Ireland Elects to Annihilate Its Future

K. V. Turley

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned…

Almost one hundred years ago the Irish poet W.B. Yeats wrote The Second Coming. It is a strange nightmarish poem. It tells of events that are both seen and unseen, of an ominous elemental horror that is imminent, one that “slouches” from its centuries-old hibernation towards Bethlehem to be “born.”

Last Friday, May 25, 2018, the citizens of the Irish Republic voted to remove the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, Article 40.3.3. On a turnout of just over 64 percent of the electorate, 66.4 per cent voted for repeal of the Eight Amendment while 33.6 percent opposed it. This voting pattern, with minor variations, was consistent across the country.

In a moment of insight, following a referendum in 1983, the Eighth Amendment had been inserted into the constitution to safeguard the rights of the unborn. Through it, Ireland had effectively banned abortion. The decision to remove this constitutional safeguard now opens the door to legislation, which many suspect will usher in one of the most permissive abortion regimes in the world. News of the speed with which the current Irish government wishes to enact the necessary legislation in favor of abortion is as telling as it is alarming.

The result of the referendum comes as no surprise. The political establishment—all the leaders of the various political parties, plus many within these parties, especially the opportunistic and the ambitious—mouthed platitudes about “doing the right thing.”

The media seemed especially in favor of repealing the Eighth Amendment. The State broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, like so many media outlets, went through the pretense of being a neutral forum for both sides to debate and put forward their arguments. The underlying hostility to the pro-life side could not be hidden though. The Irish Times, Ireland’s newspaper of record, also attempted to give column space to both sides, but it, too, seemed half-hearted in this. It was not just the paper’s editorial stance, which, given its liberal credentials, was always going to be pro-abortion, but rather the ways in which the pro-life case was portrayed in the newspaper’s pages. That portrayal was endlessly associated with religious imagery even though the pro-life campaign was a secular movement. Instead, a certain impression of Irish pro-lifers was deliberately constructed and then conveyed—of fanatically religious men telling women what to do with their bodies. It was a deliberate ploy. In reality, the pro-life campaign was fronted by women who were just as professional, independent, and articulate—perhaps more so—than their counterparts calling for repeal of the Eighth Amendment. This fact was, however, conveniently overlooked in media reports.

Of course, it was never going to be a fair fight. The intervention of Google and Facebook at a decisive moment in the referendum debate proved that. Since the Irish media effectively prevented the pro-life campaign from putting its argument across to voters, the pro-life message was heavily dependent on new media to reach that constituency. The crucial period for the intensification of its campaign was two weeks away from polling day. This was the very moment when Google and Facebook pulled the plug—banning in various ways advertising on the forthcoming referendum. The move came at a time when the pro-abortion side had been complaining hysterically of being out-gunned and out-witted on social media by pro-lifers, no doubt sensing their “Yes” campaign was faltering as the polls began to narrow. Momentum was now with the pro-life campaign. A pro-abortion source openly admitted that it was at this point that “pressure” was applied to the tech giants. In any event the “pulling of the plug” on pro-life Internet advertising was a devastating blow to the “No” campaign, thereby crippling its ability to reach voters directly.

Yet, the final polls, the weekend before the vote, showed the gap between “Yes” and “No” was still narrowing, but now not as fast to affect the result. Effectively, the momentum for life was lost. By then, the media blitz turned to the Irish voters living abroad who were considering returning home. This prompt from various quarters was not an impartial act to encourage the Irish democratic process but rather part of a strategic move by the “Yes” side that was banking on the Irish returning to vote for abortion. Virtually every story covered by Irish and international media outlets seemed to tell of a young female professional intent on flying home to Ireland to vote “Yes” so that she could be “proud” of her country, before doubtless turning round and getting on the first flight back to wherever she had flown in from.

Sometimes, during the last weeks, it seemed that the people of Ireland—some at least—had entered an alternate universe. An example of this was expressed in The Irish Times final editorial about the referendum:

The Eighth Amendment describes a world that never existed—a place of moral absolutism, religious certainty, good and evil, black and white—and locks us into that illusion in perpetuity. To remove it is merely to reflect the world we live in.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that this is a “world” in which some now choose to live: where the death of a child is something to be “celebrated,” a sign of “progress,” a mark of “compassion.” In these past weeks, one looked on in dismay as this ancient Catholic nation exchanged its present for a future where a mother’s joy was transformed into a tormented look of guilt, a child’s smile into a funeral veil, a truth for a lie.

So let it be.

Ireland has chosen between life and death. Death it shall have. The fallacy that a liberal abortion regime solves anything will soon become apparent to Irish citizens. The mother’s pain and suffering from abortion shall still remain. The shame and trauma of having delivered an aborted child are not erased as easily as the pro-abortion campaigners make out when they blithely talk of a “medical procedure,” one seemingly as slight as having an ingrown toenail removed. Above all, in the coming days and years, what will haunt that land is the memory of the missing generations denied life by the stroke of a pen that in the hand of some became a scalpel.

Those who campaigned for abortion have got what they wanted: the advent of Irish abortion facilities. Ireland shall soon commence the same sad slide into the abyss as that of her neighbor Britain. The public money funnelled away from medicine in order to provide the tools and the means to administer death will not be insignificant. In spite of what politicians say, medical staff will be pressured into taking part in procedures contrary to the Hippocratic Oath. The idea of conscience, like the idea of the sanctity of life, will be yet another casualty at the hands of Irish abortionists and their fellow travelers. Eventually for some, abortion will become a convenience, despite all we have heard about “hard cases.” In particular, Down syndrome children and their families must view with dismay this vote for “compassion”: knowing that in Britain 90 percent of unborn children with Down syndrome never make it beyond the womb. And behind it all, the global industrial complex of abortion providers sit sharpening their implements with glee, as yet another market is opened to them by their friends in the Irish political establishment who no doubt will be rewarded with campaign contributions and appointments to positions in boardrooms of these multi-nationals.

Two years ago, the Irish state made great play of the 1916 Easter Rising. That Rising was a rebellion by a group of revolutionaries who tried to overthrow British rule in Ireland. At various state-sponsored commemorations, contemporary politicians talked of how these rebels had won for today’s Irish citizens the freedoms they enjoy, as well as the other things politicians say when trying to cover themselves in the mantle of past glories to offset their present deficiencies.

In 1916, hopelessly outnumbered, the Irish rebels hoisted a new flag as they proclaimed the Irish Republic. They also read out a proclamation, one that is framed on walls of Irish homes up and down the land. It says the following:

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN:
In the name of God …We hereby proclaim the Irish Republic …

The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally… 

The recent vote for the death of untold numbers of Irish children, who should be “cherished” not annihilated, was not only an attack upon Ireland’s Catholic past but also upon the Republican ideals that founded the modern Irish state.

Having negated her past, both religious and civic, now Ireland enters into the “brave new world” she seems to so ardently desire.

And so, in the distance, coming to meet her from a desert waste is a Spiritus Mundi. “This rough beast,” with its gaze as blank and pitiless as the sun, slouches towards Ireland to be born, with its hour come at last.

https://www.crisismagazine.com/2018/ireland-elects-annihilate-future

Saints of suffering and genius: Bl. Herman and St. Pacificus

Threecharlie | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Public Domain

These two holy men with great physical challenges stand as powerful witnesses to the truth that every life has dignity.

We live in a society that looks at suffering and disabilities as curses, circumstances to be avoided at all costs. If an unborn baby is imperfect, she should be aborted. If an adult becomes infirm, he should be able to end his own life. In the name of compassion, we eliminate the flawed and congratulate ourselves on being good enough.

The Church stands strongly in opposition to this inclination, fighting for the unborn, the elderly, and the handicapped, for their dignity and their very lives. People with disabilities have something to offer the world, not only when they happen to have some particular talent. Human beings are a gift simply because they exist.

This week, Mother Church offers us two saints with disabilities to contemplate. September 25 is the feast of Blessed Herman of Reichenau (also called Blessed Herman the Cripple). Blessed Herman was born in the 11th century with cerebral palsy and a cleft palate. He also suffered from spina bifida or spinal muscular atrophy, all of which combined to make moving and even speaking very difficult for him.

By all worldly measures, Herman was a burden. He could contribute nothing to his noble family and caring for him was extremely difficult. Then as now, however, the Church valued every life. Herman was entrusted to a Benedictine monastery when he was seven, there to be cared for in obscurity.

But Herman was no ordinary man. He was a genius. Though his body was weak, making both speaking and writing a terrible chore, his mind was brilliant beyond all telling. As the monks began to care for him, they realized that his disability was only a small obstacle between Herman and greatness.

Herman’s education began, but soon he outstripped his tutors. He was a musicologist, an astronomer, and a mathematician. As a historian, he wrote a detailed history of the Western world in the first millennium after Christ. He read Arabic, Greek, and Latin. He wrote theology and poetry. He built musical instruments and astronomical equipment. He was called “The Wonder of His Age,” and all this before turning 40! Towards the end of his short life, Bl. Herman went blind. No longer able to study as he had, he turned his unparalleled mind to composition, writing the Salve Regina and the Alma Redemptoris Mater before dying at age 40.

Saint Pacificus of San Severino (1653-1721), on the other hand, lived a golden life. Born into a noble family, his body was perfect and his mind along with it. He entered the Franciscan order and became a priest and a professor of philosophy.

Respected as he was, Fr. Pacificus was well aware that his salvation wouldn’t come from learning or the esteem of the world. His task was the salvation of souls, and he begged to be sent out as a preacher, encountering sinners in their struggles and leading them back to the embrace of Christ. For five years he wandered the Italian countryside preaching, until his feet began to develop crippling, untreatable sores.

Pacificus accepted this cross, giving up his successful preaching ministry to sit for hours each day in the confessional. There, too, he was useful. But Pacificus’ goodness didn’t lie in his usefulness, and as his disease progressed God was teaching him (and us) just that.

Next, Pacificus lost his hearing. Sign language was very limited at the time but he got by with crude gestures. Still, Fr. Pacificus submitted, rejoicing to carry the Cross with Christ in some small way.

He could no longer teach or preach or hear confessions, but he could still celebrate Mass. Until his sight, too, was taken. The great orator was now blind, deaf, and crippled. And in this lay his great gift to the world. He was holy in his usefulness, but he became a saint not by accomplishing but by being. Pacificus suffered joyfully, even when abused by his nurse. His peaceful acceptance of God’s will so conformed him to the heart of Christ that he experienced ecstasies and was eventually elected superior of his community, his holiness being far more important than his worldly abilities. For nearly 30 years, he lived in pain and isolation, dying at age 68 on September 24, which became his feast day.

Blessed Herman and Saint Pacificus stand as powerful w

itnesses to the truth that every life has dignity. Blessed Herman was counted useless but offered great gifts of beauty, truth, and goodness to the world. Saint Pacificus became useless in the eyes of the world so that God could show what a gift his life was. Let’s ask their intercession for all people with disabilities, for all who suffer from chronic pain, and for our culture, that it may once again become a culture of life. Blessed Herman of Reichenau and Saint Pacificus of San Severino, pray for us!

Fifty years after St. Pacificus’ death, Charles Michel de l’Épée, a French Catholic priest, created the first systematic sign language and became known as the “Father of the Deaf.”

https://aleteia.org/2017/09/21/saints-of-suffering-and-genius-bl-herman-and-st-pacificus/

Trump budget completely defunds abortion providers, and Planned Parenthood is furious

Peter LaBarbera

American Life League

May 23, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-abortion feminists are bemoaning and pro-lifers are celebrating President Trump's 2018 budget proposal that would withhold all federal funds from abortion-provider Planned Parenthood.

Breitbart reported yesterday that Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney told the media on Monday that the new budget would defund the abortion business, but only if the new Republican healthcare legislation passed recently by the House is also passed by the Senate and signed into law.     (PLEASE PRAY!)

Asked if the Fiscal Year 2018 Trump budget defunds Planned Parenthood, Mulvaney said, “’Yes,’ but added that it does ‘because it assumes the American Health Care Act passes and the AHCA in its current form, which is the one we assumed — and that’s making a bunch of assumptions, here — that it assumes that passes and that defunds Planned Parenthood,’” Breitbart reported.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the grassroots pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, applauded Trump, saying, “Taxpayers should not have to prop up Planned Parenthood’s failing, abortion-centered business model.”

“From day one, President Trump has worked to keep his pro-life promises, including stopping taxpayers from being forced to fund abortion and abortion businesses. We’re encouraged to see that the budget released today prevents federal funds from going to the nation’s largest abortion chain, Planned Parenthood,” Dannenfelser said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the liberal pro-abortion “rights” magazine Mother Jones, relying on an "executive summary" of the proposed budget, said, "In practice, this will mean that Planned Parenthood and other entities that provide abortions would suddenly be excluded from participating in the full array of federally funded health programs, even though it is already illegal for federal money to pay for most abortions, thanks to the Hyde amendment.”

Kate Black, chief of staff of the pro-abortion group Emily's List, tweeted ominously:

“FACT: Trump cuts @PPact from ALL programs including VAWA [Violence Against Women Act] grants, cancer screenings, HIV research, Zika prevention, and maternal health.”

But the SBA List said the Trump proposal to redirect taxpayer funding away from Planned Parenthood “would result in a $422 million increase in federal funding for community healthcare centers, which enjoy strong bipartisan support, avoid provision of abortion, and now serve nearly 24.3 million people (and climbing) in medically underserved communities across the United States.”

“At the same time, women receiving Medicaid can continue to use their eligibility at centers where they can also obtain mammograms, mental health services, and a variety of other primary care services,” SBA List said.

But leftist organizations kept up their drumbeat that denying funds to Planned Parenthood and abortion is equivalent to cutting funds to “women’s health.” The liberal, aggressively anti-Trump Huffington Post reported, “The freeze-out [of Planned Parenthood] apparently goes beyond the House GOP’s plan, which excludes Planned Parenthood only from Medicaid reimbursements.”

It quoted Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president, Dawn Laguens, who said, “This is the worst budget for women and women’s health in a generation.”

Dannenfelser highlighted Planned Parenthood’s recent announcement that it will close 10 facilities in four states, “even before any portion of their half-billion dollars in taxpayer funding is redirected to local community health centers.”

Community health centers and rural health centers “outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities by an average of 20 to one nationally and provide the preventative care that Planned Parenthood claims to provide but do not perform abortion,” she said. “Women will be better served by the new growth of comprehensive healthcare alternatives.”

High expectations among pro-lifers

Social conservatives and pro-life advocates are ecstatic over Trump’s pro-life agenda and his life-affirming appointments, leading some pro-lifer leaders who doubted Trump’s commitment to the unborn to say they were wrong about the New York businessman.

Now, these same activists have high expectations for an agency-wide ban on Planned Parenthood funding across the federal government. Trump also signed a law allowing states to defund the abortion business, undoing a late Obama action intended to benefit his ally, Planned Parenthood.

High-profile Christian attorney and talk show host Jay Sekulow, founder of the American Center for Law and Justice, tweeted May 19, “Do you think #Congress' top priority should be the #ObamaCare replacement bill and the defunding of #PlannedParenthood?”

Among those responding in the affirmative was Matthew Ward, who tweeted, “Outlaw wholesale holocaust of humans. Replace ACA [Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare] with free market solutions. Abolish income tax and IRS.”

The Christian site FamilyFellowship.com tweeted: “of course do their job that is what the majority of WE the people have told them 2 do […] anything else is y its called the swamp AKA corruption.”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/trump-budget-completely-defunds-abortion-providers-and-planned-parenthood-i

Unlocking Jonathan: A mother helps her disabled son find his voice

Imagine living in a world in which you have no voice. You sit and watch and take things in, but you have no way of relaying a thought, an idea, an opinion, or even a little sense of humor. Worse, most people assume that you’re not capable of even experiencing these things.

This was the life of 10-year-old Jonathan Bryan until two years ago, when his mother Chantal discovered a way to communicate with him. Jonathan’s story is not simply remarkable and heart-warming, it reveals the inner strength of a clever and loving boy, and the determination of his family to give him his “voice.” And what a voice he has!

Jonathan was born early at 36 weeks by emergency C-section after Chantal was in a car accident. Her placenta had detached itself from her womb, depriving Jonathan of oxygen. The outlook was bleak; Jonathan was born with failing kidneys and a brain scan revealed that he would be extremely disabled, unable to walk, talk, eat, in addition to other activities most of us take for granted. In a blog post about Jonathan’s story, Chantal recalls one of the hospital’s doctors saying, “It’s one of the worst scans of a brain the technician has seen.” Although Chantal and her husband, Christopher, an Anglican vicar, had consulted with experts about whether Jonathan’s treatment should be stopped, Chantal says “there was something about him. A knowing look. The look of someone who was ‘in there’.”

Eventually Jonathan came home, but he was in and out of the hospital regularly due to his failing kidneys. He received a kidney transplant just before his 4th birthday, but unfortunately this led to a severe lung infection resulting in Jonathan’s need for 24/7 oxygen to keep him alive.

He fought on.

Seemingly “locked-in” and with cerebral palsy and weak lungs, Jonathan was enrolled in a special school, where he was described as having “profound and multiple learning difficulties.” Chantal believes this is fundamentally where the problem lies, at least in her native England: children who are non-verbal and physically handicapped are labeled incorrectly and attend these schools to essentially be “babysat.” And this is where Jonathan’s—and Chantal’s—incredible story really begins.

On the day after Chantal, Christopher, Jonathan, and his younger sisters, Susannah (seven) and Jemima (four) came back from their summer vacation, the siblings were all playing in a tent in the backyard, and I was fortunate enough to sit down with Chantal for a lengthy conversation. I asked her how they managed to go on vacation given Jonathan’s many requirements (he needs constant care day and night). She explained that they stayed fairly close to home—just in case—and that Jonathan joined the family on walks along the sometimes rugged pathways in his over-sized three-wheeler. Immediately it’s clear: despite Jonathan’s severe disabilities, he’s an integral part of their family life, not just in the extra care he requires, but because of his “big personality,” as Chantal describes it.

As Jonathan played with his sisters, Chantal shared the journey the family has taken so far, how Jonathan’s “unlocking” has revealed a little boy with big ideas about helping others, and how a visit to “Jesus’ garden” has brought hope and excitement for what lies ahead.

Breaking through

Despite all his disabilities, Jonathan was still very much “engaged with the world and keen to learn” from an early age. He could communicate with what his mom calls a “clear ‘yes’ and ‘no’ face.” And it’s this ability to choose that would allow Jonathan to emerge from his silence.

From a young age, Jonathan had a taste of mainstream education mixed with spending time at his local special needs school. While obviously grateful that her son’s physical needs were being attended to, Chantal believed something was lacking in terms of his mental development. So when he was seven and a half, Chantal made a decision that would turn Jonathan and his family’s life around: She decided to homeschool him every day for over an hour in the morning before he headed off to his special needs school.

Photo courtesy: Chantal Bryan

Jonathan learning to communicate with his spelling board. 

Chantal worked closely with Jonathan to see if he could develop letter recognition and start to read and write. With his mom gently supporting his head to steady his movement, Jonathan was able to look at words and phrases carefully selected and placed on a large plastic board to help create sentences. Chantal could see the desire and pleasure Jonathan took in learning. Although he had attempted to use an “Eye Gaze” computer, where the computer registers the movement of the eye to communicate, it proved insufficient as the machine found it hard to capture Jonathan’s eye movements due to a divergent squint and the medication Jonathan was on. However, it did show that Jonathan was able to make choices and group letters to make words. So Chantal painstakingly created a system of phonics, words, and letters. Jonathan would then select a letter or word and confirm it, all by using his eyes. (This is a very simplified account of the system Chantal developed with some advice from Marion Stanton, a specialist teacher for children with complex communication for Jonathan. More details can be found on Jonathan’s blog.)

When I exclaimed to Chantal that she must have the patience of a saint, she said she’s “not patient, but determined; I’m not a saintly mother!” But her determination began to pay off, so the family decided Jonathan should be homeschooled for five full mornings and join the mainstream primary school four afternoons a week, leaving him with just one afternoon at his special school to see his best friend (who Jonathan believes can be “unlocked,” too). From there Jonathan took off.

A powerful and expressive voice

Chantal found that her son’s vocabulary was pretty extensive, in part thanks to the many books his family had read to him throughout his lengthy illnesses, so the word boards she had created were not quite sufficient for Jonathan to express himself. She soon realized he wanted to spell, and not long afterwards, he was writing sentences that would surprise any 4th grade teacher. Jonathan’s whole world had been unlocked and he was finally able to express the thoughts that had been trapped inside him for nine years. What he comes out with is both profound and perceptive. Jonathan explained to his mom that “I watch people and I pray; I watch and I look.” And through this process Jonathan has gleaned perhaps more insight than other young people his age.

Photo courtesy: Chantal Bryan

Jonathan with his family at the top of the Malvern Hills, August 2016, England. 

Jonathan has also been able to reveal things he wasn’t so happy with. He could finally say how “the most frustrating thing was having his face washed”—not quite what you’d expect from a child confined to a wheelchair attached to an oxygen tank. And he could also start asking for things—Chantal fondly remembers Jonathan spelling out, “I need a brother!”

Jonathan has also expressed his desire to “bake every day, forever.” He spelled out, “I love baking for other people and making people happy.” This love of baking (helped by his family), is indicative of his beautiful personality, one of loving and giving, especially when we consider that Jonathan is unable to eat solid food himself and has to be fed through a tube in his stomach. He seems to be a boy with a tremendous heart and a fantastic outlook on life, making the most of what life has to offer. As Chantal says, Jonathan takes part in dance lessons at school in his wheelchair; the fact his friends are helping him move his arms feels to him like he is dancing.

Jesus’ garden

One of the most beautiful things Jonathan has been able to do is tell his parents about his visit to “Jesus’ garden.” Growing up in a religious family, Jonathan has been brought up “knowing Jesus.” But being able to communicate meant that Chantal could finally ask some important questions. (“What do you say to your son after nine years?” she says to me, laughing.) One of the first things Chantal asked her son was, “Who is important in your life?” To which Jonathan responded completely unprompted, “Mummy, Daddy, Jesus, sisters …” Then Chantal asked, “So when did you first know about Jesus?” Jonathan’s response was one of the most spine-tingling things he has ever told his family: “I’ve seen his house when I was ill. I was climbing up trees and my body worked.”

Chantal and her husband relate this incident to a near-death experience Jonathan had years before, but they can’t exactly pinpoint when (as there are a couple of contenders). Jonathan talks about going to “’Jesus’ garden,’ how he’s always happy, and he describes a lot of detail about a child who was there,” explains Chantal. Jonathan remembers the name of the child as Noah, a little boy in his previous parish who was a little younger and who died from an unexpected brain tumor. Although the family have spoken to Jonathan about heaven quite a bit—considering he’s nearly died a few times—Chantal says his description is “fresh” and not the stereotypical way we would describe it. When Chantal asked Jonathan, “How did you know it was Jesus’ garden?”, Jonathan’s matter-of-fact response was, “Because my body worked and I asked people.”

Photo courtesy: Chantal Bryan

Jonathan and Chantal meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. 

The joy Jonathan felt in Jesus’ garden has affected his outlook on life. During a recent serious illness, he actually spelled out: “I’m going to go back soon, it’s so exciting!” You can only imagine how difficult it was for the family to see emerging letter by letter. Jonathan has tasted the joy and experience of being free, and Chantal understands his excitement and wants what’s best for her son, but she and her husband don’t quite share the same enthusiasm for Jonathan “going back to the garden.” Yet, “He’s learnt to be content … that’s something a lot of us don’t quite get to. We talk to him about his faith and he prays a lot.”

Jonathan loves praying aloud now using the spelling board. But what is mind-blowing is his method: “He doesn’t think using words, he thinks using emotions, colors, and drumbeats. Praying is intentional, but he invites Jesus into the drumbeat of his life, and brings pictures of people before God when he is praying for them.” Jonathan is due to be confirmed this November because Chantal doesn’t know how much time they have left with him.

With a son so immersed in his faith, I asked Chantal about how her own relationship with God is today. “Deeper, I suppose; it couldn’t be anything other than that, having had a Jonathan! Shortly after he was born he was very ill. I got close to asking God, ‘Why?’ Not, why me … but why a tiny little baby who is suffering so much? And God gave me a picture that kind of stayed with me, which is just God the Father looking down at God the Son on the cross and with tears down his face saying ‘I know,’ and I follow a God who knows. He knows what it’s like to have a son who suffers and He knows what it is to suffer. So my faith is about getting on with it.” Chantal also spoke of the hope and assumptions we all have for our children, and how Jonathan’s story has led to a real life lesson: “Being human boils down to being loved and giving love.”

A boy with a purpose

Jonathan is now a young man on a mission. He’s set up a petition on change.org so children like himself can have access to literacy education and to erase the perception that the label “disabled” means a child has limits on learning. He has written to the Minister of Education, and is hoping to meet the Minister of Children and Families, who decides government policy in the UK for children with special needs. Jonathan believes this is his purpose, the one thing he wants to do before he dies. He went to the media and actually wrote a press release himself. He wants to change attitudes, to help people to see what children like him, who are supposedly locked away, are capable of achieving.

As for his younger sisters, Jonathan talks to them about his faith and is writing thoughts and guidance down for when he’s no longer here—the perpetual protective big brother.

And for us: I asked Chantal if Jonathan could write a prayer to share with our readers and he happily obliged:

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for loving children like me, giving us strength, courage and peace during our lives. Knowing You will greet us in Heaven brings great joy.
Please help give a voice to all children like me so they might be able to say what they want.
In the loving and glorious name of our Lord Jesus,
Amen.

By Jonathan Bryan—aged 10

If you’d like to know more about the remarkable and inspiring Jonathan, check out his autobiography, Life Adventures of awesome Jonathan, which can be found on his blog. You can also leave comments there for Jonathan to read.

UPDATE: Jonathan was finally confirmed in November, describing it as “the best service of my life.” During the ceremony, his godfather read a beautiful testimony that Jonathan himself had written. He has also gathered more than 179,000 signatures for his petition to help other “locked-in” children and met with the Minister for Vulnerable Children and Families, Edward Timpson.

Jonathan turned 11 in January surrounded by his family and chocolate cake. And to mark the big event, Jonathan wrote a Thanksgiving Psalm in which he says he is “Rejoicing in God’s lavished love.” But that’s not all. Jonathan decided that during Lent he would try to help raise money for charity and he ended the Easter period with the most powerful Easter poem: “Rejoice for Jesus Has Risen,” that was read out on BBC Radio Two by esteemed poet Ian McMillan (if you’d like to listen, forward to 1 hour 15 minutes).

We continue to be astounded by this remarkable child who is proof of what a mother’s love can achieve.

https://aleteia.org/2017/05/12/unlocking-jonathan-a-mother-helps-her-disabled-son-find-his-voice/

BREAKING: Trump nominates pro-life Neil Gorsuch to Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 31, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – President Trump confirmed Tuesday night that his Supreme Court nominee is pro-life Neil Gorsuch of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"When Justice Scalia passed away suddenly last February, I made a promise to the American people" to find "very best judge in the country for the Supreme Court," said Trump. “I am a man of my word. I will do as I say, something that the American people have been asking for from Washington for a very, very long time.”

This afternoon, the conservative news site Independent Journal Review reported that "two high-ranking administration sources" confirmed Gorsuch would be the nominee. CNN released a similar report. 

Trump said Gorsuch has a "brillant mind, tremendous discipline" and bipartisan support. Trump noted that a justice can serve for half a century or so.

Maureen Scalia, the wife of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, was at the White House for Trump's announcement. The president called her a representative of the "late, great Justice Antonin Scalia."

Gorsuch, 49, is a favorite of social conservatives because of his pro-life views and his record defending religious liberty. In Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius, Gorsuch sided with the Christian-owned craft store that did not want to be forced by the government to provide certain contraceptives through its health plan.

Gorsuch favored the Little Sisters of the Poor when dissenting from a 10th Circuit decision saying the nuns must be forced to formally cooperate with the provision of contraception. The dissent essentially said that the 10th Circuit "had shown insufficient deference to the Little Sisters’ own articulation of the tenets of their religious beliefs," according to SCOTUS blog.

Gorsuch attended University of Oxford, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School. He has "a flair that matches — or at least evokes" that of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, SCOTUS blog reports, because his "opinions are exceptionally clear and routinely entertaining; he is an unusual pleasure to read, and it is always plain exactly what he thinks and why."

Gorsuch brought up Scalia in his speech tonight.

"Justice Scalia was a lion of the law," he said. "I miss him."

In 2009, Gorsuch wrote The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, in which he argued that human life has intrinsic value and "that intentional killing is always wrong." The nuanced book examined legal and ethical issues surrounding assisted suicide and euthanasia, as well as the roles patient autonomy and refusal of unwanted medical care play. Its publisher Princeton University Press calls the book "the most comprehensive argument against their legalization ever published." Gorsuch studied under natural law expert John Finnis. 

Just last year, Gorsuch sided with Utah Governor Gary Herbert when he sought to defund Planned Parenthood. 

Of Roe v. Wade, Gorsuch wrote that there is "no constitutional basis" for giving a mother more rights than her unborn child (The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, p. 82): 

In Roe, the Court explained that, had it found the fetus to be a “person” for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment, it could not have created a right to abortion because no constitutional basis exists for preferring the mother’s liberty interests over the child’s life.

It doesn't appear that Gorsuch has ruled on a case directly related to the constitutionality of abortion.

Gorsuch's resume is "as good as it gets," Trump said. He is "someone who respects our laws…and who loves our Constitution."

"I am so thankful tonight for my family, my friends, and my faith," said Gorsuch. "These are the things that keep me grounded at life’s peaks and sustain me in its valleys."

He said he is "honored" and "humbled" to be nominated.

Pro-Life From Start to Finish:

Pro-Life From Start to Finish

Fr. Ed Broom, OMV

Human life begins at the very moment of conception; human life dies when the soul leaves the body at natural death. God is the origin, the author, the sustainer, and the only one who can determine the actual moment that each and every human person dies. These are the first principles, on a human and biological level, that all those engaged in Pro-life dialogue must commence with.

Theological Foundations

At the very moment that a child is conceived, then it is God Himself who intervenes infusing an immortal soul in that human person. This immortal soul, from its inception, is endowed with an intellect with the powers of memory, understanding and imagination. Also the immortal soul is endowed with free will by which this individual can choose to love God with all his energy, strength and will. By utilizing the word immortal, we mean that this soul infused at the moment of conception will live for all eternity, that means forever and ever and ever—not until the end of the world, but forever and ever and ever! If this individual decides to love God in his life on earth and dies loving God, then he will be united with God forever in heaven.

This being the ultimate reality, what can we do as People of Life to defend life? Until the crude and horrendous reality of abortion is eliminated from the face of the earth, all of us, and we must emphasize all of us, must be involved in one way or another in the Pro-life movement. Not just once a year, in the month of January, when we lament the tragic legalization by the Supreme Court of abortion—killing innocent babies—but always! In a word, the innocent babies in the wombs of their mommies cannot speak so as to defend themselves. Therefore, we must be the clear, unequivocal, concise and determined voice of the unborn. They cannot speak or defend themselves, so we must do it for them!

Following we will offer several ways by which you can undertake the most noble task of fighting against abortion—the number one moral evil in the country—and defend the innocent and the most vulnerable persons in our country. Indeed they are persons, smaller and less-developed biologically, but they are persons. The founding Fathers of the United States of America had no confusion or identity crisis on human life when they wrote and said: Every human person has inviolable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

First and foremost, all of us can do the following: pray! Prayer gives us power. Prayer is our weapon. Prayer can change hearts. Prayer can move the mountains, even the highest mountains—remember the movie Little Boy. Prayer gives life, defends life, and sustains life. Why? For the simple reason that prayer unites us and fortifies us with God Himself. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life…”  Jesus also said: “I have come to give LIFE and LIFE in abundance.”  Saint Alphonsus Liguori expressed it in these words: “There are not strong people and weak people, but rather people that pray and those who do not pray.”  In other words, the person who prays well and fervently, with faith, confidence, and perseverance will eventually win the battle. If we have a nation or country in prayer, then the victory is ours. The famous Rosary-priest, Father Peyton expressed it in these words: “A world in prayer is a world in peace.”  Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta asserted: “This world will not know peace until the end of abortion.”  In sum, let us pray in reparation for the many crimes and abominations of abortion, but also for the end of abortion.

Second, we must undertake the practice of penance and fasting.  Jesus said: “Some devils can be expelled only by prayer and fasting.” Jesus conquered and overcame the devil in the desert by praying and by fasting for forty days and forty nights. Jesus said: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that issues forth from the mouth of God.”  Most likely none of us can fast forty days and forty nights in imitation of Jesus, but we can all give up something. Saint Therese encourages us with these words: “Holiness consists in doing small (ordinary) things with great or extraordinary love.”  There we have the secret to holiness: doing all we do with great love!

Third, another key to preventing abortion we might call preventative medicine by means of teaching teens the value of the virtue of chastity or holiness. Would it not be a great idea if all the Parishes throughout the country, better yet, all the Parishes throughout the world, would teach teens the importance of the virtue of chastity? How? By teaching them the beauty of chastity. Teach them that sexuality is a beautiful gift from God but it must be practiced and expressed in the proper time and the proper place. Of course, this means that while human sexuality is a beautiful gift from God, its proper time and place is only in the context of a man and woman married in the Sacrament of holy Matrimony, in the church. Only then does a couple have a right to the marital act, of course being always open to the possibility of conception, or if you like the possibility of Procreation. What a beautiful and most profound word, that of Procreation. What this word really means is that God allows two human persons, a man and a woman, to collaborate with Him in the bringing forth of a new human life by means of conception.

Another motivation for the young to embrace chastity and sexual relations only in the context of Sacramental love might be a CHASTITY MASS AND RING. What is meant by this is that young people involved in their Confirmation program would have built into this Confirmation program a chastity Mass with the chastity ring as an integral part of the program itself. Therefore, in the context of the Mass, after the homily, the priest (or priests) will place chastity rings on the young girls and boys. Then these youth will wear this ring until they are married as a clear reminder that they have made the commitment to be chaste or pure and that they will have no sexual relations until their wedding night.

All of this is said in the context of fighting against abortion on this front because many abortions are perpetrated by the young, and that is even the teenagers, and for many reasons. However, one of the fundamental reasons for the high incidence of abortions among teens, among the youth, is a very weak formation and foundation in the virtue of chastity, not taught well at home or anywhere else for that matter!!!

One last note, with respect to chastity—the virtue of modesty! Young people, possibly girls more than boys, but both, must be educated in the practice of modesty, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church states is the “Guardian of chastity.”  We must never forget that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Through Baptism we are transformed into sons and daughters of God the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, intimate friends of the Holy Spirit, that is living tabernacles of the Blessed Trinity, Sanctuaries of God! With this knowledge of our sublime dignity, as well as the knowledge of our destiny, we must live accordingly and practice the virtue of modesty. May Our Lady be our sublime example!

Fourth, the use and viewing of the ultrasound. One of the most notorious abortionist’s in the United States in the early 70’s was a Doctor who practiced abortions in New York. He was known as the “King of abortions.”  Why? He had carried out 80,000 abortions. Nonetheless, God works miracles in strange ways according to the human perspective. The name of this Doctor was Bernard Nathanson. Divine providence worked in this way. Doctor Nathanson viewed a primitive ultrasound in which he saw the baby moving. Touched and moved by grace, Nathanson honestly admitted that it was a baby, a living human person. From that moment on, he never performed another abortion in his entire life! On the contrary, he became one of the most vocal Pro-life advocates in the country, and not only that, in the world at large. Gifted with a very keen intellect, Nathanson wrote against abortion in very scholarly terms. However, most likely his greatest claim to fame was the production of the movie The Silent Scream. In this movie, Nathanson portrays graphically a baby being torn from the womb of his mother and suffering intensely; the baby is opening up his mouth screaming, but the scream cannot be heard! Once produced and released for the public this film accomplished untold miracles of grace, definitely saving the lives of many unborn persons—babies in the womb.

Incidentally, Nathanson was converted to Catholicism and received all the Sacraments of Initiation in St. Patrick’s Cathedral by the late Cardinal John O’Conner.

Years have passed since the movie The Silent Scream was released. Now, thanks be to God and the advance of modern technology, the Ultrasound is much more advanced, clear, and graphic in the presentation of the unborn baby within the womb. A woman considering an abortion, if exposed to the ultrasound of her baby, might be able to see the baby waking up, yawning, stretching, scratching his nose, sucking his thumb, and even smiling at his mother. Many women upon viewing their baby in the Ultrasound cannot carry out the grisly murder of their innocent child.

In sum, if you know of a woman considering an abortion with an already developed child, why not bring her to view the Ultrasound. There is a good chance that after seeing this, the mother will say YES to life, graced and blessed with seeing her little baby moving and possibly smiling at her!

Fifth, the Biblical YES of two holy women! Why not present to the woman considering abortion the example of two holy women who would most likely be targets for abortion today: Saint Elizabeth and the Blessed Virgin Mary (Read from the Gospel of Saint Luke: 1: 39-45) Why? Saint Elizabeth was obviously too old—way beyond the age of child-bearing; and Mary, was too young, almost certainly a mere teenage. We all know the end of this story! Both said YES to carrying their babies and they brought forth the two greatest: Saint John the Baptist and Jesus, the Savior of the world, who is truly the Way, the Truth and the Life. If Mary and Elizabeth could say YES to life, so can all women. What is definitely needed is this attitude of the heart: Trust. All pregnant women must trust, not in the world and its false values, but in God who is not only the Origin and Author of life, but also the Provider and the Sustainer of life. With Saint Faustina let us pray: Jesus, I trust in You!

In conclusion, let all of us feel the call, as well as the duty, as men and women of life to defend unborn human life. It is God who gives life. The holy Job expressed it in clear and unequivocal words: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I return to the earth; the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord!”  Indeed, it is only the Lord, God Himself, who can give life and it is only God who can take life away! As human persons created in the image and likeness of God, and through Baptism sons and daughters of God Himself, we must be staunch defenders of life from the very moment of conception to the very last breath of life. We are People of Life. May Our Lady who said YES to life encourage us by her prayers to love life at all times, in all places, until the end of time!

The Natural Law: A Guide for How to Be Human

Karlo Broussard

The Catholic Church is often ridiculed when it comes to its moral teachings. Whether it’s Church teaching on contraception, so-called “same-sex” marriage, the acting out of transgender ideologies, homosexual acts, or abortion, popular culture tends to view the Church as some evil tyrant trying to tell people how to live their lives.

What amazes me is how little the Church’s critics understand why the Church teaches such things. They fail to realize that behind the teachings about which specific acts are right or wrong is the general standard of determining what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate human behavior, which in turn rests on an understanding of what constitutes the good and the bad.

A good or bad triangle? 

When we speak of the terms good and bad, we necessarily reference the nature or essence of something. For example, let’s say we have two triangles, one drawn on the back of a cracked seat on a moving bus and the other drawn with a straight edge on a piece of paper at a stationary desk.

Which do you think would be a good example of a triangle? Obviously the good triangle would be the one drawn with a straight edge on a piece of paper at the desk. But we have to ask, “Why?”

The answer is because the triangle drawn with a straight edge instantiates triangularity better than the one drawn on the cracked bus seat—that is to say, it best represents what a triangle is supposed to be. Notice that in determining which triangle is good and bad we implicitly compare each to what a triangle is—its essence or nature.

A good or bad oak tree? 

Consider now an oak tree. Let’s say we have one oak tree that has strong roots and sinks its roots deep into the ground, and the other has weak roots and doesn’t sink its roots deep into the ground. Which one is the good oak tree? Which one is the bad?

Obviously, the former is the good oak tree, since it does what an oak tree is supposed to do given its nature—that is to say, it achieves the ends its nature directs it toward (e.g., sinking deep roots into the ground, taking in nutrition, and growing). Notice once again nature determines what is a good or bad instance of a thing.

The oak tree’s nature also helps us determine what is good and bad for the tree. If we were to spray the tree with poison, would the oak tree achieve its natural ends of sinking roots deep into the ground, taking in nutrition, and growing? Of course not! Therefore, we can say that poison is bad for the tree given its nature. And notice that what is bad for the tree is independent of what you are I think; it is an objective fact.

By contrast, if we water the tree, fertilize it, and allow it the light it needs, it will achieve the ends its nature directs it toward. As such, we can conclude that water, fertilizer, and light are good for the tree. And notice once again our judgment about what is good is independent of what you or I think. What is good for the tree, given its nature, is an objective fact.

So, for living things we appeal to nature not only to determine whether it is a good instance of the kind of thing it is but also what is good and bad for the thing given the ends its nature directs it toward.

A good or bad human being? 

The same reasoning applies to human beings. Human beings have a nature or essence with various capacities and ends the fulfillment of which is good and the frustration of which is bad, as a matter of objective fact.

For example, nature directs us to preserve our own existence. This is something we share with all living things. Nature also directs us to preserving our species through sexual intercourse and rearing children—something we share with animals specifically. Finally, nature directs us to certain ends or goals that are peculiar to us as rational animals—namely, to know the truth about God, to live in society, to shun ignorance, and to avoid harming those with whom one has to live.

Therefore, we can know what is good and bad for human beings objectively speaking. Any behavior that facilitates the achievement of these natural ends is considered good—that is to say, it will fulfill human nature. Any behavior that frustrates the achievement of these natural ends is considered bad—that is to say, it won’t bring about human flourishing.

Human nature therefore serves as a standard for what is good and bad behavior for human beings and it is independent of what you or I think. On this analysis, what is good and bad behavior is an objective fact.

Now, since it belongs to our rational nature to do good and avoid evil (see Summa Theologiae I-II:94:2), and the good is the achievement of the ends nature directs us toward, the rational person will perceive those ends and behave in a way that facilitates their achievement. The person who chooses to behave in a way that frustrates man’s natural ends acts irrationally. And because man is free to behave in either way, he will be either worthy of praise or blame depending on his choice.

So, to the moral skeptic’s question “Why should I do what is good?” the answer is, as the philosopher Edward Feser writes, “[B]ecause to be rational just is (in part) to do what is good, to fulfill the ends set for us by nature” (Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide, ch. 5).

The formulation of general moral principles on the basis of human nature’s capacities and ends and the systematic working out of their implications is what the Catholic Church has called in her Tradition the natural moral law. Charles Rice, an American legal scholar, defines the natural moral law as “a set of manufacturer’s directions written into our nature so that we can discover through reason how we ought to act” (50 Questions on the Natural Law, ch. 1).

Conclusion 

It is this natural moral law that the Catholic Church has always appealed to in defense of its prohibition of certain behaviors. Whether it’s contraception, homosexual acts, or abortion, the Church sees in these behaviors a frustration of certain ends our nature directs us toward, and as such cannot contribute to human flourishing—that is to say, they cannot contribute to authentic human happiness. In this sense they are bad. Since the Church is in the business of leading us to authentic human happiness, it says no to such behaviors.

Rather than being an evil tyrant trying to limit everyone’s freedom, the Church is simply trying to be a voice for what it means to be human and how to flourish as one. What’s so bad about that?

This article is reprinted with permission from our friends at Catholic Answers.

Karlo Broussard, a native of Crowley, Louisiana, left a promising musical career to devote himself full-time to the work of Catholic apologetics. For more than a decade he has traveled the country teaching apologetics, biblical studies, theology, and philosophy. Karlo has published articles on a variety of subjects in Catholic Answers Magazine, is a regular guest onCatholic Answers Live, and is an active blogger at catholic.com. Karlo holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in theology from Catholic Distance University and the Augustine Institute, and is currently working on his masters in philosophy with Holy Apostles College and Seminary. He also worked for several years in an apprenticeship with nationally known author and theologian Fr. Robert J. Spitzer at the Magis Center of Reason and Faith. Karlo is one of the most dynamic and gifted Catholic speakers on the circuit today, communicating with precision of thought, a genuine love for God, and an enthusiasm that inspires. Karlo resides in Murrieta, CA with his wife and four children. You can view Karlo's online videos at KarloBroussard.com. You can also book Karlo for a speaking event by contacting Catholic Answers at 619-387-7200.

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