So
saith Rome...and the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood's research arm. h/t
Gerard Nadal. Excerpts:
...The Bishops warned us that contraception took us one long walk down the road to abortion. They were ridiculed as clueless old celibates.
Then, there is this from Guttmacher:
Contraceptive use is a key predictor of women’s recourse to abortion. The very small group of American women who are at risk of experiencing an unintended pregnancy but are not using contraceptives account for almost half of all abortions. Many of these women did not think they would get pregnant or had concerns about contraceptive methods. The remainder of abortions occur among the much larger group of women who were using contraceptives in the month they became pregnant. Many of these women report difficulty using contraceptives consistently.
This is quite an admission by Guttmacher. The people who hand out the birth control pills like candy indicate elsewhere that 54% of all women presenting for abortion were using contraception in the month in which they became pregnant. In the face of their colossal failure, they claim that what is needed is more contraception.
I love my Bishops...
in this timely and useful Lenten piece. Excerpts:, the smart money is on listening to the Blessed Virgin, not on ignoring her. So, for instance, as the history of the 20th century has borne out in an ocean of blood, it would have been a good idea to listen to Our Lady of Fatima
and her warnings of the rise of Communism and the Second World War
. As with all private revelations, what she called us to was, in essence, being better Catholics by praying more (especially the Rosary
), offering sacrifice, (you know, like we do in Lent anyway), seeking the salvation of sinners
and frequenting the sacraments
while living out the virtues
and works of mercy
. It wasn’t a backbreaking request. But ignoring it turns out to have been a very bad idea...
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might eventually be solved by means of technology and an ingenious rearrangement of political systems.
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This seems to me not so much an addendum to the spiritual life as the very heart of it. The fact that voluntary suffering is spiritually efficacious is no less than a spiritual law, in almost exactly the same sense that gravity is a physical law.
. For eight years I worked at a Planned Parenthood clinic in 
, 
and her teachings. The group also placed posters in the pews and on the bulletin board at the entrance to the chapel.
, 
.
, focused as they were on Christ's identity, necessarily left other aspects of dogma aside. Only gradually could the revealed truth be unfolded in all its richness. Down the centuries, Mariology would always take its direction from Christology. 
was itself proclaimed at the Council of Ephesus primarily to affirm the oneness of Christ's person. Similarly, there was a deeper understanding of 
.
. He understood the value of Mary's consent at the time of the Annunciation, recognizing in the Virgin of Nazareth's obedience to and faith in the angel's message the perfect antithesis of Eve's disobedience and disbelief, with a beneficial effect on humanity's destiny. In fact, just as Eve caused death, so Mary, with her "yes", became "a cause of salvation" for herself and for all mankind (cf. Adv. Haer., III, 22, 4; SC 211, 411). But this affirmation was not 
by the other Fathers of the Church.
. Shorter version 
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. My conclusion is that Roe v. Wade must be overturned, and 
.
,” elaborated in the late 1970s by African-American minister 
...
, and the police did an audit of your company practices and policies, would they find evidence of the social tradition informing your business?...”