Mary Mc Aleese, pot stirring, she does not speak for me!

Further to the recent attack by former Irish President Mary Mc Aleese on the Catholic Church, in which she questioned the relevance of the synod called by Pope Francis to review the Catholic Church's teaching on family life, describing it as ‘Bonkers’, Therese Mc Crystal of Women of Grace for Ireland and Human Life International Ireland, has issued the following press release.

Mary McAleese pot stirring. She does not speak for me!

 

Press Release                                                             18th June 2014

"How dare child-bearing Mary McAleese try to separate the world's Bishops from their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, God children, friends and neighbours," said Therese McCrystal, Director of Human Life International Ireland, and  National Coordinator for "Women of Grace Ireland"

"I am sick of feminist clap-trap.  Mary McAleese - you do not speak on my behalf!    

"I am a woman happy in the Catholic Church in Ireland grieved by your animosity and pot stirring." continued the mother of seven.

These "celibate men" as she speaks of so derogatively have given their lives to serve "The Family" she accuses them of knowing nothing about. Celibate does not mean living in isolation.

I love my Church, my priests and Bishops and have received much help and encouragement from them over the years. 

Dear Bishops of the world - thank you for serving the family.  Please don't stop now at this crucial time!

Many priest and Bishops in my own life have shown great wisdom and knowledge in the realm of the family" she concluded.

Contact   094 9375993  094 9375993         HLI Ireland, KNOCKwww.womenofgraceireland.com             www.humanlife.ie

Pope Francis in his Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (‘The Joy of the Gospel’) addresses abortion, marriage and the family

The Vatican has just released the text of the new Apostolic Exhortation, ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ (‘The Joy of the Gospel’) by Pope Francis.

We have not yet had the opportunity of studying it in depth and will report on it more fully in due course. In the meantime we wish to highlight two sections of the document which address pro-life and pro-family issues:

66. The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis, as are all communities and social bonds. In the case of the family, the weakening of these bonds is particularly serious because the family is the fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live with others despite our differences and to belong to one another; it is also the place where parents pass on the faith to their children. Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensible contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple. As the French bishops have taught, it is not born “of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but from the depth of the obligation assumed by the spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life”.[60]

[60] CONFÉRENCE DES ÉVÊQUES DE FRANCE, Conseil Famille et Société, Élargir le mariage aux personnes de même sexe? Ouvrons le débat! (28 September 2012).

213. Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenceless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this. Frequently, as a way of ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative. Yet this defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. Human beings are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems. Once this conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defence of human rights, which would always be subject to the passing whims of the powers that be. Reason alone is sufficient to recognize the inviolable value of each single human life, but if we also look at the issue from the standpoint of faith, “every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to God and is an offence against the creator of the individual”.[176]

214. Precisely because this involves the internal consistency of our message about the value of the human person, the Church cannot be expected to change her position on this question. I want to be completely honest in this regard. This is not something subject to alleged reforms or “modernizations”. It is not “progressive” to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life. On the other hand, it is also true that we have done little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations, where abortion appears as a quick solution to their profound anguish, especially when the life developing within them is the result of rape or a situation of extreme poverty. Who can remain unmoved before such painful situations? when the life developing within them is the result of rape or a situation of extreme poverty. Who can remain unmoved before such painful situations?

[176] JOHN PAUL II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici (30 December 1988), 37: AAS 81 (1989), 461.

Pope Francis Joins 40,000 strong pro-life march in Rome

LifeSiteNews.com reports that Pope Francis surprised about 40,000 Italian and international participants in Sunday’s Marcia per la Vita (March for Life) Internazionale in Rome, when he left the Apostolic Palace to greet them personally from his popemobile in the street where they were lined up.

Monsignore Ignacio Barreiro, the head of the Rome office of Human Life International, told

LifeSiteNews.com that for the pope to have effectively joined the March for Life was highly unusual.

Since his election, the pope has gained a reputation for making spontaneous gestures that have sometimes taxed his security staff, beginning with taking the bus back to his temporary residence with the other cardinals the night of his election, instead of the car reserved for the pope.

In this case, however, the Vatican appeared to have prepared the event ahead of time. Monsignore Barreiro noted they had prepared crowd control barriers to guide the popemobile out of St. Peter’s square and across the adjacent piazza and down the wide Via della Conciliazione that leads up the Basilica.

But if organizers knew about a planned appearance by the pope at the march, they made no mention of it before the event, leaving participants delighted by the unexpected arrival of the pontiff.  

The pope also gave a shout-out to the marchers from his usual weekly Regina Coeli address, briefly welcoming them and endorsing a European-wide pro-life petition against embryo research.

The ‘One of Us’ campaign is seeking to gain 1 million signatures as part of a European Citizen Initiative. If organizers of the campaign achieve their goal the European Parliament is duty-bound to schedule a debate on the issue.

“I invite you to keep the attention of everyone on the important issue of respect for human life from the moment of conception,” the pope told the marchers.

He also invited all to attend the Vatican’s “Evangelium Vitae Day,” which he said would be “a special moment especially for those who care about the defense of the sanctity of human life,” to take place “in the context of the Year of Faith,” on 15 and 16 June.

March organisers were delighted with the greeting and with the extraordinary surge of numbers from last year’s march, which attracted 15,000 from around the country.

“The welcome of Pope Francis represents the highest recognition for the initiative and the confirmation of the sensitivity of the Pope to the non-negotiable principles, beginning with the right to life,” organisers said.

Mons. Barreiro also described the dramatic increase in numbers, from 1000 two years ago, to 15,000 last year, to about 40,000 yesterday. This he put down to the hard work of the organisers in helping thousands come by bus from up and down the length of Italy, and to a “renewed awareness” among the public that Italy’s abortion law “must be abrogated.”

“The people are now really certain that we have to stake a stronger position than that which has been held in the past by some Italian pro-life groups.”

The pope is known for his strong defense of the right to life.

In 2005, as activists urged Argentina to legalize abortion, the future pontiff urged Catholics to defend the right to life even if they “deliver you to the courts” or “have you killed.”

At a Mass in Buenos Aires on Aug. 31st, 2005 in honor of St. Raymond Nonnatus (Raymond "the unborn"), who is revered as the holy protector of pregnant women, the then-Cardinal said that promoting life is “a road that is full of wolves.”

“Perhaps for that reason they might bring us to the courts. Perhaps, for that reason, for caring for life, they might kill us,” he said. “We should think about the Christian martyrs. They killed them for preaching this Gospel of life, this Gospel that Jesus brought. But Jesus gives us the strength.”