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Dear e-link subscriber,
As you may know, the Diocese of San Diego has filed
for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy provisions. The
following link will take you to Bishop Brom's Pastoral Statement on
the Diocesan Reorganization:
http://www.diocese-sdiego.org/BishopMessage/Pastoral%20Stmt%20on%20Diocesan%20Reorganization.pdf
The Diocese has developed a Question-&-Answer document that will
help explain the various factors that were taken into consideration
when making the decision to file for reorganization. Here is a link
to that document:
http://www.diocese-sdiego.org/BishopMessage/Website%20QA.pdf
Please keep everyone involved in this matter in your prayers over
the coming weeks and months.
As always, we remind current members and inform new members that
past e-link bulletins and this current bulletin can be viewed at
www.osmelink.org.
God Bless!
     
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 OSM e-link
Bulletin #57
Table of
Contents
Remarks from Kent Peters on AB 374, proposed
legislation that will legalize
physician assisted suicide in the State of California
Key Upcoming Culture-of-Life
Gatherings/Projects (please join us)
1. Stem Cells and Cloning: Understanding Scientific Issues
and Moral
Objections and End-of-Life Issues, with Rev.
Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.,
Director of Education, The National Catholic Bioethics
Center - March 22,
2007, 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. Diocese of San Diego, Pastoral
Center
2. Catholic Lobby Day set for Tuesday, April
24, 200, "Bringing the voice of
San Diego Catholics to Sacramento" - Hurry, roundtrip fare
is only $118
3. National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) "NAMIWALK"
set for Saturday,
April 21, 2007 at Balboa Park - Registration at 7:00 a.m.
- Walk begins
at 8:00 a.m. Join with Diocesan Disability Facilitators
to raise awareness,
hope, and resources for NAMI
4. The Children Left Behind - a multi-media
exhibit on AIDS orphans from
around the world - at the University of San Diego, 5998
Alcala Park San
Diego, 92110 - from March 26 to April 13, 2007
5. Sixteenth Annual Walk with the Suffering Good
Friday Stations of
the Cross Friday, April 6, 2007, 8:30
a.m.-11:30 a.m. Beginning at the
San Diego Rescue Mission 120 Elm St., corner Second and
Elm downtown
San Diego (please note new starting, ending location)
Short Reports on Office for Social
Ministry Related Issues/Events
- SD Life Perspectives secures billboard in El Cajon
with message, "Abortion
Changes You" hoping women will consider the
ramifications of abortion and
explore healthier solutions that will elevate women, protect
life, and encourage
healing for those having difficulty after an abortion
experience
- Men's Leadership Forum 2007 draws more than
320, sharing a message for men
on the eradication of relationship violence
Advocacy Request X
2
- LIFE: As we prepare to do battle with the forces in the
California Legislature over
AB 374 the bill that will legalize physician
assisted suicide, we ask that
you become a member of Californians Against Assisted
Suicide, JOIN TODAY!
- DIGNITY: Join the U.S. Catholic Bishops in support of federal
legislation that will
enhance border security and provide a path to
legal residency for
undocumented workers with no criminal history
Advocacy Reportback
- Read an excellent Letter from Bishop Cordileone to Senators
Feinstein and
Boxer in opposition to federal funding for embryonic stem
cell research
Web and
e-mail-based Resources
- In preparation for our efforts to dump AB 374, the proposed
legislation that
would legalize physician assisted suicide in California,
please visit the
Californians Against
Assisted Suicide web site:
http://www.ca-aas.com
Local and Regional
Events/Gatherings/Projects
1. North-County prayer witness at the Carlsbad Planned
Parenthood Clinic
scheduled for every third Monday of the month from 10:00
to 10:30 a.m.
2. Prayerful witness for life at two locations in San Diego
County - every
Saturday at Sixth and Palm in San Diego and every second
Saturday of
the month at Pomerado Road in Poway
3. St. Dismas Guild sponsors two weekly hours of prayer for
the unborn in
North County
4. St. John the Evangelist Parish in Encinitas Pro-Life Mass
and Rosary held on
the first Monday of each month
5. Most Precious Blood Parish Rosary Prayer Vigils held on
Wednesdays each
week at 8:45 a.m. (Saturday Prayer Vigils have been
cancelled)
6. The ministry of prayer and sidewalk counseling at the
Clinica Medica abortion
facility in Chula Vista is seeking sidewalk counselors
for Wednesday mornings
7. Join neighbors and friends to pray in front of the new
Planned Parenthood
facility in El Cajon
8. The Goretti Group is offering a chastity prayer gathering
and a speaker training
monthly
9. In view of a newly established Planned Parenthood in El
Cajon, you'll want to
attend an informational session tomorrow evening, Wednesday
evening, March 7,
from 7:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. at St. Kieran's Parish. Learn
about Planned
Parenthood's tactics, its finances, and its major role in
the abortion industry
Article/Statement for March 6, 2007
- Essay by Wesley J. Smith, The Right-to-die Movement Abandons
Pretense,
reprinted with permission from the Weekly Standard
Remarks from Kent Peters
AB 374 - Intentional Taking of Human Life
Masquerading as Health Care
It all sounds so reasonable and easy. Imagine... You have become
dependent on others for basic care like, nutrition, hygiene, and
movement; you have been diagnosed with a disease that will cause
death within a few weeks or months; you are experiencing reduced
consciousness due to pain medication... Just ingest 60 or so
doctor-subscribed sleeping pills and away you'll go. It sounds easy
and reasonable, and the media will likely trumpet suicide's benefits
as such, but it's anything but!
Let's get serious. Family members who facilitate these suicides
will be required to say, "I did not care for my mother or my
grandmother; I killed her." Yes, "I killed her" is the only
accurate way to describe the act. We are going from care-giving to
killing our family members.
If this law passes and is signed by the Governor, we will have
hopped over a very defined line and landed in what will become a
living hell. We will have chosen, as a society, to utilize
the intentional taking of human life to solve life's difficulties.
One need only to consider the 45+ million unborn children who have
been killed simply because they presented difficulties. Will it be
any different when those born are made fair game?
And why do the proponents of physician assisted suicide maintain the
temporary pretense that these killings will be only for those who
have been diagnosed with a terminal illness? To give us the
impression that we are not really killing anyone, because they are
already dying. Under which of the three cups do you think the
suicide proponents are hiding the ball for now?
However, once the precedence has been established, i.e., killing
those already born to alleviate human suffering, a teen somewhere in
California will file a lawsuit to not be stopped from killing
himself, and the courts, because California has established and
accepted this new principle, will be duty bound to protect that
teen's right to end his suffering in the manner he finds
acceptable. Remember, it will be presented as his sacred "choice."
Sound familiar?
At the end of our lives, as it was in the beginning, it is natural
that we experience dependency. It is in those troubling
circumstances, especially when pain management is required, that
families demonstrate how profound their love really is. To provide
care, at whatever level is possible, for elderly parents, is the
ultimate pay-back for the care we received as little children. God
shines through as we care for our loved ones in need.
Let's not cross that line and be further entrenched in a culture of
death. Reasonable people should be able to predict what be coming
our way if killing is held out as a viable "health-care" option to
age, disability, pain, or dependency.
Please join us in the fight to eliminate AB 374. Check out the Life
Advocacy Request section below and join the OSM for Catholic Lobby
Day in Sacramento on Tuesday, April 24, as we make the case for
life.
For an excellent and comprehensive article on what the suicide
movement really has in mind for society, you'll definitely want to
read the commentary by Welsey Smith in the Article/Statement section
at the end of this issue.
Thank you and God bless! |
Key
Upcoming Culture-of-Life
Gatherings/Projects
Number 1:
Stem Cells and
Cloning: Understanding the Scientific Issues and the Moral Objections
and End-of-Life Issues, with Fr. Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.,
Director of Education, the National Catholic Bioethics
Center - March 22, 2007, 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Diocese of San Diego, Pastoral Center, 3888 Paducah Drive, San Diego
Fr. Pacholczyk will explain the Catholic position that views human
embryonic life as worthy of absolute
 respect.
He will discuss the travesty of funding endeavors to destroy human
embryos in hopes of creating unrealistic medical breakthroughs.
In addition Fr. Pacholczyk will also discuss the important issue of end
of life care. Join us for this informative meeting.
$10 Registration Fee
Seating is limited. Register by March 19, 2007
Follow this link to download a registration flyer for the event:
http://www.osmelink.org/messages2005/FrTadStemCellCloningWorkshop3.22.07.pdf
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.
Director of Education, The National Catholic Bioethics Center
March 22, 2007
6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Diocese of San Diego Pastoral Center
3888 Paducah Drive
San Diego, CA
Number 2:
Catholic Lobby Day in Sacramento
- Join OSM staff members, Linda, Joseph and Kent, and many
parishioners at the 9th annual Catholic Lobby Day at the Capitol in
Sacramento on Tuesday, April 24, 2007
- Inspirational Speakers
- Key Issues & Public Policy Overview
- Chance to collaborate with Diocesan
Directors
- Lunch and fellowship with other Catholics
- Opportunity to call on and Lobby
Legislators
Special Notice: Roundtrip from San Diego to Sacramento is now only
$118.
We will join with more than 1,000 Catholics from across the
State in Sacramento to pray, sing, march, have lunch, and then visit our
State Assembly Members and Senators.
It's a long day but a very rewarding one. Please check out the schedule
below.
Schedule for Catholic Lobby Day
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
6:30 a.m. Depart from the San
Diego Airport - SW #2300
8:05 a.m. Arrive at the Sacramento Airport
8:15 a.m. Bus from Airport Leaves for the Capitol
8:40 a.m. Arrive at the Capitol and Register
9:30 a.m. Welcome and Program
10:30 a.m. Eucharistic Liturgy
11:30 a.m. March to the Capitol
11:15 a.m. Rally at the Capitol
11:45 a.m. Lunch on the Capitol Lawn
1:00 p.m. Lobby Visits to Assembly and Senate Offices (small groups
by districts)
3:45 p.m. Bus to the Airport, Dinner at the Airport with Debriefing
6:30 p.m. Depart from Sacramento Airport - SW #1975
7:55 p.m. Arrive back in San Diego
How do those from the Diocese of San Diego register for Catholic Lobby
day?
There are four simple steps:
1.
Go to the Southwest Airlines web site below and reserve your flight.
The cost at this time is $118 dollars for the round trip air fare. The
ride to and from the airport and lunch will be provided free of charge
by the OSM.
We will be departing Tuesday, April 24th on Southwest Flight #2300 at
6:30 a.m. and returning on Southwest Flight #1975 at 6:30 p.m., arriving
back in San Diego at 7:55 p.m. the same day.
http://www.southwest.com/cgi-bin/buildItinerary2?hps=nb
2.
Call the Office for Social Ministry at 858-490-8323 or email us at
reportback@diocese-sdiego.org to let us
know that you have made your reservation and provide us with your
address and e-mail address.
3.
Attend one planning meeting at the Pastoral Center where we will make a
final decision as to the issues to be taken to Sacramento and learn more
about individual legislators and legislative visits. The planning
meetings will be scheduled for mid-April. You will be able to
choose between a 1:00 p.m. and a 7:00 p.m. meeting.
4. Meet at the San Diego Airport about 5:30 a.m.
on April 24, 2007 at the Southwest gate area for flight SW 2300.
That's it!
 Catholic
Lobby Day will be a gathering of people of faith raising their voices in
“sincere dialogue…and with anxious interest…seeking the common good.”1
For the ninth consecutive year, the California Catholic Conference (CCC)
is hosting Catholics from all over California who are interested in
exercising their “faithful citizenship” in their state’s Capital. The
CCC welcomes all who are interested in meeting with elected officials to
speak on behalf of those who are poor, vulnerable or voiceless.
A
CCC-facilitated committee of representatives from the various diocesan
ministries, lay organizations and the two seminaries plan the agenda for
the one-day event which will include
 information
sessions, a rally at the Capitol, visits with legislators, and a Mass
celebrated at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.
Please register promptly and begin to pray for all who will join
together that day – raising our voices as faithful citizens who are
working for justice and searching for the common good.
1 Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, 7 December, 1965, 43.
Ninth Annual Catholic
Lobby Day
Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 6:30 a.m. to 7:55 p.m.
San Diego to Sacramento and back (SW #2300 and SW #1975)
Depart from the San Diego Airport
For information or questions about Catholic Lobby Day, contact Kent
Peters at 858-490-8323 or Linda Arreola at 858-490-8327.
Number 3:
Be it Depression, ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Eating Disorders,
Schizophrenia, or one of a host of other serious disorders, nearly every
Catholic family has been touched by mental illness. Join Parish
Disability Facilitators on Saturday, April 21, 2007 at Balboa Park to
"Walk for the Mind of America" with NAMI, the National Alliance on
Mental Illness
Get ready to join San Diego County's NAMI Walk for the Mind of
America! The journey
 your
footsteps will make at Balboa Park will join those across the nation to
fight for the cause of mental illness.
NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) is the nation’s largest
grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives
of persons living with serious mental illness and their families.
Founded in 1979, NAMI has become the nation’s voice on mental illness, a
national organization including NAMI organizations in every state and in
over 1100 local communities across the country who join together to meet
the NAMI mission through advocacy, research, support, and education.
NAMI is dedicated to the eradication of mental illnesses and to the
improvement of the quality of life of all whose lives are affected by
these diseases.
• Form a walk team
• Join an existing team
• Walk as an individual
• Sponsor a walker
• Be an event sponsor
For more information, contact Shannon Jaccard,
Disability Facilitator at Our Mother of Confidence Parish:
shannonjaccard@namisd.org
or call 619-584-5564
To Register for the walk:
www.nami.org/namiwalks/CA/sandiego
Walk for the Mind of America with NAMI (Distance:
2 or 5 K)
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Balboa Park, at 6th and Quince
Check-in time: 7:00 a.m.
Walk/Run Start Time: 8:00 a.m.
Number 4:
(Second Notice) The
Children Left Behind - a Multimedia Exhibit on AIDS Orphans from Around
the World - at the University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park San Diego,
92110 - from March 26 to April 13
Please share this infomation with any public or private school teacher
you may know.
The exhibit will be housed at the Hahn University Center on the USD
Campus
Teachers with student groups are welcome
Experience this compelling multimedia exhibit featuring the creative
works and stories that capture life through the eyes of AIDS orphans and
other children left vulnerable by HIV/AIDS from Uganda, South Africa,
India, Cambodia and Guatemala.
For information:
www.thechildrenleftbehind.org or call: 619-260-4206
Exhibit created by Catholic Relief Services and
brought to you in partnership with:
-The San Diego Unified School District
-Catholic Diocese of San Diego - OSM, Youth Ministry, and Office of the
Chancellor
-The University of San Diego
-UCSD and SDSU Newman Centers
Number 5:
Sixteenth Annual Walk with the Suffering Good
Friday Stations of the Cross - Friday, April 6, 2007, 8:30 a.m.-11:30
a.m. Beginning at the San Diego Rescue Mission, 120 Elm St., corner of
Second and Elm, downtown San Diego (please note new starting, ending
location)
A three-hour walk in downtown San Diego commemorating Jesus’ journey
to Calvary and His solidarity with the suffering. Free Parking is
 available
in the Rescue Mission parking structure on Second Ave., between Elm and
Fir.
Sponsored by the Ecumenical Council of San Diego County
For information, contact the Ecumenical Council at 619-238-0649 or
www.ecsd.org
Approximate length of walk is 2 1/2 miles
Invited participants include: Center for Urban Ministry, San Diego
Organizing Project, Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Center
for Justice and Reconciliation, Interdenominational Ministerial
Alliance, Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, St.
 Augustine
High School, Academy of Our Lady of Peace, and others.
Sixteenth Annual Walk with the Suffering
Good Friday Stations of the Cross
Friday, April 6, 2007
8:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m.
Starting and Ending at San Diego Rescue Mission
120 Elm Street, San Diego
Information: 619-238-0649
Short
Reports on OSM Related Issues/Events
Number 1:
SD Life Perspectives secures
billboard in El Cajon with message, "Abortion Changes You"
BILLBOARD ENCOURAGES WOMEN TO CONSIDER EFFECTS OF ABORTION
New Billboard Next to Abortion Provider Looks at the Personal Impact of
Choice
San Diego, CA March 1, 2007 - "Abortion Changes You." This recently
installed message is strategically located near an abortion provider on
a busy street in El Cajon. A donor who contacted Life Perspectives,
the organization behind the "Abortion Changes You" campaign, rented the
billboard space.
 The
billboard features the image of a young woman next to the words "I
thought life would be the way it was before," followed by "Abortion
Changes You." A Web site is available for women to consider their
options and seek resources. The billboard will remain for one year at
the location on Main Street in El Cajon, near a Planned Parenthood
clinic.
"Many women have expressed to us that they thought abortion would erase
the pregnancy; they thought life would be the way it was before. Many
women, men, parents, and siblings struggle with the impact abortion has
had on their lives. People have varying degrees of difficulty with the
decision, but everyone can agree, abortion changes you," says Michaelene
Fredenburg, president of Life Perspectives.
Life Perspectives is an educational organization that provides practical
resources and information about healthy relationships, social
responsibility, and other issues that affirm the value of human life.
Life Perspectives recently partnered with FOX6 to create the Life
Lessons documentary, "Teen Pregnancy: Real Lives, Real Choices." The
short film follows the stories of five women who became pregnant while
in high school and chose different pregnancy options.
The "Abortion Changes You" messages are part of Life Perspectives'
desire to create a safe environment for the community to consider the
ramifications of abortion and explore healthier solutions that will
elevate women, protect life, and encourage healing for those having
difficulty after an abortion experience.
"We want to offer women the chance to hear this important message from
those who have been there – abortion changes you – so they can make a
truly informed choice that is not based on fear or desperation," says
Fredenburg, "Optionline.org is one of the many resources available for
someone facing an unexpected pregnancy or is having difficulty after an
abortion."
If you would like more information about the Abortion Changes You
campaign or Life Perspectives, please call Suzanna Kennedy,
Communications Director, at 619/516-1236 or email Suzanna at
suzanna@lifeperspectives.net
Number 2:
Men's Leadership Forum 2007 draws more
than 320, sharing a message for men on the eradication of relationship
violence
'Men's Leadership Forum' Helps Men Challenge
Domestic Violence
By Denis Grasska
SAN DIEGO -- During a recent forum, more than 320 men were encouraged to
become leaders in the fight against gender- based violence in their own
communities.
The seventh annual "Men's Leadership Forum: Solutions to Gender-Based
Violence" was held Feb. 16 at the Paradise Point Resort in San Diego.
(Photo: Steve Allen, Director of Legal Services at the Center for
Community Solutions, Keynote Speaker, addresses the group)
According to Kent Peters, co-chair of the Men's Leadership Forum and
director of the diocesan Office for Social Ministry, the event was
especially designed for "men with little knowledge or understanding of
domestic violence," and its goal was to relate a "sense of the
seriousness of the problem" and "ways to be part of the solution."
Attendance at the annual event has grown each year since the first forum
drew about 100 people. But this was the first year, Peters said, that
the numbers exceeded 250. Among this year's attendees was a group of
students from St. Augustine High School.
One of the highlights of the forum was a panel presentation featuring
Auxiliary Bishop Salvatore Cordileone; Rear Admiral Len Hering,
commander of the Navy Region Southwest; and Carl Cohn, superintendent of
San Diego schools.
The schedule also included breakout sessions and "Voices of Men," an
educational comedy presentation by Ben Atherton-Zeman, who used his
impersonation skills to portray Rocky Balboa, James Bond and Austin
Powers coming to terms with their misguided views of women.
During the forum, two community leaders in the effort to eliminate
domestic violence in San Diego were singled out for special attention.
Deacon Glenn Vecchitto of St. Pius X Parish in Chula Vista received the
 Spirit
Award, while the Hometown Hero Award was given to Lt. James Barker,
retired, of the San Diego Police Department.
(Photo: Deacon Glenn addressed the group after being introduced and
honored by Kent Peters, OSM director)
Thanks to the generosity of Verizon Wireless and the Blue Shield of
California Foundation, participants were able to attend the forum at no
cost.
Forum attendees are invited to attend a follow-up meeting, which will be
held from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., March 20, at the diocesan Pastoral Center.
Lunch will be provided.
For more information, call the Office for Social Ministry at
858-490-8323.
The Southern Cross
e-link Advocacy REQUEST
Life Request:
The struggle to protect the elderly, the ill, those
with severe disabilities, and even those nearing death is reaching a
critical juncture. AB 374, the bill to legalize physician assisted
suicide, has a better chance
 of
passing in this legislative session than it has had in any past
session. The number of co-authors has grown, and this time, proponents
have recruited the Speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Nuñez as a co-author.
At their press conference, the authors and the Speaker excitedly
declared that “this time it would pass” and insisted that what they
wanted to legalize wasn’t “suicide” but “aid in dying” and
“compassionate choice.”
An eclectic coalition that includes physicians, nurses, hospice workers,
advocates for low-income workers, a Latino civil rights organization,
disability rights groups, as well as Catholic institutions (including
the California Catholic Conference) and pro-life advocates, is committed
to stopping the passage of AB 374.
As Catholics we oppose euthanasia or assisted suicide because we believe
that human life is a gift from God, that we are stewards—not owners—of
that life, that we are made in God’s image and that human life is sacred
from conception to natural death. This, of course, informs and underlies
our policy perspectives.
The Office for Social Ministry is asking
every Catholic in the Diocese of San Diego to become a member of
Californians Against Assisted Suicide (CAAS). The culture of death is
gaining ground. We need to push back now. Join CAAS!
http://www.ca-aas.com/joinourcoalition.asp
Thank You!
Dignity Request:
The current immigration system is broken and must be fixed this year.
Immigrants today have few safe, orderly or legal options to migrate to
the U.S., resulting in increased abuses and exploitation of migrants,
and thousands of deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border. Families
continue to be separated for years by extensive backlogs in the
immigration system.
There is an excellent chance that Congress will enact comprehensive
immigration reform this year and that it will likely be signed by
President Bush.
Please visit the Catholic Relief Services web site and send an
urgent message to your members of Congress (U.S. Representative and both
U.S. Senators). It will only take a couple of minutes.
Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Thank you!
e-link Advocacy REPORTBACK
Following is the content of a letter sent by Bishop Salvatore
Cordileone to Senators Feinstien and Boxer in opposition to federal
funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Thank you, Bishop Cordileone, for taking the time to share your thoughts
with our Senators on such an important matter. - The OSM
Dear Senators Feinstein and Boxer
Please oppose H.R. 3/S. 5.
Very many people in this nation oppose the destruction of human embryos
for the purpose of research. Non-embryonic stem cell research is a
morally acceptable alternative that is already producing therapeutic
benefits for human patients -- unlike embryonic stem cells, which so far
have produced NO such benefits.
Moreover, it is further morally objectionable that the U.S. government
would invest funds in this highly speculative research at the expense of
the poor. These funds would be better used providing health care to the
poor who need it now, and funding research that can attain beneficial
AND AFFORDABLE results within our lifetime.
Please respect the higher moral ground. Please do not use my tax
dollars to support research that requires the destruction of human
embryos. Please show yourself to be on the side of life and the side of
the poor. Please vote NO on S.5.
Bishop Salvatore Cordileone
Diocese of San Diego
Web and
e-mail-based Resources
Please visit the Californians Against
Assisted Suicide web site at:
http://www.ca-aas.org
New
Local/Regional Events and
Gatherings
If you are planning an event that falls within the mission of social
ministry, send the particulars four to five weeks in advance to the
Office for Social Ministry via e-mail,
osmelink@diocese-sdiego.org.
The OSM reserves the right to publish or not to publish any proposed
event information. We hope this will assist your local efforts to
re-build a culture of life.
1.
North-County prayer witness at the Carlsbad Planned Parenthood Clinic
North County parishioners meet the third Monday of every month from
10:00 to 10:30 a.m. to peacefully pray the rosary in front of the
Carlsbad Planned Parenthood Clinic. The clinic is located at 1820
Marron Rd. (in the shopping center just west of Plaza Camino Real
Mall). For more information contact Jahna White of St. Margaret Parish
at 760-586-6356.
2. Prayerful witness for life at two locations (Sixth and Palm
in San Diego and Pomerado Road in Poway) in San Diego County
Helpers of God’s Precious Infants weekly rosary prayer vigil from
8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. every Saturday at Family Planning Associates
2850 Sixth Ave, at Palm, across from Balboa Park. Prayer warriors also
needed as early as 7:30 a.m.
Call Sue Lopez 619/990-1341 for more information.
2nd Saturday of the month: 20 decades of the Rosary are prayed in
procession past 4 clinics following the 7:30 a.m. Mass, 15546 Pomerado
Road, Poway. For more information, call 858-748-2109.
3. St. Dismas Guild sponsors two weekly hours of prayer for the
unborn in North County
Join members of St. Dismas Guild for a rosary picket at Womancare,
120 S. Craven Way, San Marcos, (across from Cal State San Marcos),
Tuesdays, 9-10 a.m.
The Guild also sponsors prayer (the rosary) in front of PayLess at
Mission Avenue and Escondido Blvd. 347 W. Mission on Thursdays,
10:30-11:30 a.m. For information on these prayer vigils, call
760-751-8541.
4. St. John the Evangelist Parish in Encinitas Pro-Life Mass and
Rosary held on the first Monday of each month
The first Monday of every month is designated Pro-Life Monday at St.
John the Evangelist Church, 1001 Encinitas Blvd, Encinitas. The 8:00
a.m. Mass will be followed by a Rosary for Life. For more information,
please call Helene McIlhon at 858-756-0622.
5. Most Precious Blood Parish Rosary Prayer Vigils held on
Wednesdays each week
The Pro-Life Prayer Group from Most Precious Blood sponsors a Rosary
Prayer Vigil in front of the Clinica Medica abortion facility at 1550
Broadway, Chula Vista every Wednesday at 8:45 a.m. For more
information, please call Shirley Henry at 619-420-7096 or Luis Mendoza
at 619-300-5563.
6. The ministry associated with the Clinica Medica abortion
facility in Chula Vista is seeking sidewalk counselors for Wednesday
mornings and some Friday mornings - training will be provided
The CLINICA MEDICA abortion facility in Chula Vista is now performing
abortions on Wednesday mornings, some Friday mornings and occasionally
on Saturdays. Please contact Luis Mendoza, a Missionary of The Gospel
of Life Lay Associate, at 619-300-5563, with questions or to share
interest in this ministry.
7. There is a new Planned Parenthood facility located at 1685
East Main, just off the Greenfield Drive exit in El Cajon - join friends
and neighbors in prayer
According to the PP website, chemical (RU-486) abortions only are done
at this location - not surgical abortions. They do refer women for
abortions to their surgical center on First Ave. Join the group each
Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Contact: Debbie 619-933-7776.
8. The Goretti Group is offering a chastity prayer and speaker
training monthly
Every 4th Wednesday of the month: Culture of Life Praise and
Prayer @ Our Lady of the Rosary, Giovanni Room, 7:00 p.m. - Praise the
Lord to live music, join in praying the rosary, and hear a witness on
living the virtue of chastity!
Every 2nd Wednesday of the month: ChasteMasters Meeting @ Our Lady of
the Rosary, Giovanni Room, 7:00 p.m. - Please join us in prayer, a
roundtable discussion, and providing feedback as chastity speakers
refine their talks.
For more info please visit:
www.thegorettigroup.org
9. Attend an
informational session on Planned Parenthood at St. Kieran's Parish in El
Cajon
What can you do to promote the Culture of Life? You can help
stop Planned Parenthood (PP)! PP has opened a new clinic in El Cajon.
Please join other local pro-lifers on Wednesday, March 7, from 7:00
p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at St. Kieran's parish for the second of four
informational meetings to learn about this new clinic, how Planned
Parenthood promotes the culture of death, and peaceful and legal means
we can take to counteract its presence in our community. During this
session, you will learn about: Planned Parenthood's Abortion Business
-- How Planned Parenthood Hijacks Christianity -- Planned Parenthood's
Finances.
St. Kieran is located at 1510 Greenfield Drive, El Cajon. (Look for the
beautiful new Sacred Heart statue at the driveway entrance.) For more
information, please call Debbie Bradel at 619-579-6879 or Allyson Smith
at 619-249-2574.
Watch for OSM e-link bulletin #58
around Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Article/Statement for March 6, 2007
We thank the Weekly Standard for permission to reprint Wesley J. Smith's
article on assisted suicide.
The Right-to-die Movement Abandons Pretense
by Wesley J. Smith
04/27/2006 12:00:00 a.m.
THERE IS A PRETENSE in contemporary assisted suicide advocacy that goes
something like this: "Aid in dying" (as it is euphemistically called) is
merely to be a safety valve, a last resort only available to imminently
dying patients for whom nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the founder of the Swiss suicide
facilitating organization Dignitas is just about done with pretense. The
Sunday Times Magazine (London) reported that Dignitas' founder, Ludwig
Minelli, plans to create sort of a Starbucks for suicide: a chain of
death centers "to end the lives of people with illnesses and mental
conditions such as chronic depression."
Minelli believes that all suicidal people should be given information
about the best way to kill themselves, and, according to the Times
story, "if they choose to die, they should be helped to do it properly."
Dignitas admits to having assisted the suicides of many people who were
not terminally ill. As Minelli succinctly put it, "We never say no."
The story about Minelli illuminates a deep ideological belief within the
euthanasia movement: that we own our bodies, and thus, determining the
time, manner, and method of our own deaths, for whatever reason, is a
basic human right.
That is certainly how one of the other superstars of the international
euthanasia movement, the Australian physician Phillip Nitschke, sees it.
Nitschke travels the world presenting how-to-commit-suicide clinics.
Several years ago he was paid thousands of dollars by the Hemlock
Society (now merged into the assisted suicide advocacy group Compassion
and Choices) to create a suicide concoction made from common household
ingredients (a formula he calls the "Peaceful Pill").
Like Minelli, Nitschke is straightforward about his goals. In a 2001
interview, National Review Online asked him who should qualify for the
Peaceful Pill. He responded:
My personal position is that if we believe that there is a right to
life, then we must accept that people have a right to dispose of that
life whenever they want . . . So all people qualify, not just those with
the training, knowledge, or resources to find out how to "give away"
their life. And someone needs to provide this knowledge, training, or
resource necessary to anyone who wants it, including the depressed, the
elderly bereaved, [and] the troubled teen.
Nitschke and Minelli's position has a large constituency among
euthanasia believers. Indeed, over the years, the movement has left many
telltale signs that assisted suicide is not intended ultimately to be
restricted to the imminently dying.
Take the "Zurich Declaration," issued at the 1998 bi-annual convention
of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies. (The WFRD is an
umbrella group made up of 37 national euthanasia advocacy organizations,
including Compassion and Choices and Hemlock founder Derek Humphry's
Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization, or ERGO.) It states:
We believe that we have a major responsibility for ensuring that it
becomes legally possible for all competent adults, suffering severe and
enduring distress, to receive medical help to die, if this is their
persistent, voluntary and rational request. We note that such medical
assistance is already permitted in The Netherlands, Switzerland and
Oregon, USA.
It should also be noted that one need not be dying or even sick to
experience "severe and enduring distress."
SUPPORT FOR A BROAD AND LIBERAL ACCESS to suicide extends far beyond
activists in the euthanasia movement. It has been embraced by some
people in the mental health professions, where a concept known as
"rational suicide" is being promoted in professional journals, books,
and at symposia.
Typical of this genre is a 1998 article by James W. Werth published in
the journal Crisis, with the ironic title, "Using Rational Suicide as an
Intervention to Prevent Irrational Suicide." Werth urges that mental
health professionals should not always save the lives of suicidal
patients, but instead, should non-judgmentally facilitate the suicidal
person's decision making process. If the professional agrees that the
desire to die is rational, then the suicide should be permitted, or
perhaps even assisted.
To qualify for a rational suicide, the patient would have to demonstrate
to the mental health professional that he has a "hopeless condition,"
which Werth defines as, "terminal illnesses, severe physical and/or
psychological pain, physically or mentally debilitating and/or
deteriorating conditions, or qualify of life no longer acceptable to the
individual." This is circular thinking. By definition, if one is
suicidal, he has a quality of life that he believes is no longer
acceptable.
Not surprisingly, assisted rational suicide is already permitted in the
Netherlands where the Dutch Supreme Court approved a psychiatrist's
facilitating the death of a distraught woman who wanted to die because
her children were dead.
Similar suicide-friendly attitudes are often expressed among mainstream
bioethicists--and not just by Princeton's Peter Singer. For example, the
University of Utah's Margaret Pabst Battin suggests that "suicide can be
rationally chosen," to "avoid pain and suffering in terminal illnesses,"
as a "self-sacrifice for altruistic reasons," or in cases of "suicides
of honor and principle." Along these same lines, Julian Savulescu, an
up-and-comer in the international bioethics community, argues that
respect for human freedom demands that society permit the suicides of
competent persons--even when they are expressing an "unjustified desire
to die."
"Some freedoms are worth the cost of innocent life," Savulescu wrote in
a chapter for the book Assisted Suicide. "The freedom to finish one's
life when and how one chooses is, it seems to me, about as important as
any freedom."
The right to receive assisted suicide for virtually any reason is
especially popular among self-declared "free thinkers" and humanists.
Thus, Tom Flynn, the editor of Free Inquiry, the house organ for the
Council for Secular Humanism, wrote in the Spring 2003 issue, that the
belief in human liberty must include an unfettered right to die. "While
suicide has never been exactly popular, a new assault on our right to
suicide is brewing. It's something secular humanists ought to resist."
Why? Because Flynn (and other humanists) believe fervently that a right
to suicide is a crucial element of human liberty:
What's really in play here is the old dogma that individuals don't own
their own lives. Physician-assisted suicide is but part of the issue. If
we trust our fellow humans to choose their occupations, their
significant others, their political persuasions, and their stances on
religion, we should also defend their right to dispose of their most
valuable possessions--their lives--even if disposing of life is
precisely the choice they make.
There are even ongoing discussions in bioethics suggesting that some
people might have an ethical obligation to commit suicide. Thus, a 1997
cover story in the prestigious bioethics journal the Hastings Center
Report, philosopher John Hardwig argued that there is not only a right,
but also a "duty to die":
A duty to die is more likely when continuing to live will impose
significant burdens--emotional burdens, extensive caregiving,
destruction of life plans, and yes, financial hardship--on your family
and loved ones. This is the fundamental insight underlying a duty to
die.
A duty to die becomes greater as you grow older. As we age, we will be
giving up less by giving up our lives . . . To have reached the age of
say, seventy-five or eighty years without being ready to die is itself a
moral failing, the sign of a life out of touch with life's basic
realities.
Bioethicist Battin has also supported the concept of an eventual duty to
die for those living in rich countries, not just to spare burdening our
loved ones but to promote world egalitarianism. Thus, she wrote in a
book chapter called "Global Life Expectancies and the Duty to Die" that
the time may come when we will have the moral obligation to "conserve
health care resources by forgoing treatment or directly ending [our]
life" toward promoting "health prospects and life expectancies" that are
more equal around the globe.
DESPITE THIS THICKENING ATMOSPHERE of suicide permissiveness, most
assisted suicide advocates in this country continue to insist that "all"
they want is for the terminally ill to have access to hastened death.
For some, clearly, this is a mere political tactic. The ultimate goal is
a much broader death license. Others may actually mean for the initial
terminal illness limitation to be permanent, believing that "restricted"
assisted suicide, once accepted widely, would not spread to ever
widening swaths of acceptable killing (as it has in the Netherlands).
Which camp one decides best represents the overall euthanasia movement
doesn't really matter. Once assisted suicide is accepted in law and
culture, the premises of radical autonomy and allowing killing to
alleviate human suffering would conjoin, unleashing the irresistible
power of logic that would push us inexorably toward the humanist nirvana
of death on demand.
Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, an
attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted
Suicide, and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and
Culture. His website is wesleyjsmith.com.
Correction appended, 4/27/06: The article originally stated that the Tom
Flynn Free Inquiry piece appeared in the April 19, 2006 issue. Instead,
the Flynn article appeared in the Spring 2003 issue.
© Copyright 2006, News Corporation, Weekly Standard, All Rights
Reserved.
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