Pro-Life Corner

      35 Babies die in Rockford this past Wk : Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right ( A letter to all Rockford Politicians) ; Planned Parenthood Claims 20,000 Volunteers, Challenge to Pro-Lifers ; Detroit Bishop to Offer a Funeral Mass for Eighteen Aborted Babies ; With Adoption of Second Disabled Child Jim Caviezel Makes Good on Pro-Life Convictions ; Uruguay's Pro-Life President Receives Support from Seven Major Religious Groups ; Italian Mother "Lays Down Her Life" for Her Unborn Child ; Switzerland Ethics Committee Calls for the Right to Life of Plants....

On Friday May 2, 13 mothers entered Rockford's abortion mill. Something happened that really reflected our entire country's view of abortion. The first mother to arrive at the mill this morning covered her eyes with both of her hands as her boyfriend drove her into the parking lot.

She did not want to see any of the pro-lifers or their pictures of Jesus or pictures of babies. The boyfriend got out of the car, went to the passenger side, and helped his girlfriend out of the car. The young woman had to be led by the hand into the abortion mill like a blind person because she still had one hand covering her eyes all the way into the entrance to the mill.

I received a call from a sidewalk counselor who was at the mill at 10:30 am, and to her surprise the young woman. when leaving the mill, continued to cover her eyes as she was led to her car.

It really is heartbreaking to see how we as a people and individuals think if we hide from the truth that abortion kills children that this truth will somehow go away.

On Tuesday May 6, an estimated 22 children were aborted in Rockford. Thankfully through the grace of God two mothers who went into the abortion mill came out and refused to have abortions.
One mother said she had the paperwork all filled out but then knew she couldn't kill her child. The local pro-life community will be holding a baby shower for her in the near future.

The abortion mill owner place a large sign right at the entrance of the abortion mill that reads, "Abortion, the loving option." How sick is that?
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Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right.
Written by Frank Munda, Editor Pro-Life Corner

     www.prolifecorner.com This article is for all to see, but is especially directed to all city officials in Rockford, Il and all in the police department.

     First I would like to state I have respect for your offices and your departments. But with all large organizations sometimes we must sit back and see what kind of job we’re doing and see if it can be improved upon.

     We in the pro-life community have had much dialog with supporters of abortion and those who stand up for life and also with the police of Rockford and some politicians and lawyers. The one thing we hear from them in common is ‘abortion is legal and I must stay within the law.” We pro-lifers understand that. But if the politicians and the police want to be right, if they want to be honest, they should finish that thought this way: “Yes, abortion has been decriminalized, but that doesn’t make it right. It is the law of the land, but like slavery before us, it’s an immoral law. And it must be changed. You need to ask how can I as a politician help to bring an end to this immoral law .” Just because you are a mayor, an alderman, a lawyer, a police officer, you do not have to accept immoral law. As a matter of fact, it is your obligation to oppose immoral law at every opportunity. Otherwise, America will be no different than the rest of the world.

     Let me ask you, Mr. Politician, if slavery were still the law of the land, would you own slaves? Would you say it’s against my personal belief or against my religious belief but I can’t let my personal feelings interfere with my political views? I hope you would not take that position. Then why do you take that position regarding abortion?

     This is a civil rights issue. The pro-death forces have succeeded in confusing good people with their bogus arguments such as “It’s my right to have an abortion”, “it’s my body, I’ll do what I want”, “stay out of my bedroom”, and of course, their favorite argument “It’s that darn Catholic Church shoving their views down our throats”. All this is divisive, confusing, and smoke and mirrors. Stop for a moment, take a deep breath and clear your mind and let’s start from square one. Are you in favor of the indiscriminate killing of innocent American citizens on 9/11? Would you be in favor of nuking Iraq and Iran to get rid of the bad guys, knowing that innocent people would die in the solution of that problem? I hope you wouldn’t be in favor of that! Just like killing babies in the womb and wounding their mothers in the process is not a proper solution to the so-called “unwanted pregnancy problem”.

     I must restate to you politicians and police alike: abortion is the law of the land, but it is an immoral law. You must grant to those who have the courage to resist this immoral law the respect that they deserve and allow them their rights as citizens to protest the legalized slaughter of babies.

     You must also see yourselves, whether you be a lawyer, politician, judge, or a police officer, that you too are not relegated to second class citizens of our community; that you did not check your rights to opinions at the door when you came to work today. Yes, you must work within the letter of the law, but as decent men and women of this community you have a responsibility to implement change in any law that is immoral. Be assured, any law that says it’s OK to kill a baby and physically and mentally wound its mother is an immoral law. Let’s join together, let’s work together, to make Rockford Il a community that all can be proud of. We respectfully reach out to you in the hope that a new relationship can be forged between us and your offices.
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Planned Parenthood Claims 20,000 Volunteers, Challenge to Pro-Lifers
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Last week was National Volunteer Week and the nation's largest abortion business claimed it has 20,000 volunteers nationwide. The claim is a challenge to pro-life groups to get more people involved in the fight against abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research. “Our volunteers are incredibly dedicated to the mission of keeping women, men, and teens healthy and safe,” Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained. “Five million people worldwide rely on Planned Parenthood for reproductive health care, education, and information each year, and every day our volunteers play a role in providing and protecting those services.” Pro-life organizations run the gamut from groups that rely on paid professional employees w ho can spend the time needed to specialize in certain areas such as legislation, elections, education and outreach while others need a healthy dose of grassroots support. In total, the pro-life community likely has significantly more volunteers as the pro-abortion giant, but Planned Parenthood's claims are a good motivator to find more.
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Detroit Bishop to Offer a Funeral Mass for Eighteen Aborted Babies

     DETROIT, May 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A funeral Mass burial for eighteen unborn babies will be offered this Saturday, May 3, by Bishop John Quinn of Detroit. The remains of their bodies were discovered in dumpsters at the Woman Care abortion clinic on Southfield Road in Lathrup Village, Michigan which is operated by abortionist Alberto Hodari.

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, called upon all of the nation's Catholic priests today to offer a Mass within the next few days for the "Hodari babies." The pro-life group Citizens for a Pro-life Society headed by Monica Migliorino Miller discovered the bodies in the dumpster and brought the matter to the attention of the police.

Unbelievably, Miller was billed $1,100 by Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for the removal of the evidence from her home. In the meantime, the abortionist has himself escaped without any significant punishment. see coverage:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08032705.html

"This is not the first time that my friend Monica Miller has organized such a work of mercy for discarded children like this," Fr. Pavone stated. "Her work spans the last couple of decades, and it has been my honor to participate with her in similar funeral services in the past."

"This Saturday's service is no ordinary funeral. There are still too many of our fellow citizens who don't even acknowledge that the people who will be buried this Saturday are people at all. To mourn their deaths publicly, therefore, is not just to honor them, but to sound a wake-up call to our nation that we are living amidst the biggest holocaust of all time. That is why I call upon my brother priests nationwide to bring to the attention of t heir c ongregations this weekend that children are being buried who were brutally, legally killed, and that the killing has to end," Fr. Pavone concluded.

Hodari is a controversial abortionists who was caught on video last year telling medical students that he lied to his patients. Speaking to students at Wayne State in Detroit about his career performing abortions, he said that doctors have a license to lie to their patients, and informed them he does not frequently wash his hands between abortions.

Students for Life of America filmed the talk and SFLA President Ashley Tyndall commented, "Several women have died while getting abortions with Hodari, and yet the Michigan board of health has never investigated him. How many women have to die before the bureaucrats start telling Hodari to wash his hands and tell patients the truth." see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121203.html

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With Adoption of Second Disabled Child Jim Caviezel Makes Good on Pro-Life Convictions
     "You have no idea the blessings that you have coming" says Caviezel to parents considering adoption
April 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Jim Caviezel, the star of the blockbuster film The Passion of the Christ, told an interviewer that he had been challenged by a friend who was not pro-life to live up to his professed pro-life convictions and adopt a disabled child. The friend told Caviezel that if he did that, then he would change to the pro-life position. When Caviezel and his wife, Kerri, went to China to adopt not one, but eventually two orphans suffering from brain tumours, the friend reneged on the deal. Caviezel, however, said, "It didn't matter to me because the joy that we had from (Bo) - he's like our own."
The couple's first child, Bo, had been abandoned on a train, grew up in an orphanage until he was five and was diagnosed with a brain tumour. The Caviezels nursed Bo through his surgeries and he remains today at the centre of the family.
"We took the harder road," the actor said. "That is what faith is to me; it's action. It's the Samaritan. It's not the one who says he is; it's the one who does - and does without bringing attention to himself. I'm saying this because I want to encourage other people."
Handsome and a compelling actor, Jim Caviezel has taken leading roles in a number of mainstream feature films - The Thin Red Line and the Count of Monte Christo being the best known. But it is his role as the suffering Jesus in the Passion of the Christ that he has become best known for.
Caviezel spoke to an interviewer with the Christophers, a Christian leadership organisation that runs the Christopher Closeup radio, television and internet features. He spoke of the impact of his faith on his career and of the effect on others that his playing the part of Christ has had.
About the adoption of his children, Caviezel was frank about his feelings, saying the challenge "completely terrified" him at first. "Yes, you do feel fear, you do feel scared but you have no idea the blessings that you have coming to you if you just take a chance on faith."
When the Caviezels went to adopt their second child, they were first offered a healthy baby girl, but a five-year-old girl with a brain tumour from the Guangzhou region of China also needed a home. The Caviezels reasoned that a healthy baby would be more likely to be adopted by another family and that the child with the tumour had a greater need for a home.
Caviezel's optimism and self-confidence showed early in his acting career, when many people in Hollywood told him to change his surname, "because no one will be able to pronounce it." He responded, "Well, you've learned to say Schwarzenegger." He was also told that as a devoutly believing Catholic he should be prepared to keep his beliefs quiet. But it was his openness about his faith that attracted the attention of Mel Gibson and led him to offer Caviezel the role of Christ.
Asked about the challenges of being a publicly Catholic figure in Hollywood, Caviezel responded, "It's part of the cross you take up when you choose to believe in Him...we all have this desire to want to be liked...but what we should be asking God is the desire for humility."
The strength of Christian faith, he said, is "in just giving it up and saying I'm going to be a servant of Jesus Christ, and my Father in heaven."
"We were not awarded any Oscars for the Passion, but do you think that's the important thing for God? Certainly if we received ten Oscars, it would not bring any more peace into the world."
"When the world looks at us, in complete and utter dismay, and asks why would you choose to suffer like this? But in that, that's where the great strength is when God starts to work," he said.
Caviezel spoke of the people who approached him after the release of the film and told him about its effects on their lives. "Even people who never knew Christ, who were secularized, said, 'Jim, I finally got what Christianity is,' and that gave me great hope and great joy."
As a serious actor, he said, being associated with the role of Christ has its burdens. "When I walk down the street, I can always see them mouthing. They don't mouth my name, they don't say 'That's Jim Caviezel'; they say, 'That's Jesus'. I can't take my face off...I wear my face everywhere, and when people look, they go, 'There's Jesus'."
But he joked, "I always tell them I'm still the Count of Monte Christo."

Caviezel has provided the voice part, in English, for Christ in the audio dramatization of the New Testament, "The Word of Promise", by Thomas Nelson publishers.
Caviezel said, "When you live in holiness, when you really try to stop sinning, you become braver. You become more courageous, you become a man of your word. You become a man of conviction that you're not willing to sell out and you're really a true knight in shining armour."
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Uruguay's Pro-Life President Receives Support from Seven Major Religious Groups
By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
     MONTEVIDEO, April 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Representatives of seven different religious groups in Uruguay have made a joint declaration supporting president Tabaré Vázquez' promise to veto legislation to decriminalize abortion.
The religious groups include the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches, and Baptist, Mennonite, and Pentecostal groups.
The signers denounced "false opposition between the good of the mother and the good of the unborn child" and observed that "the two goods do not exclude each other, but rather are essential for one another."
Uruguay already has a liberal penal code in relation to abortion. Abortion in Uruguay is not penalized in cases in which the mother's life is in danger, rape, or severe economic hardship.
However, legislation under consideration by the nation's legislature would allow first-trimester abortions for virtually any reason (see previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage at
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08022506.html
Uruguay President Tabaré Vázquez, an obstetrician, has stood against his own party by promising to veto the legislation if it is passed.
Along with its condemnation of abortion decriminalization, the collective letter advocates a legal reform that will minimize punishments received by mothers and increase those given to doctors and others who actually carry out the abortion. It also advocates the creation of crisis pregnancy centers to help pregnant women in need.
In the face of newly-legalized "homosexual unions" in Uruguay, the joint statement included a reminder to Vazquez that adoption should not serve the interest of special interest groups, but rather the true interests of the child.
The state, wrote the representatives, "has the obligation to oversee the right of the child to receive a healthy education in an environment that guarantees him the necessary conditions for emotional, psychological, and moral development, over and above the demands and interests of those who request an adoption."
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Italian Mother "Lays Down Her Life" for Her Unborn Child
     Paola Brenda sacrifices life for "gift of motherhood, the gift of having children"
PIEVE DI SOLIGO, Italy, May 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an act of sacrifice comparable to that of pro-life patroness St. Gianna Beretta Molla, Italian mother Paola Breda recently died after having declined potentially life-saving cancer treatment that could have harmed her unborn child.

Breda was diagnosed with breast cancer six months into her pregnancy with her child Nicola, but postponed treatment until after Nicola's birth.

During her funeral, Vittorio Veneto Bishop Corrado Pizziolo called Breda an exemplification of Jesus Christ's Gospel call "to lay down one's life for one's friends."

"What Jesus did - the Gospel which He lived for us - this is what we see carried out in the life of our sister," said the Bishop according to the Italian newspaper Avvenire.

Father Giuseppe Nadal told Radio Vaticana that Breda was disappointed that she and her husband Loris Amodei were unable to have a child until a decade into their marriage.

Bo th Bre da's first child, Illaria, and her second child, Nicola, brought their mother great joy, said the priest. Fr. Nadal also recounted a teary-eyed Breda coming to him during her second pregnancy.

"'I've been diagnosed with cancer, and they are suggesting chemotherapy, but that would hurt the baby. I absolutely don't want that, because I always asked for the gift of motherhood, the gift of having children," said Breda.

St. Molla was a Milanese pediatric doctor pregnant with her fourth child when she learned of a fibroma in her uterus and declined either the abortion or complete hysterectomy that would have saved her life.

Before surgery to rescue her unborn child, St. Molla told doctors, "If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child - I insist on it. Save him."
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Switzerland Ethics Committee Calls for the Right to Life of Plants
     Bern, Switzerland (LifeNews.com) -- A group of Swiss experts are arguing that plants deserve the right to life and that killing them is morally wrong except when it comes to saving humans. In a report on "the dignity of the creature in the plant world", the federal Ethics Committee on non-human Gene Technology condemned the decapitation of flowers without reason. In a new article published in this week's Weekly Standard, bioethicist Wesley Smith opines: "Switzerland's enshrining of 'plant dignity' is a symptom of a cultural disease that has infected Western civilization, causing us to lose the ability to think critically and distinguish serious from frivolous ethical concerns. It also reflects the triumph of a radical anthropomorphism that views elements of the natural world as morally equivalent to people." Smith notes that once society began to diminish the view of the worth of human beings by abortion, euthanasia and other practices, it makes sense that scientists would push for the rights of plants. "Our accelerating rejection of the Judeo-Christian world view, which upholds the unique dignity and moral worth of human beings, is driving us crazy. Once we knocked our species off its pedestal, it was only logical that we would come to see fauna and flora as entitled to rights."