It was good to have a Memorial Day Weekend to set aside the conflicts we face daily so as to reflect on the events of the past, the warriors who have completed their journey in life, and to consider our own eternity. We attended a beautiful Field Mass at St. Adelbert’s Cemetery. But now, back to the battle front.
Benedict on Excommunication
Pope Benedict XVI made it clear in an interview with international media on his trip to Brazil, that automatic excommunication still accompanies political support for abortion by Roman Catholic politicians. In 2002, as Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope issued the Doctrinal Note on Political Participation, which made this ruling clear.
In protest, this May 14th, eighteen Catholic Democrats signed a statement condemning the Pope’s comments and saying that excommunication would, “offend the very nature of the American experiment and do a great disservice to the centuries of good work the Catholic Church has done.”
Eighteen congressmen is impressive, but back in February, 2006, fifty-five Democrats signed an identical complaint. So what happened to the other forty-four original signers? Maybe they took a page from Rudy Giuliani’s book, where he said, “I don’t get into debates with the Pope. It’s not a good idea.”
Fr. Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International suggests that if the teachings of the Catholic Church are too onerous for them, perhaps they should leave the Catholic Church and join a sect that that will let them make their own rules. He says no one is forcing them to stay in the Church.
Deadly—and Unnecessary HPV Vaccine
Merc and Co.’s new Gardasil vaccine for the human papilloma virus, is being ballyhooed by the company and various legislators as a must-have for young girls across the nation to prevent eventual cervical cancer. Various state lawmakers are seeking to make this vaccine mandatory as a condition for enrolling in school.
Yet the record so far is at least three deaths and more than sixteen-hundred adverse reactions including spontaneous abortion, paralysis, blood clots, myocarditis, coronary artery thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, seizures, Bells Palsy, and attacks on the nervous system. One little girl who died was only twelve.
The report comes from Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates government corruption. Researchers say giving the vaccine to 11-year-olds is simply experimenting on helpless children, may not help them at all, and in the long run could be more a cause of cervical cancer than a remedy for it.
The Power of Graphic Displays
A large display of 3,400 pairs of GI boots representing the soldiers killed in Iraq in the past four years, was placed on the Grant Park lawn recently commemorating the war dead. This very impressive visual aid got much media attention, as well it should have, and we trust many prayers were said for these heroes.
But now isn’t it time we place 4,500 little white crosses on the very same lawn to commemorate the 4,500 little boys and girls who are murdered in abortion mills across America every day since January, 1973? If each child were commemorated, it would take most of Cook County to contain the display of 50,000,000 little crosses. Well, let’s go for it.
