POPE FRANCIS PRAISES ITALY'S FOREMOST PROMOTER OF ABORTION

I don't want to be an alarmist. Or a trouble-maker. I think my mother's warnings against 'trouble-makers' had the desired effect. I dread upsetting people.

So when I received an email this evening reporting that when Pope Francis met earlier this month with Italy's foremost promoter of abortion he called her "one of the nation's forgotten greats", I checked it out.

I'm sorry to say that according to several different news sources, this is a fact.

The woman in question is Emma Bonini. She was arrested for performing illegal abortions using a home-made device operated by a bicycle pump, was acquitted and entered politics.

The former head of the Rome office of Human Life International, Ignacio Barreiro,
 asked "how can the Pope praise a woman who is best known in Italy for practising illegal abortions and promoting abortion?"

ACCEPTING WHATEVER GOD SENDS

Essentially, salvation is for the humble, for those who recognizing their total dependence on God, accept from him whatever condition of prosperity or adversity he sends – comfort or poverty, happiness or trials – without being either elated or irritated.

- Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen, Divine Intimacy

QUESTIONING THE MOTIVATION FOR SELECTING CERTAIN LETTERS FOR PUBLICATION

This has happened several times now. I write a letter to The Dominion Post about abortion or on some issue of Christianity.

My letter doesn't appear - another does, usually more long-winded and not to the point.

Yesterday for example, Craig Richardson's letter on Parliament's prayer:

Hugh McMillan (Feb 24) calls the NZ parliamentary prayer meaningless and asks why is there a prayer at all? For a start, it is part of Parliament's tradition which reminds us of our own history, Our British and Maori heritage is not secular.

NZ's governing system is autonomous, it does not impost religion and with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (fourth article) we are guaranteed religious freedom.

However, this does not mean our government cannot call upon divine assistance, and indeed the majority of societies have always done this.

It is true that belief in the supernatural has become unfashionable, probably in part due to our government neglecting to include religious instruction in our national state school curriculum in 1877. As a result, we can tend to be a little ignorant.

If McMillan was (sic) taught the catechism he would know that God benefits nothing from our prayers. It is ourselves who benefit from being prayerful and reverent.

Now, mine on the same subject:

"DIABOLICAL" HITS THE NAIL ON THE HEAD FOR CAPITAL&COAST DHB'S PROBLEMS (Letter to Dompost, February 24)

 

In saying that Capital&Coast’s payroll failures (Payroll errors plague DHB staff, February 23)are “diabolical”, that unnamed nurse hit the nail on the head. It’s not the first time that adjective has been applied to goings-on at CCDHB, and for very good reason.

 

An advocate for the medical and health practitioners says “Capital&Coast doesn’t care enough” and she instinctively gets it right, too. Obviously CCDHB doesn’t care for the unborn babies whom their ‘health’ practitioners routinely kill by the hundreds every year, disposing of their tiny pain-wracked bodies like so much trash. Where there is no respect for life, there is no true care for the living.

 

To quote Pope Francis, abortion is an absolute evil. Until this utterly evil practice ends, demonic influences will ensure that staff morale at Capital&Coast continues its decline.

SO 'BLIND OBEDIENCE' IS A THING OF THE PAST?

When we hear it said in homilies that ‘blind obedience’ is a thing of the past, we hear the reason for much of the malaise afflicting the Church today. The term is seriously misunderstood.

Here's how Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen OCD explains it:

Blind obedience is obedience which goes beyond all personal judgment or opinion and adheres to the superior’s (not necessarily a religious superior’s) orders, solely because in them is recognised the divine will (“He who hears you, hears Me”).

This obedience is blind because the intellect is deprived of its own light when it is not permitted to consider its personal judgment, to inquire into the superior’s reasons, or to discuss his/her orders; it is blind because it is based only on a motive of faith, for by faith we know God’s will is manifested through our superior.

Even as faith is an ‘obscure’ knowledge, we can say that the obedience it inspires is ‘deprived of natural light’ and is therefore blind.

In other words, blind obedience is not based on reasoning that involves human motives, but it is based on the unique motive of faith which knows that one who hears the superior hears God (“He who hears you, hears Me”).

There may be cases where there is good reason to think an order has been imposed without taking into consideration facts which, if overlooked, might be prejudicial to the superior himself; then it is well and sometimes even necessary to bring it to his attention.

Neither is there any implication in asking for explanations when an order does not seem clear or when it places us in a very embarrassing position. However this must be done with humility, without insistence and with readiness to submit oneself to the decision of the superior.

- Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen, Divine Intimacy.

WE SHOULD LEGISLATE SO PEOPLE CAN ASK SOMEONE ELSE TO KILL THEM (Letter to DomPost, Feb 23)

 

I wonder if euthanasia enthusiasts can see the disconnection between police picking up people (Time in cells for mentally ill to end, February 22) who are ‘exhibiting mental distress such as self-harming or attempting suicide’, and legalising the ultimate in self-harm which they fraudulently describe as ‘assisted dying’.

 

To the police and the Ministry of Health, self-harming or attempted suicide is evidence of mental distress. The role of the police is to prevent it. The role of the Ministry of Health is to restore these people to mental health. They are required to do so by law, because this is a civilised society.

 

But to the Voluntary Euthanasia Society and their ilk, attempting suicide is sane and reasonable and we should legislate so people can ask someone else to kill them. It follows that if assisted dying were legalised the police would pick up, and the Ministry of Health would assess as mentally ill, only the people who try to commit suicide without involving or pressurising anyone else.

 

In other words, the people with the misguided courage to go it alone are the barmy ones. Yeah right.

KEY'S ANOTHER POLITICIAN WHO ACTS LIKE A CEO

 

 

If Daniel Finkelstein (Running a country is not like running a corporation (February 18)were a Kiwi he wouldn’t have needed to look overseas for a politician who behaves like a CEO.

We have our own home-grown John Key to demonstrate how ‘the attraction of a tycoon is strong when politics is weak’, as it is here in New Zealand.  

Of course, he doesn’t rank with Trump or Berlosconi. They’re much too OTT for us Kiwis. Key is a modest version, a good bloke, and he succeeds where many businessmen in politics fail because, in Finkelstein’s words, he knows we can’t be ordered about.

HOW WE PREPARE FOR THE GRACE OF CONTEMPLATION

Before the Lord communicates (in contemplative prayer) with us, we must dispose ourselves for this gift through the practice of virtues and we must not be careless in anything.

We must beg the Lord to strengthen our souls.

- St Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle

SO PLEASED HELEN KELLY HASN'T YET ACTED ON HER PRINCIPLES (Letter to Dom Post, Feb 16)

I’m so pleased that Helen Kelly (Defying the odds on cancer, February 16) didn’t act prematurely on her judgment that as someone with terminal cancer she has a right to ask someone else to assist her suicide.

Because in doing so she’d have deprived herself of months of life and deprived us of an exemplar of courage and tenacity.

CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERTING CAFFEINE CONSUMER

I know someone who’s given up caffeine for Lent.

So what? you say. So, I think it’s interesting to know what the effects are (they’re still making themselves felt).

Last year she gave up coffee, and thinking she’d have caffeine withdrawal she drank gallons of tea and had no issues whatsoever.

She thought about ‘living the same kind of life that Christ lived’, and about St John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, who teaches that the ‘way of the nothing’ is the only way to union with the Divine. Giving up caffeine she thought, as the next logical step.

So she went cold turkey.

After three days she thought she might google the effects of caffeine withdrawal. Physically she was feeling so horrible, she thought she might be going down with Zika virus.

Well, she ticked all these boxes: Headache (unaffected by panadeine and her usual painkillers). Tiredness. Sleepiness. Aching muscles. Lethargy. Constipation.

In Google’s words, with caffeine withdrawal ‘dopamine levels drop drastically, causing the brain’s chemistry to be out of balance’.Now, dopamine is the ‘feel good’ chemical. Over time, caffeine consumption causes the adrenal glands to release more adrenaline, which makes you feel even better.

Hence, as well as the physical stuff listed above - all of which is still afflicting this woman - caffeine withdrawal also has serious mental effects.

Anxiety. Irritability. Depression. Irritability. Anxiety. So Google advises people who go cold turkey to resign from the world for a week, go away somewhere and hide.

The interesting thing is, my friend couldn’t tick those boxes.

In other words she’s gone cold turkey on caffeine and is suffering only physically.

Why? Because the blessings and graces she feels she’s received absolutely nullify any possible feelings of anxiety, irritability or depression. In fact she says she’s so pleased she didn’t google caffeine withdrawal before Lent, because it would have frightened her off. She thinks she’d have settled for going without coffee again.

Which would have meant going without a new sense of joy in Christ, a new closeness to Christ, a greater readiness to suffer for Him who suffered for us.

THE REAL OIL ON MEDITATION FROM THE QUEEN OF MYSTICS, ST TERESA OF AVILA

If His Majesty has not begun to absorb us, I cannot understand how the mind can be stopped.

There is no way of doing so without bringing about more harm than good, although there has been a lengthy controversy (and there still is!) on this matter among some spiritual persons ... but those in favour of stopping the mind have never given me a reason for submitting to what they say.

A TRIUMPH FOR COMMON SENSE (Letter to Dom Post, February 12)

 

Of course the anti-smacking law failed. Family First’s report (Anti-smacking law failed: report, February 12) is a triumph for common sense. 

It’s hardly Family First who’s being ‘ridiculous’, as the law’s promoter Sue Bradford claims, ‘for suggesting the law should have solved child abuse’. Family First suggests no such thing.

 

Surely it’s Bradford herself who thought the law would solve child abuse. She actually states that the law was amended ‘to protect children from physical violence’. And in 2010 the Yes Vote Campaign promoted the law change ‘to protect children from assault’. In other words, to solve child abuse.  

In saying John Key who voted for this nonsense should repeal it, and target ‘real child abuse’, Bob McCoskrie of Family First is right on the money. Child abuse begins in the womb, with violence against the unborn.

 

That child abuse is the root of all the rest, and that’s the child abuse we have to solve first.

SOMETHING PITHY ON PRAYER (From St Teresa of Avila).

The true value of prayer is in the effects and deeds that follow.

WHY SO FEW CHRISTIANS BOTHER TO READ YOUR EDITORIALS (Letter to Dompost, February 9)

 

Just why is it ‘outrageously dishonest’, as you editorialise (February 9), for Republican presidential candidate Ruben Dario to declare ‘there is only one saviour, and it’s Jesus Christ’? Surely it’s only fair to infer he believes that – as do millions of Christians, not only in the US but all around the world. 

For those millions, of course, that declaration is not ‘bizarrely pious’ as you would have it, but a rational statement of belief in God.  

I guess The Dominon Post thinks it can get away with such remarks because so few Christians bother to read the editorials. And the reason for that is so obvious that out of charity I’ll refrain from mentioning it.

TELLING TALES ABOUT TABERNACLES

Entering a city suburban church last week - one I hadn’t visited for some years - and seeing no tabernacle, I felt very sad.

The Blessed Sacrament was there of course, but I had to walk up the aisle searching before I found the  tabernacle tucked away in an alcove.

After Mass (the first Mass as it happens, that the new, young parish priest had celebrated in that church) in the porch, Father introduced himself. I said I was a visitor and I was disappointed not to see the tabernacle centre-stage, where it used to be in that church.

I was thinking, here’s a new broom; he’ll want to sweep clean, he'll want to put the tabernacle in its proper place. He might need encouragement.

“Oh, but the tabernacle’s there,” said Father. “It’s on the side wall, in an alcove.”

“Exactly,” was what I wanted to say, but I didn’t. Instead I mentioned what Canon Law has to say about where it ought to be.

A woman standing nearby said, “We didn’t want it” (the tabernacle being moved off-side), “but we were over-ruled.”

I thought, this priest is new to this church, to these people, and to his bishop. I mentioned the fact that in the cathedral of that diocese also, the tabernacle is missing from the church.

“I’m one for the quiet life,” said Father.

I thought of Pope Francis’ message, on the recent feast of the conversion of St Paul, for future priests. They must reject the temptation, Pope Francis says, to be ‘normal’.

“The normality for us (priests)", said the Pope, "is pastoral holiness, the giving of life. If a priest decides merely to become a normal person he will be a mediocre priest, or worse.”

Our priests certainly need encouragement - and the best encouragement is being there with our priests at Mass, not just on Sundays but at weekday Masses as well.

(But I'm thinking this priest probably went back to his presbytery very relieved that I was a visitor.)

A LITTLE SOMETHING ON THE SUBJECT OF MEDITATION (from St Teresa of Avila)

 A little something from the ‘Mother of Mystics’, St Teresa of Avila, Universal Doctor of the Church (which means Doctor of the Church for all times and all places), on the subject of meditation:

 

I cannot understand how the mind can be stopped. There’s no way of doing so without bringing more harm than good. Those in favour of stopping the mind have never given me a reason for submitting to what they say. 

ABORTION BRINGS THE WORST POVERTY, SAYS MOTHER TERESA (Letter to Dom Post, February 8)

 

 

“When,” asks Julie Chapman of KidsCan (Our future prosperity, February 8) “did we become such a self-centred society that we no longer care for those in real need?” 

 

When we legislated for abortion, that’s when. When we decided our lives were so much more important than our unborn children’s that we were justified in dispensing with theirs.

 

Chapman is ‘dismayed by the lack of compassion some people show children’. Collectively, we all lack compassion for children who because they’re unborn, unseen, we think we can deprive of any life, even the life of hardship which Chapman rightly deplores.

 

Ask those who do post-abortion counselling and they’ll say that even more than financial hardship, it’s abortion which - to quote Chapman again - ‘places enormous pressure on family life and affects the emotional well-being of both the parents and (surviving) children’.

 

Better perhaps, to quote Mother Teresa of Calcutta: ‘Abortion brings a people to be spiritually poor, and that is the worst poverty and the most difficult to overcome.”

SOMETHING PITHY ABOUT PERFECTION (from St Teresa of Avila)

We will not reach perfection in the love of neighbour if that love doesn’t rise from love of God as its root.-

Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle.



So it seems it's not all about just loving one another, after all ...

RUNNING OUT OF FUNDS TO BATTLE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (Letter to Dom Post, February 5)

 

Police Minister Judith Collins says(White Ribbon funding dries up, February 5) that responding to family violence accounts for nearly half of a frontline police officer’s time. The mind boggles at the expense.

 

And Government funding for our flagship anti-domestic violence campaign, White Ribbon, has dried up. And White Ribbon doesn’t want to take money off Women’s Refuge and Rape Crisis, who need it to battle the same awful problem.

 

Maybe running out of funds will finally force ‘White Ribbon Ambassador’ John Key and the policy wonks to acknowledge the vital connection between abuse in the family home and abuse of children in their first home - the womb. Because there will be no end to the financial and societal costs of violence of men against women until we end the violence against our unborn children.

THE GREAT TESTIMONY THE WORLD EXPECTS OF US WHO BELIEVE

‘This life’, writes St John of the Cross, ‘is not good if it is not an imitation of (Christ’s) life.’

The life of a Christian  ... is of value only in the measure that it mirrors his life.

This is the great testimony that the world expects of us who believe, and it is the  most efficacious and convincing of testimonies.

- Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen, 'Divine Intimacy'.