Daily Archives: July 11, 2012

HIV and AIDS: Progress update

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The 19th annual International AIDS Conference, convened by the International AIDS Society (IAS), will be held July 22-27 in Washington, D.C., with an expected attendance of 25,000 people. Health workers, scientists and all related personnel agree that giant strides have been made to confront this elusive disease, but much more needs to be done to solve the challenges of HIV and AIDS.

According to the World Health Organization, the number of new cases around the world was 2.7 million in 2011, with 1.9 million of those cases – nearly three quarters – in Sub-Saharan Africa. Possible factors contributing to this high incidence of HIV cases in Africa include cultural traditions; conflicts (which lead to a large number of refugees); and a lack of education about HIV and AIDS. Doctors, nurses and health care workers who are dedicated to serving people with HIV are over-burdened.

Many African countries struggle economically; combatting HIV and AIDS takes precious financial re- sources. In the Abuja Declaration of 2001, African nations pledged to allocate 15 percent of their annual bud- gets to healthcare, which would include responding to HIV. However, more than 10 years later, most countries have not met this target. Kenya, as an example, spends 6.5 percent of its annual budget on health.

In May, it was announced that the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria would be allot- ted an estimated $1.6 billion in additional funds for the 2012-14 period. The availability of the new monies is believed to be the result of renewed confidence in the newly restructured Global Fund. Certainly this is good news for all of those struggling in the field. Dr. Jennifer Cohn with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) told The Guardian (February 2) that in eight of the 19 countries where MSF works with people with HIV, more than 80 percent of patients receive medicine paid for by the Global Fund.

This year marks the first time the International AIDS Conference will be held in the U.S. since 1990. The gathering will host discussions on the current situation, evaluate scientific research, and map a way for- ward while facilitating dialogue among policy makers, individuals living with HIV, and those who are working in the field.

The conference was first held in Atlanta in 1985; in 1990 the IAS resolved to hold the meeting only in countries where participants would not be barred due to their HIV status. This decision therefore excluded the U.S. as a location due to its restriction on inter- national visitors who were HIV positive. In 2009, President Obama reversed the then-22-year ban, and the IAS an- nounced that the 2012 conference would mark a return to the United States. A coalition of advocacy groups from around the world have organized the “We Can End AIDS” campaign, which hopes to mobilize thousands of supporters in Washington, D.C. on July 24 for a march towards the White House with the goal of increasing the local and international political will around HIV and AIDS. The march has been divided into branches with different meeting points; all will march towards the White House, merging together for the final convergence at Lafayette Park midafternoon. Themes of the branches include: • ending corporation-friendly trade deals that allow drug companies to prioritize profit over people; •  using the proposed Robin Hood tax to raise money from banks in order to fund treatment and prevention programs (see related article on page 14); and •    promoting sound public policies based on science and human needs (which includes ending the federal ban on syringe exchange programs).

Learn more about the conference at www.aids2012.org learn more about the July 24 march at www.we- canendaids.org.

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HIV and AIDS: Progress update

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Global warming is total bunk…

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
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… In case you weren’t aware, it’s hot outside. Make-up melting, hair frizzing, miserably hot outside. What is causing this doom inducing change in the atmosphere, you may be asking. Why it’s a little thing that happens every year around this time called summer.

So please, no need to get alarmed. The hot weather is not an indication that the end is nigh or the Mayans were right, or that Al Gore is any less bat shit crazy.

Rings in fossilised pine trees have proven that the world was much warmer than previously thought – and the earth has been slowly COOLING for 2,000 years. Measurements stretching back to 138BC prove that the Earth is slowly cooling due to changes in the distance between the Earth and the sun. The finding may force scientists to rethink current theories of the impact of global warming.

It is the first time that researchers have been able to accurately measure trends in global temperature over the last two millennia. Over that time, the world has been getting cooler – and previous estimates, used as the basis for current climate science, are wrong. Their findings demonstrate that this trend involves a cooling of -0.3°C per millennium due to gradual changes to the position of the sun and an increase in the distance between the Earth and the sun.

‘We found that previous estimates of historical temperatures during the Roman era and the Middle Ages were too low,’ says Esper. ‘Such findings are also significant with regard to climate policy, as they will influence the way today’s climate changes are seen in context of historical warm periods.’ [Read More]

ps- I’m not a real scientist or climatologist, I only play one on the internet.

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Global warming is total bunk…

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Melinda Gates raises $2.6 billion to give brown women Depo-provera

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

LONDON, July 11, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Melinda Gates, who has claimed her Catholic faith is behind her campaign to expand worldwide access to contraceptives, concluded the London Summit on Family Planning today with commitments to increase worldwide funding for birth control access by $2.6 billion.

The meeting, co-hosted by the Gates Foundation and the British Department for International Development (DfID), exceeded its goal by $300 million as nations and NGOs agreed to finance a plan to prevent 100 million pregnancies.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) promised to triple its services by 2020 and “scale up its advocacy by establishing civil society networks in the poorest countries.” IPPF Director-General, Tewodros Melesse expressed his gratitude that the summit will “ensure sexual and reproductive health and rights have an undisputed place in the post- 2015 development agenda.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has a current endowment of $34 billion, will spend $560 million over eight years.

Some 20 nations signed on to the initiative, with the British government offering £1.4 billion ($2.17 billion U.S.) and the EU donating 23 million Euros ($28 million). EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said, “Helping to provide family planning services is one of the best investments that a country can make in its future.”

Several cash-strapped nations in the Third World boosted their budgets, as well. Zambia doubled its family planning funds.

“It was almost embarrassing to watch,” said Wendy Wright of C-FAM, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. “African presidents stepped up to the stage to make promises to Melinda Gates and donor countries, as European leaders held out the elusive dream of ‘development’ if only these countries will dedicate themselves to free access to contraception.”

“The Catholic Church is with us as family planning is consistent within the context of marriage,” said Senegal’s health minister, Dr Awa Marie Coll-Seck, who said he plans a mass communications strategy involving the nation’s religious leaders.

(Click “like” if you want to end abortion! )

Some at the conference warned national leaders have to be “willing to tackle thornier issues of culture. You have to tackle both condoms and culture,” said Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children.

Critics on the political Left have worried the worldwide, multi-billion dollar program will lead to forceful sterilizations.

“A certain political blindness is at work in the Gates initiative,” wrote Betsy Hartmann, the director of the Population and Development Program and Professor of Development Studies at Hampshire College, on the far-Left website CommonDreams.org. “The assumption is that you can just pour in money and contraceptives to health and family programs that already discriminate against the poor and miraculously they will turn around and help women. Add to this the imperative to drive down birthrates and you get a recipe for coercion.” Hartmann, a supporter of abortion, blasted both “corporate profits and population control.”

Others raised the possibility the efforts will be fruitless. Before the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, Harvard professor Lant Pritchett found the availability of contraceptives had a “negligible” effect on family size.

Gates insists her agenda “is not abortion. It is not population control.”

She favors the use of Depo-provera, a long-lasting injectable abortifacient that may increase the risk of osteoporosis and AIDS transmission.

“This will be my life’s work,” she said.

Before the summit, American Life League founder Judie Brown told LifeSiteNews.com that Catholic bishops “must act in unison, calling on the Gates Foundation to stop this madness.”

Contact:
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
P.O. Box 23350
Seattle, WA 98102
Phone: (206) 709-3100
E-mail: info@gatesfoundation.org

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Melinda Gates raises $2.6 billion to give brown women Depo-provera

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Guelph Ignatius Jesuit Centre’s Marianne Karsh

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
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Marianne Karsh was a forester until she began to see trees as more than just timber, MICHAEL VALPY writes.

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Guelph Ignatius Jesuit Centre’s Marianne Karsh

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Father Bernard Lynch, Gay Catholic Priest, Reveals He’s Married To A Man, Non-Celibate

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
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Father Bernard Lynch, Gay Catholic Priest, Reveals He’s Married To A Man, Non-Celibate Sometimes you wonder what it takes to get a priest laicized in this Church.

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Father Bernard Lynch, Gay Catholic Priest, Reveals He’s Married To A Man, Non-Celibate

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Firefly getting reunion TV special, and the people rejoiced…

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
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Firefly is getting a shiny new TV special. To celebrate the cult-favorite sci-fi drama’s 10th anniversary, Science Channel is shooting a new one-hour special chronicling the Firefly cast reunion at Comic-Con this week.

The special — titled Browncoats Unite — will include footage from Friday’s reunion panel, featuring several members of the original team including star Nathan Fillion and creator Joss Whedon. Plus, the cast is shooting an in-depth behind-the-scenes roundtable interview that will dive deeper into burning fan questions about the beloved series. Both the panel and the roundtable will be moderated by Entertainment Weekly‘s own Jeff Jensen. [Read More]

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Firefly getting reunion TV special, and the people rejoiced…

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Human Rights Watch denounces Mexico’s right to life laws and ‘barriers’ to abortion

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

July 11, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “Human Rights Watch,” an pro-abortion lobbying group funded by billionaire activist George Soros, is asking the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to condemn Mexico for failing to remove “barriers” to abortion.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) complains that the abortion rate in Mexico’s states is low because states do not have streamlined procedures for approving abortion in rape cases, while doctors are unwilling to do the procedure, according to the leftist news service CIMAC.

Abortion, which is illegal in all of Mexico’s 31 states, is exempt from punishment in certain rare cases, including rape. However, the deadly procedure is rarely carried out due to widespread opposition to killing unborn children, a fact that stokes the ire of Amanda Klasing, a researcher in HRW’s “women’s rights” division.

Women in Mexico’s states “are confronted with excessively complicated procedures, illegal delays, lack of information or biased information, and indimidation by the health sector,” complains Klasing in a document submitted to the CEDAW, and quoted by CIMAC.

Klassing also expresses regret that 17 Mexican states have passed right-to-life amendments to their constitutions in recent years, which “exacerbate the barriers that women and girls encounter in access to legal abortion,” according to CIMAC.

Mexico needs to remove “stigma” attached to abortion, says HRW

Klasing’s list of perceived offenses against the practice of abortion in Mexico are virtually identical to those listed by HRW in a 2006 report called “Victims twice over: Obstructions to legal abortion for rape in Mexico.” In addition to urging a streamlining of the abortion approval process, HRW complained that the government was doing nothing to eliminate the “stigma” attached to abortion.

“The inability of public functionaries to adequately address the stigma attached to abortion and rape has contributed to perpetuate the generalized intimidation of rape victims and even health professions, even where access to abortion for rape is supposedly guaranteed by codified procedures,” wrote HRW.

As an example, the group cited a pro-abortion activist who complained: “In the public hospital, you will see what they say to women…‘If [the aborted fetus] weighs more than 500 grams, you will need a casket.’… They even make them wait … There are even [medical] residents who yell at doctors [who carry out abortions]: ‘Murderer’ etc.”

HRW also expressed its concern that generalized pro-life sentiment in Mexico was so strong that doctors felt the need to hide their identity as abortionists, and lamented the fact that women could not have their unborn babies killed if they were conceived through underage sexual activity or incest.

In its complaint to CEDAW, Human Rights Watch is seeking to up the pressure on Mexico to loosen abortion restrictions by enlisting an influential ally of the international abortion lobby.

CEDAW claims that the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women, an agreement signed by Mexico decades ago, requires the legalization of abortion.

As LifeSiteNews has reported in recent years, the CEDAW has pressured a variety of countries to legalize or decriminalize abortion, such as the Dominican Republic, Peru, Mauritius, Rwanda, East Timor, Northern Ireland, Libya, Syria, and Burundi, although abortion is nowhere mentioned in the Convention that CEDAW oversees.

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Human Rights Watch denounces Mexico’s right to life laws and ‘barriers’ to abortion

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The pallium trip, summarized

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

It has been a while since I wrote a true blog post. Blame it on confirmation season: I was busy enough with my usual work, and when the post-Easter schedule of confirmation celebrations took off, that was it (although Twitter and Facebook updates did continue). Please don’t misunderstand, I absolutely loved doing confirmations, but it did eat into the personal time required for this sort of writing.

In order to get back into the swing of things, I thought I might write a summary of the visit of the College of Consultors to Rome for the pallium ceremony on June 29. Of course, you may be wonder what the heck a pallium might be. This Wikipedia article does a pretty good job of covering the subject. In short, it is a special badge of office for a newly-appointed metropolitan archbishop, who goes to Rome to receive it during the mass of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29). Quebec had three bishops receiving the pallium this year, including my own archbishop, Christian Lépine. Each diocese used the occasion to invite others to come as part of a delegation, and I was part of the Montreal delegation.

We left on June 25 in the evening. As I have been doing a lot of travelling lately I went ahead and got a new credit card that gives access to certain travel benefits, such as priority check-in and free access to the airport lounge. They might not sound like much, but they do take some of the blah out of travelling. In particular, I managed to get a lot of work-related reading done in the lounge prior to boarding the plane, meaning I had less to do once I got the eternal city. Yes, I said work-related reading: this wasn’t yet vacation!

We got to Rome early on the 26th, and grabbed a cab to the Domus Carmelitana, the pilgrim residence where some members of the delegation (including those from the College of Consultors) were staying. The Domus is very comfortable, with a lovely terrassee, a decent breakfast, and (very important) air conditioning! The best part, though, was the service: both friendly and competent, an excellent combination. However, there were a few downsides: no lunch, no supper, and no chapel! We therefore set up a time for us to celebrate mass at the nearby Canadian College, and scoped out a few places for meals. In the end we wound up eating in the Borgo Pio almost every night, followed by a tasty gelato…

June 27 was a day of exploration, the calm before the storm you might say. As it turns out another member of our delegation was going in roughly the same direction as I was, so we turned it into a several-hour exploration of the old quarter of Rome. He had studied in Rome many years ago, so while he was acting as my tour guide it was also a bit of a trip down memory lane as well (we even visited the very same classroom he once studied in at the Gregorian University). On the way back we passed by the Trevi fountain, which I wanted to see in particular because my titular diocese is Trevi nel Lazio, i.e. it shares the same name.

June 28 was the day I completed my set of purple episcopal garb. Yes, my friends, I got a biretta. Pricey little things, they are, and a bit of a pain to fold up once they have been opened… That evening there was a special reception put on by the Délégation du Québec in honour of the three archbishops. It was very nice, and I had a chance to run into some Canadians living in Rome whom I had not seen in a long time.

June 29 was the big day, of course. I had to be at Saint Peter’s by 8:30 am, which means I left the Domus around 8, fully dressed in purple cassock, rochet, mozetta, and skullcap. Oh, and the biretta was also along for the ride. Did I mention that it was EXTREMELY hot in Rome that day? Even at 8 in the morning I was roasting. It didn’t help that I had absolutely NO CLUE where I was going. Yes, I knew where Saint Peter’s was (kinda hard to miss in Rome) but it is a big complex. Happily, I spotted two young priests in cassock and surplice walking with purpose of the right direction, so I figured I’d just follow them. When we got to the piazza in front of the basilica I asked them if they could point me to the door I was supposed to use (different groups of people were using different entrances), and thanks to them I was able to march past a few saluting Swiss Guards to find my way about three or four rows from the front. I wound up sitting next to (and having a great chat with) Bishop Peter Elliot of Australia, who literally wrote the book on being a master of ceremonies for the modern roman rite. He had his biretta too, and clearly wasn’t afraid to use it :-) I kept my eyes on him to know when I was supposed to put it on, and when to take it off…

As for the mass itself, the best word to describe it is “majestic”. The Pope seemed in good form, albeit a bit tired (this ceremony comes at the end of the pastoral year in Rome, so that makes sense). The homily was in Italian, but a translation in English can be found on the Vatican web site.

After the ceremony I changed into my black-and-red cassock for an official reception hosted by the Canadian College, which was thoroughly enjoyable. The evening was another official reception, this time at the residence of the Canadian Ambassador to the Holy See. At both events I had a chance to connect with Canadians living and working in Rome, all of whom have been unfailingly welcoming and gracious to our little band of pilgrims.

The morning of June 30 the various pallium delegations had a private audience with Pope Benedict. Don’t be fooled by the word “private”, mind you — there were several hundred people in the Paul VI hall. Placed (relatively) up front, I had a chance to chat with many brother bishops from around the world: Lagos, Davao, Brisbane, Philadelphia, Denver, and so on. I did not get a chance to meet the Pope personally, but that should come in September when I return for the course for recently ordained bishops.

And then, suddenly, it was July! Sunday mass was celebrated at Trinita dei Monti, the French church run by the Fraternité monastique de Jérusalem (who also have a house in Montreal). We had a tour first, and it is quite an amazing place — it was a major centre of scientific discovery in its day, demonstrating that faith and science really can go together, especially in the Catholic tradition. The rest of the day we spend walking around (I had a chance to visit the Pantheon, as well as pray before the tombs of Saint Catherine of Siena and Blessed Fra’ Angelico). After catching up with a friend now living in Rome, the rest of the evening was quiet, as the nation mourned its terrible loss to Spain.

July 2 was the last event for the Montreal delegation. We got up early and set our for Saint Peter’s, where Archbishop Lépine presided mass at the tomb of Saint Peter himself. It was very moving to know the faith we were celebrating together was in perfect continuity with the faith for which Peter, the Rock, was martyred.

Part of the Montreal delegation began to leave in the days that followed. Those who remained each set their own pace. As for me, July 2 was also the day I started Italian lessons at the Leonardo Da Vinci school. Now people sometimes wonder why I would enroll in classes when I am supposed to be on vacation, but I have often done that. I find that there is no better way to immerse oneself in an environment than to learn the language. With the other students you also get the chance to discover people from all over, and we slowly form a community together. The staff of the school often also offer all kinds of mundane assistance, which helps make the experience (and culture shock) that much easier.

I used part of my time in Rome during this week to get to know some of the various curial offices. In particular, I had a meeting with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. He was once my professor, and given his new role (as well as my own) I wanted to see what advice he might have for me. I appreciated his warm welcome, and the sharing of his perspective on the role of the bishop in our post-modern world. I also had a very nice meeting with Cardinal Koch of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, as well as members of his staff. I had visited this Council back when I was Chairman of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, so I was glad to be back and to visit a friend I made back then who still works at the Council.

July 5 was a very special day for me, because I met up with a small delegation from my titular see, Trevi nel Lazio. There is a fellow named Marco who lives in Rome but who is originally from Trevi, who had contacted me some weeks back to interview me for the town website. When I mentioned I was coming to Rome we made sure to set a date for lunch, and he showed up with two others in tow! It turns out that, while the diocese of Treba (the original name) was suppressed back in the 11th century, the people of the village never forgot that they had once had their own bishop. After Vatican II they petitioned to have it restored as a titular see, and there have been 3 bishops since then (yours truly included). My immediate predecessor was a Polish bishop, and the town had contacted him as well and established an exchange with his diocese in Poland (people visiting him there, Poles coming to visit Trevi). This little delegation expressed great pride in their history, and invited me to come and visit for a weekend. So, I’m going! We have it set up for July 13-15.

July 6 was the day when the rest of the diocesan delegation left for Canada. We ate breakfast together and said our goodbyes, and then they jumped in a cab for the airport. As for me, I packed my bags and walked over to the Casa Paulo VI on Via della Scrofa, between the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona, which is where I am staying for the rest of my stay in Rome. I already have some new adventures planned, and will be joined soon by a brother priest for a couple of weeks of vacation. Language classes will continue as well, and I’m looking forward to getting to know the people who live at the Casa. Stay tuned for more!

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The pallium trip, summarized

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Golly

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

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Going up to the altar of God

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
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Last week, I

asked for your prayers

for Fr Ben Grist who is suffering from a serious cancer and was ordained for the diocese of East Anglia. A correspondent sent me a photo from St Edmund’s, Bungay where Father blessed her five children. The boys served Father’s Mass. Father is truly going up to the altar of God in more ways than one. Please keep him in your prayers and give God thanks for the witness of his priesthood.

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Going up to the altar of God

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The Gates’ family planning initiative: the summit kicks off

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

July 11, 2012 (Pop.org) – In launching the London Summit, Melinda Gates declared it to be “an important milestone in the history of family planning. We are bringing far more resources to this effort than ever before.”

This is certainly a true statement. Organized by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the summit, which opened today, is the opening kickoff for Gates’ campaign to raise $4bn worldwide to expand contraceptive and “reproductive health” services to 120 million of the world’s poor women by 2020.

Gates, who is Catholic, claims that “We are putting women at the very center of this issue.” Gates said that the universal desire of mothers to give their children “every good thing” can only be fulfilled when access to contraceptives is universal, “and that’s why we’re all here.” No mention of Natural Family Planning, or abstinence here.

UK International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell claimed that women would not be forced to take contraceptives, saying that “an end was put to the idea of coercion” in family planning programs in Cairo in 1994. He continued, “It is not for me or any politician to decide how many children a woman should have.”

Perhaps not, but the UN Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation are both complicit in China’s one-child policy which, as everyone knows by now, is rife with horrific abuses. It is thus disingenuous for Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, to tell the summit attendees that he wants to ensure that “no child is born unwanted and no child dies needlessly.” Children in China die needlessly all the time, in counties where the UN Population Fund is in charge of the enforcement of the one-child policy.

There were no shortage of delegates from countries throughout Africa and Asia lining up for their share of the new money pledged by Gates. Ethiopia’s Minster of Health, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, led the way, saying that “key conditions for achieving real progress are aligned like never before.”

Ms. Anuradha Gupta, Joint Secretary of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare addressed the summit saying that “considering we have more than 12 million giving birth in public health institutions alone, “ India is committed to providing a full range of contraception “absolutely free of cost” and her government wants to ensure the availability of contraception services “in every nook and corner of our large country.” Gupta said India’s government would be taking a “quantum jump on reproductive family planning in the next five years.” It should be pointed out that India’s “reproductive health/family planning” programs are well known for abuses, such as forced sterilization.

During a panel discussion about integrating family planning with women and children’s health services and HIV management, Mr. Tweodros Melesse, Director General of IPPF said “integrating services improves quality, reduces stigma and increases access.” IPPF will be working to triple its service provision in the next 5 years “thereby preventing 46 million unintended pregnancies.” However reasonable this sounds, it should be noted that how “integration” works in practice is that women are denied medical care unless they agree to either contracept or undergo sterilization. Integration is a mechanism for coercion.

Indonesia Minister for People’s Welfare, Agung Laksono, announced that his government will include family planning within a universal health program that will begin in January 2014 and it will increase funding for family planning programs, particularly “long-acting and permanent” methods. Of course, when a poor country says that it will increase funding for family planning programs, it is planning on using other people’s money, in this case Melinda Gates’ and Western taxpayers’.

Senegalese Minister of Health Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, who also did not want to miss out on Gates’ largess, said “I commit to making family planning a top priority in our country.” She announced that the Senegalese government planned to double its budget for family planning and its aim to more than double the contraceptive prevalence from 12 to 27 per cent by 2015, particularly through community and private sector and “mobile outreach” programs supporting the use of “long-acting and permanent family planning methods.” As PRI research has shown, any time a government sets targets for ‘contraceptive prevalence,” as Coll-Seck has, abuses follow as surely as day follows night.

Coll-Seck also told the Summit that she is interested in new birth control methods and that Senegalese and Ugandan women will be used in experiments of a new injectable contraceptive. The practice of using developing world women as guinea pigs in medical experiments has a long history and is a violation of a U.S. law — the Tiahrt Amendment — that PRI helped to get passed. Private money, such as Gates’, is bound by no such restrictions.

CLICK ‘LIKE’ IF YOU ARE PRO-LIFE!

Aside from the grant seekers, the contraceptive manufacturers, excited by the prospect of new markets for their products, were at the Summit in force as well. Pfizer Country Director for Nigeria, Enrico Liggeri, said the company is expanding the capacity for making Depo Provera, the 3-month injectable contraceptive, by 50%. “One billion doses of Depo Provera have been produced so far, and we are committed to making another one billion doses by 2020,” he said. No mention was made of the fact that steroidal contraceptives compromise a woman’s immune system and make her more likely to contract HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Antony Lowe, from the Dahua Pharmaceutical Company in China, was also there to tout his company’s contraceptive implant. It has been used by over 7 million women since 1996, Lowe claimed, although he did not say how many of these surgical implants were voluntary and how many were the result of the dictates of the one-child policy.

The USAID administrator, Dr. Rajiv Shah, chairing a panel on “donor commitments,” pointed out that the Obama administration has spent billions of dollars on abortifacient contraceptives since taking office in 2009. Shah said that the US directs $640 million annually towards international family planning programs that reach 83 million women worldwide. Shah also said that USAID is “happy to partner” with the Gates foundation to promote Depo Provera throughout the developing world.

The saddest note was struck by Kyo Hu Choo, the Korean Ambassador to Britain. Choo was introduced because his country, with 100% contraceptive prevalence rate, was said to be a “model for the world.” The South Korean population control program began in the 1960s at U.S. urging. Choo remarked, “Now we suffer from very low birth rate. There is some expert opinion that we overdid it.”

Overdid it, indeed. South Korea is losing people from year to year, filling more coffins than cradles. It says a lot about the anti-natal views of Melinda Gates and her coterie that this dying country should be a “model for the world.”

Reprinted with permission from the Population Research Institute.

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FABRICATING DIVISIVENESS

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
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FABRICATING DIVISIVENESS

July 11, 2012 by
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Someone called to tell us that on January 6th, “Prime Time Live” was scheduled to do a segment on annulment in the Catholic Church. I decided to watch. A few minutes before the program began, a promo for “Prime Time Live” was run that made special mention of the annulment segment.

I’m glad it perked my interest because the lead segment of the night proved to be quite a commentary – on ABC, that is.

Diane Sawyer set the tone from the start: “Annulment is one of the most divisive issues in the Catholic Church today.” Now that is a remarkable statement. Since the show aired, I have had many conversations with fellow Catholics, not all of whom could reasonably be called “orthodox” or “tradi- tional,” and every one of them admitted that annulment is a subject that they discuss about once or twice a year. It is hardly a burning issue with any of them and it clearly isn’t regarded as “one of the most divisive issues in the Catholic Church today.”

It didn’t take long for “Prime Time Live” to show its true colors. We heard, of course, from Father Charles Curran, the priest every Catholic-basher has come to love. Readers will recall that Father Curran was the priest who insisted on teaching moral theology his way while at Catholic University of America. He now teaches at some Methodist school, I think. No doubt he’s happier there. In any event, it hardly surprises to learn that Father Curran doesn’t quite approve of the Church’s handling of the annulment process.

Also unsurprising is the way “Prime Time Live” loaded the deck with disaffected women. Now I don’t know about you, but this is getting to be pretty old stuff. Every time the media want to show, or should I say sow, divisiveness in the Church, it focuses on women. Women, we learn from Ms. Sawyer, feel that the annulment process has let them down. And so on. Since three in four Americans are not Catholic, it seems reasonable that somewhere along the way Ms. Sawyer would explain, or at least ask someone,

what annulment means. But no such luck. Oh, yes, the question is raised, and a voice-over rhetorically poses the question, but the priest who is asked to explain the process is never given an opportunity to do so.

At one point in the program, Chris Wallace endeavors to have Father Edward Scharfenberger of the Diocese of Brooklyn comment on the Church ‘s position on annulment. Father Scharfenberger appears on the show for about 45 seconds though most of what we hear is the voice-over and background discussions between participants in a mock annulment proceeding. He actually speaks for about 5 seconds.

I called Father Scharfenberger to ask him how the interview went. To begin with, the interview lasted an hour and a half. About half way through the interview, Chris Wallace played his hand. He asked Father why so many women were angry with the Church on the subject of annulment. Father Scharfenberger then asked a logical question of Wallace: Where did he find such evidence? Wallace had none.

It is not difficult to understand why Father Scharfenberger merited so little time for the hour and a half investment that ABC made. He didn’t make for good copy. To be exact, he didn’t screw up. And that’s what Wallace was looking for – a scoop.

Annulment in the Church is about as divisive an issue with Catholics as “Las Vegas Night.” Sure, wherever there are policies that allow for exceptions, lousy decisions can be expected from time to time. But that is hardly news and it hardly explains why “Prime Time Live” decided to run this show. It seem far more plausible to assume that the media are as much interested in fabricating divisiveness as they are in reporting it. Perhaps more so.

I wrote to “Prime Time Live” requesting the evidentiary basi s upon which Ms. Sawyer made her remarkable claim. I’m still waiting to hear from them and expect that the wait will prove to be about as unbearable as listening to one more commentary from Diane Sawyer and Chris Wallace.

- William A. Donohue

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Homeschooling and the Integrated Life of Mom

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

I recently read Sally Thomas’s excellent article about homeschooling not once but twice within a week through two different websites. I thus took it as a sign to write a little about the point that I made me agree, and hurrah the most.

The article is a good one so go read it, but it basically sums up the author’s feelings in regards to the general response those who educate their children at home receive. All her answers to the usual array of ignorant questions are spot on, but what I loved the most is how she addresses homeschooling as a perfect training for a rightly ordered life. A life that integrates education and learning into one’s life without compartmentalizing. This in turn teaches children to live a life that isn’t divided into small increments; prayer, faith, education, leisure all come together in the home. Children develop wholly as opposed to block by separate block. I was educated at home for all but first grade, so I can vouch from personal experience that I’ve found this to be true and also a skill that seems to have all but disappeared in my generation.

But what really surprised me when I started to think about this idea is the effect of the integrated life upon stay at home moms. I’m sure this principle applies to those in the work force as well, but as my experience as a stay at home mom has now surpassed the time I spent “working” my mind now automatically applies principles I read about to my own life circumstances. (weird, right?)

I’ve found that those who dislike being a stay at home mom, or feel somehow useless, or feel unchallenged while at home with little children have difficulties precisely because they’ve never experienced an integrated life. I know this is a broad generalization and that many particulars and many more factors contribute to the societal push against staying home with our very young children, but when I began thinking about the integrated life it stuck out to me that when you become a stay at home mom is when things really start to hit the fan if you don’t have an integrated life. Most of your time gets spent on caring for your child, but you soon find out you need more to stay sane and happy while at home. A life that integrates one’s interests, faith, responsibilities, and the myriad demands upon life as mom makes for a more fulfilling life as a stay at home mom.

When you become a stay at home mom you’re in essence forced to make your world revolve around your home, and for that which interests you to spring out of your life within the home. Since most modern women today are schooled in a public system which creates the idea that learning only happens within sturdy public schooled walls, that home is where you sleep in between extra-curricular activities, which then prepare you for a career that promises to give you fulfillment and which requires you to make your home a refueling station between work days, it must feel like hitting a brick wall or walking into another world when staying home with that first newborn infant. The world for which we are conditioned completely disregards the home, and rejects the idea that a life can be fulfilling within it. I’ve seen many friends who grew up going to school, who’s mom’s worked outside the home, and who had the very good intention of staying home with their children only to become completely discouraged and “bored” once their child was born. It was as if the only things that interested them were only accessible through their job. The concept that life can be integrated at home through continued learning, pursuing interests and work at home or around the children’s schedule seemed impossible to them.

But homeschooling does train an integrated life. Learning doesn’t begin and end at precise times, an attitude that leans towards discovering and learning is there around the clock. Of course one of homeschooling’s great selling points is learning about what
interests you instead of being held to a generic curriculum, but this
idea spreads through to outside interests, hobbies, projects, etc. The pursuit of each person’s individual likes and ideals is constantly cultivated. It just creates a lifelong habit of pursuing what interests you and learning all while being rooted in the home. These ideals come naturally through homeschooling, but aren’t they perfect skills to have for a stay at home mom trying to build a happy outlook?

We all know staying at home to be a mother to our children is tough a lot of the time. Society isn’t too helpful in supporting it either, but how we’ve grown up does effect our attitude towards it. Maybe its time to start acknowledging that one of the life skills homeschooling gives our children is the ability to live an integrated life not only in the workforce but in the home.

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Homeschooling and the Integrated Life of Mom

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Catholic News Roundup 07-11

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Episcopalian DecadenceThe Episcopalian denomination in the United States is approving the ordination of “transgender” individuals and what they call blessings for homosexual couples.CatholicCulture.orgEgyptian Christian Camaraderie Fear of oppression and even death is causing Christians in Egypt to form an interdenominational council with the intent of defending their freedoms with one voice.NewMax The TabletBlood Bank Activism The Red Cross is running low on blood this summer prompting homosexual activists to aggressively push to be allowed to give blood.CNN Switzerland Does Away With the Elderly The Practice of Euthanasia has exploded by 60 percent in Switzerland over the past five years.LifeNewsJesuits Bonding with Abortion A Jesuit college is opening Catholic students up for corruption joining itself with a hospital that lost its Catholic status because of an abortion scandal. CardinalNewmanSociety.orgFraud FactoryPlanned Parenthood is once again being sued by one of its former employees who is blowing the whistle on fraudulent activities

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Catholic News Roundup 07-11

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CofE Women Bishops?

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
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Welcome to Standing on My Head! I’m a former Evangelical, then an Anglican priest, now a Catholic priest. If you want to learn more about me click on the “Bio” tab in the header.The header tabs also contain my archived articles, with my conversion stories and writings on Catholic apologetics. You can have a look at the books I’ve written and purchase them online by using the “Browse Books” tab in the header.You can also use the drop down menu to contact me by email, book me for a speaking engagement, learn about our new Finding Faith Outreach and learn out about the topics I speak on, the retreats I lead.

Visit my website

for more of my archived articles, and learn more about my various outreach projects.My blog is part of my ministry and I have a wife and kids to support as well as run a busy parish. If you would like to help out financially you can make a donation through PayPal by hitting the “Donate” button below.

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CofE Women Bishops?

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Roman Pontiff speaks to priests on priesthood

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
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Roman Pontiff speaks to priests on priesthood

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Olive Branch

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

DailyMorning Offering O my Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all the souls in Purgatory, and the particular intentions of the Holy Father, Amen. Angel of God Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide, Amen.

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Olive Branch

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If you want to see me go absolutely ballistic

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

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If you want to see me go absolutely ballistic

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‘I’m breaking their sick signs’: Bicyclist assaults pro-lifers, destroys signs

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

TORONTO, Ontario, July 11, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Show the Truth pro-life participants were violently attacked yesterday at Scott’s abortion clinic in Toronto by a self-identified “pro-choice” woman riding a bicycle.

The woman, wearing a pink shirt, dark glasses and a bicycle helmet, destroyed three of the pro-lifers’ signs, which pro-life activist Alissa Golob, who taped the incident with her iPhone, estimated at about $300 value.

“You people are sick. I’m breaking their sick signs,” the woman said.

Golob, the coordinator of Campaign Life Coalition Youth, said the woman also “slapped” Rosemary Connell, the organizer of the event, “and assaulted me many times by harshly trying to grab my camera out of my hand.”

Show the Truth is a pro-life strategy for bringing awareness to Canadians of the “truth of abortion” using photos of living babies and those killed by abortion.

Each Show the Truth participant signs a pledge committing to “peaceful, non-confrontational methods of pro-life education”. The participants also pledge that they will not “engage in arguing, yelling or intimidating conversation or gestures” and that any discussion with passers-by will be “quiet and respectful.”

“The Show the Truth tour is a peaceful protest full of amazing and inspiring people of all ages,” said Golob. “Hearts have been changed and lives have been saved by this type of activism. If it wasn’t working, people who disagree wouldn’t be angry.”

CLICK ‘LIKE’ IF YOU ARE PRO-LIFE!

As the pro-choice woman continued her angry rampage, she could be heard muttering: “People do not have the right to see this. I don’t want to see this.”

“Please don’t do this,” a man holding one of the signs said to her.

“Someone call 911,” Connell can be heard saying.

Golob said that the woman’s actions indicate that those who have “no problem” with the violent killing of the unborn also have “no problem with using violence to born people that inconvenience them.”

“There is no merit to the pro-abortion position, so abortion advocates must rely on violence to get their message across,” she said.

As the woman rode away on her bicycle, she said: “F**k off! Mind your own life.”

Golob told LifeSiteNews that the police were alerted about the incident, but that the woman managed to successfully flee the scene before her identity could be obtained.

During the incident, Golob said that the woman claimed that she was “happy” about her abortion.

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‘I’m breaking their sick signs’: Bicyclist assaults pro-lifers, destroys signs

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Why I love little children!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The questions are so cute!

At dinner today Joseph you picked up a pea and looked at it thoughtfully. Then completely randomly and out of the blue you asked…

“How big is Mr. Small compared to a pea?“

(Mr. Small being the character from the Mr. Men series of books)

aw! We then had a fascinating discussion as to how big (or small) Mr. Small was likely to be. Apparently in the books he lives in an apple, so we came to the conclusion that he may well be the size of a pea!

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Why I love little children!

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