Recent Catholic News

ROME, September 24, 2001 (LSN.ca) – In an address to the Nicaraguan bishops Friday, Pope John Paul urged Nicaraguans to exercise their “right and duty to vote, thinking of the good of the nation,” reminding them “to choose democratic options that guarantee the Christian concept of man and society, which inescapably implies the fundamental rights of the person in all his aspects.” Zenit News (www.zenit.org) reports that just weeks before the presidential elections the pope urged the Church to work with state authorities to uphold the family. “I am not ignorant of the difficulties that the institution of the family […]

The Toronto Star reports on the efforts of Kitchener Ontario pro-lifers to get onto high school councils to avoid pro-abortion counsel to students by public health nurses.  http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=  Article&cid=1001109892650&call_page=TS_Ontario&call_pageid=968256289824&call_pagepath=  News/Ontario&col=968342212737 A plan being considered by Scotland’s Health Ministry would see girls under the age of 16 given abortifacient morning-after pills from pharmacists. (Pro-Life E-News)  http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/news.cfm?id=SS01035769&feed=N The dangers of sperm donation are apparent as it has been discovered that a donor carrying a genetic defect may have passed a life-threatening abnormality to 43 babies he fathered at a London clinic.  http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_405764.html

OTTAWA, September 21, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Canadian Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville) introduced a private members motion Monday asking for a review of the definition of “human being” in the Criminal Code of Canada. The motion, M-392, asked that “the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights review the current definition of “human being” in section 223(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada and report (a) whether the law needs to be amended to comply with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child so as to provide appropriate legal protection for a child before as well as […]

WARSAW, September 21, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Poland’s Catholic Bishops undertook what may be a historic pro-life intervention into the country’s politics Sunday. Just one week before the September 23 general election, the Bishops had a letter read in every parish urging Catholics – some 93% of Poles – not to support the country’s so-called “ex-communist” social democrats because of their support for abortion. Polls taken prior to the bishops’ intervention indicated that Poland’s social democrats in the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) were poised to win a landslide victory in Sunday’s election with between 43-52 per cent of the vote. Without […]

WASHINGTON, September 21, 2001 (LSN.ca) – In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in the United States, President George Bush announced last night the creation of a Cabinet-level position to head the new Office of Homeland Security. In a great disappointment to pro-lifers, Bush named notoriously pro-abortion Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, to head the office. Matt Abbott, director of public affairs for America’s Pro-Life Action League told LifeSite, “If Ridge refuses to ensure the security of the most helpless citizens of his state – the unborn – how can he be expected to safeguard security for the nation?” Abbott […]

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, September 21, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The City of Winnipeg is likely to allow known sex trade businesses such as massage parlours and escort services into city suburbs. The Winnipeg Sun reports that the services now confined to the city’s core may be permitted to move out into the residential suburbs. A committee created to study the sex trade which recently urged city hall to allow the firms into the suburbs. A city hall source told the Sun that the allowance “is likely,” since “seven councillors voted to have the matter receive further consideration last year.” Coun. Harvey Smith […]

PRAGUE, September 21, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Homosexuals in the Czech Republic may be allowed to register their partnerships and receive all the benefits of marriage under new a new bill backed by Prime Minister Milos Zeman’s Cabinet. Ananova reports that the bill would give homosexual couples inheritance and health insurance rights, would allow the unions to be sealed at local government offices and would once undertaken, require a court-approved divorce. See the Ananova coverage:  http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_404651.html

New Democrat Michael Prue has won a provincial Toronto-area byelection. The only pro-life candidate, Ray Scott of the Family Coalition Party garnered just under 1% of the vote.  http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSPolitics0109/20_byelection-cp.html http://www.electionsontario.on.ca/byelections/eoresultsDisp.asp NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING FEATURED IN LARGE PAPER   A form of Natural Family Planning was featured by the Chicago Tribune today. The article called NFP “a relatively obscure birth control method that is 100 percent natural, costs nothing and by some accounts, can be as effective as the pill.”  http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/women/chi-0109190374sep19.story Zenit News this week offered a brief historical account of UNICEF’s decent into abortion advocacy. In it they note that […]

A study conducted by the Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League found that 67 percent of hospitals surveyed do not offer abortifacient emergency contraception.  http://www.dallasnews.com/science/health/476266_abortion_21tex.html The Christian Science Monitor ran a feature this week on large families, their struggles and joys.  http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0919/p15s1-lifp.html The results of an investigation of sexual harassment of patients by Phoenix abortionist, Dr Brian Finkel was reported in the Phoenix New Times. Dr Finkel wears a gun to work to protect himself from the pro life movement. (with files from Sue Widemark)  http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2001-09-20/feature.html/page1.html

COLORADO SPRINGS, September 20, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The influential Citizen magazine, published by the U.S. headquarters of Focus on the Family, currently features a lengthy cover story on World Youth Alliance co-founder and president Anna Halpine. The Halpine family has been involved in pro-life work with Campaign Life Coalition in Canada for many years. Anna was on the national board of the organization and for a time, while still a student, was an effective president of its New Brunswick branch. She was asked to become a member of CLCs U.N. lobby team and, like a duck taking to water, quickly […]