The Government-Funded Arm of the WHC

In 2007-2008 The Planned Parenthood Federation of America received $349,600,000 from government grants and contracts according to their own Annual Report. That's a pretty big chunk of our tax money, which is why Angela Franz's article titled The Ethic of Control: Margaret Sanger, Eugenics, and Planned Parenthood should be an eye opener.

From the article: "One would expect that the aims and agenda of such a huge organization would come under severe scrutiny, but Planned Parenthood has been immune from such questions, largely because its stated goals of population control and family planning are supposedly in agreement with America's interests at home and abroad. But is PPFA's stated agenda the whole story?"

Of course it's not. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and eugenicist, was known to have said, "The most merciful thing a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.". Nice, eh?  Here's more from Franz's article:

Sanger's involvement with eugenics was extensive. In her essay, "The Need of Birth Control in America," published in Birth Control: Facts and Responsibilities, Sanger defines "what we mean by birth control today: hygienic, scientific, and harmless control of procreative powers [italics hers]. Thus comprehended, birth control places in our hands the key to that greatest of all human problems -- how to reconcile individual freedom with the necessities of race hygiene.This was indeed the central dilemma for Sanger, and she solved it by determining who was and was not worthy of "individual freedom," in light of the race's needs. Contemporary family planning advocates, under the rallying cry of "choice," insist that they are only interested in the freedom part of the equation, but it seems the second factor weighs as heavily as ever, albeit under new names, such as the need to protect "society" or "the environment" or, more recently, "public genetic accountability."

Sanger is responsible for such reasoning. In Woman and the New Race, she argues that women incur a "debt to society" through their thoughtless reproducing, "unknowingly creating slums, filling asylums with the insane, and institutions with other defectives." Drawing on the pseudoscientific eugenic studies of her day, she compares "typical" small and large families in "The Need of Birth Control," concluding that the latter group "is correlated for the most part with poverty, distress, tuberculosis, delinquency, mental defect, and crime. Poverty and the large family generally go hand in hand," she concludes. "[T]his type is pari passu multiplying and perpetuating those direst evils which we must, if civilization is to survive, extirpate by the very roots.

The phrase "this type" shows the ideology at work. A large family is the sign of being unfit. In Sanger's world, the poor are poor because they are unfit, and they have large families because they are unfit. In the June 1917 issue of the Birth Control Review (which Sanger edited), she refers contemptuously to "the great horde of unwanted" that lacks the "courage to control its own destiny." The real problem, she notes in The Pivot of Civilization, arises when "the incurably defective are permitted to procreate and thus increase their numbers." At this point the state should interfere "either by force or persuasion."

Enter Planned Parenthood, now a government-subsidized birth control dispensary and abortion clinic. Sure, its tried to put space between themselves and the diabolical beliefs of its founder, but just a few minutes at their Website tells me that nothing has changed. The emphasis is on body image, sexuality and how to end a pregnancy which is described as a disease, a burden, or as President Barack Obama has said, a punishment,  rather than on the dignity of the human being, and on the natural result of a loving relationship between a man and a woman.

See, ladies, you're nothing more than a walking sex object, and you should hate yourself for your reproductive capabilities. Your looks and your sexuality are so much more important than your biology, which gets in the way of having the productive life that PPFA wants you to have, which obviously revolves around body image and sexuality. If you don't reproduce, all the better, and if you're one of the smart people, than you will believe this.

...and PPFA can quite effectively distance themselves from Sanger's and her eugenicist colleagues' shtick, because Americans already buy the lie...the names are now irrelevant.

(Please not that I have not provided a link to PPFA's website. If you want to see it, Google it, as I do not want my site showing up as a link to theirs.)

Pray in reparation for the injuries to and deaths of women 

because of Abortion and Birth Control.

ALWAYS VOTE FOR LIFE

Voting Smart

We as Catholics must vote according to our faith, and according to our consciences. We need to know our candidates for public office, but commercials tell us nothing, and candidate websites tell us less.  How can we know who stands for what this election? 

By clicking here: PROJECT VOTE SMART


Before you cast your ballot, learn everything you can about your candidates:

• Voting Records

• Issue Positions

• Interest Group Ratings

• Public Statements

• Campaign Finances

I think this is a much better way to learn about your candidates than those ridiculous commercials.

Because...

You Catholics

"Why do you Catholics focus on the cross so much?" YOU CATHOLICS. Nothing makes me bristle more than a heartily declared YOU CATHOLICS. "You'll notice," my "friend" continued with her blindsiding discourse accompanied by her haughtily pointing at the walls of her living room, "that there isn't a single crucifix in my house. See, we don’t really need to focus on Jesus’ death so much. We Protestants realize that we are really sharing in the resurrection. So why do you Catholics always focus on death?"

I knew it was coming sooner or later. Because I'm so outwardly Catholic, whenever I reach out and make new friends, specifically with protestants, the topic of religion eventually comes up, and it always comes up the same way: a glorious picture of protestant sensibility starkly contrasting the depressing blood and suffering to which we as Catholics so foolishly cling, sometimes followed by a “YOU CATHOLICS" statement depending upon how bold my "friend" happens to be.

This friend was pretty bold. I really wasn’t surprised that it was coming, though, as she had repeatedly insulted my faith in a number of conversations prior to this, the last real conversation we would ever have. After the hair on the back of my neck settled back down, I managed to give her an answer.

"We focus on the cross,” I replied, “because it's by his cross that we are saved. It was because of his sacrifice, through his suffering and his death that we achieve resurrection with Him. But without his death, without that sacrifice, there would be no resurrection.”

How do you know when someone really loves you? Let's turn to the Gospel to answer this question: “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you.” Jn 15:12-14

To lay down his life for his friends.

It's by their sacrifice that we know someone really loves us. This is what Jesus said, then it's what he did by his death on a cross.

We Catholics, in our reverence for the crucifix, in our focus on Christ's suffering and death, are entering into the most incredible love that anyone could possibly experience. Michael Pakaluk wrote in his article, “Avoiding the Crucifix” first published in Crisis Magazine’s December 1990 issue:

"According to tradition St. Thomas Aquinas once asked St. Bonaventure how he had acquired the deep theological wisdom he displayed in his writings. St. Bonaventure pointed to a crucifix and said that he had learned all he knew from contemplating it."

(Click here to read the entire article, found at www.catholicliturgy.com.)

There are I think a dozen crucifixes hanging on the walls of our home. Quite a few of them were there before I married my husband. We’ll never take them down, except maybe to dust them, or paint the wall behind them. I look at the image of my Lord nailed to the cross, blood rivering down his arms and his side, and I enter into prayer, even if just for a moment as I’m walking by. Those crucifixes are much-needed reminders for when the world becomes hopeless, when work gets unbearable, when we're caught up in distractions and problems, of what's really important in this life, and in the next.

We can hope for ourselves when we encounter the beaten, brutalized body of Jesus, ruthlessly executed through the violence of crucifixion. Not just His physical suffering as he was scourged, crowned with thorns and forced to carry his cross to his death; but the isolation at being utterly rejected by His people; by the humiliation of being spat upon, of falling, being stripped and nailed to a cross, meant to be left for wild animals to devour. Crucifixion is a punishment meant to utterly dehumanize. He took all of the sins that we lash out into the world upon himself, and when he laid down His own life for our sakes, he took all of that sin and let it die with Him. It's from this horrible suffering and death that Jesus rose, conquering sin and death, and He lives.

If I am unwilling to contemplate His death, how can I really comprehend the glory of His Resurrection? How can I understand what He meant when he said to love one another? How can I call myself a disciple if I am not kneeling at the foot of the Cross, the single place where I learn what it means to lay down my life as Christ commands?

More from Michael Pakaluk’s article:

"Perhaps having supposed that the elimination of suffering is the aim of life and of morality, we are confused by the suggestion that Christ desires to suffer, that His purpose in life was to die for us. That Jesus loves us is a consoling thought, but that He loves us that much disturbs as well as consoles. A God Who gives that much might in fact ask that much."

Shocking.

I have no words for this story.

Separation of Church and State

With the next election right around the corner, this homily given by Fr. Greg Maturi, O.P. on the feast of Christ the King in 2009 couldn't be more relevant.

We Urgently Need To Christianize Society

Every day in my Inbox I receive daily meditations from Opus Dei--meditations written by St. Josemaría Escrivá, Opus Dei's founder. Today's was particularly inspirational:

Following the Master's wishes, you are to be salt and light while being fully immersed in this world we were made to live in, sharing in all human activities. Light illumines the hearts and minds of men. Salt gives flavor and preserves from corruption. That is why if you lack apostolic zeal you will become insipid and useless. You will be letting other people down and your life will be absurd. (The Forge, 22)

God did not create us to build a lasting city here on earth, because ‘this world is the way to that other, a dwelling place free from care’. Nevertheless, we children of God ought not to remain aloof from earthly endeavors, for God has placed us here to sanctify them and make them fruitful with our blessed faith, which alone is capable of bringing true peace and joy to all men wherever they may be. Since 1928 I have constantly preached that we urgently need to christianize society. We must imbue all levels of mankind with a supernatural outlook, and each of us must strive to raise his daily duties, his job or profession, to the order of supernatural grace. In this way all human occupations will be lit up by a new hope that transcends time and the inherent transience of earthly realities. (Friends of God, 210)

Rosary Rally 2010

From the America Needs Fatima Blog:  October 16, 2010, America Needs Fatima’s (ANF) successfully carried out 5,963 Rosary rallies all over America including far-off Alaska, Hawaii and Guam, and in some other countries.

Thanks to the zealous efforts of rosary captains around the nation, thousands of faithful Catholics armed with their rosaries and banners trooped to the public square to pray for America’s conversion and heed the message of Our Lady of Fatima. 
(photo:Rally in New York City courtesy of America Needs Fatima Blog)

Msgr. Cariglio, Poland Twp., OH

Here in the Mahoning Valley, over 100 Catholics of all ages gathered at 3 different sites to pray for our nation. America today is under the grave influence of a secular idealism that would kick God and His law to the curb. Said Msgr. Michael Cariglio of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Youngstown, OH, who led the Rally in Poland Twp., OH: "We gather today to pray for our country, to make a stand against the darkness that plagues our nation."  It's the same darkness that was tearing Portugal apart during the early 1900s.

Our Lady of Fatima told the three children to whom she appeared in 1917 that the Rosary is the solution to the many problems that not only faced their society, but that faced all the nations of the world, and promised: "My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph."

We believe her promise even today. At the Poland Twp. Rally, Msgr. Cariglio led a small but diverse group of faithful Catholics in the Luminous Mysteries, that the light of the Gospel would inspire our leaders. We sang, we prayed, and we consecrated ourselves to the Queen of Heaven. Many of us were strangers; yet there was a profound spirit of Christian love and unity among all of us, and we left united under Our Lady's mantle. It was an experience that I will not soon forget.

Many thanks to America Needs Fatima, and to our Rally Captain.

Hail, Holy Queen

Pew Forum Quiz

I just finished taking a 15 question quiz at The Pew Forum, where those infamous test scores embarrassed the Christian world by their lack of basic knowledge.

I gotta admit, I have mixed feelings about the results.  I got a 93%, 14 out of 15.  (Yea, I don't know what the heck "The First Great Awakening" is.)  I'm glad I did quite well--I outperformed 97% of the tested sample. I'm not impressed with myself because the questions were very elementary. I'm discouraged because this means that on average, many Americans, regardless what they believe, don't know basic facts about religion. I'm not that discouraged, because the questions were so general they don't really indicate anything, other than maybe people don't know much about religions other than their own.

Click here to take the quiz yourself...and let me know how you did!