We have a duty to face up to what's happening at the highest levels in the Catholic Church

Pro-life leaders and local activists need to face up to what's happening at the highest levels in the Catholic Church.

As Voice of the Family reported last week:

"A representative of the Holy See [Monsignor Jean-Marie Musivi Mupendawatu, secretary to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers], in an intervention at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva last week, welcomed Sustainable Development Goal 3 and all its targets, despite target 7 calling for 'universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services.' These terms are defined as including abortion and contraception by many powerful governments and agencies ... " 

 ... These powerful governments and agencies include the Obama administration, the British government, the United Nations Population Fund, International Planned Parenthood Federation to name but a few.

The Voice of the Family report continued:

Mgr Mupendawatu made no reference to the statement of reservations issued by the Holy See delegation to the UN in New York after the approval of the SDGs by the UN in September 2015. In that statement the Holy See expressed some reservations regarding Goals 3.7 and 5.6, both of which refer to “sexual and reproductive health”. The text of the Holy See statement of reservations can be accessed here.

It might be argued that this was an isolated instance, a simple mistake as a result of inexperience, carelessness or human error. We are human. Mistakes happen. I accept that.

However, whether or not a most regrettable mistake was made, the fact is, as the Voice of the Family report points out: " ... there has been extensive collaboration between other Holy See bodies and powerful proponents of abortion, contraception and population control during the current pontificate, under the guise of promoting sustainable development". A selection of Voice of the Family’s commentary on this collaboration can be found below:

Pro-family Catholics disturbed after reports of Pope’s comments on contraception, 18 February 2016

Climate agreement welcomed by pope but pro-lifers concerned about language that promotes abortion, 22 December 2015

Cardinal Turkson: Pope Francis ‘has invited people to some form of birth control”, 10 December 2015

‘Sacrilege’: Catholic leaders react to Vatican’s climate change light show, 9 December 2015

Synod adopts alarming sociological approach in place of clear doctrine, 12 November 2015

Voice of the Family statement: Parents are the primary educators of their children, 15 October 2015

Synod fathers who compromise on contraception will be responsible for greater abortion, 6 October 2015

African families gravely threatened by western governments, international agencies and Vatican departments, 18 August 2015

Professor Schellnhuber: climate science and the population problem, 26 June 2015

Launch of new encyclical by head of Catholic agency accused of funding contraception shows urgent need for reaffirmation of Humanae Vitae, 19 June 2015

Voice of the Family statement on the encyclical letter Laudato Si, 18 June 2015

Any discussion on the environment must stem from understanding that the family is the key to sustainable development, 21 May 2015

Vatican endorsement of UN Sustainable Development Goals threatens unborn children, 29 April 2015

Leading global pro-abortion advocates speak at Vatican conference, 28 April 2015

Like many other pro-life activists, I personally have a right and a duty to speak out about what's happening at the highest levels in the Catholic Church:

I have worked at national and international level for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children for over four decades. In the 1990s, at United Nations conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, at the invitation of the Holy See, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups in a great united effort, under the clear moral leadership of Pope John Paul II, to stop the world's great powers from establishing in international law a right to abortion. Since 1994, SPUC has sent professional lobbyists to United Nations meetings in New York, Geneva and elsewhere, at the expense of our hardworking families throughout Britain who support our work, maintaining in co-operation with other pro-life groups of all faiths and none, the historic struggle against the "right" to abortion. Throughout that period SPUC's team has sought to maintain a close relationship with the Holy See delegation which is so critical in persuading delegates from supporting nations to support marriage, parents as the primary educators, and to oppose abortion.

In raising my concerns, of necessity sometimes publicly like today, I am fulfilling my duty as clearly laid out in the Code of Canon Law, which states:

“According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they [the Christian faithful] have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.” (Canon 212 §3)

I do urge pro-life activists "with reverence" towards your pastors "and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons" to raise your concerns with your diocesan bishop and other relevant authorities in the Church about a situation which, I am advised, is unprecedented in the history of the Church. I believe that future generations will consider us answerable for our failure to do so. Whilst my appeal is primarily to fellow Catholics, I believe that everyone with concern for the common good has a duty to act.

We are arguably experiencing the greatest catastrophe in the history of humanity. At a conservative estimate, since 1966, around 2 billion babies, made in the image and likeness of God, have been killed by abortion worldwide according to leading researchers from both the pro-abortion and pro-life lobbies. Moreover, the number of human embryos destroyed in the past 50 years by abortifacient birth control drugs and devices worldwide is simply incalculable; and in the UK alone, 2 million embryonic babies have been killed as a result of in vitro fertilisation procedures since 1990, according to the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; add to that the scores of other countries where IVF is practised and the number of human beings killed is once again incalculable.

Estimates for the total number killed in wars throughout all of recorded human history range from 150 million to 1 billion. Even if the number were twice that higher figure, the last 50 years has witnessed the killing of more human beings through the “sexual and reproductive health” systems in our so-called civilised countries worldwide than in all the wars in recorded human history. In addition, during the past half century explicit sex education has destroyed the innocence of children, a sex education which provides children and adolescents with access to contraception and abortion. By removing parents as the primary educators of their children in the intimate area of human sexuality, powerful governments and the international birth control lobby funded by those powerful governments with our taxes, are establishing acceptance of contraception and abortion in the darkened hearts and consciences of future generations of adults.

Pro-life organizations, our families and the wider community need urgently to be reinforced by unequivocal, unyielding voices of Catholic Church officials and bishops throughout the world because the full Gospel message about the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life, teaching which is also part of the natural law written on all human hearts, is the most important weapon known to man against the culture of death. The intimate connection between the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life is nowhere more fully spelled out than in Catholic teaching – and all people of good will are capable of understanding that intimate connection.

This is not the time to be silent about what is happening at the highest levels in the Church.

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Is the West's ideological commitment to abortion and sexual "rights" robbing our nations of the strength to resist evil terrorist agenda?

This morning, the Guardian newspaper reports:

"Heavy casualties are feared after a bomb blast ripped through packed crowds in Yola, north-east Nigeria, just days after the president, Muhammadu Buhari, visited [pictured] declaring that terrorist organisation Boko Haram was close to defeat."

I mourn for those killed and pray for those injured in the Nigeria blast and pray for the families of all those affected by this tragedy.

Last Friday, in connection with the tragic slaughter in Paris, I recalled Mother Teresa's words linking the lack of peace in the world to abortion.

In connection with yesterday's terrible tragedy in Nigeria, we in the West need also deeply to consider why the story of yesterday's murderous blast in Yola is not making top headlines in our news in the West today.

We are rightly transfixed by the tragic events in Paris, praying for the victims, and calling on politicians to act with prudence and courage to protect European citizens. However, it's apparent that the tragic events in Nigeria are currently being given much less significant attention, for example, on the BBC website where the top story first thing this morning was the friendly football match between England and France. At the time of writing this post, yesterday's terrifying violence in north east Nigeria, was in 8th place in the BBC's list of news stories, with the death of a rugby star being given more prominence.

We should also consider the words of Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Oyo, Nigeria, who told Alateia last February "that the United States has made clear it will not help Nigeria fight the Boko Haram terror group unless the country modify its laws regarding homosexuality, family planning and birth-control".

A similar observation was made by former U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman, a member of a four-person U.S. Congressional Delegation sent to Nigeria in the months after the horrific kidnapping of over 250 schoolgirls. In an interview with LifeSitenews, he said that the Obama administration was refusing critical intelligence to Nigeria in their fight against Boko Haram because of Nigeria's stance against same-sex "marriage".

Whatever the truth may be regarding Western policy towards Nigeria, I ask the question: Is the West's ideological commitment to killing unborn children and to so-called "sexual rights" robbing our nations of the compassion, the moral clarity and the strength to resist the evil agenda of today's terrorists?


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Leading global pro-abortion advocates speak at Vatican conference

Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General

Two of the world's leading pro-abortion advocates were addressing a Vatican workshop on the environment today.

At the same time, a press conference at the Palazzo Cesi, in Rome, organised by the Heartland Institute, was addressed by two leading SPUC officials on behalf of Voice of the Family, warning that the population control lobby was advancing its agenda by means of the workshop held today by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences.

The following statement was delivered by Patrick Buckley, UN envoy of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, who was joined in Rome by Maria Madise, SPUC's international manager and manager of Voice of the Family:

Voice of the Family statement on the workshop “Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity. The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development” held at the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, 28th April 2015

We wish to express our grave concern at the presence of Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, at the Vatican workshop Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity. The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development held by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences (PAS), Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Religions for Peace on April 28th 2015 in anticipation of the new papal encyclical on the environment.

Ban Ki Moon and Professor Jeffrey Sachs are noted advocates of abortion who operate at the highest levels of the United Nations.

The Vatican workshop aims to “raise awareness and build a consensus that the values of sustainable development cohere with values of the leading religious traditions, with a special focus on the most vulnerable.”

Unfortunately, pro-life and pro-family advocates who lobby at the UN have witnessed the environmental issues become an umbrella to cover a wide spectrum of attacks on human life and the family. These attacks pose an immediate threat to the lives of the most vulnerable – the unborn, the disabled and the elderly – as well as grave violations of parental rights.

In light of the attacks on innocent human life witnessed at the UN under the guise of environmental concerns, we are troubled to note the Vatican workshop’s desire “to help build a global movement across all religions for sustainable development and climate change throughout 2015 and beyond”. This timetable exactly coincides with the negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN, which include strong attacks on life and family. The SDG agenda will determine the direction and financial aid for the third world countries for the next 15 years.

Understandably the population control, pro-abortion lobby must be feeling very much empowered by the influence being exercised in the Vatican by two of the culture of death’s leading figures, Ban Ki Moon and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, especially just before the publication of an encyclical on the environment.

Ban Ki-Moon, who is one of the main speakers at the workshop at the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, has on many occasions promoted the so-called “right” to abortion worldwide. (1) He also issued a controversial new report this year on sexual violence in conflict zones, which was critical of the lack of “safe abortion” in many conflict situations. The directive openly defies the consensus at the UN that abortion is an issue that should be left to individual nations.

Dr Jeffrey Sachs, who is also addressing the meeting, is a well-known international proponent of population control and abortion. (2) Sachs is one of the architects of the millennium development goals and a member of the Executive Board of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The Network has proposed draft Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which contain provisions that are radically antagonistic to the right to life from conception to natural death, to the rights and dignity of the family and to the rights of parents as the primary educators of their children.

Our concerns relate specifically to Goals 4 and 5.

Goal 4 is to “achieve gender equality, social inclusion, and human rights for all”. The call for an end to preventable deaths of infants and children under the age of 5 excludes unborn children, despite the fact that the Convention on the Rights of the Child in its preamble recognises that “The child by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.”

Goal 4d, which states “Ensure universal sexual and reproductive health and rights” is completely unacceptable. Such language is routinely used by the international pro-abortion and population control lobby to refer to the legalization of abortion on demand and access for children, without parental knowledge or consent, to abortion and birth control drugs and devices in countries throughout the world. (3)

Goal 5, “Achieve Health and Wellbeing at all ages”, also includes a reference to sexual and reproductive health and family planning. (4)

In the light of all that has been said, it will be clear why Catholic families all over the world are greatly concerned that Vatican institutions may embrace the language of the United Nations, which, on the surface, speaks of protecting the environment while in reality providing cover for an anti-life and anti-family agenda. Any discussion on the environment must stem from understanding that the family, defined correctly, is the key to sustainable development, particularly at this time when the Synod on the Family has been called by Pope Francis to consider problems facing the family.

The family according to article 16.3 of the Universal Declaration (1948) is the “natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State”.

Furthermore, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the post-2015 development agenda must take account of the family; this is, in fact, recognised by the UN Secretary General’s 2011 Family Report. (5)

Accordingly, Voice of the Family proposes that the SDGs should contain a goal to strengthen the family and include realistic targets in that regard.

The holding of this vitally important conference in the Vatican at this crucial time in-between the two family synods and in the lead-up to the publication of the Sustainable Development Goals, and with the participation of these leading international pro-abortion advocates, is all the more worrying in the light of the most recent statement of Hilary Clinton saying, effectively, that opposition to abortion must cease to exist, even in the teaching of the Church.

We wish to place on record our view that, in any international agreement concerning the future of the human family, it is indispensable to assert the obligation for states to provide for the legal protection of the right to life of every human being from the moment of conception until natural death and to uphold the family as the fundamental group unit of society.

Footnotes
(1) In September 2010 at the Human Rights Council in Geneva and Navanethem Pillay, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, launched a report “on discrimination against women, in law and practice, and how the issue is addressed throughout the United Nations human rights system”. In that report they called for the policing of nations worldwide to “address the refusal of physicians to perform legal abortions”

(2) In his book Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet Paperback – 26 Mar 2009 which deals with “global warming, poverty, war, deforestation and mass extinctions”, Sachs argues for legalised abortion.

(3) For example, in a speech on October 12th 2009, Wellington Webb, appointed by Barack Obama as special adviser to the US mission to the United Nations, confirmed that the Obama administration will be promoting legalised abortion throughout the world, targeting adolescents in a worldwide abortion drive. The ambassador was speaking at the UN's 15th anniversary commemoration of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). His speech expressly committed the US government to promoting "access to reproductive health commodities and services for adolescents". Webb stated: "President Obama, Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Rice have all underscored the strong support of the United States for human rights, women's rights and reproductive rights as well as universal access to reproductive health and family planning".
Hillary Clinton, Obama's appointee as US Secretary of State, had already made it clear that when the US government speaks of reproductive health, it's a term which includes access to abortion. In April, 2009, Hilary Clinton told Congressman Chris Smith at a hearing of the US Congress Foreign Affairs Committee "We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health and reproductive health includes access to abortion ... ”

(4) http://unsdsn.org/resources/goals-and-targets/

(5) “The majority of the Millennium Development targets, especially those relating to the reduction of poverty, education of children and reduction in maternal mortality, are difficult to attain unless the strategies to achieve them focus on the family.” (SG Family Report 2011 (A/66/62–E/2011/4)
“The stability and cohesiveness of communities and societies largely rest on the strength of the family.” (SG Family Report 2011 (A/66/62–E/2011/4)

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Catholic authorities' platform for Fr Radcliffe is a grave betrayal of trust

Young people, their parents and clergy
were betrayed by organisers
of Flame 2 youth event 

Once again Fr Timothy Radcliffe, the well-known dissenter from Catholic teaching,  is being given an official platform by Catholic authorities to spread his unorthodox views in England and Wales.

Fr Radcliffe will be speaking tomorrow evening on the theme "Tolerant and Free despite being Catholic" as part of the Archdiocese of Westminster’s “Faith Matters” series of Lenten talks at Vaughan House.

Even more disturbing was Fr Radcliffe’s invitation to address thousands of young people at the Flame 2 youth event earlier this month. To invite a known dissenter from Catholic teaching like Fr Radcliffe to speak to young people, under the cover of a supposedly Catholic youth event, was a grave betrayal of the trust that parents and clergy across the country placed in the organisers - and a betrayal of the young people who expect to be taught the truth in love.

Please read my brief outline of Fr Radcliffe’s dissent from Catholic teaching below and please write to the organisers of both events charitably to  express your concerns.

From a pro-life perspective, it is absolute essential that we act now to protect our children and grandchildren’s right to receive the Catholic faith from Catholic authorities - on matters relating to human sexuality, remembering the words of Pope John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae paragraph 97, where he taught that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.

To express your concerns about “Faith Matters” contact:

Ausra Karaliute, STL

Adult Faith Formation Adviser

Agency for Evangelisation

Vaughan House

46 Francis Street

LONDON, SW1P 1QN

Email: ausrakaraliute@rcdow.org.uk or Ausara Karaliute's immediate manager Bishop Hudson at nicholashudson@rcdow.org.uk

“Flame 2” contact:

CYMFed Board

Catholic Youth Ministry Federation

39 Eccleston Square

London, SW1V 1BX

Outline of Fr Radcliffe’s dissent from Catholic teaching

In the context of Fr Radcliffe's open dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality, it's important to keep in mind the teaching of the Church as expressed in The Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

In his submission to the Church of England Pilling Commission on human sexuality, chaired by Sir Joseph Pilling, Fr Radcliffe made the following comments about “gay sexuality”:

“We must ask what it means, and how far it is Eucharistic. Certainly it can be generous, vulnerable, tender, mutual and non-violent. So in many ways, I would think that it can be expressive of Christ’s self-gift.

“We can also see how it can be expressive of mutual fidelity, a covenantal relationship in which two people bind themselves to each other for ever.”

In a 10 March 2012 article in The Tablet entitled "Can marriage ever change", Fr Radcliffe wrote:

"This is not to denigrate committed love of people of the same sex. This too should be cherished and supported, which is why church leaders are slowly coming to support same-sex civil unions. The God of love can be present in every true love."

The confusion caused to those attending the “Soho masses” was eloquently described by Mrs Daphne McLeod of the organisation Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice:

“I do feel that this pretence and condoning is not in any way compassionate or pastoral. These Catholics need and deserve proper guidance, especially the young one who have not received good religious instruction. I cannot forget the poor young man who said to me ‘Don’t worry about Daphne, if it were still wrong these Masses wouldn’t have been arranged especially for us.’”

In a 26 November 2005 article in The Tablet entitled "Can gays be priests?" Fr Radcliffe rejected the clear teaching of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's document on "Persons with homosexual tendencies and the priesthood".

The document states that it is forbidden to ordain men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” to the priesthood. Fr Radcliffe responded:

“...we may presume that God will continue to call both homosexuals and heterosexuals to the priesthood because the Church needs the gift of both.”

Criticising Fr Radcliffe's interpretation, Fr Alphonsus de Valk wrote that:

"The article has done a disservice to the Church...by attempting to deconstruct the Vatican warnings ... In unjustly deriding the Vatican warnings, Fr. Radcliffe has given succor to other detractors."

In 2006, Fr Radcliffe joined Britain's leading dissenting “Catholics” in contributing an essay to "Opening up: Speaking out in the Church", a book of essays produced as a tribute to Martin Pendergast, one of Britain's leading Christian homosexual activists and one of the organisers of the Soho gay Masses. The book co-edited by Julian Filochowski, Pendergast's civil partner, and Peter Stanford, another well-known dissenter from Catholic sexual ethics.

On 10 July 2009, Fr Radcliffe gave a talk to a Catholic parish in Mashpee, Massachusetts, which he said:

"It's not that sexual ethics are particularly important. I don't think they are" (video at 8min40sec)

and

"We have to find ways of promoting our vision of the Christian family so as we can have a context within which to raise children, another generation; but we have to do it in a way which doesn't trash the relationships that people actually have." (video at 1min)

This echoes Fr Radcliffe's words in:

• a 28 January 2006 article in The Tablet ("How to discover what we believe") in which he wrote:"[S]hould the Church accommodate her teaching to the experience of our contemporaries or should we stick by our traditional sexual ethics and risk becoming a fortress Church, a small minority out of step with people’s lives? Neither option seems right ... I confess that I do not know the answer."

During his 2009 Mashpee talk, Fr Radcliffe was asked about relations between the Catholic Church and the newly-elected strongly pro-abortion President Barack Obama. He replied (video at 9mins28secs) that:

"I think that the most important thing is to have a mutually-respectful dialogue with President Obama. He is a very bright man. I have to say that when he was elected, in England you cannot believe the excitement we had. And I believe that he is a man with whom the Church can be in dialogue, on all sorts of issues."

Fr Radcliffe then called to the stage Professor Thomas Groome to speak as an expert on the Church's "dialogue" with Mr Obama. As LifeSiteNews.com has detailed, Professor Groome is a leading dissenter from Catholic teaching within the world of Catholic education. Cardinal George Pell banned his books within the Archdiocese of Sydney. Professor Groome said (video at 0mins40secs) that:

• Obama "on many, many issues, really embraces Catholic social teaching"
• "many Catholics would not be in favour" of banning all abortions
• banning all abortions would "to send abortions back to the back-alleys of our country"
• Obama is "deeply committed to reducing the numbers of abortions"
• Catholics "can work with" Obama on the abortion issue.

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First speech by Head of Russian Orthodox Church in Duma calls for nationwide abortion ban

First speech by Head of Russian Orthodox Church in Duma – calls on MPs to campaign against abortion
In the first ever speech by a head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Russian parliament (the Duma) Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has called for state funding of abortion to end and action towards a complete nationwide ban. The Patriarch said, “The argument that a ban would cause an increase in the number of underground abortions is pure nonsense.”  He called for abortion to be excluded from the list of services covered by mandatory medical insurance. He also said that banning abortion would help address concerns over population in Russia. [23 January, Orthodoxmag]

Pro-lifers march in Washington D.C.
The 42^nd annual March For Life took place in Washington D.C. on Thursday 22 January 2015. The march began with Benediction led by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky. The march attracted hundreds of thousands of people who were addressed by Congressman Chris Smith, March for Life President Jeanne Monahan Mancini and Congresswoman Kathy McMorris-Rogers, who is the head of the House Down syndrome caucus and mother of a son with Down’s Syndrome. Pope Francis sent a message via Twitter to show his support for the march - “Every life is a gift.  #MarchForLife”. [22 January, LifeSiteNews]

House of Representatives passes bill to ban state funding for abortion
As the March for Life was passing through Washington D.C., a bill was passed the House of Representatives which would ban state funding for abortion, including tax credits offered through ‘Obamacare’. The bill was approved by 242-179 although President Obama has said he will veto the legislation. [22 January, BBC News]

Adoption by same-sex couples debated in Portuguese Parliament
This week the Portuguese parliament debated three bills which would mean a change in the law allowing adoption and ‘equality’ in “medically assisted procreation” for same-sex couples. A spokesman for the Party for Animals and Nature (PAN) said, “An adult’s sexual orientation has no impact on his or her parental abilities nor does it interfere with the development of children’s personalities”. In a survey conducted on the subject of same-sex adoption, 41.5% of respondents said that the President of Portugal should call a referendum to decide the matter. [22 January, The Portugal News]

Abortion
China has the most serious gender imbalance in the world [21 January, Financial Times]
Bill banning abortion after 20 weeks fails in the House of Representatives [22 January, The Federalist]

Methodist human rights lobbyist mocks March For Life [23 January, First Things] 

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Population control won't save the planet, admit experts

Professor Corey Bradshaw

Top stories:

Population control won't save the planet, admit experts
Population control will not cure the so-called ‘crisis’ of a perceived shortage of resources for future generations, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Corey Bradshaw from the University of Adelaide said: "Even if we had a third world war in the middle of this century, you would barely make a dent in the trajectory over the next 100 years" [BBC, 27 October] Scientists such as the late Julian Simon argued that a growing population would adapt to the growing number of humans on the planet.

Safe at School condemns government plans on alleged homophobic bullying
SPUC's Safe at School campaign has condemned plans to sink £2 million into dealing with alleged homophobic bullying in schools. The move was announced by Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, in an interview with a homosexual news service. Antonia Tully of Safe at School said: "Tax-paying parents will soon become aware that their money is actually being spent on the promotion of homosexuality. [SPUC, 29 October]

Mother speaks after legal battle to kill daughter
The mother has spoken of her relief after winning a legal battle to allow her disabled daughter to be dehydrated to death. Charlotte Fitzmaurice said: "Although I will live with the guilt forever, I know I have done everything I can for her and she is at peace." Nancy, her daughter, was not terminally-ill and was able to breathe unaided. Dr Andrew Ferguson, chairman of Care Not Killing, said: "It is never ethical to speed up the process of dying by any intervention which has the primary intention to end life".  [Express, 27 October]

Legal bid launched against sex-selective abortions
The Christian Legal Centre is backing a legal bid by a young pro-life activist against the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Aisling Hupert instructed solicitors to bring action after it was announced that the CPS would not press charges against two medics who were filmed by undercover journalists, agreeing to abort babies because they were girls. Andrew Minichello Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre said: "The Director of Public Prosecutions has refused to enforce the law and this sends the wrong message to the medical world. This case shines a spotlight on this grave injustice against women." [Telegraph, 24 October]

Other stories:

Abortion

• A mother is forced to have limbs amputated after abortion [LifeSiteNews, 27 October]
• Parents speak of pressure to abort their baby girl because of Down’s Syndrome [Mirror, 15 October]

Embryology

• UK national sperm bank opens for business [BBC, 30 October]
• Post-IVF woman criticises egg freezing [Wired, 24 October]

Same-sex marriage

• Obama claims US Constitution supports same-sex marriage [IBT, 22 October]
• UN pressures Kyrgyzstan to drop law against homosexual propaganda [Pink News, 27 October]
• Campaign to abolish law against adultery to accommodate same-sex couples [Christian Institute, 22 October]

General

• MPs call for investigation into pregnancy drug [LBC, 24 October]

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Summary and photos of SPUC's greatly successful youth conference

Last weekend's SPUC 7th International Pro-Life Youth and Student conference was a great success. For a full report, read "Want to see how good the 2014 SPUC youth conference was?" on SPUC's youth blog "Why I am Pro-Life". You can also see a full slideshow of photos on SPUC's new Flickr photostream. Below is a summary of all the talks taken from SPUC's live Twitter feed of the conference. We hope to post videos of all the talks and other parts of the conference on SPUC's YouTube channel in the near future.

7 March:

Opening and introduction:

Dan Blackman

• 7th SPUC Int'l Pro-Life Youth conference, starting this eve in Telford and concluding Sun, is fully-booked. Live tweets of conf to follow.
• Good evening from start of the 7th SPUC International Pro-life Youth conference, Telford, England. Great venue, nice dinner & now 1st talk.
• SPUC's Anthony McCarthy introducing our youth conference. Conference serves youth, to educate them & help advance cause of truth. #prolife
• Robin Haig, SPUC's chairman, encouraging dialogue & networking between #prolife youth. New ideas, new friendships will result.
• Dan Blackman, SPUC youth officer, encourages #prolife youth to train as SPUC speakers in schools, using our modern presentation.

SPUC School's talk, given by Huda Alfardus:

Huda Alfardus

• Huda Alfardus, Nottingham student, now giving SPUC schools presentation. Slavery precursor of abortion: unborn deemed non-persons.
• Human beings genetically complete at conception (fertilisation); separate, unique, human. Heart, spine, limbs, brain etc forms very rapidly.
• "Foetus", medical term for unborn child at 9 weeks, is Latin for "little one". Movement in womb, taste, hair etc all develop quickly now.
• Facts from Langman's Medical Embryology, 2004. Despite these moving facts, 200k abortions in UK p.a. Abortion methods chilling.
• RU486 chemical abortion designed to kill baby & expel his/her body. Mother involved in whole process, which is very traumatic, admit makers.
• Abortion in Britain allowed in law up to birth since 1990, including of disabled babies. #discrimination
• Morning-after pill can cause early abortions. Makers say 1 mode of action is to prevent implantation, thus killing newly-conceived embryos.
• Mother's health & wellbeing harmed by abortion. Possible risks may incl. blood loss, infertility, breast cancer, emotional harm→suicide.
• Over 500 abortions every day in Britain. We never judge women who have abortions, but give them truth, support, alternatives. #LoveThemBoth
• Huda is Princeton-educated geneticist. Young, brave, educated #prolife woman.

Bumper Pro-Life Quiz

Now Bumper #Prolife Pub Quiz! Heavyweight speakers tomorrow.

8 March:

Good morning from 2nd day of 7th SPUC Int'l Pro-life Youth Conference, Telford, England. Great pub quiz last night and top breakfast!

Top Catholic academic Dr William Newton on 'Contraception and Abortion: Humanae Vitae and Evangelium Vitae".

Dr William Newton

• Fact: Big increase in contraceptive use was paralled by big increase in abortion in Spain, Turkey etc.
• Contraceptive mentality is: more sex, no kids. Leads to unplanned kids being seen as unwanted, thus leveraging abortion.
• Contraception not practical solution to abortion, let alone moral solution.
• Contraception is a game-changer in how society thinks about sex, human life, the person, science and morality.
• Contraception trivialises sex by removing the profound aspect of it, which is procreation.
• Contraception leads to people taking risks with sex, and sleeping with people they wouldn't want to have children with. More teen pregnancy
• Contraception enculturates mentality that pregnancy is like a disease. If "drug" of contraception fails, one kills the "disease" (unborn)
• Contraception treats humans as if they are animals e.g. sterilising them if they breed too much. Tells people they can't control themselves
• Science increasingly uninterested in question of its relationship with common good. Contraception wants power to neuter (not aid) nature.
• In teaching of moral theology in most Catholic colleges, contraception is core issue which has corrupted thinking about moral absolutes.
• Connection of the virtues: Lack of temperance inherent in contraception leads to selfishness, removes motivation to be sexually selfless.
• Moral blindness caused by selfishness of contraceptive (i.e. loveless) sex, porn etc leads to failure to recognise humanity of the unborn.
• Deep logical links between contraception and abortion.

Dr Helen Watt of Anscombe Bioethics Centre on "Cooperation with evil: how to think about the issue"

Dr Helen Watt

• Pro-lifers must remember: ends don't justify means. All our intentions must be good, not just some. One area of concern: abortion law reform
• Regulation of legal abortion (as distinct from selective banning of some abortions) inevitably involves formal cooperation in evil. Wrong to tell women how to prepare for abortion, says Dr Watt
• Material (as distinct from formal) cooperation in evil often (but not always) wrong. Depends on how close and on goods/harms at stake.
• Avoiding scandal (e.g. giving impression of weak/absent opposition to abortion) requires prudence. Again, can depend on closeness/remoteness
• Matters what type of people we become through our actions. Aim to follow our vocation w/out wrongful cooperation in evil, concludes Dr Watt.

Q&A with Dr Newton and Dr Watt:

• Natural family planning (NFP) differs from contraception because NFP is open to life, simply making use of infertile part of cycle.
• Extra-marital sex endemic in today's world, partly due to contraception. Illicit sex common in some eras, but esp. rampant today.
• Contraception leads to dualistic view of human person, denying essential unity of soul and body.
• Contraceptive sex doesn't give full soul-body union to sexual partner. Also, gift of fertility to spouse different to other gifts to others.
• Dr Helen Watt: Men have everything to do with abortion because they have everything to do with how women get pregnant.
• Very important to provide emotional support to women considering abortion or post-abortion, says Dr Helen Watt.

RT @CCFather: Bernie reports from @spucprolife youth conference: excellent morning, esp William Newton.

Robin Haig, SPUC chairman, ex-chairman of Association of Lawyers in Defence of the Unborn (ALDU), dispelling myths re British abortion law:

Robin Haig

• Myths: all abortion banned before '67, when abortion legalised. Facts: some abortion allowed '40s - '60s, abortion still crime in law.
• Children of women who considered but didn't choose abortion have thanked SPUC for saving their lives. SPUC gave support, love. U can too.

Dr Thomas Ward on "Parents, the first pro-life teachers":

Dr Thomas Ward

• Pays tribute to SPUC as unrivalled in Europe in importance for pro-life
• UN Declaration of Human Rights upholds parents' rights as primary educators as safeguard vs child indoctrination e.g. Nazi schooling.
• Saul Alinsky was anti-family radical who dedicated book to Satan. Obama, Hillary Clinton are Alinsky's disciples.
• Other anti-family radicals: Karl Marx, Lady Helen Brook. Agenda: take away children from parents' influence and give them to State instead.
• Enemies of pro-life know that parents as 1st educators are bulwarks vs abortion agenda. Pro-life movement slow to catch-up with this fact.
• Unlike pro-aborts, pro-lifers slow to realise that culture of death is underlined by contraception and homosexuality as well as abortion
• Dr Tom Ward to young pro-lifers: don't make same mistakes of previous generations in ignoring role of parents.
• Apart from a few brave bishops past & present, most bishops have failed to protect parents, thus damaging individual families, says Dr Ward.
• In Germany, home-schooling families arrested, children taken away, forced into exile. Good parents just protecting their kids from bad ideas
• Parents will become victims of the very ideas which they treat with indifference. John Paul II: all policies for the family, not at its cost

RT @spucscotland: Project Truth stall @ the SPUC Youth Conference pic.twitter.com/KDwp6ohyIl

Project Truth stall

John-Henry Westen, co-founder & editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews.com, on "Sexuality: Communicating the truth with love"

John-Henry Westen

• Pro-abortion and anti-family movements have long been cooperating. Media totally misrepresenting prayer vigils as angry, condemnatory.
• Young pro-lifers called to be heroic, just like good people during the Holocaust. Abortion holocaust: 10s of millions killed every year.
• Both founders of LifeSiteNews.com used to live pro-abortion, sexually liberal lifestyle.Soon realised it was a narrow hell.
• Pro-life message of love for both mother and child is having beautiful effect.
• Women like http://www.rebeccakiessling.com have found love, healing, hope in #prolife cause. Pro-lifers using love to move beyond standard debates
• Pro-family movement is movement of love, though unpopular; gets false accusations of "hatred", "bigotry"; also anti-faith hostility.
• Satan attacks married love cos God has made married love the exemplar of Heaven.
• Cardinal Ratzinger told US bishops: pro-abortion politicians must be denied Holy Communion, out of love for their souls and truth re life.
• Love is the easiest way for pro-lifers to get through to our opponents, esp. those hurt by harmful lifestyles (abortion, homosexuality etc)
• Printers, sports presenters et al. in Canada being sacked for not going along with gay agenda. Some Catholic bishops complicit in agenda.

RT @crismunozbe: Around 140 young adults attending the Youth Prolife Conference at Telford,England cc @spucprolife

Panel discussion on male & female perspectives on abortion. Fiorella Nash, John-Henry Westen, Robin Haig, Anthony Ozimic (chair)

Anthony Ozimic

• Many men hurt, angry, emasculated by partner's abortion. Women patronised by abortion lobby, as incapable of responsible motherhood.
• Abortion providers doling out operations, pills, drugs, devices which give men cover, excuses to abuse women further. Women deserve better.

Dr Helen Watt and Anthony McCarthy, mock debate on "Is abortion always wrong?":

• Dr Watt giving #prolife side. Pregnant women = mothers
• Society must change to accommodate fertility, not make women non-mothers to fit society's perceived needs.
• Anthony McCarthy giving (mock) pro-abortion side
• Pro-aborts argue not all human beings are persons. Right to life not in play for unborn cos not persons.
• Argument: direct abortions and double effect causing of miscarriage not really that different, so why not give jail time for both? Dr Helen Watt to reply
• Distinction between killing and letting die. Legitimate choices about resource allocation not intentional homicide.
• Mock debate now going through arguments around twinning, ensoulment. Aquinas good on soul-body but used now-outdated embryology
• Ethical use of double-effect re abortion requires strong justification. Is pregnancy a special case?
• Dr Helen Watt now answering question by rebutting Judith Jarvis Thompson's famous violinist scenario. Pregnancy very different situation.
• Abortion is a violent separation of child from mother, not simply decision not to support another's life. Abortion = deliberate bodily assault on child.
• If unborn was not a human being, it couldn't develop those capacities which are identifiably human. Mother's body welcomes human being.
• Argument that unborn human is parasite never used by scientists to describe unborn of animal species. Shows anti-human bias.
• Religious arguments not essential to show wrongness of abortion but can help give deeper, broader context for understanding wrongness.

Eve Farren

Now hearing from Eve Farren of the Alliance of Pro-Life Students; SPUC Scotland's Project Truth and pro-life roadshow.

SPUC's Pro-Life Chains on 27 April, anniversary of Abortion Act coming into effect. Call SPUC on 020 7091 7091 for more info.

RT @AdamCC92: SPUC conference has been absolutely amazing! They do such great work

Ceilidh (Irish dancing)

9 March:

Good morn. from SPUC's 7th Int'l Pro-Life Youth conference, Telford, England. Great dinner & dancing last nite, religious services this a.m.

Fr Tony Kiely

SPUC's Fiorella Nash on "Men and abortion".

Fiorella Nash

• Abortion centre staff have reported horror stories re reality of killing babies.
• RU486 is hit-and-run abortion, leaving women to deal with the appalling trauma of delivery & disposal of dead baby.
• Men suffering from partners' abortions of their children, mocked by pro-abortion feminists. Depression, substance abuse, helplessness.
• "Silent No More" help both men & women after abortion experience. One Army veteran: "I still grieve for [my aborted son]." Lost chances.
• Abortion leads to relationship breakdown, contrary to promises of abortion advocates. Denial of abortion loss common early-stage bereavement
• How should men work to stop abortion? Live life of personal integrity, not selective morality, don't sleep around, don't abandon women
• Be with women during crisis pregnacies; speak respectfully to and about women; be confident in giving pro-life opinion, show compassion
• Be concerned about common good; work with others; find common ground; don't be scared
• Be bold, be active, be compassionate, be a man.

RT @JackStukel: People like Fiorella Nash restore my faith in human sanity and compassion @spucprolife #fourthwave #feminism

Patrick Buckley on "Ireland and the Global Pro-Abortion Agenda"

Pat Buckley (right) with Irish delegates

• John Smeaton, SPUC's chief exec, now introducing Pat Buckley, SPUC's man in Ireland; with Peter C Smith, one of SPUC's representatives at UN
• Nuremberg trials declared abortion (whether voluntary or forced) to be "crime against humanity", "act of extermination"
• UN human rights declarations, conventions etc actually protect unborn children from abortion but pro-aborts at UN misrepresent them
• John Paul II, who lived thru Nazi occupation, said pro-abortion culture of death is more insidious & evil than Nazi culture of death
• Ruling of Euro Court of Human Rights in Tysiac v Poland case was used later in same court in A, B & C case to pressure Ireland over abortion
• PM Enda Kenny broke pre-election promise not to legislate to allow abortion. Pro-abortion lies re Savita case increased pressure on Dail
• New Irish abortion law allows abortion up to birth in some cases; forces medics & hospitals to be complicit in abortion.Pro-abortion, anti-family Estrela report in Euro Parliament was defeated cos it exceeded Euro Parl's competence, plus big pro-life push-back
• Pro-abortion lobby identifies Catholic Church, esp. Holy See delegation at UN, as main roadblock to advance of global anti-life agenda

Heartfelt thanks to Pat Buckley & Peter C Smith for their sterling work at UN for SPUC & helping Holy See et al. to fight for life & family

John Smeaton, SPUC's chief executive, on "The Pro-Life Battle"

John Smeaton

• Thanked youth delegates from Romania, US, Scotland. Youth part of pro-life movement much more advanced 2day
• Some pro-life orgs (incl. SPUC in past) wasted efforts arguing for wrong legislation e.g. compromise bills. Let's never make mistake again.
• As Dr William Newton showed, contraceptive mentality is at root (not merely fruit) of culture of death e.g. abortion.
• SPUC defended pro-life counsellors when they were spied upon & defamed by pro-abortion groups via media fellow-travellers.
• Right that SPUC concerned re what happens in Catholic Church b/c Church incl. some great clergy gives great strength to pro-life movement
• Obama made abortion promotion worldwide, incl. to schoolchildren thru sex ed, one of his 1st priorities. We need strong RC Church to help us
• Pro-life orgs can't defeat culture of death on our own. We need global strength & reach of Catholic Church leadership to back us solidly
• Theologians who dissent from Catholic teaching on abortion undermine pro-life fight. Failure of bishops to discipline them thus harms cause.
• Youth called 2 speak truth 2 power, secular or religious. Need 4 declaration of total resistance 2 abortion. Emergency calls 4 open prayer.
• Some courageous pro-life bishops: Davies of Shrewsbury, Egan of Portsmouth, Olmsted of Phoenix.
• "Work with the spirit you danced with last nite in the ceilidh and you'll dance with your grandchildren", John Smeaton to SPUC prolife youth

RT @nickmurf: Fantastic weekend at @spucprolife youth conference! Met great people who are paving the road toward a pro-life society.

Nick Murphy @nickmurf

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More evidence for why Fr Timothy Radcliffe should be cancelled by Dublin's Divine Mercy conference

Fr Timothy Radcliffe O.P.

Fr Timothy Radcliffe O.P. has issued a statement in response to calls by concerned Catholics, including myself, for this weekend's Divine Mercy Conference in Dublin to cancel his appearance due to his dissent from Catholic teaching on sexual ethics. Deacon Nick Donnelly of the excellent Protect the Pope blog has already detailed Fr Radcliffe's unorthodox contribution to the Church of England's Pilling review on homosexuality, and Kathy Sinnott and Fr Dominic Allain have taken apart that contribution in an edition of Kathy's Celtic Connections radio programme on EWTN.

In his statement on the Divine Mercy Conference website, Fr Radcliffe admits that:

"I have presided occasionally at Masses which were intended to be especially welcoming to gay people."

The Masses in question are the infamous Soho gay Masses. Fr Radcliffe goes on to claim that:

"There are no grounds at all for regarding these Masses as gatherings of dissenters from the Church’s teaching."

Fr Radcliffe's claim is demonstrably false - there is a mountain of evidence that those Masses were precisely "gatherings of dissenters from the Church’s teaching" - see my blog-posts of 25 Aug. 2010,  9 Sep. 2010, 13 Dec. 2010 and 7 Jan. 2012 ) Fr Radcliffe himself gave words of succour to those dissenters in his sermons to them. On 7 May 2004, The Catholic Herald reported that Fr Radcliffe "has presided over a Mass for London's gay Catholics." The paper also reported that Fr Radcliffe told a recent convert that he "must understand that he has joined with all sorts of people whose opinions on homosexuality may differ widely." The paper quoted Fr Radcliffe saying that:

"You are becoming one with all sorts of people with whom you may profoundly disagree, and who may appear to reject your sexual orientation and much that you may hold dear ... [such as] Cardinal Ratzinger".

And in a sermon on 18 August  2010 at the Soho Mass, Fr Radcliffe complained that:

"Every statement that comes from the Vatican seems to provoke more misunderstanding, more embarrassment, more frustration. My indignation with what the Vatican says is only exceeded by my indignation at its wilful misrepresentation by the press."

In a 10 March 2012 article in The Tablet entitled "Can marriage ever change", Fr Radcliffe wrote:

"This is not to denigrate committed love of people of the same sex. This too should be cherished and supported, which is why church leaders are slowly coming to support samesex civil unions. The God of love can be present in every true love."

In a 26 November 2005 article in The Tablet entitled "Can gays be priests?" Fr Radcliffe interpreted the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's document on "Persons with homosexual tendencies and the priesthood". Criticising Fr Radcliffe's interpretation, Fr Alphonsus de Valk wrote that:

"The article has done a disservice to the Church...by attempting to deconstruct the Vatican warnings ... In unjustly deriding the Vatican warnings, Fr. Radcliffe has given succor to other detractors."

In 2006, Fr Radcliffe joined Britain's leading dissenting Catholics in contributing an essay to "Opening up: Speaking out in the Church", a book of essays produced as a tribute to Martin Pendergast, one of Britain's leading Christian homosexual activists and one of the organisers of the Soho gay Masses. The book was co-edited by Julian Filochowski, Pendergast's civil partner, and Peter Stanford, another notorious dissenter from Catholic sexual ethics.

On 10 July 2009, Fr Radcliffe gave a talk to a Catholic parish in Mashpee, Massachusetts, in which he said:

"It's not that sexual ethics are particularly important. I don't think they are" (video at 8min40sec)

and

"We have to find ways of promoting our vision of the Christian family so as we can have a context within which to raise children, another generation; but we have to do it in a way which doesn't trash the relationships that people actually have" (video at 1min)

This echoes Fr Radcliffe's words in:

• a 28 January 2006 article in The Tablet ("How to discover what we believe") in which he wrote:

"[S]hould the Church accommodate her teaching to the experience of our contemporaries or should we stick by our traditional sexual ethics and risk becoming a fortress Church, a small minority out of step with people’s lives? Neither option seems right ... I confess that I do not know the answer."

• a  keynote address to a US religious education conference, in which he was reported as saying:

“We accompany people in friendship as they become moral agents. Let’s look at the gays. For some reason--I don’t actually understand why--it’s become a very hot topic in all the churches at the moment. It’s tearing the Church of England apart. It’s the cause of great dissension in our own church. Usually when we think about it, we ask, ‘What is forbidden or permitted?’ But I’m afraid I’m an old-fashioned and traditional Catholic, and I believe that’s the wrong place to start. We begin by standing by gay people as they hear the voice of the Lord that summons them to life and happiness. We accompany them as they wrestle with discovering what this means and how they must walk. And this means letting our imaginations be stretched open to watching Brokeback Mountain, reading gay novels, having gay friends, making that leap of the heart and the mind, delighting in their being, listening with them as they listen to the Lord.”

In March 2012, Stephen Hough, a concert pianist who is openly practising homosexual Catholic, argued in favour of same-sex marriage in a blogpost on The Telegraph website, in which he said:

"I am heartened by Father Timothy Radcliffe's article in The Tablet which tries to place marriage and partnerships from a Catholic viewpoint in a clearer perspective. As the former head of the Dominican Order worldwide, he is the most senior churchman to offer a revisionist view on this issue ... If Fr. Radcliffe's lone voice were a united choir from the bishops worldwide the Church might be in a better position to discuss this issue and make a valuable contribution."

Fr Radcliffe has a problem understanding and accepting the concept of obedience, both to the truth and to the Magisterium which proclaims that truth:

• During his 2009 Mashpee talk, he said that the Catholic Church "tends to be addicted to the culture of control" (video at 3min40sec).
• In an article in The Catholic Herald on 2 December 2005, ("A wound to the Body of Christ"), Fr Radcliffe complained that Catholics during the Counter-Reformation "had to toe the party line, to stick to precise formulations of dogmatic positions".
• In an article in The Catholic Herald on 10 December 2006, writer Raymond Edwards described Fr Radcliffe as the "darling of English progressives" and criticised what he described as Fr Radcliffe's "misunderstanding of the role of the Church's Magisterium" and his "agnosticism" regarding sexual ethics.

Again, during his 2009 Mashpee talk, Fr Radcliffe was asked about relations between the Catholic Church and the newly-elected President Barack Obama. He replied (video at 9mins28secs) that:

"I think that the most important thing is to have a mutually-respectful dialogue with President Obama. He is a very bright man. I have to say that when he was elected, in England you cannot believe the excitement we had. And I believe that he is a man with whom the Church can be in dialogue, on all sorts of issues."

Fr Radcliffe then called to the stage Professor Thomas Groome to speak as an expert on the Church's "dialogue" with Mr Obama. As LifeSiteNews.com has detailed, Professor Groome is a leading dissenter from Catholic teaching within the world of Catholic education. Cardinal George Pell has banned his books within the Archdiocese of Sydney. Professor Groome said (video at 0mins40secs)  that:

• Obama "on many, many issues, really embraces Catholic social teaching"
• "many Catholics would not be in favour" of banning all abortions
• banning all abortions would be "to send abortions back to the back-alleys of our country"
• Obama is "deeply committed to reducing the numbers of abortions"
• Catholics "can work with" Obama on the abortion issue.

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