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Apostles for Life News November 2001

• Editorial following 9-11 - Pro-Life Tanzania under attack

• On Being Wanted Blessed Margaret of Castello

• Pope Renews Plea For Rosary

• Anyone for Ice Cream?

• Human Life International Conference

Dear Lover of Life. Do you feel, like me, that the world is a different place? We have all been appalled by the terrible events of September 11, and we feel we have crossed a threshold that should never be crossed. So many dead, so many bereaved, by the hateful atrocities committed on that fateful day! Who has not been stunned by the ferocity of the attack?

Yet we pro-lifers know that ferocity is not something to which we are strangers. Every day, in our South Land of the Holy Spirit, an average of 275 defenseless children is cruelly executed in secret places, far away from the scrutiny of our media (counting only surgical abortions - what about the chemical abortions induced by the contraceptive pill, IUDs etc.?) Do you think that if this senseless slaughter was to be broadcast as relentlessly as the September 11 incident was, Australians would rise up from their TV-induced stupor to put a stop to the carnage? Would we go down on our knees and beg God for mercy and forgiveness, for the sins of omission, and the guilt we share with those who have played a more active part?

No, I cannot say I was altogether surprised by the events of September 11, for not only do we perpetrate these outrages on our own children - we impose our deathly agenda on the rest of the world through “reproductive health services”. I would like to remind you, dear reader, that Muslim countries have recently stood firmly with the Vatican in opposition to the pro-death agenda the western world imposes on poor countries, using so-called “debt” as carrot or stick to “convince” them to comply.

Pro-Life Tanzania have asked for your prayers. Participating in a workshop, PLT managed to convince the Ministry of Education that only chastity education will save African pupils from contracting HIV/AIDS, much to the dismay of those pushing the anti-lift sex education-condom approach. Another time PLT were invited to a Tanzanian Non-Government Organizations forum, where they displayed their pro-life/family literature. A number of anti-life advocates organised a violent demonstration against them and they were informed by the forum organiser to prepare their defense. On September 7, anti-life groups met to discuss “the menace caused by Pro-Life Tanzania. PLT National Advisor, Fr Julian Kangalawe has been informed that USAID could withdraw its financial assistance to Tanzania should Pro-Life Tanzania be left to continue propagating its pro life/family message in the country. Let us pray for courage for these brave souls as they confront these attacks with the Love of God. Let us pray to rid the world of all terrorism, whoever perpetrates it.

Yours in the love of Jesus, who is Life,

Angela

On Being Wanted

 Margaret was wanted. Her parents had prepared a great feast in honor of her arrival into their world. She was wanted - that is, right up to the time of her birth but when her parents laid eyes on her, she became instantly unwanted. You see Margaret was a blind, hunchbacked midget, with legs of differing length and facial deformities.

“Every child a wanted child!” the slogan goes. But then, after all, what is a slogan? A slogan is an attractively pre-packaged “thought-free” idea, which allows one to accept a position without critically examining or thinking about it.

This slogan is a hideous lie, because regardless of the circumstances of a child’s conception, regardless of the attitude of his/her parents, or others towards him/her, regardless of the physical health of the child, he/she has infinite value and dignity as a human person, desired and created by Our Father from all eternity, and for all eternity, with an immortal soul, and a purpose for his/her existence. It is absolutely impossible for any child to be unwanted by God.

Worldly thinking would have us believe that being wanted is a good thing, and being unwanted is a bad thing but here’s the rub. The same worldly thinking denies us the possibility of judging what is good and what is bad!

Philip Ney & Marie Peeters-Ney, in their remarkable book, Abortion Survivors, categorise ten types of post-Abortion Survivor Syndrome (PASS), the second being “Wanted Survivors”, that is, children who survived because of their parents’ decision to let them live - they had passed pre-natal testing; they were the right sex; they came second - not third - in the family; there was enough money in the bank; the time was right; etcetera. The implications are subtly conveyed to the children that they are alive because they are wanted. They know or sense, too, that their siblings failed to make it into the world because they were unwanted. The children therefore are burdened with the anxiety and fear of becoming unwanted, and the work of staying wanted.

“We are heading for a human ecological disaster,” say the Neys. “Without an intervention by God to save us from the natural consequences of our own stupidity, it is quite likely that we will destroy the human race.” How to prevent this? They give answers under several headings - Repent, Warn, Value Children, Healing the Hurts, Group counseling, and Stop “Wanting” Children.

Jesus himself, while being the most waited-for baby in all of history, was in fact both wanted and unwanted. His mother joyfully gave her Fiat, thus changing the course of history While Herod ordered mass-murder of all little boys, in order to be rid of Him. As He rode on an ass through Jerusalem, He was wanted, but as he went to His death, He was the most miserable of unwanted humanity. Such is fickle human opinion.

Margaret would certainly have been aborted had she been conceived in our century and her mother had had the ‘benefit’ of pre-natal testing, but Margaret’s life spanned the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Her parents were rich enough to build her her own special prison, where she lived from 6 to 20 years, then they dumped her in a strange city, where she lived on the street till the poor took turns in keeping her.

Dismissed from a convert because she insisted on living by the Rule, she spent her life in prayer and service of the sick and prisoners, her holiness evidenced, even during her lifetime by the miracles she worked. Content with her lot because it so resembled her beloved redeemer’s, she died, as have many saints who so identified with the Suffering Jesus, at the age of 33.

Blessed Margaret of Castello, Patroness of the unwanted, pray for us.

 POPE RENEWS PLEA FOR ROSARY

 Speaking to pilgrims in St. Peters Square from the window of his apartment, the Holy Father observed, “The whole world is praying, for peace in these hours marked by grave concerns.” He recommended the prayer “so dear to Christians” as a special devotion.

The pope also remarked that Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, whose beatification next Sunday should be an occasion for renewed appreciation of family prayer, prayed the rosary ‘together with their family every day. He urged other families to follow their example.

Anyone for Ice Cream?

Britain is literally dying because it is not Catholic, according to a leading management consultant, Andy Pollard who told The Catholic Times he had first discovered the decrease in young Britons while doing market research on ice cream and the 18-to-34 market. He predicts 2006 as “the year Britain dies. Were running out of young people and the major cause is contraception. The vast majority or people don’t have children now. The more effective contraception becomes, and the less willing people ate to have children, the faster the decline in population occurs.”

“Britain is dying from deadly ideas including women’s “right to choose’ and the legality of the so-called ‘morning-after pill. It is time to return to a full-strength Catholicism rather than a watered-down variety: We desperately need to replace deadly ideas with true religion which is about the real world and how to live and survive it.”

Human Life International Conference

I feel privileged to have been able to attend my first HLI Conference in Brisbane recently and to meet old friends in the Pro-life Apostolate. AS well, many friends, whom I had previously met only on paper or email, came alive for me in a very real sense - folk like

• Anne Lastman who brings hope & healing to Victims of Abortion, together with her 17 year old son, Nicholas,

• Linda Watson, of Linda’s House of Hope, who every day receives desperate phone calls from prostitutes, both male and female, or their parents, for help to get out of the “game”,

• Jane Wilks, of Magdalene Foundation, which encourages women and priests to be fully conscious of their distinct but complementary roles in the Church,

• Gerry Keane, author of Creation Rediscovered,

• Ben and Tanya Smith of the Melbourne Helpers of God’s Precious Infants who inspire us with their newsletter Thanksgiving, to mention only a few. I only wish that more people could have been there to soak up all the riches that were on offer, in the spiritual, liturgical, social and educational realms. Great to see so many young people who are totally committed to the pro-life apostolate. It occurred to me that when our parishes embrace totally the teachings of Holy Mother Church they too will have a healthy balance of youth and age.

Thank you Gail, Paul and all the gang!