HHS mandate allows minors free contraception, sterilization
Here is a Catholic News Agency story pointing out that minor children on their parents' health care plans will have free access to sterilization and contraception, including abortion-causing drugs, under the controversial HHS mandate, and depending on the state, they will be able to obtain access without parental consent.
Matt Bowman, senior counsel for the religious liberty legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said the mandate "tramples parental rights" because it requires them to "pay for and sponsor coverage of abortifacients, sterilization, contraception, and education in favour of the same for their own children."
The Guttmacher Institute, in a Sept. 1 briefing on state policies, said that an increase in minors' access to interference with reproduction over the last 30 years shows a broader recognition that "while parental involvement in minors' health care decisions is desirable, many minors will not avail themselves of important services if they are forced to involve their parents."
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
Annual Walk For Life in Chilliwack
The 30th annual Walk for Life in Chilliwack, Sept. 29, is for the whole family. The Chilliwack Pro-life Society is inviting pro-lifers for a day of fun, exercise, and entertainment at Unity Christian Elementary School.
The walk starts at 10:30 a.m. with registration at 8:30 a.m. There will be a free lunch for the participants and kids activities throughout the day. The 5 km event is by donation and proceeds will go towards the operation of the Resource Centre and Crisis Pregnancy Centre that has provided counseling, education, and care since 1980.
For more information contact the Chilliwack Pro-life Society at 604-795-3091 or
click here.
Surrey Pro-life group to hold abortion protest Sept. 30
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| Students from Vancouver College participate in LifeChain in this BCC file photo.
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Several members of the Surrey-Delta Pro-life Society will be informing drivers and passers-by of the horrors of abortion. The society is holding the Life Chain event at two locations near the King George skytrain station.
The first will be held at 104th Avenue and King George, the other at Holland Park Corner (100th Avenue and King George).
For more information contact the Surrey-Delta Pro-Life Society at 604-574-0225 or
click here.
We Need a Law abortion display vandalized in Surrey
A private property abortion memorial was vandalized in Surrey B.C. The tossed and torn signs, which aimed to invite discussion on the abortion issues, were found Sept. 24.
Mike Schouten, director of WeNeedaLaw.ca (creators of the memorial) said "it's unfortunate that a single invitation to dialogue about abortion results in this type of immature reaction." The signs advertized a community event to be held at the Cloverdale Public Library. This act of vandalism will in no way deter this discussion from occurring said Schouten.
Schouten further comments at WeNeedaLaw.ca
Archbishop Miller blesses foundation stone for a new priestly formation house
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| Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, incenses the foundation stone of the future Carmelite formation house Sept. 11. |
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Recently I attended a very important event for the Archdiocese of Vancouver, the blessing of a new foundation stone for a new priestly formation house under the
Carmelite Order:
On the cusp of the Year of Faith, there have been several moments of grace in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.
So far this year a new Dominican Monastery has been built in Squamish, 18 men have been called to candidacy for the permanent diaconate, and now the Discalced Carmelites are making a new foundation, with a formation house for priests to be called "The Little Flower at Carmel Hill."
Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, blessed the foundation stone for the house Sept. 11, noting the significant moment. "We are here to celebrate a new exciting adventure of grace," Archbishop Miller said. "The formation house will serve, God willing, many Carmelite seminarians."
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Thousands join grassroots women's movement opposing HHS mandate
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| Law professor Dr. Helen Alvare |
Here is a Catholic News Agency story relating that thousands of women across the U.S. are leading grassroots efforts to make their voices heard in opposition to the federal contraception and sterilization mandate.
The
Women Speak for Themselves movement is driven by "things that women are deciding to do on their own," said Meg McDonnell, who has been assisting the group from early in its existence.
The movement began in February, when
George Mason law professor Helen Alvare and former
Thomas More Law Center counsel Kim Daniels wrote a letter responding to the controversial federal mandate that requires employers to offer free contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing drugs in their health-care plans, regardless of their religious and moral objections.
For full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
New study finds rise in religious restrictions worldwide
Here is a Catholic News Agency story saying that hostility towards religion has risen globally, both in the form of government restrictions and social attitudes, according to a new study by the
Pew Research Center.
Released Sept. 20, a report from the centre's Forum on Religion & Public Life warned that a "rising tide of restrictions on religion spread across the world between mid-2009 and mid-2010."
The study found that 75 per cent of the world's population was living under "high" or "very high" religious restrictions, up from 70 per cent the previous year.
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
Numbers show a decrease in traditional families and increase in single-family households
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According to the 2011 Census data, the traditional
family is on the decline in Canada. Sxc.hu. |
The B.C. Catholic has a story by CCN's Deborah Gyapong about the reaction traditional family groups had to the
2011 Census that shows traditional families are declining, while single family's on the rise:
Peter Murphy, assistant director of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF), said the “handwriting is on the wall” as the Census reveals the number of common-law couples has risen 13.9 per cent since 2006 and lone-parent families have increased 8 per cent.
The number of children living with married parents declined from 68.4 per cent to 63.6 per cent from 2006 to 2011, Statistics Canada reported in the Sept. 19 release of data on family structures. Figures examined over 50 years showed a dramatic decline from around 90 per cent of married couple families in 1961. A steep decline began in the mid-1970s.
“Despite an attempt by the media to make ‘diversity’ in family structure seem like a good in itself, when it comes to questions pertaining to procreation and child-rearing the ‘writing’ is inscribed on the human body,” Murphy said in an email interview. “It takes a man and a woman to conceive a child and, as the social sciences have told us repeatedly, it is in the best interest of children to be raised by a man and a woman united in marriage.”
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Canada's first UGCC eparch, revered by current shepherds, honoured at bishop's synod
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| Blessed Nykyta Budka |
The B.C. Catholic has the tale of Blessed Nykyta Budka, the respected martyr and the first Ukrainian Catholic eparch (bishop) in Canada:
As eparchs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) gathered for their annual synod in Winnipeg Sept. 9-16, Blessed Nykyta Budka's name dominated conversation. Without him the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada might not be in existence today.
Born in Ukraine in 1877, Blessed Budka was appointed Canada's first Ukrainian eparch in 1912 by the Vatican. The 35-year-old was charged with uniting the Ukrainian faithful who were scattered throughout Canada.
He arrived in Winnipeg on a December evening with only 13 secular priests and nine monks to oversea the 80 parishes and chapels. Eparch Budka travelled far and wide across Canada in the days before most of today's highways connecting the country, visiting his 150,000 faithful from coast to coast.
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Medical professional warns of risk in surrogate and donor pregnancies
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| Sxc.hu. |
The B.C. Catholic has a story from
Catholic News Agency about a
medical expert and filmmaker who says surrogate pregnancies are simply "the buying and selling of children:"
Artificial reproductive technology is “absolutely” the commercialization of the female body and especially harmful to children, a medical expert and documentary filmmaker says.
“I am bold enough to go on record to say it's buying and selling children,” Jennifer Lahl, founder and president of Centre for Bioethics Culture, told CNA Sept. 18.
Lahl said that although the argument could be made that surrogate parents or egg and sperm donors are being paid for their “time and effort” and not the children they help produce, ultimately “there's money changing hands and there's children being passed around.”
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Nuns from Abbey of St. Walburga will hold a weekend retreat at Westminster Abbey in October
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| Nuns at the Abbey of St. Walburga in Colorado. |
Discerning a vocation is a difficult task, according to Sister Maria Johanna Avila, OSB. To help with this process the nuns from the Abbey of St. Walburga will hold a monastic weekend Oct. 12-14 at Westminster Abbey. Sister Avila describes what an inquirer can expect from the spiritual weekend:
Twice a year the monks at Westminster Abbey offer a weekend for young women to experience a taste of monasticism firsthand. Monastic life fosters silence, order, and balance, with the liturgy as its source and summit, so that a person may have an ideal setting for seeking God.
Young women are able to join the monks in chanting the Divine Office, the main duty given to Benedictines by the Church, and to learn more about how to pray with the Scriptures. They also complement that prayer with work.
The weekend will also give them an opportunity to meet other young women who are on the same journey. Some women who have attended the "live-in weekends" have gone on to be Benedictine nuns or have entered other religious communities, and some have discerned their call to marriage and motherhood.
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Jesuit weighs in on a recent finding that claims Jesus had a wife
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The papyrus fragment that includes words referring to the supposed wife of Jesus.
The finding was presented by Karen L. King at a recent conference in Rome. |
Father James Martin, SJ, a contributing editor to the Catholic magazine
America, wrote an
opinion piece in The New York Times about a recent discovery of a fourth-century papyrus that asserts there was a Mrs. Jesus Christ:
At an academic conference in Rome on Sept. 18, Karen L. King, a church historian at Harvard Divinity School, presented a finding that, according to some reports, threatened to overturn what we know about Jesus, as well as the tradition of priestly celibacy. She identified a small fragment of fourth-century papyrus that includes the words, “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife....’ ” Another clause appears to say, “she will be able to be my disciple.” Some experts have concluded that the manuscript, written in Coptic, is authentic.
But does this mean that Jesus was married? Probably not. And will this fascinating new discovery make this Jesuit priest want to rush out and get married? No.
Read the full article
here.
Homily focuses on the impact legal decisions have on future generations
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Archbishop Prendergast celebrates the annual Red Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral.
Robert Du Broy / Archdiocese of Ottawa.
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Lawyers, law students, and politicians were among the hundreds of attendees at the annual
Red Mass in Ottawa Sept. 18. CCN's Deborah Gyapong reports:
Those in the legal profession have a “high calling,” and their “decisions have a huge impact on peoples’ lives, sometimes life itself,” Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, SJ, said at the Red Mass, Sept. 18 at Notre Dame Cathedral. The special Mass is celebrated at the opening of the law courts each fall.
“The consequences of your decisions reach into future generations,” he said during his homily. The Mass invokes the power of the Holy Spirit on all those involved in the administration of justice. “It is no exaggeration to say that you need the wisdom of Solomon.”
Archbishop Prendergast said legal professionals deal with difficult questions.
Read more at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Parishioners recall 100-year history
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Father Bruce-John Hamilton elevates the Blessed Sacrament before a crowd of
500 Corpus Christi parishioners after a procession.
Elizabeth Krump / Special to The B.C. Catholic. |
Hundreds gathered at Corpus Christi Church recently to celebrate the parish's 100th anniversary:
"Remember your history," began Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, in his homily as he celebrated Mass.
The Mass, followed by a procession of the Blessed Sacrament and luncheon for nearly 600, came at the end of a weekend of festivities and gathering of the faithful to celebrate 100 years of blessings and community at the parish, known for its multi-ethnic and immigrant make-up.
Pastor Father Bruce-John Hamilton said he was blessed to be in a parish where parishioners are ready to "give so much of themselves."
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Many other groups sign declaration
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Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth speaks to journalists Sept. 17 about Motion 312.
He said the volume of messages received through postcard campaigns has tested
the limits of the House of Commons postal service. Deborah Gyapong / CCN. |
The B.C. Catholic website has a story by Deborah Gyapong about the
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops joining many pro-life groups getting behind
Motion 312:
The CCCB’s statement also complements a separate declaration signed by 60 high-profile groups and individuals in support of Woodworth’s private member’s motion that is scheduled for its second and final hour of debate Sept. 21.
“As the House of Commons prepares to debate Motion 312, the Bishops of Canada invite all members of the Parliament of Canada to take into full account the sacredness of the unborn child and each human life,” said CCCB President Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton in the Sept. 18 statement. “We also encourage Canadian Catholics, and all people of good will, to pray that our legislators be blessed with wisdom and courage to do what is best to protect and further the common good, which is based on respect for the human dignity of all.”
Archbishop Smith stressed the Church’s teaching on human life. “The Catholic Church holds that a human being comes into existence at conception,” he said. “The lives of human beings are, therefore, sacred at every stage in our existence -- from beginning to natural end.”
The CCCB’s statement issued Sept. 18 came out as The Declaration of Support for Parliamentary Study of Canada’s Legal Definition of “Human Being” was sent to Members of Parliament. The declaration was released to the public Sept. 19.
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Country can be beacon of religious co-existence, Pope says
Here is a Catholic News Agency story relating that, at his departure from Lebanon, Pope Benedict XVI said the religious co-existence the people of Lebanon showed during his three-day apostolic visit can become an inspiration and model for the rest of the Middle East.
"In these troubled times, the Arab world, and indeed the entire world, will have seen Christians and Muslims united in celebrating peace," said the Pope at Beirut's Rafik Hariri Airport Sept. 16. The Lebanese population is 39 per cent Christian and 60 per cent Muslim.
There had been worries in some quarters before Pope Benedict left for Lebanon on Friday that he was flying into an unpredictable political and religious situation. Neighbouring Syria is currently embroiled in a civil war, and there are increasing anti-U.S. protests across the region. Those worries proved to be unfounded.
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
WeNeedaLaw.ca sponsors a large grave site raising awareness about abortion in Surrey
Most roadside memorials celebrate the life of a beloved family member or friend. But a large roadside memorial at the north-east corner of Fraser Hwy. & 188th St. in Surrey memorialises the
100,000 babies killed every year from abortion.
WeNeedaLaw.ca sponsored the memorial, which aims to raise awareness of abortion in Canada.
For more information visit
WeNeedaLaw.ca.
Pope encourages culture of peace in Lebanon
In this Catholic News Agency story, on the second day of his trip to Lebanon, Sept. 15, Pope Benedict XVI called for the strengthening of a "culture of peace" that is built upon respect for life, the family, and religious liberty, and said achieving peace is "quite demanding."
Speaking at the presidential palace in the city of Baabda, he praised Lebanon as a Middle Eastern country where Christianity and Islam "have lived side by side for centuries."
Pope Benedict had begun the second day of his apostolic visit with a private Mass at the Apostolic Nunciature of Harissa before being taken by car to the Presidential Palace. There he was greeted by the President of Lebanon, General Michel Sleiman. The two then had a private meeting.
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
Vancouver's Catholic leader gives direction on divisive issue within pro-life movement
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Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, released a "Statement on Catholics Who Support
Gestational Legislation" Aug. 31 to clarify the Church's position on "incremental"
legislation. BCC file photos. |
The B.C. Catholic has a story about a statement released by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, on the Church's teaching regarding "incremental" abortion legislation:
Differences of opinion have come to light among pro-life groups about supporting "incremental" legislation, laws which may be an improvement on previous public policy but which still violate Church teaching. Some are hailing an improvement while others are decrying failings in proposed legislation.
Now Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, has released a statement for Catholics clarifying the Church's views on supporting "gestational legislation." (Read the entire letter here.)
"We encourage pro-life legislators, activists, and groups to work cooperatively towards achieving recognition in Canadian law of the right to life of every person from conception to natural death," he wrote. "Cooperation does not always mean unanimity regarding a given strategy; open and civil debate about the wisdom of any specific strategy is healthy."
Pope calls Lebanese youth to 'revolution of love'
This Catholic News Agency story tells of Pope Benedict XVI challenging young Christians and Muslims in the
Middle East to reject the path of violence and hate and instead unleash a "revolution of love."
"It is vital that the Middle East in general, looking at you, should understand that Muslims and Christians, Islam and Christianity, can live side by side without hatred, with respect for the beliefs of each person, so as to build together a free and humane society," the Pope told an open-air gathering of young people the in Bkerke, Lebanon, Sept. 15.
In recent years educated young people have been at the vanguard of anti-government protests across the Middle East, the so-called "Arab Spring." Pope Benedict used his address to outline a different revolution: one begun by Jesus Christ.
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
