Thoughts on Humanae Vitae

Many people, both inside and outside the Catholic Church, continue to criticise Her teaching in relation to contraception, and one of the chief documents referred to in this attack on the sacredness of human life and the institution of marriage is Pope Paul VI’s prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae. It is generally agreed that probably an important aspect of the non-acceptance of the teaching of the Church is the fact that what is presented to us in the encyclical is not understood.

In 1988, on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the encyclical, Cardinal Desmond Connell, then Archbishop Connell of Dublin, addressed a meeting of the Presidents of Family Commissions of Episcopal Conferences at the Vatican. During the course of his talk, entitled ‘The roots of misunderstanding of Humanae Vitae: doctrinal truth and personal conscience’, he said:

‘The sexual difference of male and female pertains to the mode of being according to which God created us with a view to a distinctive participation in the mystery of his love. Through the exercise of that love, by which a man and a woman enter into a deep communion of life, he calls each to live not just in the sufficiency of his/her own life but in a richer wholeness achieved by the mutual exchange of the gift of self that reflects the mystery of God’s own life. It is a communion of life wondrously fertile in the generation of new lives endowed with personal dignity, a fertility that reflects and shares in the prerogative of the divine Author of life. Through that fertility the greater wholeness of the race itself is progressively promoted. …

‘The expression of human sexual love in an act that eliminates and thereby negates the divinely implanted possibility of generation conflicts with the lordship of God in what concerns the gift of life….
‘The misunderstanding of Humanae Vitae can be traced to a failure to grasp either the nature and implications of this revealed truth about marriage, or else the Church’s competence to declare it. …

‘One way of approaching the roots of misunderstanding of Humanae Vitae is to recall the historical circumstances in which Paul VI published his Encyclical. The document appeared at the conclusion of a lengthy period of consultation, and for many its teaching came as a disappointment. It was a time of widespread and valuable change in accordance with the desire of the Second Vatican Council for aggiornamento, a period of altered perception of the relation between the Church and the modern world. During the interval of consultation preceding the publication of the Encyclical, the conviction that change in the Church’s position on contraception was inevitable had gained ground in the minds of many who applied themselves honestly and sincerely to this most difficult question, of vital importance to the pastoral ministry of the Church. …

‘When the Encyclical was published it was rejected by the secular world for its incompatibility with the new permissive attitude fostered by the invention of the contraceptive pill. In such an environment there was no perception of the context of divine revelation, within which the teaching was proposed. …
‘ [T]o dismiss the teaching of Paul VI for his dependence on allegedly outmoded philosophical theory is to underestimate the influence of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council upon his treatment, especially in what concerns the unitive significance of the marital act.…

‘Influenced by the confusion all around them, [ordinary married people] felt justified in making up their own minds on the issue, and sought its resolution in the personal decision to which they referred as their conscience. … The human task of being husband and wife, which is deeply personal, is diminished by contraception. …
‘All who occupy influential positions in the Church, who are tempted to assert their own view in opposition to its teaching, should reflect on the responsibility they incur by depriving people of God’s truth. …

‘ … the truth of conscience is made relative to subjective feeling or decision and this is completely opposed to the way of Christ, who came to bear witness to the truth. …
‘Our task now is to devise the appropriate pastoral means of leading the many who have gone astray to the discovery of the truth. It is a daunting task that obliges us to bear witness to the truth, not just against the overwhelming odds of our technological, consumerist society, but also against the confusion that still obscures the minds of so many of our faithful people. …’

It is over twenty years since the above address was written and presented. Sadly, its content could equally apply to today’s world. Why and how is it that nothing has changed? Where are our pastors - those who should be instructing us on the truths of Humanae Vitae?

Link to Humanae Vitae

Anti Cervical Cancer Vaccine

Much has been written about the so-called anti-cervical cancer vaccine that is being ‘offered’ to the parents of young girls in various countries. The roll-out of the ‘anti-cervical cancer’ programme in Ireland (see my blogs for 5 July 2008; 21 August 2008; 18 December 2008; 29 March 2009; 18 January 2010; 10 May 2010; 14 August 2010;) has, hopefully, alerted mothers – in particular- to the possible dangers of the vaccine. Each of the blogs listed contains valuable information on various aspects of the vaccine programme.

The dangers are not only medical and physical, which are of course most important for the health and lives of Irish children, but administration of the vaccine also implies that these young girls will be indulging in sexual activity at a very young age. Mothers Alliance Ireland, a committee of the Christian Democrats/Family First Party, based in Limerick, have just issued a serious warning to parents, in particular, and to school authorities, that they should make themselves aware of all the facts in relation to the vaccination programme for cervical cancer. This programme has already commenced in a number of schools throughout Ireland, with the required second and third ‘jabs’ of the vaccine due to be administered early in the new school year. The vaccine used on Irish schoolgirls is known as Gardasil, and the Department of Health plans to extend the vaccination programme to all schools shortly.

In relation to the anti-cervical cancer programme, and the use of Gardasil, Mothers Alliance Ireland points out that there are numerous reasons why young girls should not be subjected to being vaccinated. The Alliance recommends that, for a start, parents and teachers should consult and seriously study the following websites:
www.comelook.org and www.sanevax.org
As the Alliance says, neither the Department of Health nor the HSE (Health Service Executive), which is overseeing and administering the programme, would like parents to see the information contained on these two websites.

Archbishop Chaput: Relativism leads to repression

Archbishop Charles Chaput, Catholic of Denver Colorado, gave a powerful address to the 15th symposium for the Canon Law Association of Slovakia on Tuesday last.

In his wide ranging address, which dealt very comprehensively with the problems faced by the Catholic Church today in a world that espouses moral relativism. He also called upon Catholics in America and in Europe, to resist the world's growing intolerance of Christianity.
Some quotes from the text of his address are set out below and a link is included to the full text

Relativism according to the Archbishop

is now the civil religion and public philosophy of the West. Again, the arguments made for this viewpoint can seem persuasive. Given the pluralism of the modern world, it might seem to make sense that society should want to affirm that no one individual or group has a monopoly on truth; that what one person considers to be good and desirable another may not; and that all cultures and religions should be respected as equally valid.

In practice, however, we see that without a belief in fixed moral principles and transcendent truths, our political institutions and language become instruments in the service of a new barbarism. In the name of tolerance we come to tolerate the cruelest intolerance; respect for other cultures comes to dictate disparagement of our own; the teaching of “live and let live” justifies the strong living at the expense of the weak.

This diagnosis helps us understand one of the foundational injustices in the West today -- the crime of abortion.

I realize that the abortion license is a matter of current law in almost every nation in the West. In some cases, this license reflects the will of the majority and is enforced through legal and democratic means. And I’m aware that many people, even in the Church, find it strange that we Catholics in America still make the sanctity of unborn life so central to our public witness.

Let me tell you why I believe abortion is the crucial issue of our age.

First, because abortion, too, is about living within the truth. The right to life is the foundation of every other human right. If that right is not inviolate, then no right can be guaranteed.

Or to put it more bluntly: Homicide is homicide, no matter how small the victim.

Archbishop Chaput told the symposium that the Church’s religious liberty is under assault today in ways not seen since the Nazi and Communist eras. I believe we are now in the position to better understand why.

Writing in the 1960s

Richard Weaver, an American scholar and social philosopher, said: “I am absolutely convinced that relativism must eventually lead to a regime of force.”

He was right. There is a kind of “inner logic” that leads relativism to repression.

This explains the paradox of how Western societies can preach tolerance and diversity while aggressively undermining and penalizing Catholic life. The dogma of tolerance cannot tolerate the Church’s belief that some ideas and behaviors should not be tolerated because they dehumanize us. The dogma that all truths are relative cannot allow the thought that some truths might not be.

The Catholic beliefs that most deeply irritate the orthodoxies of the West are those concerning abortion, sexuality and the marriage of man and woman. This is no accident. These Christian beliefs express the truth about human fertility, meaning and destiny.

These truths are subversive in a world that would have us believe that God is not necessary and that human life has no inherent nature or purpose. Thus the Church must be punished because, despite all the sins and weaknesses of her people, she is still the bride of Jesus Christ; still a source of beauty, meaning and hope that refuses to die -- and still the most compelling and dangerous heretic of the world’s new order.

link to full text

ROME: Venue for 5th World Pro-Life Prayer Congress

The organizers of the annual “Congress of World Prayer for Life” have announced that this year’s program will take place in Rome, the Eternal City, on October 5th – 10th, 2010.

According to the website,

Inspiring talks by renowned speakers, who have a heartfelt desire to promote the protection and dignity of human life, will help participants learn from an abundance of up-to-date information, practical experience and wisdom.

The Congress has a very full programme which can be accessed on this link and the speakers include three Cardinals, two Archbishops, Bishops and a variety of pro-life speakers including, Fr Tom Euteneur, and Monsignor Barreiro of Human Life International,John Smeaton National Director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), Monsignor Philip Reilly, Helpers of God's Precious Infants, John Henry Westen Editor of LifeSite News and pro-life leaders from all over the world. Full list of speakers can be viewed on this link

This years Congress has been organized by HLI Austria / Human Life International, Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, World Federation of the Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), World-Prayer For Life, Fatima World Apostolate, La Salette Professional Education Center (LASPEC), Europäische Ärzteaktion (European Physicians Campaign) and Stiftung Ja zum Leben International (Yes to Life Foundation)

Holy Mass will be celebrated daily in reparation for the sins against life, especially abortion. Eucharistic Adoration and prayer will also be highlighted in this congress.

Aspects of national debate on abortion, from the archives

Isn’t it strange, sometimes, how one comes across an old newspaper cutting/news item and how resonant to what is happening today that item appears to be. I recently found three letters that were published in an Irish newspaper over twenty years ago. Dr. Noel Browne earned quite a reputation for himself in the decades leading up to the 1980s, and credit must be given to him for his success in eradicating TB (tuberculosis) from the Irish population when he was a young doctor and politician. However, his proposal to introduce his ‘Mother and Child Scheme’ met with strong opposition from both the Catholic Church and his fellow politicians resulting in his resignation from the then Irish Government. This scheme would have provided free medical care for mothers, and children up to the age of sixteen. Those opposed to it, however, feared that it would usurp the right of every parent to provide health care of their own choice for their children, and that it could pave the way for the introduction of abortion and birth control. Some doctors opposed the scheme because it could entail a loss of income for them.

In the first of the letters that emerged from history (my archives, that is!), an article from Irish Times Dec 9th 1989), Dr Browne in a very outspoken and clearly inaccurate outburst attempted to make a case for abortion however this was very ably rejected in the two responses that follow: Dr Browne commenced the exchange with the following letter

‘What a squalid victory for obscurantism over innocence by our clerical educators that, exceptionally, in all the advanced countries of the world, our elite secondary school students, now in university, marionettes as ever, should obediently “toe the party line”. In this instance on the censorship of information about abortion to a woman in need of it.
‘Do these young misguided sado-masochists know that Rome also aborts the living foetus, when it suits her to do so? I quote from a document received, as a consultant physician, from the palace of the then Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. In “An Ethical Code for Hospitals”, … the archbishop states: “Operations and treatments necessary for the cure of pathological conditions of the mother, which cannot be postponed until the foetus is viable, is permitted even though the death of the foetus results”.
‘If the students do know, would they not agree it is indefensible under the law of the Republic that Rome may safely abort a living foetus when she chooses to do so, while the minority Protestant Churches were bluntly refused three exceptions of their choice by our then Taoiseach? … These are when a woman is pregnant following rape, when a woman or child is pregnant following incestuous assault and rape, and where a woman is told she is to give birth to an imbecile anencephalic monster, and is herself in all cases unwilling to “go to term”.
‘While it is true that the Irish Republic is a shamelessly male macho society, what has baffled me is that behind every Irish male chauvinist cleric or lawmaker pig there is an Irish mother who by her silence condones such obscene laws against her unfortunate sisters, or even herself. …’

[In 1983 a pro-life Amendment, known as Article 40.3.3., had been added to the Constitution of Ireland and, subsequently, many efforts were made by pro-abortion groups to have the provision of information on abortion legalised.]

In a reply to the above letter, J.A. Barnwell said:

‘Noel Browne’s commendable concern for the welfare of womankind … might sound even more compelling if it also covered the claims of unborn children, half of whom, after all, are female. The legitimate interests of both mother and child are compatible.
‘In this regard, Noel Browne’s citation of an exception allowed by the Catholic Church appears somewhat disingenuous, ignoring as he does the apt “double effect” principle which permits indirect or unintended death only under certain specific conditions.
‘Finally, concerning “The censorship of information about abortion”, major matters are at stake. There is a natural hierarchy of human rights. Some rights are more important than others. The right to life is the most basic of all, for without it all other rights are rendered redundant. This seems self-evident.’

Dr. E. A. Currie, of University College, Galway, is the author of the third letter that emerged from the past. He wrote:

‘…How odd … to find Noel Browne … at this inopportune time, gratuitously insulting Irish university students by calling them obscurantist because, in exercising their freedom to vote against their [student] unions lending support to abortion, they dared express a view contrary to his own.
‘I think that what really baffles Noel Browne is the realisation that, despite his infallible diagnosis of the ills of Irish society and the secularist medicines he has prescribed, most Irish people have no faith in what they regard as ideological quackery and refuse to toe his party line.’

The battle continues.

Timisoara Declaration on Life, Family and Freedom of Religion

The Alliance of Romania’s Families on August 21st launched a new declaration in support of life, family, parental rights and the right to freedom of religion. The declaration to be known known as the Timisoara Declaration was prepared along the lines of the Manhattan declaration.

The choice of Timisoara for launching the Declaration has historic resonances for the Romanian people being the location of the commencement of the Romanian revolution which brought about the end of totalitarian rule in Romania 21 years ago. The revolution which was started peacefully by a group of Christians who protested, publicly, the infringement of their rights by secular (communist) authorities started there almost 21 years ago and toppled the regime in a matter of days.

Now after 21 years according to a press release issued by the Alliance there is a new revolution in the same place. This time however it is a spiritual and of moral renewal. Though times have changed, obstacles and vicious opposition to Christian values continue this time within a European-wide system which claims to be democratic but nevertheless is motivated by a vitriolic secularist fundamentalism which threatens their historical and hard-won freedoms. The statement continues "Propelled and inspired by the actions of fellow Christians in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, Romanian Christians have determined that the time has come for their voice to be heard in their own homeland and abroad. Through this Declaration they are professing the fundamental truths of the infallible Word of God as they relate to issues of crucial importance for the welfare of society and its survival, foremost among them the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage, religious freedom, and human dignity."
“This is not a theological declaration or statement,” according to Mr. Bogdan Mateciuc, Executive Director of the Alliance who continued

“It is an expression of views on important social institutions and matters with which the world confronts itself, Romania included. These views are nonnegotiable. They are of Christian inspiration and have their roots in basic notions of morality and human decency. They are common to all cultures, major religions, and across time boundaries. They are shared by the overwhelming majority of Romania’s citizens, regardless of their Christian affiliation. It is a formidable Declaration which calls on the citizens of the city to involve themselves in the betterment of their society and country.”

“This is a crucial document,” according to Dr. Peter Costea, President of the Alliance.

“It affirms in direct and forceful terms the foundational pillars of what a sound society should be all about. Every Christian community around the world should issue a similar statement. Times are hard for those who profess their faith publicly. But Christians are citizens, too, and have rights. They should be exercised to better the world in which they live. By issuing this Declaration we express our solidarity with Christians in other countries who have issued similar declarations. Their forceful proclamations of the Truth in the public square have inspired and encouraged us, and we hope our action today will encourage them as well.”

The press release ends with an invitation to members of the world community to join with the Alliance in proclaiming the principles set out in the Declaration, loudly and unambiguously, by signing, disseminating and making the Declaration known.

The text of the declaration in both Romanian and English can be viewed on this link

Battling for America's Soul

Tradition, Family and Property has a very interesting commentary entitled ‘Battling for America’s Soul’. It deals very comprehensively with the ever encroaching advance of the so-called ‘same-sex “marriage”’ agenda in the United States.

What is written in the commentary does not, however, apply only to the US it applies to all Christian peoples everywhere, and we must all be constantly alert to the powerful forces that would seek to overturn the natural moral order.

The commentary can be accessed on the following link ‘Battling for America’s Soul’

POPULATION: Europe is dying

An article written by Mary Jo Anderson and published in 'inside catholic', titled "Can Europe Survive Its Population Plunge?" reminds us of the stark results of decades of population control, see LifeNews.com

According to the article

Europe is dying .The Washington Post, among others, reports that, within a hundred years, there will be the rare German in Germany or Italian in Italy. Some demographers believe it is too late to correct Europe's plunge into extinction. "The fall in the population can no longer be stopped," reported Walter Rademacher of the German Federal Statistics Office.

Replacement fertility rates are 2.1 children per woman in developed nations. No nation in Europe can claim that rate, and most fall under 1.6. At those levels, each generation is barely half the number of the preceding one. The working-age population is reduced by 30 percent in just 20 years, having a devastating impact on economies. Today, European Union and United Nations experts are sufficiently alarmed to call councils to address the population crisis. The irony is that this is a crisis of their making.

The two major players in population reduction policies are the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the United Nations Population Fund UNFPA.

It is particularly instructive to look back at the policies promoted by these organisations as far back as the late 1960's and early 1970's and to look at the current state of the world in which we now live. One such document came to my attention recently, authored in 1969 by the then Vice President of Planned Parenthood/World Population, Frederick S. Jaffe who was at the time making proposals specifically for the US, nevertheless while the document may not have been fully implemented in every respect we can all recognise that the policies are now being promoted on a global scale and in some cases more so than others. The document is titled "Examples of Proposed Measures to Reduce U.S. Fertility, by Universality or Selectivity of Impact" and it was sent by Jaffe as a Memorandum to Bernard Berelson (President, Population Council)

Under the heading Social Constraints Jaffe proposes the following measures
Restructure Family: a) postpone or avoid marriage b) alter image of ideal family, he then adds compulsory education of children, homosexuality percentage to be increased, educate for family limitation. He also promoted the addition of so called "control agents" in water supplies.

The implementation of this agenda required economic deterrents and incentives. The main deterrents related to taxation measures on the family that included a) a substantial marriage tax b)child taxes c)tax married more than single d)remove parents' tax exemption and e) have additional taxes for parents with more than one or two children in school. The other measures under this heading included the elimination of paid maternity leave or benefits, reduction or elimination of family allowances, bonuses for delayed marriages and greater child spacing, pensions for women of 45 with a less than a specific number of children and elimination of welfare payments after the first two children.

Under the heading Social Controls the document calls for compulsory abortion of out of wedlock pregnancies, compulsory sterilization of all who have two children except for a few who would be allowed three, confine childbearing to a limited number of adults, issue certificate type permits for children.

The document also called for payments to encourage sterilization, contraception and abortion and it called for both abortion and sterilization to be made available on demand.

Jaffe clearly saw contraception as a major factor in achieving the ends he was advocating and called for certain contraceptives to be distributed non medically, the improvement of contraceptive technology, making contraception available to all and he listed family planning as a core element in the improvement of maternal health care

A chart from the memo can be accessed on this link

Is it any wonder that Europe is dying?

Adult Stem Cells could cure baldness

RESEARCHERS WORKING at the forefront of stem cell technology may also unexpectedly have come up with a cure for baldness according to an Irish Times report. They almost miraculously changed one cell type into a completely different one, but in the process ended up with skin cells complete with working hair follicles.

A treatment for baldness was not the goal when they started tinkering with cells from the thymus, a small but critical organ that helps run the body’s immune system to fight disease. Rather, they wanted to see how stem cells from the thymus would perform if transplanted into growing skin as a way to help burns victims.

The research teams from Switzerland and Scotland were more than surprised when they transplanted thymus cells into the skin of lab rats. They discovered that the cells forgot they were from the thymus and began performing just like healthy skin cells.

Despite the fact that progress in the development of new treatments is derived from research using adult stem cells many Governments and institutions are improperly funding research into embryonic stem cell research ignoring the fact that it entails the killing of human embryos, the taking of human life.

The thymus from which the unexpected results came, is a small organ in the upper chest, under the breastbone. Before birth and during childhood, the thymus helps the body make a type of white blood cell. These cells help protect you from infections.

According to the report, “These cells really change track, expressing different genes and becoming more potent,” said lead researcher Prof Yann Barrandon, head of the stem cell lab at the University of Lausanne and the local Polytechnique. Details of the team’s findings are published this morning in the journal Nature.

Being able to grow viable skin is a long-sought goal for doctors trying to treat burns patients, whether they come with hair follicles or not. Scientists have tried growing skin stem cells for transplantation, but the resultant tissues only last for a few weeks.

This new approach of changing one cell type into a completely different one seems to perform much better, with this new skin including follicles surviving for as long as a year.

The transformation of thymus cells into working skin cells is a startling result that has huge implications, suggests Prof Barrandon and his colleagues.

Importantly, this conversion process takes place without the need for genetic modification. The thymus stem cells seem to respond to the “local” environment, performing like skin cells because of their transplantation into the skin.

Their assumption is that these cells will readily change into other cell types in response to the environment into which they are placed.

Lullabies may soothe stresses of pregnancy

A very unusual, but interesting, study is reportedly being carried out at the University of Limerick according to a recent Irish Times report.
The study involves exploring the benefits of a mother singing lullabies to her unborn baby during her pregnancy. It seems that the team carrying out the research believes that many women suffer from stress and worries for lots of reasons during pregnancy. ‘Medical treatment is not always suitable’, the team says, ‘because of concerns that taking medication may harm the baby. For that reason, doctors and midwives are interested in finding other ways to reduce pregnancy stress, such as singing.’

Here is something that might perhaps catch the interest of the research team in the course of their study - it brings to mind a small, illustrated book, entitled Angel in the Waters, by Regina Doman published some years ago, the Sophia Press (U.S.A.) and reported on recently by John Smeaton in his BLOG.
It is the story of an unborn baby speaking to her mother, and it is described as follows: In its mother’s womb, a tiny baby grows, explores the waters, and talks with the angel who is there. These gentle illustrations and wise words tell the story of that baby and the angel in the waters… a story that’s sure to delight all young children because the journey from conception to birth is their story, too.

Now, a song, ‘A Seed of Life’, accompanied by the images from the Angel in the Waters book, has been issued on YouTube, and it is well worth looking at, and listening to it. It can be accessed by Googling: ‘A Seed of Life – pro life video on YouTube’, and you will find ‘A song about the wish of an unborn child to experience the love of a mother.’ Enjoy!

The book itself can be ordered from the Sophia Press at this address: Sophia Institute Press, Box 5284, Manchester, N.H. 03108, U.S.A.

Spurious EU funded Dublin Conference

The Catholic Voice newspaper (15 August 2010) reports that the European Union is funding a conference in Dublin in September, entitled ‘Voices of Children’. Very good and proper, you might say. However, the conference will be hosted by a group called ‘Marriage Equality’. This group was set up to promote the ‘Civil Partnership … Act’, and to fight for the status of marriage to be granted to homosexuals and lesbians.

The ‘Civil Partnership … Act’, the group says, doesn’t go far enough for them as it doesn’t yet recognise homosexual ‘marriage’, nor does it allow for the adoption of children on the part of homosexuals and lesbians. The October conference is being held to promote the legalisation of adoption of children by such people. Rónán Mullen, the Independent senator, who was one of only the four senators who spoke against the enactment of the ‘Civil Partnership … Act’ last month, points out that European Union and Irish Government officials have repeatedly claimed that social and ethical issues, including laws on marriage and the family, are matters for member states and are outside the competence of the EU. So much for Government promises!

Senator Mullen continues:

‘The funding of this conference highlights an issue that caused many Irish voters to reject the Lisbon Treaty – the problem of “competence creep” in the European Union. This happens when European institutions such as the European Commission and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) extend their policy and decision-making into areas that are supposed to be matters for individual member states.’

It is indeed a very sad, and serious, state of affairs when a government such as the Irish Government overrides the stated wishes of the people and steamrolls the agenda of a minority but powerful group whose stated aim it is to destroy the family.

FDA approves controversial drug ELLA

LifeNews.com reports that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have approved the controversial drug ELLA that has been labelled a morning after pill but pro-life groups point out it will cause very early abortions. They say the drug is untested and women will be misinformed about how it works as an abortion agent.

The drug has been billed as a better morning after pill, because it can be used longer after sexual intercourse than the traditional Plan B drug. The new drug according to the report would almost always cause an abortion because it would begin working days after conception the beginning of life.

Ella is the first selective progesterone receptor modulator (SPRM) available in the United States for the indication of so called “emergency contraception (EC).” According to the European Medicines Agency, SPRMs block progesterone which is necessary to maintain a pregnancy. This effectively deprives the unborn child in the womb of the nutrients he or she needs to live.

Supporters of the drug have gotten around that fact by redefining the beginning of pregnancy as implantation rather than conception, or fertilization.

Accordig to the FDA

"The prescription-only product prevents pregnancy when taken orally within 120 hours (five days) after a contraceptive failure or unprotected intercourse. It is not intended for routine use as a contraceptive,"

Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America told reporters in advance of the decision, that the FDA is misleading American women.

"The FDA underscored the point that this decision was driven by politics by releasing it late on a Friday when people are not paying attention,"

"The meager trials done on ella indicate it may cause miscarriages and birth defects. Yet the FDA allowed the HRA Pharma to avoid fully testing the drug so women will be kept in the dark on what kind of serious complications it may cause to her and her baby,"

Wright also pointed out how the FDA is following its decision during the latter part of the Clinton administration to approve the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug -- which has killed at least 13 women, and potentially dozens more, and injured more than 1,100 in the United States alone according to FDA reports.

"Though called an 'emergency contraceptive,' the drug operates the same way as the abortion drug RU-486, which has caused numerous deaths and over 1,000 reported adverse events,"

according to Wright, who also said women could become victims again, especially because the ella abortion drug has not undergone rigorous testing and medical trials.


The full LifeNews.com article can be found on this link

HPV Vaccine effects

I have written about the Human Pappiloma Virus (HPV) vaccine on many occasions the most recent of which I posted on May 10 2010

I recently came across a website ComeLook.org which documents 71 deaths and over 18,000 adverse reactions to the vaccine on the US tracking system.

The website includes a number of YouTube videos showing the effects of the vaccine which is essential viewing for all parents prior to giving permission for their daughters to receive the vaccine

Two Videos in 10 minutes [which the HSE does not want you to see].
That's the challenge to 50,000 parents (of Irish 12-year-old girls).
600 seconds from your life that that is very informative, to be viewed before September 2010. Please bring this website to the attention of all parents who have 12 year old daughters but particularly those in schools in which the vaccine will be offered.
http://www.comelook.org/awakening.html

Proposition 8

You will probably have read, or heard, about the recent striking down of ‘Proposition 8’ in the State of California, in the U.S. Under ‘Proposition 8’, marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman and, therefore, same-sex ‘marriage’ is illegal. The people of California, in voting to support this Proposition in 2008, voted to uphold the sacredness of marriage. The homosexual and lesbian agenda was furious at this decision, and ever since they have been working to secure the overturning of Proposition 8.

Tradition, Family and Property says that the ruling ‘unmasks how the homosexual movement’s promotion of same-sex “marriage” deprives marriage of its rational end, belittles a higher moral law and disregards the majority of California[ns] who hold marriage to be sacred.’ It is noteworthy, too, that in each of the thirty-one U.S. states in which the issue of homosexual attempts to hijack marriage has been put before the people in a vote, true marriage has prevailed, and there has been no popular support for what is euphemistically called homosexual ‘marriage’.

It is not only in the United States, however, that the homosexual agenda is working hard to undermine marriage and the family. No sooner was the notorious ‘Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010’ signed into law by the President of Ireland, than the Leader of the Green Party, Mr. John Gormley, stated publicly that ‘gay marriage’ is ‘a goal’ of his Party. The Green Party was the chief proponent in government of the Act that will now grant to homosexuals and lesbians the rights and privileges heretofore reserved to married couples. Mr. Gormley went on to say that in relation to the passing of the Act into law:

‘We take pride in what we have all achieved today, conscious of the fact that tomorrow we continue the fight towards the final goal of full marriage equality. … As a married man, it strikes me that one of the most basic elements of a permanent relationship is the right of the two persons involved to stand before their family, their friends and before the State and be able to officially proclaim they have come together as two persons in love, to live their lives as one.’

The same Mr.Gormley considers that ‘it would be healthy’ if Christian churches saw that the Act ‘does not directly challenge the traditional understanding of marriage in Ireland’, and ‘recognised the good of this legislation.’

Under the heading ‘1968ers sexualised children to avoid “bourgeois” shame culture’,
the Irish Times carried a horrific article earlier this month. The writer describes, sometimes in graphic detail, the sexual abuse of children by adults during that era. The Green Party ‘leading light’, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, is described as being one of those involved in this movement, although at a later date he actually admitted that the child sexual revolution was perhaps ‘a step too far’.
I wonder if Mr. Gormley might take time out from his enthusiastic support of homosexual practices (essential to recognition under the terms of the ‘Civil Partnership …Act’ legislation) to read the Irish Times article? He would probably say that that Green Party is not the same as his Green Party – but I thought that all Green Parties have a common goal to save the environment and the earth and the animals, and cut down on carbon footprints and … promote the ‘rights’ of homosexuals, etc. Maybe this is one of the reasons behind the most recent Government plan to ‘educate’ the people of rural Ireland on the merits of homosexuality and to promote the homosexual ideology.

The Family Education Trust published a valuable study, entitled The Fight for the Family – The Adults Behind Children’s Rights, by Lynette Burrows, in 1998. The booklet, owing to its popularity, was revised and reprinted in 1999. It is essential reading for all those who are interested in the ‘children’s rights’ agenda, and the inter-relation of this agenda with the homosexual movement.

Pro-Life Video

Some fourteen years, Youth Defence launched ‘Project Truth’ – a radio and billboard campaign to tell people about the truth of what abortion actually is. The billboard part of the campaign went ahead – despite a number of disastrous events associated with non-delivery of a quantity of the billboards. The radio advertisement, however, was banned by the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) – the Government-appointed regulatory body for ‘independent’ broadcasting – and RTÉ (the national radio and television broadcasters), on the amazing pretext that, relying on various Broadcasting Acts, it had a ‘religious or political’ direction.

Youth Defence have now re-launched the content of the radio advertisement in the form of a video, to which they have added some extraordinary images of an unborn baby. It is a beautiful message, and we realise that the decision to ban it all those years ago was a deliberately political decision.
You can view the video at www.youthdefence.ie/latest-news/youth-defence-launches-project-truth/A very interesting account of the banning of the original radio advertisement, together with some other relevant material, is available on the same website. It makes for compelling reading.

US Senate confirms Kagan appointment to Supreme Court

Following the decision of the United States Senate to confirm Elena Kagan as the 112th Justice of the Supreme Court by a vote of 63-37. Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA)in a hard hitting statement said:

We expect that Elena Kagan will continue her life-long practice of using her position place her opinion as the final authority over the law, treat the Constitution as optional, and re-write the facts to fit her agenda, all to the detriment of our country. Miss Kagan's presence at the Supreme Court will be a constant reminder to conservatives of the clear and present danger we face if we are not engaged in the political process to ensure only qualified people of character are in key positions.



Ms Wright continued

"As a White House official, Miss Kagan re-wrote the statement of a medical organization regarding partial-birth abortion in order to manipulate legislators and the courts. As the dean of Harvard Law School, she made International/Comparative Law a required first-year course, but ignored Constitutional Law as a requirement altogether. She violated federal law in order to maliciously harm military recruiters on an issue she characterized as being of the "highest moral order" -- embracing homosexuality -- yet welcomed the money of a Saudi donor to establish a Center for Islamic Studies that promotes Sharia law. Sharia endorses the stoning of homosexuals. 

"Miss Kagan has demonstrated utter disrespect for the Constitution, federal law, and facts.

The statement continued by asserting that despite the fact that Kagan has abandoned her principles when large sums of money are involved the 500,000 members of CWA believe that with God anything is possible. We will pray that God will inspire Justice Kagan to be an impartial and just justice. 

Mario Diaz, Esq., CWA's Policy Director for Legal Issues said: 



"CWA will make sure Americans remember those senators who, while calling themselves conservatives, voted for Miss Kagan, despite her troubling record. They will not be able to play this down. 

"Those who love and respect the law can only cringe at the idea of Justice Kagan injecting her activism into the highest court of the land. We have already seen the extent to which she will go to promote her liberal ideology, even to the point of manipulating scientific findings! 

"But we pray that Justice Kagan will take the opportunity she has been given to leave the old political games behind and approach the law with humility. We pray she no longer sees the Constitution as a tool to be manipulated to advance a particular agenda, but as an instrument to guard liberty and freedom. 

"CWA will remain in constant prayer and will be diligent in holding Justice Kagan accountable for her actions in every way possible."

The defence of life

Precious Life reports that: ‘An expert on family issues reminded Mexicans that the defence of life is not a religious issue and that it is based on the scientific certainty that life begins at conception.’ Accepting that ‘from the moment of conception the embryo is a person whose life must be respected and to affirm that abortion is a crime is not a question of religion, it is an argument based on science, as was demonstrated by Jerome Lejeune, doctor in medicine and science and professor of genetics.’ So wrote Lourdes Casares de Felix, of the Association in Defense of the Family, in an article published in the ‘Diario de Yucatan’. She continued:

‘It has been proven scientifically that life is there and that it is human. Here the moral or ethical question would be: Should it be allowed to put that life to death? The answer could be given by a humanist atheist. Amidst the lack of scientific arguments for promoting abortion, the tactic of blaming religion is always used. … The tragedy of abortion not only lies in stripping the unborn of rights, or in the refusal to recognize the unborn as the persons they are, or in accepting or denying their ability to feel pain or pleasure … the tragedy is the sad dehumanisation of the human being determined to destroy the lives of defenceless beings by denying them the chance to live.’

Over 1000 11 year old girls in UK on the pill

The Telegraph newspaper has reported (1 August 2010) that:

‘More than 1,000 girls in the first year of secondary school have been given prescriptions for the pill, according to figures from GPs, while a further 200 have long-term injectable or implanted contraceptive devices. The disclosure prompted warnings that Britain was “facilitating the sexualisation of young people at an ever younger age.”’

It seems that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has recently promoted the idea that sex education should be introduced for schoolchildren from as young as five years old.

The Chairman of the Christian Medical Fellowship, who is a GP in the London area, has voiced his concern about these plans. ‘If sex education is introduced in primary schools in the way being proposed’, he stated,

‘we will see many more 11-year-old girls seeking contraception without pointing out the risks. … We are going to make matters worse.’

And the authorities in the UK would have us believe that they worry about the soaring numbers of pregnancies among young people, and about the rising numbers of abortions?

Coercive sterilization reported in Uzbekistan

The Independent reported Sat July 17th that Uzbek women are being sterilized against their will. The report says that Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov this year ramped up a sterilization campaign he initiated in the late 1990s.

A decree issued in February by the Health Ministry ordered all medical facilities to "strengthen control over the medical examination of women of childbearing age. The decree also said that "surgical contraception should be provided free of charge" to women who volunteer for the procedure. link to Independent article

Despite the fact that the so called "surgical contraception" or sterilization is supposed to be voluntary human rights defenders allege that doctors have come under direct pressure from the government to perform them: "The order comes from the very top," said Khaitboy Yakubov, head of the Najot human rights group in Uzbekistan.

The sterilization campaign involves thousands of government-employed medical doctors and nurses who urge women of childbearing age, especially those with two or more children, to have hysterectomies or fallopian tube ligations, said Sukhrobjon Ismoilov of the Expert Working Group, an independent think tank based in the capital, Tashkent.

Many women, especially from poor rural areas, say they face coercion from health workers or even potential employers to agree to sterilization. Health workers involved in the campaign are threatened with salary cuts, demotion or dismissal if they do not persuade at least two women a month to be sterilized, a former high-ranking Health Ministry official told the AP on condition of anonymity.

Veronika Tretyakova, a 32-year-old doctor from Tashkent, said she came under pressure from health workers to be sterilized.

"The nurse said, 'They would hang me if I let you have another child,"' Tretyakova said. "I told her to think about her soul."

A 31-year-old mother of two from the eastern Uzbek city of Ferghana said the director of a kindergarten where she sought a job told her to show a certificate confirming she had been sterilized.

The report focuses on the story of Saodat Rakhimbayeva who says she wishes she had died with her newborn baby. The 24-year-old housewife had a cesarean section in March and gave birth to Ibrohim, a premature boy who died three days later.

Then came a further devastating blow: She learned that the surgeon had removed part of her uterus during the operation, making her sterile. The doctor told her the hysterectomy was necessary to remove a potentially cancerous cyst, while she believes he sterilized her as part of a state campaign to reduce birthrates.

"He never asked for my approval, never ran any checks, just mutilated me as if I were a mute animal," the pale and fragile Rakhimbayeva said through tears while sitting at a fly-infested cafe in this central Uzbek city. "I should have just died with Ibrohim."

Vatican to publish document on post abortion syndrome

We reported last week that Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, the recently appointed president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life has already made a significant impact on pro-life issues

CNA report July 31st that Archbishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, has since announced his dicastery is preparing a document on the effects of abortion on women, often called post-abortion syndrome. The document will focus on the study of the “habit of abortion” and is expected to be published next year.

In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Archbishop Carrasco discussed a few details of the new document. “We believe that in studying this issue, a distinction must be made. The existence of post-abortion syndrome is a well known fact that has already been developed in much literature. I am referring to the state of depression that isolates many women who have undergone an abortion,” he said.

“It often manifests itself through anxiety or other more serious conditions,” the archbishop noted. “It is true that abortion, in addition to killing an innocent person, profoundly affects the conscience of the woman who undergoes it. It is a question, then, that cannot be ignored, especially from a pastoral point of view,” he added.

There is another aspect “that must be considered among these pathologies that for us is also very dangerous. It is spoken of very little and is of less concern to the public, and even to the scientific community,” the archbishop continued, “and that is the grave phenomenon of the habit of abortion.”

The problem, he said, “was made manifest in all of its gravity when 20 years ago, after the devastating earthquake in Armenia (1989), a team of doctors from the Sacred Heart Catholic University traveled to the region to provide medical assistance and discovered that many women had undergone as many as 20 abortions or more. For them, having an abortion had become something like having a cup of coffee. Thus they talked about the dramatic phenomenon of completely erasing any moral sensitivity to the issue of abortion.”

This tragedy “could spread to the European populations in the wake of the recent commercializing of the pill RU 486,” Archbishop Carrasco warned. “There is no question that facilitating its use could result in the banalization of abortion and the transformation of unwanted pregnancies into something akin to a bothersome cold that can be taken care of with a pill. What I mean is what happened in that country could happen in European countries,” he said.

Abuse of human embryos

According to the Telegraph newspaper in the U.K. –

‘Hundreds of leftover IVF embryos from British couples have been given away to other people without their knowledge or explicit consent, in a controversial scheme at a clinic in Spain, it can be disclosed.’

It appears that the Spanish clinic operates an ‘embryo adoption scheme’ whereby so called ‘spare’ embryos, who are brought into being following IVF procedures, are ‘donated’ to other women if the couple whose children they are do not know what they want to do with them, or do not respond to a request from the clinic as to what should happen to them. The law in Spain rules that these children cannot trace their biological parents, and vice versa. Such an arrangement would be illegal in the U.K., where parents must give explicit consent to their embryos being adopted – or being used for any other purpose.

‘The situation’, says the Telegraph, ‘has highlighted the risks of travelling abroad for fertility treatment where different laws apply.’ Since 2004, over 120 British couples who availed of IVF procedures at the Spanish clinic did not decide what to do with their ‘spare’, or ‘left-over’, embryos, and these little embryos were ‘given out’ for adoption. ‘Each couple had on average two or three leftover embryos so potentially hundreds of embryos from British couples have been adopted …’, the article continued. These embryos are brothers and sisters of children already born to British couples.
‘The embryo’, says the clinic, ‘is matched to a woman of the same race … Because the women give birth to the babies there is no official paperwork for adoption and the baby is legally theirs.’

But what about the child? What about the rights of the child to know his or her own biological parents? Surely the much-vaunted UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child should be invoked to protect the child, particularly in such instances?

This story surely illustrates how the practice of IVF militates against children – against their dignity and against their humanity. The practice of IVF is wrong – it is both morally and socially wrong. Are children to be treated as commodities, to be acquired at the whim of others? This may sound harsh, as we know how much many couples long to have a child of their own. However, in the case of infertility there is the availability of NaPro technology (often previously mentioned on this blog), which provides a natural and respectful, non-invasive – and very successful – method of treating infertility.

Also, although we may know – and believe – that IVF is wrong, do we really know why this is so? There are two very important documents*, "Donum Vitae" and "Dignitas Personae", that examine and explain the reasons why we believe the practice of IVF to be wrong.

Another reason why IVF is so dangerous is that it has given rise to ‘research’ on human embryos. When the Irish people, in a referendum in 2002, rejected the proposal that abortion was to be defined as being applicable only from implantation (thus leaving the pre-implanted embryo open to attack), the Irish Government pushed on with their temporarily thwarted plans for research on embryos. Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that pre-implanted embryos do not have the protection of the Constitution of Ireland. Yet Article 40.3.3. of the Constitution in the Irish language speaks of the right to life of the unborn as ‘na mbeo gan breith’ – literally, ‘the living not yet born’. Is not the embryo a living being, otherwise how could he or she develop, step by step, from embryo to newborn baby, to adult?

The two documents mentioned above can be accessed as follows:

Donum Vitae ‘Donum Vitae’,
Dignitas Personae ‘Dignitas Personae’

Stop funding IFPA now

Youth Defence, in a news item on 30 July 2010, tell us that it has been announced that 55 per cent of the income of the Irish Family Planning Association comes from grants – the greater part of which is made available from the Irish Government, in other words, Irish tax-payers’ money. Out of a total income of €2,747,453 in 2009, the IFPA received €1,509,333 in grants. The IFPA is, as we all know, the Irish affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and the IPPF is the biggest advocate and provider of abortion in the world.

‘It’s simply unacceptable that taxpayers are propping up the abortion industry to this extent’, said a Youth Defence spokesperson. ‘The Irish people have repeatedly rejected abortion in referenda and opinion polls, but the government is quietly shovelling sack-loads of cash into the abortion industry – and all of this at a time when our economy is on its knees.
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In fairly recent times, the IPPF has had to face up to allegations of discrepancies in accounting for millions of taxpayer funds in the U.S. In addition, staff at the organisation have also been caught out on film, ‘counselling’ a young girl whom they believed to be under-age – and younger than her much older boyfriend – thus being involved in the cover-up of a criminal act.
‘None of this seems to matter to the Irish government who have furnished millions towards the IFPA’, Youth Defence says. ‘It’s time some hard questions were asked – and answered.’