All About Eve: Satan quickly surmised that women are the key to ultimate human potential.

by Doug Lawrence

Nowhere in scripture do we read of Satan tempting Adam at any time, prior to the existence of Eve.

In fact, nowhere in scripture do we read of Satan directly tempting Adam, at all. All we can do is a bit of exegesis, based on the fact that Jesus Christ,  “The New Adam” – was tempted by Satan – and based on that, we can assume that Adam was tempted, as well.

But I digress!

The point is … humanity was going nowhere until God created Eve. Only then did the possibility exist of an entire race of human beings – numbering greater than the stars in the heavens and the sands on the sea shore (Genesis 22:17) and only then did Satan make his move: first, on Eve. Then, Eve quite easily enlisted Adam in their offense.

Consequently, mankind soon found himself evicted from Eden, in addition to being  permanently and hopelessly enslaved to Satan, sin and death. If not for the saving work of Jesus Christ, our Holy Redeemer, it would have remained so, for an eternity.

Satan continues to concentrate on Eve’s “daughters – sisters” to this very day. And except for the superabundantly graced, totally sinless Blessed Virgin Mary, “The New Eve” – most women tend to remain extraordinarily easy marks! I trust it is unnecessary to name names and cite specifics.

Not that men – except for Our Bless Lord, Jesus Christ – are any better. Most are just bold, recidivist sinners of a different gender. And life goes on.

Get wisdom, because it is better than gold:
and purchase prudence, for it is more precious than silver.
The path of the just departs from evil:
he that keeps his soul keeps his way.
Pride goes before destruction:
and the spirit is lifted up before a fall.
 (Proverbs 16:16-18)

Something to think about, this Advent!

Well-intended diversions do not change the fact that abortion is a death experience.

“The issue is so painful; there is a marked sensitivity to the subject,” she said. “Many women and men ‘don’t want to go there.’ Sometimes parents, boyfriends, husbands, counselors and friends are usually part of the decision to abort, often encouraging or even forcing the abortion. They, too, will be reluctant to reach out to the suffering individual because of their own unresolved feelings. They will minimize their pain, tell them, ‘It’s time to move on,’ and ‘You made the right decision,’ and ‘You can have another baby someday when the time is right.’”

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Doctor: Abortion patients often end up in ER

“We commonly (I personally probably at least weekly) see patients at Women and Children’s Hospital in our emergency room or our ultrasound center with complications from abortions at these centers in Charleston: so much for ‘safe and legal,’ ” Calhoun wrote to Morrisey. “These patients are told to come to our hospital because the abortion clinic providers do not have hospital privileges to care for their patients, so we must treat them as emergency ‘drop-ins.’ ”

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Obvious conclusion: The Blessed Virgin Mary was a lot like Sister Joan Chittister and the LCWR.

The purpose of this column is not to parse what the bishop said about Mary on the Feast of the Assumption. I prefer instead to look at what he did not say about her because, it seems to me, what he left out of that homily says much about what is expected of women in the Catholic church.

For instance, Mary answers the angel’s declaration to her by questioning it. An angel! Someone of much higher rank, it would seem, than even apostolic delegates, and only then with a “Be-it-done-unto-me” response to a situation to which, apparently, “no” was a viable answer. Otherwise, why bother to have the conversation?

Even more important, perhaps, is the awareness that despite the seriousness — even the danger — of her situation, Mary did not go to any man — to the high priests of the temple, the local rabbi, her father or even Joseph — for directions about what to do next. She went to another woman for the wisdom she needed and followed that instead. No visitations here.

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Editor’s note: Since the Blessed Virgin Mary was full of grace from the moment of her conception, whatever Mary did and however she chose to do it would have been in complete conformity with God’s divine will.

The priest Zecharia was instantly made speechless when he dared question the angel Gabriel, yet  Mary’s immaculate state of grace led that same angel to humbly respond to all her queries – and then to wait patiently for her answer – so that according to the “yes” of a humble but sinless maiden of Judea, Salvation might finally be permitted to come into the world.

As the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the one who carried the Son of God in her blessed womb – first in the order of God’s grace – Mary would have had ready access to whatever wisdom and direction she needed – probably before she even knew it. She would also have been virtually invisible to the forces of evil – a spiritual “singularity” of which the evil ones could make absolutely no sense.

There were a number of very practical reasons for Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, but avoiding men (or “dissing” members of the hierarchy) likely had nothing to do with it. Bible prophecy was fulfilled, John the Baptist was baptized/anointed in-utero by the Holy Spirit, with Jesus attending – and Mary was able to safely maintain a low profile, until her wedding – and the subsequent birth of Jesus.

Despite her high level of education, Joan Chittister’s “twisted sister” mentality has once again led her to all the wrong conclusions, simply because she inordinately covets the things of men and lacks basic humility. Pity!

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“My abortion was the most horrifying experience of my life…”

“…The women were treated like human cattle. I was told over and over about “a bunch of cells,” even though I was 10 weeks along. I was only asked, “Will that be Visa or MasterCard today?” I believed all of the lies that I was told.”

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Planned Parenthood generated $1.2 billion in 2011, destroying one innocent life every 94 seconds.

We all understand why PPFA minimizes the enormous amount of money it takes in from abortion; why it would prefer to talk about anything other than those 339,964 abortions it performed in 2011 (that’s one lost life every 94 seconds); and most of all the grim truth that about one out of every nine women coming through Planned Parenthood’s door will have an abortion!

But all the misleading talk in the world about “only 3%” of its services can’t obscure the reality that PPFA is the largest abortion provider in the nation and is taking aggressive steps to expand that murderous empire — building central abortion megaclinics, adding chemical abortions to their smaller offices, experimenting with technologies such as “webcam” abortions. This can only mean more victims and higher revenues at the abortion giant for years to come.

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78% of Pregnant Women Seeing an Ultrasound Reject Abortions

In most cases, when ultrasounds are performed, women are not shown the images unless they specifically ask to see them, and sometimes not even then. Numerous former abortion providers have attested to this, including Dr. Joseph Randall, who was quoted saying:

They [the women] are never allowed to look at the ultrasound because we knew that if they so much as heard the heart beat, they wouldn’t want to have an abortion.

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Research: Why women have abortions even when they understand it means killing their own child?

The summary report of the study bears the intriguing title “Abortion: The Least Of Three Evils-Understanding the Psychological Dynamics of How Women Feel About Abortion.” The report suggests that women do not see any “good” resulting from an unplanned pregnancy. Instead they must weigh what they perceive as three “evils,” namely, motherhood, adoption, and abortion.

Unplanned motherhood, according to the study, represents a threat so great to modern women that it is perceived as equivalent to a “death of self.” While the woman may rationally understand this is not her own literal death, her emotional, subconscious reaction to carrying the child to term is that her life will be “over.” This is because many young women of today have developed a self-identity that simply does not include being a mother. It may include going through college, getting a degree, obtaining a good job, even getting married someday; but the sudden intrusion of motherhood is perceived as a complete loss of control over their present and future selves. It shatters their sense of who they are and will become, and thereby paralyzes their ability to think more rationally or realistically.

When these women evaluate the abortion decision, therefore, they do not, as a pro-lifer might, formulate the problem with the radically distinct options of either “I must endure an embarrassing pregnancy” or “I must destroy the life of an innocent child.” Instead, their perception of the choice is either “my life is over” or “the life of this new child is over.” Given this perspective, the choice of abortion becomes one of self-preservation, a much more defensible position, both to the woman deciding to abort and to those supporting her decision.

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Book Review: The Privilege of Being a Woman by Alice von Hildebrand

In the arguments for the privilege of being a woman Dr. von Hildebrand claims that “in order to understand the greatness of a women’s mission, we must open our minds and hearts to the message of the supernatural.” In other words, we must understand the role of Mary’s humility and the Incarnation. With Mary’s humble assent to be the Mother of God, she rose above all. Clearly, this flies in the face of today’s culture and its infatuation with feminism. And while she emphasizes a variety of evidence supporting all of women’s privileges, she is careful to point out that in a woman’s weaknesses there is risk of using her “sensitivity, receptiveness and beauty” to fall into sins of “emotionalism, illusions and self-centeredness.”

Dr. von Hildebrand’s thesis? Women must be wrapped in the humility of the Incarnation to be effectively female. Women cannot be men – no matter how hard they try! The understanding of woman’s place in creation and God’s work is crucial in disproving the credo of feminism. St. Teresa of Avila writes that “more women than men receive extraordinary graces, that they are more receptive to God’s voice and particularly capable of heroic donation when their heart is purified.” Is virginity important? Indeed it is. And maternity raises women above men in their ability to nourish and maintain a soul and body within herself. Our Blessed Mother nourished the body of Christ with great humility and followed him to the cross – her gift given freely.

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Chilling video by Operation Rescue documents more than a dozen abortions which proved deadly to the child and life threatening or deadly to the mother.

Watch the video

Video explains host of problems linked with use of chemical contraceptives

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Video explains serious problems linked with the use of chemical contraceptives

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The “feminist” agenda demands perfect worship at the altar of abortion.

Why must women’s sexual choices be subsidized by everyone else? How does that promote women’s independence? What happened to freedom? Didn’t anyone ever tell you that freedom isn’t free?

You and your boss may gladly pay homage to Baby-Killers-R-Us, Inc., but I will not. I recognize that abortion does not empower women; it enslaves them. Abortion is not freedom; it is violence. I look objectively and see that the abortion culture teaches young girls that sex is power and they are primarily “sexual beings”; it teaches them to let themselves be used and discarded by men, and to see their own child as the enemy of their lives. It makes it easy for men to use, abuse, and violate women, and get rid of the “evidence” of their abuse. It leaves women shouldering the entire burden of childbearing alone. It allows the scumbags to walk away, and it forces the good guys to stand powerless while their children are slaughtered.

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Fortnight for Freedom Issue #10: The High Personal Costs of President Obama’s “Free” Birth Control.

by Richard M. Doerflinger

(This was written before the implementation of the now infamous HHS Mandate.)

On July 21, the health news site Natural Society. . . featured these breaking news headlines: “Newer Birth Control Pill Linked to Higher Risk of Blood Clots”; “Birth Control Increases Risk of Contracting, Transmitting HIV”; and finally, “Medical Panel Pushes for Free Birth Control for Women.”

Hmm, one might ask, who was on this medical panel? Dr. Kevorkian? But no, it was the Institute of Medicine, advising the Department of Health and Human Services on “preventive services for women” to mandate in virtually all private health plans under the new health care reform act.

HHS says it delegated this task to the IOM so people would see the outcome as based on “science” rather than politics. But IOM’s report seems based less on science than on the ideology of authors who share Planned Parenthood’s view of sex and procreation, several of whom have served on the boards of PP affiliates and other pro-abortion organizations. The report says enhanced access to contraception will reduce abortions, though there is ample evidence against that claim (PDF).

In fact, the panel recommends that health plans must cover all drugs approved by the FDA as prescription contraceptives – including the newly approved “emergency contraceptive” called Ella, which like RU-486 can cause an abortion weeks into pregnancy. When asked about a conscience exemption for those who have a moral or religious objection to this, an IOM spokesperson said it wasn’t her panel’s job to take account of other people’s personal “feelings.” Many fear HHS will take the same approach.

Secular news media – Time, U.S. News, USA Today, L.A. Times – obediently repeated the panel’s public relations message that it is offering “free” birth control for women. That message is nonsense. Currently women who want birth control coverage pay for it through their premiums, and sometimes also have a co-pay or out-of-pocket expense. Under the new mandate they will still pay for it, but the cost will be buried in the overall premium – and everyone else, including churches and other religious employers as well as individual Catholics, will be forced to pay for it in their premiums too, so payments coerced from those who object will make birth control coverage a bit cheaper for those who want it.

And what about the “cost” in women’s lives from those blood clots and cases of AIDS? Researchers have known about both problems for years. In 2005, for example, a study funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control noted: “The positive link between pill use and HIV infection was… supported by a meta-analysis of 28 studies, including seven prospective studies.” Most American women haven’t been told this. Ironically, other “preventive services” recommended by the IOM include screening for sexually transmitted diseases. But why would you mandate something that can cause what the other services on your list seek to prevent?

The other big “cost,” of course, is the cost to freedom of religion and respect for conscience. Though not alone in its view, the Catholic Church has long been prophetic and counter-cultural in warning that artificial contraception and sterilization do not enhance women’s well-being. No American, of course, is required by law to believe that teaching. But should the government, in the name of all Americans, now coerce even the Church’s institutions into acting on the opposite view — when the evidence supporting its message is stronger than ever?

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Three women agree with President Obama: It’s only fair to allow women to have their unwanted children killed.

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Sorry Ma’am … Ain’t no such thing as women priests in the Catholic Church!

The Roman Catholic Church does not ordain women.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is very clear on this issue. As it states in the Catechism, #1577: “Only a baptized man validly receives sacred ordination. The Lord Jesus chose men to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.”

The ordination of men to the priesthood is not merely a matter of practice or discipline with the Catholic Church, but rather, it is part of the deposit of faith handed down by Christ through his apostles. The Catholic Church has always followed Jesus’ example and does not believe it has the authority to change what Jesus instituted. The will of Christ is not arbitrary.

The woman who attempted ordination this past weekend may have chosen to be a priest in some other “catholic” church but it is not the one headed by Pope Benedict XVI. She cannot be a priest in a church that has not called her to that priesthood.

She herself states that by attempting ordination and denying the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching in a public act, she has placed herself outside of the Church’s communion. This offers further argument against her “ordination” since to be ordained to the sacred priesthood is to be ordained to obedience in mind and soul to the Church’s magisterium.  One cannot serve in obedience if one was ordained in an act of disobedience.

The Catholic Church’s teaching on the ordination of women does not mean that the Church values women less than men. The Catholic Church is sustained by the important contributions of women each and every day. The Catholic Church has always taught that men and women have the same dignity, but they have different duties or gifts. All these gifts are central to the faith and the life of the Catholic Church.

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Editor’s note: It’s time this type of prideful play acting came to a stop. The Catholic Church has an exclusive and absolute right to decide who it accepts into the priesthood, and it does not need to justify its actions to anyone.

These women do a service to no one, and serve merely to the sow confusion in the Body of Christ. There’s way too much of that going around, already!

A reader’s premise: Women are second class citizens in the Catholic Church.

by Doug Lawrence

(This particular commentary is excerpted from a recent Catholic Q&A posed by one of our readers.)

Reader’s Premise: Women are second class citizens in the Catholic Church.

Doug responds:

You have a right to that opinion, but it seems to me that your opinion is based on a popular but erroneous secular humanist/feminist misconception.

The Catholic Church is not a club, not a social group, not a democracy, and certainly not merely an earthly organization. The Catholic Church is the communion of all true believers in Jesus Christ, spanning both Heaven and Earth, whose main purpose is the salvation of souls and the glory of God.

“Fairness” is a matter for divine judgment, as it doesn’t and truly cannot exist in this fallen world.

Our blessed hope is that God will take care of these seeming inequities for us in the next age, when he rights every wrong and makes all things new. In the mean time, we are called to have faith in God and in the only Church that Jesus ever founded, for the purpose of our salvation.

The “door” to the Catholic Church remains the sacrament of baptism, which is open to males and females, alike.

Once baptized, both male and female Catholics, without exception, are adopted children of God, members of the church, living temples of the Holy Spirit, citizens of Heaven, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ.

Catholics of both sexes have equal access to the Mass, the sacraments, and all the other spiritual and substantial resources of the church.

Catholics of both sexes remain children of God’s grace, equal in their God-given spirituality, and equal when it comes to potentially being declared saints of the church.

Catholics of both sexes, by virtue of their baptism, are members of the Royal Priesthood of the Faithful, empowered to approach God personally in prayer, at will, and empowered to share the authentic Catholic faith with any and all who might inquire.

It is only in regard
to the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood
and the Sacrament of Matrimony
where certain distinctions
are necessarily made, as to gender.

It is noteworthy that not just women … but also married men … are typically disqualified from serving in the ministerial priesthood. This would seem to invalidate a very substantial part of the feminist argument.

Meanwhile, the Catholic faith tradition has, as its greatest saint, universal patron, Mother of the Church and Queen of Heaven … the Blessed Virgin Mary … the Holy Mother of God … already truly blessed beyond measure … the authentic, God-ordained role model for every faithful Catholic … regardless of gender.

In light of all this (and more)
it seems to me, the ladies are winning!

May God bless you, shower you with his abundant grace, and lead you to eternal peace and harmony in Jesus Christ, our savior.

Doug

Single, chaste, Catholic woman who studied church teaching on contraception is happy to live by it.

I understand that most people in America, including Catholics, have a hard time believing or understanding that contraception hurts them and their marriages.  This is a bigger issue and one that I will not take on right now; but I would suggest that the church has many reasons for this controversial position, which it has held firmly after Protestants abandoned it in 1930 and even after it was urged from within the church in the 1960s to change the teaching.

Blessed Pope John Paul II proclaimed it time and again.  Blessed Mother Teresa advocated NFP at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994, among other places, and she taught the poor and illiterate how to read the signs of fertility in their bodies.  If anyone were to be immune from O’Brien’s criticism that the church needs to “meet people where they already are and find out what they need,” surely it was she.

Perhaps a woman seeking contraception needs more than birth control pills.  She needs compassion and love that calls her to a different kind of life— a life in which she does not have to fear conceiving a child.

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Editor’s note: Catholics (and others) who have thoroughly studied the matter typically understand and agree with Ms. Perla … even if they sometimes fail to faithfully practice what the church teaches.

Any married couple who is in the habit of using artificial contraception is certainly free to discontinue the practice at any time, and go to confession … instantly making things right with God, their own marriage, and the Catholic Church.

Married couples must be the primary object of the Catholic Church’s teachings on artificial contraception, since unmarried Catholics are presumed (and expected) to remain chaste and celibate, and should (ideally) have no need of contraception.

And that’s where the real world and the ideal fatally diverge. To put it bluntly, the real problem is the the extraordinary amount of  “cheating” that’s going on … both inside and outside the sacrament of matrimony.

People who choose to engage in sinful, illicit sexual relationships don’t want children, and they aren’t too concerned about what the Catholic Church teaches. What they really want is convenient, risk-free sex.

That’s where Obama and his group of sexual panderers come in … with their supportive, affirming, and totally phony secular theology … encouraging people to simply give in to their baser instincts … rather than struggling to live the good, Catholic ideal.

That’s why Barack Obama is bad for the country … a near occasion of sin, for so many … and why the man must be officially retired by the voters … come November.

Bishop Zubik of Pittsburgh sets the record straight about Catholic healthcare

The truth be told, the Catholic Church throughout this country virtually created health care in the United States.

In Pittsburgh, the first hospital, Mercy Hospital, was opened under Church auspices within a year of the founding of our diocese and long before the government responded.

The Church’s health care ministry was built primarily by Catholic women and has served women of all faiths and no faith from its inception.

What we don’t do, can’t do, won’t do is consider pregnancy a disease equivalent to the flu. Or to be “cured” by death.

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One way Catholics (especially Catholic women) can help the bishops

I vow to be a more involved patient. Imagine what would happen if every Catholic woman demanded that every doctor in every Catholic hospital cease and desist immediately from dispensing contraception? They’d listen to us. This is the time to help the bishops, ladies.

Will you join me?

Read more from Stacy Trasancos at Catholic Lane