Key Upcoming Culture-of-Life Gatherings/Projects

 therapy@kathryndebruin.com or 619-298-8722 x124

 

e-link Advocacy REPORTBACK

This note came in from Mary Curtius, Culture of Life Coordinator at St. Patrick Parish in Carlsbad. 

Thanks, Mary, for your efforts!

Dear OSM Staff,

I know in the past the diocese has asked to hear of legislator's responses to letters we send as constituents.  I received an encouraging letter from Assemblyman Martin Garrick, 74th District, after contacting him to oppose AB 374, the assisted suicide bill.  He states as part of a much longer letter:

"Not only does this bill create an ethical conflict for doctors, who are supposed to protect life and heal it rather than take it away, but I believe that human life should be honored and dignified.  For this reason, I do not support this bill and I will keep your thoughts and concerns in mind if this legislation comes before me in the Assembly."

Praise God for a pro-life response!  Thanks for all you.

Sincerely,

Mary Curtius
St. Patrick Parish, Carlsbad, CA

Web and e-mail-based Resources

Calling All Parents... of Girls

Who has passed through a checkout line recently without being barraged by images and headlines from women's magazines like Cosmo, Vogue, or Shape, where an obsession with materialism and unbridled sex is touted as central to all human experience? 

The problem is, right next to these magazines, you'll find Mini-me knock offs, what we call "training-ground" versions of these magazines, designed for girls ages 11 to 17.  They go by "nick names" like CosmoGirl, TeenVogue - you get the picture.  The idea is, get them young and you'll have them forever.  Didn't the Jesuits used to say that?

You might think it a bit strange that a diocesan social ministry office would concern itself with such nonsense.  Not so.  Combating materialism, the sort that leads to lack of concern for those who are poor, and sex outside of marriage, which we know leads to unplanned pregnancies, STDs, broken hearts, and, all too often, abortion, is very close to the heart of social ministry.

And so, when we at the OSM come across a resource that just might help concerned parents raise Christ-centered daughters - girls open to serving those in need and protecting their own holiness and future parenting - we feel obliged to share that good news.  





The resource is called True Girl Magazine.  Recent issues sported the following articles: Post-prom - a True Girl's Guide to Wholesome Fun, Saint Hildegard, Rosary Reflection, Unchanging in Steubenville, Anorexia - Inside the Struggle, and T-shirts for a Cause.

To learn more about True Girl Magazine and to order a subscription, visit their web site: http://truegirlonline.net

Why not cut-and-paste this section of e-link into an e-mail that you send to all friends and relatives with pre-teen and teen daughters?

A Blessing on all parents!  May your children grow in holiness.

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. Special Mother's Day Helpers of God's Precious Infants Event tomorrow, Saturday, May 12, 2007, starting at the 7:30 a.m. Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in San Diego

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

Watch for OSM e-link bulletin #60 around Thursday, June 7, 2007   
 

Article/Statement for May 12, 2007

In preparing for this Mass, I had first thought of doing a Votive Mass for the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We have the Collection of Masses in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her various titles are divided into liturgical seasons, so, this being Saturday, I thought I would pick one of the Masses for the Easter Season, such as “Mary, Fountain of Life and Light.”  Then I looked at the readings for the day: we could not have custom-ordered a more appropriate set of readings for what we are about today, for they speak of healing, saving life and restoring life.

In our first reading, we see how the ministry of Peter clearly parallels that of our Lord: Peter does the things that the Lord did, he continues his mission, there is continuity between Master and the disciple.  We see this in Peter’s healings, such as the healing of Aeneas described in the reading, and we especially see it portrayed in his bringing Tabitha from death back to life.  This is clearly a parallel of the story of Jesus bringing the little girl back to life found in St. Mark’s gospel.  The gestures are the same: she is dead on her bed, he takes her by the hand, and gives her the command to “rise up.”

This is easily understandable, for Jesus left his apostles in charge: they were to be the foundation stones and pillars of the Church, they were to carry on his work, and he appointed Peter to be the head of the College of the Apostles.  It is Peter who makes his confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, speaking on behalf of the other apostles.  Our gospel reading for today is St. John’s version of this confession of Peter, another perspective from the account in the Synoptic gospels where the scene takes place in Caeserea Philippi.  Note the context of this in John’s gospel: it is at the end of the “Bread of Life Discourse”; many disciples “no longer walked with him”, but instead “returned to their former way of life.”  This is not just because Jesus spoke of eating his Body and drinking his Blood; he also speaks here of himself as the one who gives life.

Healing, saving life, restoring life: is that not what Culture of Life Family Services is all about?  That is, it is not only about saving the lives of babies of women in crisis pregnancies, but also healing the women themselves, who feel abandoned and without hope.  In this sense, these women, who had been in the grip of the culture of death, are restored to life.  I would say, then, that Culture of Life Family Services is like Peter in today’s gospel.  This, for me, is one of most profound and moving scenes in all of the Bible: all the others had walked away from the Lord, but the apostles stayed with him because, as Peter says, he has the words of eternal life.

Those of us been a part of the struggle on behalf of human life for a long time, even before the infamous Roe decision, certainly feel encouraged by the recent victory of the Supreme Court decision; after so many years, decades, we finally have a victory!  Yet, this is just one battle; much is still left to be done.  Indeed, at the same time that we feel encouraged, we also feel grave concern about what is happening to our neighbors to the south.  Could it be that the forces on the other side of this struggle sense a shift taking place in own country, and so seek to export their destructive ideology beyond our own borders?  One can only speculate.  Yet, there is a shift taking place, like the shifting plates in the earth.  So far, they are just tremors, not a 6.0 on the Richter scale, even though the recent Supreme Court decision was a pretty good jolt!

Yes, there is still much left to be done, and there always will be, for the fight for human dignity will always be a part of the Christian enterprise in this world.  We are now into the full swing of the Confirmation season.  In my homilies to the young candidates, I refer to the movie released earlier this year, “Amazing Grace.”  It is the story of William Wilberforce, a Member of Parliament in 18th century England, who dedicated his entire life to abolishing that horrendous violation of human dignity that was the slave trade.  He had the whole world against him, and it took his whole life, but he did not give up, for this conviction came from his faith in God.  I hold him up to the young people as an example, explaining to them that, while the issues are different, the pattern is always same: having the strength of conviction and integrity to stand for the truth, no matter the opposition.  Indeed, even though the issues are different, they always, in some way or another, come down to the question of human dignity.

Let us now return to the gospel: Peter and the apostles stayed with Jesus, while the others walked away and “returned to their former way of life.”  Recall, though, the gospel for last Sunday’s Mass: the third appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his Resurrection, as recounted in St. John’s gospel.  They were fishing, that is, they, too, had returned to their “former way of life”.  And remember who the fishermen were: the brothers Peter and Andrew, and the brothers James and John: even St. John, who was the one that stayed with Jesus till the bitter end and was at the foot of the cross when he died, returned to his former way of life.  They had come that close to losing it all.  In the end, though, they did walk with the one who has the words of eternal life, because the never really left him spiritually.  And Peter, again, mirrors his Master all the way to his death, even dying the same, agonizing crucifixion that Jesus did.

Culture of Life Family Services is the witness of those who stay with Jesus, no matter how hard the struggle.  Thank you for that!  You have persevered with great sacrifice, you never gave up, even when it seemed like all could have been lost.  I thank you for that.  And I thank you even more because your ministry is not confined to this world.  Life is sacred because it comes from God; this life is a reflection of life of heaven, and for the believer it is a participation in it.  We heard that expressed in the opening prayer for our Mass today: “God our Father, by the waters of baptism You give new life to the faithful.  May we not succumb to the influence of evil but remain true to Your gift of life.”  Even the collect for the day is perfectly suited to what we are about today.

This means that our life here is, as St. Paul would tell us, a matter of working out our salvation, participating more fully in the life of God, and making this world a more perfect image of the life of heaven.  The Church’s ministry here in this world is all in reference to eternal life: healing, saving and restoring life.  Indeed, the commandment of our Lord and of Peter in the parallel stories, “rise up”, is clearly a reference to the Resurrection, the true healing, the ultimate restoring of life on last day.

This, then, is the true meaning of Culture of Life Family Services.  Culture of Life Family Services is nothing less than an instrument of salvation in God’s hands, helping these women and their babies work out their salvation, that the divine life within them may be activated, may become a source of healing and strength; that their babies may be saved from death; that they may all be brought back from death to life, and given the light of hope.  Let us therefore not walk away; let us walk with Jesus, let us mirror his goodness in our lives; let us cling to him even in the midst of adversity, no matter what the cost, for, truly, he is the Messiah; truly, to whom else shall we go?, for he has the words of eternal life.