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LLMom
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| Posted: Oct 10 2008 at 10:35am | IP Logged
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This past Sunday was respect life Sunday. Bishop Martino of Scranton,PA diocese wrote this letter and had it read in every parish in his diocese. Our pastor read it as well. It is VERY powerful.
Respect Life
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Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
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guitarnan
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What an excellent letter! Thank you for sharing it. It helps me focus on what is REALLY important right now...
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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graciefaith
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Beautiful! My family is having a political debate, through email. I might just send this to them. Thank you so much!!
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Blessed wife and mom of 3 girls, Sept. '01, Dec. '02 and Oct. '07
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mathmama
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I live in Scranton. This letter is SO beautiful! Please pray for Bishop Martino....he is really getting quite a backlash from this, although there is a large, faithful, and vocal group of pro lifers.
BTW, Lisa, where are you from?? It is wonderful that the Bishop is getting a lot of positive press from this in the orthodox Catholic world.
Beth
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ladybugs
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It is an excellent letter!
Has anyone seen this article?
It's titled "What Reduces Abortions?" and it is written by Richard Doerflinger, Associate Director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, USCCB.
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Maria P
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cornomama4
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My ds and dbil have some how been convinced that they want a President who actually cares about the "saved" babies after they are born, as in "pro-life Republicans cut social programs and are war-mongers, which doesn't respect life at all". I think they have a good point, but our Pastor had a very powerful homily on Respect Life Sunday which focused on the very logical (as in academia logical) that no social program is going to help a person who was aborted.
DSis also had a friend who was working the pregnancy crisis hotline, and after awhile felt disillusioned because she didn't have very many optimistic resources to tell these women about. How do we, as Catholics, support pro-life issues so strongly but then realistically continue to help provide support for those babies once they are born?
IMHO, reducing the rate of "unwanted" prenancies is the primary goal, but how do we heal this culture? Some "unwanted' prenancies turn out to be the catalyst to form a family (I was just such a catalyst!) but that is not always the case at all.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we must support the sanctity of life, but we also must be aware and willing to be peripherally involved in the upbringing of these children. If government won't do it, we are all called on for charity where we can.
Hope this isn't too political....I think it's more Catholic, but also what are people's ideas about how to REALLY help lower the rate of abortions?? Or to help the mothers who choose have their baby and then are "on their own"? Sometimes I just get confused about what to do?? (not about how to vote, but about how to effectively help people in need) What can we do to keep fighting for the unborn once they are born?
Wondering,
cm4
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guitarnan
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Is there a pregnancy crisis center in your area? We have two (one per county) that are Christian-sponsored organizations. They provide free counseling, pregnancy testing and other services to new moms, and they have connections to all kinds of resources for mom and baby. In fact, they provide free services (like the testing) that our county low-income clinics do not, but that are required in order for these moms to receive medical care for the clinics.
I know many people who work/volunteer for these clinics, and who bring pro-life issues and concrete needs before our church community so we can help in effective ways. (This month we filled baby bottles with change to provide financial support for the organizations that help moms with new babies, for ex.)
Perhaps there's such a crisis center in your area (non-denominational, open to all moms in need) that you could support?
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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ladybugs
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cornomama4 wrote:
| I think they have a good point, but our Pastor had a very powerful homily on Respect Life Sunday which focused on the very logical (as in academia logical) that no social program is going to help a person who was aborted. |
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Hey CM4,
Having been in a situation where we looked for foundational and government help, I agree that no social progam will help a person who chooses life. I don't think you can legislate and mandate that kind of support and I think Catholics, as a whole, could improve in this.
Of course, you know that we have to change at the root level and by that I mean our hearts and how we live. Being open to life is of course a way in which to show that, too.
I think at a minimum, we, as Catholics have to start acting like we like and love our children instead of engaging in the negative chatter of what children mean (in the culture).
Nancy's suggestion about crisis pregnancy centers is a great thing to support and maybe having your children get involved practically in buying supplies or fundraising for those type of centers is another way to help.
I was just going to ask my local homeschool group today if they would be interested in doing something for our local crisis pregnancy center (ie: making those fleece blankets or knitting bonnets) or something.
Sometimes, I think when people are talking in terms of "a President who actually does something...." they're really looking for government intervention instead of personal intervention. Now, obviously, I have no idea if that's the case in your relatives' situation, but I do think that those are code words for that having heard them from various family members in our families.
Did your ds have any ideas to work on or implement?
I know there are others out there who have much better ideas than I - I think it's good to brainstorm this...
Does anyone have some ideas to share?
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Maria P
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Barbara C.
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Feminists for Life do a lot of outreach work on college campuses. They try to set up Pro-Life counseling services on campus. They also work with universities to provide affordable on-campus housing and childcare for single mothers so that they don't feel like they have to choose between their education and their baby and build a support network.
Some churches have Project Gabriel which raises money and supplies to take in single women who are being pressured to abort by their families and/or partner.
Programs like this help stop abortion at its roots: pressure; fear; lack of financial assets; lack of mental, emotional, and physical support.
Of course the other root that has to be addressed is the "hook-up" culture. Not only is it leading to abortions but it is destroying young women (and some young men) mentally and emotionally and bringing a lot of baggage into marriages leading to a higher risk of divorce. I think groups like Big Brothers/Big Sisters and such have the opportunity to address some of these issues.
Those were just some thoughts about how to help stop abortion beyond voting.
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Barbara
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Sparrow
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cornomama4 wrote:
| My ds and dbil have some how been convinced that they want a President who actually cares about the "saved" babies after they are born, as in "pro-life Republicans cut social programs and are war-mongers, which doesn't respect life at all". |
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I hear that a lot and I don't see how people can say that with a straight face when they're talking about a man who has said repeatedly that living, breathing babies who are born "pre-viable" have no rights to medical care or humane treatment. And last time I checked the Dems voted to go to Iraq (heck, HRC has been saying since '98 that we needed to go there and do something), and plenty of wars have been waged under Democratic presidents. Not to mention, when I look around my community, I see conservatives staffing and running the homeless shelters, crisis pregnancy centers, food banks, etc. I'm really tired of this stuff about how conservatives don't care about people just because they don't all think a huge federal welfare program is a good idea.
Sorry, not ranting at you, just frustrated in general!
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Katie, blessed wife to Tyson and mom to all girls! Bailey (7) Riley (3) and Rory (3/17)
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MaryM
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Please keep the discussion in this thread to respect life topics and suggesting ways to support the pro-life position in concrete ways in our everyday life. Discussion of political parties and political pointing is not appropriate.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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LLMom
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| Posted: Oct 29 2008 at 6:28pm | IP Logged
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mathmama wrote:
I live in Scranton. This letter is SO beautiful! Please pray for Bishop Martino....he is really getting quite a backlash from this, although there is a large, faithful, and vocal group of pro lifers.
BTW, Lisa, where are you from?? It is wonderful that the Bishop is getting a lot of positive press from this in the orthodox Catholic world.
Beth |
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Beth,
I live in Texas. I was so glad he found it and read it.
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Lisa
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Topic: Pastorial letter on respect life
