Am I The Only One To Notice The Bishops' Silence Regarding The Release Of The Pro-Life Activists?

Below is the statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding the release of the 23 pro-life activists who were unjustly imprisoned by the Biden administration.

CRICKETS

DEAD SILENCE

Please don't tell me that they simply had not the time to prepare a statement.  The release happened Thursday, and prior to that, rumors had been widely circulating that the release was imminent.  They had plenty of time to prepare a statement.  Moreover, had the released people been climate activists or shills for unbridled illegal alien invasion, the bishops would have been falling all over themselves to wax lyrical about both the release and the bravery of the activists with great alacrity.  They might, in light of this posting, attempt to mumble something in the most perfunctory manner, but it will ring hollow and superficial.

Their silence can mean only two things:

1. Absolute indifference to their plight, and the plight of the millions of children murdered by abortion.
2. Alignment with the mindset of those who commit these acts of murder.

Once I held the opinion that the bishops were simply too cowardly, too afraid of losing governmental funding for their pet projects, to take an actual Catholic stance towards abortion.  When I saw how ruthlessly they punished priests who upheld Church teaching regarding sexually-perverted lifestyles, I realized that they could indeed move decisively, albeit in the wrong direction.   That leaves me with the two choices noted above.  While I hope the first one is the case, I am seeing how very likely the second one is more the case.  The majority of the bishops have made clear their alignment with the gay agenda.  Why would they not be just as pro-abortion as their pals such as Biden and Pelosi?

Archdiocese Of Washington Lends Little Support To Grassroots Pro-Life Activists

I have been involved in pro-life efforts for approximately 30 years.  As a Catholic, much of my earlier activism has been within the contexts of parish and diocesan structures and other affiliated organizations.  I was a founding member of our parish pro-life committee.  At the same time, I was also praying along with many other Catholics outside a Gaithersburg abortuary.  Many of us in several parishes shared frustration that the support we received from several parishes was tepid at best.  This included the Archdiocese of Washington.  However, as tepid as that support was, the archdiocese did not try to squelch any actvism on our part, provided that it wasn't carried out as a specifically Catholic endeavor.  McCarrick didn't bother about us, one way or the other.  If others have different experiences, please advise via com boxes.

But that was at the grass roots level.  Cardinal Hickey had created a pro-life office staffed by good pro-lifers.  After he retired and McCarrick took over, I noticed disturbing things.  The parish pro-life groups simply weren't receiving much in the way of leadership from that pro-life office.  The latter's time was being gobbled up by what I can only call busy-work.  Much of it centered around the archdiocesan "youth rally" that they conducted right before the national March for Life.  There were talks, concerts, and a Mass that were all scheduled to end immediately before the march began.  In other words, the archdiocesan Catholics did not participate in Nellie Gray's rally beforehand and thus weren't included in the counts conducted by the Park Police.  That bothered me greatly.  I recall asking one official (don't remember who) why they did that.  I told him quite frankly that we could do with a simple Mass without all that other "dog and pony show" stuff.  He responded (I kid you not), that some of Nellie's speakers weren't suitable for Catholic audiences.  He mentioned one of the speakers as being the now-deceased Jesse Helms.  I was aghast.  From then on I didn't attend those rallies.  Since my parish did, with the buses dropping off at the rallies, I started going separately via Metrorail and made sure that I was at the entire rally conducted by Nellie Gray.

When I saw things going horribly awry within the leadership of the Catholic Church, I started the website and this blog.  I knew they weren't compatable with my membership in the Church-affiliated groups so I resigned my affiliations with the latter.  By that time I had also become involved in sidewalk counseling and protests using the abortion victim pictures.  Both of these activities the archdiocesan pro-life office (under different leadership) were loathe to support.  I began to see the wisdom of conducting pro-life work outside the context and restrictions of parish and diocesan affiliations.  When McCarrick retired and Wuerl came in, things became quite strange.

Several years ago I and other sidewalk counselors came across an announcement from the archdiocesan pro-life office that they were holding sidewalk-counseling training sessions, assisted by the Helphers of God's Precious Infants.  On one hand, I was quite pleased that the archdiocese was finally seeing the wisdom of offering help to women before  they did the deed and slaughtered their babies to their everlasting regret.  On the other hand, I was rather puzzled that they didn't ask those of us who had been in front of mills every week for the past twenty years and who have saved hundreds to attend, let alone offer the benefit of our own experiences.  We were being excluded and, I think, marginalized.  I don't think much ever came of their efforts.  A few counselors who I think were trained by the Helpers still remain, but I believe they are not operating under diocesan direction.

The archdiocese also thumbed their noses at the idea of associating with those who took leadership roles in dealing with Leroy Carhart when he first came to Germantown.  When "Pray For Germantown" held rallies and protests on Wisteria Drive, the archdiocese did not send official representation.  We are grateful for the individual priests who lent their support over those several years, but regret that the archdiocese did not join the other churches and grass-roots prolifers.  I learned why when archdiocesan emails were mistakenly forwarded to me.  They eschewed any affiliation with Troy Newman and Operation Rescue, claiming that OR's "reputation" (whatever that meant) was the reason.  I also know that the archdiocese is very squeemish about the usage of pictures of abortion victims.  To be clear, the archdiocese did conduct their own candlelight vigils, etc  along Wisteria Drive.  Still, their standoffishness was lamentable.  I understand that now that Carhart has moved to Bethesda, the archdiocese still lends no support.

We noticed something else in relation to crisis pregancy centers.  There are a number of them in Montgomery County - some run by Catholics, others by protestants under the Carenet network.  Generally we tried to utilize the Catholic ones when we had the opportunity to take women there, owing to their understanding  of the inherent evils of contraception.  When they weren't available, we would resort to the carenet cpcs, as time was of the essense in securing assistance for the women.

When we started counseling at Spring Street, two Catholic cpcs were nearby.  Centro Tepeyak at the time was located on Apple Avenue, within walking distance of the (now closed) Spring Street Planned Parenthood.  We walked at least two women to that cpc, where they received immediate assistance.  We also took women to Wheaton Birthright, located on Grandview Avenue.

A few years ago, however, very strange decisions were made.  First, Birthright moved away from Wheaton further north into Glenmont.  They moved into an archdiocese-owned building dubbed the McCarrick Center (I pray that they will rename that place, given recent revelations).  A short while later, we learned that Centro Tepeyak also moved there.  In other words, the location of both Catholic centers became less convenient to us.  Moreover, we found that their hours were cut back.  We couldn't depend on them being open when most of the area's abortions occur.

It certainly seemed odd to have two pregnancy centers located in the same building.  That situation didn't last, as Birthright was moved to Olney.  Frankly, I am not aware of any abortuary in Olney that would warrant such a move.  If in fact there is such an abortuary, please advise.  Well, at least the two protestant centers were open and (usually) available.  But they are further away than the other two were.

So there you have it.  In the space of a few years we see:

• the archdiocesan pro-life office cutting loose the individual parish pro-life groups and not dealing with real issues of the day.  Did they ever do anything to prevent the passage of Obamacare, for instance?
• the de facto marginalization of veteran sidewalk counselors during the archdiocesan efforts to institute their own program (that seems to have fizzled)
• the archdiocese not joining with other churches in the efforts against Carhart in Germantown and Bethesda
• coaxing two crisis pregnancy centers away from sidewalk counseling sites 

I had debated over the years whether or not to bring all this in the open.  Given recent revelations over the past few days, I must admit the possibility of a desire to hamstring the local pro-life movement.  I'm sure certain donors would have wished that very much.

Some First-Hand Videos Of The Red Rose Rescues On Dec 2, 2017

In my first report, I mentioned that videos would be forthcoming, so that you can see for yourselves what happened.  Here are three of them. The first two are of the rescues that occurred in VA and DC.  The third is the one that happened in Michigan.  Hopefully my readers will be posting some videos of their own actions to save babies.

First Prayer Vigil Outside Carhart's Bethesda Facility

As promised yesterday, I post below the video of the prayer vigil that was announced in several venues as part and parcel of the efforts to have Carhart et al ejected from his new location.  I'll point out a few things.

• First, I regret the poor sound quality of the video.  Old Georgetown Road is a major highway, and we were on the side taking traffic from Washington DC to points north.
• Ms. Handy stated that Leroy Carhart was unlicensed.  This is not correct.  It is the facility itself that doesn't have the required licensure.  He seemed to be prepared to conduct his killings without it and probably would have done so had we not shined the light on this particular negligence.  He canceled appointments for yesterday and apparently isn't scheduling anymore for the foreseeable future.
• By and large we were ignored - except for one man who saw fit to "flip the bird" at us as he walked by (at 8:06), and to try to erase some chalk messages.  That part of Montgomery County MD is ultra-liberal and some resistance is to be expected.  It's also quite possible that there is an abortion in this man's past.  We pray for repentance and healing for him and all those impacted by abortion.
• These vigils will occur on a weekly basis.  That is, they will happen every Tuesday evening beginning at 6:30 pm.  Please try to make as many as possible.
• Visit www.prayforbethesda.com to obtain updates

Pro-Life Activities On Old Georgetown Road On Tuesday Oct 17

With or without the proper licensure, Leroy Carhart will commence his baby-slaughter operations on Tuesday, October 17th, at his new haunt located in Suite 104 of 10401 Old Georgetown Road.

As before in Germantown, pro-life activists will make known the horror that will transpire at that location as well as offer to abortion-bound women life-saving alternatives.  Two outreaches are planned for this Tuesday, Oct 17

• Press conference at 12 noon in front of the building on Old Georgetown Road
• Candlelight prayer vigil at 6:30 pm, same location

Please plan to be there, if at all possible.  Also please contact Aubinoe Management Company to complain about this baby-killing business on their premises: )301) 841-6461 or email ala-ala-inc.com

Pro-Lifers Conduct Red Rose Rescues At Three Baby-Murder Centers

In three cities in the U.S. today - namely, Alexandria VA, Detroit MI, and Albuquerque NM, pro-life activists went into local death mills and offered red roses to mothers who were about to have their babies murdered.  When confronted by police, they refused to leave and were arrested.  I believe all have been released.  Moreover, three babies were saved.

I link now to the LifeSiteNews article detailing the Red Rose Rescue effort.  Please watch the video; the bottom video is the account of activity at the Alexandria mill; I've worked besides several of the people in various pro-life activism efforts.  Below is a video posted by Monica Miglorino Miller, who was at the Detroit rescue.  I echo her call at the end, that we would all rededicate ourselves to acting to bring about a Culture of Life.

Today Georgetown Was Rebuked

Georgetown University went ahead with their honoring of Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood - the nation's chief organization for the murder of babies.  Sadly we're not surprised but still it is just one more insult to Catholic education in this country.  As announced two days ago, there were several protest locations at Georgetown.  Today I was at two of them.

The first one was outside Lohrfink Auditorium itself.  Because I had to spend some time to find a parking place, I arrived there about 12:40 pm.  I could see that the Students for Life contingent was penned in an area where they could be seen from the attendees at a distance but there was no chance for interaction between those going into the talk and the pro-life activists.  I stood at the bottom of the steps and distributed my flyer (see right) - for as long as I was permitted.  After about 30 minutes a woman who identified herself to me as "Dean of Student Affairs" marched herself downstairs and ushered me to the "protest pen" (for lack of a better word).  Frankly I suspect the cause of this move is because my flyer did directly rebuke Georgetown for bringing Richards to campus.  I was able to distribute about 25 of them before I was effectively stifled.  I decided not to protest the move since I do respect the fact that Georgetown is private property.  Still, I find it fascinating that a woman who makes her living, at least in part, from the murders of babies is allowed to speak on campus but pro-life activists are penned off as though they pose dire threats to the students.

Just now, out of curiosity, I went to the web page of this "Student Affairs" office and got a clue as to the icy treatment that I received.  Not surprisingly, the page reeks of dissidence against Church teaching, to the point of possibly directing students - LGBTQ students, that is - to hell.   They have a whole "resource center" dedicated to them - something that I don't see for ethnic minorities, by the way.  This resource center boasts of being "the first such center of its kind at a Catholic/Jesuit institution in the country".  Well, whoopdie-doo!  If that's what Georgetown calls "brag material", no wonder their moral credibility is swirling down the crapper!  Ever hear of a "lavender graduation"?  Well look no further!  Georgetown is having one (next week, apparently).  The whole page is designed to make it easy for these poor deluded students to confirm their own damnation.  I seem to remember Our Lord talking about those who scandalize "little ones", saying it would be better for them had millstones been tied to them as they were tossed into water.  This reeks of satanic evil, but I digress.

After about 20 minutes or so in "the pen", I left there and headed east through the campus to where I was parked.  As I walked east, I continued to distribute flyers to students passing by me.  I then reached the eastern part of campus when I heard bagpipes.  I knew then that the American Society for Tradition, Family and Property was at the O Street entrance - where they were when we protested the appearance of Kathleen Sebelius four years ago.  Today the American TFP roundly rebuked Georgetown.  You'll hear it in the video below.

I know that Defend Life staged a protest along M Street; about 15 people held a "life chain" with signs to explain why Richard's appearance was such an atrocity.  I was unable to get down there but I await a report as to how that went.  Now here's the video of American TFP.

Should Women Be Punished For Abortion? One Sidewalk Counselor's Perspective

Donald Trump's recent remarks on abortion, particularly in regards to punishment for women who procure abortions against their children, have caused quite a discussion in Catholic blogosphere (and other arenas as well).  In pro-life circles, a difference of opinion has been made manifest - to put it mildly.

On the one hand are those who hold only the abortionist culpable for the murder of babies, believing that the women themselves are also victims of abortion.  On the other hand are those who seem to hold that all women are culpable (maybe to varying degrees) for the murders of their children.  So where does the truth lie?

Those in pro-life leadership, particularly of the Catholic persuasion, do tend to ascribe absolutely no responsibility to any of the mothers who procure abortions.  I hold that to be erroneous, as this view does not admit that the woman has any freedom of conscience, that she is not a competent moral agent.  While such a view appears to be compassionate, I think it can be quite condescending and patronizing to the woman.  How can such a woman achieve any real healing if she doesn't accept any fault and thus receive authentic forgiveness through repentance and the Sacrament of Confession?  Moreover, there remains the question of justice for the child just murdered.  If his/her life is to be respected, then the demands of justice do require a punishment for the crime of his/her murder.

That is one extreme view from pro-life circles.  However, on recent blog posts from fellow bloggers whom I respect (see here, here, here, here) I'm starting to see manifestations of the other extreme viewpoint, namely, that most and even all women are culpable for their abortions and should therefore incur punishments (in varying degrees).  I think caution is needed there, too.

For close to twenty years now, I've spent most Saturday mornings in front of abortuaries with other Christians, seeking to offer life-affirming assistance to these women who are abortion-minded.  These women by no means fit into any "cookie-cutter" mold.  Some of them would most likely be very culpable for their children's murders.  They walk in hard as nails, sometimes followed by a man pleading for the life of his child.

On the other hand, there are those women going in who are obviously ambivalent or remorseful about what they are about to do.  Usually they are being coerced: either by parents or by their male companions (whom I refuse to call "men").  I've no doubt that some of these women have been threatened or even subjected to physical violence; at times we counselors have also been attacked ourselves by belligerent males or the parents (seems like the mothers are the worst).  I recall one case when it was a cloudy day and the woman and thuggish boyfriend hurried past us. He was literally dragging her.  She had her head down and was wearing sunglasses on a cloudy day; it didn't take a rocket scientist to understand why.

It seemed to me that such women were under duress and thus not fully culpable for the abortion due to lack of free will.  I looked into a book on Catholic moral theology for clarification.  It's called "Moral Theology" by Father Heribert Jone, first published in 1953 (German).  That means no one can ascribe to it any "spirit of Vatican II" contamination.  It's available from TAN.

What is evaluated in moral theology are human acts.  These are defined as "those actions that proceed from knowledge and free will".  For the time being let's look at the "free will" aspect for in many of these women "free will" is hindered.  One such hindrance is violence, defined in the book as "force brought to bear upon one against his/her will by some extrinsic agent."  It then goes on to say that "absolute violence destroys free will.  Therefore whatever is done under its influence is not imputable."  Ladies and gentlemen, too many of these women are dragged in under credible threats of violence.  As I said a few paragraphs ago, we counselors can attest to this because we've been on the receiving end of just a few seconds of that violence by thuggish parents/males.  These women live with those brutes.

Unless we've been living in cocoons, we've seen account after account of women being murdered by "males" precisely because they refused to abort their babies.  So these "males" murder not only the women but their own babies as well.  Where's the educational outreach to them?  But I digress.  Following this paragraph are some accounts.  If these don't constitute "absolute violence" as noted in the preceding paragraph, I don't know what does.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/man-charged-with-murdering-woman-who-refused-to-abort-his-child
http://www.lifenews.com/2015/05/14/mad-that-his-girlfriend-didnt-abort-their-baby-he-threw-her-daughter-off-a-cliff-and-killed-her/
http://clinicquotes.com/forced-abortion-3-violence-can-lead-to-murder/
http://www.stopforcedabortions.org/forced.htm
If you want to see more examples, just google "murder of women who refused to abort".

The fear that many of these young girls face is real.  If pro-lifers are going to wag their fingers at them, they'd better be prepared to assist them should these girls need help.  If they aren't regularly and currently spending time in front of abortuaries to offer assistance, I've no idea what constitutes their basis of opinions.

I said above that in order for justice to be done for the primary victim of abortion, that is, the child, then proper punishment must be inflicted on the perpetrator.  Who is the perpetrator?  I think common sense dictates that the perpetrator is the one who is seeking the abortion and controlling the woman's situation.  That may very well be the woman herself, but quite often that is not the case.  It's probably the guy, parents, teachers, etc.  A proper judicial system will take all that into account.  Unless a miracle of God is visited among us in His mercy, I don't expect that to happen in my lifetime.

The Timidity Of Clergy - A Thin Disguise For Progressive Leanings?

On Tuesday 5/12/15, Obama spoke at a "Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit On Overcoming Poverty".  This hot-air exchange occurred at Georgetown University.  I'd opine that Georgetown is once again frittering away its credibility as a Catholic institution, but after years of such nonsense, Georgetown has no Catholic credibility left to squander - but I digress!

The Messiah Most Miserable took the opportunity to take swipes at Christianity.  The main theme of his nonsense is that we Christians should care less about abortion and more about poverty.  Well, I have to hand it to him - he's fulfilling the role as Planned Parenthood lapdog perfectly.  He also took jibes at families who send their children to private schools (Note!  We wait with bated breath for the announcement that he'll soon withdraw his children from Sidwell!)  Why?  Well as you see in the link and its embedded video, these children start to develop (gasp!) an "anti-government ideology"!  The horror!  He continues, "and that, in part, contributes to the fact that there's less opportunity for our kids.."  Our poor Dear Leader!  He can't seem to make up his little mind!  In another excerpt from the same gathering, he blames Fox News for the failed "war on poverty".

Now listen closely to this clip.  Notice how he says that regarding poverty, "we'll have to change how the media reports on this issue.."  Beg pardon!  Leaving aside for the moment that most of the mainstream media is firmly ensconced in the progressive camp, just who is going to do this changing?  Since most of the mainstream crowd is the de facto press office for the Dems, who are the others who will be targeted for such "change"?  Would those targets include bloggers such as Yours Truly?  The First Amendment has become, in the eyes of the Messiah Most Miserable, an inconvenience to be trashed.  Political correctness stifles free speech everywhere, small Christian businesses are being ruined for not licking the boots of gay-rights tyrants, so why shouldn't "freedom of the press" be the next facet of the First Amendment to be jettisoned by these thugs?

Now onto another seemingly unrelated matter.  There's a reason I put "seemingly" in italics; we'll get to that later.  The Daily Caller reports that yesterday some bishops met behind closed doors with some US Senators to discuss the anticipated roll-out of the pope's environmental encyclical.  That's odd, don't you think?  Why, oh why, would Catholic bishops find it necessary to meet with elected officials to discuss the roll-out of any papal encyclical?  Will there be some attempt to utilize the encyclical for envirowhacko legislation?  My goodness!  The timing of this meeting and the Georgetown gab-fest is so coincidental, don't you think?  It's almost as if the bishops scurried to show the Messiah Most Miserable that they are willing to forget baby-murder for a while to and to embrace pet causes of the progressives.

I've noted that in other incidents, it appears that progressives within the Church seem emboldened in their efforts to turn the Church into a religous front for socialism.  As you read the report from the envirowhacko meeting two weeks ago, you cannot help but notice the open call for population control, i.e., abortion, contraception and sterilization.  I am one of a number of pro-life activists who have been fighting for an end to those aforementioned evils.  Many of us have been baffled by the weak and often non-existent support from our Catholic clergy.  To be fair, many good priests and bishops have stood with us and led the way; sadly they are the exception and not the rule.  Many of us thought these clergy were just timid; and yet we've seen these same clergy pounce on their traditional-minded comrades with all the viciousness and efficiency that would have been the envy of Hitler and Stalin.  Therefore I pose this question: Might the lack of clerical assistance and support with which we met over the years have been deliberate attempts to stymie our pro-life efforts?  That's a question deserving of an honest answer.

Pro-Life Activists Protest Knights Of Columbus Betrayal In Norfolk VA

Two weeks ago I posted of a number of then-planned debacles committed by the Knights of Columbus.  One of them occurred in Norfolk VA with the Knights council there featuring Terry McAullife as their parade's grand marshal.  A group of faithful Virginia Catholics were there to rebuke him and the Knights (Note - "Rebuke the sinner" is the first Spiritual Work of Mercy).

They posted their video on youtube and I'll post that below.  But first I'll advise of another remedial effort.  As I've always believed, there are many good Knights who are distressed to see the errors among their ranks.  One of them is Pete Barker, a Knight from a neighboring council in Virginia Beach.  He is promoting a petition to have the errant Norfolk council, the Fr. Robert B. Kealey Council # 3548 be formally terminated and disbanded as a council of the Knights of Columbus.  From the text of his petition, this parade fiasco is not the first for this council.

I signed the petition.  I urge you all to sign it and circulate it to your own contacts.  Here's the link.   And now, the video.

DC Area Pro-Life Activists! Want To Learn To Save Babies?

Please pass this along and please come!  Perhaps you too will save a baby and his/her mother!

Sidewalk Counselors Speaking The Truth In New Jersey

Apparently this video was produced earlier today, in front of an abortuary in Cherry Hill, NJ.  Listen to the words of this sidewalk counselor.  How are you and/or your church living up to your responsibilities to speak up for the innocent babies?  If ever there was an authentic "social justice" issue, this is it.

Yippee!! The Culture Wars Are Over!!

Now we can all join in the vacuous happy-face "let's all go along to get along" party!  At least that's what Cardinal Dolan said!  And we all know him to be a champion of the Faith!

Obviously, the above was said in jest.

In a macabre way, I can understand Dolan's perspective.  He has utterly surrendered to the Culture of Death and secularism and has in fact thrown in his lot with its proponents.  So of course he thinks "it's all over".

Except it isn't.  We're not going away.  Two big contingents of us that will not go away (and thus will be thorns to the Dolanites) are 1) pro-life activists and 2) Catholic bloggers and others utilizing electronic media.  We are armed by Our Lord, with prayer and the Sacraments.  Come what may, we will be engaging the Culture Wars - with or without so many faithless and feckless bishops!

New Year's Resolutions?

It's that time of year, when we're taking stock of the year just past and contemplating some improvements and/or embellishments to our lives.  Those who've read this blog for some time may have gleaned my pro-life sentiments, so what I suggest should be no surprise.  Our civilization is going to hell in a hand basket.  We need more Catholics and people of good will to step up to the plate.

That said, here are some pro-life-oriented suggestions:

• Get out to your local abortion mill on a regular, committed basis to pray.  How about a minimum of once a month for an hour or so?  Please join with a pro-life presence already there, or bring a friend; never go alone.  Consider participating in 40 Days for Life nearby.
• Write a "letter to the editor" when abortion and/or gay-related issues arise in your community.  Be a voice for truth.
• If you have a solid candidate running for elected office, support him/her with your time: lit drops, phone banks, parade-walking, etc.
• Join or start a pro-life group at your church.

Of course this list is by no means exhaustive.  You probably have a few of your own.  Feel free to share them via the comment box. 

Not All Are Victims

A few months ago I went to a talk given by a fairly prominent pro-life leader.  In his talk he spoke of what he believed our attitudes towards abortion-minded people should be when we're approaching them.  With one of those attitudes I take exception.  He stated that we should be prepared to assume no malice, to presume good will and even "make excuses" for them.  He went on to say that Jesus, while being crucified, "made excuses" for His tormentors when He prayed, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do".  His analogy was flat out wrong.

Jesus never "made excuses" for His tormentors.  He, being God, had divine knowledge of what was in the hearts of those crucifying Him (see John 2:24-25).  His statement was not mere presumption but a statement of fact that only He, as the Second Person of the Trinity, could know.  I then thought of the example of Stephen, the first martyr.  When he prayed his prayer of forgiveness on the brink of his own death, he prayed, "Lord, hold not this sin against them".  Notice that Stephen acknowledged the objectively sinful nature of the evil that was being inflicted upon him.  While he didn't accuse them, neither did he presume to "make excuses".

I think this has great relevance for a troubling trend that I'm seeing among pro-life activists and leaders.  That trend is to cast all women having abortion as being strictly victims of circumstances beyond their control, be it overbearing family members, economic hardship, whatever.  Please understand - I'm sure that is true for a great many of these women - but not all.  I'm taking exception with the trend that I'm seeing of late to paint all abortion-bound people with this broad brush of victim-hood.  To illustrate, I do see way too many women walk into the mills who are obviously brow-beat by their boyfriends, parents, etc.  Yet I've seen other women bound and determined to "take care of this shit" (a direct quote) while their boyfriends are following them in tears, begging the women for the lives of their babies.

I fear that I'm seeing this broad brush being brandished in the handling of the deaths of both Jennifer Morbelli and her baby girl at the hands of Leroy Carhart.  There have been two press conferences.  In both these press conferences we see numerous references to the grief that her family is bearing (and no doubt they are) and many prayers for their solace and peace. I have heard no such prayer for their repentance for their roles in the two deaths.  Let's get real.  We're fools if we really believe that family didn't have some degree of culpability for their deaths.  The common theme of those talks is that Leroy Carhart bears sole responsibility for their deaths.  Of course he bears a majority of the blame.  But let's face this.  Carhart would not have touched Jennifer and Madison if the family never walked into his abortuary, plunked down their money and asked him to murder Madison.  He was the paid "hit-man" to be sure - but who paid him???

I was involved in a rather raucous discussion on this matter in Facebook.  Some argued that this woman must not have realized the humanity of the baby.  I find that difficult to believe.  The baby was 33 weeks along - no doubt she was kicking and moving about in Jennifer's womb.  I'm willing to bet they saw routine sonograms.  They named her Madison.  Moreover, during the week they were reporting to Carhart's office, sidewalk counselors tried to offer her and her family both offers of assistance and warning of the dangers of this procedure.  I understand from some of those counselors that they all rebuffed those warning rather angrily.  For this rejection of knowledge they now bear the ultimate consequences.

I say this not to minimize the pain that the Morbellis and McKennas are undergoing.  However, if there is to be true peace and solace, it can only come about if they face up to their own grievous roles in the debacle of last week, repent and seek out the Sacrament of Confession.  Where were the public prayers for that????  This is not "condemning" or "judging" but an attempt to acknowledge truth and not to offer false compassion rooted in sentimentality that will do nothing to restore a state of grace.  I understand that a priest was with Jennifer; I pray that she was disposed to receive absolution.

In using the "victim" language and tip-toeing around crucial spiritual issues, I suspect some are merely trying to win the sympathy of the culture at large.  Ain't gonna happen!  We cannot try to "speak their language" for when we use "their language" we adopt their thinking.  We have to define the language and the thinking.  Rather, we must preach the Gospel unabashedly rather than try to nod to political correctness.

I'll end this by linking to a story from Jill Stanek's blog about a young woman in dire circumstances who refused to be a victim - or to be seen as such.  Here is Anna.

Today's Press Conference In Germantown

A follow-up press conference was held at 11:00 am today regarding the deaths of Jennifer and Madison Morbelli.  More details were disclosed, including the delivery of the murdered Madison on Wednesday morning.  After several days of silence, the mainstream media is finding this matter difficult to ignore.  Today this article appeared in the "local" section of the Washington Post.  Of course the article has its typical pro-abortion slant, but at least they're acknowledging the existence of this situation.

Jill Stanek's blog had a write-up on the rally.  In it was listed the six action steps outlined by Michael Martelli in the video below (at the 11:00 mark).


Germantown MD Memorial Service 2-11-13 from Maryland Coalition for Life on Vimeo.

Maryland NARAL Rebuked At 2012 Gala By Our Picket

On Friday we announced two events for pro-life prayer and activism.  The first event, NARAL's "Evening of Chocolate" fundraising blood-feast, occurred yesterday.  At least fourteen pro-lifers were there to greet them at the entrance to Sandy Spring Volunteer Firehouse, where NARAL had rented out the Oak Room for their fundraising orgy.  Our picket line actually stretched down from that driveway to the Brooke Road / Route 108 intersection.  There is a stoplight at that fairly well-traveled intersection so all those passing by got an education as to what was occurring at that time in their neighborhood.  Quite a few of those driving by gave us "thumbs-up".  Some of those going into the blood-feast raised other fingers at us - what can be expected of those minds and sensibilities dulled by the support of baby-murder?

Below the jump-break I'll give more detail, with photos and a video, so...

Truth Was Spoken To Georgetown University On May 18, 2012

Banner Displayed by American TFP

Concerned Catholics and other pro-life Christians went to Georgetown University Friday morning (May 18) to protest the self-defilement committed by Georgetown in allowing Kathleen Sebelius to address their graduates.  Her latest slap in the face to the babies occurred in the form of the HHS mandate that she engineered and that Obama is attempting to cram down our throats.  Even if she hadn't committed that atrocity, her chequered record as governor of Kansas should have been enough to disqualify her as any role model for Catholic youth.  To refresh memories, she was an accomplice to Kansas' late-term abortionist, the late George Tiller.  Just google their two names together and you will see an eyeful.

I'd like to recommend for your reading another first-hand account by Charles, a college student home on summer break who joined us.  See http://modernletters.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/1415/

I've a number of photos and videos to show (all taken by me).  I'll place them after the jump break so..

Sebelius Finds Pictures Of Aborted Babies To Be "A Discomfort"

Recently in Chicago NARAL held a luncheon that doubled as an Obama fundraiser.  Outside, a group of pro-lifers proclaimed the truth of NARAL's murderous nature by holding pictures of aborted babies.  Our less-than-illustrious HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius gave an address.  I suppose "Sebelius was feeling so bileous" (and yes, the pun is intended).  She felt that she had to commiserate with her fellow murder-supporters and acknowledge their pain (without calling it a pang of conscience, of course).  She sniffed, "I know that some people were a bit appalled at walking through the demonstrators as you came to this lunch.  It is a discomfort when you’re coming to lunch, but think about the women who are trying to tap into the health services they desperately need who have to go through that kind of gantlet in order to access all-too-infrequent services…."


A few things for Madame Secretary to consider:

• Your little luncheon, funded at least in part by abortionists to support murder, was a blood-feast.  Most sane people find that appalling, let alone the daily murders of thousands of babies.
• The sight of the babies was probably the only truth the NARAL crowd received that afternoon.
• The truth hurts and causes discomfort only to those who insist on living in deadly fantasy-lands.  Like it or not, we will continue to proclaim that truth.

40 Days For Life To Commence Soon

All across the nation, the 40 Days for Life prayer and witness campaign in front of baby-killing centers will commence on September 28th and will run through November 6.  There are several of them occurring throughout the Maryland and DC areas.  Each locality has their own page as a subset of the main 40 Days site; thereon you can find news of rallies and you can also sign up to make a commitment to be at your local mill to pray with others.  I'll list them below.

• Silver Spring, MD http://www.40daysforlife.com/silverspring/
• Germantown, MD http://www.40daysforlife.com/germantown/
• Annapolis, MD http://www.40daysforlife.com/annapolis/
• Baltimore, MD (several sites) http://www.40daysforlife.com/baltimore/
• College Park and Berwyn Heights, MD http://www.40daysforlife.com/collegepark/
• Frederick, MD  http://www.40daysforlife.com/frederick/
• Washington, DC http://www.40daysforlife.com/washington/
• Alexandria, VA http://www.40daysforlife.com/alexandria/
• Fairfax, VA  http://www.40daysforlife.com/fairfax/
• Falls Church, VA  http://www.40daysforlife.com/fallschurch/
• Manassas, VA  http://www.40daysforlife.com/manassas/

Kick-off rallies are happening soon.  Germantown's rally is scheduled for this Sunday September 25 with Shawn Carney as the keynote speaker.  Silver Spring's is Wednesday September 28, with Mass and procession to the abortuary.  Check all sites for details of their respective events.

If you've never been in front of an abortion mill to pray and offer witness, the 40 Days for Life campaign is an excellent starting point.  I hope to see many of you there!