- Newsletter -

Apostles for Life News

August 2007

Apostles for Life is a Catholic lay initiative to inspire and support pro-life prayer, education and action in conformity with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. We publish bi-monthly and distribute free to anyone who works and prays that the Gospel of Life will flourish. We have a wide range of information on many pro-life topics and want to share with whoever is open to hear the pro-life message. Donations are welcome.

Editor: Angela Martello, PO Box 831, Lismore 2480

Phone: 65 791190 (temporary number)

Email: 25angela@apostlesforlifesite.org

Website: www.apostlesforlifesite.org

Dear Friends,

For those of you who have wondering why you didn’t get a July edition, (I hope there is somebody out there!) there has been a lot happening in our life. Our house in Lismore has been sold. On the day we exchanged contracts, 8th June, I had emergency surgery for a detached retina. This was the day I intended to get cracking with packing, as we had promised the buyers settlement would be 29th June. That left us exactly 3 weeks to travel to the Hunter region and rent a house, return to Lismore, pack, arrange removal, and then make the move, with Leo, our dog, and Millie, our cat. This would be a daunting task at the best of times, but when you’re (temporarily) blind in one eye, and you’re not able to lift or even bend over, and you need to have multiple drops four times a day, life becomes more than a chore. Thank God for a good, caring and competent husband!

Today it is eight weeks since this saga began – and that’s the average time between newsletters. We are renting in Broke, a village of 400 souls twenty minutes south of Singleton, and we have spent the last month checking out the Hunter region (no, not the wineries, the residential market). We are in the process of buying a house in Scone and we are very much looking forward to being once again in a home of our own and getting back to “normal” life.

Obviously, some things have and will change with Apostles for Life. I have had some encouraging comments from those who look forward to the letter, hoping that it will continue. The aim has always been to educate and to encourage prayer and action, and this will continue, for those who want it and benefit by it. Remember, it is your newsletter and if you want to keep it coming, you will contribute in some way to it, by feedback, news, and by sharing it with others. Please note that the Lismore PO Box is still good for the moment. Our phone number 65 791190 is a temporary one until we move in about six weeks (God willing!)

May God bless you and your loved ones,

Angela

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WORLDS EASIEST QUIZ

You need 4 correct answers to pass! Check your answers below but no peeking till you’ve completed all ten questions!

1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?

2) Which country makes Panama hats?

3) From which animal do we get catgut?

4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?

5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?

6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?

7) What was King George VI's first name?

8) What color is a purple finch?

9) Where are Chinese Gooseberries from?

10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane?

How did you go? What do you mean, you failed? Me, too! Don’t feel bad – just remember we can’t always take for granted that words mean what they say!

There are many confusing or deceptive words which the pro-death, anti-truth crowd have up their sleeves. They are traps that we can fall into without our being aware that we are allowing ourselves to be manipulated. Some examples are “termination of pregnancy”, “pro-choice”, “quality of life”, “brain death”, “gay” and “reproductive health”. Can you think of others?

Here is one example of how words can manipulate our thinking:

If I say to Nadir, ‘My car keys are missing’, he knows precisely what to look for, because he has seen my keys many times. He knows there are four of them on a lime-coloured identification tag. Now, if his 3-year-old friend says to him, ‘My car keys are missing’, he knows that there are no missing keys. Nadir may join the little fellow in his imaginative play and pretend to look for the ‘missing’ keys.

I use this analogy to illustrate what is happening when dissenters from the evolution myth, use the words “missing link” even if inverted commas indicate misuse, or the qualifier, “so-called”, precedes them.

To believe something is missing, we have first to believe that it exists. But those links are in the imaginations of evolutionists. For Fossils Questions and Answers see http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3001

Nobody is born an evolutionist. Three-year-olds have no trouble in believing that God made the world and everything in it in six days, and if they aren’t “got at” they will, as they grow, continue to believe that God made the world and everything in it in six days. After all God is God and can do what He wills!

So can we say “imaginary”, “alleged”, “fictional”, “bogus” links, but to use the word “missing” is giving credibility where it is not warranted. “Missing Links?” Hardly!

ANSWERS

1) 116 years; 2) Ecuador; 3) sheep and horses; 4) November; 5) squirrel fur; 6) dogs; 7) Albert; 8) crimson; 9) New Zealand; 10) orange.

We’re hearing lots about “global warming” of late but did you hear about this?

Birth Control is Bad for Fish—and all God’s Creatures

The Denver Post published this graphic in October 2004 featuring results of a study showing how fish near Boulder, Colorado, had their sex impacted by estrogen from birth-control products. Figures were from the University of Colorado and the Colorado Division of Wildlife

Seth Borenstein’s article  "Estrogen can bend gender of male fish living in water contaminated by birth-control pill residue"

www.ourstolenfuture.org/press/2003/2003-0627-KR-estrogenizedfish.htm

states:

“For three years, Canadian scientists have put birth-control pills into a remote Ontario lake to measure this impact. The results: All male fish in the lake - from tiny tadpoles to large trout - were "feminized," meaning they had egg proteins growing abnormally in their bodies.

The experiment was intended to match the impact that the female hormone estrogen may be having on many American bodies of water, as city sewage systems empty waste into them that is contaminated with residue from birth-control pills.

One-third of male Pearl Dace minnows grew eggs in their testes. The entire population of the common Fathead minnow, once numbering in the several thousands, crashed to near zero because the hormone-stoked fish couldn't reproduce.”

Studies in the U.S. and the U.K. have come up with similar findings.

According to World Net Daily “Birth-control pills poison everyone?” http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56623

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-funded biologist, John Woodling, and University of Colorado physiology professor, David Norris, studied fish in a mountain stream near Boulder, Colo., two years ago. When they netted 123 trout and other fish downstream from the city’s sewer plant, they found 101 were female, 12 were male, and 10 were strange “intersex” fish with male and female features. It’s “the first thing that I’ve seen as a scientist that really scared me,” Woodling stated.

The main culprits were found to be estrogens and other steroid hormones from birth-control pills and patches that ultimately ended up in the creek after being excreted in urine into the city’s sewers. Two years after the Boulder findings, there has been no effort among environmentalists to stop the estrogen pollution of Boulder Creek.

In western Washington, experts found synthetic estrogen – commonly found in oral contraceptives – drastically reduces the fertility of male rainbow trout. Doug Myers, wetlands and habitat specialist for Washington State’s Puget Sound Action Team, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that in frogs, river otters and fish, scientists are “finding the presence of female hormones making the male species less male.”

In New Jersey, traces of birth-control hormones and other prescription drugs were found in municipal tap water in 2003, and scientists were just beginning to look into the issue of impact on the human body. Rebecca Goldburg, a New Jersey biologist working with Environmental Defense, told the North Jersey News: “I’m not sure I want even low levels of birth control pills in my daughter’s drinking water”.

Betty Ball of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center suggests people eat organic foods, but says asking them to stop polluting water with hormones “gets into the bedroom. I’m not going there. This involves people’s personal lives, child bearing issues, sex lives and personal choices”.”

This is, of course, a untouchable issue for environmentalists. They cannot oppose birth control, for that would be an attack on “sexual freedom” and “reproductive health”. It would be a threat to population control programs worldwide.

If these effects are happening with fish and frogs, what is happening to us? What is the impact on the human body? On the future of mankind? And even more importantly on eternal salvation?

What goes round comes round. Interfering with human fertility is bound to have repercussions in the lower life forms and of course those who choose sterility, don’t just choose it for themselves but for innocent victims of their choice whether it be tadpoles, trout or our own children and grandchildren whose very existence is under threat. I am looking forward to the day when contraceptives are considered as anti-social as tobacco is today.

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This hymn appears in A Shorter Morning and Evening Prayer – The Psalter of the Divine Office, for Week 2 Thursday Morning Prayer. It was a great comfort to me when my Father was dying and later I gave a copy to my Mother, who is now 89, and she too found it very beautiful. Any person who has been faced with their own mortality or the approach of their own dying will find it reassuring.

Alone with none but thee, my God,

I journey on my way.

What need I fear when thou art near,

O King of night and day?

More safe am I within thy hand

than if a host should round me stand.

My destined time is known to thee,

and death will keep his hour;

did warriors strong around me throng,

they could not stay his power:

no walls of stone can man defend

when thou thy messenger dost send.

My life I yield to thy decree,

and bow to thy control

in peaceful calm, for from thine arm

no power can wrest my soul.

Could earthly omens e'er appal

a man that heeds the heavenly call?

The child of God can fear no ill,

his chosen dread no foe;

we leave our fate with thee, and wait

thy bidding when to go.

'Tis not from chance our comfort springs.

thou art our trust, O King of kings.

Words: Attributed to St. Columba (521-597);

translator unknown; text in The Hymnbook, 1971

Over the next decade I predict the term, palliative care, will be "hijacked" by the euthanasia lobby. The deception is spreading that a person can have "death with dignity" only by choosing death through active or passive euthanasia. Unless we issue a strong challenge, palliative care may soon become a euphemism or synonym for choosing death, thus making a mockery of its origin as the active alternative to euthanasia.

Dr. John F. Scott, HUMANE MEDICINE VOL.8 #4.116. APR.1992 http://www.chninternational.com/lamentation_and_euthanasia.html

PRAYER FOR A HAPPY DEATH

O Glorious St. Joseph, who yielded up thy last breath in the arms of Jesus and Mary, obtain for me this grace at the hour of my death that I may breathe forth my soul in praise, saying in spirit, if I am unable to do so in words: "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give Thee my heart and my soul”. Preserve and increase in me the spirit of prayer and fervor in the service of God.; obtain for me that my death may not come upon me unawares, but that I may have time to confess my sins with a most sincere and perfect contrition, in order that I may breathe forth my soul into the hands of Jesus and Mary. Amen

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"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

Hosea 4:6

Breast Cancer: Why are women being kept in the dark?

Recently I heard of a woman in her 50’s who, knowing that her family had a high prevalence of breast cancer, had both her breasts amputated. This story of mutilation is truly horrifying – but it illustrates the fear and the ignorance that surrounds cancer and its possible causes and treatments.

What a shame this woman was not better informed before she made her tragic decision. One excellent source of information that should be made available to every woman at a young age is Breast Cancer: Risks and Prevention By Dr. Angela Lanfranchi and Dr. Joel Brind who state that “Only 5-10% of all breast cancer cases are felt to be truly genetic and caused by a breast cancer gene.” This in booklet is available online at http://www.bcpinstitute.org/booklet.htm

It deals with Breast Cancer Risk in the light of

Exposure to Estrogen through Hormonal Birth Control & Hormone Replacement Therapy

Breast Maturity & the role of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding,

Reproductive History, Radiation, Genetics & Metabolism

It explains the Factors Which Increase Breast Cancer Risk

This booklet is written to help women understand what their risk factors are for the development of breast cancer and how they can reduce their risk…….. there are factors you can control to minimize your risk, including the amount of estrogen to which you are exposed and your reproductive history. It explains simply how the breasts develop from birth (Stage 1), through puberty (Stage 2), during pregnancy (Stage 3), through to full maturity for breastfeeding (Stage 4). And how stage 3 and 4 are protective against breast cancer risk.

It contains useful tables showing “Some Factors Which Increase Breast Cancer Risk” and how they work to increase the risk, such as

• alcohol which increases estrogen level by decreasing liver function,

• birth control pills, hormone replacement therapy and postmenopausal obesity which all increase estrogen exposure,

• induced abortions, especially of a first child, (but not miscarriages) which leave increased number of immature breast lobules,

• never bearing children, because breast lobules do not have a chance to mature,

• starting your childbearing late (over 30 years old) which increases exposure of immature type 1 & 2 lobules to estrogen for an extended period.

On the other hand it explains “Some Factors Which Decrease Breast Cancer Risk” such as

• Late onset of puberty and early menopause both of which decrease estrogen exposure

• Having children (especially at young age) so decreasing number of immature breast lobules

• Breast feeding which decreases estrogen exposure by decreasing the number of menstrual cycles and/or ovulations.

• Exercise which can decrease estrogen levels

• Cruciferous vegetables (e.g., broccoli, Brussels sprouts), Omega-3 fatty acids, Soy isoflavonoids

It recommends Strategies for Lowering Your Breast Cancer Risk

• Avoid hormonal therapies for contraception including birth control pills and injectable or implantable hormones; and of prolonged hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

• Exercise 1-3 hours a week can reduce your breast cancer risk by 30%.

• Maintain normal body weight. Obesity after menopause increases breast cancer risk because fat cells manufacture estrogen.

• Having children earlier in life. Delaying child bearing until after 30 increases the risk of breast cancer substantially.

• Avoid induced abortions. Having an induced abortion, especially as a teenager or before a full-term pregnancy, increases risk. For those who have an abortion, taking hormonal birth control after an abortion will increase risk further. However, having children and breast feeding them will reduce the risk.

• Eat cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, watercress, kale and cabbage contain high levels of indole-3-carbinol, which causes the liver to form more of the inactive form of estrogen, thereby reducing estrogen exposure.

• Eat Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and many vegetable oils. Postmenopausal women who eat olive oil daily reduce their risk of breast cancer by 25%.

• Eat soy products. Soy beans contain "phytoestrogens" which decrease the activity of estrogen produced by the ovaries.

• Limit alcoholic beverages. The more alcohol you drink, the higher your risk of breast cancer. Occasional alcoholic drinks will not increase your risk; however, drinking alcohol every day will.

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Congratulations to Anne Lastman of Victims of Abortion on the publication of her new book Redeeming Grief!

Redeeming Grief is a reflection of and study abortion grief, which is experienced by some women who choose to undergo this elective procedure. These reflections are the result listening to over 1000 personal stories listening to the expressions used by the women they spoke about their decision to abort the life their child. These reflections then attempt reconstruct the meaning that this procedure had for the aborting woman and how this procedure has been the catalyst for life changes.

Redeeming Grief looks at abortion trauma grief from the spiritual and the psychological perspective. Its influences on the individual’s involved and society. It is hoped that language used is reader friendly and the concepts (both spiritual and psychological) are also reader friendly.

To order Redeeming Grief, please complete this order form, detach, and send Cheque or Money Order to:

Victims Of Abortion, PO Box 6094, Vermont South, Vic, 3133, Australia.

Name___________________________________________________________________________

Address__________________________________________________________________________

P/C__________

Telephone No _____________________

Email________________________________________________

Number of copies of Redeeming Grief______@ AUD$29.95 each

Plus Postage and Handling (per book) AUD$3.45 (within Australia)

OR AUD$8.70 (Asia Pacific)

OR AUD$12.60 (Worldwide)

Total AUD$

Ph/Fax: +61 3 9887 7669

Mobile: +61 408 175 033

Email: annevoa@bigpond.net.au

amartello@apostlesforlifesite.org