Mother of Four Dies

Alexandra Nunez, a 37-year old single mother of four, died after a botched abortion Monday at the A-1 Women’s Center in New York City.

Police, who are continuing to investigate the death, said that the abortionist severed an artery during Nunez’s abortion, leading to massive bleeding and eventually cardiac arrest. Nunez was rushed to a nearby hospital where she died.

A-1 Women’s Center, located in a run-down building in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood of Jackson Heights, was only recently licensed in July of last year to do surgical procedures that required anesthesia. It is operated by abortionist Salomon Epstein, who has a long history of being protested by pro-life groups.

According to the NY Daily News an unidentified clinic worker told reporters that everything had “gone well” at the abortion clinic, which also doubles as a plastic surgery center. “Nothing happened here,” she said.
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"Gay Pride" Parade "Satanic"

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov says that "gay pride" parades are "satanic" and promises to continue prohibiting them, according to international news reports.

"For years Moscow has been confronted with unprecedented pressure to have a gay parade, which can only be described as a satanic act," Luzhkov reportedly said to the Interfax news agency yesterday.

"We are not authorizing such a parade at all and we are not going to authorize it in the future. We shouldn't waste time with all of this drivel about human rights. What we should do is repress it with the full force of the law."

"Gay pride" marches worldwide are characterized by open displays of nudity, obscene gestures, and even public sex acts between participants. Homosexual activists typically use such parades to desensitize the public to their dangerous behavior, which is associated with a host of medical and psychological disorders.
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Join the Non Nobis Network

Chris Smith at the March for Life

Congressman Chris Smith's rally speech on Friday afternoon packed a punch, as usual. Smith and his wife, Marie, have been champions of human rights for many years. (Marie heads up the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues, which provides pro-life news, information, and networking to members of democratically-elected legislatures around the world.)

Here he takes on the claim that abortion is "safe":

Safe? Certainly not for the 52 million babies who have been dismembered or chemically poisoned or starved to death since 1973. And certainly not for women, who have been hurt physically and psychologically...
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Grant Desme retires to enter priesthood

As a top prospect for the Oakland Athletics, outfielder Grant Desme might’ve gotten the call every minor leaguer wants this spring.

Instead, he believed he had another, higher calling.

Desme announced Friday that he was leaving baseball to enter the priesthood, walking away after a breakout season in which he became MVP of the Arizona Fall League.

“I was doing well at ball. But I really had to get down to the bottom of things,” the 23-year-old Desme

The A’s need star hitters if they’re ever to get somewhere, and Grant Desme didn’t look like a future star, writes Rob Neyer. Blog

A lifelong Catholic, Desme thought about becoming a priest for about a year and a half. He kept his path quiet within the sports world, and his plan to enter a seminary this summer startled the A’s when he told them Thursday night.

General manager Billy Beane “was understanding and supportive,” Desme said, but the decision “sort of knocked him off his horse.” After the talk, Desme felt “a great amount of peace.”

“I love the game, but I aspire to higher things,” he said. “I know I have no regrets.”
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Protest Abortion in Arkansas

Yesterday thousands of protestors thronged the streets of Little Rock, Arkansas to walk 13 blocks to the state capitol to protest the legalization of abortion and call for its repeal in the 32nd annual March for Life.

Emmett Guillory with Arkansas Right to Life said, "We can talk about healthcare, the economy, troubles in the world, but if we don't get right the life issue, those quality of life issues don't matter, so hopefully they'll come to realize that and become passionate and support the pro-life movement."
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Man Arrested for Public Preaching

Officials in Hartford, Connecticut have agreed to a permanent injunction against the use of a “breach of peace” statute and a “public disturbance” statute that was used to arrest and imprison a man who was preaching on public property.

While proclaiming a religious message in the city of Hartford, Jesse Morrell was approached by a police officer who told him that he could not use a microphone without a permit. Morrell agreed to speak without a microphone. Nonetheless, after a business owner complained about Morrell’s speech even without the microphone, police arrested him and took him to jail because he would not agree to stop speaking altogether.
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Mother Considered Abortion after Being Raped

This past Saturday, former Fox & Friends Weekend co-anchor Kelly Wright talked with Mike Huckabee on his Fox News show about his mother’s decision to give birth to him despite having conceived him in rape. Kelly made the appearance to promote his new book, “America’s Hope in Troubled Times.”

In his new book, Wright describes how his mother was raped when she was 16 years old, and how he was the result of that rape.

Calling the way he came into the world “very unique” Wright explained that in the summer of 1954 his mother had become close friends with the young wife of a pastor. One day, Wright’s mother went to her friend’s house to go shopping. However, her friend had already left, and when Wright’s mother entered the home of the pastor, he assaulted her.
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"Pro-Choice Catholics" Like Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi and other "pro-choice Catholics" (a contradiction of terms) have publicly stated that many of the early Church Fathers held a lax position on abortion and that the Church's thoroughgoing condemnation of abortion is not "historic."

Typically "pro-choice Catholics" appeal to statements in the writings of the Church Fathers that may indicate a faulty understanding of "fetal ensoulment," that is to say, the moment at which a human soul becomes present with respect to the moment of conception.

Don't be fooled by these arguments. It is true that many thinkers were confused about gestation prior to modern medicine (and sonograms). Nevertheless, the Church Fathers were unanimous in their condemnation of abortion.
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Baseball Star Enters the Priesthood

Grant Desme just became the #1 draft pick on the softball team for whatever parish he may serve after the seminary. A top prospect in the Oakland A’s minor league system announced during a conference call with reporters that he is entering St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, California this August. Desme, the 2009 Arizona Fall League MVP and a top-40 minor league player, decided to give up hitting curve balls for hitting Knights of Columbus chili dinners.

When asked about his calling, Desme is quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle and Major League Baseball’s website as saying:

“I’m doing well in baseball,” he said. “But I had to get down to the bottom of things, to what was good in my life, what I wanted to do with my life. Baseball is a good thing, but that felt selfish of me when I felt that God was calling me more. It took awhile to trust that and open up to it and aim full steam toward him.

“I love the game, but I’m going to aspire to higher things.”
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Brazilian President Seeks to Secure Abortion as “Right

Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva has introduced a massive legislative reform package in the last year of his term that would secure abortion as a "human right," impose socialist and homosexualist ideology in the schools and media, and ban crucifixes from government facilities, among other measures.

The legislative program, which is called the Third National Program for Human Rights (PNDH-3), would establish a level of control over the media and private property that is being called a nonviolent "coup d'etat" and a socialist party "dictatorship." It has elicited widespread protest from institutions ranging from the Catholic Church to military leaders, the agricultural sector, and even members of the president's own cabinet.
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U.S. Congressmen Decry Abortion

On Friday, the eve of the 37th anniversary of “one of the ... darkest days in U.S. history,” in the words of Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), a contingent of pro-life politicians rose in the U.S. House of Representatives to condemn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that imposed a “right” to abortion on the country.

Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) began, expressing his gratitude to the throngs of pro-life supporters flooding the capital for Friday's March for Life. The marchers, he said, gather to “mourn the loss” of the 52 million babies killed by abortion in the last 37 years, but also to rejoice over the countless babies saved due to the march and other efforts, such as pregnancy care centers.

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Sarah Palin Promotes March for Life

Governor Sarah Palin has used her influence to promote today's National March for Life in Washington, D.C., and urged those who couldn't participate to join her in the Virtual March for Life. In a note yesterday on her Facebook page, which boasts over 1.2 million fans, she emphasized the positive witness that the marchers, and the whole pro-life movement, bring to a true culture of life.

“Every year hundreds of thousands of everyday Americans from across our nation brave the cold weather on the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision to bear a positive witness to the culture of life,” the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate wrote.
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McCain's Wife Poses for Pro-Gay "Marriage" Website

Cindy McCain, the wife of former Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, has joined a campaign supporting same-sex "marriage" by having her picture taken for the campaign's website, and has prompted the senator to issue a clarifying statement reaffirming his opposition to gay “marriage.”

In the photo for the group, NOH8, she has "NOH8" written on her face (the letters are a reference to Proposition 8, California’s ban on same sex "marriage") and has her mouth covered in silvery duct tape.
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Provocative New Show on Abortion

On this anniversary of Roe vs. Wade a new web series has hit the internet. Here's the description on the show's website. This looks to be very interesting:

BUMP+ The Experiment is an attempt to determine whether story can succeed where nearly four decades of angry rhetoric and political posturing have failed.

Inspired by President Obama’s call to people on both sides of the abortion debate to open the lines of communication and find workable solutions to the problem of unintended pregnancies, Yellow Line Studio is starting that conversation inside the safety zone of a fictional world based on real life situations.


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Vigil Mass for Life

The Mass, which precedes the annual March for Life, is a joyous celebration of faith and commitment to life, and a stunning spectacle. Five Cardinals accompanying 40 other bishops and archbishops concelebrated the Mass with 350 priests. Also in the sanctuary were 65 deacons and a whopping 550 seminarians and 60 servers.

Hundreds of men and women religious also took part, with the steps leading up the to the sanctuary taken up by a large contingent of the Sisters of Life. Well over 8,000 faithful jammed every nook and cranny of the spacious Basilica both in the main church and the crypt below.

The Mass was open to millions more as well, as the event was broadcast via EWTN into countless homes.

During the 35-minute long opening procession the faithful looked on with awe as over 1000 men of the Church professed by their presence their commitment to the cause of life. The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
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Newsweek Writer Incoherent

Gesaman at Newsweek has published a story claiming younger women are missing from today's March for Life. The problem with the story is that she offers no evidence, and in trying to disguise her lack of evidence the story becomes incoherent.

Gesaman's argument goes like this:

1. The March for Life route is shorter this year. Why?

2. A DC policeman is quoted saying it is shorter because the organizers are getting older. (I think Nellie Gray would be the person to give the real reason for the route being shorter, since she is the organizer, not the DC policeman.)

3. Notice this leap in reasoning after she quoted the policeman:

So this raises the question: Where are the young, vibrant women supporting their pro-life or pro-choice positions? Likely, they’re at home. "Young women are still concerned about these issues, but they’re not trained to go out and protest,” says Kristy Maddux, assistant professor at the University of Maryland, who specializes in historical feminism.

Harmed by Abortion

Famed actress Jennifer O'Neill, civil rights activist Dr. Alveda King, and 45 Silent No More women and men from across the country will testify to their abortion experiences this Friday at 3:00 pm in front of the Supreme Court Building.

"The Silent No More Awareness Campaign was born of the grief, pain, and suffering that those of us who have had abortions know all too well," said Georgette Forney, a co-founder of the SNMAC. "We are growing in number because women have found that abortion is not the answer, it's the problem."

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, will gather with the Silent No More witnesses as the March for Life reaches the top of Capitol Hill. "The empty slogans of the child-killing industry avoid the realities of abortion," he stated. "The Silent No More Awareness Campaign lives and breathes those realities every day. One can't help but be moved and motivated by their stories."
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American Idol

The opening segment featured a powerful testimony about her family of 12 children, and her brothers with Down syndrome—one biological (Jonny) and three adopted (Jesse, Daniel, and Justin).

Maddy explained that her parents, Tripp and Barbara, adopted their first, Jesse, so that Jonathan would have "more of a companion." After their first adoption, they served as a resource to counsel couples whose babies were diagnosed with Down syndrome, which led to two more adoptions.
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Divorce on Children

Until 1969 the permanence of marriage was supported not only by the Church, which has consistently forbidden divorce and remarriage, but also by legal and cultural mores. It was only after 1969, when so-called "no-fault divorce" was legalized in California (and spread rapidly to other states) that a seismic revolution was unleashed.

The no-fault divorce laws, written and backed by feminists and other supporters of the feminist revolution, were touted as a way to finally free women from having to stay in unhappy marriages. Prior to this they could divorce only upon proof of adultery, cruelty, or incompatibility. Men, too, rejoiced in the hope of easy divorce without lawyers' fees.
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Clinton Announces 5-year Funding Push, Including Abortion

In Washington last week, United States (U.S.) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States would engage in a massive funding push over the next five years to promote “reproductive health care and family planning” as a “basic right” around the word. Clinton has previously stated for the record that this includes abortion. The plan includes potentially siphoning off funds currently directed towards fighting HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria.

scientists don't tell you about abortion

It would appear that at long last one of the leading breast-cancer researchers in the world, Louise Brinton, chief of the hormonal and reproductive epidemiology branch of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), has admitted a link between abortion and a higher risk of breast cancer among women.

Dr. Brinton's admission—if you can call it that—is not exactly straightforward. She is one of the co-authors of a study of 1,600 Seattle women that seems to show a 40% greater chance of a woman developing breast cancer if she has had an abortion.

Magi are called "saints"

The Magi are called "saints" for the first time in the writings of Archbishop Hildebert of Tours (1133). In the twelfth century their veneration spread over all of Europe. The authorities of the Church did not prohibit this cult, and Epiphany acquired the popular name of "Feast of the Three Holy Kings" in most countries of Europe.

The name Magi is not a Hebrew word, but of Indo-European origin, and means "great, illustrious." Saint Matthew mentioned the term without explanation because it was well known to the people of Palestine. The Magi originated in Media (Persia), and their caste later spread to other Oriental countries. They were a highly esteemed class of priestly scholars, devoting themselves not only to religion but also to the study of natural sciences, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and astrology. In several countries they were members of the king's council.
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Politicians Supporting Same-Sex

Writing for the Catholic Advocate, Matt Smith reports that 39 of the 106 cosponsors of a House bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act are "self-identified" Catholics. Smith, a former associate director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, warns that same-sex marriage activists are trying to bring H.R. 3567 -- ironically, titled the "Respect for Marriage Act 2009" -- to the House floor this year.

The end of DOMA would mean 40 states would be required to recognize same-sex marriage. As Smith writes, the political fallout would be enormous: "Democrats will have learned nothing from the current health care debate or the voices of the voters in the states that have repealed gay marriage initiatives."

Why Can’t Women Be Priests?

There aren't many issues within apologetics that require as much sensitivity as this one. In a culture where opening the door for a woman can be seen as an act of misogyny, it's no surprise that male-only ordination strikes some as sexist on the Church's behalf.

It can't be denied that there are women who could be more moving orators than some priests and provide more consolation within the confessional. But the debate over ordination is not over who could be a better priest but over who could be a priest at all.
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Why Genuflect?

When a man is proud, he stands tall; his posture reflects his self-perception. When a good man (one who is not suffering with pride) is in the presence of greatness, he knows to humble himself whether it be in posture or expression. His instinct is to lower himself and he, in some way, knows to acknowledge the greatness before him and to adjust his heart, and height, downward. The difficulty with modern culture is that without Kings and Queens, we don’t know what to do with this instinct. As well, we are taught from our youth to be independent, to question authority, to never consider another as more important than we are – never to bring ourselves low as Jesus did when he washed the disciples feet.
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Pope Benedict XVI forgives his attacker

Monsignor Gaenswein made the visit to convey Pope Benedict's concern for the woman's situation, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told the Associated Press news agency.

He saw Ms Maiolo at a hostel for people with psychiatric problems in the town of Subiaco.

According to Il Giornale, the papal aide brought her a rosary and told her the Pope believed in her good intentions and had pardoned her.

The paper added that an elderly French cardinal, Roger Etchegaray, who suffered a broken hip during the incident in St Peter's, had also passed on his forgiveness.
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