I watched the conquerors riding by, with cruel lips and faces wan, Brooding on empires sacked and burned, there rode the Mogul, Genghis Khan. And Alexander, like a god who sought to weld the world in one, and Caesar with his laurel wreath, and like a thing from Hell, the Hun. And leading like a star the van, heedless of upstretched arm and groan, inscrutable Napoleon passed, dreaming of empire and alone. Then all these vanished from the earth, like melting snows and ebbing tides, While conquering down ... (Continue reading)
Researchers who successfully cloned human embryos in the IVF labs at George Washington University call the experiment a small scientific step. Dr. Robert Stillman says that this was “not the real thing.” Definitions of reality apart, Dr. Stillman and Dr. Jerry Hall do confirm that they successfully cloned 48 separate embryos from an original 17. The cloned embryos were kept growing for six days, then “discarded.” Since the original 17 embryos were classified as “genetically abnormal” and “could not develop into ... (Continue reading)
After four years of infighting, and $28 million of taxpayers’ dollars, the Royal Commission on Reproductive Technologies finally delivered its report to Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s office on November 15. Chretien’s office announced immediately that the report will not be issued to the public until the end of the month. The report, estimated at 1,400 pages, is said to contain nearly 300 recommendations as a first step in regulating the new reproductive technologies. Former commissioner, Maureen McTeer, has said she is ... (Continue reading)
There are many families for whom Christmas will be a time of pain and sadness because a child will be missing from the celebrations and seasonal rituals every family develops over the years. In Toronto alone, there are an estimated 10,000 street kids. Some run away from an abusive home; some left following arguments over the rules and parental expectations. Still others left home without any rational explanation, leaving other family members in great distress – damaging, perhaps permanently, the ... (Continue reading)
Before even leaving the hospital after my second child, I was visited by a family planning nurse. She talked to me about the importance of spacing children and using contraception “for at least a year,” until my body was ready to have another child. “Are you using contraception?” she asked. “Well no, my husband and I are practicing Natural Family Planning>” “NFP! That doesn’t work, you should be using the pill.” This response is typical of doctors and nurses across North America. How ... (Continue reading)
Rose: Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic, for offering a Mass on the Feast of the Holy Innocents for Catholics in the pro-life movement. His Grace has invited members of the Toronto pro-life movement to offer the Mass and meet him in a reception. The move is seen as a splendid gesture on the part of the Archbishop and will give area pro-life Catholics a much-needed spiritual boost. Thorn: The Ontario Ministry of Health whose funding cuts are forcing officials at West ... (Continue reading)
U.S. Bishops formally disown pro-choice lobby group Forget about Catholics for Free Choice—it’s a contradiction in terms. Catholic bishops from the U.S. have put an end to any pretensions Catholics for Free Choice might have to speak as a Catholic organization. They say the pro-abortion group can “in no way speak for the Catholic Church’s 59 million members in the United States. “Because of its opposition to the human rights of some of the most defenceless member of the human race, and ... (Continue reading)
We seem no sooner over Halloween than Christmas is upon us. Advent is the season before the Nativity in the Church calendar, but in the consumer culture of North America, it is Halloween and then suddenly, overnight, Christmas. Stores remove ghosts and death masks from their window displays and replace them with angels and nativity scenes. Skeletons become newborn babes. In the bleak mid-winter we are told to forget the ghouls of the death season and rejoice in the festival ... (Continue reading)
“Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes to bear are those which never come.” James Russell Lowell They didn’t announce it in the front pages of the newspapers. Heck, they didn’t even have the courage to face their victims. In the dead of the night, had we not acted quickly, they hurled a smoke bomb into our home and plunged our family in to the “Nightmare before Christmas.” The orange residue from the bomb which they threw at ... (Continue reading)
U.S. Senate passes pro-abortion bill Led by Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the U.S. Senate has approved measures to curb Operation Rescue and other forms of pro-life activity. U.S. pro-life leaders worry that the new measures will lead to similar attorney general-backed injunctions which Canadian pro-lifers have endured since 1988. The Canadian experience has been that these injunctions not only clamp down on active protests, such as Rescues, but also on passive protests such as picketing and counseling. These injunctions, along with heavy fines ... (Continue reading)
Catholic lay people should “accept their responsibility to revitalize society with Gospel values,” the Ontario Catholic Bishops told Pope John Paul in a recent visit. The bishops informed the Pope of the actions of the Ontario New Democrat government in prosecuting pro-lifers in the province, calling special attention to the proposed injunction which would ban most forms of activism. They called the NDP a party which “openly promotes access to abortion as one of its priorities.” Bishop Eugene LaRocque, president of ... (Continue reading)
I don’t know what we were expecting when we walked into the police station at 14 Division to see for the first time the man who blew up the Morgentaler Clinic in Toronto. MetroPolice were finally going to unveil the photo of the man caught in the act in the early hours of that May night in 1992 when the Harbord Street clinic went up in a fiery blaze, wiping out one of the best known symbols of the abortion industry ... (Continue reading)
Rose: Christian Heritage Party For being the only officially pro-life party in this election. In many ridings, the CHP was the only choice for those who wanted to vote in good conscience. 30,000 Canadians voted for the party in over 50 ridings. A special rose to Ken Willis of Lambton-Middlesex who managed to defeat the NDP candidate in his riding and finish a strong fourth. Thorn: John Hofsess. President of the Canadian Right to Die Society for attempting to make a public spectacle ... (Continue reading)
The Christian Press Now that October madness has finally subsided it is time to see how the Christian press dealt with the election, especially regarding the pro-life issue. As usual, B.C. Catholic gets top marks for its excellence coverage and comprehensive lists of all the pro-life candidates running in the province. Christian Week chose to skip over abortion and not treat it as an election issue. The Catholic New Times concentrated heavily on the issues of employment, poverty and health care ... (Continue reading)
Due to the enthusiastic approval in the fan letter that I received, (yes, editor, “letter” is correct) I have decided to return to my political past. This takes me to a time when I was seeking my fame and fortune-- especially my fortune--by running for the Liberal party. I decided to ride my lowly job as a school trustee and the Ontario Liberal party to what I thought would be a stupendous victory in the forthcoming provincial election. (I obviously hadn’t ... (Continue reading)