Rally for Life June 18!

Important Show of Support Needed at State Capitol Rally for Life

Catholics for the Common Good is joining a broad coalition of pro-life organizations calling for thousands of people to descend on Sacramento on Wednesday, June 18 to demand the state cut abortion funding in the midst of the budget crisis.

You can download a flyer with details here: http://ccgaction.org/downloads/EliminateCAAbortionFunding-RallyFlyer.pdf.

The largest abortion provider in California is Planned Parenthood. With the state looking for places to cut expenditures, Planned Parenthood is in an especially vulnerable position:

Planned Parenthood is doing exceptionally well and has no need of taxpayers' dollars. As the nation's largest abortion provider, they reported $1 billion in income on the 2006-07 annual financial disclosure, with $114.8 million in profit and $1.12 billion in total assets.

There has been a recent scandal with Planned Parenthood accepting racist donations, with specific requests for the extermination of African American babies.

Planned Parenthood affiliates in California have been accused of overcharging the state and federal governments for over $180 million- they got contraceptives at discount prices and billed the government several times more.

Rather than pay for the killing of innocent babies, taxpayers' dollars- which represent 33% of Planned Parenthood's income- could be better spent on education, public safety, healthcare and other urgent needs in California.

Please save the date and help spread the word about the rally.

For the common good,

Bill May

Catholics for the Common Good

EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH

The most ironic thing about the current situation is that pro-lifers have just been handed a weapon that has enormous power to win this battle. But that weapon will do no good unless we can get the word out about it. What is it? Knowledge.

Scientists have discovered a way of turning adult cells—specifically, adult skin cells—directly into stem cells, without creating an embryo. Robert Lanza, the chief science officer of the cloning company Advanced Cell Technologies, declared that “It’s a new era for stem cells.” He went on to state: “It’s the holy grail. It’s like turning lead into gold.” He’s referring to a new discovery made by research teams in Japan and Wisconsin.

According to Wired magazine: In an unprecedented feat of biological alchemy, researchers have turned human skin cells into stem cells that hold the same medical promise as controversial embryonic stem cells.Two teams of researchers—one led by Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka, the other by the University of Wisconsin's Junying Yu—used a virus to add four new genes to skin cells. Thus transformed, the reprogrammed cells became capable of changing into nearly any cell type in the human body.

This discovery sent shock waves through the medical community. The new technique of deriving stem cells from adult skin cells was so revolutionary that even some of the biggest supporters of ESCR have changed their minds about it.

Remember Dolly? Dolly was the first cloned sheep. She was produced in 1997 by a team led by the English scientist Ian Wilmut. Professor Wilmut is a big supporter of stem cells and is perfectly willing to kill embryonic children to get them. He wanted his new cloning methods to be used to produce embryos so that their stem cells could be harvested. But in the wake of the new discovery, Professor Wilmut has abandoned cloning—not because he cares about killing embryos but because he recognizes how superior the new advance is. As he told the BBC:
The work which was described from Japan of using a technique to change cells from a patient directly into stem cells without making an embryo has got so much more potential.

But not everyone is willing to embrace the new technology. Some are still hell-bent on killing babies to get at their stem cells . . .

“The Game Isn’t Over” The Boston Globe notes that in spite of the new advance:
Harvard, with stem cell funding in excess of $60 million, intends to maintain full-throttle efforts to clone petri dish human embryos, from which to harvest stem cells. This work has so far not been successful, but Harvard scientists also will press ahead with creation of human stem cells from frozen embryos . . .The view that efforts to secure stem cells from human embryos should stay on course is one expressed well beyond Harvard.“It’s very early days, the game isn’t over,” said Christopher Scott, director of Stanford University’s Program on Stem Cells and Society. “It would be folly to shove other research in the drawer in favor of following this one new direction, however promising.”Said Ronald M. Green, professor of ethics at Dartmouth College: “Not to move forward with research” involving human embryos “would be grossly irresponsible.”

You and I both know that the forces of death will stop at nothing in their quest to destroy unborn life. Even when adult stem cells have proven their value over and over again, anti-life activists have insisted on killing embryos as part of their nightmare research program. Why? Because they don’t want to admit that the unborn are human beings worthy of respect and protection. If they admit that in the stem cell arena, they would have to admit it in others—especially abortion. That’s why they can’t let go of embryo research and why they will do anything it takes to get federal funding for it. And in the end they’ll win . . . unless people like us do something about it.
(courtesy CATHOLIC ANSWERS)

"Gay Pride" in Rome

Diogenes reports:

"Rome was the scene of another gay pride parade on Saturday. It was over-reported, as usual, the sympathies of journalists and editors having overmastered their professional objectivity. As usual, hatred and ridicule of the Church was a chief theme of the festivities, which the media treated with amused indulgence....

The upshot is that, while the image of Benedict as a reptilian horned Hitler may be dismaying to Catholics, it's an indication that the pope is doing his job and that the Church over which he presides is doing hers. It means the players are in position. Were it to happen that your local transgendered performance artist (and his spiritual director) ceased to hang the pope in effigy, then you'd have cause for concern."

USF update: More on Bishop Robinson

Back on May 23, we blogged on Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's scheduled June 13 appearance at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. The appearance was part of the bishop's "Voice of the Faithful" tour, and was co-sponsored by the Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought at USF. Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles denied the bishop permission to speak in his Archdiocese, and now our own Archbishop George Niederauer has done the same.

From today's LA Times:

"Four of California's leading Roman Catholic bishops, including Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, have taken the extraordinary step of urging an Australian bishop to cancel a monthlong tour of the United States to promote his controversial new book about clergy sexual abuse . . .

Following direction from the Vatican, the California religious leaders and eight other prominent bishops around the country have asked former auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Sydney to steer clear of their dioceses because of his 'problematic positions' on priestly celibacy and other issues . . . In a joint letter last month, Mahony and nine other American bishops warned Robinson that his visit could be 'a source of disunity and cause of confusion among the faithful of the particular churches we serve.' . . .

They cited an investigation of his book by Australian bishops, who found "doctrinal difficulties" and pointed out that the head of the Vatican office in charge of all bishops had asked Robinson to cancel his trip."I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles," Mahony wrote to Robinson last month, citing a bishop's authority under canon law that was repeated in separate letters from Bishop Tod Brown in Orange County and Archbishop George H. Niederauer in San Francisco . . .

But Robinson, 70, said he has no intention of canceling any part of a trip that began May 16 in Philadelphia and brings him to California on Tuesday for appearances in La Jolla, Costa Mesa, Culver City and San Francisco."

God bless our shepherd Archbishop Niederauaer! We strongly support his defense of the teaching of the Church. We do wonder whether USF will now ask Bishop Robinson and "Voice of the Faithful" to find a different location.

H/T Threshing Grain

Posted by Gibbons

More on the "Marriage" Ruling

On June 5, 2008, "Tradition Family, and Property" took out a 2-page ad ("Battling for America's Soul") in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Times, exploring the implications of the Supreme Court's decision legalizing same-sex "marriage." The ad, which is actually an article, examines what the ruling means within the context of Christianity and Western Civilization, and what it means for faithful Catholics. Excerpts:

"By legalizing same-sex “marriage,” the State becomes its official and active promoter. It calls on public officials to officiate at the new civil ceremony, orders public schools to teach its acceptability to children, and punishes any state employee who expresses disapproval . . .

In any situation where marriage affects society, the State will expect Christians and all people of good will to betray their consciences by condoning, through silence or act, an attack on Divine law and the natural order . . .

Left unchecked, this anti-Christian trend will become an unprecedented assault on the First Amendment and our American way of life that we do not hesitate to call persecution. "


The argument is on a higher intellectual level than one usually encounters in a daily newspaper, and is worth reading in its entirety.

"Human Rights" in Canada

From Ezra Levant:

"A Christian pastor has been given a lifetime ban against uttering anything "disparaging" about gays. Not against anything "hateful", let alone something legally defined as "hate speech". Just anything negative.

So a pastor cannot give a sermon.

But he must give a false sermon; he is positively ordered to renounce his deeply held religious beliefs, and apologize to his tormentor for having those views.

And then that pastor is ordered to declare to his entire city that he has renounced his religious views, even though he has not.

That's Alberta's human rights commission."

Read the whole shocking thing.

Posted by Gibbons

Evening with Immaculee in San Francisco

On June 12, from 7:00 to 9:30 PM Imaculee Ilibagiza will speak at St. Paul's Church at 221 Valley Street in San Francisco.

For those who don't know Imaculee's story, she is a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide, which saw over 1,000,000 people slaughtered in 100 days. How could a person not only survive such an ordeal, but manage to forgive those who murdered her family? From her foundation website:

"Immaculée Ilibagiza is a living example of faith put into action. Immaculée's life was transformed dramatically during the 1994 Rwandan genocide where she and seven other women spent 91 days huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor's house. Immaculée entered the bathroom a vibrant, 115-pound university student with a loving family - she emerged weighing just 65 pounds to find her entire family had been brutally murdered (with the exception of one brother who had been studying out of the country).

Immaculée credits her salvage mostly to prayer and to a set of rosary beads given to her by her devout Catholic father prior to going into hiding. Anger and resentment about her situation were literally eating her alive and destroying her faith, but rather than succumbing to the rage that she felt, Immaculée instead turned to prayer. She began to pray the rosary as a way of drowning out the negativity that was building up inside her. Immaculée found solace and peace in prayer and began to pray from the time she opened her eyes in the morning to the time she closed her eyes at night. Through prayer, she eventually found it possible, and in fact imperative, to forgive her tormentors and her family's murderers. "

Admission: $20 for adults, $10 for seniors and students. Tickets are available and can be be purchased in advance by sending a check made out to St. Paul's Church and mailed to: 221 Valley Street, SFCA 94131 - attn: Katy. For more info, please call 415-648-7538.

All proceeds from this event will go to the Speaker's (Immaculee) Foundation and will be used to provide for Rwandan orphans.

So that's what they mean by "Compassion"

From Catholic News Agency:


"Oregon health plan covers assisted suicide, not drugs, for cancer patient"



"Eugene, Jun 6, 2008 / 01:09 am .- An Oregon woman suffering from lung cancer was notified by the state-run Oregon Health Plan that their policy would not cover her life-extending cancer drug, telling her the health plan would cover doctor-assisted suicide instead.
Barbara Wagener discovered her lung cancer had recurred last month, the Register-Guard said. Her oncologist prescribed a drug called Tarceva, which could slow the cancer growth and extend her life.

The Oregon Health Plan notified Wagner that it would not cover the drug, but it would cover palliative care, which it said included assisted suicide."

Thanks be to God, Ms. Wagner's doctor appealed to Genentech, the drug's US distributer, and they will cover the drug treatment for a year, after which she can re-apply for the drug.

This is the "compassion" we keep hearing about from the advocates of assisted suicide. Remember, in California AB 2747, which will attempt to establish "voluntary stopping of eating and drinking" as a medical option, has already passed the Assembly and is now before the California Senate.

To find out more about AB 2747, and how to oppose it, visit Catholics for the Common Good.

Humanae Vitae

“Wedding Guide” in the May 23 Catholic San Francisco, the newspaper of the San Francisco archdiocese had an important reminder for all committed Catholics of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae.

Deacon Paul Turrentine called it “the most devastating thing I had ever read.” As a 14-year old in 1967 he had been “in full sympathy with the hippie movement.” In 1968, when the encyclical reiterating the Church’s teaching on artificial contraception was issued, Turrentine said he and his friends were certain “that the Catholic Church was a dangerous anachronism which opposed progress to control people afraid to think for themselves.”

Yet nine years later, Turrentine became Catholic. During his preparation for baptism, however, and even in the marriage preparation he and his fiancée underwent later, the Church’s teachings against contraception were never mentioned. “We assumed this was an ancient, dreamy ideal but certainly not a practical requirement for modern Catholics.”

Two years later, after reading Humanae Vitae and other Church documents, Turrentine said he and his wife, “with trepidation and self-pity … agreed that, as faithful Catholics, we had to submit to these teachings…. This was the heaviest cross ever thrust upon us. Growing up in a time of general rebellion against societal norms, the virtue of chastity was foreign to me.” Since the method of Natural Family Planning they learned “depended upon a single sign of fertility … which works well for the vast majority of couples,” but did not for them, the Turrentines had a “surprise pregnancy.” (They later discovered the Sympto-Thermal method, taught by the Couple-to-Couple League, that includes multiple signs of fertility.)

Despite all this, the Turrentines never turned back to contraception. Having “dispensed with artificial methods, our relationship had improved profoundly … [t]he use of contraception had involved exploitation. We discovered … what Pope Paul VI had warned about: by disrupting the baby-making part of sex, we had also been damaging the love-deepening part of sex.”

"Killing unborn only sometimes a murder"

That's the title of Gordon Dillow's article in Sunday's Orange County Register. Mr. Dillow begins:

"When it comes to the killing of an unborn child, California law seems more than a little confused. Because under the law, sometimes it's murder, and sometimes it's not."

He then describes a case where a drunk driver, Danny Ruiz, crashed his car, killing his pregnant girlfriend, along with the unborn baby she was carrying. Mr. Dillow continues:

"Ruiz now faces 100 years to life on two counts of murder. That's right, two counts. According to the criminal complaint against him, Ruiz 'did unlawfully and with malice aforethought kill ANDREA NAOMI GERDON, a human being.' But the complaint also charges that Ruiz 'did unlawfully and with malice aforethought kill UNBORN FETUS, a human being.'"

"'Obviously we believe they (fetuses) fall under the innocent-victims rule,' says District Attorney spokeswoman Susan Schroeder. 'They are people whose rights need to be protected.'

But that raises the question: In a state in which early-term abortions are legal under any circumstances, and late-term abortions are legal under some circumstances, how is the killing of a fetus a murder?

The answer is in Section 187 of the California Penal Code, which states that 'Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.' Courts have ruled that in California criminal cases a fetus can be considered a murder victim at seven or eight weeks after conception.

But Section 187 specifically excludes from the murder category any legal abortions, or any killing of a fetus that was 'solicited, aided, abetted or consented to by the mother of the fetus.'

To put it another way, in California an expectant mother can legally kill her unborn baby, or have it killed. But without the mother's consent, anyone else who kills that unborn baby can be charged with murder.

Mr. Dillow closes by asking:

So how can a 5-month-old fetus be a 'human being' in a criminal courtroom, but not necessarily be considered a 'human being' while in a doctor's office or an abortion clinic? How can that unborn baby have a legal right to life in one place, but not in another? "

It's an enormously obvious question, and the answer is simple: One can't offer the pro-choice argument on abortion without abandoning reason.

The "pro-choice" argument is justified on the basis of individual freedom. But freedom of choice can only take place in the context of lived life. It is contingent on life. This means that arguments for "choice" can't include abortion, since the act of abortion terminates all possibilities of choice for another human being. Hence, to be "pro-choice" on abortion is irrational. But once you've taken one position that requires the abandonment of reality, you've got to keep it up--because reality is not going to go away. Hence, the bizarre legal situation that Mr. Dillow describes.

Legal abortion absolves murder. It undercuts the first of the inalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence, on which our country is based. It has corrupted feminism. It has corrupted our legal system. And it has corrupted human reason.

Catholic Charities and same-sex "marriage"

We've blogged over and over again about the scandalous behavior of Catholic Charities of San Francsico. See here, here, here, and here.

This Tuesday, June 3, 2008, Catholic Charities will host its annual Red House Fundraiser. Last year's "Red House" event was notable due to the fact that the featured entertainer was transvestite and same-sex "marriage" activist "Donna Sachet."


This year's event is especially interesting because of its proximity to the recent California Supreme Court's decision on same-sex "marriage." Honorary Committee Members for this year's event (and their reactions to the court's decision) include:

• Mayor Gavin Newsom: "What a day in San Francisco! What a day for equality! Who among us was prepared for this extraordinary moment and extraordinary time," said Newsom, who cut short a trip to Washington, D.C. to return home Wednesday night to await the court's ruling. "I can't tell you how proud I am to be a San Franciscan....It's an affirmation of the gay and lesbian community and an extraordinary day for all of us as Americans," Newsom told the Bay Area Reporter in a Thursday phone call.-Bay Area Reporter; May 15, 2008

• Supervisor Bevan Dufty: "I think it is a win for justice and a win for California and a win for the future." -Bay Area Reporter; May 15, 2008.

• Rebecca Rolfe, Executive Director, San Francisco LGBT Center: "This is the best day of my professional life." -San Francisco Bay Times; May 22, 2008.

Another Honorary Committee Member is, once again, transvestite entertainer "Donna Sachet," who is a Board Member of the Equality California Institute. "Equality California" was one of those represented in the case before the Supreme Court.

You can contrast the statements of the Honorary Committee members with the position of the Catholic Church, as enunciated by Archbishop George Niederauer (here), Bishop Allen Vigneron (here), and the Vatican (here).

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Fr. Neuhaus over at "First Things"

...weighs in on the California Supreme Court's "act of raw judicial power."

"In an act of raw judicial power, and by a one-vote margin, the California Supreme Court has declared that there is, in California law, a constitutional right for same-sex couples to enter into what the state will recognize as marriage. This despite a recent referendum in which Californians overwhelmingly rejected the idea."

He also endorses the statement of good Bishop Vigneron of Oakland, saying his excellency speaks as a "true bishop of the Church."