Pope John Paul II referred to Catholics as People of Life and for Life! The second presentation focused on positive ways to build a creative Culture of Life.1. True Devotion to Our Blessed Lady The first of these was to cultivate true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is full of grace. No other creature will ever give such a total fiat to God and to Life. Revelation 12 describes the dramatic clash between the pregnant Woman clothed with the sun and the red dragon who waits to devour Her Child. This can be interpreted both in relation to Our Lady and the Church; both bring forth new life and both are at war with Satan and his minions.
At Guadalupe in 1531, the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Juan Diego as a pregnant mother and gave him the miraculous tilma cloak. Through this a serious Culture of Death in the Aztec world was reversed and within 9 years, some 9 million natives had been converted by missionaries who used copies of the tilma to evangelise and teach the Faith. The long stream of sacrifices to false gods had ceased. The miraculous tilma image is a mystery which only deepens as scientific research progresses. For example, it appears to be photographic in nature and when the eye of Our Lady is enlarged it reveals tiny images which look like St. Juan Diego, Bishop Zumarraga and his interpreter. These were the very men present when the tilma was first unfurled. The mantle of Our Lady also bears symbols which resonate with Aztec culture and were used to great effect in catechesis. One example is the situation of the Nahui Ollin flower over the growing Saviour in her sacred womb; in Aztec iconography this flower represented the centre of the universe.
A good way to practice true devotion is to keep the First Five Saturdays Devotion, in which one makes reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary through making a good Confession, receiving Holy Communion, praying the Rosary and spending 15 minutes contemplating one of the Rosary mysteries.
2. Caring for women who have had abortions
Evangelium Vitae 99 expresses the call of the Church to women - and all involved in abortion - to seek healing and reconciliation through sacramental confession and professional support and care. If our pro-life activism is not to end in mere condemnation then we must strive to bring healing to women who suffer post-abortion trauma and the isolation this brings in a culture which accepts the killing of the unborn as normal. We need to have trained counsellors and to provide help-line numbers in the porches of our parishes for this end. We could encourage other local ecclesial communities to do the same. All Catholics should be aware of EV99 and where to get hold of a copy to help women who may be despairing.
The Rachel's Vineyard reconcilation and healing retreats are highly recommended. Please refer to www.rachelsvineyard.org.uk/
3. Challenge Sex Education
The constant tradition of the Catholic Church has condemned explicit sex education and all misuse of human sexuality. Unfortunately many of our bishops have colluded with the government in recent times to allow increasingly anti-life and anti-family programmes in Catholic schools. Parents are the primary educators of their children and have certain key rights and duties in this regard. Anyone responsible for young people needs to know the teaching of the Church about proper and improper content and methodologies for education. A good place to start is the 1995 document The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality from the Pontifical Council for the Family. Other vital ways to get informed include checking the content and methodology used in the schools attended by one's children and reading SPUC's excellent daily blog.
We can also help our young people by giving them the full and authentic catechesis in the Catholic Faith which it is their right to have; teaching them how to critique false world-views such as moral relativism and leading them to the fullness of truth and freedom in Jesus Christ. Home schooling is another viable means to overcome secularist indoctrination and every parent has the right to remove a child from a lesson/lessons if they are not happy with the content.
Another laudable aim is to learn the stages of foetal development from good web resources like SPUC. Too many people are unaware of basic knowldege, including the fact that the human heart begins to beat at 21-25 days in the womb. Abortion really does stop a beating heart. One could also develop images of foetal development, purchase plastic baby models of the same or obtain ultrasound DVDs (TinyTots in Ireland provide these for a small donation). With these tools one could apply to local schools to offer presentations on foetal development to RE/PSHE classes. Another idea is to learn the true facts about the dreadful death caused by the withdrawal of food and fluids in euthanasia in order to inform students and others of the grim reality.
4. Build or rebuild your own family
The family is the Domestic Church. We can become so caught up in life and work (even pro-life work!) that we neglect our own family and their needs. To overcome this we need to start listening actively to our own family members to understand them and their problems, challenges and aspirations better. Family prayer is essential. Whilst it may be difficult to pray together if this has not been developed it is time to begin afresh. Even one decade of the Rosary prayed well each evening is a start. The ideal would be to create a family altar as a focus for family prayers and plan ahead in order to build up to a Rosary per day together.
A key way to fight euthanasia is to help our children to learn the value of vulnerable people. This can be done by including them in visiting and caring for sick/elderly relatives and neighbours. Do we show our children by example that people and life are more important than money and things? Another good way is for older teens to help out at homeless outreach centres.
5. Wear the little feet badge
Organisations like SPUC sell the Little Feet badge which portrays the actual size of the feet of a baby at the 10 weeks stage of foetal development. By wearing these, good conversations can be initiated in favour of life. They also make good gifts for family and friends. Young teen-aged girls generally love them!
6. Support good pro-life charities
Good Counsel Network, Sisters of the Gospel of Life and SPUC do sterling work and would be very grateful of prayers and financial offerings.
7. Fortify a pro-life parish
Dr. Bernard Nathanson was a prominent abortionist responsible for 75,000 abortions who also helped to pave the way for liberal abortion laws in America. He has since repented and became a Catholic in 1996. Today he fights abortion. Dr. Nathanson states that abortion would never have been accepted in America if the Catholic clergy had been informed, organised and unified. The same can be said of us all as a body of believers. Too much time has been wasted by people rebelling against the Magisterium, arguing in-house and focusing on secondary issues. It is time to fight back!
A. Develop a Parish Pro-life Group
This would need to be headed by a sensitive and mature person and would ideally meet regularly with the parish priest to pray, discern and develop local tactics.
B. Vigil for Life
The Holy Father has called for a vigil on the 27th November for all nascent human life. It would be great to host an all-night vigil but even Mass followed by a period of Adoration would be good.
C. NFP Teacher in Parish
Every diocese and parish should by now have a trained woman or married couple to help couples who have a serious need to space pregnancy without resorting to contraception. Such trained representatives would also be able to help infertile couples without resorting to IVF.
D. Pro-life Bidding Prayers
These could be included at Mass on a fairly regular basis to intercede for the victims and the conversion of all involved as well as keeping the issue in the consciousness of the parish.
E. Annual Pro-life Mass
The Mass could be offered in reparation for the sins of abortion and euthanasia, for the unborn or for the conversion of all involved. The homily could impart the teaching of the Church on these issues. The collection could be taken for pro-life work.
F. Pro-Life Chains
On the Saturday nearest to the 27th April each year SPUC host pro-life chains of witness along streets in various towns. This involves prior planning with the local police force and there is plenty of time to organise this for next year. The witness of a whole parish would be very valuable as is evidenced by the practice in many American parishes.
G. Pro-life witness at abortion facilities
There are different levels of sacrifice and danger to which people are called in a war. Not all are called to the same level. However, if we never go to pray and witness at the actual abortion facilities we are in danger of making pro-life work a hobby or an issue which we care about. But it is never a mere issue. It is about individual people who need our witness and prayers; the babies, the mothers, the fathers, those who work in the abortion facilities.
A woman in America who ran an abortion facility prior to being converted to Christ and the Church said that whenever she saw a priest praying outside she knew that she would have problems that day. It is a spiritual thing. A lady once saw Fr. Pavone praying outside of the abortion mill where she was sitting waiting for an abortion. She thought, 'If there is a Catholic priest out there, then what am I doing in here?' She fled and was given counsel by a woman with Fr. Pavone. By the end of the day she had been to Confession and eventually the baby was born and baptised Guadalupe.
At times people will indeed turn around and keep their babies because they saw someone praying or even spoke to those that were.
Last year a good friend of ours prayed outside an abortion facility after praying before the relics of St. Therese. That day 5 girls turned around and kept their babies. A couple of months later our friend died suddenly. It was the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was a great comfort to his family and friends that he had responded to the fight for human life because of his deep faith in God.
What will be our response?
Our Lady of Guadalupe - Pray for us!
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