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Wednesday November 26, 2008


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English Catholic Bishops’ Pamphlet on Pastoral Care of Homosexuals Pushes Gay Lobby Agenda

By Hilary White

BRIGHTON, November 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A document from the Catholic bishops’ conference of England and Wales on the pastoral care of persons suffering from homosexual temptations omits the Church’s key teachings on sin and redemption, a British pastor claims.

Fr. Ray Blake, a parish priest and blogger living in Brighton, called the pamphlet from the Marriage and Family Life Project Office “troubling” in that it fails to mention the teaching of the Catholic Church calling homosexuals to live a life of chastity.

“As priest in Brighton,” Fr. Blake wrote, “I spend quite a bit of time trying to help people make sense of their sexual attraction, I really find this document troubling.”

The pamphlet, entitled, “What is life like if you or someone in your family is gay or lesbian in their sexual orientation? … and what can your parish family do to make a difference?” offers a help line for “families facing difficulty in coming to terms with the sexual orientation of a spouse, parent, child or sibling.” However, it makes no mention of ministries, like the group “Courage,” that are geared to helping those who are seeking to leave the active homosexual lifestyle.

The omissions, rather than the content, are the problem says Fr. Blake. The priest says the pamphlet heavily emphasizes “acceptance” of persons suffering from homosexual inclinations, but entirely omits the fact that such persons are called to live chastely.

“We used to speak a lot about ‘meeting people where they are at,’ which is fine,” Fr. Blake wrote. “Christ does that, but he calls us break from sin and to live a new Life in him.”

The pamphlet recommends that parishes use “bidding” or intercessory prayers thanking God for the “gift of sexuality” and includes quotes complaining, “The continual message from the church is that homosexuality is so, so dreadful. Our gay son just hasn’t stood a chance.” Another asserts, “My brother is gay; the church has been very intolerant of him.”

The pamphlet, Fr. Blake wrote, “seems to lack something important. Could it be a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ?”

The pamphlet’s authors have used language and recommendations that closely reflect the work of the secularist and decidedly anti-Catholic homosexualist movement. It instructs pastors to “check the local school policies on bullying and equality” and warns them “not to assume that everyone is heterosexual” and to “reflect this in language and conversation.”

In recent documents produced by the British government, teachers and others involved in education are told to avoid “heterosexism,” which is any assumption that heterosexuality is natural or normal. Faithful Catholics have warned that, particularly in the context of schools, the language of “anti-discrimination,” “equality” and “human rights” are being used to silence any dissent from the secularist and anti-family movement’s dogmas.

With the passage of the Labour government’s Sexual Orientation Regulations, Catholics and others who adhere to traditional moral norms, are increasingly under threat. Fr. Timothy Finigan, a Catholic theology professor and founder of the Association of Priests for the Gospel of Life, told LifeSiteNews.com that with the “equality” doctrine asserting that homosexuality is the equivalent of race, any criticism of homosexual sex, such as calling it “sinful,” is by definition discriminatory against homosexuals. Fr. Finigan warned that the language of the gay lobby is being used by government to silence Christian teaching with regard to homosexual activity.

The Catholic Church in England and Wales has, since the 1960s, been regarded as one of the most left-leaning national bishops’ conferences in the Catholic world. In the country’s leading Catholic archdiocese, Westminster in London, despite a promise to shut them down after years of complaints, a parish is continuing to offer “gay Masses.” During these masses homosexuality and “gay marriage” are praised and Catholic teaching on chastity and sexuality is banned.

The international development organisation attached to the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales has been well known as a bastion of hard-left and pro-homosexual ideologies. In 2004, the news service Catholic World Report (CWR) revealed that Britain’s largest aid organization, Catholic Aid for Overseas Development (CAFOD), is controlled by an active and unrepentant cabal of homosexuals who promote the use of condoms for AIDS prevention in developing countries.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Gay Masses Continue in Archdiocese of Westminster
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08090807.html

UK Catholic Aid Agency Promotes Condoms for AIDS
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/sep/04092807.html

British Catholic Schools Targeted For Refusing to Implement School “anti-homophobic” Bullying Policies
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07053108.html

UK Minister Pledges Government Collaboration with Gay Activists in Stopping “Homophobic Bullying” in Schools
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07070506.html

New U.K. PM Gordon Brown Promises Gays “Crack-Down” on “Homophobia”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07071806.html

To contact the Marriage and Family Life Project Office:
Bishop John Hine
39 Eccleston Square,
London, England,
SW1V 1BX
[email protected]


Madrid Hospital under Investigation for Telling Truth about Abortion and Sodomy

Angry health official says that such material is “expressly prohibited” in city hospitals

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

MADRID, November 25, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Madrid’s Carlos III Hospital has provoked a controversy and a government investigation by distributing an informational pamphlet on sexuality that recommends abstinence from sexual intercourse until marriage, mentions that abortion ends a human life, and calls sodomy a “behavioral disturbance” that spreads disease and causes depression.

Although the statements in the pamphlet are conceded by much of the medical establishment and supported by peer-reviewed studies, Madrid’s Health Director Juan Jose Guermes expressed outrage at its distribution, and promised a full investigation to determine who was responsible.

“That guide was expressly prohibited,” Guermes told the media last week. “We are going to open a reserved informational file to counteract its distribution within the hospital.”

Guermes claimed that the guide contained “personal opinions” of “only some” doctors at the Infectious Diseases unit of the hospital. However, he said, their opinions are “not official” and noted that the hospital, which has publicly disassociated itself from the document, had already removed it from circulation.

The pamphlet, a 53-page guide entitled, “Adolescents and AIDS: Questions and Answers,” gives medical advice to readers regarding unhealthy sexual practices. It notes that scientific studies indicate that “homosexuality and heterosexuality are not comparable from a health perspective. Homosexuals tend to be more promiscuous, with the physical and emotional problems that (such behavior) supposes.”

“Homosexuality is more frequently associated with sexually transmitted diseases and mental disturbances (anxiety, depression) … it is necessary to be understanding and to help people with homosexual habits: to the extent that it is possible, it is necessary to resolve their behavioral disturbance.”

Regarding abortion, the guide states that “although some legal systems, such as that in Spain, allow abortions under certain circumstances, from the biological point of view, abortion is nothing less than the termination of the life of a human being inside the womb of his mother.”

The guide also repeats the fact, acknowledged by the United Nations, that condoms have a high failure rate, even when used “properly,” stating that contraceptive use has “limited effectiveness” in the face of “the AIDS pandemic, which is growing rapidly.” It also condemns the notion that “sex with a condom is safe” which, “besides being false, can be dangerous” because “it conveys messages that trivialize sexuality, encouraging the population to be promiscuous, in an animalistic way.”

The pamphlet promotes the “ABC” approach that has been highly effective in Africa, particularly in Uganda. The ABC (“Abstinence, Be faithful, use a Condom”) approach prioritizes abstinence and faithfulness due to their effectiveness in preventing the transmission of venereal diseases.

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo opined in its story on the case that the pamphlet “is filled with ideology that contradicts the most basic psychology. And democracy.”

The Collective of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals, and Bisexuals of Madrid claims that the guide, “does not divulge scientific and objective information.”

However, some segments of the commercial media have questioned the furor surrounding a pamphlet that generally conveys medical facts and counsels readers to recognize “true love” rather than cheap pleasure.

“It is necessary to ask if the Public Administration should focus almost exclusively on the most liberal tendencies that support abortion and sexual practices, like masturbation and promiscuity, and even homosexuality on occasion, or if they should also focus on that sector of society that supports a life based on love and faithfulness to one’s partner, which in the final analysis is the only certain method for preventing 100% of these diseases?” writes Cristina Arredondo for Gaceta.

“Both the Carlos III (Hospital) and the City of Madrid have wanted to distance themselves from that guide … why are they looking the other way?” writes El Pais in an editorial. “The fact that more than 75% of AIDS infections are produced by sexual transmission (either because of sick homosexuals or perverted heterosexuals) is a secondary issue. If these careless people knew about the scientific soundness of true love, they would have no doubt: chastity before condoms.”

Related LifeSiteNews Coverage:

Study: Homosexual Lifestyle Strongly Linked to Depression, Suicide
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091704.html

Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Life Begins at Conception
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061715.html

United Nations Report says Condoms Fail to Protect against AIDS 10% of the Time
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/jun/03062303.html

Expert Research Finds Homosexuality More Dangerous Than Smoking
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/07040309.html

Medical Journalist Says Reliance on Condoms Spreads HIV/AIDS
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06062304.html

“Gay Marriage” and Homosexuality
https://www.lifesitenews.com/features/marriage_defence/SSM_MD…


Kenny Chesney Song Helps Save Unborn Child, Gives Hope to New Parents

By Kathleen Gilbert

November 25, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A heart-rending tale of a reluctant young father discovering the joy of sacrificial love, Kenny Chesney’s hit country song “There Goes My Life” has stunned audiences with its message of the sanctity of human life since its 2003 debut. The song even appears to have saved the life of at least one unborn child, according to a comment posted under the music video on Youtube, and has possibly played a part in saving others.

The lyrics, written by Neil Thrasher and Wendell Mobley, capture perfectly the quandary of a young man whose dreams are shattered when he learns his girlfriend is pregnant. “There goes my life,” Chesney sings. “There goes my future, my everything. Might as well kiss it all good-bye.” In the music video the father of the child is portrayed as a star football player who is forced to give up a promising career to care for his child.

The story fast-forwards two years later when the young man realizes his daughter was no “mistake,” but as the chorus eloquently reflects, she embodies “my life, my future, my everything” that he was sure he had lost. The ending reflects on the father years later as he watches the now-teenage girl drive away to college, revisiting once more his agony of detachment after learning to love his daughter’s life more than his own.

(To watch the music video, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MIJShOqh8Q)

The song’s deeply human story deals a devastating blow to the abortion mentality, which casts an “unwanted” child as a mere disruption in its parents’ lives. It’s pro-life message has evidently resonated deeply with its audience: “There Goes My Life” spent seven weeks as #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart the year it debuted, and its YouTube video has over 1.4 million hits to date.

For many, the song cast into relief the absurdity of choosing abortion, and many gave vent to how the song made them painfully aware of their regret for an abortion, or relief at having chosen against it.

“This song came right on the radio as my wife told me she was pregnant and wanted an abortion,” one commentator wrote on the Youtube page. “It’s been a year and now our lovely baby boy is the most important thing in both our lives, and I can’t help shed tears every time I hear this song.”

The Youtube forum has been flooded with comments from mothers and fathers who saw a reflection of their own lives in the bittersweet song, and those of frightened young parents who were strengthened by the song’s example of courageous fatherhood.

Another commentator wrote, “I recently found out that I am going to be a father, and this song describes exactly what was going through my head. I am starting look forward to it and every time I hear this I cry.”

“I can relate,” wrote another commenter. “My birth parents were unmarried college students. I was adopted at 2 months old and have always considered my adoptive parents better than a kid could ask for. I thank God and my birth parents for making the tough decision not to abort me, and maybe even the tougher decision to give me up after I was born.”


Just In Time for Christmas – Gift Cards for Abortions from Planned Parenthood

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, November 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood of Indiana has announced just in time for Christmas that it will begin selling gift certificates at its clinics and online, which can be used for all PP services, including payment for birth control, STD testing, and abortions.

The Planned Parenthood of Indiana website says the gift cards can be used for “services or the recipient’s choice of birth control method,” and poses the question “Why not buy a loved one a gift this holiday season that they really need”?

When asked about the appropriateness of a gift card for abortion, Chrystal Struben-Hall, Vice President of Planned Parenthood of Indiana told WISH-TV, “They really are intended for preventative healthcare. We decided not to put restrictions on the gift certificates so it’s for whatever people feel they need the services for most.”

Indiana Family Institute President Curt Smith, however, said he is appalled by the certificates.

“I think the way to help family planning is to give the money where there’s no agenda. So if somebody wants to help a woman at a time of crisis, they can support the life centers throughout Indiana,” Smith said in the WISH-TV report.

One blogger at the highly popular “Hot Air” blog quipped, “What kind of relationship would you have to have with someone for a gift certificate from Planned Parenthood to be appropriate? If you’re buying for your significant other, cash works just as well. If you’re buying for friends, um … what’s the message there? ‘Merry Christmas, buddy. The next prostate exam’s on me.’”

To express your opinion on Planned Parenthood gift cards contact:

Planned Parenthood of Indiana
200 South Meridian Street
Post Office Box 397
Indianapolis, Indiana 46206
Phone: 317-637-4343
Fax: 317-637-4344
Email: [email protected]


Belgian Couple Sells Baby on EBay

By Hilary White

GHENT, Belgium, November 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Belgian couple faces possible jail time for having sold their newborn child on eBay and for having registered the child under an assumed name.

A Belgium state prosecutor said, “The couple are suspected of registering the birth under a false name, which is an offence. That is to say that the name the baby boy was given was not that of his real mother.” The offence carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. According to iafrica.com, obtaining an adoption without official authorization, a charge to which the couple may have to answer for the eBay sale, carries a maximum sentence of five years.

The pair, who have not been named, are a man 26 and woman aged 24 and are under investigation by police and social services in the town of Ghent after it was revealed that they had offered their second child on eBay to a Dutch couple for an undisclosed sum.

A spokesman for the Belgian prosecutor’s office said the couple had decided not to keep the child because of money problems. The amount paid for the baby has not been disclosed but it was described as a “decent five figure sum” and the Belgian authorities have decided not to remove the baby from his “adoptive” parents. Het Laatse Nieuws reports that the baby was handed over to a couple from the Netherlands in the hospital parking lot shortly after he was born in July.

While critics are saying that this incident could be the start of the buying and selling of children over the internet, in fact, babies have been appearing on the internet for sale for some time. In May this year, police in Vancouver, British Columbia were called when an online ad was spotted offering to sell a baby girl for Cn. $10,000. The ad said “Must have!!!! $10,000, a new baby girl, healthy and very cute. Can’t afford and unexpected, Looking for a good home, Please call ASAP” and included a cell phone number.

In Salt Lake City in March, Police instigated a search for a baby girl who had been advertised “for sale” on a local online classified listing. The child was listed under “Baby & Children Items” at a cost of US $6,560, police said.

Pro-life analysts have long warned that widespread legalized abortion has triggered a vast cultural shift in western countries from the idea of a child as a gift from God to that of the child as either an insupportable financial burden or a luxury commodity that can be purchased or sold, or, as in the case of artificial reproductive technologies, made to order.

As early as 1986 the Catholic Church was warning that a fundamental shift had occurred in the way children were viewed. That year the Vatican issued a document, titled Donum Vitae (the Gift of Life) signed by the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, that warned that the artificial reproductive technologies industry had created a situation in which human beings could be bought and sold.

Calling artificial procreation a set of procedures characterised by a “dynamic of violence and domination,” the document said, “The abortion-mentality which has made this procedure possible…leads, whether one wants it or not, to man’s domination over the life and death of his fellow human beings and can lead to a system of radical eugenics.”

“The child is not an object to which one has a right, nor can he be considered as an object of ownership: rather, a child is a gift, ‘the supreme gift.’”

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Christian Medical Association Condemns “Baby Supermarket”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010905.html

Feminist Revolutionary Warns of Exploitation of Women with Cloning Research
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05030303.html


Liberal MP Keith Martin: Parliament must Protect Freedom of Speech from Human Rights Commissions

By John Jalsevac

OTTAWA, November 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following the release of the report on the Canadian Human Rights Commissions (CHRC) by Constitutional Law Professor Richard Moon, Liberal MP Keith Martin has called for parliament to act upon Moon’s suggestions and scrap section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA).

Section 13 is the section that gives the CHRC jurisdiction over so-called “hate speech,” and has been widely used in recent years to prosecute Canadian Christians and conservatives, largely for publicly defending traditional Christian sexual ethics.

To the surprise of many, who believed that Moon – who was chosen by the CHRC to pen the report and who was paid a significant sum for doing so – would merely parrot the position of the CHRC in favor of retaining its powers to prosecute hate speech, the primary recommendation of his report was the repeal of the controversial section.

Moon recommended that “hate speech” cases should be taken out of the hands of the CHRC and left purely in the jurisdiction of the criminal court system. He also warned, “The use of censorship by the government should be confined to a narrow category of extreme expression – that which threatens, advocates or justifies violence against the members of an identifiable group.”

Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin has long been one of the most vocal advocates for the repeal of Section 13, having introduced a motion in Parliament in January of this year that called for its deletion from the CHRA.

Dr. Martin today responded to Moon’s recent report, saying, “Professor Richard Moon’s report on the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Act that governs it was a courageous assessment on how we can protect one of our true rights, the right to freedom of speech.”

“This is a sensible balance between the right to free speech and the protection all of us must have from being subjected to hate speech. The way forward is clear. Changing the Act rests solely within the powers of Parliament. It is now up to our elected officials to implement those solutions that will modify the CHRA in order to ensure that the Commission has the rules that will enable it to execute its duties in an effective manner,” he said.

Dr. Martin suggested that the government follow one of two courses of action:

1. Bring forth legislation into the House as soon as possible to amend the CHRA. This, he indicated, would be consistent with a proposal that was just supported by Conservative members at their recent party convention, which called for the repeal of Section 13.

2. Call on the Justice Committee to do a public assessment of the Act that is televised so that all Canadians can hear opinions on both sides of this issue, and then introduce legislation into the House based on these findings.

“There has never been a better time to protect our right to free speech, a right for which Canadians laid down their lives in two World Wars to defend,” said Dr. Martin.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Canadian Human Rights Commission Consultant’s Report Calls For Repeal of “Hate Speech” Law
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08112508.html

Liberal MP Motion Calls for Public Examination of Human Rights Commission
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08060301.html

Liberal MP Launches Motion to Stop Human Rights Commission Squelching of Free Speech
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jan/08013104.html


Lawyers Vow to Bring Battle for Pro-Life Illinois License Plates to Supreme Court

By Kathleen Gilbert

CHICAGO, November 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Attorneys with the Thomas More Society have petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to reinstate a previous district court ruling allowing the distribution of pro-life license plates, stating that otherwise they would appeal to the US Supreme Court.

About two weeks ago, the three-Judge panel of the Appeals Court denied the “Choose Life” license plates protection under the First Amendment, stating that the “very contentious and divisive” content on license plates proposed by Choose Life Illinois (CLI) was too controversial. The plates, designed to benefit adoption services, display the words “Choose Life” with drawn images of smiling children.

Previously, however, the Northern Illinois District Court had issued a ruling permitting the pro-adoption license plates. Now the Thomas More Society is asking the Appeals Court to reverse its recent decision, which overturned the district court decision in favor of the plates.

“We are committed to fight this battle to the finish,” said Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of Thomas More Society. Brejcha condemned the Illinois court’s suppression of the same pro-life message that recently was found to be protected by the First Amendment by an Arizona appeals court – a decision the Supreme Court upheld in October.

“Our US Constitution, especially the First Amendment’s free speech clause, must be held to mean the same thing in all parts of our country, and it makes no sense that specialty plates that say ‘Choose Life’ whose proceeds support the cause of adoption are permitted in so many other states, yet outlawed here,” said Brejcha. “This is a classic case of what federal courts always have condemned as ‘viewpoint discrimination’ and it must be stopped.”

Brejcha warned that Supreme Court authority would be sought in the event that rehearing is not granted or enough votes are not won to overturn the panel’s decision.

Despite gathering 25,000 signatures requesting approval for the special interest license plate – far above the 850 required by state law – efforts to have the plate approved by Illinois authorities have been frustrated at every turn.

Bills introduced in the General Assembly were diverted to a special subcommittee where they died without any hearing. Secretary of State Jesse White claimed he did not have power to approve the plate himself, and when the federal trial court ruled that he did have such authority under the wording of the license plate statute, the General Assembly passed a new bill that required legislative approval for every new specialty plate.

At a meeting with Choose Life Illinois leaders, Illinois Senate president Emil Jones said he disagreed with the pro-life message, as his position was “pro-choice.”

The Thomas More Society press release:
https://www.christiannewswire.com/news/262978788.html

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Illinois Federal Appeals Court Rules against “Choose Life” License Plates
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111005.html

Illinois Victory: ‘Choose Life’ Tags Permitted after Lawsuit against Secretary of State
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07012602.html


Letters to the Editor for Wednesday, November 26, 2008

RE: Activist Miami Judge Defies Court Precedent and Rules against Homosexual Adoption Ban
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08112511.html

Dear Editor,

In the article about the renegade Florida judge, you mentioned that the Kentucky Court of Appeals rebuked a family court ruling in a similar case. It’s disturbing that as a Kentucky resident I could only find out about something like this in my state from an out-of-state source. Disturbing but not surprising when you are familiar with the far-left idiotological (new term for the left?) position of the regional Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper. Since I rarely read the Louisville Courier Journal the story may have been reported there but it certainly wasn’t reported in the more widely read H-L. Thank you for keeping us informed.

Bob Tipton

____________________________________

RE: Vatican Cardinal: “A New World Order is Gaining Ground”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08112011.html

In the face of the UN getting ready to publish anti-life material for distribution world wide, we need to all band together and pray. They are calling for unrestricted access to abortion and euthanasia worldwide…and not to provide it will be considered denying someone their human rights. Pr-life doctors who wish to conscientiously object are being forced out of practice. Dissenters will not be tolerated.

Is this the final hour our Lord talks about? Where to be a Christian or a person of faith will be a crime in the eyes of one world government? Are we returning to life as it was when our Christian Church began; martyrdom?

However, we must not loose sight of the good news. We are an Easter people. Christ has won us the victory. We must not give up hope.

Thank you for the truth LifeSiteNews and I will continue to pray for your work.

Anne Waggoner

____________________________________

To write a letter to the Editor: E-mail your letter to [email protected]. Write “letter to the editor” in the subject line. Include your name, city and province or state of residence, as well as your phone # (the phone # is for our use only, and will not be published). Please note that all letters are subject to editing. LifeSiteNews.com will publish letters to the editor at its discretion, giving priority to the most concise, insightful and timely submissions.


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