LifeSite Daily News for Wednesday January 9, 2008

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Spanish Abortion Clinics go on “Strike” to Protest “Persecution”

An Estimated 2,000 Babies’ Lives will be Saved

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

SPAIN, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the face of numerous police raids, arrests, and negative media reports against their abortion facilities, the members of the Spanish Association of Accredited Clinics for the Interruption of Pregnancy (ACAI) began a “strike” yesterday that is scheduled to last until Saturday, January 12.

According to ACAI spokesman Santiago Barambino, the members of the Association will be protesting the fact that they are treated as “monsters, mafiosos, and delinquents” for killing unborn children up to to the sixth month of gestation, a practice they justify on their website for preserving the “psychological and social well-being” of the mothers.

In recent weeks, ACAI member clinics have been raided by police, and numerous clinic personnel have been arrested for systematic violations of Spain’s liberal abortion laws. Doctors and other clinic personnel are charged with fabricating diagnoses of a psychological health “risk” for the women who come to them for late-term abortions and other legal violations. Hidden-camera exposés have exposed more violations and have shown full abortions to the public (see recent LifeSiteNews coverage at https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121401.html).

Under the law, doctors can kill unborn children at any stage of pregnancy if an independent physician certifies that a “grave risk” exists for the mother’s physical or mental health. On their website, however, a paper by an ACAI member states that the clinics operate under the World Health Organization’s broader definition of “health,” which defines it as “the state of physical, psychological and social well-being and not the mere absence of illnesses or conditions.”

Defending its “strike”, the Association complains about the “belligerent attitude of certain groups that struggle to eradicate practices as important for young people as the usage of contraceptives, in favor of a sexual abstinence that demonstrates a profound ignorance of human sexuality.” They are demanding instead that the existing law be changed to suit the existing “demand” for their services.

ACAI has thirty clinics, and the Spanish media is reporting that they could be joined by up to 20 more. It is also estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 babies and their mothers will be spared their services during the four days of the “strike”.

“Neither the government, nor the Madrid administration is guaranteeing the right of women to an abortion, nor the legal security of the professionals of the sector,” said Barambio. He complained that the Madrid government was submitting the clinics of his organization to “more inspections than is reasonable” and has rejected “dialogue” with the Association.

The Spanish newspaper ABC ridiculed the strike, noting that “they ignore, much less criticize, the clinics that have been closed both in Madrid and in Barcelona for falsifying documents, principally of psychological reports, that permit abortion at any point of gestation, presumably illegal abortions and the use of food processors (to grind up the bodies of fetuses) or the practice of abortions later than the seventh month of pregnancy.”

“Far from all of this, the clinics turn over the tortilla and present themselves as the great victims of the scandal that they themselves have provoked and promote a change of the law so that abortion can be even more permissive in our country,” wrote ABC.

Related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Full Abortions Shown On Spanish Television – First In History
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121401.html

More Abortion Clinics are Closed by Spanish Government Authorities
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121402.html

Late Term Abortionist Arrested by Spain’s Police
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/nov/07112913.html

Spanish Abortion Rate Skyrockets to over 100000 Annually
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jan/08010701.html

Tiller Grand Jury Convenes, but Pro-Tiller DA Appointed to “Obtain Evidence”

By John Connolly

WICHITA, Kansas, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Kansas grand jury convened to investigate the notorious abortionist George Tiller was sworn in and empaneled on Monday, although the pro-life groups who raised the signatures to convene the jury are concerned over the appointment of a radically pro-abortion district attorney in the case.

David Gittrich of Kansans For Life is confident the grand jury will indict Tiller after it sees evidence that shows Tiller has performed 3,000 illegal late term abortions since 1998, when a law was passed prohibiting them.

“We think he has been breaking the law,” said Gittrich. “And if you violate the law, you have criminal charges brought against you, they’re misdemeanors, but we think they are serious misdemeanors.”

But a problem may arise in getting that evidence recognized and presented. According to instructions given by retired Sedgwick County District Judge Paul Buchanan, Deputy District Attorney Ann Swegle is the prosecutor charged with bringing in witnesses requested by the grand jury or helping obtain evidence.

Kansans for Life and Operation Rescue, the groups who have worked to bring Tiller to accountability in the past and spearheaded the effort to convene the jury, asked Buchanan this morning to appoint a special prosecutor who is not affiliated with the district attorney, Democrat Nola Foulston.

“Morrison and Foulston have no business being involved with the prosecution of their financial and political benefactor, i.e. Tiller,” reads the petition for a special prosecutor.

A grand jury was empaneled in the spring of 2006 to look into the death of a woman who had visited Tiller’s clinic. The grand jury brought no charges in the woman’s death, mainly through the inaction of Swegle during the proceedings.

In the fall of 2006, then-Attorney General Phill Kline tried to file criminal charges against Tiller in Wichita. Foulston claimed that by virtue of a state law that said Kline needed her permission to file a case in her district, he could not file charges against Tiller. A district judge sided with Foulston and dismissed the charges, making anywhere that Foulston presided a safe-haven for Tiller from the attorney general.

“It’s all about abortion politics and abortion money,” said Troy Newman, leader of Operation Rescue. “The public has lost trust in this DA.”

According to Chief District Judge Michael Corrigan, Buchanan will make the decision on whether to appoint a special prosecutor, and even though the grand jury can request the overseeing judge to appoint special counsel the ultimate decision is up to that judge whether to grant the request.

“The decision is in the hands of the grand jury judge — no decision is in my hands,” Corrigan said.

Tiller’s lawyers maintain that the grand jury proceedings are nothing more than the personal grudge of a minority trying to perform a “witch-hunt,” but have failed in their attempts to stop the grand jury from convening.

“In Kansas, you have a grand jury system that has no checks and balances in terms of initiating and charging someone,” said Lee Thompson, a Tiller attorney last fall. “And to suggest that is not a harmful situation for someone to face, is not facing reality.”

“Hopefully the grand jurors will very quickly see that this proceeding is a political witch hunt brought by a few people who disagree with a woman’s constitutional right to choose, decide not to squander taxpayer money on it and go home,” said attorney Dan Monnat, who also represents Tiller.

“If he was really trying to provide a valuable service, we would be on the inside of his clinic,” said Gittrich. “Offering the kind of help that we can offer these girls.”

Tiller has a long history of notoriety for his late-term abortions, many of which violated almost all of Kansas’ health codes. He has so far evaded prosecution, although he still technically faces 19 misdemeanor charges filed against him in June.

A patient of Tiller’s came forward to give testimony against him in Spetember, revealing that almost none of the restrictions of abortion were adhered to in Tiller’s clinic.

See previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Kansas Attorney General Accused of Interfering with Investigation of Late-Term Abortionist
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121005.html

Charges Against Notorious Late-term Abortionist Tiller Won’t be Reinstated
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07021505.html

Late-Term Abortionist’s Patient Drops Bombshell Testimony Of Illegal, Coerced Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07091001.html

Renowned Psychiatrist Witness in Notorious Late-Term Abortionist Case Breaks Silence: Threatened by Kansas Attorney General
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07061301.html

Operation Rescue Files to Intervene in Kansas Grand Jury Abortionist Case
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/nov/07112007.html

Kansas Voters Let Abortionist, George “Tiller the Killer”, Possibly Avoid Criminal Investigation
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06110904.html …;

Women’s Health Group Urges Readers to Sign Unborn Victims of Crimes Bill Petition

TORONTO, January 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Marie-Christine Houle, Executive Director of Women for Women’s Health, is appealing to all concerned people to sign a petition directed to the government of Canada regarding the up-coming vote on the Unborn Victims of Crime Bill (C-484).

The petition is available here (https://www.unheardinfo.com) and may be sent to the address on the petition or to Women for Women’s Health, PO BOX 541, Norval, Ontario, L0P 1K0. It is being asked that signed petitions be returned no later than January 25th, 2008.

There have been five pregnant women murdered in Canada in the past three years, the most recent being Aysun Sesen, 25, of Toronto. She and her seven-month unborn child died after she was stabbed in the abdomen. Her husband has been charged with second-degree murder.

However, under Canadian law the child is not recognized as a human being until it has emerged from the mother’s body alive so police cannot charge perpetrators with murder of the unborn baby.

Seventy-two percent of Canadians polled in an Environics poll commissioned by Life Canada/Vie Canada say they would support legislation making it a separate crime to injure or kill a fetus during an attack on the mother.

The Unborn Victims of Crime Act (C-484) was introduced on November 21, 2007, by Conservative Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Sherwood Park, Ken Epp, and received its first hour of debate in the House of Commons on December 13, 2007.

“This bill is about giving a woman the freedom of choice to bring her child to term in safety,” Mr. Epp said. “In anticipating the birth of her baby, she has become emotionally attached to it, and has experienced the greatest violation of her right and freedom possible – the criminal assault and death or injury to her child that she loves and wants to protect.”

Two of the families of pregnant mothers who were killed along with their unborn children have issued a media statement saying, “We commend the members of the Subcommittee on Private Members Business for the step forward they took today in allowing the Unborn Victims of Crimes Bill (Bill C-484) to be debated in the House. We can only hope that Canadian parliamentarians understand that Olivia Talbot and Aysun Sesen’s cases are not isolated incidents and that Canada must incorporate protection for unborn victims of violence in the criminal code. We joined together in the hopes that the Prime Minister and the Members of Parliament will hear our cry for justice.”

The US government passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 1997) in 2004, recognizing the unborn child as second victim of violent crimes. The bill recognizes as a legal victim any “child in utero” who is injured or killed during the commission of a federal crime of violence.

See previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

U.S. House Passes Bill to Recognize Unborn Child as Second Victim of Violent Crimes
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/feb/04022603.html

Unborn Victims of Crime Bill Debated in House of Commons
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121407.html

Families of Victims Pleased that Unborn Victims of Crime Act Will Come to a Vote in Canada’s Parliament
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07120601.html

Two Murders of Pregnant Canadian Women Renew Calls for Unborn Victims’ Legislation
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07102501.html

Almost Three out of Every Four Canadians Supports Fetal Protection Law
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07102306.html

Police Say Murder of Mother and Unborn Child a Crime that “Defies Comprehension”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07031306.html

City Suggestion to Tax Churches Gets Shelved after Public Scrutiny

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

BRAMPTON, Ontario, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Brampton City Council’s plan to look at a study recommending changes to how it handles places of worship has been shelved for the time being.

The secret study was revealed last week and reported on by LifeSiteNews.com (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jan/08010407.html).

Today a report by NoApologies.ca (https://www.noapologies.ca/daily– news) says that the Brampton Planning Commission has put off consideration of the study until next month, which will give the Brampton Faith Coalition group, organized to present a united challenge to the proposals in the study, more time to prepare their case and present it to city council.

The group is also considering launching a website which may include the entire text of the controversial study.

German Homeschooling Family Flees to England After Mayor Attempts to Seize Children

By Peter J. Smith

LONDON, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A German family has fled to safe haven in the United Kingdom after the mayor of their town attempted to have their children seized and put into state custody for the crime of homeschooling according to WorldNetDaily (WND).

WND reports that officials with Netzwerk-Bildungsfreiheit, a German homeschooling advocacy group, said that Klaus and Kathrin Landahl and their five children, “are in safety in England. They reached Dover on Saturday midnight.”

The Landahl family was preparing to leave the country and had deregistered themselves as German citizens, when the Mayor of Altensteig filed a lawsuit with the local family court demanding it intervene and take custody away from the Landahls.

A spokesman for the advocacy group told WND, “As the mayor knows that the family wants to leave Germany and that they have deregistered, his attempt is that the family court takes custody away in a so-called … (preliminary warrant) which means that custody can be taken away without a hearing [for] the parents.”

He added also that in the Landahl case, not only were the authorities seeking to usurp the parents’ right to decide their children’s education, but also their right “to determine the place of abode,” an action more in line with Soviet-era East Germany.

The Landahls were in the process of moving into a rented apartment abroad when the court served them with a legal notice of the lawsuit.

Joel Thornton, President of the International Human Rights Group, which advocate for homeschoolers in Germany, told LifeSiteNews.com that the report from Netzwerk-Bildungsfreiheit is troubling since, “German government officials are willing to violate their own procedures to take the custody of children from the parents for nothing more than homeschooling. Were there criminal activity going on that was being avoided it would be understandable, however the system would probably not be so quick to act.”

It is outrageous that children would be separated from their parents over this issue. The German courts need to move to protect the well being of their families from such severe government action,” Thornton said.

“Every parent in the world, not just homeschool parents, should be outraged that their rights are trampled by the Mayor of this town”, he said. “Parents should express their outrage to the Mayor by email and let him know that this is not acceptable behavior in civilized countries.”

The local court has not issued a final ruling in the case, but ever since Germany’s Supreme Court ruled in favour of the state against homeschooling last fall, most families have found safety to exist in flight.

WND reports that this week a Bavarian man identifying himself as “Mathew” sent this message: “This morning we received a call from the German ministry of education. Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning they will send the police to our home and take Josia (6), Lou Ann (10) and Aileen (13) by force, to the public school.”

According to “Matthew,” the government was emboldened by the high court’s decision, and since then it has increased substantially its persecution of homeschooling families.

“If we do not comply the government will ultimately revoke our rights as parents and take custody of our children,” he said.

Another family said they were escaping Germany after their lawyer concluded that “only jail and loss of custody are left” as penalties from the government.

“We are leaving Germany for now, and our children and my husband Tilman have already given up their permanent residence in Germany,” said a note from Dagmar Neubronner. “I will maintain my permanent residence in Bremen because I am the bearer of our small publishing house…”

“It is hard to leave everything behind, especially our tomcat (a neighbor will take care of him), our relatives and friends and choirs and music ensembles and sports teams, our house and garden – our town and our country.”

To contact the Mayor of Altensteig:

Herr Bürgermeister
Jürgen Großman
Rathausplatz 1
72213 Altensteig
GermanyEmail: [email protected]
Phone: 0 75 53 / 94 61-117 Go ahead and write, email or fax, in English if necessary.

See Laigle’s Forum website:
https://laiglesforum.com/2008/01/08/parallel-society-your-nam…

See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:

Homeschooling Missionary Family Narrowly Avoids German Deportation for Now
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07122110.html

German Homeschooler Melissa Busekros Home with Family after 3 Month Ordeal
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/07042301.html

Three More Families Appeal for Help as Germany Continues Crackdown on Homeschooling Families
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/07041609.html

German Court Places Custody of Yet Another 5 Homeschooling Children with Government’s Youth Office
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07032204.html

Authorities Ask German Homeschooling Family to Give up Custody of Other 5 Children
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022602.html

European Human Rights Court Rules State May Deny Parents Right to Home School Their Children
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06092708.html …;

“Catholic” San Fran Mayor Touts Pro-Homosexual Record at Second Inauguration

San Francisco Boys Choir sings ‘Ave Maria’ at inauguration

By John Jalsevac

SAN FRANCISO, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Yesterday, January 8, San Francisco’s notoriously pro-homosexual mayor, Gavin Newsom, was inaugurated into his second term of office, highlighting in his inauguration address his support for so-called “San Francisco values,” including “equal marriage rights”.

Gavin Newson is well known to pro-family advocates for his vociferous promotion of homosexuality, as well as his self-labeled Catholicism. Most notoriously, in 2004 Mayor Newsom authorized city clerks to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples. The California Supreme Court was later forced to order San Francisco to cease issuing licenses to homosexual couples, and to void the thousands of licenses that had already been issued.

On January 7, the California Catholic Daily reported that it was Newsom’s intention to attend Mass on the morning of his inauguration. “Given his record, it is difficult to understand why Newsom would choose a Catholic church – or why any Catholic sanctuary would agree to it,” mused the Daily.

According to the BBC reports, Newsom did indeed begin the day of his second inauguration with a family Mass at Mission Dolores Basilica.

According to the website of the Basilica, “Misión San Francisco de Asís was founded June 29, 1776, under the direction of Father Junipero Serra and is both the oldest original intact Mission in California and the oldest building in San Francisco.”

It is unknown whether or not Newson received Communion at the Mass.

Following the Mass, Newsom was sworn into office at the San Francisco City Hall. The inauguration ceremony continued the theme of Newsom’s religious affiliations, being opened with a rendition of Schubert’s Ave Maria, a hymn in praise of the Blessed Mother, performed by the San Francisco boy’s choir.

In the following inauguration address Newsom brought attention to his pro-homosexual activism.

“This city is supported by values that distinguish us as San Franciscans. As this world is dealing with the consequences of division, injustice and racism, here in our city we’re showing the world that diversity is not something to fear, but is something to embrace,” he said.

Newsom then criticized people who “deride what they call ‘San Francisco’ values.”

“But we know that these values inspire many, many more people than they frighten,” he said. “We saw how San Francisco became a beacon for the world just four years ago when right here we fought for marriage equality.”

“The world didn’t come to an end, and the world certainly didn’t become worse when over four thousand lesbian and gay couples were allowed to express their love and devotion and responsibility for each other,” he said. “It became better.”

“The world didn’t become worse when we extended the protection of our laws to transgendered San Franciscans. It became better.”

A self-styled “Roman Catholic”, Newsom has in the past criticized the Vatican’s position on homosexual “marriage” and adoptions as “corroding and divisive,” and suggested the Vatican needed to move beyond “stale and questionable documents” if it wanted the Church to evolve.

The mayor canceled a 2006 trip to Rome for the installation of former San Francisco Archbishop William Levada as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying it was in protest of the Catholic stance against adoptions for homosexual couples.

“The idea, the principle that two loving parents of the same sex can’t be great parents and that this church is now going to start attacking gay adoptions in this country and around the world was really disconcerting,” Newsom told the San Francisco Sentinel.

Newsom also made the news last year after it was revealed that he had had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife, and that he was seeking treatment for a drinking problem.

Interestingly enough, in his inauguration address Newsom also noted the low birth-rate and the lack of families in San Francisco. “If there is an area in which we need to be more welcoming, it’s in keeping our families and children in our city…We have the dubious distinction – and I know many of you know this – we have the dubious distinction of having the lowest percentage of children of any city in America.”

Newsom said that there were “many reasons for this,” but did not address what he thought the reasons were.

Instead, Newson announced that the city would be instituting a so-called baby bond savings program, that would place $500 dollars into an account for every child born in the city. The proceeds of this fund would go towards “every graduating senior that participates in public service,” he announced. He said that this would demonstrate to families that the city is interested in investing in their families and would encourage them to “stay the course” and stay in the city.

To respectfully express your concern contact:

Online form to contact Mayor Newsom:
https://www.sfgov.org/site/mainpages_form.asp?id=18611

Archbishop George H. Niederauer
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco
One Peter Yorke Way
San Francisco, CA 94109
415 614 5500
E-mail: [email protected]

Mission Dolores Basilica
Pastor – Rev. Arturo L. Albano
3321 Sixteenth Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
[email protected]

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

San Francisco Mayor Advocated Gay Agenda After Sexual Affair That Damaged a Marriage
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07020106.html

San Francisco Mayor Boycotts Elevation of Former Bishop to Cardinal, Over Prohibition Against GLBT Adoptions
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06031403.html

San Francisco Mayor to Issue Marriage Licence to Homosexual Couples
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/feb/04021105.html

Even Canada’s Father of Abortion Morgentaler Approves Allowing Docs to Opt Out

By John Jalsevac

TORONTO, Ontario, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a wide-ranging recent interview with National Review of Medicine, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the so-called “Morgentaler Decision,” the court decision that de-criminalized abortion in Canada, Canada’s father of abortion admitted that doctors should be allowed to opt-out of performing abortions.

When asked, “Should doctors be allowed to conscientiously object to performing an abortion?” Morgentaler answered, “Yes. One fundamental reason is that doctors should not be obliged to do things which they don’t approve of themselves, and secondly, a more practical reason, a doctor who doesn’t believe in it is more likely not to do a good job.”

The question of freedom of conscience for doctors was raised most recently in Canada last summer, when the Washington D.C. based National Abortion Federation (NAF) issued a demand to the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) that all doctors in the country be forced to refer for abortions, whether or not they object morally or on religious grounds. Currently the CMA allows doctors to opt-out of performing abortions.

Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of the NAF, said physicians must put their patients’ interests ahead of “their own religious and moral convictions.”

Two years ago a guest editorial in the July Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) perpetuated a widespread myth, claiming that the Morgentaler decision had instituted a constitutional right to abortion, and that physicians who “fail to provide appropriate referrals…are committing malpractice and risk lawsuits and disciplinary proceedings.”

While CMA ethics director Dr. Jeff Blackmer clarified the CMA’s position in the April 24, 2007 issue of the CMAJ, he was quoted in the National Post May 5 as saying that “a huge groundswell from the membership one way or another” could force a reevaluation of CMA’s abortion policy.

At the time the organization Physicians for Life issued a call to pro-life advocates to write the CMA to ensure that the right to conscientious objection is upheld.

In the recent interview with National Review of Medicine, Morgentaler responded to dozens of questions having to do with how he became one of Canada’s most notorious figures, his motivations for fighting for abortion, his thoughts on pro-life activists, and numerous other issues.

To read the complete interview, see:

The Interview: The Morgentaler decision turns 20
https://www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com/issue/interview/2008…

Remembering Mother Teresa’s Uncompromising Stance on Roe v. Wade

By John Connolly

HUNTINGTON, Indiana, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaches, Americans can remember Mother Teresa’s strong condemnation of the ruling that legalized abortion in the United States through a new book by a priest who worked closely with her for twenty-five years.

Mother Teresa was invited to the White House Prayer Breakfast in 1997 by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. Mother Teresa laid out her case clearly. “What is taking place in America is a war against the child,” she said. “And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another.”

Three years earlier Mother Teresa was quoted in The Wall Street Journal saying, “America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts – a child – as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters.”

And in response to critics who asked who would care for an unwanted child, Mother Teresa said, “Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted, and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child, and be loved by the child. From our children’s home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortions. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents, and have grown up so full of love and joy!”

Fr. Joseph Langford, who worked closely with Mother Teresa for twenty-five years and with her founded the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, has written a book recently entitled “Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady.” He believes that “God fashioned Mother Teresa into an instrument that would light up our night at its darkest.”

See the book website at
https://www.maximusnewspub.com/newsroom/new/campaigns/OSV/def…

Vatican Newspaper Article Says Catholics Should Receive Communion Kneeling and on the Tongue

Editorial by John-Henry Westen

Although it may seem a little strange, there is a definite battle being waged within the Catholic Church. It is the same “culture war” being waged by secular moderns against those who uphold traditional morality, it is pro-life vs. pro-choice. But within the Catholic Church the same battle is fought along liturgical lines, and the publication in the Vatican newspaper of an article calling for Catholics to receive Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue is telling.

“If some nonbeliever arrived and observed such an act of adoration perhaps he, too, would ‘fall down and worship God, declaring, God is really in your midst,'” explained Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan in the pages of L’Osservatore Romano.

The Catholic News Service reports that in the January 8 edition of the Vatican paper, Bishop Schneider noted that the reverence and awe of Catholics who truly believe they are receiving Jesus in the Eucharist should lead them to kneel and receive Communion on their tongues. “The awareness of the greatness of the eucharistic mystery is demonstrated in a special way by the manner in which the body of the Lord is distributed and received,” the bishop wrote.

Although in all likelihood most Catholics are oblivious to it, the decision to receive communion on the tongue, versus in the hand and the decision to receive communion standing rather than kneeling is a significant fault line in the culture war.

Modernizers who relentlessly work to have the Catholic Church move away from so-called ‘archaic’ positions on sexuality, (forbidding contraception, pre-marital sexual activity, homosexuality etc.) also rail against ‘archaic’ piety in worship.

However, the culture war at least in terms of liturgical issues was nearly lost in the West until the advent of Pope Benedict.

In the United States for instance, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on the Liturgy wrote in its July 2002 newsletter: “Kneeling is not a licit posture for receiving Holy Communion in the dioceses of the United States of America unless the bishop of a particular diocese has derogated from this norm in an individual and extraordinary circumstance.”

The majority of the faithful have since adopted the practice of standing and receiving communion on the hand.

However, some traditional Catholics, often derisively referred to as “pre-Vatican II” Catholics have held to the practice of communion kneeling and on the tongue. Those same Catholics are often the most vociferous defenders of life and family within and without the Church.

While many valiant Catholic activists who work in the pro-life and pro-family battles receive communion in the common fashion, they nonetheless respect the right of those who wish to receive communion kneeling and on the tongue.

Not so for those within the Church seeking to get the Church in line with the times.

Certain Church leaders, priests and even bishops who are zealous in their attempts to modernize the Church have gone so far as to attempt to enforce modernism by refusing communion to those who kneel for communion.

One prominent example of such was Orange County Florida Bishop Tod Brown who was caught on video last year refusing communion to a woman who was kneeling. Brown is also known for refusing in 1994 to back an Idaho measure to deny homosexuals special privileges. Explaining his actions he said the law “would contribute to attitudes of intolerance and hostility in Idaho directed at homosexual citizens and is potentially discriminatory.”

In Brown’s diocese there has been considerable intolerance toward Catholics who kneel for communion and some traditional Catholics have been asked to leave the diocese.

Another prominent example was the denial of communion to Virginia House of Delegate member Richard Black by Arlington’s St. Thomas More Cathedral Rector, Fr. Dominic Irace in 2002. Black was one of the strongest defenders of life in the legislature. As Delegate Black left the Cathedral, Fr. Irace loudly called him a “conservative idiot.” (see coverage: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/oct/02101001.html )

These types of situations caused the Vatican to react rather strongly in 2002. Jorge A. Cardinal Medina Estévez, the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which addresses liturgical matters, wrote a bishop about reports received of a priest denying communion to faithful because they were kneeling.

The Cardinal called such denial “a grave violation of one of the most basic rights of the Christian faithful,” and directed the bishop to investigate the case. The letter said that the Vatican regards such abuses of the faithful as very grave. The letter said, the Congregation, if such actions are verified, “will regard future complaints of this nature with great seriousness, and if they are verified, it intends to seek disciplinary action consonant with the gravity of the pastoral abuse.”
(see the letter: https://www.adoremus.org/Notitiae-kneeling.html )

Despite this letter from the Vatican, the suppression of kneeling remains strong.

The article in the Vatican newspaper advocating kneeling however signals a sea change.

Those who kneel have a champion in Pope Benedict who prior to his elevation to the pontificate wrote of kneeling and its tie to culture in his book ‘The Spirit of the Liturgy” (Ignatius Press, 2000) “There are groups, of no small influence, who are trying to talk us out of kneeling,” wrote then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. “‘It doesn’t suit our culture’, they say (which culture?) ‘It’s not right for a grown man to do this — he should face God on his feet’.”

Cardinal Ratzinger continued: “The kneeling of Christians is not a form of inculturation into existing customs. It is quite the opposite, an expression of Christian culture, which transforms the existing culture through a new and deeper knowledge and experience of God.

Kneeling does not come from any culture — it comes from the Bible and its knowledge of God . . . The Christian Liturgy is a cosmic Liturgy precisely because it bends the knee before the crucified and exalted Lord. Here is the center of authentic culture – the culture of truth. The humble gesture by which we fall at the feet of the Lord inserts us into the true path of life of the cosmos.”

Cardinal Murphy O’Connor Versus the Poles

Editorial by Hilary White

It has been a busy Advent and Christmas season for the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. He has, in a space of a few months, outraged, shocked and disgusted a surprisingly broad cross section of his flock. Polish immigrants, noted for the vibrancy of their Catholic faith; Catholic pro-lifers who have held the line for decades in the fight with little help from the hierarchy; and Catholic traditionalists who have spent decades living in near-exile from their own Church, have felt the back of Cormac Cardinal Murphy O’Connor’s hand recently.

He started the season early with his official rejection in November of Pope Benedict’s document removing the power of bishops to block the celebration of the pre-Vatican II rite of the Mass, an issue that has broad connections to acceptance of Catholic doctrine in a variety of areas, including moral issues.

Traditionalist Catholics are almost universally pro-life and pro-family, whereas many of those who have actively fought against the re-instatement of the ancient liturgical practices have also consistently championed a “progressive” Catholicism that rejects the moral law, particularly in sexual morality.

By the end of December, a week after his Christmas homily in which he urged Britons to be more accepting of immigrants, Murphy O’Connor had blasted Polish immigrants who are pouring into Britain in search of work.

In a homily, the Cardinal who heads the Catholic Church of England and Wales, urged the Polish community to learn English and integrate into local parishes. He claimed the Catholic Church in the UK was in danger of dividing along ethnic lines. The comments shocked both the Polish Catholic community and Catholic observers who have seen the influx of devout Poles as a desperately needed boost to sagging attendance and the increasingly grim outlook for the future of the Catholic Church in this country.

With photos appearing in the Telegraph of Poles kneeling devoutly on the sidewalk to hear Mass broadcast outside an overcrowded church, it is perhaps unsurprising that Polish leaders responded to the Cardinal’s comments saying they felt “violated” and “spiritually raped”. The comments made many Catholic commentators wonder aloud just what kind of Catholic immigrant the Cardinal would prefer.

But Britain learned just before Christmas what kind of Catholic their Cardinal does think is suitable. His real coup de grace, and perhaps his largest insult to the most faithful Catholics in the country, came at his unconditional reception into the Church of the man SPUC head John Smeaton identified as the major “architect of the Culture of Death” in this country: Tony Blair.

Cardinal O’Connor received Blair in a “private” ceremony in the Cardinal’s own residential chapel. Neither the Cardinal’s office, nor Blair’s offered any explanation or retraction of the former Prime Minister’s long record of anti-Catholic and anti-life policies.

To add insult to injury, an unnamed “Church source” presumed to be close to the Cardinal’s office, had even chastised critics in the Daily Mail for daring to question the Cardinal’s Christmas-week generosity. The Mail’s source said, “Whatever he previously believed or did is a matter for individual conscience.”

But the pro-life community, particularly its Catholic contingent, are so wearied by the decades of flaccidity, compromising and temporising and outright irreligion of its religious leadership, it hardly bothered to give a collective sigh of disgust. Among the pro-life Catholics of my acquaintance, the response was largely a quick shake of the head and a sickened laugh. In Britain’s Catholic Church this latest outrage from its leadership was nothing more than business as usual.

At the same time, the odd news that Catholic attendance at weekly church services had, for the first time since the Reformation, outstripped that of Anglicans brought forward headlines like “Britain has become a ‘Catholic country'” from the Telegraph. But the notion brought only sour and grim amusement to many British Catholic bloggers who have faithfully chronicled the growth of secularist anti-Christian hostility in British society, heavily abetted by the BBC’s virtual monopoly on broadcast media. Despite the wild suppositions in the mainstream media, those who have been keeping track know that the news reflected only the continuing general collapse of British religious adherence.

The truth is simply that the native British have abandoned Christianity. It is easy to see what has alarmed Cardinal Cormac. The Poles are, quite simply, making him, and the Church he leads, look bad.

The robust, generous and stalwart faith of these people, tested through generations of brutal Communist suppression, has given them an ability to see through the fog of nonsense that has emanated out of British chanceries since the 1960’s. And the Cardinal knows it. It is clear that the divide between the faith of the Poles and the dreary, watery, and half-hearted British Catholicism, content to allow the last dregs of its faith and devotion slowly to evaporate, is greater than one of language.

It is evident that whatever the Catholic leadership of this country has been doing for the last four decades, it has not been a boon to British Catholic faith or practice. If Cormac Murphy O’Connor is aware of the condition of his Church, he has chosen an odd way of expressing his concern by chastising the new Polish faithful for their very faithfulness.

Maybe the Cardinal should try a different tack, and take his own advice and accept the contribution of these people.

See related LifeSiteNews.com article:

No Right to Criticise Blair’s Reception Into Catholic Church Says Church Spokesman
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jan/08010707.html

Canadian Homosexuals Barred from Organ Donations as High Medical Risk

By Hilary White

OTTAWA, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Sexually active homosexual men are barred from organ donation according to Health Canada rules, because of the known associations of homosexual activity with a host of dangerous diseases. The ban also includes injection drug users.

The CBC reports that many organ donor groups in the country were not aware of the rules which came into effect in December. The rule applies to any homosexual man who has been sexually active within five years.

Peter Nickerson, director of Transplant Manitoba, told CBC News that “sexual orientation and activity” would be among the list of questions asked of potential donors.

Egale Canada, the homosexual political lobby organisation, is calling on federal Health Minister Tony Clement to suspend the new policy. Egale wants a panel to be appointed to review organ donor rules.

Helen Kennedy, Egale’s executive director objected, saying, “Health Canada should be making sure the regulations stop unsafe organ transplants and not create a situation where healthy viable gay organs will be thrown away.”

It has been frequently documented, however, that active homosexuals tend to have considerably higher rates of serious disease than the general population. HIV/AIDS still tops the list, but the Centres for Disease Control have noted recently a sharp rise in the rates of syphilis and numerous sexually transmitted diseases among homosexual men.

Anal sex acts are highly likely to transmit infections, many of which can have long-term negative effects on organ tissues.

The list of diseases frequency associated with male homosexual practitioners includes anal cancer, human papilloma virus, gonorrhea, viral hepatitis that can damage the liver, and syphilis. In addition, active homosexuals have elevated rates of drug and alcohol abuse.

In only one other case have Canada’s public health officials acknowledged the medical realities of homosexual activity to override their general state of cooperation with the homosexual activist community. In 2006 the Quebec blood donor authority, Hema Quebec, announced that despite politically motivated pressure, it would not reconsider its medically-based policy of a lifetime ban on donations from men who have had sex with another man since 1977.

The announcement resulted in a storm of protest not only from homosexual activists, who claimed that they were being unfairly discriminated against, but from social authorities. Commission scolaire de Montreal threatened in 2004 to halt all blood drives in its schools unless Hema-Quebec agreed to drop references to homosexuality in its questionnaire.

Homosexual protesters at McGill University in 2006 shut down a campus blood donor clinic that was refusing donations from active homosexuals. Workers with the Quebec blood agency found an anonymous note posted in men’s bathrooms encouraging homosexual donors to lie about their sexual disposition on their blood donor questionnaire.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Canada’s Last Taboo: Gay Blood Donation
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032101.html

McGill University Homosexual Activists Shut Down Blood Clinic
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06020108.html

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