Building a Culture of Life - Part 6

Building a Culture of Life - Part 6

On August 7, 2008, the 126th Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus passed a resolution entitled "Building a Culture of Life". This is a continuation of my reflections on that resolution.

"FURTHER RESOLVED, That we reaffirm our commitment to building a culture of life by promoting policies that favor the family, and by recognizing that it is within strong and healthy families that moral values are taught and that the spiritual and cultural heritage of our nation is transmitted;"

As the family goes, so goes the nation. This was a saying of Pope John Paul II, and how true it is! If strong families build strong cultures, the opposite must be true - weak families build weak cultures. The traditional family in America has been all but destroyed over the past 55 years. In the 1950s and earlier, America enjoyed a very public Judeo-Christian culture, from small towns to State governments, from the Federal government to all of the forms of public media. Abortion, "gay marriage," pornography, and divorce were all seen as the social ills that they truly are. There were laws against such ills and they were portrayed as ills in our media.

Fast-forward to the present - now these social ills are not only legal, but protected as rights! What happened? The family was torn apart by many things - television, public school, smaller family sizes, divorce, two working parents, materialism, promiscuity, and so on.

As Christian men, we should be leading the charge to re-focus on the traditional family. We need to be the best dads, husbands, uncles, grandfathers, godfathers, priests, and deacons, and we need to reinforce the moral truths that come to us from God through the Church. If our #1 and #2 priorities are not God and family, then it's time re-examine our lives and shift our focus back to where it should be.

You can view all of the resolutions online at http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/convention_2008/resolutions/index.html.

Vivat Iesus,

Joe Healy

Building a Culture of Life - Part 5

Building a Culture of Life - Part 5

Here is the next part of the pro-life resolution passed by Supreme last August:

"FURTHER RESOLVED, That we believe that “women deserve better than abortion” and will continue to support programs which provide women facing crisis pregnancies with alternatives to abortion, including adoption, and that we support projects which provide spiritual support to those women and men suffering from the traumatic emotional and psychological after-effects of abortion;"

This resolution brings to light the work we should be doing to support women in crisis pregnancies and those men and women who are suffering from an abortion. We are not only pro-life, but we are pro-woman. We need to stand up as men, real men, not the wimpy pseudo-men that our society tries to turn us into. Women want us to be the leaders, protectors, and providers we were all meant to be. When we fail them in those roles, our women seek them elsewhere, and not always in the most wholesome ways. Men failing to be real men are largely to blame for the abortion crisis!

We have an opportunity to atone for some of our failings. A few minutes down Frederick Rd. from our Council Hall is Pregnancy Center West, a place where women can turn when they don't know where else to turn. They provide free services to women who are or think they may be in a crisis pregnancy. Their Pregnancy Counselors are volunteers specially trained in pregnancy counseling. Their goal is to provide women with top quality compassionate care, as well as complete, accurate information about adoption, single parenting, abortion and STDs. They do not perform or refer for abortion. All of their services are free and confidential.

Pregnancy Center West is in need of our help. Some of our brother Knights already volunteer there to provide a male presence. Some contribute money on a regular monthly basis. Our help is also needed with cleaning, maintenance, and minor repairs to their clinic. We can always spread the word about what they do and where they are located. If you want to help, give them a call at 410-788-4433 and find out what they need most from you.

Vivat Iesus!

Joe Healy

Building a Culture of Life - Part 4

Building a Culture of Life - Part 4

Here is the next part of the pro-life resolution passed by the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus in August 2008:

"FURTHER RESOLVED, That we recognize that abortion not only results in the death of an unborn child, but also leads many post-abortive women and men into depression, anxiety and other emotional disturbances;"

My commentary:

We are called to care for not only the unborn children, but also for their parents. These are people who are most likely hurting in one way or another. Most women choose to abort their child because they feel like they have no choice; they do not see any way they could bring that child into the world. They think it's better to end that child's life than try to deal with the difficulties they will face throughout the pregnancy and young life of the child. This sounds like the same thought process that leads people to consider suicide - a lack of hope and lack of options.

After the abortion, she can't help but feel a loss. When she sees that there actually were other options available to her, she often despairs and feels terrible for killing her child. She becomes depressed; her relationships fall apart; she has trouble with her finances - in short, she suffers from Post-Abortion Syndrome.

While the "medical community" may debate whether or not there is such an illness, the tens of thousands of women and men who suffer from it know it is real. Was my baby a boy or a girl? What would he or she look like today? How old would my child be right now?

We need to support those groups that minister to these suffering women (and men, too!). One such group is called Silent No More (www.silentnomoreawareness.org). Their mission is to make the public aware of the devastation abortion brings to women, men, and their families. Their hope is that the emotional and physical pain of abortion will no longer be shrouded in secrecy and silence, but rather exposed and healed. This is a noble effort!

Abortion: One dead, one wounded. Let's end it!

Vivat Iesus!

Joe Healy

Building a Culture of Life - Part 3

Building a Culture of Life - Part 3

Here is the next part of the pro-life resolution passed by the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus in August 2008:

"FURTHER RESOLVED, That we will challenge our fellow Catholics who are elected officials to be true to the faith they claim to profess, by acting bravely and publicly in defense of life, affirming with Pope Benedict XVI that 'there can be no room for purely private religion.'"

My commentary:

We are called as Knights, Catholics, Christians, and people of good will to be beacons of light in society. One way to do that is to challenge our fellow Catholics and Christians to live the Gospel, including the Gospel of Life. While we all struggle to faithfully adhere to Christ's teachings, Catholics who hold public office have the added responsibility of leading those who are governed by them. They are also very visible examples of the Catholic faith in our world.

Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical The Gospel of Life that public leaders are, "[c]alled to serve the people and the common good, they have a duty to make courageous choices in support of life, especially through legislative measures. In a democratic system, where laws and decisions are made on the basis of the consensus of many, the sense of personal responsibility in the consciences of individuals invested with authority may be weakened. But no one can ever renounce this responsibility, especially when he or she has a legislative or decision-making mandate, which calls that person to answer to God, to his or her own conscience and to the whole of society for choices which may be contrary to the common good."

We need to help remind our Catholic public officials that they have the duty to defend and protect innocent human lives. We must send letters and e-mails, make phone calls, and even visit them in person, and always with Christian charity and as a gentleman Knight. We must also support those who defend innocent human life.

Vivat Iesus!

Joe Healy

Building a Culture of Life - Part 2

Building a Culture of Life - Part 2

Here is the next part of the pro-life resolution passed by the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus in August 2008:

"FURTHER RESOLVED, That we will continue our efforts to charitably inform, educate and motivate our brother Knights and fellow Catholics of the serious obligation they have to form their consciences so that they make sound moral judgments which support and defend life in all its stages."

My commentary:

Education is the cornerstone of any successful effort to promote a culture of life. Our post-modern culture has been mis-educated from early childhood through adulthood on life issues. Human life has been turned into a commodity to be used by the powerful to achieve certain ends (some good, some bad). We have to re-educate ourselves to see the inherent dignity in each and every human life, from conception to natural death, and treat each and every human life with the respect he or she deserves.

As Knights, we are especially called to be moral leaders in our churches and communities, so I encourage each and every one of you to become educated on life issues and help educate others. There are some great educational resources on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' prolife activities website: http://www.nccbuscc.org/prolife/.

Vivat Iesus,

Joe Healy

Building a Culture of Life - Part 1

Building a Culture of Life - Part 1

On August 7, 2008, the 126th Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus passed a resolution entitled "Building a Culture of Life". I will present that resolution over the next few posts.

"NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That we renew our deep commitment to oppose any governmental action or policy that promotes abortion, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, euthanasia, assisted suicide and other offenses against life, and that we will continue to speak out to our elected representatives about the need to enact legislation to oppose these practices and protect human life from conception to natural death;"

This is the cornerstone of our pro-life commitment. We believe and affirm that a unique and eternal human person begins at the moment of conception, and it is at that point that a person is deserving of his or her rights. The unborn do not have a voice and we need to speak up for them, particularly in the voting booth and the public arena, just as we do for our children who are under the voting age of 18.

It is essential that we support and elect officials who have a deep and profound respect for all human life; who else would you trust with making decisions on your behalf? Who knows when YOU may be in a situation where the presiding officials deem you less than human and that YOU deserve to die? We already see it today when insurance companies decline to cover life-saving medical care and instead offer to cover life-ending "medication" because it costs them less.

We are called to be the leaven in society; now is the time to act!

You can view all of the resolutions online at http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/convention_2008/resolutions/index.html.

Vivat Iesus,

Joe Healy

Life Prevails - Lauren Richardson Allowed to Live!

I made an appeal last year for Lauren Richardson's life (http://defendlife.blogspot.com/2008/01/pray-for-lauren-richardson-being.html). Well, the Alliance Defense Fund took up her case, and here is the wonderful outcome:

Delaware woman’s parents now in agreement:
their daughter must live

ADF attorneys representing father reach settlement with mother,
who now agrees that 24-year-old disabled daughter should live

WILMINGTON, Del. — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys have reached a favorable settlement in a lawsuit that had pitted father against mother over the life of their 24-year-old daughter who suffers from severe brain injury. Because of religious conviction and heartfelt interaction with her ex-husband’s family, the mother of Lauren Richardson decided to join cooperatively with Richardson’s father to care for their daughter and to drop her court request to remove Richardson’s feeding tube and water.

“Everyone deserves a chance to recover. Life should be protected—not destroyed,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “This change of heart and settlement has profoundly affected everyone involved. The miracle of life is not something that should be taken lightly.”

In August 2006, while Richardson was pregnant, she suffered severe brain injury. Doctors later declared her to be in a persistent vegetative state. Despite medical difficulties, she survived and delivered a healthy baby girl in February 2007. She then stabilized into a healthy condition except for some mild medications and her brain injury, which limited her mobility and responsiveness and led to her being fed through a tube.

Richardson’s divorced parents went to court over her care. In January 2008, Richardson’s father, Randy Richardson, contacted ADF after the Delaware Chancery Court made a preliminary recommendation in the case, In re: Lauren Richardson, to give the mother sole guardianship to remove their daughter’s feeding tube. ADF attorneys asked for a new trial and further medical evaluations to show that Lauren Richardson was responsive, that new science undermines the PVS category, and that insufficient evidence existed to demonstrate that Lauren Richardson wanted to stop her own nutrition.

Though it had been alleged that Lauren Richardson once said years earlier that she wouldn’t want to be kept alive if there was “no hope,” her mother’s Christian faith and updates from Randy Richardson’s Web site caused her to feel convicted that her daughter’s life had value and should be preserved. The Web site described Lauren’s responsiveness to pain, music, family members’ voices, touch, and assisted exercise. The site also expressed regret that Lauren Richardson’s daughter might never see her own mother. A reconciliation between the parents ensued in September 2008.

The parents agreed to settle the case, to share joint guardianship of their daughter, and to cooperate in caring for her at Randy Richardson’s Maryland home. Lauren Richardson wept emotionally when her mother informed her of the settlement and the reconciliation of her parents, confirming to the mother that her daughter was aware and responsive. Both parents and their families continue to interact with her daily.

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.

http://www.telladf.org/