Pope Appoints ESCR/Cloning Supporter *Updated

ChelseaCloning, Stem Cell Research3 Comments



Francis CollinsThis was not a welcome sight this morning:

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed two prominent scientists to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Edward M. De Robertis, a chemical biology professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Collins was a leader in the Human Genome Project and directed the NIH’s National Human Genmore Research Institute from 1993 to 2008, according to his NIH biography. He has also written about the relation between science and faith in the 2006 bestseller “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.”

He has been an evangelical Christian since the age of 27. However, he is a supporter of human embryonic stem cell research who believes “therapeutic” human cloning could be acceptable, Discover Magazine reports.

h/t Luke Coppen – via Catholic Key on Twitter

**Update**
Mary Meets Dolly explains the purpose of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and why Catholics should not be too bothered by this appointment:

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is a body that is charged with giving the Vatican the most up to date, most scientifically accurate information regardless of religious (or non-religious) affiliation. It was established by Pope Pius XI in 1936 to promote the sciences and its members are some of the most heavy-hitting, Nobel-prize winning scientists of the 20th century, many of whom probably disagree with the Church on a great many things.

I figured that was the case.

Unbelievable: NYT “Picturing (Aborted) Fetal Remains” **Updated

ChelseaAbortion5 Comments



Graphic Images

It’s hard to believe, but The New York Times photography blog has a photo exposé of remains of aborted babies (h/t Jill Stanek):

The photographs are graphic and detailed, showing the fingers or toes of aborted fetuses whose entire frames are no bigger than a cellphone. Since the mid-1990s, they have appeared all over the country — carried as posters by protesters, handed out with pamphlets or, in some cases, mounted like billboards on the sides of trucks.

Like many others, I often wondered about the source of these images. Who took the pictures? Where did the fetuses come from?

I had a chance to find some answers while reporting in late September on the death of James Pouillon, the anti-abortion protester who was shot and killed in Owosso, Mich. [See Saturday’s presentation on the subject in The New York Times.]

Mr. Pouillon was holding an anti-abortion sign at the time, with a baby on one side and an abortion on the other. At his memorial service, I met Monica Migliorino Miller, who told me she had a lot to share about the use of abortion imagery.

A theology professor at Madonna University and the director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, she said she had firsthand experience retrieving fetuses after abortions and photographing them.

…

Last year, she said she found 23 fetuses in trash-hauling bins outside two Michigan abortion clinics, leading to a state investigation of the companies’ removal procedures; in 1987, she said a tip led her to a Chicago alley with dozens of boxed-up fetuses in a trash-hauling bin.

That was when she took her first fetal pictures. She described her initial motivation as journalistic. “We felt it was very important to make a record of the reality of abortion,” she said.

In other words: yes, those pictures are real.

Read more

A sample picture:
Graphic Images

** Update**

That’s not all. Another NYT story is *gasp* fair to pro-lifers: Abortion Foes Tell of Their Journey to the Streets

Pro-Abortion Protesters Act Like Idiots

ChelseaCulture of Death, video11 Comments

During what was supposed to be a presentation by the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform hosted by Choose Life McGill who hoped to encourage “respectful dialogue”, pro-abortion protesters “respectfully” make their case by shouting “LEAVE NOW!”, “we don’t wanna hear your side!” and “f**k off!” and then breaking out in children’s songs. This is video 1 of 19 (h/t Big Blue Wave):

A description of the events that took place for over 2 hours:

As the presentation began, protesters shouted and sang children’s songs. They then crowded around the now vacant podium (Mr. Ruba having absconded) and continued signing for the better part of an hour, at which point police arrived. Two protesters were taken, but many were left behind. When the police left, they resumed and disrupted the presentation (which had fitfully resumed) until the two hour mark, at which point event organizers were informed by campus officials that time had run out and the room had to be closed for the night.

Protesters then filed out, along with most of the audience. A police officer showed up again, answering some questions for the campus media.

Beautiful: Singing Through Labor

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A woman sings Psalm 23 while having strong contractions just before the home birth of her son (h/t Jill Stanek):

It’s amazing the pain one can endure when one turns everything over to Christ.

TOB Tuesday: The Body Speaks of God

ChelseaTheology of the Body, TOB TuesdayLeave a Comment

In the preface to Carl Anderson and Jose Granados’ new book about Theology of the Body, Called to Love, Livio Melina, President of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, writes:

For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you , for you are fearful and wonderful.
Wonderful are your works! You know me right well. (Ps. 139)

The Psalmist’s wonder before his own body leads him to praise his Creator, who makes himsef and his provident care and intimate knowledge of us perceptible precisely in the body. This is the “prophetism of the body,” as John Paul II used to say. The body speaks of God; it reveals his goodness and wisdom. It also speeks of us, of man and woman and our vocation to love. This is a prophetic word, pronounced by the body in God’s name, revealing to us the path to take toward human fulfillment: the way of love, in which the original image imprinted in man and woman can be realized and shine forth in a fruitful communion of persons, open to the gift of life.

We are made in the image and likeness of God and, just as a work of art reveals something about the artist behind it, our bodies reveal something of the invisible mystery of our Creator.

The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it. (John Paul II General Audience of 2/20/80 – TOB, 19:4)

This mystery, says the pope is the mystery of Truth and Love and of divine life in which we really participate. If this is what our bodies are meant to proclaim, is it any wonder, in a world that is so diametrically opposed to God, truth, love and all that is divine, that nothing is quite as desecrated and abused as the human body?

I have finally started reading this book, so expect to hear more from it in future TOB Tuesday posts.

Stop Hyding Behind Henry!

ChelseaAbortion, Health Care, Legislation, videoLeave a Comment

A video from the Susan B. Anthony List:

Related: Why the Hyde Amendment Will Not Prevent Abortion Funding Under HR 3200

They are No Longer Two but One Flesh

ChelseaMarriage2 Comments

From this Sunday’s Gospel:

    from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
    For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
    and be joined to his wife,
    and the two shall become one flesh.
    So they are no longer two but one flesh.
    Therefore what God has joined together,
    no human being must separate.”
    In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
    He said to them,
    “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
    commits adultery against her;
    and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
    she commits adultery.”

    Mk.10:6-12

A priest at one of our local parishes said recently, “we have really messed up marriage.” And it’s true. Between no-fault divorce and an increase in cohabitation, marriage has become something of our own creation, not God’s.

Some people look at the current attitudes towards marriage, especially the rate of divorce, and then at the words of Christ and conclude that there’s something wrong with the Gospel message – it’s outdated. unrealistic, etc… – rather than our own hearts. But It is we who need to change, not the Bible. It is we who need to open our hearts to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and the goodness of marriage as it was in the beginning. Such a marriage must be rooted in prayer with a firm commitment from each spouse to put away what they once were and become something totally new. They must no longer be two, but one flesh, each sacrificing themselves and accepting everything for the good of the other.

Related: Pope Benedict says divorce, cohabitation ruin the lives of many children.

Worth reading: A Basic Theology of Marriage

Respect Life Sunday

ChelseaPro LifeLeave a Comment

Here are a few pictures of the display I set up in our church this weekend. They will be up all through the month of October which is Respect Life Month:

Fetal Development DisplayRespect Life Month Display

Those beautiful fetal development posters are from Heritage House. Our diocese gave them to all the parishes.

God has created us to choose life; God the Son Incarnate has won the victory of life for us, the victory over sin and everlasting death (cf. Dt 30:19; Jn 10:10). We, therefore, must never give up in the struggle to advance a culture founded on the choice of life, which God has written upon our hearts, and the victory of life, which Christ has won in our human nature.
~ Archbishop Raymond Burke

*sigh* It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with all of the attacks on the sanctity of human life these days – contraception, abortion, eugenic abortion, assisted suicide, destroying embryos for scientific research, and who would have ever thought we’d be seriously talking about CLONING?!

Prayer for Respect of Life

Heavenly Father,
the beauty and dignity of human life
was the crowning of your creation.
You further ennobled that life
when your Son became one with us in his incarnation.
Help us to realize the sacredness of human life
and to respect it from the moment of conception
until the last moment at death.
Give us courage to speak with truth
and love and with conviction in defense of life.
Help us to extend the gentle hand of mercy and forgiveness
to those who do not reverence your gift of life.
To all, grant pardon for the times we have failed
to be grateful for your precious gift of life
or to respect it in others.
We ask this in Jesus’ Name.

Amen.

Taking a Stand for Truth and Life

ChelseaAbortion, Activism, videoLeave a Comment

When the defense of truth is at stake, how can one desire neither to displease God nor to clash with one’s surroundings? These two things are opposed: it is either one or the other! The sacrifice has to be a holocaust where everything is burned up, even the thought: “what will they say?”, even what we call our reputation.
~St. Josemaria, Furrow pt. 34

Let’s face it, standing up for what’s right is not always easy or socially acceptable. But right now 212 cities across the country people are stepping out of their comfort zones and into the, sometimes very hostile, public eye to speak for those who have no voice:

40 Days for Life is a community-based campaign that draws attention to the evil of abortion through the use of a three-point program:

* Prayer and fasting
* Constant vigil
* Community outreach

40 Days for Life takes a determined, peaceful approach to showing local communities the consequences of abortion in their own neighborhoods, for their own friends and families. It puts into action a desire to cooperate with God in the carrying out of His plan for the end of abortion in America.

The 40-day campaign tracks Biblical history, where God used 40-day periods to transform individuals, communities … and the entire world. From Noah in the flood to Moses on the mountain to the disciples after Christ’s resurrection, it is clear that God sees the transformative value of His people accepting and meeting a 40-day challenge.

By day 6 of this of this most recent campaign over 38 lives were saved. And that’s just what’s been reported!

This fall 40 Days for Life ends on November 1, so there is still time for you to participate in this life changing, life saving event. Find a location near you. Visit the 40 Days for Life blog for daily updates.

How Do You Want to Be Desired?

ChelseaChastity, videoLeave a Comment

This is a creative little video about chastity:

The video’s creator explains:

The idea behind this short film is that we are all created with an intrinsic desire to be loved, cherished by one another, and adored by our spouses, but in that something has gone very wrong in our souls, to the point where we seek these desires in the wrong way and form. So in this movie I contrasted a little girl dancing as a princess with a college aged girl that is seeking her affections form guys in a twisted way.

My heart behind this film is that it would not be a condemning or judging effort, but a realistic awakening that we are created with desires that need to be fixed, healed, and restored by Jesus Christ. If he is the one who created me in his image, then he is the one who will redeem me back to his image and likeness. As I said in the movie, “There is a right way to be desired, a dance that wants more than your body” I mean that with all my heart. Beyond that there is a life that is worth more than than the vanity it sometimes can seem. Purpose that can only be found in living for that which is greater than ourselves and our own pursuits we vainly create.