Looking Back: The 2009 March For Life

Photo by Barbara Curtis

Hi Doug,

The photo spread was awesome! My favorite is of the little girl in the pink hat on her mom’s shoulders holding the sign.

Looking for you was like looking for Waldo!  I didn’t find you…are you in any of the pics and I just didn’t see you?

How was it? I’m sure it was a great experience.  I was really looking forward to possibly taking some of the youth this year, but God had a different plan for me!!

*******

 

We had a very large sign and all four of us we were loosely “attached” to a big oak tree that was situated at the very start of the march, staying put until all of the other marchers had stepped off. Only then did we make our way over to the Supreme Court.

 

I think Barbara the “photo lady” was all through by then.

 

My friend David S. and his family crafted the sign. It was about 5 feet by 10 feet in size. Once assembled it tended to blow around, so it was a handful for three or four people. Great sign, though!

 

An interesting march. Very well attended, where a number of specific needs of the Pro-Life movement became painfully apparent, mainly due to the new and overtly hostile political climate towards life these days, in Washington.

 

I removed my “Ask Me About God” button and infiltrated the little pro-death demonstration team that Planned Parenthood sponsors near the end of the march, each year.

 

Making small talk and asking questions, it quickly became clear that these guys have no regard for anything except themselves.

 

They are really depraved. Purely political. Blood means nothing to them, nor does the wholesale death and destruction of innocents. No humanity at all. No regard for God, and nothing but scorn for the Church.

 

The “older” women (those over 30 or so) all had rather dark mustaches! These were the “handlers”. A mustache must be some sort of a “secret” badge of rank. 

 

The rest (all 20 of them) were young people … paid demonstrators from local colleges … and they knew little about what they were doing, or why.

 

They seemed to hate all things male (unless the “male” happened to be homosexual) and they just want to do what they want to do, without any interference from anyone.

 

All the more reason to repeal Roe vs.Wade, and to protect society from senseless death and destruction at the hands of these wanton killers.

 

The Cult of Obama will not survive the Pro-Life movement. These guys should surrender, before their decrepit position on this issue leads to their own destruction.

 

The Pharaoh of Exodus comes to mind, as do the Nazis, along with the Antichrist of the Book of Revelation.

 

If Obama turns out to be true to his word on abortion, I predict the current economic problems he’s facing will seem like “a walk in the park” before it’s all over.

Look for a dogmatic, “Ex Cathedra” statement from the Pope on abortion, in the near future. It’s certainly about time!

Click to View the 2009 March for Life Photos, and Barbara’s other galleries

 

Catholic Michael Steele takes over leadership of Republican National Committee

Catholic Michael Steele takes over leadership of RNC

Washington DC, Jan 30, 2009 / 07:29 pm (CNA).- The Republican National Committee has chosen Michael Steele, a devout Catholic who is well-known for his charisma and strong work ethic, as its new chairman.

Steele, who previously served as the lieutenant governor of Maryland, is the first black chairman of the Republican Party. He was selected after six rounds of voting with 91 votes out of a possible 168. Steele beat out Ken Blackwell, Ohio’s former secretary of state, and Saul Anuzis, Michigan GOP chairman, to win the chairmanship. 

Click here to read the entire article

Michael Steele / Photo Credit: Rockville Central

Why would God need blood to atone for sins?

Q: Why would God need blood to atone for sins?

A: Until mankind was freed from slavery to satan, sin, and death there could be no forgiveness of sins.

Satan and the forces of evil had no right to take the life of the sinless Jesus.

When they spilled Christ’s innocent blood, they instantly forfeited the dominion over the earth that satan had received when he swindled Adam, some 6000 years earlier.

Jesus was subsequently resurrected and appointed the new and sinless head of all mankind, and under this new leadership God was more than willing to make peace with sinful mankind.

https://douglawrence.wordpress.com/a-shor…

https://douglawrence.wordpress.com/the-pa…

Please explain the idea of FREE-WILL

Q: Please explain the idea of FREE-WILL.

I am a believer in God, but the concept of Free-will makes no sense—it is unexplainable?

A: This is an example of limited predestination, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God”

599 Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God’s plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: “This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”393 This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.394

600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”395 For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.396

Note the two different “threads” that operate in the above statement.

God does what only God can do, knowing all and seeing all, from eternity.

Man does whatever he chooses, but in the end, God’s will always prevails, because God is more than capable of taking into account all the feeble and ill considered actions of mankind.

Those who deny free-will are more in line with Calvin’s discredited theory of  “double predestination” which makes life meaningless, salvation unnecessary, judgment a joke, and the concept of a redeemer essentially superfluous.

POPE’S OUTREACH UNFAIRLY PORTRAYED

January 30, 2009

Pope’s Outreach Unfairly Portrayed

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented today on the controversy over the pope’s decision to reach out to the St. Pius X Society:

“Whenever the media distort a story, either willfully or out of ignorance, it generates skewed commentary. The latest example is what happened following the announcement that Pope Benedict XVI was seeking reconciliation with the St. Pius X Society. News reports quickly surfaced that the pope had welcomed back a Holocaust-denying bishop. Nonsense.

“Here are the facts. The pope didn’t reach out to any one member of this group—he lifted the excommunication that had been imposed in 1988 on the collectivity. Those bishops, including the one who entertains loopy and wholly discredited views on the Holocaust, are not fully reinstated in the Catholic Church, and may never be. What the pope did was the first step toward full communion. As the New York Times correctly said on January 28, this was ‘a step toward the men’s full restoration to the church, but their status has yet to be determined.’ (My emphasis.)

“So what will it take for these bishops to get reinstated? The pope said it best: ‘I hope my gesture is followed by the hoped-for commitment on their part to take the further steps necessary to realize full communion with the Church, thus witnessing true fidelity, and true recognition of the magisterium and the authority of the pope and of the Second Vatican Council.’ There is no way to read that other than to conclude that to be fully reinstated in the Catholic Church, all those who have passed the first test must now clear the big hurdle: either accept what the Catholic Church teaches or remain on the sidelines. And what the Church teaches, among other things, is the necessity of respecting our Jewish brethren.

“None of the media distortions of this issue excuses those in the Jewish community who have lashed out at the pope. They should know better. Is their commitment to good relations with Catholics so thin that it can wither because of something like this? We certainly hope not.”

Interesting related link regarding the SSPX and Judaism

Isn’t the believer’s response to grace by faith a “work”?

Q: Isn’t the believer’s response to grace by faith a “work”?

A: Faith is a virtue that is the result of cooperating with God’s grace.

Faith is also a free-will response to grace.

Grace always precedes faith. Without grace, there can be no saving faith.

Infant baptism as routinely practiced in the Catholic Church is the only authentic demonstration of salvation with no personal works at all, since the infant can do nothing for himself and is wholly dependent on the grace of God and the faith of the Church for his salvation.

So much for all those who say Catholics “work” their way to Heaven!

Mother of 12 shares photo journal from National March for Life

Click here for the whole article, and to see the photo journal

Why do catholics and orthodox still pray to saints?

 Saint Pio

Q: Why do catholics and orthodox still pray to saints?

If they had nothing to hide why did they persecute followers of mani,paulicians,bogomils,waldens,cathars and finaly protestants.If catholics and orthodox realy believe in resurrection of jesus then why do they pray to dead saints and use non living images to get concentration while praying to the omnipresent living god.

A: Catholics have always worked to promote the authentic truths of the Christian faith and to suppress heretics and their many lies, since those lies lead many to eternal damnation.

According to Jesus Christ, who remains the founder and the head of the Catholic Church, God is the God of the living. Not the dead.

All the faithful who have gone before us are presently with God. Not asleep in some grave.

Read your Bible to see the many times when God personally prescribed the use of non living images for various types of sacred vessels and for many other good purposes.

Perhaps you should reconsider and reevaluate the sources of your strange beliefs.

Rules for being a catholic?

Q: What are the rules for being Catholic?

A:  Love God. Love your neighbor. Accept and believe all that the Catholic Church definitively and authoritatively teaches. Observe the Precepts of the Church:

The Precepts

1) You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor.

We must “sanctify the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord” (Sunday), as well as the principal feast days, known as Catholic holy days of obligation. This requires attending Mass, “and by resting from those works and activities which could impede such a sanctification of these days.”

2) You shall confess your sins at least once a year.

We must prepare for the Eucharist by means of the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). This sacrament “continues Baptism’s work of conversion and forgiveness.”

3) You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.

This “guarantees as a minimum the reception of the Lord’s Body and Blood in connection with the Paschal feasts, the origin and center of the Christian liturgy.”

4) You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church.

“The fourth precept ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts and help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.” See below for more about fasting & abstinence.

5) You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church.

“The fifth precept means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.”

http://www.beginningcatholic.com/precept…

Black Pastor Warns Obama not to Preside over “Genocide” of American Blacks

At March, Black Pastor Warns Obama not to Preside over “Genocide” of American Blacks

WASHINGTON, DC, January 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The most well received speech at the March for Life this year was that of an African American pastor from Frederick Maryland.  Pastor Luke Robinson began noting that the election of the first African American President of the United States was a fulfillment of “part” of the “Dream” of Dr. Marin Luther King Jr.

Speaking of the inauguration of the “first black President” of the United States, Pastor Robinson explained: “So many African Americans and other folks cried and shouted because the inauguration was part of the deferred dream come true.” But, he added, “we come here to deal with some unfinished business as it relates to the ‘dream’.” 

Then, using Barack Obama’s own rhetoric, Pastor Robinson used the phrase “We need change now more than ever” which would accentuate the rest of his talk. 

“We are calling on the  President of Change, President Barack Obama,” he said, “to be an agent of change as it relates to the lives of over one million children who will be slaughtered in this, his first year as President, by a horrible practice called abortion and ‘a woman’s right to choose’.”

The most striking portion of Robinson’s speech came as he begged Obama not to preside over the genocide of African Americans.  “We need change Mr. President because every day about 4000 babies die by abortion.  Every day Mr. President, people with your ethnic background any my ethnic background die in astounding numbers. Abortion is the number one killer of African Americans in this country.”

“We make up about 12% of the population and about 34% of all abortions are black babies. In the last 36 years over 17 million African American babies have died by abortion alone.  We need to change this picture. We need to stop this slaughter of the innocent preborn.

“Please Mr. President, be that agent of change that can commute the sentence of over 1400 African American children and over 3000 children from other ethnic groups sentenced to die every day in this country by abortion.”

“We need change and we need it now.”

“I pray with so many others,” he said, “that your administration will preside over the end to abortion and to the black genocide in America.” 

“At the conclusion of your term in office, may it never be said that you presided over the largest slaughter of innocent children in the history of the country and that African Americans became an ever increasing minority under your hand.”

Courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com

Submitted by Doria2

A harsh blow … to all the people across the world that fight against the slaughter of innocents …

Obama’s pro-abortion executive order creates first clash with Vatican

Vatican City, Jan 25, 2009 / 01:06 pm (CNA).- The first sign of Vatican disappointment with the Obama administration came on Saturday, when Holy See officials reacted to the President’s executive order reversing the Mexico City policy, thus making federal money available to promote abortion internationally.

Obama signed the executive order canceling the eight-year-old restrictions on Friday, the third day of his presidency.

In an interview published Saturday in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Rino Fisichella said that “among the many good things that he could have done, Barack Obama instead has chosen the worst.”

Click here to read the entire article

A Pro-Life Prayer for Our President-Elect and Public Officials

From the Desk of James J. Pinto, Jr., M.E.V.

January 19, 2009 Dear Missionary of the Gospel of Life, The time is near for the Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States and a variety of memorial observances for the 36th anniversary of the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision. Wherever the next few days find us as these momentous events occur, I trust that we will be united in earnest and faith-filled prayer. During our annual March for Life here in Birmingham, Alabama, our diocesan bishop, Robert J. Baker, prayed a prayer with participants that I hope you and many others in our nation will pray: A Pro-Life Prayer for Our President-Elect and Public Officials Lord, God, Author of Life and Source of Eternal Life, move the hearts of all public officials and especially our President, to fulfill their responsibilities worthily and well to all those entrusted to their care. Help them in their special leadership roles, to extend the mantle of protection to the most vulnerable, especially the defenseless unborn, whose lives are threatened with extermination by an indifferent society. Guide all public officials by your wisdom and grace to cease supporting any law that fails to protect the fundamental good that is human life itself, which is a gift from God and parents. You are the Protector and Defender of the lives of the innocent unborn. Change the hearts of those who compromise the call to protect and defend life. Bring our nation to the values that have made us a great nation, a society that upholds the value of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. Mary, the Mother of the living, help us to bear witness to the Gospel of Life with our lives and our laws, through Christ, Our Lord. Amen. Imprimatur: November 14, 2008 + Most Reverend Robert J. Baker, Bishop of Birmingham in Alabama

Democrats In Disarray – Discover Obama Is Not Irish

According to confidential sources within the Democartic Party, several high ranking Democrats were stunned when they finally got around to scrutinizing President-Elect Barack Obama’s birth certificate, and realized that there was no apostrophe between the “O” and the “B”.

The inauguration will reportedly still go on as planned.

I don’t understand how the Pope suddenly becomes God’s representitive, once elected

Q: I don’t understand how the Pope suddenly becomes God’s representitive, once elected.

A: Jesus personally established the holy office that today is known as the papacy, and he did it authoratatively and decisively, while he still walked the earth.

Since the Church will necessarily endure until the end of time, the Church proceeded to develop the mechanism to elect replacements and assistants for Peter and the apostles.

The bishops are the ordained rulers of the Church. The Pope, once elected from those ranks, becomes the primary ruler and chief pastor.

The power of binding and loosing was given to the Pope and to the bishops together, as the rulers of the Church, by Jesus Christ.

The “Keys to the Kingdom” … also personally given by Jesus, remain in the hands of the Pope alone.

Faithtful to his word, what the authentic Church binds on earth, God duly binds in Heaven.

Hence, when a new Pope is elected by the bishops of the Church the power and the authority of the office go with that appointment.

The Pope wields awesome and virtually unrestricted power. He remains the only absolute monarch on the planet, ruling both Church and the Vatican State. And he does it according to the express wishes and the foreknowledge of none other than Jesus Christ, who remains the head of the Catholic Church.

Some seem to think that corruption or other faults should disqualify one for the papacy, yet the Judeo-Christian tradition demonstrates just the opposite, since God has always been in the habit of using murders, thieves, adulterers, and worse, to do his will.

King David was an adulterer and a murderer, yet Jesus himself is descended from that royal line.

Such is the power of God and his grace.

In short, if the papacy is acceptable to Jesus, who personally established and constituted the office, and who remains the head of the Church, which will endure until the end of time, who are we to say anything to the contrary?

And should one attempt to reinterpret scripture according to their own ends, denying the facts of the papacy, and  attempting to make void the express acts of Christ himself … the authentic history of the world clearly affirms the existence of an authentic, supreme leader of the universal Church on earth, existing constantly from the day of Pentecost, right up through today, some 265 in number.

http://www.askmeaboutgod.org/passionfina…

“He said a few Hail Marys”

Passengers In NY Plane Ordeal Marvel They’re Alive

By MARCUS FRANKLIN, Associated Press Writer Marcus Franklin, Associated Press Writer

AP – In this photo taken by a passenger on a ferry, airline passengers egress a US Airways Airbus 320 jetliner …

• Slideshow: US Airways plane crashes into Hudson River
• Play Video Video: All 155 survive as pilot ditches plane in Hudson AP

NEW YORK – Shock, relief, gratitude. Most of all, the soaked and freezing passengers of Flight 1549 just seemed amazed to be alive.

All of them.

“You’ve got to give it to the pilot,” said Jeff Kolodjay of Norwalk, Conn., who was aboard the US Airways jet that ditched in the frigid Hudson River after an apparent collision with a flock of birds. “He made a hell of a landing.”

Click here for the whole story, courtesy of Yahoo and the the Associated Press

Vatican finds U.S. seminaries in overall good health

The trouble spots highlighted by the report include: an “incomplete grasp” of the difference between the ordained priesthood and the priesthood of the laity; faculty who subvert the Church’s teachings; the need to screen seminary candidates for irregularities and impediments at the beginning of formation; a lack of supervision of seminarians by the rector and the bishop and a discouragement of traditional forms of piety.

One area sure to receive attention from media coverage is the area of seminarian’s moral behavior. The report sums up its findings on the matter by observing:

“The apostolic visit was obliged to point out the difficulties, in the area of morality, that some seminaries have suffered in the past decades. Usually, but not exclusively, this meant homosexual behavior. Nevertheless, in almost all the institutes where problems existed, at least in the diocesan seminaries, the appointment of better superiors (especially rectors) has ensured that such difficulties have been overcome. Of course, here and there some case or other of immorality — again, usually homosexual behavior — continues to show up. However, in the main, the superiors now deal with these issues promptly and appropriately.”

Click to read the whole article, courtesy of Catholic News Agency

Want to understand the complete extent of the seminary problem? Click here.

Explain the Holy Trinity in the simplest terms possible

Q: Explain the Holy Trinity in the simplest terms possible.

A: The Holy Trinity is three divine and distinct persons in one true God.

The Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and is of the same godly “stuff”. Hence, the Son is also God.

The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, and is also of that same godly “stuff”. Hence, the Holy Spirit is also God.

So … all three persons are God, and all three are eternally united in an infinitely perfect and loving way.

 Hence, they are truly one.

1 x 1 x 1 = 1.

Get it?

Added later, in response to the comment: In this context “begotten” explains the “source” of the 2nd person of the Trinity, the only Son of God. Begotten, as opposed to being created. And since this has ALWAYS been the case, from eternity, we say that Jesus is eternally begotten. In other words, the Son of God has always existed. (God was, is, and always will be.)

The Nicene Creed explains it in more detail (courtesy of newadvent.org). Click the links for more detail :

We believe (I believe) in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all ages. (God of God) light of light, true God of true God. Begotten not made, consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and was made man; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; and the third day rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, of whose Kingdom there shall be no end. And (I believe) in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father (and the Son), who together with the Father and the Son is to be adored and glorified, who spoke by the Prophets. And one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We confess (I confess) one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for (I look for) the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

“Planned Parenthood of Indiana tacitly approves of child-adult sexual relations”

 

“The Mona Lisa Project demonstrates how Planned Parenthood clinics knowingly help sexual predators hide their crimes against young girls by offering secret abortions.”

Click here to read the article, courtesy of California Catholic Daily

USCCB & Francis Cardinal George Send Letter To Obama and Congress

“We lead the largest community of faith in the United States, one that serves every part of our nation and is present in almost every place on earth,” the letter continued.

“From our experience and our tradition, we offer a distinctive, constructive and principled contribution to the national dialogue on how to act together on issues of economic turmoil and suffering, war and violence, moral decency and human dignity.”

Click here for the whole story

Why do people blaspheme the Roman Catholic Church, when it is the only path to salvation?

Q: Why do people blaspheme the Roman Catholic Church, when it is the only path to salvation?

                                          
A: You’re certainly right about the blasphemy. The Catholic Church was born of the Holy Spirit on the first Christian Pentecost. Of that there is no doubt.

Anyone who knowingly and intentionally ascribes the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil is truly blasphemous. And that may well be blasphemy of the worst kind … the unforgivable sin.

The Catholic Church is the only Church that Jesus ever founded, authorized, constituted, empowered, and eternally guaranteed. Jesus did all that personally, while he still walked the earth, and he never did anything even remotely similar for any other person or group.

Anyone whom God might choose to “save” will be saved by the application of the grace that Jesus Christ obtained for us on the cross … grace that he has already entrusted to the Catholic Church, for the purpose of our salvation.

God is sovereign, and he can save anyone for any reason, with no qualifications at all, if he cares to. But anyone who gets invited into heaven, no matter what their religion, will first be purified and transformed by the grace of Christ, and somehow, the Catholic Church, the universal sacrament of salvation, will remain an absolutely essential part of that mysterious process.

So … you are absolutely right in all that you say.