¡La Super Estrella de Música Latina, Emmanuel, se unira a la Caminata por la Vida de la Costa Oeste del 2016!

Wow! Mexican music superstar Emmanuel will be a speaker at January 23's Walk for Life West Coast. I'm not too wired into the Latino popular music scene, but those who are tell me he is gigantic. Here's the Walk's press release annoucing the exciting news (English version follows).

¡La Super Estrella de Música Latina, Emmanuel, se unira a la
Caminata por la Vida de la Costa Oeste del 2016!

Los organizadores del evento están encantados con la presencia del legendario cantante pro-vida mexicano el 23 de enero

San Francisco, 29 de septiembre del 2015 - La Caminata por la Vida de la Costa Oeste tiene el honor de anunciar que Emmanuel (nacido en la Ciudad de México como Jesús Emmanuel Acha Martínez) se unirá a la doceava Caminata anual por la Vida de la Costa Oeste en San Francisco el 23 de enero del 2016.

"Esto es tan emocionante-Emmanuel es conocido en todo el mundo de habla hispana por sus hermosas baladas!", Dijo Eva Muntean, co-fundadora de la Caminata. "Pero a pesar de que nos encanta su extraordinaria música,  su voluntad de poner su fama en la línea a favor de la vida, en defensa de los más pequeños entre nosotros, eso es lo que más admiramos!"

Muntean continuo diciendo, "Emmanuel tiene una larga historia de estar del lado de la vida. Ha utilizado su talento y fama para ayudar a los necesitados, uniéndose en el recaudo de fondos y para crear conciencia a otras estrellas del mundo de habla hispana como el actor Eduardo Verástegui , la actriz Verónica Castro y Karyme Lozano. Él comparte nuestra convicción de que el aborto daña a las mujeres, y, ¡estamos encantados y honrados de que se una a nosotros el 23 de enero del 2016!

Emmanuel entró a la escena musical en México en la década de los 70. Por la década de los 80 fue sin duda la estrella más grande del país. Su cuarto álbum Íntimamente  tuvo siete canciones de éxito por si solas.

La Caminata por la Vida de la Costa Oeste del 2016 dará inicio a las 12:30 de la tarde, con un manifestación en la Plaza del Centro Cívico de la ciudad. Tras la manifestación, en la que hablaran Emmanuel y otros, los caminantes marcharán por la calle Market.

Fundada en el 2005 por un grupo de residentes del área de la bahía de San Francisco, la misión de la Caminata por la Vida de la Costa Oeste es cambiar las percepciones de una sociedad que piensa que el aborto es una respuesta. Se esperan participantes de toda el área de la bahía y de todo Estados Unidos y Canadá.

Para más detalles y para ver un poderoso video promocional para la Caminata y que se puede compartir en las redes sociales, por favor visite: www.walkforlifewc.com

Para realizar una entrevista con cualquiera de los oradores u organizadores de la Caminata por la Vida de la Costa Oeste, por favor póngase en contacto con:
Rose Trabbic, Publicista, Camina Pro Vida de la Costa Oeste,
media@walkforlifewc.com o (239)867-4180

________________________________

Latino Music Superstar Emmanuel to join

2016 Walk for Life West Coast!

Organizers delighted with presence of Mexico’s legendary pro-life singer at January 23 event

San Francisco, September 21, 2015 – The Walk for Life West Coast is honored to announce that Emmanuel (born Jesús Emmanuel Acha Martinez in Mexico City) will be joining the 12^th Annual Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco on January 23, 2016.

 “This is so exciting—Emmanuel is known throughout the entire Spanish-speaking world for his beautiful ballads!” said Eva Muntean, a co-founder of the Walk.  “But while we love his extraordinary music, it is his willingness to put his fame on the line for life, in defense of the littlest among us, that we admire the most!”

Muntean continues, “Emmanuel has a long history of standing for life. He has used his talent and fame to help those in need, joining other stars from the Spanish-speaking world such as actor Eduardo Verastegui and actress Veronica Castro Lozano Karyme in raising both funds and awareness. He shares our conviction that abortion hurts women, and we are delighted and honored to have him join us on January 23, 2016!”

Emmanuel came on the music scene in Mexico in the 1970’s. By the 1980’s he was arguably the country’s biggest star. His fourth album Íntimamente (Intimately) had seven separate hit songs.

The 2016 Walk for Life West Coast will begin at 12:30 PM with a rally in the city’s Civic Center Plaza. Following the rally, where Emmanuel and others will be speaking, walkers will march down Market Street.

Founded in 2005 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area residents, the Walk for Life West Coast’s mission is to change the perceptions of a society that thinks abortion is an answer. Walk participants are expected from throughout the Bay Area and across the United States and Canada.

For more details, and to view a powerful promo video for the walk that can be shared on social media, please visit: www.walkforlifewc.com

PURE EVIL

Even I, born and raised in San Francisco, am shocked. I did not think that was possible. The story of the vicious murderers over at "Planned Parenthood" (the very name is as much a lie as "same-sex marriage") not only killing children but using them for spare body parts is all over the news. The horror was exposed by the Center for Medical Progress (whose website is down as I write).

Here is one report from Breitbart News:

The video is harrowing, like something out of a James Bond movie, where apparently, a top-executive at a major institution (that annually receives hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars) blandly explains how Planned Parenthood will perform abortions in special ways in order to preserve body parts that will later be sold illegally; how the forceps are used, etc.. All over a meal and wine.

“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part,” Nucatola coldly explains. “I’m gonna basically crush [the unborn child] below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact. … And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps.”

Here is the video:


Lila Rose, who has done so much to expose the evil of Planned Parenthood, writes:

“This investigation by the Center for Medical Progress reveals the unimaginable horror that is Planned Parenthood. The exploitation of human life, the cover-up, and the black market profiteering by America’s largest abortion chain is not only egregious and heartbreaking, but exposes how the abortion giant is corrupt to the core — from the CEO, Cecile Richards, down to the local clinic. As Live Action has investigated through the years, Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices reveal their contempt for rule of law and human life. This latest expose of Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby parts for profit should be the final nail in the coffin for the abortion giant. Congress must take immediate action to stop all taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and end the bankrolling of this horrific human rights abuser.”

AMEN! There is petition up, urging Congress to investigate Planned Parenthood for the selling pieces of aborted babies. You can sign here.

L.A. Media Boycotts Large Pro-Life Event

OneLife LA not covered by local press

Pro-lifers are used to media blackouts of their events. The radical under reporting of Washington DC’s huge annual March for Life (which draws hundreds of thousands every year) or San Francisco’s Walk for Life west Coast which regularly draws over 50,000 people. But even by these shoddy standards the negligence of the mainstream media in refusing to cover the January 17 OneLife LA event in downtown Los Angeles sets a new low. As of noon on January 19, a Google news search for “OneLife LA” articles over the previous 24 hours returned exactly two responses: an article from Catholic News Agency, and an article in the Rock Hill Herald, a publication based in, Rock Hill, South Carolina, which was a reprint of the OneLife LA press release which followed the event. A similar search with the term “Archbishop Jose Gomez” (who presided over the event) over the same time frame only returned one response, the Catholic News Agency article.

Organizers estimated 15,000 pro-lifers in attendance, and photos of the event certainly shows thousands of people. The event also had a number of notable speakers including Hispanic movie star Eduardo Verastegui and TV actress Patricia Heaton, both of whom are pro-life. Their presence makes the lack of LA’s mainstream media coverage all the more striking, since movie/TV stars are generally catnip to the city’s celebrity-obsessed press.

Covered by media

Not covered by media

The bias is shown by comparing the response to a Los Angeles event selected at random: a December 5 protest against the killings by police of three men: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Ezell Ford. The protest was covered by CBS Los Angeles, the local affiliate of CBS News. The CBS LA screenshot shows about 21 protesters in attendance. None appeared to be movie stars. The tiny protest was also covered by mynewsla.com, the L.A. Daily News, USA News and the Eagle Rock Patch (which all published the same story as mynewsla.com), and the Los Angeles gotnewswire.com, which picked up the CBS story. The Los Angeles City and Press website also linked to the CBS story. At this point I stopped searching for more coverage, as the point has been made. The mynewsla.com story opened with the sentence “Dozens of people protesting the deaths of unarmed black men…” which correlates pretty  accurately with the 21 or so protesters in the CBS screenshot—there must have been 3 more out of site somewhere, which brings the number  up to “dozens.”

A shorter version of this post appeared in today's California Catholic Daily.

Walk for Life West Coast 2015 Promotional Video

Speaking of the Walk for Life West Coast, here is the 2015 Walk's introductory video:



Check it out and pass it on!

Walk for Life West Coast Speaker in Life News

Today's Life News has the amazing story of  Rebekah Buell, who will be one of the speakers at the January 22 Walk for Life West Coast:

After Taking the Abortion Pill “I Knew I Made a Mistake,” Her Baby Was Saved When This Happened
 

Twenty year old Rebekah Buell never imagined that she would be a pro-life speaker. At only
seventeen years old, she became pregnant with her first child, and despite all odds, finished high school, married the baby’s father, and started a promising college education.

However, a few months later, after her marriage became troubled and she and her husband separated, she also found out she was pregnant again. Feeling ashamed, alone, and afraid of losing all she had worked for, she went to an abortion clinic and took the first part of the RU486 abortion pill.

Buell explains, “I instantly knew this was a mistake. I found Culture of Life Family Services and called the hotline. The nurse, Debbie Bradel calmed me down and literally saved my baby’s life by finding me the wonderful doctor that reversed the abortion pill. I truly believe God knew I was going to take that pill so he set many barriers that allowed my baby to reach 8 weeks so he could survive the pill. When I told Planned Parenthood I was not returning for them to check to make sure the fetus was ‘removed’ and explained what I planned to do, they told me it was dangerous and would result in my baby being born deformed, but I didn’t listen...."

Read the rest at Life News. And don't miss the Walk on January 22, 2015. You can learn more about the Walk here.

Walk for Life West Coast "A San Francisco tradition"

So says our dear Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, God bless him!

Here's today's article from Valerie Schmalz at Catholic San Francisco:

10th annual Walk for Life West Coast Jan. 25

The Walk for Life West Coast celebrates 10 years of standing up for life in San Francisco with the Walk for Life West Coast Jan. 25 – and organizers expect more than 50,000 people to crowd Civic Center Plaza and walk down Market Street this year.

The pro-life spirit is truly alive in San Francisco and the Walk for Life West Coast continues to be a wonderful way for those who care about women and their babies, born and unborn, to show that life is the only choice,” said Eva Muntean, co-chair of the Walk for Life.

The event begins with the rally at 12:30 p.m. and the walk down Market Street starts at 1:30 p.m. concluding with a celebration at Justin Herman Plaza near the Ferry Building.

To celebrate and promote this year’s walk, the Walk for Life has released a promotional 2 ½ minute video which can be seen at www.walkforlifewc.com.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone called the walk “a San Francisco tradition,” in his invitation to all priests of the archdiocese. Archbishop Cordileone will deliver the invocation for the walk at Civic Center Plaza. He has invited the priests and people of all the parishes and schools of the archdiocese to attend.

It's January 25! And make sure to check out all the amazing events surrounding the Walk, which has turned to one of the biggest Catholic Weekends in San Francisco!

Some “Obsession” required: Hispanic abortion rate shows more episcopal leadership needed

On September 19, 2013, the New York Times reported that Pope Francis, the first Hispanic Pope, had said “that the church had grown 'obsessed' with abortion.” On December 4, 2013 Life News reported on the latest abortion statistics from the Center for Disease Control. The article began with “good” news—3% fewer children were killed in 2010 than were in 2009, but noted the astronomical rates in the Black and Hispanic communities:

"The new report from the Centers for Disease Control had good numbers across the nation when it came to abortion — with abortions declining three percent in 2010 after a five percent decrease in 2009. But they also contained shocking figures showing abortion targets blacks and Hispanics.

The CDC Abortion Surveillance Report dated November 29, 2013 reveals that in 2010, 56.7% of abortions reported to the CDC nationwide were done on Hispanic and Black women.

According to the report, there were 415,479 abortions for known ethnicity reported for selected states in 2010 and 153,045 (or 36.8 percent) were non-Hispanic white babies, 148,261 (or 35.7 percent) were non-Hispanic black babies, 87,240 (or 21.0 percent) were Hispanic babies, and 26,933 (or 6.5 percent) were babies of other races or ethnicities.”

According to the 2010 census, Hispanics comprise 16.3% of the U.S. population. The 21% of US abortions that are Hispanic babies thus significantly exceeds the Hispanic percentage of the population. Since most Hispanics identify as Catholic, this indicates a serious lack of catechesis. In the African-American community, which has been targeted by Planned Parenthood from that organization’s beginning, Protestant clergy such as California’s own Pastor Walter Hoye and the Reverend Clenard Childress of New Jersey have devoted their lives to fighting the nightmarish rate of black abortion. As the same trends are now afflicting the Hispanic communities, equivalent leadership in that community is needed.

One does not need to look far to see Hispanic Catholic clergy whose available resources (except for courage and determination) dwarf those of men like Hoye and Childress. I refer to the Hispanic Bishops. In California such men include the newly-elected leader of the California Catholic Conference, Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento; Bishop Rutilio del Riego of San Bernardino; and above all, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, by far the largest Catholic Archdiocese in the country. There is no question about these Bishops’ pro-life beliefs: they have led pro-life vigils, attended 40 Days For Life events, and del Riego and Soto have been annual attendees at San Francisco’s Walk for Life West Coast. But as the numbers of Hispanic babies being killed shows, a far more systematic, day-to-day, and inflexible approach is needed, and needed now. Planned Parenthood, for one, is not waiting. According to the U.S. Census, San Francisco's population in 1990 was 10.9% African Americans and 13.3% Hispanic. By 2010 those numbers had shifted to 6.1% African American and 15.1% Hispanic. In 2011 Planned Parenthood Golden closed their abortion business on Eddy Street, right on the edge of one of the largest concentration of African Americans in the city and re-opened on Valencia Street, right on the edge of the largest concentration of Hispanics in the city.

“Obsession” over abortion is mandatory. If one accepts the Catholic teaching that murder is wrong, coupled with the scientific fact that each human life begins at conception, to not be “obsessed” at legal abortion is to be irrational, immoral, and anti-Christian.

NEW Walk for Life West Coast Video!

Get ready! The Walk for Life West Coast is on January 25, 2014! Below are excerpts from the latest press release, and the Walk's 2014 promo video. Of course, Fr. Malloy was the chaplain of the Walk from its inception until his death. He's working even harder for the littlest among us from Heaven!

Dynamic new video celebrates 10th Anniversary of the Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, December 2, 2013 – A powerful new video chronicles the growth, determination, joy, and energy of the second biggest pro-life event in the United Sates: the Walk for Life West Coast.

The video opens with footage from 2005, when 7,000 pro-lifers, opposed by the Mayor and Board of Supervisors of the city of San Francisco, faced down volatile protesters and took to the city’s streets in a peaceful march for the littlest among us. Thus the Walk for Life West Coast was born. This powerful new video shows how the Walk has grown each year, ending with footage from 2013, when over 50,000 men, women, and children, joined by the Papal Nuncio, carried the pro-life message from the Civic Center, down Market Street to the Bay. Since its founding in 2005, the Walk for Life West Coast, now one of the largest annual events in San Francisco, has become a regular feature of the City’s life.

As the 10th anniversary approaches, West Coast pro-lifers are energized and making plans for the 10th Annual Walk for Life West Coast at San Francisco’s Civic Center on January 25, 2014. The 2014 Walk promises a bigger, more dynamic, and grassroots event that will make manifest an increasingly obvious truth: America is becoming more pro-life...

The Walk for Life West Coast is gearing up for some vibrant speakers this year, including:

• Shari Rigby, actress in the film October Baby, who will share her powerful testimony of post-abortion healing

• Grace Dulaney, founder of the Agnus Dei Foundation, who will share her personal experience with adoption and the work she is doing to help women who choose adoption

• Monica Snyder, a representative of Secular Pro-Life, a group that seeks to unite all pro-lifers regardless of religious beliefs or lack thereof

• Rev. Clenard Childress, founder and director of www.BlackGenocide.org, a website designed to reach the African-American Community with the truth about abortion

The Silent No More Post-Abortion Awareness Campaign, an important part of the Walk since its founding, will once again offer a program of testimony from abortion survivors and post-abortion healing prior to the rally. At this rally and through the Walk itself, participants are eager to respond to the call of Pope Francis, “We need to proclaim the Gospel on every street corner preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing, even with our preaching, every kind of disease and wound.”

Founded in 2005 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area residents, the Walk for Life West Coast’s mission is to change the perceptions of a society that thinks abortion is an answer. Walk participants are expected from throughout the Bay Area and across the United States and Canada.

More details and the most up-to-date information about the walk is available at: www.walkforlifewc.com

To set up an interview with any of the Walk for Life West Coast’s

dynamic speakers or event organizers, please contact:

Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Walk for Life West Coast, media@walkforlifewc.com or (239)867-4180

Some Clarity on the Common Good: Bishop McElroy and Archbishop Chaput

In the October 21 issue of America magazine, our good Auxiliary Bishop Robert McElroy had an article called A Church for the Poor. His Excellency, did not, in my opinion, sufficiently explain why abortion stands apart from other lesser, although critically important, issues. That's not to say he does not unequivocally and completely condemn it.

The meat of the problem with His Excellency's article seems to me to be in this paragraph:

"It is crucial to fully recognize the nature of intrinsic evil and its relationship to the common good. In recent years, however, some arguments have been broadly advanced in Catholic political conversation proposing that issues pertaining to intrinsically evil acts automatically have priority in the public order over all other issues of grave evil, like poverty, war, unjust immigration laws and the lack of restorative justice in the criminal justice system. This has the effect of labeling these other crucial issues of Catholic social teaching “optional” in the minds of many Catholics."

Let's break that down.

His Excellency's first sentence: "It is crucial to fully recognize the nature of intrinsic evil and its relationship to the common good" is of course correct. But there is no definition of or elaboration on that relationship in the article, despite the fact that Bishop McElroy calls it "crucial."

The second sentence reads: "In recent years, however, some arguments have been broadly advanced in Catholic political conversation proposing that issues pertaining to intrinsically evil acts automatically have priority in the public order over all other issues of grave evil, like poverty, war, unjust immigration laws and the lack of restorative justice in the criminal justice system." As will be shown, arguments that "intrinsically evil acts"--particularly abortion--do "automatically have priority in the public order" are correct. Read in the light of his next sentence, it is clear Bishop McElroy does not agree with the "arguments broadly advanced" he describes.  But it is still his failure to define what constitutes the "crucial" relationship "of intrinsic evil"--again, particularly abortion--"to the common good" which prevents any light being shed on whether the "arguments broadly advanced" are correct or incorrect. 

In the third sentence, His Excellency writes "This has the effect of labeling these other crucial issues of Catholic social teaching 'optional' in the minds of many Catholics." Nowhere in the article does he offer any evidence for this claim. He simply says it, then moves on. But more importantly, once again, His Excellency does not address whether the "arguments broadly advanced" are correct or not (that would require his defining of what constitutes the "crucial"  relationship "of intrinsic evil and its relationship to the common good"). His concern here is what effect such arguments will have on those who hear them. 

In a fortunate example of synchronicity, a good corrective is at hand. In his weekly message of October 18, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, quoting from the 15 year-old pastoral letter of the U.S. Bishops called Living the Gospel of Life, crisply clarifies the issue. He (or they) gives a definition of the "crucial"  relationship "of intrinsic evil and its relationship to the common good":

"Exactly 15 years ago this fall, America’s bishops issued a pastoral letter called Living the Gospel of Life. Even today, with the passage of time, this remains no ordinary Church text. I believed then, and I believe now, that it’s the best document ever issued by the U.S. bishops on the priorities of Catholic engagement in our nation’s public life. In writing it, the bishops sought to apply Pope John Paul II’s great encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”) to the American situation. The heart of their statement, paragraph No. 23, stresses that:

'Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence and injustice. Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and the scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care. Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as advocates for the weak and marginalized in all these areas. Catholic public officials are obliged to address each of these issues as they seek to build consistent policies which promote respect for the human person at all stages of life.

'But being ‘right’ in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’ — the living house of God — then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation. These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right — the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Such attacks cannot help but lull the social conscience in ways ultimately destructive of other human rights.'

This is why the right to life is not merely one among many urgent issues, but rather the foundational one. It provides the cornerstone for a whole architecture of human dignity."

Emphasis added. That's exactly right. An illustrative echo can be found in the unalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. All are valuable, but there is a hierarchy in reality in what those words describe. You can't have liberty unless you already have life. And you can't pursue happiness unless you already have life + liberty. That's the crucial and full recognition "of the nature of intrinsic evil and its relationship to the common good" which Bishop McElroy talks about but does not define.

Ovid on the Horror of Abortion

Father Z posts this beautiful poem, by Ovid, against abortion (his emphasis can be found at his post). As Father writes "The poet's rage and sorrow are nearly palpable." 

The post also includes this beautiful comment from Melody: "I once read a story in which a man talked with God, asking Him why such things as cancer had not been cured. He responded, “'The one I sent to cure it was aborted in the womb.'”

Book II Elegy XIV: Against Abortion

Where’s the joy in a girl being free from fighting wars,

unwilling to follow the army and their shields,

if without battle she suffers wounds from her own weapons,

and arms unsure hands to her own doom?

Whoever first taught the destruction of a tender foetus,

deserved to die by her own warlike methods.

No doubt you’d chance your arm in that dismal arena

just to keep your belly free of wrinkles with your crime?

If the same practice had pleased mothers of old,

Humanity would have been destroyed by that violation.

and we’d need a creator again for each of our peoples

to throw the stones that made us onto the empty earth.

Who would have shattered the wealth of Priam, if Thetis,

the sea goddess, had refused to carry her rightful burden?

If Ilia had murdered the twins in her swollen womb,

the founder of my mistress’s City would have been lost.

If Venus had desecrated her belly, pregnant with Aeneas,

Earth would have been bereft of future Caesars.

You too, with your beauty still to be born, would have died,

if your mother had tried what you have done:

I myself would be better to die making love

than have been denied the light of day by my mother.

Why rob the loaded vine of burgeoning grapes,

or pluck the unripe apple with cruel hand?

Let things mature themselves – grow without being forced:

life is a prize that’s worth a little waiting.

Why submit your womb to probing instruments,

or give lethal poison to what is not yet born?

Medea is blamed for sprinkling the blood of her children,

and Itys, slain by his mother, is lamented with tears:

both cruel parents, yet both had bitter reason

to shed blood, revenge on a husband.

Say, what Tereus, what Jason incites you

to pierce your troubled body with your hand?

No tiger in its Armenian lair would do it,

no lioness would dare destroy her foetus.

But tender girls do it, though not un-punished:

often she who kills her child, dies herself.

She dies, and is carried to the pyre with loosened hair,

and whoever looks on cries out: ‘She deserved it!’

But let these words vanish on the ethereal breeze,

and let my imprecations have no weight!

You gods, prosper her: let her first sin go, in safety,

and be satisfied: you can punish her second crime!