Barack Obama, The Road We Really Traveled

A Primary Day Message from Rick Santorum

We support Rick Santorum and his commitment to moral values, and want to encourage you to stand with him in this effort to make our voices heard in this election. 

Here is Rick's message:

I wanted you to know that Karen and I will be on Piers Morgan's show tonight on CNN at 9pm EST. We hope you can tune in.

This morning was the first since Iowa where I didn't need to hit the campaign trail on the day of a vote. I wanted to sleep in but couldn't. Old habits die hard.

I've been thinking a lot about the race we ran together, things I might have done differently, and the moments I am most proud of. Our campaign was different. It was grassroots, and felt like a large family working together towards something important.

I remain commmitted to fighting for our principles, but I am also focused on settling our outstanding debt from our hard-fought campaign. We have been working towards this goal, and we've made considerable progress, but we still have someways to go.

Today I am asking each supporter to donate $25 or more to our campaign. It will make a tremendous difference and help speed up payment on our bills and get me back into the fight for our conservative principles.

A lot of people are asking about my future plans. Two things I can tell you are we have just begun to fight, and I am going to need you to be there with me. I have much more to say - to make the case for our ideas, hold folks accountable and help defeat Barack Obama and the Democrats this fall.

If you too are eager to resume the fight, I urge you to make a donation today. Karen and I are burning up our phone lines and emailing friends and family to ask them to make a critically important donation.

It it is our sincere hope that you will join them, with a donation of your own today.

Thanks for all you have done and are doing in the fight to preserve our conservative principles.

Sincerely,

Rick Santorum

Obamacare contains surcharge to fund abortions

from Christopher Bell, founder of Good Counsel Homes

 

In recent weeks there have been reports about an abortion surcharge contained within President Obama's signature healthcare law. Pro-abortion activists have been desperate to shove the issue under the carpet. They know full well public outrage will ensue if the law's hidden agenda is fully exposed to the American people in broad daylight.

Many pro-abortion bloggers and members of the media have tried to hide the reality of the "abortion premium mandate"-a provision actually contained within Obamacare. But it's imperative that you fully understand the facts they're trying to hide.

Here's how the provision essentially works: An individual enrolled in an insurance plan that covers abortions through an employer, by choice or even unknowingly, must pay an added abortion surcharge of one dollar per month. With no choice of opting out of the plan, paying for this abortion coverage is imposed whether an individual wants to or not.

This amounts to you and I being forced to take twelve dollars a year to the local Planned Parenthood or other abortion mill, place the money in the blood-stained hands of the abortionist and say, "This is to help fund the killing of innocent unborn babies."

Obamacare even contains a clause that prevents insurance plans from letting people know about the required abortion surcharge. You won't be notified that you're paying into a plan that covers abortion until your time of enrollment. By then, in most cases, it'll be too late. It's sinister government secrecy-a bureaucratic sleight of hand-that will result in wholesale abortion-on-demand provided by the government.

Take a look at the text of the law for yourself:

(3) RULES RELATING TO NOTICE-(A) NOTICE-A qualified health plan that provides for coverage of [abortions other than in cases of rape, incest, or the life of the mother] . . . shall provide a notice to enrollees, only as part of the summary of benefits and coverage explanation, at the time of enrollment, of such coverage.

(B) RULES RELATING TO PAYMENTS-The notice described in subparagraph (A), any advertising used by the issuer with respect to the plan, any information provided by the Exchange, and any other information specified by the Secretary shall provide information only with respect to the total amount of the combined payments for [abortions other than in cases of rape, incest, or the life of the mother] (emphasis added).

Why would the law include such wording unless they didn't want Americans to know what they're buying until it's too late?

In addition to a finalized HHS rule that requires coverage for abortifacient drugs, this is yet another wave of assault against the pro-life community and your religious freedoms by the pro-abortion Obama administration.

You can see why it's vital that you help me spread awareness of and opposition to the abortion surcharge. The lives of countless unborn babies depend upon the Obama administration feeling the heat for trampling on the conscience rights of everyday Americans. Education is the key for pro-life legislative victories. Many of your fellow pro-lifers are vaguely aware that such an abortion surcharge exists, but they don't have a solid resource that lays out a helpful explanation. Please share this email with them.

 

"Steven Ertelt" <ertelt@lifenews.com> Apr 19 08:00AM -0600 


Obamacare Funds Abortions, Supreme Court Must Overturn It
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/01/19/obamacare-funds-abortions-supreme-court-must-overturn-it/

Obama Admin Finalizes Rules: $1 Abortion Surcharge in ObamaCare
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/12/obama-admin-finalizes-rules-1-abortions-in-obamacare/

Understanding ObamaCare’s $1 Abortion Surcharge in Three Steps
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/23/understanding-obamacares-1-abortion-surcharge-in-three-steps/
 

Chris O'Brien and I are still voting for Santorum in the CT Primary

Press Release

Who:   Santorum Supporters in Connecticut

Why:   Days ahead of the state primary, Republicans choose to stick to their candidate

When: April 24^th  6 am – 8 pm

Contact:  Chris O’Brien, Co-State Grassroots Coordinator, Rick Santorum for President

            203-558-5817

            connecticutforsantorum@gmail.com

He’s still not convinced.

Chris O’Brien, the man that stood alone on a sidewalk outside of a rally for Mitt Romney in Hartford last week is still voting for Santorum in Connecticut’s primary on Tuesday.

O’Brien says it is still possible that Romney may not get the necessary 1144 delegates at the convention. “He’s only half-way there. The key to the nomination is in the northeast. This is considered the most liberal part of the country, yet there are still plenty of conservatives here in the party. It isn’t often they get a chance to vote for a real conservative that can connect a variety of issues to the problems of our country.”

Many voters O’Brien encounters say they’re still voting for Santorum as well. “We think he would provide independent and Democratic voters the greatest contrast to Obama and his healthcare plan. Rick also resonates well with women as an honest man with integrity.” Romney is polling poorly among women when compared to President Obama. While many voters think Romney is aloof and distant, Santorum still fills that gap. “Besides – I’m not going to let anyone tell me who to vote for. Its my vote.”

The Romney campaign and Party leaders have repeated Romney’s ‘inevitable’ nomination over and over. “They think that people will believe it. Unfortunately, Connecticut Republicans have a poor track record when we listen to who Party officials tell us to vote for. They’re often rich folks that can’t resonate with the general electorate in November,” says O’Brien.  He points out to the fact that no new Republicans have successfully emerged for statewide or federal office in Connecticut in the past decade.

“Independent voters won’t be hypnotized as easily as Republicans in the November election”, he notes. “That’s why they call themselves ‘independents’”.

O’Brien says that Obama will run a smart campaign to paint Romney as an out of touch rich person who enabled Obamacare. “Where’s the contrast for the average voter who doesn’t pay attention to politics day to day?”

  

O’Brien says that there is still merit in voting for the candidate who ‘suspended’ his campaign last week. “He’s still on the ballot. He’s still the best candidate. And he can still get delegates.” Even if Romney does become the nominee, the process is important. Delegates will help decide the party platform at the Tampa Florida convention in August.

Santorum suspended his campaign on April 10^th. Santorum himself hasn’t directed his supporters who to vote for in state primaries, he told a conference call of 4,000 volunteers this week that “we’ll ensure that delegates are seated and participate at the convention.”

I'll be Speaking at the Connecticut Right to Life Convention

CRLC CONVENTION 2012
Courtyard by Marriott, Cromwell
Saturday, May 12, 2012
8:30 AM to 4:30 PM
8:30 to 10:00 AM – Registration and vendor booths Conference begins at 10:00 AM
(For those interested - 9:00 AM Catholic Mass)
Awards luncheon begins at 12:30 PM
Featured Speakers: Dr. John Bruchalski – Founder – Tepayac Family Center
Brian Clowes – Director of Research and Training Worldwide –
Human Life International
Leticia Velasquez – founder of KIDS (Keep Infants with Down Syndrome) and
author, writer and award winning pro-life blogger

Suggested donation for the convention, including luncheon, is $40, $70 for a married couple, $20 for students, and vendor booths are $40, which includes luncheon and the convention.

Please call Janet Sayles at 203-878-4097 or the CRLC office at 203-757-5213 by May 7th to make reservations to attend the conference and luncheon or to reserve a vendor’s booth.

Bishop Jenky is a Modern Day Lion of Munster

Bishop Jenky reminds me of the Lion of Munster http://the-american-catholic.com/2011/03/06/the-lion-of-munster/ Bishop Von Galen who denounced the policies of the Nazis.

Here is an except of his homily (from The Catholic Post) which is causing liberals  to go into apoplexy.

Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.
In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.
Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.
This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries -- only excepting our church buildings – could easily be shut down. Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the instrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb.
No Catholic ministry – and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries – can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions.

Obama is the most pro-abortion president of all time, and now he is breaking more laws to force Americans to pay for abortion and contraception which is against Catholic belief. He is trying to bring down the Catholic Church by forcing her to violate her morality and then he wants to take over huge segments of society, health care, Catholic schools and universities, social services, adoption agencies. Then he will have the socialist state he wants. The one his mentors want him to create here; George Soros, Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers .

I was watching a film about St Dr Guiseppe Moscati of Naples, a doctor who fought the fascist takeover of Italian hospitals. It seems dictators must subdue the Church which is the sole bulwark keeping them from total takeover of society.
Thank God for Bishop Daniel Jenky, may he be an example to his timid fellow bishops! May lukewarm Catholics be awakened from complacency.
Read the entire post here. 

Liberal sisters to be reigned in. Finallly!

According to Life Site News and Rocco Palmo the Vatican's effort to gain control over renegade American sisters who deny Church doctrine and morality is not a result of the three year Apostolic Visitation.

Citing "serious doctrinal problems" found over the course of afour-year study of the umbrella-group representing the majority of the US' communities of nuns, the Holy See has announced a thoroughgoing shake-up of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), naming Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle as its delegate to conduct an overhaul of the group.
Among other concerns raised in an eight-page summary of the doctrinal inquest released today, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith cited addresses at LCWR conferences that, it said, manifested a "rejection of faith," protests of church teaching on homosexuality and the ordination of women by officers of the group, and a "prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith" in some of the conference's events.

This is very welcome by orthodox Catholics who have bemoaned the practices of these nuns for years.
A Case Study in the Wreckage of American Catholics by Liberal Teaching Nuns
 Take my friend Marie. Raised in a strict Catholic home of five children who prayed the Rosary every night, with a mother whose only outside work was playing the organ at Mass in the local parish, Marie was a devout, pro-life Catholic, thanks to her parent's heroic sacrifice to send all five children to their parish school.

I met Marie in a convent school on Long Island discussing how she picketed Bill Baird's abortion mill. Together we began the school's first Pro-life Club,  and went to the March for Life in 1978. We both chose Catholic colleges, me, traditional St Anselm College, where I continued to grow in my faith, thanks to the Benedictine's motto, "faith seeking understanding". Marie chose the liberal College of New Rochelle which is run by sisters who made her into a social justice only Catholic.Marie traveled to the Bowery site of the Catholic Worker Movement's mission run by Dorothy Day. She attended mock 'weddings' of lesbians officiated by sisters. She began to experiment apologetically with premarital sex. She graduated school to run a shelter for undocumented immigrants in Texas, marrying one of them (whose Mexican wife and children attended the ceremony) to give him papers. To this day, she is unmarried, and a pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage political agitator in the Haight district of San Francisco. Her law degree is unused because, as bright as she is, she was never organized enough to pass the bar, her counselors told her to blame it on her mother.
She won't remain in contact with me because I am too traditional. My views have never changed, but she doesn't see how far she has moved to the left. Last time I called her, her answering machine has a message that she was attending a gay pride parade in San Francisco.
I followed the path of social justice in becoming a social worker, then a teacher of minority students, but thank fully my moral and spiritual foundations were more or less intact, thanks to good doctrine taught at St Anselm.
Marie's parents only fault was trusting the liberal nuns at CNR with the soul of their innocent, devout Catholic daughter. Their other daughter became a fire breathing anti-Catholic Evangelical who thinks her parents are going to hell for belonging to the Whore of Babylon (the Catholic Church) and a son who attends Latin Mass with the Society of St Pius X. So, two of five children of good Catholic parents remained in the Church. Thankfully, the son who attends Mass at St Pius X Chapel may soon be returned to the fold by another recent action of our wise and gentle Holy Father, according to Vatican Radio. He has raised five children who are homeschooled by their devout mother, but he has contempt for the leadership of the Catholic Church.
I love this family, and pray for their healing and reunion in the Church. The parents are brokenhearted victims of liberal nuns.
Dissenting sisters sowed seeds of rebellion in their students. They supported abortion and illicit sexual relationships. They taught me how to use and obtain contraception in high school, telling me "ignore the old man in Rome on contraception".
On the day before the 2004 election a liberal sister who is the Hispanic apostolate leader on Long Island handed out paper in Mass with abortion support John Kerry's photo on the cover.
The list goes on and on. It is a spiritual act of mercy to correct these sisters before they are responsible for more souls being lost, because Our Lord said "it would be better to tie a millstone around their neck and be cast into the sea than to corrupt one of my little ones".
May God give these sisters the humility they need to accept correction and regain their original charism, the one which made religious sisters one of the most powerful forces for good in America. One notoriously rebellious sister has spoken out in a way which bodes ill for the outcome of the corrective measure;

Despite the lack of official comment, a former LCWR president -- and quite possibly the body's most celebrated member -- Benedictine Sister of Erie Joan Chittister told the National Catholic Reporter that "When you set out to reform a people, a group, who have done nothing wrong, you have to have an intention, a motivation that is not only not morally based, but actually immoral.

Chuck Colson, eternal rejoicing for a cheerful culture of life warrior

From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us.
St Teresa of Avila

There is nothing worse than a depressing culture warrior.
Sure the battle is a losing one (on this side of Heaven) and the enemy, in the space of two generations,  has won over the great majority of formerly Christian institutions (media, education, entertainment) but we have no reason to be gloomy, Christ has overcome the world. Our side wins the battle and rejoices eternally with the angels and saints in the presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Which is part of the reason why I loved listening to Chuck Colson's  "Breakpoint" commentaries. He was upbeat, he acted as though it was actually Good News he was sharing. He was never judgemental and gave me, a Catholic, no reason to believe he thought my Faith consigned me to hell.I even had hopes he would swim the Tiber one day.
 His cheerful stories and exhortations in his inspirational show put the wind back in my sails and reminded me to fight the good fight with charity in my heart, and  a smile on my face. Chuck Colson was far from a TV evangelist, however, he was not out for popularity, never shying away from speaking the truth in love, as when he joined the Manhattan Declaration.
Prison Fellowship was an outgrowth of lessons Chuck learned in prison for his involvement in the Watergate scandal, and he kept the lesson of humble dependence on God ever before him, never forgetting where his strength came from.

God grant Eternal Joy to Chuck, and welcome him home with the words, "well (and cheerfully) done, good and faithful servant". We will miss you, Chuch Colson, as CS Lewis said, Christians never say goodbye. See you on the other side.
Rick and Karen Santorum were personal friends of Chuck Colson and made the following statement:

"Karen and I were deeply saddened to learn about Chuck's passing. Over the last few years, both in and out of public life, I've had the opportunity to get to know Chuck and have admired him and his commitment to living out his faith.

"Chuck was a humble man who learned from his own frailty to care for the 'least of these,' especially prisoners. His work to bring Christianity to those who were in their darkest days changed the lives of many.

"My thoughts and prayers are with Chuck's wife Patty, the entire Colson family and the community at Prison Fellowship Ministries during this very difficult time. Chuck was a patriot, who loved his country and loved serving his God, and we are all a little better off for having known him."

CINO House Members challenge Cardinal Dolan to create War on Poverty

from the Catholic League
Rep. DeLauro is the enemy of the poor, thus she has no moral leg to stand on. She has worked to kill school vouchers for children with disabilities and has voted against scholarship grants for African American students in D.C. But she is a big champion of abortion, including abortions where the baby is 80 percent born; she has even voted to fund abortion with federal dollars.

DeLauro’s Catholic credentials include authoring a “Statement of Principles” in 2006, signed by 55 Catholic Democrats. The document made the argument that it is entirely legitimate to be a Catholic in good standing and promote abortion rights. In 2007, DeLauro was one of 18 Catholic Democrats to criticize the pope for his remarks on this subject.

Also signing DeLauro’s letter were Nicholas Cafardi, Daniel Maguire, Marie Dennis and Stephen Schenck. No sooner had Archbishop Charles Chaput moved from Denver to Philadelphia when Cafardi surfaced saying “Chaput would be well-advised to leave politics aside.” But now Cafardi wants the pro-life archbishop to get involved in politics by lobbying for welfare. Maguire is so in love with abortion rights that he has condemned Mother Teresa for her yeoman work, branding her “a firm defender of male dominance.” Dennis is co-president of Pax Christi International, an organization that has blasted the pro-life work of the Susan B. Anthony List. And in 2009, Schenck signed a letter praising the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius; she is an advocate of partial-birth abortion who was denounced by the last three archbishops of Kansas City.

We would be remiss if we didn’t notice the curious relationship between DeLauro and the Catholic News Service which arranged the interview.

Contact DeLauro’s chief of staff, Beverly Pheto: beverly.pheto@mail.house.gov

I taught English as a Second Language in public schools in the ghetto. I know how to overcome poverty, but the Democrats have no interest in stopping poverty, just in creating entitlement programs to keep poor people on their voting rolls. If they were interested, they would offer school vouchers. The Catholic Church teaches millions of poor children, and would happily teach millions more, if we had the funding.
So here is my email to Rep Rosa De Lauro, pro-abort hypocritical,  CINO politician.

Dear Rep De Lauro, 

I am a constituent of Joe Courtney and a former public school teacher in the poor neighborhoods of New York.

 The best way to end poverty is school vouchers. 

But you and Joe Courtney are too beholden to the teacher's unions to give poor children a chance to get decent education, and you support Obama who has completely cut abstinence programs, the other way out of poverty. So, you don't care if the students are in dangerous schools, live chaotic lives of drugs and sex, and never leave their desperate circumstances. 

And yes, abort their babies. 

Some Catholic teaching!

Religious Freedom and Sexual LIberationism - Helen Alvare at Franciscan ...

Democrat Mommy State hates competitors

John Hayward on Twitter said, "Ann Romney should understand that the Mommy State does not like to face skilled competitors."
Lots of truth in that response, Democrats are politically successful to the extent that they break up families and keep the single moms dependent on entitlements. Fifty years of abortion on demand, easy divorce and free contraception has left an increasing number of broken families.These vulnerable people need the entitlement programs and thus vote Democrat. They would be better off getting married to stable men who can afford them the chance to stay home and nurture their children as Karen and Ann did.
Solid prosperous families are the Democrat's worst nightmare. Thus the virulent attacks on the Santorum and Romney families. Wonder why the Obamas escaped scrutiny? Everyone knows that Michelle and Barack rode to the top of the food chain on the affirmative action system and that they are its best defenders.

What we learned from Rick Santorum's Candidacy

From Catholic Vote, a few thoughts on why it was the right thing to endorse Rick Santorum for president.

Senator Santorum has ended his campaign for President.

Surrounded by family in Pennsylvania, Santorum announced today that has suspended his campaign, effectively ending his bid for the White House in 2012.

CatholicVote made our first-ever presidential endorsement in January. We chose to back Senator Santorum, in part, because we believed he was the best candidate with a vision that combined the dignity of work and the dignity of the human person.

No candidate is perfect. Many of you supported Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul. Each of these men has qualities we admire, and some of you disagreed with our decision.

But politics is about prudence and choices. We made our choice the day after the Iowa caucuses, and have been proud to stand with Senator Santorum and what we accomplished together.

In the end, I believe our support for Santorum sent an unmistakable message to the GOP: You cannot win without us!

Rick Santorum proved that life, faith and family are winning issues. He also sparked a conversation among Republicans about the need to show how a conservative vision for America is not simply about lower taxes, deficit reduction, less regulation and jobs. Instead the conservative vision for America is ultimately about protecting the little guy -- from the factory worker, to the struggling family, to the baby in the womb. And that a bigger government is not always the answer.

His campaign resonated with millions of Americans, propelling him to victory in 11 states across the country. He defied all odds and accomplished more than any political pundit believed was possible when he entered the race last year.

We also suspect the condition of his daughter Bella played a role in his decision to leave the race today. On Good Friday, three-year old Bella was again hospitalized with pneumonia. Bella, as you likely know, has Trisomy 18, a genetic disorder that proves fatal to most people in their first year of life.

Thankfully, Bella is out of the hospital for now. But the smile on her face is an image millions of Americans have been blessed to witness.

During his remarks today, Santorum cited an article written by Time Magazine's Joe Klein as his favorite article from the campaign. The title of the article wasRick Santorum's Inconvenient Truths. Klein is not someone you would expect to be praising Rick Santorum.

But the closing paragraphs of Klein's article aptly sum up what we are feeling today:



I am haunted by the smiling photos I’ve seen of Isabella with her father and mother, brothers and sisters. No doubt she struggles through many of her days — she nearly died a few weeks ago — but she has also been granted three years of unconditional love and the ability to smile and bring joy. Her tenuous survival has given her family a deeper sense of how precious even the frailest of lives are.

All right, I can hear you saying, the Santorum family’s course may be admirable, but shouldn’t we have the right to make our own choices?

Yes, I suppose. But I also worry that we’ve become too averse to personal inconvenience as a society—that we’re less rigorous parents than we should be, that we’ve farmed out our responsibilities, especially for the disabled, to the state—and I’m grateful to Santorum for forcing on me the discomfort of having to think about the moral implications of his daughter’s smile.


There will be much more to talk about in the coming days.

But today we want to thank you for helping us stand up for Bella's dad.

Karen Santorum's moving book "Letters to Gabriel" is back in print!

 Setting the Record Straight

I was suffering from my third miscarriage and seeking a book which would offer me comforting words from a another Catholic mother who had lost a child. I found "Letters to Gabriel" by Karen Garver Santorum. In the pages of the book I got to know Karen as she spoke to her son Gabriel, who was now with God. Gabriel had a urinary tract irregularity which was life threatening, he was not producing urine and was going to die. Karen, a neo-natal nurse and Rick did not accept this, and traveled out of state to a doctor who was able to do inter-uterine surgery. The surgery was successful but left Karen with an infection causing premature labor, and, despite Rick and Karen's best efforts to save him, Gabriel was born to early to survive.

This is the story of a parent's fierce love for their son, a story which has been viciously misrepresented by Rick Santorum's political enemies. I read a piece in The Daily Kos which said Karen had an abortion, and winced as I saw Alan Colmes and Eugene Robinson mock the Santorums' expression of grief over the loss of their precious son. Gabriel was waked at home and buried in the Catholic Church as any other member of the family. Because he is still a member of the family, thanks to the Communion of Saints.

But the story doesn't end at Gabriel's death.Karen tells the story;

"the Senator (Boxer) was thanking the women who had partial birth abortions for coming forward with their stories, . . said she "hears the cries of the women outside this Chamber".

"We would be deafened by the cries of children who are not here to cry because of this procedure," retorted Senator Santorum. The Washington Post described what happened next, 'Republican Senator Rick Santorum turned to face the opposition, and in a high, pleading voice, cried out, "where do we draw the line? Some people have likened this procedure to an appendectomy. This is not an appendix!' he shouted, pointing to a drawing of a fetus, it is a baby. Its a baby.'

"And then, impossibly, in an already hushed gallery . the cry of a baby pierced the room, echoing across the chamber from an outside hallway. Not one mentioned the cry, but for a few seconds no one spoke at all."

Karen continues, "A coincidence? Perhaps. . .or maybe. . it was the cry from the son whose voice we never herd, but whose life had forever changed ours."
Rick concludes, "Sometimes you hear a faint voice inside whispering what you should do. With respect to this issue, I heard the message through a loudspeaker. " (It Takes a Family p 245)

In an interview I did of Rick for Canticle Magazine, he said he felt that it was Gabriel's voice from heaven, supporting his father as he asserted the truth that the unborn is a baby. If ever there was a call to act, this was one. During the interview in late 2007, I told Rick about my daughter Christina who has Down syndrome, and we chatted about the blessing of special needs children. Within a year, baby Isabella Maria Santorum was born with Trisomy 18, an event which Rick said inspired him to run for president, to help create a more welcoming culture for our special needs children.

Letters to Gabriel is a sensitive and comforting book because it reminds a mother who has lost a child whether born to live too briefly, or unborn, that their child matters to God, to her family, and to the world. It is a unique tribute to the value of every human life, and should be a staple on the Catholic family bookshelf. I myself bought several copies, but kept giving them away to friends who had experienced infant loss.

A Blessed Easter!

EASTER ~ HE IS RISEN!

The Lord is truly risen, alleluia.
To him be glory and power for all the ages of eternity, alleluia, alleluia.
Gloria in excelsis!
Glory to God in the highest!
Lk 24:34.

O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten
Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the
path to eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit, rise up in the light of life.

Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

O filii et filiae

HHS Study Proves Abstinence Ed Works; blocked by Obama

Rick Santorum describes his "Made in America" economic plan. 

My daughter Gabriela is attending a local Community College to pick up her pre-nursing requirements. Among the required courses is Developmental Psychology. As a former Social Work and Psychology major, I warned her that these professors are likely to be liberal ideologues. I was right, the other day, her prof was railing against abstinence programs which 'don't work'. She did not offer her students one shred of evidence to prove her point, but continually insisted that abstinence education and chastity rings are a waste of time. To her credit, my daughter raised her hand and said "I took a vow of chastity and wear a ring". The professor was stunned at her admission and apologized for insulting her, but did not acknowledge that she has a point. I would wager that no one has EVER had the audacity to contradict this position in class before! I am so proud of my daughter, for her outspokenness, and her intelligent decision to follow not only the teachings of the Church, but the smart way to keep her future bright. She is a winner!

Science is of course on the side of those who recommend abstinence until marriage. Liberals may know this, but they'd rather die than admit it, and anyone who dares say it is vilified and humiliated. I was when I dared speak up for abstinence in a public high school on Long Island in 1995 where a good number of my poor minority students were pregnant or post-abortive. I saw firsthand the devastating effect of sexuality on young people whose lives were challenging enough in the ghetto, just getting to school safely and finding a quiet place to study after school. Now thanks to the impact of Planned Parenthood in the schools and on the minds of their social workers and teachers, they were dealing with babies, emotional breakups, the physical and emotional wreckage of post abortion syndrome. No wonder so few graduated high school!

Forty eight news outlets were at St Anselm at Sanorum's talk. 

An excellent article confirms the efficacy of abstinence education from Life Site News:

The study’s success reassured Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA). “This new study adds to 22 other peer reviewed studies showing SRA [Sexual Risk Avoidance] education has a positive impact on student sexual behavior,” she said. “This rigorous research design adds an important exclamation point to the efficacy of abstinence-centered education.”
Meanwhile, researchers say the Obama administration stonewalled releasing another report that showed abstinence attitudes positively impact teens. In 2009, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), funded a study of more than 1,000 young people aged 12-18 but refused to release the results until 2011, even following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. It found that parental and peer attitudes do more to shape teens’ views of sex and abstinence than “adolescent exposure to sex and abstinence topics in a class or program.”
“Their anti-abstinence position is just as political, if not more so, than the pro-abstinence position of conservatives,” Sprigg told LifeSiteNews. “The liberals often claim it is conservatives who are anti-science, but when the research and the science goes against their ideological position, they are very eager to suppress the findings.”
“Anyone who opposes SRA abstinence-centered education must be honest in their antagonism,” Huber stated. “They can no longer say that the approach ‘doesn’t work,’ but must admit that their opposition is simply an ideological distaste for programs that encourage teens to wait for sex.”

Leticia in front of ABC news debate set in NH in January. 

Rick Santorum, during an economic summit at St Anselm College last January, pointed out what this article maintains, that abstinence education works, but it is being suppressed by the Obama Administration. Forty eight news outlets were present, none of which reported on his hour long treatise on economics, instead focusing on this topic, leveling vicious criticism on him for pointing out that abstinence lead to healthy marriages and families, strong families lead to a healthy economy. Thus he became a lightning rod for vitriol from the left and unjustly branded as a fire-breathing wing nut within  the GOP establishment.
Santorum was merely insightful and courageous enough to point out the obvious, the root problem in this nation is the wreckage caused by the sexual revolution, a dependency society created when 41%of  our nation's children are born out of wedlock, compared to 5% in 1960. He too used science to bolster his point, citing a Brookings Institute Study that linked poverty with out of wedlock births. 

Since 1970, out-of-wedlock birth rates have soared. In 1965, 24 percent of black infants and 3.1 percent of white infants were born to single mothers. By 1990 the rates were 64 percent for black infants, 18 percent for whites. Every year one million more children are born into fatherless families. If we have learned any policy lesson well over the past 25 years, it is that for children living in single-parent homes, the odds of living in poverty are great. The policy implications of the increase in out-of-wedlock births are staggering.

The Brookings Institute is liberal, but even they acknowledge that the soaring illegitimacy rate could be reversed by eliminating contraception and abortion, though that idea is quickly rejected. Yet here a liberal think tank is agreeing with so called right wing ideologue. Rick Santorum Interesting.
But as my daughter and I have found, woe to the teacher, student or politician who sees the solution to poverty in anything other than another government entitlement program, he or she can expect to be destroyed by both sides of the press. Only those who have the courage to view the facts of the destruction of society as a result of contraception and abortion encouraging reckless sexual promiscuity.

Read the entire article in Life Site News.

Creators of the Culture of Life

Yesterday,  we marked the seventh anniversary of Blessed John Paul II's journey to his Father's House. 

Today, its the 18th anniversary of the death of his dear friend,Servant of God, Dr Jerome Lejeune,  whom the pope called "Brother Jerome". Together they taught us how to build a Culture of Life. 

Here is a new article where I revisit the legacy of Servant of God, Dr Jerome Lejeune in the light of new threats against the life of our precious children with Down syndrome found in Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. 

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/is-the-hhs-taking-aim-at-babies-with-down-syndrome/

Here is an article on the Jerome Lejeune website about the friendship of these great men. 

Good Friday and the Divine Mercy Novena

Saint (Sister) Faustina (Helen) Kowalska, through her diary, gave the world Jesus’ words on Divine Mercy; His Chaplet of Divine Mercy; and a very powerful Novena that He asked be prayed especially during the nine days immediately preceding Divine Mercy Sunday.

Good Friday marks the beginning of the Novena. In her diary, St. Faustina wrote what Christ told her about the Novena:

“I desire that during these nine days you bring souls to the fountain of My mercy, that they may draw there from strength and refreshment and whatever grace they have need of in the hardships of life, and especially at the hour of death.

“On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy … On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls.”

Completing the Novena involves praying the Divine Mercy chaplet daily for that day’s intention.

Click here for a brief bio of St. Faustina.

Click here for more information on the Divine Mercy Novena.

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the Novena.
HT Email from "The Maximus Group".