Back in the 1990′s, some pro-abortion folks suggested that pro-lifers formed a “conspiracy” and thus they needed to use federal racketeering laws to try to stop us. At the time I was active full-time in pro-life work and I found the accusation of “conspiracy” quite funny, as most pro-lifers could never agree on strategy on just about anything. I would joke that if you had ten pro-lifers in the room, that meant you had ten different ideas of the “best” way to combat abortion. I wish there were a conspiracy!

Because of that experience, I try to be supportive of all pro-life activity, whether it be activism, prayer, counseling, or political action. Anything that brings us closer to a society that recognizes the humanity of the unborn child in law and daily life is a good thing. But I admit that I have a soft spot for praying at abortion clinics. To me, nothing is more important than praying the Rosary in front of a place that kills innocent children in the womb. It is like going into the heart of the Enemy’s camp and detonating our most powerful weapon. I can just imagine how the demons who encircle a clinic cringe when they see a Rosary being pulled out.

Summer is a great time to engage in this activity. With children out of school and the weather quite nice, a whole family can take time each week to pray a Rosary in front of an abortion clinic. My own wife takes our children to do this, and it only takes about 20 minutes, but I believe it does a world of good. Consider making this a practice in your own family (or by yourself) this summer.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

About eight years ago, a good friend of mine knew a great Catholic family that was in the process of adopting a child with special-needs from abroad. They were a solid family who would have no problem financially raising this child. But there was a problem: they were about $2,000 short of the needed funds to complete the adoption. If they did not come up with that money, and fast, the adoption would fall through. This child might never be loved by a family and received into the Catholic Church. So he quickly found a way to raise the $2,000 and donated it to the family. That child has been thriving in his family ever since.

But that got my friend thinking: how often does such an adoption not take place? So he and I and our wives started talking and thus was born Little Flowers Foundation, which exists to assist Catholic families with that final amount they need to complete their adoptions. Since its inception, LFF has helped over 40 children be brought into Catholic homes, where they have been loved and have received the saving sacraments of the Church.

But to continue to do this Little Flowers needs money. We only fund-raise twice a year, and we just sent out our latest fund-raising letter, which you can read here. We have many grant applications we would love to fulfill, but we can only do so if we receive enough money through donations. If you are interested in helping bring children home both physically and spiritually, please donate now. Any amount is helpful and we especially appreciate recurring donations, which can be easily set up via this link. LFF is a 501c(3) organization, so all donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Also know that LFF is all volunteer-run, so over 97% of all donations go directly to Catholic families.

Thank you for your support!

Who would have thought that P&G would create one of the most pro-life applications for the new iPad? It’s true:

One of the great things about being pro-life is that we never have to worry about facts getting in the way of our convictions. Science clearly tells us that it is a baby in a mother’s womb, no matter what pro-abortion advocates might claim, and advances in technology are just reconfirming that each day.

St. Teresa of Avila often emphasized that one of the most important virtues in the spiritual life is perseverance. All of us can get excited and begin some spiritual practice or work of mercy, but it takes perseverance to practice it over and over, no matter the circumstances.

As a model of perseverance, we should look to a young man from Cincinnati, Ohio:

The White House staffers who open President Barrack Obama’s mail are likely well aware of Tommy Behan’s pro-life stance.

Behan, a member of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish and a sophomore at Lakota East High School, has written the president every day since Obama’s inauguration asking him to change his position on abortion. The 16-year-old has handwritten and mailed more than 430 letters.

“His stance is the most radical pro-choice one for a president who has ever held office,” said Behan. “In the first letter I made a vow to never stop writing until he changed it or he’s out of office.”

The teen usually writes in the evenings. He avoids email, preferring to show his passion with the extra effort a handwritten letter requires. His parents supply the pens, paper and stamps. If Behan gets pressed for time and misses a day, he’ll write additional letters until he is caught up. The letters are sometimes mailed in batches.

Behan begins each letter by telling Obama how many times he has written before. Then the teen argues the constitutionality of abortion, talks about justice for the unborn and tells of the lives that have been lost. His stance is straightforward: Life begins at conception and comes before liberty, he said.

“I keep building on my argument,” Behan said. “It really upsets me how some people choose to have an abortion when others really want to have children.”

One of six children, Behan has seen his sister and her husband suffer miscarriages. That experience has made him more passionate and given him more resolve to try to get Obama to publicly change his position.

After about three months of writing Behan received a form letter from the White House. There have been about 17 more since. The generic replies thank him for writing and sometimes acknowledge the topic.

The teen also debated the issue in an editorial in Spark, a well-known student magazine at Lakota East.

“He’s always had a deep respect for life,” said Behan’s mother, Jude Behan. “We’re very proud of him. This was not initiated by us.”

She said her son is dedicated to the letter-writing campaign and is self-motivated.

“I think his voice is being heard, and that’s what’s important,” Jude Behan said. “The ultimate is to respect life, and for those wee little one who don’t have a voice of their own, he wants to be their voice.”

Though he is persistent, Behan doesn’t expect a personal reply or phone call from the president. He also knows the president may not change his opinion, but in the end, Behan will be pleased if he honors his vow to keep writing.

Still, the teen does hope his efforts will encourage others to follow suit and contact the president regarding abortion, at least via email.

“When I wrote the first letter, I didn’t think it would go this far at all,” Behan said. “It’s been building momentum, and it’s hard to stop now. It’s definitely a cause worth fighting for.”

What an amazing young man! Would that we all would be as persistent as he is in fighting evil and preaching the Gospel.

H/t: Rich

Sad news.

In my work with Little Flowers Foundation over the past eight years, I have been involved with a number of adoptions from Russia. One thing I can tell you for sure: the life of an unadopted orphan after they leave an orphanage is very rough in Russia. They are basically left out on the street with no support system and no money. Many of the girls end up as prostitutes and the boys end up in a life of crime. Adopting them before they get to that point is often the only chance these children will ever have at a normal life.

Pray for this situation and for all the children in Russia who need a family. Also, if you are so inclined and able, please consider a donation to Little Flowers Foundation and we will use it to help Catholic families bring these type of children into their homes.

Back in the late 1990′s I changed jobs and rolled-over my (minuscule) 401k into a self-directed IRA. I did some basic research and chose a mutual fund to put the IRA money into. Every quarter I got a statement from the mutual fund company and I would usually scan it briefly. Imagine my surprise one day when I noticed that they added Playboy to the list of companies they invested in. I wrote the company asking them to stop investing in Playboy. I received a very professional response respecting my position, but telling me that they would remain invested in Playboy as it was good for their investors.

So what was I to do? I figured I had five options:

1. Invest in another mutual fund with the possibility that it too would eventually invest in a morally-objectionable company.
2. Invest in a “socially-responsible” mutual fund which respected my worldview but could very well lag other mutual funds in performance.
3. Invest the money in individual stocks instead of a mutual fund I couldn’t control.
4. Invest the money in federal bonds or another non-stock vehicle which didn’t involve morally problematic firms.
5. Leave the market.

These are the choices the Catholic faces when involved in the stock market, either directly or through mutual funds. I came to the conclusion that option (1) wasn’t a viable choice for me, as I didn’t want my money being invested in companies that engaged in explicitly immoral activities. I also don’t think option (5) is a good option for those who wish to be good stewards of their money, and option (4), while viable, definitely limits one’s ability to grow their money over time. So that leaves options (2) and (3), both of which have serious downsides: a “socially-responsible” fund usually performs worse than comparable mutual funds because of its restrictions, and do-it-yourself investing has a whole host of potential problems associated with it.

In the end I made my choice and it has worked out fine for me over the years. But these are the type of questions every Catholic must make while living in a culture which increasingly disrespects our values. And with the advent of government-funded abortion, the conceit that our money isn’t directly used for evil is quickly slipping away. What type of choices will the Catholic have to make in the future?

This is what I love about the Internet. Earlier this morning I had a post about lying, and I mentioned that the Catechism (in paragraph 2483) stated, “To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth.” No more than a few hours later an observant reader said that the part about “someone who has a right to know” is NOT in fact in the Catechism. Although I copied it straight from my Catechism sitting on my bookshelf, when I looked it up online, sure enough, paragraph 2483 stated “To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error.” But in my copy of the Catechism DOES state “To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth.” So what is the story here?

It looks like this paragraph was actually changed between the original 1994 version of the Catechism (which is what I own) and the official version which was released in 1997. If you look at this page, you will see a large number of updates were made, including the following:

2483 The second sentence of this paragraph presently reads:

“To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth.”

This sentence will be modified to read:

To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error.

Obviously, this change makes a major difference, and my whole argument in my previous post is based on the (removed) section of that sentence.

That being said, I’m not going to change my underlying argument that telling an untruth can be moral in certain extreme circumstances, such as saving the life of another. We have examples in Scripture of this occurring, and I do not think anyone in their right (moral) mind would condemn someone who deceived Nazis while hiding Jews. I do not think the new wording of the Catechism eliminates the possibility that one can tell an untruth to someone without the right to the truth, just that it does not explicitly condone it either and most likely wanted to avoid confusion in this area. Perhaps also those in charge of the Catechism wanted to prevent the possibility of the abuse of this condition; as I mentioned myself, it could be easily abused. But the very fact that the clause was in the first edition (which was vetted and edited by hundreds of bishops and theologians) shows that the concept is not against Catholic teaching.

Note also that I am not saying that someone is morally obligated to tell an untruth in those situations, just that it would not be immoral to do so (although if I was the Jew hiding in your basement I’d rather you did tell the untruth).

Update: My argument in this post is based on the wording of the original version of the Catechism, which was later changed. See this post for more details.

One of the classic moral dilemmas of the 20th century was the case of hiding Jews during Nazi Germany. If a Nazi officer comes to the door asking if any Jews are in the house, are you morally permitted to lie to the officer in order to protect the lives of those Jews hiding within? Unfortunately, this is not just a theoretical or historical question, but has real-world applications in today’s abortion-satiated world. Case in point:

Lila Rose, the 21-year-old leader of the group Live Action, posed as a 14-year-old seeking an abortion who was told by a clinic employee that she could have someone with the same last name approve the procedure. State health officials subsequently determined that nine minors had received abortions from the clinic without proper verification of parental consent.

Rose, who converted to Catholicism last year, has been criticized by abortion groups for using deceptive tactics. In reply, she cited Europeans hiding Jews during the Holocaust and the biblical example of Rahab hiding Israelite spies.

I can tell you that in my own pro-life activism experience, I encountered similar situations in which we had to be less than truthful in order to successfully work against abortion clinics. So, was Ms. Rose justified? Is it moral to lie in order to save lives?

The answer is that telling an untruth in such a situation is not a lie, and therefore it can be moral to be deceptive in such situations. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines a “lie” in the following way:

To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who as the right to know the truth. (CCC 2483)

So there are three conditions that have to be in place to make a statement a lie:

(1) “Speak or act against the truth”: In other words, the words or actions have to be not true.

(2) “In order to lead into error”: A misspoken word or erroneous statement said in ignorance is not a lie.

(3) “someone who as the right to know the truth”: Here is the key component for the situation we are discussing: does a Nazi guard or Planned Parenthood employee who plans to kill an innocent life have the right to the truth? Of course not.

So we cannot “lie” to save a life, but we can tell an untruth if necessary, but in doing so, that is not a lie.

Now we need to be careful with this definition. It can too easily be used to justify almost any untruth: “My parents didn’t have the right to know that I was out at that party.” “My wife doesn’t have the right to know what I’m doing on my computer in my free time.” I would posit that only extreme situations really call for even the possibility of that third condition being applicable. But if saving the innocent life of an unborn baby is not an “extreme situation”, what is?

God bless you, Ms. Rose, and keep up the good work!

The founder of Human Life International, and one of the most committed pro-lifers of our lifetime, has died:

Fr. Paul Marx, O.S.B., 1920-2010

I am confident that the first words Fr. Marx heard after his death were, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your reward.”

Misdialed call connects woman who had scheduled an abortion to pro-life help

I can just see her guardian angel moving her fingers to “misdial”!

For those in the Baltimore area, there is an interesting talk coming up by Rita Marker, executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Entitled “End of Life Issues and What Can Be Wrong with Advance Directives,” the talk will focus on the legal and moral aspects of end of life issues and what to look for when making advance directives. Here are the details:

ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST CHURCH, SEVERNA PARK
TUESDAY MARCH 16, 2010
7:00 P.M.

The only pro-life pharmacy in the DC-area, founded by my wife’s OB/GYN Dr. John Bruchalski, is closing due to financial difficulties.

It really is unfortunate that a region with a population of the DC-area cannot support even one pro-life pharmacy. God bless Dr. Bruchalski and all the people that were involved in DMC pharmacy. I’m sure the Lord will bless them for their faithfulness.

For those in the local Maryland area, next Monday (March 8th) will be the annual Maryland March for Life in Annapolis, MD. Fighting against legalized abortion in this state often seems like an uphill battle, but we’ll never win if we don’t try. Try to make an effort to be there next Monday.

Details can be found at: www.marylandmarchforlife.org

One of my favorite pro-life apostolates is Good Counsel Homes, which was founded by Fr. Benedict Groeschel and Chris Bell (who later married pro-life heroine Joan Andrews). Good Counsel Homes provides a home for homeless pregnant women and single mothers, and they have five homes in New York State. Both Chris and Joan Bell are on the Board of Advisors for Little Flowers Foundation.

For a taste of what Good Counsel Homes does, watch this video:

This Lent, if you are looking for a charity to support, consider Good Counsel Homes.

This is so encouraging: my daughter’s 13-year-old pen-pal, who lives in Ohio, wrote a letter to her local paper decrying the evil of abortion and, praise God, it was published. Entitled “Little Girls Don’t Dream of Abortions“, it is a beautiful statement for life: