF’s Blueprint for Death
The International Planned Parenthood Federation has just announced a ten-year blueprint to establish sweeping new reproductive rights, including a worldwide right to abortion on demand and a right to access to safe abortion.
The blueprint, called “IPPF’s Strategic Framework 2005-2015” is meant to guide the institution in its pursuit of what it calls the “unfinished business of sexual and reproductive health.” Its priorities would be adolescents, AIDS, abortion, access and advocacy, and its aim would be for a universal recognition of a woman’s right to choose and have access to abortion.
How sick can you get?
