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Disgraced Congressman Foley was a Moderate "Pro-Choice" and "Pro-Gay Rights" Republican

Gay Groups Distancing Themselves from 'Moderate' Republican and Former Champ

By John-Henry Westen

WASHINGTON, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Mark Foley, the former Congressman from Florida, resigned in disgrace Friday after ABC News revealed sexually explicit emails and text messages from Foley to teenage boys working as pages.  Foley was endorsed by both the 'pro-gay' Log Cabin Republicans and the 'pro-choice' Republican Majority for Choice.

But since the allegations of sexual impropriety homosexual groups have been attempting to disassociate themselves from Foley.  One group has gone so far as to claim he was opposed to gay rights, even though his voting record shows him unwilling to ban homosexual 'marriage' or even homosexual adoption.

The Log Cabin Republicans, a pro-homosexual activist group within the Republican Party, has removed Foley from their list of endorsements for 2006.  Last week, the Log Cabin webpage endorsed Foley saying, "He has consistently voted against the anti-family marriage amendment, and has supported the hate crimes bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) . . ."  (see the current Log Cabin page without Foley and the Google Cache of the page with Foley:
http://online.logcabin.org/talking_points/2006-endorsements.html
and
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:tjjZ--wuwPgJ:online.logcabin.org/talking_poi... )

The Belleville News-Democrat leads a story entitled "Gay community analyzes Mark Foley's resignation" with homosexual activist Michael Rogers claiming that Foley was "a homophobe" and "anti-gay". (http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/local/15653544.htm )

The contention is contradicted by the actions of the political gay activist group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) which rated Foley in 2003-2004 at 88% on side with them and in 2002 the HRC PAC gave him a campaign contribution of $10,000. (http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?cid=N00002898&cycle=2002 )

On abortion, Foley is a member of Republican Majority for Choice.  While he voted in favour of the ban on partial-birth abortion he did not support efforts to ban family planning funds abroad, and also voted to support embryonic stem cell research.  Contributions records from Republican Majority for Choice to Foley's 2004 campaign can be here: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?cid=N00002898&cycle=2002                                                                                       

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Report Shows Forced Abortions Routine in North Korea Women’s Prisons

By Gudrun Schultz

PYONGYANG, North Korea, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pregnant women imprisoned under the communist regime in North Korea routinely face forced abortions, a recent report by a South Korean lawyers’ association stated, in the first report the group has released on human rights conditions in The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The survey conducted by the Korean Bar Association relied on two years of data collection and interviews with 100 North Koreans who had defected to the South after 2000, the Korean Times reported.

According to statements by defectors, 57.7 percent indicated they had witnessed or heard of imprisoned pregnant women who were forced to have abortions. 

Human rights groups have alleged for years that forced abortion and infanticide are common practices inside North Korean prisons, basing the charges on the reports by defectors. The communist government has consistently denied the charges.

In 2005 the Office of the United Nations High commissioner for Human Rights included forced abortion and infanticide in its 2005 report on human rights violations in North Korea.

The report identified the “[c]ontinued violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women, in particular the trafficking of women for prostitution or forced marriage, ethnically motivated forced abortions, including by labour inducing injection or natural delivery, as well as infanticide of children of repatriated mothers, including in police detention centres and labour training camps.”

The lawyer’s report on human rights violations also confirmed the routine use of torture and sleep deprivation by North Korean authorities against prisoners. Twenty-two percent of those questioned had undergone sleep deprivation during questioning, or had heard reports of sleep deprivation from others. Widespread torture was reported by 21.1 percent. Sexual harassment, beatings and abusive language were also frequent occurrences.

Read coverage from the Korea Times:
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006092922422811990.htm

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
HORRIFIC FORCED ABORTION AND INFANTICIDE IN NORTH KOREAN PRISONS
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jun/02061007.html

Infanticide of Disabled Babies Commonplace in Communist North Korea
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032207.html

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Congressional Conference Directs Navy to Withdraw Ban on “Sectarian” Chaplain Prayers

Chaplain court-martialed under ban calls decision a “victory for religious liberty”

By Gudrun Schultz

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The US Navy has been told by Congress to rescind a controversial directive banning chaplains from using overtly Christian language in prayers outside of traditional chapel settings, World Net Daily reported September 30.

In what has been called “a victory for religious liberty,” a congressional conference committee made the decision to retract the Feb. 21 directive entitled “Religious Ministry within the Department of the Navy,” along with a similar Air Force directive from Feb. 9.

Among those most relieved by the announcement of policy changes was Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt, a Navy chaplain court-martialed for using the name of Jesus while in uniform, at an event in front of the White House last March.

Klingenschmitt was charged by his superior, Capt. Lloyd Pyle, with violating Navy policy by “wrongfully wearing his uniform while attending and participating in a news conference in support of personal views on political and religious issues.”

The chaplain chose the court-martial over accepting a reprimand and a $3000 fine, recommended by a jury of U.S. Naval officers after the chaplain was convicted of disobeying an order not to appear in uniform for media appearance. (The jury had recommended the fine be suspended.)

Klingenschmitt said he had written permission from his commander to appear in uniform while participating in a similar prior event--both events were held in demonstration against the policy banning sectarian prayers.

The chaplain defended his participation in the event under the Navy Uniform Regulation, which “permits a member of the naval service to wear his or her uniform, without obtaining authorization in advance, incident to attending or participating in a bona fide religious service or observance.”

With the prayer ban lifted, Klingenschmitt told WND he is hopeful his letter of reprimand will not be officially signed. Regardless, he said, the committee’s decision was a tremendous victory for religious freedom.

“Chaplains are free again to pray in Jesus’ name,” Klingenschmitt said. “If this does cost me my career, I don’t mind, because other chaplains will now have the freedom that I was denied.”

The chaplain went on an 18-day fast in January to protest the prayer policy, which he told WND earlier in his trial was a deliberate censoring of chaplains’ prayers by the Navy.

“There is no more fundamental right than the inalienable right to worship our creator, and I pray in Jesus name. For any government official to require non-sectarian prayers is for him to enforce his government religion upon me, to censor, exclude and punish me for my participation.”

Read World Net Daily coverage:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52227

See congressional conference directive:
http://www.persuade.tv/frenzy6/VictoryPolicyRescinded.pdf

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Canadian Military to Remove Cross from Cap for Chaplains
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04111604.html

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‘40 Days for Life’ Vigil outside Houston Planned Parenthood Clinic

Sustained organized event saves babies, educates community

By Meg Jalsevac

HOUSTON, Texas, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On September 29, Houston’s Coalition for Life completed its first ’40 Days for Life’ vigil outside the busy Houston Planned Parenthood Clinic which boasted 6,376 abortions performed in 2005.   From August 15 at 7:00 am to September 29 at 5:00 pm (Sundays not included), a minimum of two peaceful and prayerful protesters maintained a vigil on the sidewalk of the busy street in front of the Planned Parenthood Clinic that performs abortions on women from all over Southeastern Texas.   Trained pro-life sidewalk counselors were present during all hours that the clinic was open for business. 

This specific time of year was chosen for the vigil, despite blistering heat reaching as high as 99 degrees, in an effort to combat Planned Parenthood’s expansion plans for their Houston Clinic.  As it stands right now, Texas Law mandates that abortions performed after a baby is in its 16th week of development must be performed at a surgical ambulatory center.  The Houston Planned Parenthood Clinic is moving to a new location that will include such a center so that they will not lose revenue by having to refer 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions to another facility.  

Christine Melchor, executive director of Houston Coalition for Life, explained that the vigil was an effort spearheaded by the Houston Coalition for Life but greatly assisted by area and national pro-life groups and numerous volunteers.  Local businesses and individuals came forward with offers of financial assistance and supplies for the vigil.  A local water company donated 1280 bottles of water for the vigil keepers and one individual donated funds for the printing of thousands of flyers.  The most moving donations were from two homeless men that the pro-lifers befriended during their 40 day vigil on the street.  One homeless man gave $4 and another man gave $1.  They said that they wanted to do their part to help.  A homeless, pregnant mother sat and prayed and socialized with the pro-lifers every day that they kept their vigil.  She herself would approach other pregnant women heading in to the clinic and offer them pro-life literature.  

Parishes, schools, families and individuals all came forward to cover hours for the vigil.  Houston Coalition for Life also seized this opportunity for a large scale effort to educate the population of Houston to the Planned Parenthood agenda for their area.  Volunteers handed out thousands of flyers in the Houston area in a door to door evangelization effort that also extended to the local community college where almost every student received a flyer with the pro-life message.  A number of students who were pregnant were directed to a counseling pregnancy center and given other options than abortion.

People who could not partake in the vigil received a daily email reminding them of the prayer intention of the day and updating them about the vigil.   Those who could not attend in person were encouraged to instead pray and fast wherever they were. 

Melchor said the fruits of the vigil and other efforts were obvious throughout the 40 days. 

In only the second week of the prayer vigil, one of the other most notorious abortion mills in Houston closed down for no given reason after being in operation for over 20 years.  Two pro-life protestors were present and praying at that clinic when the closure was announced and actually helped to remove the clinic sign from the building.  Melchor said they conservatively estimate that at least 35 women were directed away from the Planned Parenthood clinic for pregnancy testing and 3 babies were saved from abortion.  12 other women left the clinic for various reasons without having an abortion.  Even the Planned Parenthood escorts seemed to have a softening of heart and engaged in courteous conversation and asked genuine questions of the protesters.  One escort, known for his rudeness to pro-lifers, even referred a couple over to the vigil keepers for a free pregnancy test instead of directly escorting them inside the clinic.  

Melchor is not sure if the ’40 Days of Prayer’ vigil will be an annual event in Houston or not.  She adds that the fruits of the vigil have prompted the Houston Coalition for Life to jump in to coordinating the Campaign for Life – a similar but smaller scale effort to have peaceful protestors in front of the clinic at least 4 hours a day during the week and 5 or 6 hours on Saturday.  She hopes the effects of the ’40 Days for Life’ will keep benefiting the Houston community, “Its amazing what can happen when God’s people come together united with a common goal.  People of many faiths gathered at the site where babies are dying and mothers are being exploited and offered their prayers and sacrifices to God for an end to abortion and then abandoned the results to Him.” 

See the website for the Houston Coalition for Life:
http://www.houstoncoalition.com/  

See the website for the  Houston ‘40 Days for Life’:
http://www.houstoncoalition.com/custom_page.cfm?page=221

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South African Nurse Seeks Appeals Court Hearing for Job Loss over Abortion Refusal

By Gudrun Schultz

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A South African nurse who says she was forced to resign from a senior position at a Vereeniging hospital after refusing to participate in abortions was granted leave to take her case against the Health Department to the Labour Appeals Court, IOL news reported Friday, with files from SABC news.

Wilhemien Charles, together with Doctors for Life, in 2004 charged the Kopanong hospital and the health department with having “discriminated against her Christian beliefs” after she refused to participate in abortions because of her religious beliefs. She said she had performed abortions twice before, under pressure, but the third time she refused. Following her refusal, Charles said she was forced to resign from the hospital.

Her case has been delayed two years. Receiving permission to take the case to the Appeals Court should speed up the process--if the Court agrees with the complainants, the case will then move to the Constitutional Court, SABC reported.

“If this case is a success, there’s a lot of nursing sisters and even doctors that will benefit from this because then they will finally have a right to say no without being victimized…pressurized,” Charles said.

The health department has defended current policies that require health care professionals to assist with abortions in emergency situations, regardless of their conscience.

“But under normal circumstances where services rendered to a stable patient, then arrangements can be made for that health professional to work in a different section and not to participate in that,” said department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi.

Just two months ago South Africa’s Constitutional Court struck down legislation that permitted nurses to perform abortions, an attempt to increase abortion access in the country.

Efforts by Doctors for Life convinced the Court that the Abortion Amendment Act and the Traditional Health Practitioners Act were enacted without fulfilling the constitutional obligation to solicit public opinion on the passage of the bills. The bills have been suspended for a period of 18 months.

Abortion was made legal in South Africa in 1997, with the passage of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act which permitted abortions at any point during the nine months of pregnancy. Abortions committed during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy are funded by the government.

In 2005 the official death count of South African babies to abortion was listed as 350,000.

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Nurse in South Africa Barred from Operating Room for Refusing to Commit Abortions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/aug/04082404.html

South Africa Official Abortion Count Reveals 350,000 Killed Since 1997
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05020103.html

Pro-Life Victory in South Africa as Court Strikes Law Allowing Nurses to Perform Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06081806.html

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BBC Takes “Sensational, Misleading” Shot at Pope Benedict

Completely misrepresents intent of internal Church procedures document

By Hilary White

LONDON, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The BBC has taken another shot at Pope Benedict XVI in its weekend program, Panorama, depicting the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as actively complicit in the homosexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church around the world in recent years. Titled “Sex Crimes And The Vatican,” the program aired on Sunday night and referred to Vatican documents that the BBC claimed ordered local prelates not to report sex offences by priests to the civil authorities.

The BBC refused to consult the Catholic bishops of England and Wales about the program, but since its airing, the English Church has responded forcefully to the program's distortions.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham issued a formal statement saying that the BBC should be “ashamed of the standard of its journalism,” and called it “an unwarranted attack on the pope's integrity.” “Viewers will recognise only too well the sensational tactics and misleading editing of the programme, which uses old footage and undated interviews," he said.

The program began with an exposition of the harms of sexual abuse, largely homosexual predation on boys, but then quickly laid the blame on a “coverup”, the origins of which were two documents the BBC said shows the active collusion of Vatican officials, most prominently, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
 
Two Vatican documents are featured, the first of which was published by the then Holy Office (now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) in 1962. It instructed bishops on internal canonical procedures against priests accused of sexual misconduct in the context of the confessional. The second is a 2001 follow-up letter by Cardinal Ratzinger which the BBC claims was a dark secret despite the fact that it was posted to the Vatican’s website.
 
US Canonist Edward Peters said the 2001 letter was intended to clear up disputes as to which ecclesiastical offenses are considered serious enough that Rome itself, instead of the local bishop, should adjudicate what the Church should do with a priest who abuses the seal of Confession.
 
In 2003 the same document was “discovered” by CBS News. CBS claimed then, as does the BBC now, that it “lays out a church policy that calls for absolute secrecy when it comes to sexual abuse by priests - anyone who speaks out could be thrown out of the church.”

In August 2003, the well-respected and left-leaning Catholic Vatican correspondent John Allen writing for the National Catholic Reporter explained the document had nothing to do with preventing bishops from reporting criminal actions of priests to civil authorities.

Allen explained the document “established a procedure for canonical cases in which priests were accused of abusing the confessional to sexually proposition penitents. Four concluding paragraphs (refer to) homosexual acts contrary to a priest’s celibate commitment. The document was not designed to address sexual abuse of minors.”

Allen went on to explain, “Crimen Sollicitationis dealt with canonical cases against a priest that could lead to removal from ministry or expulsion from the priesthood. Its imposition of secrecy thus concerned the church’s internal disciplinary process. It did not, according to canonical experts, prevent a bishop or anyone else from reporting a crime against a minor to the civil authorities.”

Last night, despite the facts, the BBC was sticking by its program’s claims. A spokesman said, “The protection of children is clearly an issue of the strongest public interest. The BBC stands by tonight's Panorama programme, and invites viewers to make up their own minds once they've seen it.”

The BBC has a longstanding reputation for its adversarial attitude towards the current Pope. When, in mid-September, the Muslim world exploded in violence in response to comments Benedict made in a speech in Regensburg, Germany, LifeSiteNews.com traced the origins of the uproar to the BBC’s own commentary released in all the languages of the Islamic world, long before the speech itself was translated.

A blogger who writes under the pseudonym, “Joee,” the author of “Catholic Londoner,” was invited by the BBC to give his opinions on a news talk radio program. Joee told the BBC that he and his fellow British Catholics were becoming increasingly frustrated by biased media coverage of Catholic and Christian issues.

The BBC interviewer asked why so many people visited the 21 year-old’s blog posts instead of the mainstream media coverage.

Joee responded, “Catholics are fed up with this. I understand that there are some internal investigations going on within the mainstream media about some of the headlines such as ‘The Pope’s Remarks Will Draw Muslim Anger,’ as opposed to ‘The Pope’s Remarks Have Drawn Muslim Anger.’ You know there seems to have been people with their own agendas fanning the whole issue up into flames.”

Another Catholic blogger, an American and Canon Lawyer, Edward N. Peters, asked this morning in an article on the BBC’s latest anti-Papal gaffe, “Does the BBC enjoy being so far behind the fact curve?”

Peters, holder of the Edmund Cardinal Szoka Chair in Faculty Development at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Seminary, writes, “Apparently the BBC thinks that if the Vatican publishes a document in 2001, (which the Catholic press reported on in early 2002), but the BBC only notices it five years later, the document must have been a deep dark Vatican secret till then. Quick, what's British English for ‘Get real’?”

See Complete John Allen article on this issue
http://www.natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2003c/081503/081503n.htm

See the Panorama program:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/shared/player/player.stm?title=Panorama&c...

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
BBC, NY Times and Guardian Appear to Have Stage-Managed Muslim Anti-Pope Hatred
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06091805.html

Read the full text of Bishop Nichols’ statement:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5397762.stm

Read the blog Catholic Londoner:
http://catholiclondoner.blogspot.com

Read Edward Peters’ article:
Does the BBC enjoy being so far behind the fact curve?
http://www.canonlaw.info/2006/10/does-bbc-enjoy-being-so-far-behind.html

Listen to Joee’s interview with the BBC (fast forward to 9:08:00)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/fivelive/aod.shtml?fivelive/podsandblogs#

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LifeChain Sunday – A Contradiction to Today’s Culture

Opinion

By Hilary White

TORONTO, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When I came out of the café I and my friends frequent after Sunday Mass yesterday, the weather was so lovely that I decided it would not be worth going home for the two hours I had before LifeChain. So I shopped. I Sunday-shopped. What else does one do in this day and age, in the beating heart of Canada’s largest commercial metropolis?

There is a little second hand bookstore in which I like to kill time and hard-earned paycheques and despite the heavy preponderance of Marxism in the political section, and post-modernism in the poetry section, I still usually score a treasure or two.

This time I came away with a hard-backed edition of Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism; everything you never wanted to know about the progress of the ideological and genocidal states of the 20th century.

It struck me later, that such a simple and apparently harmless activity as Sunday shopping, even for important and educational books, is a tiny but telling sample of the larger problem, the Big Picture of moral and social degradation that LifeSiteNews is at such pains every day to chronicle. What do I have to do on a Sunday afternoon? The same thing everyone in this culture has to do. Consume merchandise. It’s the new meaning of life.

It seemed a funny irony (not the sort you laugh at) that I was buying a book, on a Sunday, on LifeChain Sunday no less, about everything that is wrong with our modern world; including, presumably, the wild, out-of-control consumerism that has pushed us to keep our shops open every day of the week.

The trouble with living in the modern world is that we have to. Live in it, I mean, and never mind the daily, painful ironies. To be good citizens, we have to pay our taxes, even though we know that they will pay for abortions; for school contraception programs; for day care programs that separate children from mothers; for legal programs that end by installing all sorts of destructive and logically contradictory legislation; for all manner of horrible, soul-killing things. We are faced more often than we like with the duty to vote in elections when all the candidates support abortion (and the whole social program that seems invariably to go with it,) often without the tiniest moment’s reflection.

 

We must live and work every day with people whose ideas are so deeply and unconsciously formed by the Culture of Death that we often find ourselves feeling as though we live in a parallel universe; we can see and hear everything, but we sometimes wonder if there is not an unbridgeable and nearly infinite distance between ourselves and our neighbour.

What good does LifeChain do? People often ask me. I sometimes wonder myself, though I go every year. It is, for one hour a year, an opportunity to stand in front of the world and say clearly that this is not how things should be. It allows us to bridge that infinite gap with a silent shout to the other side. For one hour, we can be identified with something so radically different from what the world understands as normal, that they don’t even have a word for it any more.

I have a particularly good corner. Our parish announces and promotes the event, usually putting posters on the doors for several weeks in advance, placing notices in bulletins and making pulpit announcements. More than this, the priests of my parish preach throughout the year on the unimaginable evil of abortion, on the breakdown of the social order and what we, as individuals, can do about it.

LifeChain is always well attended from our parish. This year the weather looked iffy; it had rained earlier in the day, but this did not stop a hundred people from coming.

Every year I see a slow shift in the demographics. The first year I came the balance was top-heavy with the faithful ladies that seem to form the backbone of every parish, mostly over seventy, and well able to remember a quite different sort of world. Since then, I have seen more and more young families who bring their children, people my age and younger who have seen the fruits of the social revolution their parents brought, and have suffered from them.

All these people do something so simple that it seems foolish, even to our own eyes, and yet, none of the people there could be called fools. We stand in silence, holding a sign that says something is so absurdly obvious it ought not to need saying: “abortion kills children.” Or something that everyone ought to want to hear: “Jesus forgives and heals.” At the end of an hour, we pack all the signs up and after standing about chatting for a bit, disperse.

People driving by this extremely busy central Toronto street frequently honk their horns, give us the thumbs up. Of the hundreds of cars passing in that hour, there are always more thumbs up than insults thrown.

What good does it do? It is one candle in a sea of darkness. Maybe it makes one person stop and think. Maybe it makes a person look on the internet to see about this whole abortion business. Maybe it makes a person try to stop a friend from having an abortion. Maybe it challenges someone’s political assumptions at the next election.

Then again, maybe not. It’s not for me to know. 

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Respect Life Sunday - Life Chain in Pittsburgh, PA.

Personal reflection

By Meg Jalsevac

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Respect Life Sunday on October 1, 2006 in Pittsburgh, PA dawned as a bright and warm day – beautiful weather for the one hour Life Chain scheduled for that afternoon.

At 1:30 pm, our group of 30 or so pro-lifers assembled at the corner in front of St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Greentree.  Signs were passed out with a pro-life message printed on one side and the ‘Life Chain guidelines’ printed on the other reminding participants to spend their hour in prayer, to avoid confrontations and to always act in a spirit of Christian charity.  Our group was made up of a wide array of different age groups, all there to be a peaceful witness for life.  Vehicle traffic was heavy both because of our location near the highway and because of the nice weather.  Several times throughout our one hour vigil, passing vehicles honked in support of our message.  We received only two vocal insults and both were met with a simple smile by the Life Chain participants. 

Walking the sidewalk with my little daughter gave me the opportunity to walk amongst all the Life Chain participants and hear the quiet but constant rosaries, hymns and other prayers.  The power of the Life Chain struck me.  Not only were we making a public stance for life but we were bombarding heaven with our prayers for babies, women, mothers, fathers, doctors, nurses and so many more.  At each Life Chain across the country and across the world we were united in our public pro-life stance but, more importantly, we were united in our prayers for all life. 

Our small group yesterday on Greentree Road in Pittsburgh affected some passers-by with our message, like the elderly lady out for a Sunday afternoon stroll who, with tears in her eyes, individually thanked each one of us as she walked by.  But the true affects of that hour of prayer and witness by those who attended a Life Chain across the country cannot be adequately measured or described.  Only God can see the profound impact that Life Chain has, each year, on hearts and minds.

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Abortion Records Help Convict Child Rapist – Sentencing Wednesday

Man Guilty Of 9 Felonies Validates AG Kline’s Medical Records Subpoenas

WICHITA, KS, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Operation Rescue has uncovered documents that reveal that child rapist Robert A. Estrada was captured with the help of abortion clinic medical records that had been subpoenaed as a result of Attorney General Phill Kline’s investigation into criminal wrong-doing at abortion clinics. (see the documents here: http://www.operationrescue.org/images/EstradaComplaint.PDF)

In October, 2005, Kline forwarded the abortion clinic medical records obtained from the now defunct Central Women’s Services in Wichita to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office. Those records, along with other information provided by an adoption group that had seen one of the girls, resulted in Estrada’s capture the following month.

Estrada is scheduled for sentencing in Sedgwick County on October 4, 2006, at 1:30 PM on nine felony counts of rape and indecent liberties with a child for the sexual abuse of his two step-daughters, which began when they were 11 and 12 years old resulting in four pregnancies, including two abortions. His wife, Patricia L. Estrada, earlier pled guilty to two counts of child endangerment and is currently serving a 14-month prison sentence.

The case is particularly disturbing because the girls’ abuse went unreported for years even though their sexual activity was obvious to adults who came in contact with them – including abortionist Sherman Zaremski and workers at Central Women’s Services where they obtained abortions. The abortion clinic personnel never reported the suspected rapes to the authorities, as mandated by law, when the girls obtained abortions there even though the girls were younger than fifteen, but instead returned the girls to their abuser where the rapes continued. State law states sexual activity in children aged 15 or under is, by definition, criminal activity and must be reported. Such reporting could have stopped the abuse years earlier.

“This case alone validates Kline’s abortion clinic investigations and subpoenas for medical records. There is no doubt that without the medical records produced by Central Women’s Services in response to Kline’s subpoenas, those girls would still be enduring unspeakable abuse to this day,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

Kline has been under attack in the media for his investigations into unreported child rape and illegal late term abortions. Abortionist George Tiller of Wichita and a Planned Parenthood in Kansas City appealed Kline’s subpoenas for abortion clinic medical records. However, Central Women’s Services cooperated with the subpoenas resulting in the Estrada convictions and the prosecution of another child rapist in Marshall County, in addition to investigations in three other states.

“If records from an abortion clinic like Central Women’s Services that did relatively few abortions have led to so many investigations and convictions, you know there are perhaps dozens of cases abuse that Tiller and Planned Parenthood are hiding,” said Newman.

“It is obvious that Tiller and Planned Parenthood would rather have children continue to be abused rather than turn over records that would prove that they have been violating Kansas law. For the sake of those poor little girls, the Attorney General’s investigations must continue. It could be their only hope of deliverance from their rapists.”

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Canadian Political Strategist Peter Naglik Dies at 39

OTTAWA, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A bright light in the Canadian political firmament went out tragically last Thursday.  Peter Naglik, 39, leaves behind him a legacy of quiet, active, strategic and brilliant work for the growing social conservative movement in Canada.

LifeSiteNews will report more extensively on Naglik tomorrow but funeral arrangements are published below for the benefit of those who may wish to pay their respects.

Visitation - Wednesday, Oct. 4:
Paul O'Connor Funeral Home 1939 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, ON
Afternoon visitation: 3 pm - 5 pm Evening visitation: 7 pm - 9 pm

Visitation, Funeral Mass, Interment - Thursday Oct. 5:
St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church 4179 Lawrence Ave. E., Scarborough, ON
Morning visitation (at the church): 9:30 am -10:30 am
Funeral Mass: 10:30 am

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LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes

Surprise! Moral movies draw 7 times the fans
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52221

Va. Catholics urged to back marriage ban
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_Ba...!news!politics

Pro-Family Groups Hail Veto of California's Sexual Indoctrination Bills
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/292006a.asp

Bias Makes Media Overreact to Embryonic Stem Cell Hype, Researcher Claims
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/292006f.asp

Activist Claims Pro-Homosexual Chicago Is Unfairly Prosecuting Him
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/292006e.asp

AFA Leader: Ford is Hurting, But Boycott Will Make Essential Point
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/282006c.asp

Nigerian catastrophe triggered when Christian brushes off Muslim's 'advances'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52200

Muslim reactions to the Pope’s remarks are “politicised”, Moscow Patriarchate says
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7340

Radical Muslim who made death threats against Pope escapes prosecution
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=4074...

Bertone emphasizes religious freedom, right to life in first meeting with diplomats
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=7726

Anti-Defamation League says conspiracy theory of Jewish-controlled Pope growing in Muslim world
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=7730

Masses in reparation for abortion celebrated in Madrid
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=7720

Condemnation of abortion is question of fundamental ethics, says Cardinal Policarpo
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=7721

Racism Reason for Abortion Says National Black Pro-Life Union
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=73305

Many cities unprepared for aging boomers
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15026685/

Study finds school districts benefit from adding choices
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2006/27/c2496.html

Cardinal Keeler's Respect Life Statement Highlights True and False “Progress” on Human Life
http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2006/06-185.shtml

Centre to sell human stem cells
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/5383464.stm

Joey's way is the only way - Little did we know last November that our lives would be so completely altered.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060928.FACTS28/TPStory/?query...

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