Don’t forget – the kickoff rally for 40 Days for Life is tomorrow, Tues., Sept. 23 at 6:30 in front of the Planned Parenthood on Pennacook Street (off of Elm Street) in Manchester. It is only through prayer and our faithful witness that we can turn the tide of this war of evil and help to bring about a culture of life throughout New Hampshire, throughout this country, and throughout this world. I hope to see you there!

In a word … finally! I’ve been hoping someone at the right level would decide to get this Diocese involved in the 40 Days for Life movement and it appears that it has finally happened. There will be a kickoff rally outside the Manchester Planned Parenthood this coming Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 6:30 PM and then prayerful witness outside the building from 7AM to 7PM from Sept. 24 to Nov. 2.

How can you help? First, come to the kickoff meeting if you can. At least as important as that, however, is to sign up for a slot to spend an hour in prayerful witness in front of the Planned Parenthood abortuary. (If I’m not mistaken, this is another PP building where they lied on their zoning application and the local government eventually decided to let them get away with it. Evil has no shame.) If you can’t manage any time in that schedule, and that happens, then I only ask you to do whatever you can to help out the cause of the most innocent of lives – pray, fast, do pennance, any or all of the above. Parishes in the area will have signup sheets available this weekend so we can sign up for both time slots for witness and to offer any other thing we can offer. There is also a signup form on the 40 Days for Life site here – how this will be coordinated with those forms collected at parishes I don’t yet know but I’m sure that’s been planned out.

More information is available at the 40 Days for Life site, at New Hampshire Right to Life and in this PDF that has been circulated in bulletins recently. Whatever you do, however you can help, please do it. This could be the beginning of the end for Planned Parenthood in New Hampshire and the beginning of a beautiful new era of life in this state.

You mean you didn’t know already? What size rock is that you’ve been hiding under? I suppose I should just be nice and say “tolle, lege“. Even more than that, watch the videos, and donate if you can.

Or probably any of the major networks, for that matter.

Santa Ana, CA – A pro-life man was violently attacked by an abortionist on a public sidewalk outside a Santa Ana abortion clinic on Saturday, August 2, 2008. The man, who wants only to be known as Tim, was first shoved, then battered, punched and choked by the abortionist who objected to his attempts to photograph him. Tim sustained lacerations and muscle pain that impaired his ability to conduct his normal activities as a result of the attack.

Go check out the rest of the story at Catholic Fire. Just remember, the Pro-Life folks are the ones who are constrained as to where they may walk and talk because they’re the “dangerous” ones. Or something…

“Saying you’re Catholic and being pro-abortion is like saying you’re a member of GreenPeace after eating a dinner of Baby Harp Seal stuffed with Whooping Crane eggs.“

Calm down, class, back to work. *chuckle*

LifeSite has found and published a letter sent from the Vatican to all Bishops with a pre-release copy of Humanae Vitae. Even from a distance of these many years it is a hard letter to read knowing the vast distance between what was asked in this letter and the response it was given in return. If this paragraph doesn’t absolutely eviscerate you:

The Holy Father knows full well the bitterness that this reply may cause many married persons who were expecting a different solution for their difficulties. It is precisely the solicitude for those souls in anguish, and the ardent desire to bring them light and solace, which caused the great delay in giving this reply. Mindful of the grave consequences entailed by a decision of this nature, the Common Father wished to study the entire question for Himself and in detail. For a long time He reflected, with respectful consideration, upon the results of the studies and discussions of the Commission charged with examining the various aspects of the problem; for a long time, He prayed. He consulted numerous wise and learned members of the Episcopate, of the clergy, of the laity; and all of this took months and even years.

this one will:

And now He turns to His Brothers, the Bishops of the Catholic world, asking them to stand beside Him more firmly than ever in this circumstance, and to help Him present this delicate point of the Church’s teaching to the Christian people, to explain and justify its profound reasons. The Pope counts upon the attachment of His Brothers in the Episcopate to the Chair of Peter, upon their love for the Church, upon their concern for the true good of souls.

One can almost feel the pain in Pope Paul VI’s heart as he likely knew that even this cover letter would be ignored. We tend to forget that the word “Pope” comes from the same etymological base as the term “Papa”; in reading words like this just how much of a Papa was Papa Montini, and indeed is every Pope, truly comes to light. We have much to do.

To think, this tiny document, this little firecracker, could hold so much power. And yet perhaps the comparison to a firecracker is more than apt. If the world had held itself open to the teachings of Pope Paul VI it would have witnessed a brilliant explosion of light. Instead it chose to tighten the fist of its heart around that firecracker and hope that if it just would squeeze tight enough nobody would notice the firecracker go off.

We know what happens when you close your fist around a firecracker. Broken bones. Savaged flesh. Blood, gore and carnage, pain and embarassment. Does this yet sound familiar? It is proven by history that ignoring those small teachings re-stated in Humanae Vitae has led to all the things Paul VI predicted and even worse.

Do yourself, and the whole world, a favor and read Humanae Vitae again. I first read it after an argument over its teachings and I was shocked at both its brevity and its simplicity. It is, without a doubt, a document you can read in one sitting but well worthy of many more.

I heard this story this morning on Teresa Tomeo‘s radio show. It is stories like this that can help remind people who don’t yet understand the religious position of life beginning at conception that short of that we simply cannot define when life is and is not viable. From CNA:

Commenting on the recent birth of a baby who developed outside his mother’s womb, one of the doctors present at the delivery, Waldemir Rezende, said that the extraordinary results of the medical intervention show that it is always possible for science to save both the mother and the child.

Brazilian media has been following the case of Maria Benedita, whose difficult pregnancy could have ended in abortion but instead ended with the birth of a healthy baby.

In an interview with the Catholic News Agency, Dr. Rezende said that in cases such as Benedita’s, (which are 1 in 40,000 pregnancies), “the risks always exist and are great, but nature is wise and can help us find solutions for the different problems we encounter along the way.”

Never give up on life. Never.

This is your friendly neighborhood reminder that tomorrow, May 3, is the day for the One Million Rosaries for Unborn Babies prayer event. I’m certainly hoping the count on that site isn’t the best we can do. C’mon, get the word out folks!

There’s an old saying “no good deed goes unpunished”. Indeed:

DETROIT, March 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The leader of an investigation that discovered bodies of unborn babies and private medical records in an abortion clinic dumpster has been billed by Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for the removal of the evidence. In the meantime, the abortionist has himself escaped without any significant punishment. Dr. Monica Migliorino Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, has been billed $1,100 by the DEQ for the removal of evidence against the Lathrup Village Woman Care clinic, operated by abortionist Alberto Hodari. The evidence, discovered in dumpsters behind the clinic and videotaped by Miller, consists of the recognizable remains of at least 18 aborted children, numerous records with personal and detailed information of Hodari’s patients, as well as other bio-hazardous waste material.

…

“That Michigan authorities did not have the courage to bring the maximum penalty the law can afford against this abortionist sends a terrible signal to the abortion industry,” said Brown. “Now that they have gotten away with it once, we can, unfortunately, be sure they will feel more emboldened in their grisly acts of violence against preborn babies.”

It is a dangerous and difficult thing to stand up to evil. And now we can add “expensive” to that list. I so desperately want to be surprised, but it just isn’t happening. How long, O Lord, how long?