Ave Maria!

Fr. Peter Mary Fehlner discusses with hostess Corinn Dahm how we need Mary’s help in the pro-life movement. The more pro-Marian we are the more pro-purity we are and, then, the more pro-life we are. They also discuss the main source of impurity in our culture is contraception, and this leads to abortion, the culture of death. Holy Mary, Queen of America, pray for us.

Ave Maria!

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Ave Maria!

The swearing in of a Democratically-controlled Congress in 2006 was a setback for the Culture of Life. Today’s public assault against the virtue of chastity and the sanctity of family life began in 1965 with the Supreme Court case of Griswold vs. Connecticut that legalized contraception. Ever since then, emotions have trumped right reason in the public discourse. Without a total conversion of our own hearts, others will never see the light of truth, and the slaughter of innocents, the trivializing of sexuality, and the emptiness of our cultural experience will continue. In this program, Fr. Angelo and Corinn touch on all the consequences of electing a party whose foundation rests on the principles of the Culture of Death.

Ave Maria!

The post Video – Fr. Angelo – Face of Pro-life#3: The March of the Culture of Death first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Is it true that one religion is no better than the other? How is Christ unique?

All founders of religion claim that they teach the truth about God. In this episode, Raymond de Souza discusses the unique claims Christ made as the founder of Christianity. Has any other founder of a world religion claimed to be one with God? Was the birth of any other religious founder pre-announced hundreds of years beforehand by various men living in different ages? Has any other founder of a religion performed miracles as proof of the words he spoke?

Raymond also talks on contraception in our day, and on how post WWII Europe, and the western world en masse, is contracepting and aborting itself to death. He mentions the main facets identifying the de-Christianization of Europe: politics without God, law without God, and economy without God. Raymond also speaks on how a non-childbearing Europe will fare with its increase in Muslim immigrants, and he adds this pearl as a postmark: “Between certitude (Islam) and weakness (European Christianity), certitude will win at the end of the day.?? He ends the episode with a fascinating story on the fruit of contraception and childlessness in Japan, where elderly couples pay to be visited by a younger couple (with one child) who pretend to be the children (and grandchild) of the elderly couple. The cost is $2,000 US dollars for a two-hour visit.

Ave Maria!

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Homily #080523 ( 10min) Play – Fr Angelo, reflecting on the Gospel, highlights the permanency of marriage based on its lofty dignity established by God from the beginning. Listen as Father covers the basis for the high moral standard in marriage as asked for by Our Lady of America in 1956. Holy Mary pray for us.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
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Homily #080725 ( 14min) Play – Today we celebrate the Feast of St. James the Apostle, and the 40th anniversary of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae. In today’s homily Father Ignatius speaks about our disordered desire for independence from authority, and the nature of the Married State in relation to the Church’s teaching against contraception.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
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Face of Pro-Life #39 – Fr Angelo and John Martin discuss Human? Vit? & the current social decay ( 30min) >>> Play

In this episode, Fr Angelo and John Martin discuss the ramifications of society ignoring Pope Paul VI’s teaching on the regulation of birth, Humanae Vitae, and specifically the degeneration of men’s behavior and faith. Also discussed was how to regain society for God through God-fearing men. Ave Maria!

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IVF Part 1: “We are the offspring of God..” (Acts: 17:29)

Fyodor Dostoevsky, as I recall, once wrote people are secretly gladdened at news of tragedies which take large numbers of human lives.? Such a thought would be shocking to contemplate were it not for the almost universal, preoccupation by population planners in our world to systematically control the numbers being born, by any method of prevention, no matter how repugnant.? The success of this objective has been positively mind-numbing. In the United States alone we are responsible for over 50 million, surgically dispatched babies.? (This does not include countless babies erased by various methods of contraception.)? To pro-life people such statistics are detestable — bald, horrifying abortion numbers–numbers ever so carefully tallied. To us, each singular abortion is a tragedy. ?This mental framework emanates from a society that boasts of what civilized progress we have made over earlier generations.? (The dimensions of birth reduction, worldwide, are factually reported in Mark Steyn’s excellent book, “America Alone.”)

In a rather short period of time we have progressed to a brand new brand of statistic, of 5.7 million embryonic children, who have died as a result of In Vitro Fertilization.[i] Eighty-five percent of transferred embryos (to mother’s womb) do not survive until birth. [ii] The Center for Disease Control reports that in 1999 there were 170,000 embryo deaths; that year, 21,501 (ART) children were born.? Approximately 74% of ART methods are by IVF.[iii] (Note: ART stands for “Assisted Reproductive Technology) Furthermore, over 400,000 human embryos are frozen in the U.S. alone.[iv] Thus we have developed a new form of life extinction — one that is predicted to lead to “screening” of human embryos for genetic disorders. ?This would be the ultimate in refined killing.

A little background of this movement: there has been a significant shift from artificial insemination methods of child conception to IVF.? Since about 1978 the numbers of IVF babies has shown a startling increase.? In addition to the hospitals involved in this substitute for God-ordained procreative unity, since 2005, about 430 clinics are operating fertility/IVF centers in the U.S. [v] (It should be noted that such numbers change constantly; not all information is reported to the CDC.)

The thing is you have to be wanted before you can join the human family.? This is a hard case to make when you’re that small.? Abortion is about unwanted babies, considered by their own mothers and fathers to be enemies to their welfare in one way or another.? It is remarkable the number of people who believe that babies are unwelcome impediments on the path to their societal well being.? It is reported that Isaac Asinov voiced his opinion that, after all, “Babies are the enemies of the human race.” [vi] One of my most respected mentors used to comment that feminists have never forgiven God for making women susceptible to pregnancy.? Feminist Jeffner Allen boasted “I am endangered by motherhood.? In evacuation from motherhood I claim my life, body, world, as an end in itself!” [vii]

Fast forward to the other hand, and the subject of this essay, where there is a whole slew of women who very much want to have a baby, who have tried varied paths to conception, professing their desperation to conceive a child.?? This becomes their preoccupation, as conception remains out of their reach.? Infertility is a very serious problem for about 6 million sterile couples, the causes of which are manifold, including physical abnormalities and disease.? And, “The most common cause of infertility in a woman is damaged or blocked fallopian tubes that prevent the egg and sperm from uniting.? Sexually transmitted diseases are a major cause of tubal scarring and blockage.”[viii] Whatever the cause of infertility, there is no denying that deep rooted, God-endowed longing to have, to nurture and to raise a child.? It should be noted, however, that this worthy intention is frequently manifested later in life, after meticulous methods have been utilized to ensure babies do not appear, to a time when she/they are ready.?? The house is there; the career in place, but the biological clock continues to tick.? Minds change over the years.?? Whatever preceded the decision for such troubled women to determinedly pursue conception of a child, this effort is about what is close to home, to the families therein, and the literal crying need of so many women to populate their own homes.

At the outset we need to assert that no one has a right to a child.? Children are a gift from the Lord, the Creator of all human life.? “A true and proper right to a child would be contrary to the child’s dignity and nature.? The child is not an object to which one has a right, nor can he be considered as an object of ownership: rather, a child is a gift, ?the supreme gift’ and the most gratuitous gift of marriage, and is a living testimony of the mutual giving of his parents.” [ix] In this ever so materialistic culture, it is not difficult to see how children can be regarded as possessions, to be gathered or discarded at will.? The other quotable quote that fits this discussion is from my own esteemed mother. “Children are only on loan to you from God.”? Her own children, on loan, numbered 12.

What is IVF? In Vitro Fertilization begins by hormone treatments to the woman.? These drugs force her ovaries to produce more than one egg at a time (referred to as “super-ovulation.”)? This is not good for the woman’s reproductive system, which is designed to produce one or two mature eggs a month.? Moving right along, the eggs are collected, and then combined with the sperm in a Petri dish.? (Yes, human embryos can now be “created” in test tubes.)? Sperm must, of course, be “secured” for this process.? “These tiny new humans are carefully nourished in lab cultures and then placed in the woman’s body with the anticipation that at least one of the embryos will implant in the uterus and develop. [x]

Donum Vitae cautions us that mankind has developed “new powers, with unforeseeable consequences, over human life, its very beginning, and in its first stages.? Various procedures now make it possible to intervene not only in order to assist but also to dominate the processes of procreation.” [xi] This very controversial process of IVF and ET (embryo transfer) “is brought about outside the bodies of the couple through actions of third parties whose competence and technical activity determine the success of the procedure.”[xii] As the process becomes more refined it may indeed evoke a certain pride of ownership for such technicians over new human beings, and even contempt for the natural way of transmitting life.? After all, many of them believe they can control the process better than the old fashioned way.? In other words, procreation is cavalierly separated from the union of husband and wife; and would likely take on proprietary control by technicians.? (Thus my title: “In Vitro Breeding”) This is clearly an involved path to pregnancy requiring repeated appointments to IVF clinics – and lots of money.? ?Of these efforts ten to fifteen percent of IVF’s succeed.? The average cost is $12,400 for one cycle. ?(In a way the poor are protected, because it is simply impossible for them to meet the huge expenses.)

Such procedures are rife with problems (such as ectopic pregnancy).? The most egregious is that the women become “multiply pregnant” with anywhere from two to ten embryos.? Some doctors will not implant more than four or five.? About 75% of triplets are the result of fertility drugs or in-vitro fertilization; 90% of quadruplets are conceived the same way.[xiii] Why put so many embryos in the woman?? Because of the odds:? optimal results come from multiple implants — particularly with older women.? ?There is tremendous pressure from the “parents” to implant numerous embryos in the hope for success.? “…a 1987 study in the United States’ largest IVF center in Norfolk, Virginia, concluded that only five percent of 4,500 embryos survived to birth.” [xiv] What happened to the others?? You see the difficulty.? The problem now arises as to what to do??? So many babies -what to do???

[ii] LSN, ibid, 9/9/05

[iii] Life Site News, 11/22/02, government statistic for 1999

[iv] LSN, 5/8/03; study by David Hoffman, Fertility & Sterility, Vol. 79, Issue 5, 5/03

[v] Life Site News, 5/8/03

[vi] Google.com search:? The Concise Colombia Dictionary of Quotations; also Scholar Island

[vii] New Oxford Review, Oct. 2007, pg. 24; from an article by Jim Coop

[viii] Geoffrey Sher, Virginia Marriage Davis & Jean Stoess,authors of: “In Vitro Fertilization: The Art of Making Babies”

[ix] Donum Vitae, Roman Catholic Church instruction; 1987, pg 34, #8; by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benefict XVI

[x] Sources for this information may be found on a multitude of Internet sites, and a pamphlet from American Life League; also Brian Clowes excellent book, “The Facts of Life”

[xi] Donum Vitae, Roman Catholic Church, 1987, No. 1, pg. 5

[xii] Donum Vitae, ibid, No. 5, pg. 30

[xiii] Statistics from Wall Street Journal, 11/21/97, comprehensive article by Barbara Carton

[xiv] Brian Clowes, ibid; page 234

The post The Dry Wood – Hilda Nicolosi – Paring Down the Human Race: In Vitro Breeding – Part 1/3 first appeared on AirMaria.com.

IVF:? Part Three

(Part Two here)

“The Lord called me from birth:
from my mother’s womb
he gave me my name.”? (Isaiah 49: 1-6)

What’s the big deal? Have we not advanced to the point of making babies in lab dishes, so everyone can be a proud parent? I recall reading one woman’s indignation, demanding to know why the Pope did not want her to have a baby. You know some alert theologian could have jumped in at that time and presented the rock-bottom truth of our faith that, evil may not be done, even to secure some perceived good.

Some physicians have, as noted above, ethical concerns about all of this and have decided not to implant more than four embryos. This would supposedly reduce the risk of having to abort so many. “Four is the limit recommended by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine for women aged 35 to 40, although it will accept five for women older than that.”[i] Other doctors wonder if the woman has the right to expose babies in multiple pregnancies to future medical problems (and the studies continue to mount from all over the world about fetal abnormalities from IVF: birth defects, mental retardation, behavior disorders, etc.) What a high degree of “ethics” by the society above – don’t kill more than four! As opposed to “moral”, “ethical” is a nice semantic term you can take all over the place. Others express “distaste” about “reducing;” read that: uneasy.

How in the world did we get here? We got here because God’s authority continues to be completely rejected. There is societal indifference to what goes on, a disinterest in anything which does not directly affect me and my lifestyle. Is IVF more nuclear fall-out from abortion? That is one answer but incomplete; it is not the whole story. The key element was synthetic birth prevention. And, contrary to the ardent feminist denial of the facts, from the outset abortion became “backup contraception”. I remember the 60’s. I remember the triumph when the birth control pill was introduced to the world. The “women’s liberation” movement’s first plank then and now is equality is impossible without abortion. With the pill, they were jubilant. The pill would release forever a woman’s responsibility for the conception and nurturing of offspring.

Once procreation was separated from the conjugal act, the whole bowl of wax began to unfold. Pandora’s Box was shattered, freeing the evils that would bedevil mankind. Late-term pregnancy abortions gradually were accepted and are now de rigueur in certain clinics. With IVF we have arrived in contemporary America and the new world order at, to name a few: “make your own baby”, including “fetal reduction,” delayed motherhood, surrogate mothering, embryo transfer (moved embryo from one women to another), storage problems of half a million frozen embryos (90% of which do not survive their ice age,) “extra” embryos to be harvested as extra body parts; insurance coverage in many states; support groups for mothers who reduce; designer children; sex selection of children (banned in some countries;) “money-back” guarantees (frowned on by some meds); recruiters on college campuses for eggs/sperm donors (some provide photos of donors’ eyes, ears, etc., not to omit glowing intellectual and medical histories;) anonymous (drive-by) sperm donors; sperm banks; egg banks; egg donor ads, running regularly in daily newspapers, and on the Internet (“Apply on line to become an egg donor.”); the Yellow Pages; donor marketing agencies; serious medical complications from “hyper-stimulation” of ovaries to secure eggs; screening of embryos to avoid genetic hazards; cloning; cloning of human beings with other species, and on and on ad infinitum. By the by, “donors” are usually paid handsomely for selling their bodily wares. Some profess to do this for altruistic motives, to assist the childless. However, the very real probability that embryos will die or be eliminated makes that assertion of nobility something of an oxymoron.

Less I be accused of exaggeration, the above are facts gleaned from an enormous supply of material on the whole subject of IVF. At one library I pulled up relevant book lists; there were 39 under the heading of IVF. The internet is endless in its offerings of such material. Newspapers, journals are getting into this curious and controversial story, so fraught with extremes – sensationalism at its most provocative. A sub-plot showed up recently on the television series E.R., when several children gathered to meet their slightly abashed doctor “father”. Some of the “diaries,” books/journals describing a woman’s complete IVF experience, are often crude, discouraging the reader from pursuing the story line. To draw quotes from these would render their authors more attention.

Crudity is so common in our country we barely notice the daily bombardment and degradation. Subjects unmentionable are discussed casually on television at any hour. Disrobing has become an art form. In a doctor’s office recently, I saw the image of a full-term, pregnant, nude woman displayed on the cover of Newsweek (12/10/07). It was so blatantly bad–this image, casually available on the clinic coffee table. Such presentations utterly deprive women of any dignity whatsoever, pregnancy a public exposure of the most prurient type. There will be no reaction from our jaded culture. (Some maternity stores this season were displaying scanty bathing suits for advanced pregnancy.) To the more morally alert, it is just one more outrage, an execrable example of depraved media. It reminds you of the judge in the parable who “respected neither God nor man.” The result: We are all stricken with some kind of mental paralysis as we try to go about living in trendy America. We are numb. This is a kind of protective shield. How many shocks a day can an individual stand? We can’t – we don’t — ask anymore, what is next? There is no refuge to escape the panoply.

After spending several weeks on this essay, and reading more about IVF and affiliated horrors than I imagined at the beginning, I have come to the conclusion expressed well by Judy Brown of American Life League, the entire process must be outlawed, by legislatures, and if there is any dignity, integrity left in our courts, there too. We have created a monster, fulfilling what Pope Benedict anticipated and feared when he wrote Donum Vitae. Thank God, the church is always ahead of the movement of societal cultures – The gift to us Roman Catholics as well as to the world. On February 1, 2008, Pope Benedict said the following: “When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless state of their existence are selected, aborted, killed or used as pure ?biological material,’ how can it be denied that they are no longer… ?someone but something.'”[ii] This is food for thought in our over-hurried world – a world according to John Paul II with an over emphasis on “efficiency.”

[iii] reported an internet site which

Donor Sibling Registry Logo

Where are we going? What is next? The Fort Worth Star Telegram “connects children born from the same eggs or sperm.” In other words, the searcher endeavors to learn how many half-brothers and sisters he has out there somewhere – and their common sperm donor. A “Donor Sibling Registry” was established in 2000; about 19,000 people posted personal details; About 4,700 matches were found. People, the article tells us, are startled by the looks of strange children at the park sand lot, who look so much like their own child. In one search it was discovered that a single donor had sired more than 100 kids. I leave it to the imagination of the reader to follow this news into the future… Obviously there is a yawning distance between adopting a newborn infant, and utilizing an anonymous egg/sperm. As Abraham responded to the rich man seeking help from the poor Lazarus, between us there is a great chasm, so that we cannot cross over to your side.

In the last few months I have been removing stones from one of the flower gardens here in New England – stones tossed there by the builder, which prevent any flowers from taking real root. There are also roots to detach. It is hard work, though satisfying, but not complete because new dirt has to be inserted in the gaping holes. It reminds me of the indescribable lies, distortions and omissions thrown at our whole culture, the evils now so pronounced as to make it impossible for most to accept the truth about God and life. The garden is full of rocks, with long-running roots. It has been made infertile and must be cleansed and then replanted. Christ warned us that once evil is dismissed, care must be taken lest new and worse devils enter in. What is next?

The paucity of truth! What is it? “I AM the way, the truth and the life” says the Lord. American Heritage defines truth as “conformity to knowledge, fact or actuality; veracity.” The media appears to define truth through interviews (e.g., opinion); varied reports from random sources and those which are politically correct. Thus the opportunity for truth has been circumscribed. As evidenced by the prominence of IVF acceptance, the anti-Christ forces are masters of distortion. Dr. Leon Kass describes present day scientism as “soul-less”, which he says is an effort to reduce all questions of human life to the “purely material.”[iv]

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, now and at the hour of our death!

[ii] Life Site News: from Catholic Online International News

[iii] Fort Worth Star Telegram, 3/23/08

[iv] Life Site News; 11/7/07, from a Manhattan Institute lecture

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Face of Pro-Life #55 – Corinn Dahm speaks with Eileen Bianchini ( 30min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Eileen Bianchini, head of the Gospel of Life Society in CT, speaks with Corinn Dahn in this episode.  The Gospel of Life Society is fashioned on JPII’s Evangelium Vitae.  They work to educate Catholics on what the Church’s teachings are on life issues & to promote the culture of life in our society.

Visit the Gospel of Life website: http://www.stmarynorwalk.net/

Ave Maria!

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