Catechism Highlights

Some teaching worth reflecting upon as those of us in the United States prepare to vote:

1867 The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are "sins that cry to heaven": the blood of Abel,[139] the sin of the Sodomites,[140] the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt,[141] the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan,[142] injustice to the wage earner.[143]

1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;
- by protecting evil-doers.

Says my daughter:

The pro-abortion people say that denying abortion makes women slaves to their uterus; but abortion makes them slaves to their vaginas.

There's nothing I can add.

The Death of Inconvenience

Today I was greeted at the entrance to the store by a man seeking petition signatures to get items on the ballot. One of them was called "Death with dignity." I cringe even thinking about what it means. "If you have any dignity, you'll off yourself when you become inconvenient."

If that sounds cynical, ask yourself what the message of abortion on demand is. Take a refresher course on the Michael Schiavo School of Disability Management. Let's face it, those who are not 100% self-reliant are treated like parasites on society, no thought given to their past or future accomplishments, or to the fact that by the very fact of their life they have dignity.

So we call it "choice" and kill inconvenient babies. We call it "dignity" and hurry the elderly on their way. We call it "right to die," and we decide for the disabled that they can't really want to live. And we pat ourselves on the back for having brought ourselves to this advanced, modern, humanist way of thinking. We value humans so much that we convince ourselves that the ones who don't have any value should be gone to help those who do have value to have a better human existence. Not only that, but we then go on to convince ourselves it's a kindness we have done.

All of this reminds me of the quote attributed to Ben Franklin, that democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner. We cannot truly call ourselves enlightened until we start caring about the needs of the sheep.

Sickened

I'm just sickened when I read the news. One mother is accused of microwaving her baby. Another killed her toddler in a murder suicide as revenge on her ex husband. And there was the recent national news about Baby Grace, whose mother and stepfather tortured and killed her.

And I ache and feel nauseated over each one of these. I hear my tiny one cry, and it makes me go all mushy. I am outraged... and so are we all. But where is the outrage, hurt, nausea, over the millions of tiny ones deliberately and legally killed every year? How can we call ourselves compassionate if we put political theories on such a high pedestal that we no longer care whom they hurt?

Who's Really Benefitting?

Dawn Eden, in her usual delight of words writes a brief exposition of the lyrics of a song, in "From Bed to Verse." I highly recommend the read.

In it, she describes a feminist discussion about the meaning of the song, being the way men use women. Dawn describes the ache of sleeping with a person when words of love have not been expressed. All I could think was how very sad... not that men are using women in such a way, but that today women are asking to be so used. It's a "right" to be used and tossed. A right guaranteed by everyone from the abortion industry to many state governments.

I really cannot understand how people who purport to stand up for the "rights" of women can so highly recommend their emotional bruising and physical using as an expression of emancipation. If that's freedom, I'll pass.

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