This evening, I received the following communication from Newt Gingrich’s communications director, which I believe clears the air and provides Mr. Gingrich with a way forward: Hi Gerard, Dan forwarded me your email. To be clear, Newt believes that human life begins at conception, that is, at the moment of fertilization. Does this help clarify? [...]
Archive for the ‘Dignity’ Category
Newt Clears the Air
Posted in Abortion, Dignity on December 6, 2011 | 13 Comments »
The Gingrich Campaign’s Reply
Posted in Abortion, Dignity, tagged Life, Newt Gingrich on December 5, 2011 | 13 Comments »
Last week, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich made the following statement in an interview with Jake Tapper: “I think that if you take a position when a woman has fertilized egg and that’s been successfully implanted that now you’re dealing with life,” he added. “Because otherwise you’re going to open up an extraordinary range of very [...]
Does Conception Begin at Life?
Posted in Abortion, Dignity on December 3, 2011 | 5 Comments »
UPDATE 12/5/11: The Gingrich Campaign responded. I’m not entirely sold on the response. Check it out. That title isn’t a mistake. It’s the question that Newt Gingrich’s comments to Jake Tapper have brought into sharp relief. When the Speaker said that we have life at implantation, he stepped on a land mine. I’m awaiting his [...]
Newt Gingrich’s Mistaken Notion: Life Begins at Implantation
Posted in Biomedical Ethics, Dignity, tagged Implantation, IVF, Newt Gingrich on December 2, 2011 | 14 Comments »
UPDATE 12/5/11: The Gingrich Campaign responded. I’m not entirely sold on the response. Check it out. News today that presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich believes that life begins at implantation does not come as a great surprise. Other pro-life denizens of Capitol Hill, such as Senators Connie Mack and Orin [...]
Book Review: A Special Mother Is Born
Posted in Dignity, Uncategorized, tagged A Special Mother Is Born, Book Review, Leticia Velasquez on November 6, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Over a year ago, friend, Catholic blogger and co-founder of KIDS (Keep Infants with Down Syndrome), Leticia Velasquez asked if I would be interested in contributing a chapter to an anthology of stories by parents of special needs children, A Special Mother Is Born. It was a book a couple of years in the making, [...]
Homily for Respect Life Sunday
Posted in Dignity on October 1, 2011 | 16 Comments »
Normally, Deacon Greg Kandra’s homilies are superb, but this one has left me speechless. I believe he has said it all right here. Visit his blog, The Deacon’s Bench, for a daily dose of clarity, balance, and unsurpassed wisdom. Here’s Deacon Kandra: Since this is Respect Life Sunday, and the beginning of Respect Life month, [...]
Natural Disasters: God’s Permissive Will
Posted in Dignity on August 27, 2011 | 8 Comments »
As hurricane Irene bears down upon us, Mass was packed at 5 P.M. with those who know that Irene will prevent anyone from going tomorrow. The question on everyone’s lips, as many in my parish were mandatorily evacuated from their homes, was “WHY?” Why does God permit these things to happen? Why the destruction, the [...]
The Pro-Life Homily That Rocked The World
Posted in Bishops, Dignity on August 4, 2011 | 11 Comments »
H/T to Deacon Greg Kandra who posted this yesterday on the 70th Anniversary of this Homily. This comes from historyplace.com which has an excellent repository of historical speeches and commentary. This homily, slightly reworded for current leaders is a commentary for our present age. For distributing copies of this homily, the Nazis beheaded three priests, [...]
Summer Camp Report: Triumph!
Posted in Dignity, tagged Boy Scouts, Joseph on August 2, 2011 | 16 Comments »
It’s been a week since we returned from summer camp, and Joseph is only now coming to appreciate all that he has accomplished. Our troop is exemplary in following the Boy Scout program, and summer camp is as much a time for making great strides in rank advancement as it is in having fun. Every [...]
Sacrificial Love
Posted in Abortion, Dignity, tagged Letter to Sarah, Sullivan Ballou on July 28, 2011 | 6 Comments »
We are now in the 150th Anniversary of the events of the United States Civil War, of which I have been a devoted student for many years. Many have drawn striking parallels between the abolitionist movement and the pro-life movement, myself among them. From time to time over the coming months, I’ll be revisiting some [...]
Letter to Ann
Posted in Abortion, Dignity on July 23, 2011 | 25 Comments »
From the comments section on another post: A reader named Ann left the following comment for me on another post. It is fraught with ambivalence and the attempt to convince herself that she is indeed a good person who promoted love and understanding, while supporting other’s choices in having abortions. This is not an issue [...]
Off to Summer Camp!
Posted in Dignity, tagged Boy Scouts on July 16, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Joseph and I are off to a week of Summer Camp with his Boy Scout troop. Time for a scouting update. Since joining the Boy Scouts in October, Joseph has camped in balmy autumn weather, in a cabin surrounded by 36″ of snow capped by 2″ of solid ice, a mountaintop so cold that an [...]
Pentecost and Life: Veni Creator Spiritus
Posted in Dignity on June 13, 2011 | 2 Comments »
This weekend saw the juxtaposition of the Feast of Pentecost, and a pointed reminder to me of how much we in the pro-life movement need to invoke the leading and the gifts of the Holy Spirit of God. On a few websites I was excoriated for being both a scientist and a Catholic who dares [...]
Will
Posted in Dignity, Lent, tagged Aaron T. Beck, B.F. Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, Freud, From Sin to Psychiatry, Karl Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin on April 22, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Today is Good Friday. If today could be summarized in a word, a good choice would be: Will. Great battles have raged in academia over that word, that idea, the degree to which humans exercise autonomous judgement and action. In psychology, Sigmund Freud theorized in his Psychoanalytic Theory that man’s behavior is shaped by subconscious [...]
Scouting Update
Posted in Dignity on April 10, 2011 | 11 Comments »
Just back from a big camping weekend with Joseph and his troop in the mountains of western New Jersey. It. Was. A. Riot. Fifteen new boys were with us who crossed over from Cub Scouts last month. The boys were made aware that there are plenty of black bear in the neighborhood just coming out [...]
