Some old posts from 2 years ago.

2 years ago while I worked at a local Catholic high school I went to Rock For Life's training and activism weekend. Being in DC for a few days surrounding the March for Life offered some interesting things for me for to do and see. I originally posted these on my myspace blog and decided to post part of them here. In particular I want to post my reactions to the Silent No More talks I heard, to this day these talks have stayed with me and I try to use them when speaking about abortion and how it hurts woman. This weekend rekindled the fire inside me for defending the babies. I know I've been slacking, but I have said more Hail Marys and Rosaries in this past year than I ever have. It still disturbs and disheartens me that some Catholic schools don't get it, they don't get that you need to teach what the Church teaches and that you need teachers who actually believe and uphold and live out what the Church teaches. I won't get into that topic as that just opens a wound I'm not ready to re-open yet.

Anyway, my thoughts from two years ago with my comments from today as well. Let me preface the following with this: a major part of the weekend was the activism aspect of the weekend, most of it was done before the March but a fair bit of it was done after the March too. We were asked to be a sort of "security force" at the Silent No More Vigil and then we moved over to our protest of a PP fundraiser. Which was after the NOW ladies left the Silent No More Vigil, yet the Vigil still continued and it was still going when we returned.

Eventually the time came for our group to venture over to a bar a few streets away for the protest of the Planned Parenthood fundraiser that was there. We walked the few blocks over while carrying our signs and laughing and getting to know each other. Along the way randomly resting up against a tree was a bamboo pole, Phill, just picked it up and kept walking. When we got to the bar we realized that the fundraiser was on the second floor so we quickly amid many a laugh stuck one of our Justice for All, Face it Abortion Kills signs on the stick and Phill held it up for the PP (lol, their abbreviation just makes me laugh) people to see. There were about 15 of us and just about as many cops, the cops just laughed because we did everything we were supposed to, we kept the door way clear and left a path for people to pass by on the sidewalk.

I was holding a total of 4 signs, I had my Justice for all one, down by my feet, along with the KofC Defend Life one resting against me, as Phil pawned that sign off on me. I ended up with the other 2 as the Irish ladies went in to drink aka infiltrate so I had their signs as well. I was decked out in pro-life-ness. During one of the talks at the workshops ALL and RFL had set up, someone mentioned how different the 2 sides were, how the pro-lifers usually had smiles in their faces and were laughing, and how the pro-abortion/pro-choice side usually was gruff and seemed angry.

I noticed how true that was at the Silent No More Vigil. The NOW women just seemed angry. I guess I would be too if someone was exposing the lies my organization was spouting. The majority of the ladies who gave their testimony spoke of how they were a part of NOW and fell for it's lies about how "safe" abortion is and how it wouldn't affect them. This women, years later, some 30 years after their abortion still remember the pain it caused, and the torment it caused them. I remember 2 testimonies in particular one was of a couple, a husband and wife, and one was an older African American lady. The husband and wife struck me as, as they said, they were the "first to give their testimony together". The wife spoke of how she was 18 when she got pregnant and her mom basically told her, that can't happen, you need an abortion. The husband spoke of how he just sat there and didn't say anything since he was 17 when it happened. Despite what happened they remained a couple and got married, they have helped each other through many of the things that have affected them such as depression as a result of the abortion.

The other lady, the African American threw me for a loop when she said "my uncle Martin Luther King Jr." At that point I think I actually did the whole WHAT! head shake and turn. She spoke of how "Daddy King" Martin Luther King Sr. when she mentioned aborting a baby said "no one in this family kills their child" or something like that. The child she had inside her at the time is now 31 years, and seeing her tell her story and relive it in my mind still brings tears to my eyes. I honestly can not put into words what these men and women spoke about. Fr. Pavone asked us to be moved by their testimonies and I'd say it is safe to say that anyone in attendance was moved by their testimonies.

I remember listening to one lady give her testimony and at the end when everyone starts clapping, these 2 kids next to me start jumping up and down screaming "great job mom, we love you mom" I can't even type the story with out crying. I happened to read the Rock for Life blog that comes to me via e-mail and I had almost forgotten about this testimony. There was a young lady who spoke of her experience, of how she could feel her baby move up until that last moment when it just stopped. She spoke of how the abortion was almost an assembly line how they moved from one room to the next, to one bed to the next. She was stuck with a needle in her stomach and whatever was in the needle poisoned the fluid the baby was in. She spoke how she felt her child move like never before and then it just stopped. Once this needle was stuck in and taken out she was left on a bed to rest and to let whatever was to happen happen. She then told of how she woke up the next morning and was sent to a room with what looked like a toilet and told to sit over it and push. "I pushed my dead baby into a toilet." was what she told us amid tears. She then told us how the nurse or whatever title this lady had said "oh, look at how skinny you are now."

Those words are what Planned Parenthood and NOW don't want you to hear, they want you to believe the lies that abortion is safe and that it doesn't harm the woman. That is why Silent No More was started to combat those lies, to expose the truth. That is why I will stand outside an abortion mill and pray for everyone inside it. That is why I will not sit idly by while my generation is killed. 47,000,000 have been taken from our generation... what are you going to do?

Something needs to be done and it needs to start in the trenches aka the churches. The Catholic Church needs to step it up, well not the Church, the Church, Herself is unwavering on this topic, Her princes, the Cardinals need to step it up, the Bishops need to step it up, they need to say something, they need to actually acknowledge that people like John Kerry and Nancy aka "Madam Speaker" have excommunicated themselves by saying YES to any form of abortion. It's not that hard, and we all know our Church is a forgiving Church and will take you back in a heartbeat, so even if you make a mistake you are always welcome. Just stop calling yourself Catholic and pro-abortion, there is no such thing. A Catholic is pro-life otherwise they are not Catholic.

Since that posting you can make the total babies killed via abortion to 50 million and you can see that I still don't like "Madam Speaker Pelosi" and other "catholic" politicians. I have uploaded pictures as well, I was hoping to find the one of myself with my four signs but I can't find it, so I will post one of the two story protest, the NOW bitches, I can't call them anything else other than bitches. I will never forget one of those "ladies" pushing herself up against me (all the time I was thinking get your nasty pro-abortion self away from me) telling me to move politely by saying "excuse me" as she pushed herself up against me. You'll see that the pro-life movement pushed its way in as well. We were nice and quiet and polite, they were not, they were there shouting their stupid cheers and being all nasty. The other picture is one of myself and part of my pro-life gear with the Capitol Building behind me. The other is of me during the actual March.

I've been waiting for this

Finally, Pappa Arty aka Bishop Serratelli has said something involving politicans and abortion. I first met Fr. Serratelli on the bus ride down to the March for Life, he was rector of the minor seminary at the time, and Seton Hall United for Life, the organization I was a part of, was in charge of the bus. I know he's a very busy man, between changing the English translation, and other trips he took over the summer, so I gave him til now to say something and he did, because he's always been a strong voice for the unborn. While this "letter" aka column in the weekly diocesian paper, The Beacon, is not in direct responce to Pelosi or Biden, we all know which politican the Bishop is talking about. As I am at work, (It's all good, I work for the Church, they can't get mad at me for reading a Bishop's letter), I will just paste the article. Later on I will add my comments to/about it.

What follows is Bishop Serratelli's article, feel free to read it here or as I'm giving you the direct link to it on the Paterson Diocese webpage,

A Politician's Promise: No Right to Life! No Freedom!
After committing a murder in Rome, the famous 17th century Italian painter Caravaggio went to Malta to avoid the death penalty. While there, the Great Master of the Order of the Knights of Malta commissioned him to do a painting for the chapel of the Co-Cathedral of St. John in Valletta. Caravaggio chose as his theme the martyrdom of John the Baptist. He produced The Beheading of St. John, his largest work, the only one he ever signed. No doubt the scene touched him personally.

Herod was married to Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. Because John the Baptist preached against this sin, he incurred the hatred of Herod’s wife. The day her daughter Salome delighted Herod with her seductive dance, Herodias had her make Herod promise to kill John the Baptist. Within the severe architecture of a 16th century prison, Caravaggio vividly depicts the grisly moment when Herod kept his promise.

Caravaggio’s work, considered his greatest masterpiece, immortalizes the misguided fidelity of a ruler to his gruesome promise. With the stroke of the soldier’s sword, John dies and so does freedom. Freedom is based on the truth of the human person as created by God and protected by his law.
When a ruler can decide against God’s law, true freedom is sentenced to death.

Recently, a politician made a promise. Politicians usually do. If this politician fulfills his promise, not only will many of our freedoms as Americans be taken from us, but the innocent and vulnerable will spill their blood.

On April 18, 2007, in Gonzales v. Carhart, The Supreme Court upheldthe Partial-Birth Abortion Ban. The very next day prominent Democratic members of Congress reintroduced the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). The bill is misleadingly packaged as a freedom bill. It is not! It is a clear act of unreasoned bias to end abruptly and brutally the debate on the pressing and fundamental moral issue of the right to life.

For thirty-five years, Americans have been wrestling with The Supreme Court’s decision legalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade. Most Americans now favor some kind of a ban on abortion. Most who allow abortion would do so only in very rare cases. In fact, in January, 2008, the Guttmacher Institute published its 14th census of abortion providers in the country. Its statistics showed that the abortion rate continues to decline. Abortions have reached their lowest level since 1974. There is truly a deep sensitivity to life in the soul of America.

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) would mortally wound this sensitivity. In effect, it would dismantle the freedom of choice to do all that is necessary to respect and protect human life at its most vulnerable stage. FOCA goes far beyond guaranteeing the right to an abortion throughout the nine months of pregnancy. It arrogantly prohibits any law or policy interfering with that right. While advocates trumpet this law as the triumph of the freedom of choice, they hide the dark reality that the law would actually inhibit choice.

Laws protecting the rights of nurses, doctors and hospitals with moral objections to abortion would no longer stand. Health and safety regulations for abortion clinics would also vanish. Gone the freedom of health care professionals to be faithful to the Hippocratic Oath “to prescribe regimens for the good of …patients…and never do harm to anyone, to please no one [by prescribing] a deadly drug nor [by giving] advice which may cause his death.” Gone the freedom of conscience so essential for a civil society!

If a minority of avid abortionists succeed to impose this law because of the ignorance or apathy of the majority, the law would force taxpayers to fund abortions. Gone the freedom of taxation with representation!

In its 1992 Casey decision, The Supreme Court ruled as constitutional state laws requiring that women and young girls who seek an abortion receive information on the development of the child in the womb as well as alternatives to abortion. The ruling also determined that a period of waiting, usually 24 or 48 hours before making a decision about an abortion is not an undue burden. The Freedom of Choice Act would nullify these laws immediately. Gone the freedom of women and young girls to have all the information they need to make their own choices!

In about half of the States, there are parental notification or consent laws in effect for minors seeking an abortion. The Supreme Court has ruled that these laws are permitted under Roe v. Wade. With the stroke of a pen, these laws would be abolished. Gone the freedom of parents to care for and protect their children and grandchildren!

Advocates of FOCA redefine a woman’s “health” so as to expressly permit post-viability abortions. Thus, a child who survives an abortion can be left to die for the health of the mother. No politically correct word can mask this reality for what it is. This is infanticide. Gone the freedom for a baby, once born, to live!

Science does not dispute that the child in the womb already has all the characteristics that he or she will develop after birth. Notwithstanding, abortionists obstinately refuse the right of the child within the womb to live as a fundamental human right. They are not happy that Americans have not swallowed their distorted propaganda that denies the dignity of the human person from the first moment of conception.

Pro-abortion advocates close their eyes to the fact that abortion even hurts women as it undermines the very fabric of our society. Their zeal for the Freedom of Choice Act sounds the alarm for decent Americans to wake up! The more the right to life is denied, the more we lose our freedoms. The “pro-choice” movement is not pro-choice. It stands against the freedom to choose what is right according to the truth of the human person.

In 2002, as an Illinois legislator, the present democratic candidate voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act. This law was meant to protect a baby that survived a late-term abortion. When the same legislation came up in the Judiciary Committee on which he served, he held to his opposition. First, he voted “present.” Next, he voted “no.”

Along with 108 members of Congress, the present democratic candidate for President continues his strong support for the Freedom of Choice Act. In aspeech before the Planned Parenthood Action Fund last year, he made the promise that the first thing he would do as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. What a choice for a new President!

At the time when Herod murdered John the Baptist because of his promise, Rome practiced the principle "one man, one vote." Whoever the emperor in Rome placed in authority over a subject people, ruled. Today we live in a democracy. We choose our leaders who make our laws. Every vote counts. Today, either we choose to respect and protect life, especially the life of the child in the womb of the mother or we sanction the loss of our most basic freedoms. At this point, we are still free to choose!

Baby Hats

As I sat crocheting a hat for a preemie baby while waiting for the child I babysit to finish up with speech therapy a worker came over and asked, "what are you making?" I replied a baby hat, my friend's niece was born with anencephaly so she had made her niece hats, so we're making some for St. Joe's as they asked her too." She then asked me what stitch I was using and I gladly said "double crochet" while noticing she had precious feet on her tag. I don't know why it amused me that she would have those on at Hackensack University Medical Center, for some reason I tend to assume that those that work for "public" places don't wear their opinions on their sleeves per say. I added that if they needed hats that we would gladly donate some to them and she said, "we don't get many tiny babies here, but NICU probably needs some.

While making the hat, I looked at how tiny it was/is and wondered what child could possible be that small and then I thought of those born even earlier than I was, as I was on course to be a normal sized baby, I just wanted out 10 week early. ;) Thankfully God has blessed me with wonderful health and I've had no health issues.

I was looking on line at different groups and saw pictures of a baby tiny enough to fit the hat I was making, and it just made me more determined to make hats. As the hats are small, they are completed quickly, and well the more babies we can keep warm the better. Makes you appreciate life on a whole new level when you see how determined some of these "little ones" are, though they don't all make it to have a full life, they have all blessed someone with their presence.