Protesting abortion pays off big time

Written by Bruno Schroeder

Thursday, September 17, 2009

A national controversy erupted in Austria when Vienna’s Mayor Michael Häupl allowed a jubilee-party honoring thirty years of “good work” by Austria’s first abortion clinic with the misnomer Pro-Woman.

The September 3 celebration was held at City Hall and provoked a storm of protest including nearly 500 people demonstrating outside during the celebration.

Pro-lifers sent hundreds of protest letters to the mayor asking him in vain not to honor the celebration of the killing of unborn babies. They then organized a demonstration outside the beautiful and historic neo-Gothic Rathaus (City Hall) while the pro-abortion event took place in the cellar, complete with music by a feminist jazz trio.

Almost 500 people protested outside the celebration.

A non-governmental pro-life coalition, comprised of Human Life International, the Austrian Society for the Defense of Tradition Family and Property, Doctors for Life, Die Christen and others, were present in sizable numbers. Over a hundred young people from Youth for Life came from across Austria to join the demonstration. Members of the Centre for Bioethical Reform based in neighboring Slovakia also attended.

Catholic Bishop Supports Protest

Prior to the event, Mass was celebrated by Most Rev. Andreas Laun, auxiliary bishop of Salzburg. He saddened worshippers by revealing that the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, had prohibited him from attending the demonstration. Bishop Laun was scheduled to lead the prayers and speak at the demonstration, but Bishop Laun explained “the Cardinal has phoned me and said that I am absolutely not allowed to attend the demonstration. Since he is the local bishop, I have to obey canon law.”

Cardinal Schönborn did not give any reason for his ban, nor did he send anyone to take Bishop Laun’s place, a fact which caused much perplexity among the demonstrators.

Bishop Laun and Cardinal Schönborn recently clashed over yet another abortion clinic in Vienna when Bishop Laun suggested that a prominent Viennese businessman, who allowed the clinic to open on his property, be excommunicated, whereas Cardinal Schönborn chose to overlook the fact.

Participants of the Mass processed the nearly one mile route from the church to City Hall. Nearly 500 pro-lifers gathered at the site where they faced a few dozen pro-abortion counter-demonstrators from the political left. The two groups were kept separate by police.

Speeches, Prayers and Songs

The pro-life campaign displayed large billboards with graphic images of aborted babies. This was the first time such images were shown in the streets of Austria, shocking even the hardened pro-abortion agitators. The pictures had captions like: “Three hundred thousand aborted children charge the mayor and the Socialist Party of making a mockery of them.” Another read: “Honoring Pro-Woman honors those who make money off desperate women.”

Counterprotesters

Speeches, prayers and songs made up the three-hour demonstration. Many pro-lifers turned up in traditional alpine Austrian clothes. Children placed candles on the ground near the entrance to the cellar of the City Hall in memory of the countless victims of abortion and the broken hearts of women suffering from feelings of guilt and Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS). One little girl took the podium to thank her mother for allowing her to be born.

Misbehavior on the Left

The pro-abortion demonstrators tried to disrupt the event by insulting, whistling, blaspheming and throwing water-filled condoms at the pro-lifers and their billboards, who remained confidently calm. Such misbehavior was counterproductive, as the onlooking public turned against them and the police pushed the liberals away from City Hall.

The mood in the City Hall cellar was muted as many politicians and other VIPs chose not to attend the event which had created so much controversy. Even the mayor did not make an appearance. Abortion clinic staff, feminist activists and socialist politicians who did turn up were taken aback by the great public reaction.

I Knew Jim Pouillon

Written by Jose Walter Ferraz

Mr. Pouillon enjoying a laugh.

When I first heard of the recent murder of pro-lifer Jim Pouillon, I thought the name was familiar. When I saw a picture, I remembered.
I met Mr. Pouillon at the University of Notre Dame back in May when activists from around the country went to protest against the honoring of a pro-abortion president at a Catholic university.
Mr. Pouillon, sitting down in his old lawn chair hooked up to his oxygen tank, was holding a sign showing the horrors of abortion. I was covering the event as a photographer when he motioned me over.
I thought, “This man certainly looks interesting,” as I walked to him.
Interesting he definitely was. He  asked about the TFP and I filled him in about our activities, highlighting the many things done in defense of the unborn. 
When I asked him about himself, he briefly filled me in on his pro-life activities. Only now do I realize how active he truly was. Reading articles about him, I found he protested abortion on a regular basis for the last twenty years!
We continued our discussion. He did most of the talking and I just listened. Mr. Pouillon expressed his disillusionment about the current situation of events and pointed out the moral chaos in the world. He was, however, hopeful. He saw and knew that people existed who were willing to stand up to the moral crisis. “Look around,” he said. “These people here are just a fragment of those who truly want to do good.”
When I heard of the murder, I wondered why someone who supported abortion could take into his hand the role of judge and assassinate a peaceful protester. In fact, violence against pro-lifers is not something new. There are many documented cases of attacks on pro-lifers by pro-abortionists.¹ Mr. Pouillon’s murder is the face of radical pro-abortionists who do not tolerate opinions contrary to their own.
We have to face it. Abortion alone has killed over forty million American children, forty million separate acts of violence and murder. When a society embraces such a moral wrong, what prevents it from actively promoting other moral evils such as euthanasia or eugenics?
Mr. Pouillon, a Catholic, did something very interesting some time after our conversation together. A group of anti-Catholic fundamentalists were roaming about the protesters shouting anti-Catholic slogans. Mr. Pouillon rose from his chair and walked over to one of them and said something only the man could hear. The man looked at Mr. Pouillon and then walked away. I think this is a good example of who Mr. Pouillon was: a man not afraid to stand for his Faith and his principles.

Facing down the fundamentalist.

Thankfully, there are many Americans who, like Mr. Pouillon said, are willing to stand up and fight for principles. Mr. Pouillon gave his life for his principles, and serves as an example for all of us.
I know I can say that I am proud to have met a man like Mr. James Pouillon.
Eternal rest give unto him, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.

Footnotes

1. http://abortionviolence.com/ [back]

Rosary Rallies and why God is offended by the public sins of America

To be a rally captain in the 2009 rosary rallies, please call 866-584-6012 or sign up online at www.ANF.org.

Why is God offended by the public sins of a nation?

It is because, at a certain point which no one knows, when sin is so widespread and there is insufficient reparation , God considers that the nation en masse have turned their backs upon Him and therefore no longer merit His protection and blessing.

    At the final judgement good and evil alike will see how much protection God gave to us and how many blessings He bestowed upon us.

    When a nation sins so universally and flagrantly as our own nation, that is a way of telling God, "we don't care about Your protection or Your blessings, in fact, we hate You."

    At a point of God's own choosing, unless there is adequate, and I mean the word adequate as in sufficient, repentance, God will turn His back upon that nation, exposing them to all of the horrors that Satan can muster, both temporally and spiritually.  God will even send His own punishments directly.

    God's desire to do good to us is so great that all of us have seen even wicked people receive blessings and protections from God, which they did not remotely deserve.  God does all manner of good to us, to encourage us to lovingly serve Him and to seek His sanctifying grace.  Unless there is true repentance, there is, however, a limit to God's patience.

    Some have erroneously said that God doesn't punish.  As a wise person once said to me, "tell that to Noah's neighbors."

    God punishes, not because He takes delight in our sufferings, but because we force His hand.  If we could only understand how grievous the sins of our nation are, we would wonder why God hasn't already chastised our country.  Instead, because of our complacency with sin, we have become de-sensitized to the extreme and eternal gravity of the offenses of our nation. 

    How many nations have ceased to exist on the face of the earth because of their offenses against God, nations like our own, that were considered to be invincible?  When God removes His Divine protection, the most powerful nations on earth become weak and impotent in dealing with even the smallest of dangers.

    Many sins contain their own punishments.  If children are not raised to love God and His commandments, do you think that they will care for their parents when they become old?  Will they work honestly and hard? Will they live good and holy lives?  No, they will immerse themselves in vice producing more practitioners of sin.  The elderly will see the moral disintegration of the generations that follow, to their sadness, yet it becomes beyond their control, since the seeds were planted a long time ago and the thorns become impossible to remove from the tree.

    Who can fight floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, as well as fatal and rapidly spreading epidemics?

    What nation under its own power can withstand any single demon from hell, let alone legions of them?  An individual can cause the demons to flee if that individual is in the state of sanctifying grace and under Our Lady's protection.  The nation that removes itself from God's protection will face the full fury of the demons.

    This is a pretty dark scenario, but if you look at the Old and New Testament and the history of the Church and the world, there are numerous precedents.

    What can we do about it?  Tomorrow let us see about the necessity to offer true reparation to God. True reparation to God, is not a simple, "we're sorry"; it has to be more profound than that.  Since the sins are public and nationwide, so also must be the reparation. 

    The public square rosary is a public act of reparation that tells God and Our Lady that all across the United States, there are souls, right now a minority, but nevertheless more and more souls, who desire to offer reparation, and who implore the mercy of God for the conversion of our nation.

    You can be a leader of that reparation in your community by calling (866) 584 - 6012.

"How necessary is the public square rosary?"

One might ask, "how necessary is the public square rosary?"  Or, a person might say, "I know that the public rosary certainly is a nice thing to do, but is it really as necessary as you seem to insist?"

 

    Recently, a friend showed a Catholic book to me that contained an essay written in 1935 by a Father F.J. Remler, C.M..

    The title of the essay is, "Expiation of Public and National Sins."  In this essay, Father first defines what public sin is.  Secondly, he explains God's reaction to public sin. Thirdly, in light of the first two he explains why public reparation is so necessary.

    According to Father, public and national sins are sins of a grave nature which are committed on a large scale in the nation.  He is not speaking of individual sins, but sins that are commonly practiced and accepted throughout a nation.  He lists some that sadly, were even common in his day. Among the public sins on his list were, apostasy from the faith, godless or secular education of the young, blasphemy, not keeping of the Lord's Day, immoral art, film and literature, divorce and adultery etc. 

    What would Father say about today?  The good old days were not always so good, nevertheless, the public acceptance of those sins back then pale into insignificance when compared with today. 

    The sins that Father mentions of that time period, would not even be considered to be sins today by most people.  They still are considered to be most serious and grave by the Church, but society at large doesn't even bat an eye at bad language, at missing Mass, at secular education or, at divorce and adultery.  After all, our "entertainment" industry promotes all of these vices and more.

    Today 72% of Catholics do not regularly attend Mass, talk about the sin of general apostasy. 

    Our public education system promotes lies about the Church and introduces sex education without morality, even promoting homosexual lifestyles and abortion.  Violence and drug abuse are common in education today, as is widespread plagiarism and vandalism.

    Movies such as "Hail Mary" from the 1980's, "Dogma" and "The Da Vinci Code" to name a few, openly blaspheme Our Lord, Our Lady and the Holy Catholic Church.  The virtue of Religion is openly mocked in all aspects of contemporary life. 

    Sacrilege is common, even on sites such as Ebay or Youtube.  These public sacrileges are viewed by millions adding to the offenses against God.

    The family today is in serious trouble.  Almost half of marriages today end in divorce. Besides the harm done to the spouses, the children suffer for life.  What is made worse is that both usually "remarry" invalidly if the first marriage was valid in the eyes of the Church.  This is a further serious sin, and being so common and accepted as it is today, constitutes another grievous public sin. 

    There is also the mutilation of bodies in the form of grotesque and occultist piercings and tattoos.  There are the various forms of so-called music which promote blasphemy, revolt against legitimate authority, and immorality of all kinds.  There is the Internet full of so much filth that if an innocent child happens to click on the wrong thing their mind can be filled with immoral images so horrendous that they can be scarred for life.

    There is widespread drug abuse which literally pollutes the minds of our young and not so young.

    There is widespread fornication and living together without benefit of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.  Innocence among youth today, is almost non-existent.  Today, many lose their innocence in their early teens, if not before then. 

    Besides the categories of sins Father mentioned, today the unthinkable takes place with common acceptance, if not outright promotion in society.  The overwhelming majority of women today, Catholic as well as non-Catholic use contraception, which is a deadly sin.  If that wasn't bad enough we also allow and in some cases encourage the horrific sin of abortion, which literally sacrifices the unborn on the altar of self-love. 

    Finally, there is the acceptance of homosexuality, which, according to the Catholic Catechism, is one of the sins that cries to Heaven for vengeance.  If this sin committed by an individual cries to heaven for vengeance, what about the society that accepts that vice and even considers it equal to true marriage between one man and one woman.  Homosexuals are even demanding the right to adopt children so that their corruption can be passed down to the next generation.

    Every person of good will can see just by simple observation that the above vices are taking place in our nation, and that there is a general acceptance of such vices.  Not everyone believes that these vices are "okay", but a good number of people have the erroneous opinion that what others do is none of their business. Even when the sin is public in nature, or as in the case of abortion when it involves the slaughter of an innocent  defenseless child, some believe it is none of their business. 

    Tomorrow let us continue with Father Remler's principles as to why God is so offended by these public sins and why as a result public reparation for these public sins is so necessary.

Time Is Running Out to Join the Public Square Rosary Rallies 2009!

Time Is Running Out!

    Time is running out to sign up to become a Rosary Rally Captain.  October 10th is right around the corner. 

    Please don't hesitate, call today!  866-584-6012

    The last day to order free rally materials, including a banner will be on Wednesday, September 30th. 

    If you were a rally captain last year, you know how easy it is.  I hope that you also know how much it means to Our Blessed Mother to have brave souls fighting for Her in the public square offering reparation and prayers for conversion.

    If you have not been a rally captain before, believe me it is very easy. 

    By holding a public square rosary you are offering Our Lady a most precious gift, your public presence accompanied by your public prayer.  When you look at it, this gift comes at little cost to us, just a few hours of our time, a few phone calls, and a little gas to get to the location.  We will provide you with the banner and program.

    Imagine if you were to offer Our Lady a crown of gold and diamonds.  Imagine all the work that goes into mining the gold and diamonds and then cutting and shaping them.  I believe that the public square rosary is much more precious to Our Lady than a crown of gold.

    When we hold the public square rosary for Our Lady we are giving Her something far more precious to Her, we are offering to Her our hearts of love on fire for Our Lady.  Our Lady treasures this more than any object of whatever value.

    In a sense you become the true gold and diamonds that Our Lady desires to possess.

    Don't greet Our Lady with empty hands on the tenth of October, give Her the gift of yourself as a rosary rally captain on October 10th!

    Because of the volume of calls that we are now receiving we have a much larger group of volunteers here to enthusiastically take your call.

    Call them today at (866) 584 - 6012.

URGENT petition to Notre Dame: Please drop the charges

Alan Keyes being arrested at Notre Dame while peacefully praying the rosary. He now faces up to one year in jail.

The 88 outspoken pro-lifers peacefully walked onto Notre Dame’s campus in May to be the voice of the unborn – when pro-abortion president Obama was honored there – and were arrested for trespassing. 

Among those arrested were Fr. Norman Weslin, several Catholic nuns, Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, and Ambassador Alan Keyes.
Sign the “Drop the Charges” petition
Lifesitenews.com reports:

“While witnesses say pro-Obama protesters were allowed to roam free, the arrested individuals were singled out for displaying any pro-life message -- including slogans on the sanctity of life, photographs of aborted children, a large wooden cross, and images of Mary.”

The double standard is rather shocking, isn’t it?

The University of Notre Dame, as the original complainant, has the choice to drop the charges pending against the 88 pro-lifers.

Therefore, your signature is very important right now because, according to reports, the president of Notre Dame “has repeatedly refused to seek such leniency or even answer the pro-lifers' requests for dialogue.”  (Lifesitenews.com: 09-04-09)

Join this urgent petition.  Pass it along.  Post it on Facebook, on blogs, and get the word out.

Kindly ask Fr. Jenkins to drop the charges

Respectfully contact Fr. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame:

Office of the President
400 Main Building
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone: 574-631-3903
Email: president@nd.edu

 

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Related articles:

• 88 Pro-Lifers Arrested at Notre Dame Still Facing Jail Time: Thomas More Lawyer Again Asks Fr. Jenkins for Leniency

• Op-Ed in The Washington Examiner

Brecksville Rosary Rally Tradition Continues

On Saturday, a faithful group of Catholics gathered once again to pray the monthly public square rosary in Brecksville, Ohio.

It really went very well. 

It was a beautiful day, and there was very much traffic.  So lots of people saw us praying the rosary.

There were actually 13 people who came to pray, but only 12 at one time.  One lady had to leave after the first rosary, but another lady came very shortly after that.  (It reminded me of the importance of there being 12 Apostles.)

If you would like to be a rosary organizer please call 866-584-6012 and we'll sign you up.  or you can sign up online at www.ANF.org.