Life Insight 2006

Life Insight 6/30/06

Raise a Glass for Life

Our Lord’s first miracle of His public ministry was changing water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana. And, of course, it is wine that is miraculously transformed into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord during the consecration at every Mass. So it is perhaps appropriate that a devout Catholic man is now using wine to advance the culture of life.

Bill Schneeberger, who has been in the wine distribution business for more than twenty years, was drawn to cause marketing when some wine makers and sellers began using their wine to raise awareness of breast cancer, featuring the pink ribbon. Inspired by his own deep faith, pro-life convictions, and the biography of Dr. Jerome Lejeune, a prominent French geneticist and devout Catholic, Mr. Schneeberger was prompted to join “Do No Harm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics” (www.stemcellresearch.org).

According to his website (www.bogowines.com), “After learning of the plight of frozen embryos who would likely be used for embryonic stem cell research, Bill discovered the life-saving and life-giving benefits of adult stem cell research (ASCR.). It convinced him to combine his love for God and His defenseless children with a passion for great wine and create BOGO Wines™, specifically to promote the benefits of ASCR.”

A short time later, Mr. Schneeberger met another man of strong faith, Italian winemaker Stefano Sgarzi, at a wine and food show in New York City. Mr. Sgarzi was a third generation wine maker who could, according to Schneeberger, “guarantee style, quality and integrity. In short, it was a perfect fit.”

Realizing the challenge of using cause marketing to educate the public on the benefits of adult stem cell research, Schneeberger developed and trademarked the name BOGO Wines, which stands for “buy one give one”, not “buy one get one.” He markets the wine in an “engaging, colorful twin pack that describes the quality of the wines, recommended food pairings and…the benefits of adult stem cell research.” “The idea”, he says, “is that you will drink one bottle of BOGO and share the other bottle in the twin pack with someone who has not heard of the beauty of ASCR. The twin pack makes explaining the issue easy.”

The logo he created to market the wine is two hearts, with the hope that it will catch on as the “cause-marketing symbol (just like that of the pink ribbon) for this life-giving research. This logo,” he says, “means so many things to so many people. As a strong Catholic, it honors my love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” Others have told Schneeberger that it represents the fact that “you don’t have to stop one heart to help another.”

Mr. Schneeberger doesn’t just use this cause marketing to raise awareness of adult stem cell research; he also donates a substantial part of his profits to adult stem cell research and to organizations that champion it. The Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research, with which I am associated, is one such organization that has linked arms with BOGO Wines.

The Coalition’s executive director, Chip Maxwell recently participated in a Capitol Hill briefing on adult stem cell research successes sponsored (along with others) by BOGO Wines and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro Life Activities. The briefing featured patients whose various ailments have been successfully treated or cured by adult stem cell treatments.

The Coalition has also discussed teaming up with BOGO and others in sponsoring an adult stem cell awareness month. Furthermore, if you purchase BOGO Wines through the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research’s website (www.ethicalresearch.net), BOGO will donate seven percent of your order to the Coalition.

Mr. Schneeberger deserves our gratitude and support for putting his God-given talents to the service of God’s sacred gift of human life. He has given us an innovative and edifying opportunity to foster respect for human life while doing something many of us already do: drink wine. May his leadership inspire all of us to return our many talents and resources to God through our service to His least ones.

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Life Insight 6/16/06

The Importance of Fathers

                My first response to parents who ask what they can do to help the pro-life cause is to remind them to first take care of their primary responsibilities at home.  Parents who work hard to build a healthy marriage and raise virtuous, faith-filled children, make an enormous contribution to rebuilding a culture of life and love. 

                Pope John Paul II said in Evangelium Vitae that the deepest root or “heart of the tragedy” defining the “culture of death” is “the eclipse of the sense of God and of man, typical of a social and cultural climate dominated by secularism…Consequently, when the sense of God is lost, the sense of man is also threatened and poisoned.”  In other words, if our understanding of, and relationship with, God the Father is weak, our understanding and appreciation of human life made in His image will be weak as well.  Children who are formed with faith and virtue and a healthy understanding of God, will have great respect for human life.

                John Paul II also says in this document that “the role of the family in building a culture of life is decisive and irreplaceable.”  “It is truly ‘the sanctuary of life:  the place in which life—the gift of God—can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human growth.”

                “It is above all in raising children that the family fulfills its mission to proclaim the Gospel of life,” John Paul continues.  “By word and example, in the daily round of relations and choices, and through concrete actions and signs, parents lead their children to authentic freedom, actualized in the sincere gift of self, and they cultivate in them respect for others, a sense of justice, cordial openness, dialogue, generous service, solidarity and all the other values which help people to live life as a gift.”

                 As we approach the celebration of Father’s Day, it is timely to reflect on the importance of fathers in the forming of virtuous and faith-filled children.  Wade Horn, former head of the National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI), remarked that “the greatest social tragedy of the last 30 years has been the collapse of fatherhood.  In America today, one-third of all children [24 million] live away from their fathers.  Among children of divorce, 40 percent do not see their father in a typical year.”

                According to facts I obtained from NFI’s website (www.fatherhood.org),

Let us pray to St. Joseph, the model of husband and father given to us by God, to bless all husbands and fathers that they might live a godly life dedicated first to holiness and then to the protection and well-being of his family.

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Life Insight 6/02/06

Signs of Hope in 2006

                 Recent communications from the U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities present a few significant signs of hope in 2006 for the pro-life cause.  One of those signs is recent nationwide public opinion polls.  Deirdre McQuade, Director of Planning and Information at the Secretariat, notes in a May 5 news release that “public opinion has moved progressively away from supporting unqualified access to abortion.  This is a real sign of hope,” she said, “for both women and their unborn children.”

McQuade cites three recent polls. 

1.  “A May 4 Harris poll — which misleadingly asked about support for Roe v. Wade as if that decision made abortion legal during only the first three months of pregnancy — found that support has dropped below 50% for the first time in 30 years. It also showed that 44% of Americans said they would support a law in their own state like South Dakota's, banning all abortions except to save the mother's life.

2. A second sign of hope, cited in the Secretariat’s March-April newsletter, is state laws.  According to NARAL Pro-Choice America, 614 pro-life bills were introduced in state legislatures and 58 of them were enacted into law in 2005.  As a result of this activity, NARAL gave the nation an overall grade of D-minus.  Now there’s a D-minus we can all celebrate! 

3. The third sign of hope mentioned in the newsletter is the courts.  “As the last three decades have shown, it is not enough to have a majority pro-life citizenry, or even for state and federal legislators to enact scores of pro-life laws.  Once the U.S. Supreme Court constitutionalized the abortion issue in 1973, the Court effectively took many questions relating to abortion out of the hands of the people and their elected representatives, leaving them little leeway in crafting restrictions…Today, we have many reasons to hope that the structure of current abortion law will be shaken down to its rickety foundations.”

“We expect that Americans will continue to trend pro-life as they learn more about abortion and its impact on women, men, and society,” Ms. McQuade concluded in her news release.  We need to increase our prayers and actions that this trend may be so.

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Life Insight 5/26/06

Nebraska Abortions Continue Major Decline

                The official report of abortions in Nebraska was released last week and for the second year in a row, there was a double digit decrease in the number of abortions.  The number of abortions in 2005 dropped by 11.5 percent to the lowest level (3173) since 1974 (3094), the year after abortion was legalized in the United States.  Combined with the more than 10 percent decline in abortions in 2004, there has been a 22 percent decline in abortions in Nebraska overthe last two years.

                This precipitous decline adds to a slower, general decline in abortions since 1990 when the number of abortions in Nebraska hit its peak at 6346.  Interestingly, the number of abortions in 2005 was exactly half the number of abortions in 1990.  Although even one abortion is a terrible tragedy, this significant decline of abortions in Nebraska is very encouraging.

                Here are some other statistics presented in the annual report:

·         Fifteen percent of the abortions in Nebraska were performed on women who reside in other states.  Not surprising, the vast majority of non-Nebraska women came from Iowa, South Dakota and Missouri, but there were also women from fourteen other states who had abortions in Nebraska.

·         The vast majority (57.1 percent) of abortions were done on women ages 20 to 29.  The second largest number of abortions was done on women in their 30s (22.3 percent).  Next were teenagers at 17.3 percent and last were women in their 40s (3.4 percent).  Particularly disturbing is the fact that 17 abortions were done on girls under the age of 15 (12 fourteen year olds, 4 thirteen year olds, and 1 twelve year old).

·         Almost half of all women who had abortions listed either “contraceptive failure” (23.1 percent) or “no contraception used” (26.2 percent) as a reason for their abortion.  This statistic, of course, seriously undermines the abortion industry claim that greater access to contraception results in fewer abortions.  Access to contraceptive devices and services has never been higher, and yet half of all abortions last year were related to contraceptive failure of nonuse.

·         More than one third (36.3 percent) of abortions were repeat abortions.  What is sad beyond words is that for 219 women, this was their third abortion; for 79 women, this was their fourth abortion; for 44 women, this was their fifth abortion; and for 58 women, this was their sixth (or more) abortion.

·         Eighty-three percent (2,647) of abortions were performed by two abortionists.  Although the report doesn’t reveal the names, it is well known that these two abortionists are C.J. Labenz (Omaha) and LeRoy Carhart (Bellevue).  The Planned Parenthood abortion center in Lincoln did 522 abortions (performed by Meryl Severson).  Four abortions were performed by three unknown abortionists in Douglas or Sarpy counties.

·         Abortions were performed in three counties: Douglas (1.442), Sarpy (1,209), and Lancaster (522).

                The typical question I am asked by reporters covering this story is, “why do you think the number of abortions is declining?”  My answer is, “I think there are multiple reasons.”  One reason is the dramatic shift in attitudes against abortion.  This is reflected in numerous public opinion polls over the last several years. 

This shift in attitudes covers the age spectrum, but is particularly prevalent among teens and young adults.  One result of this attitude shift seems to be that increasing numbers of women who get pregnant outside of marriage are choosing to give birth instead of seeking abortion.

                Another reason, I believe, is the increasing prevalence of abstinence education and the increasing inclination of teens to abstain from sexual activity outside of marriage. 

                Whatever the reasons for this decline, now is the time for individuals, communities and the government to increase our efforts to provide the material and relational support that women cry out for when they experience an untimely pregnancy.  As one of the founders of the early feminist movement, Mattie Brinkerhoff said:

                “When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society—so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged” (The Revolution 3(9):138-9 Sept. 2, 1869).

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Life Insight 5/19/06 

Keeping Track of our Congressman

             One of the four action areas of the Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities is a public policy program.  In this area, the Bishops instruct us that “the Church must be committed to the task of educating and supporting lay people involved in law-making, government and the administration of justice, so that legislation will always reflect those principles and moral values which are in conformity with a sound anthropology and advance the common good” (The Church in America, no. 19, quoting Synod for America, proposition 72).

            “A public policy program,” the Bishops continue, “requires well-planned and coordinated advocacy by citizens at the national, state, and local levels…As U.S. citizens and religious leaders, we see a critical moral imperative for public policy efforts to ensure the protection of human life.”

To assist us in our public policy advocacy, the U.S. Bishops (in 1974) formed the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (NCHLA).  According to its website (www.nchla.org), “the organization's objectives include educating citizens, developing pro-life legislative networks, and offering programs in support of pro-life legislation.

“Among its various activities, NCHLA produces educational and program resources, communicates with leaders about legislative priorities, and presents legislative seminars throughout the year. In a special way, NCHLA assists dioceses, state Catholic conferences, and Catholic lay groups. The Committee also works closely with the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

NCHLA provides invaluable services to my office and my counterparts in dioceses around the country.  Among those services are regular updates and action alerts on pro-life legislation in Congress and reports on how every member of the House and Senate votes on this legislation.  Its website is a treasure of information about pro-life legislation, the status of this legislation, an action center for contacting your Congressman, and a mechanism for seeing how your Congressman votes.

NCHLA has also organized several grassroots postcard campaigns over the years.  One of those campaigns, in which my office participated, generated millions of postcards nationwide urging passage of a partial-birth abortion ban.  In fact, the campaign produced so many postcards that it temporarily shut down the Congressional post office.

The latest NCHLA initiative is the “End Roe” campaign (www.endroe.org).  The purpose of the campaign is to urge Senators not to use support of Roe as a litmus test for judicial nominees.  During recent debates over President Bush’s judicial nominees, several pro-abortion senators made it pretty clear that they would oppose any nominee who doesn’t support Roe v. Wade.  Fortunately, neither of Nebraska’s U.S. senators is part of this infamous group of senators.

 In fact, Nebraskans are very blessed to have an entire Congressional delegation (Senators Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson and Representatives Jeff Fortenberry, Lee Terry and Tom Osborne) that votes pro-life most of the time, if not always.  Such a situation makes it very easy to take their pro-life support for granted.  We must not let this happen.  Our representatives need to be thanked regularly for their pro-life votes so they know that they have strong pro-life support behind them.  The action center on NCHLA’s website makes contacting our representatives very easy to do.

In “Living the Gospel of Life”, the U.S. Bishops remind us that the “Gospel of Jesus Christ is a ‘Gospel of life’…that invites all persons to a new life lived abundantly in respect for human dignity.  We believe that this Gospel is not only a complement to American…principles, but also the cure for the spiritual sickness now infecting our society…We cannot simultaneously commit ourselves to human rights and progress while eliminating or marginalizing the weakest among us.  Nor can we practice the Gospel of life only as a private piety.  American Catholics must live it vigorously and publicly, or we will not live it at all.”

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Life Insight 05/12/06

Motherhood Proud Profession

More often than I would prefer, I receive forwarded e-mails about various topics; some are engaging, but most prompt a quick tap of the delete key.  One topic that will always get my attention is motherhood.  Over the years I’ve collected numerous touching anecdotes about motherhood and I thoroughly enjoy perusing them in preparation for Mother’s Day.

One of them features a mother waiting in line to renew her driver’s license.  As she waits, she remembers another mother telling about her experience renewing her license during which she was asked her occupation.  “Do you have a job, or are you just a….?”  Before she could finish the question, the mother snapped back, “Of course I have a job, I’m a mother.”  “We don’t list ‘mother’ as an occupation…’housewife’ covers it,” the clerk replied.

When it was her turn at the counter, the clerk asked her, “and what is your occupation?”  Without missing a beat she blurted out, “I’m a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.”  The clerk paused and looked up as though she had not heard it right.  She repeated the title slowly, emphasizing the most significant words.

“Might I ask just what you do in your field?” the clerk asked.  Coolly, she replied, “I have a continuing program of research (what mother doesn’t) in the laboratory and in the field (normally I would have said indoors and out).  I’m working for my Masters (the whole darned family) and already have four credits (all daughters).”

“Of course,” she continued, “the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities (any mother care to disagree?) and I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it).  But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers and the rewards are in satisfaction rather than just money.”

There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk’s voice as she completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered her to the door.  As she drove into her driveway, buoyed up by her glamorous new career, she was greeted by her lab assistants—ages 13, 7, and 3.  Upstairs she could hear her new experimental model (6 months) in the child-development program, testing out a new vocal pattern.

One of the colossal errors of the modern (Betty Friedan-led) feminist movement is that it bought into the misogynist notion that women must be more like men in order to succeed in the social and economic life of society.  Rather than demanding that institutions and corporations accommodate a woman’s unique and essential gift of motherhood, modern feminism persuaded a generation of women that their fertility was the real obstacle to success and that contraception and abortion was their savior.

The results of this radical feminism have been disastrous.  Millions of aborted babies, millions of physically, psychologically and spiritually wounded women, the objectification of women, the degradation of motherhood, the marginalization of fatherhood and a business and educational climate that’s less willing to accommodate motherhood.

Pope John Paul II said in Evangelium Vitae that one antidote to this cultural disaster is the fostering of a “’new feminism’ which rejects the temptation of imitating models of ‘male domination’ in order to acknowledge and affirm the true genius of women in every aspect of the life of society and overcome all discrimination, violence and exploitation.”

“Motherhood,” he says, “involves a special communion with the mystery of life, as it develops in the woman’s womb…This unique contact with the new human being developing within her gives rise to an attitude toward human beings—not only toward her own child, but every human being—which profoundly marks the woman’s personality.

“Women first learn and then teach others that human relations are authentic if they are open to accepting the other person:  a person who is recognized and loved because of the dignity which comes from being a person and not from other considerations such as usefulness, strength, intelligence, beauty or health.  This is the fundamental contribution which the church and humanity expect from women.  And it is the indispensable prerequisite for an authentic cultural change.”

I pray for my mother and every mother that God will richly bless them for their cooperation and generosity in saying yes to new life.  Happy Mothers Day!

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Life Insight 05/05/06

Voting: A Privilege and Duty 

Next Tuesday, May 9, is the primary election day in Nebraska.  In most primary elections, only about twenty percent of registered voters go to the polls.  This percentage of voters gets more shameful when one considers that fifteen percent of eligible voters (18 or more years old) in Nebraska are not even registered to vote.  Election officials estimate that the turnout this year may “swell” to about thirty percent because of the many hotly contested races.

It needs to be repeated over and over that voting is a privilege and a duty as citizens and as Christians.  In their 1999 Statement on Political Responsibility, the U.S. Bishops said, “For Catholics, public virtue is as important as private virtue in building up the common good.  In the Catholic tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue; participation in the political process is a moral obligation.”

In Living the Gospel of Life, the U.S. Bishops encourage Catholics “to embrace their citizenship not merely as a duty and privilege, but as an opportunity meaningfully to participate in building the culture of life…Every act of responsible citizenship is an exercise of significant individual power.  We must exercise that power in ways that defend human life, especially those of God’s children who are unborn, disabled or otherwise vulnerable. 

“We get the public officials we deserve.  Their virtue—or lack thereof—is a judgment not only on them, but on us.  Because of this, we urge our fellow citizens to see beyond party politics, to analyze campaign rhetoric critically and to choose their political leaders according to principle, not party affiliation or mere self-interest.”

As the Bishops acknowledge in this document, “[b]ringing a respect for human dignity to practical politics can be a daunting task.  There is such a wide spectrum of issues involving the protection of human life and the promotion of human dignity…But for citizens and elected officials alike, the basic principle is simple: We must begin with a commitment never to intentionally kill, or collude in the killing, of any innocent human life, no matter how broken, unformed, disabled or desperate that life may seem.”

In Evangelium Vitae (no. 101), Pope John Paul II said “it is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop.”  The U.S. Bishops echo this principle in Living the Gospel of Life:

The “Catholic Church promotes a broad spectrum of issues ‘seeking to protect human life and promote human dignity from inception of life to its final moment’…Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and the scandal of capital punishment.  Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing and healthcare.”

“But being ‘right’ in such matters”, the bishops continue, “can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life.  Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community.

"If we understand the human person as the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’—the living house of God—then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house.  All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation.  These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right—the right to life.  Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand.  Such attacks cannot help but lull the social conscience in ways ultimately destructive of other human rights.”

Before you vote next Tuesday, be sure to find out where the candidates stand on the range of issues affecting human life and dignity, with priority attention to the right to life issues of abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell and cloning research.  The Nebraska Catholic Conference survey can help.  It is available online at www.nebcathcon.org or by contacting my office. 

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Life Insight 4/28/06

Communication Key to Good Decision-making

My office regularly receives calls from Catholics seeking the Church’s guidance to questions about medical treatment decision-making and advance directives.  Often these calls are prompted by a loved one’s illness and the difficult and even contentious decisions about their care.

When is medical intervention morally required or morally optional?  Does the Church’s teaching against euthanasia mean that we must utilize every possible means to extend life?  What does the Church say about advance directives (i.e. the living will and power of attorney for health care)? 

These questions, and others, are answered in the document “Medical Treatment Decision-making: Moral Guidance and Considerations from Catholic Teaching” produced by the Nebraska Catholic Conference.  A revised version of the document was approved and promulgated by the three bishops of Nebraska in last week’s Catholic newspapers.

The document provides guidelines or principles to assist Catholics in making moral decisions about medical intervention.  However, neither the document nor the Church attempts to address every question or scenario that families might face in making medical treatment decisions.  Such a task would be impossible.

The document (and the Church) does provide some objective guidance.  For example, it makes clear that euthanasia (intentionally causing death) is never morally permissible.  Likewise, it states that “while responsible stewardship for one’s own life and for lives in one’s care is morally obligatory, this does not mean that all possible medical interventions must be used in all circumstances.”

However, the Church recognizes that most decisions families will face about medical intervention are subjective in nature.  For example, determining whether or not an intervention is morally optional (i.e. useless or poses excessive burdens to the patient) depends upon the circumstances of each patient.  It is possible for the same medical intervention to be morally required in one case and optional in another case.

As the document states, “No category of individuals, having certain confirmed symptoms, can be classified as not suitable for treatments, procedures or interventions which extend life…Likewise, it is not possible to identify a given treatment, procedure or intervention and classify it as always, and in all circumstances, ordinary or extraordinary, that is, morally obligatory or non-obligatory.”

In addition to getting the moral guidance provided in this document, Catholics who call my office also want an advance directive they can simply sign and be ensured that their health care decisions will be faithful to Church teaching.  Unfortunately, such a document doesn’t really exist.

Certainly, advance directives can be written to reflect one’s desire to follow, or not violate, Catholic teaching.  My office has such samples.  However, there is no document, no matter how comprehensive or “Catholic” it may be, that can, by itself, ensure that this desire is fulfilled.

The best way to ensure that your medical treatment wishes will be followed (if you are incapacitated) is to designate a power of attorney for health care (this could be a family member or friend) and then clearly and frequently communicate your wishes to this person.  Be sure to communicate to this person (verbally and in the advance directive) that you want all medical treatment decisions to be in accord with Catholic principles as outlined in the Medical Treatment Decision-making document.  Review this document with them.

In its conclusion, this document provides an important reminder:  “It will not always be easy to make a judgment concerning medical interventions.  The circumstances, including the assessment of benefits and burdens, may be so complex as to cause doubts about the way in which moral principles should be applied.  However, sound judgments are possible by studying the type of medical intervention, its degree of complexity and risk, its cost and availability, and comparing these factors with the results that can be expected, taking into account the state of the sick person and his or her physical, emotional and moral resources.”

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Life Insight 4/21/06

Social Science Illuminates Contraception’s Impact

There is doubtfully no issue more visceral, which causes more people to recoil or stiffen their backs, than contraception. Likewise, there are few Catholic Church teachings more misunderstood or disregarded than her teaching on contraception, as confirmed through Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae.

After at least forty years of being embedded into people’s sexual practices and into government programs, contraception has become socially and politically sacrosanct. This reality is exemplified by the fact that eighty to ninety percent of Catholics use contraception and public funding of it is just presumed to be beneficial to society.

In Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI warned that the widespread use of contraception would lead to “conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality”; he also warned that man would lose respect for woman and “no longer [care] for her physical and psychological equilibrium”; rather, man would treat woman as a “mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.”

Unfortunately, these predictions, and Humanae Vitae itself, have been ignored by too many leaders within the Church to the detriment of at least two generations of individuals, to families and to society. Interestingly, Humanae Vitae and its predictions are being confirmed by an unlikely source: social science.

University of Virginia sociology professor W. Bradford Wilcox wrote in the January 2005 issue of Touchstone Magazine that “contemporary social science on the contentious issues of our time--such as contraception, divorce, and cohabitation--suggests…[that] the shifts in sexual and familial behavior to which…dissenters [of Humanae Vitae] would like the church to accommodate herself have been revealed in study after study to be social catastrophes.”

To counter the inevitable skeptics, Wilcox points out that “The leading scholars who have tackled these topics are not Christians, and most of them are not political or social conservatives. The are…honest social scientist willing to follow the data wherever it may lead. And the data has…largely vindicated Christian moral teaching on sex an marriage. So the intellectual foundation for dissent on moral matters is collapsing.”

Wilcox focuses on the work of Nobel prize-winning economist George Akerlof from the University of California at Berkeley. “Akerlof,” he says, “argues that the availability first of contraception and then of abortion in the 1960s and 1970s was one of the crucial factors fueling the sexual revolution and the collapse of marriage among the working class and the poor.”

In one of his articles, Akerlof addresses the question of “why the United States witnessed such a dramatic increase in illegitimacy from 1965 to 1990--from 24 percent to 64 percent among African-Americans, and from 3 percent to 18 percent among whites…[despite the predictions of public health advocates] that the widespread availability of contraception and abortion would reduce illegitimacy, not increase it.”

“Using the language of economics, Akerlof pointed out that…the introduction of widespread effective contraception--especially the pill--put traditional women with an interest in marriage and children at ’competitive disadvantage’ in the relationship ‘market’ compared to modern women who took a more hedonistic approach to sex and relationships. The contraceptive revolution also reduced the costs of sex for women and men, insofar as the threat of childbearing was taken off the table, especially as abortion became widely available in the 1970s.”

As a result, “[t]raditional women could no longer hold the threat of pregnancy over their male partners, either to avoid sex or to elicit a promise of marriage in the event their partner made them pregnant. And modern women no longer worried about getting pregnant. Accordingly, more and more women (traditional as well as modern) gave in to their boyfriends’ entreaties for sex.

This resulted in “many traditional women…having children out of wedlock, while many…permissive women ended up…contraception or aborting so as to avoid childbearing. Wilcox said, “this explains in large part why the contraceptive revolution was associated with an increase in both abortion and illegitimacy.”

It is terribly ironic--and sad--that contraception, which is one of the most powerful tools allowing men to treat women as “mere instruments of selfish enjoyment”, has been predominantly promoted by women. To read professor Wilcox’s complete article, go online to http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=18-01-038-f or contact my office.

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Life Insight 4/14/06

God’s Redemptive Love and Mercy

            As we contemplate our Lord’s redemptive act of love and mercy, my thoughts are directed to the millions of women and men who grieve silently (and usually in shame) from the wounds of abortion.  In addition to killing innocent human beings, abortion claims other victims.  Those who procure or encourage abortion often conclude that they have committed the unforgivable sin and consequently become alienated from God.

            Occasionally, I receive a letter from someone wishing to share their experience with this grief and alienation.  These witnesses are powerful examples of the spiritual and psychological pain of abortion and God’s amazing and healing grace.  The following is an excerpt from one of those letters.

            “I remember walking out of that abortion clinic with the most remarkable sense of relief.  I no longer had to tell my parents that I was pregnant.  Oh how relieved I was!  All my problems were over (so I thought), little did I know, they were only just beginning. 

            “The first few years after my abortion I was in complete denial about what I had done.  I didn’t think I actually killed my baby.  It was just a blob of tissue.  After all, what I did was legal, so it couldn’t have been that terribly wrong…The counselor at Planned Parenthood told me…that it really was the best and only option for me…This way of thinking made my decision ‘ok’.

            “Things in my life couldn’t have been further from ‘ok’…I had no self esteem left.  I kept thinking ‘how could anyone ever love me after what I had done?’  I can’t love myself, so how could anyone else love me?  I felt nothing but emptiness inside…Years went by, and not a single day passed that I didn’t think about my baby that I had aborted.  I thought I had committed the unspeakable and unforgivable sin.

            “I suffered alone from my abortion experience for fourteen years before I sought Project Rachel for help.  I would love to shout from the rooftops how the Project Rachel ministry personally helped me.  I hope everyone who hears my story and is suffering from a past abortion will find the courage to call Project Rachel and talk to one of the priests that are so willing to offer peace and reconciliation to them.”

            In Evangelium Vitae,Pope John Paul II communicated “a special word to women who have had an abortion.”  He said the “church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision…But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope.”

            “If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance.  The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the sacrament of reconciliation.  You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost, and you will be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord.

            “With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone’s right to life.”

Project Rachel’s outreach for healing the wounds of abortion is a critical component of the Church’s pro-life program.  Through Project Rachel, the Church communicates and facilitates God’s limitless mercy and love to women and men who have been spiritually and psychologically wounded by an abortion. 

If you know anyone who is struggling from a past abortion, please let them know there is hope and healing through Project Rachel (1-800-964-3787 or www.hopeafterabortion.com).  And pray that, particularly in this holiest season, God’s grace and mercy will penetrate the hearts of those wounded by abortion.

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Life Insight 4/7/06

 The Five Minute Pro Lifer

            Late last year I was introduced to a compelling new pro-life speaker, Scott Klusendorf.  Scott is the president of Life Training Institute (LTI) whose mission is to “train pro-life advocates to persuasively defend their views in the marketplace of ideas.”  One of LTI’s excellent products is “The 5-Minute Pro-Lifer”, an apologetics-style, and conveniently concise (two pages), publication that provides compelling responses to pro-abortion arguments.

            In one of these publications, Klusendorf explains how to defend your pro-life views in 5 minutes or less.  Klusendorf says we should first focus attention on this question: “Is the unborn a member of the human family?”  “If so,” he says, “killing him or her to benefit others is a serious wrong.”

            Arguments based on “choice” or “privacy” miss the point entirely, he says.  “Would anyone that you know support a mother killing her toddler in the name of choice?...Clearly, if the unborn are human, like toddlers, we shouldn’t kill them in the name of choice anymore than we would a toddler.”

            Klusendorf then instructs pro-lifers to defend the humanity of unborn children with science and philosophy.  “Scientifically, we know that from the earliest stages of development, the unborn are distinct, living, and whole human beings.  Leading embryology books confirm this.”

            Philosophical arguments against the humanity (or personhood) of the unborn are usually based on size, level of development, environment or degree of dependency.  Klusendorf argues that these are arbitrary assertions and that “there is no morally significant difference between the embryo you once were and the adult you are today.”

            In another issue of “The 5-Minute Pro-Lifer”, Klusendorf responds to the suggestion that the Bible’s silence on abortion means that it condones it.  He cites a member of Planned Parenthood’s Clergy Advisory Board who wrote this doozy: “One thing I know from the Bible is that Jesus was not against women having a choice in continuing a pregnancy.  He never said a word about abortion (nor did anyone else in the Bible) even though abortion was available and in use in his time.”

            “The hidden (and undefended) premise in [this] argument…is that whatever the Bible doesn’t condemn it condones.  It’s easy to see why this premise is flawed.  The Bible does not expressly condemn many things including racial discrimination…yet few people proclaim [such] acts morally justified.”

            “A century ago,” Klusendorf continues, racists argued from the alleged silence of Scripture that blacks were not human.  Some went so far as to deny that black people had souls…While Scripture does not mention every specific race and nationality, it does teach that all humans are made in God’s image and were created to have fellowship with Him (Gen. 1:26; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:10-11).  The inference is clear.  If blacks are human beings, they are made in God’s image, too.

            “The same is true with the unborn.  If embryos and fetuses are human beings, commands that forbid the unjust taking of human life apply to them as they do other humans…When abortion advocates argue their case from the silence of Scripture, simply ask, ‘Are you saying that whenever the Bible does not specifically condemn something, it condones it?’  When they say ‘no’ (and they must), reply, ‘Then what is your point?’”

            To receive “The 5-Minute Pro-Lifer” and other great materials from LTI, go online to www.prolifetraining.com or call 1-719-264-7861.

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