1: LifeSiteNews.com - Tuesday June 2, 2009

LifeSiteNews.com - Tuesday June 2, 2009

* A Portrait of an Alleged Murderer: The Life of Suspected Tiller Killer Scott Roeder
* President Obama Declares June 2009 'LGBT Pride Month'
* Foul-Mouthed Homosexual Activist and Anti-Christian Bigot Appointed to Obama Administration
* Experts at International Euthanasia Symposium Stress Unity, Strategy, and the Triumph of Love over Suffering
* Catholic Prof and Evangelical Leader Blame Catholic Church, Republicans, "Religious Leaders" for Tiller's Murder
* Pro-Life Champion, U.S. Cardinal James Francis Stafford Retires from Vatican Post
* New Poll Shows Majority of Spaniards Opposed to Proposed Abortion Law
* Poland: Through the Pouring Rain, Thousands March for Life and Family
* Canadian Governor General Accepts Resignations from Order of Canada over Morgentaler Fiasco
* Swedish Legislators Propose Forcing Students into Sex Ed Classes against Parents Will
* Ontario Anglican Diocese Celebrates Homosexual Lifestyle with Special Liturgy
* National Post Columnist Blames Pro-Life Movement for Tiller Murder

A Portrait of an Alleged Murderer: The Life of Suspected Tiller Killer Scott Roeder

By Peter J. Smith

WICHITA, Kansas, June 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A clearer portrait has now emerged of the man who allegedly took it into his hands to play judge, jury, and executioner of George Tiller, the foremost provider of late-term abortions in the United States. The portrait reveals a mentally disturbed, long-time anarchist and convicted felon, who appears to have succumbed to the influence of an anti-abortion domestic terrorist group and believed that he had to commit murder in order to stave off the wrath of God.

Just three hours after Tiller was gunned down in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church, where he had been ushering, law enforcement apprehended Scott P. Roeder, 51, of Merriam, Kansas, traveling the speed limit on the I-35 back to his home. He was officially charged with the murder today.

Tiller's murderer had shot the abortionist once and threatened two other men in the church, before departing the scene of the crime in a powder-blue 1993 Ford Taurus, which deputies checked out as belonging to Roeder. After Sherriff's deputies intercepted Roeder, he surrendered to them without incident and was taken back to Wichita for questioning.

However in the aftermath of the murder and subsequent arrest, information has surfaced that shows Roeder to be a mentally unstable individual, who as early as the 1990s adopted quasi-biblical beliefs to compensate for his moral failings, and fell under the influence of two violent radical organizations, especially a fringe anti-abortion group far outside the sphere of the pro-life community. This group is the so-called Army of God, a group that advocates domestic terror, violence, and murder against abortion facilities and those who work there.

The Anarchist Origins of Scott P. Roeder

Roeder's first links with violence and terrorism began with his association with the anti-government "Freemen" movement. The Freemen claim that the individual has sovereignty above the government, making them largely exempt from laws, regulations and taxes. Among other things, they began operating their own legal system, and printing their own paper currency independent of state and federal governments.

Roeder's ex-wife, Lindsay, told the Kansas City Star that Roeder began to break down in the early 90s, when he began having trouble paying bills and acting normal in daily life.

"One day someone told him that paying income taxes isn't constitutional," Lindsey Roeder told the Star. "And he realized if he stopped paying his taxes he could pay all of his bills. From there things just started like a snowball. He became very obsessive."

In April 1996, while the Freemen were engaged in the first month of an armed 81-day stand-off with the FBI at their Jordan, Montana compound, Roeder was pulled over and arrested by Shawnee county deputies for driving without a valid license plate. Instead Roeder had a tag reading, "Sovereign private property. Immunity declared by law. Non-commercial American.''

Roeder had been on an FBI list of Freemen, and when a deputy searched the trunk of his car, he found weapons, ammunition, a gas mask , and bomb-making materials: a fuse cord, a pound of black powder, two nine-volt batteries, and a switch for a bomb-trigger.

Roeder was then charged and subsequently convicted of felonious possession and use of explosives, driving with a suspended license, and having neither vehicle registration nor car insurance.

Following his conviction, Roeder was released on probation with intensive monitoring, and he was required to have no more contact with anarchist anti-government groups that advocated violence. Yet, Roeder soon violated parole in 1997 by refusing to pay his taxes and give his employer a social security number, which earned him a 16 month sentence in state prison.

However, in December of that year, the Kansas Court of Appeals, threw out his conviction on the technical grounds that the officer arresting Roeder had improperly searched his car.

Schizophrenia, Moral Confusion, and an Obsession with Abortion

Throughout this time, Roeder had been suffering with a schizophrenic mental disorder, and his obsession with abortion had brought him into contact with extreme anti-abortion activists, who adopt an "ends justify the means" ethic toward abortion, rejecting the moral values of the pro-life community.

Roeder had fallen in step with the ideology of the Army of God movement, which claims the murder of abortion providers constitutes "justifiable homicide" and praises the murderers of abortionists as "American heroes" on its website.

"I know that he believed in justifiable homicide," Regina Dinwiddie, an acquaintance of Roeder's, told the Kansas City Star. Dinwiddie herself had signed the first and second "defensive action statements" advocating the murder of abortionists as "justifiable homicide," and her home was featured in an HBO documentary on the AOG called "Soldiers in the Army of God." Dinwiddie told the Star that in 1996, Roeder walked into the Kansas City Planned Parenthood abortion facility, demanded to see abortionist Dr. Robert Crist, stared at him for 45 seconds, then said, "I've seen you now" before turning to walk away.

Roeder also enmeshed himself with the AOG affiliated Prayer and Action News, a newsletter edited by David Leach, which also advocated the murder of abortionists as "justifiable homicide." Leach had reprinted the 3rd edition of the Army of God manual in 1996, which included bomb-making instructions, and advocated acid attacks and murder among its "99 Covert Ways to Stop Abortion," a direct violation of a ban by the Justice Department, which was confiscating all copies of the book.

Roeder met with Leach in Topeka. Leach had been visiting Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon, who attempted to assassinate Tiller at his abortion facility in 1993.

"I met him once, and he wrote to me a few times," Leach told the Kansas City Star. "I remember that he was sympathetic to our cause, but I don't remember any details."

However, among the details that the Star reported Leach did remember, was Roeder's obsession with government conspiracies. He said that Roeder would demonstrate how to remove the magnetic strip from a five dollar bill. "He said it was to keep the government from tracking your money," Leach added.

Over the years, Roeder's mental instability and obsession with anarchist groups and abortion ground down those people closest to him. Roeder's first marriage of ten years ended in divorce after his 1996 arrest and conviction, leading him to estrangement from his now 22-year old son, Nick. Roeder's ex-wife Lindsay told ABC News that Roeder had little contact with her son, seeing him once every six weeks, and that her son had no interest in seeing him.

In later years, Roeder fathered a child by another woman, who fought to retain sole custody of her child with her current husband. The woman expressed grave concern for the safety and welfare of her daughter to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, citing both Roeder's "past conduct and association with anti-government organizations [which] is ongoing" and "chronic mental disability of schizophrenia for which he takes no medication."

The court denied her request despite the plea that her little girl was living in an intact household with the only father and mother she ever knew.

The Lead-Up and Aftermath of the Murder

Preliminary reports from law enforcement indicate that Tiller's murderer acted alone. The investigation, however, continues to examine Roeder's background and activities. In the last several years leading up to Tiller's assassination, the mentally disturbed Roeder expressed more violent agitation and a belief that divine wrath would befall the United States unless Tiller were stopped.

"Bleass [sic] everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp," says a May 19 post attributed to him on Operation Rescue's website. "Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the Pastor, Deacons, Elders and members while there? Doesn't seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller."

Elsewhere, on a separate website, Roeder had posted in September 2007, "It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the 'lawlessness' which is spoken of in the Bible. Tiller is the concentration camp 'Mengele' of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgement [sic] upon our nation."

Operation Rescue, the Wichita-based leader of prayerful protests outside Tiller's facility, has been quick to point out that Roeder is "not affiliated with this organization" and that thousands of persons, including Roeder and pro-abortion activists, have posted on its open website.

"Scott Roeder has never been a member, contributor, or volunteer with Operation Rescue," OR president Troy Newman said in a statement.

"We deplore the criminal actions with which Mr. Roeder is accused," said Newman. "The pro-life ethic is to value all human life from the moment of conception until natural death."

Operation Rescue had expelled Rev. Donald Spitz, the founder of the AOG website, in 1993, after Spitz had praised the murderer of Pensacola, Florida abortionist Dr. David Gunn.

In a days leading up to his alleged murder of Tiller, Roeder made one last visit on Friday to his estranged son. His ex-wife told the Kansas City Star that the event was unusual since Roeder had embraced an Old Testament Sabbath observance from Friday to Saturday.

Tiller was killed just over two months after a Kansas jury had voted to acquit the abortionist of 19 misdemeanor charges relating to violations of Kansas's ban on late-term abortions. The jury had acquitted Tiller largely on the technicality that Ann Kristin Neuhaus, the abortionist signing off on his late-term abortions, was not a full-time employee of his, despite their close financial affiliation.

The political consequences of George Tiller's murder are only now beginning to unfold. However, if past is prologue, this latest Army of God murder, the first murder of an abortionist in eleven years, will be seized upon by abortion advocates to hamper the momentum of the pro-life movement. Immediately after the murder, abortion supporters began to pain the whole pro-life movement with the brush of "terrorist" and "extremist."

President Obama Declares June 2009 'LGBT Pride Month'
"The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done," he says.

By Patrick Craine

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Barack Obama issued a proclamation on Monday declaring June 2009 to be 'Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.'

"Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement," he says in the proclamation, "more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before."

The president goes on, however, to say that he believes that American society still has far to go in opening itself up to the agenda of the homosexualist movement. "The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress," he says, "but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect."

The President has chosen June 2009 because, he says, this month marks the fortieth anniversary of the homosexual rights movement. The movement traces its roots to June 1969 at Stonewall Inn in New York City, where a group of homosexuals rioted in protest against police raids on homosexual bars. This riot is often cited as the first time in America that a group of homosexuals fought against the government. "Out of this resistance," President Obama says, "the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans."

President Obama has committed his Administration to support for the homosexualist agenda, as he outlines in his proclamation. He says, "I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans," including "enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security." This latter policy disallows openly homosexual men and women from entering the military.

President Obama upset pro-family advocates when in January, on the White House website, he expressed his plan to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act implemented by President Clinton in 1996. This act states that the Federal Government may not treat a same-sex relationship as a marriage, even if recognized as such by one of the states. The mention of Obama's plans in regard to DOMA has, however, since been removed from the White House website.

The President is calling upon all Americans to work towards "equal rights" for homosexuals and says that he hopes that LGBT Pride Month will advance this cause. "During LGBT Pride Month," he says, "I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."

(See President Obama's Proclamation)

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

White House Drops Obama Opposition to Defense of Marriage Act from Website
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09051505.html

Obama Administration Announces Radical Homosexualist Agenda on White House Website
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012109.html

Foul-Mouthed Homosexual Activist and Anti-Christian Bigot Appointed to Obama Administration

By Peter J. Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although President Barack Obama has advocated speaking "fair minded words" in debating differences on major ethical issues, his recent nominee to the Department of Education's Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools is a homosexual activist with a history of using foul and abusive language against those who have opposed his homosexualist agenda.

Kevin Jennings, the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), was recently appointed to the Obama Administration as Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools, which is under the Department of Education led by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

During Jennings's tenure as the Executive director of GLSEN, the organization sponsored a Tufts University conference called "TeachOut" in March 2000. The conference was co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Education; but the event has been described by pro-family organizations familiar with the conference as "fistgate" for its extremely graphic and detailed workshops to teenagers about the mechanics and variations of homosexual intercourse.

The Massachusetts watchdog group, MassResistance, includes on its website a number of graphic quotations from homosexual presenters, who instigated equally graphic conversations on homosexual sex with youth there. MassResistance says they will be releasing a tape of the event to the public later this week. (WARNING: extremely graphic content discussed here)

Around the same time, Jennings was quoted in Marble Collegiate Church as saying members of the "religious right" were "hard core bigots" who comprised about 20 percent of the electorate.

"We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit - I'm trying to find a way to say this. I'm trying not to say, 'F**k 'em!' which is what I want to say, because I don't care what they think!" Jennings told his audience, which pealed with laughter. "Drop dead!"

According to Americans for Truth, Jennings and GLSEN never repudiated the actions of homosexual activists at the "Teach Out" conference, but instead attacked Scott Whiteman, the Massachusetts parent who video-recorded the proceedings, for violating students' privacy.

"Anti-religious bigots should not be setting policy for schools - and promoting dangerous sex and gender identities to youth is the antithesis of 'safety,'" stated Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth.

"Jennings should have been drummed out of public policy years ago for GLSEN's role in the awful Fistgate scandal that corrupted Boston youth," LaBarbera stated. "But instead the GLSEN founder is now being elevated to one of the most important roles in U.S. education policy."

LaBarbera continued, "Americans For Truth will educate Americans on Jennings' and GLSEN's dangerous agenda, and we will work with other pro-family and parental rights groups across the country - and Obama voters who oppose pro-homosexual indoctrination in schools - to urge that the Jennings appointment be withdrawn."

Experts at International Euthanasia Symposium Stress Unity, Strategy, and the Triumph of Love over Suffering

By Kathleen Gilbert

LANSDOWNE, Virginia, June 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Anti-euthanasia advocates from around the globe gathered last weekend at the Second International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide to join in a rigorous discussion sketching the past and laying the groundwork for a broad-based coalition against euthanasia across the world.

The symposium took place May 29-30 at the National Conference Center in Lansdowne, Virginia. An audience of 120 listened to information-packed sessions describing the history of the euthanasia movement, analyses of recent success and failure and current dangers, as well as countless personal stories from around the world.

Rita Marker, the executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, opened the Friday sessions with a penetrating look at the history of the euthanasia movement and its roots in the Hemlock Society of a quarter century ago. Noting the overall trend of success in defeating assisted suicide laws in America, Marker criticized the notion that the euthanasia legislation passed in Oregon and Washington were "inevitable," and urged activists not to be fooled into complacency after individual bills are defeated.

"Not many - some, but not many - people on our side work until they're so dog tired they can hardly move, but they keep working more," said Marker. "But on the other side, they do, because they're truly dedicated to what they're doing. We need people who are dedicated."

Attorney Margaret Dore, who analyzed the strategy on either side of Washington State's assisted suicide initiative, pointed out that the words of the initiative include no safeguards against involuntary euthanasia - contrary to the claims of its proponents. "It's not about choice. 'Choice' is a lie," said Dore.

Renowned bioethicist Wesley Smith offered his thoughts on what he calls the "coup d'culture" that has turned society towards "an obsessive fear and ... avoidance of not only suffering, but difficulty."

"It is distorting our culture, and it is changing it, and it is mutating it, into something that is not as compassionate as we should be, that is not as caring as we should be," said Smith. "If the point of society is to make sure you don't suffer, that will often be making sure there aren't any sufferers. Which isn't only about making sure the sufferer doesn't suffer, but putting the sufferer out of our misery."

Randy Richardson, father of Laura Richardson, and Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo and founder of the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, told of the fight to resist pressures to withdraw food and hydration from loved ones incorrectly diagnosed as in a "persistent vegetative state." Lionel Roosemont of Belgium also shared the story of his struggle to raise a child with severe disabilities amid the entrenched euthanasia culture in his country.

Diane Coleman and Stephen Drake of Not Dead Yet, as well as the U.K.'s Alison Davis of No Less Human Human, represented the concerns of an international disabled community aware of a growing assumption that individuals with disabilities are, in their words, "better off dead."

Davis, who suffers from spina bifida, hydrocephalus, and multiple other disabilities, says she is in constant need of morphine to lessen the crippling pain that in the past drove her to attempt suicide several times. However, she says, had she succeeded, she would have missed the best years of her life. Recently she has been engaging in charity work for disabled children in third-world countries.

"In my experience, when the pain is bad, what I need is not to be told I'm burdensome and it's my choice whether I want to live or die, and that perhaps I would be better off dead," said Davis. "What I need is to be surrounded by people who tell me, yes, my life does have value, and I'm not burdensome ... they can't take the pain away, but sometimes it's not the pain that hurts the most, it's the fear of being abandoned."

Davis' full-time assistant and director of the anti-euthanasia group ALERT, Colin Harte, criticized the euthanasia movement for being rooted in a deep fear of both experiencing and witnessing suffering, and said the "secret of love" is often revealed by suffering. "By walking with those of suffering, the effect on us can be profound," said Harte. "It's wrong to see suffering ... as the complete absence of joy or meaning."

Other speakers included: palliative care physician Dr. Margaret Cottle; pro-life leader and president of the Life Issues Institute Dr. Jack Willke; Dr. Mark Mostert, director of the Institute for the Study of Disability & Bioethics; Patricia O'Halloran of Washington's Coalition Against Assisted Suicide; Care NOT Killing Alliance director Dr. Peter Saunders; and Dr. William Toeffler, director of Oregon's Pysicians for Compassionate Care.

Alex Schadenburg, the executive director of Canada's Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the host of the symposium, was upbeat about its outcome.

"[The symposium] certainly inspired people to recognize the importance of getting directly involved in the issue and how to make a difference with the issue," said Schadenburg. "The idea was to mobilize, to energize, but also to unify and create a distinct direction to what we need to do, and I definitely believe we accomplished that."

Several leaders praised the vital collaboration and networking opportunities the weekend provided.

"I think part of it is just to meet people who are involved in exactly the same debates, particularly in the U.S. and Canada, and to hear about what's worked and what hasn't worked," Dr. Peter Saunders commented to LifeSiteNews.com (LSN). "None of us are wanting to reinvent the wheel, but rather to share what we have and different lessons to be learned. ... We're all fighting the same lot of battles."

Jakki Jeffs, the president of Alliance for Life Ontario, said: "It's very important that we're all here ... I think it's important to get the message out that the threat is really real in Canada, it's a living reality now with the Lalonde bill, and some of the establishments that we've been able to trust before are falling to the other side."

Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of the symposium was the diversity of its audience: individuals from all sides of the abortion issue, and from varying faith or non-faith backgrounds, found themselves united against euthanasia.

Concerning the need to overcome differences in forming a broad-based coalition against euthanasia, Stephen Drake said he was "cautiously optimistic."

"We all have widely divergent points of view ... and if we can all discipline ourselves to focus on the task at hand, we can make it work," Drake told LSN. "If we bring too much of our other baggage in, we will fail. And if we don't tear ourselves apart like a pack of wolves, other people will do it for us."

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

"The Weekend Cleanup": The Gruesome Aftermath of Legalized Euthanasia in Belgium
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09060109.html

Catholic Prof and Evangelical Leader Blame Catholic Church, Republicans, "Religious Leaders" for Tiller's Murder

By Kathleen Gilbert

WICHITA, Kansas, June 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two American religious leaders have accused U.S. Catholic bishops of sharing the blame for the murder of Kansas late-term abortionist George Tiller because of their advocacy for legal protection for the unborn.

Tiller was shot and killed Sunday morning at a Wichita Lutheran Church where he was serving as an usher. The suspected murderer, Scott Roeder, was apprehended shortly following the incident. Reports have surfaced that Roeder suffers from mental instability linked to a schizophrenia diagnosis, and is believed to have acted alone in the murder.

In a Huffington Post column yesterday titled "How I (and Other 'Pro-Life' Leaders) Contributed to Dr. Tiller's Murder," Evangelical leader Frank Schaeffer apologized for his involvement with the "hate-filled rhetoric" he associated with the "religious right." Schaeffer is the son of the late, prominent evangelist Francis Schaeffer.

Earlier this year Frank Schaeffer, who has joined the Greek Orthodox church but is still considered a leader of the Evangelical movement, abandoned the strong pro-life position of his father and told an interviewer that he believes abortion should remain legal. Schaeffer said that thirty years of attempts to overturn the US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade have failed and that the "black and white" pro-life position is counterproductive.

"The same hate machine I was part of is still attacking all abortionists as 'murderers,'" wrote Schaeffer this week. "And today once again the 'pro-life' leaders are busy ducking their personal responsibility for people acting on their words.

"The people who stir up the fringe never take responsibility," he continued. "But I'd like to say on this day after a man was murdered in cold blood for performing abortions that I -- and the people I worked with in the religious right, the Republican Party, the pro-life movement and the Roman Catholic Church, all contributed to this killing by our foolish and incendiary words."

Marquette University theology professor and former Jesuit priest Daniel Maguire published a statement on The Religious Consultation website lamenting the fact that Tiller was murdered "for honoring the law of the land."

"He is not the first doctor to so die and unless we get serious about this form of terrorism, he will not be the last," wrote Maguire. "Religious and political leaders who fan the flames of anti-choice, anti-woman fanaticism are not without guilt."

As soon as news of Tiller's murder broke, pro-life and religious leaders across North America and in the U.K. issued statements unequivocally condemning the murder of the abortionist. (See all the statements here.)

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, like countless pro-life groups across the United States, issued a statement, saying:

"Our bishops' conference and all its members have repeatedly and publicly denounced all forms of violence in our society, including abortion as well as the misguided resort to violence by anyone opposed to abortion," said Cardinal Rigali, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

"Such killing is the opposite of everything we stand for, and everything we want our culture to stand for: respect for the life of each and every human being from its beginning to its natural end. We pray for Dr. Tiller and his family."

To contact Marquette University:
Rev. Robert Wild, S.J.,
President
Marquette University
O'Hara Hall, 101/102
P.O. Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53233
414-288-7223
414-288-3161 (FAX)
robert.wild@marquette.edu

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

A Portrait of an Alleged Murderer: The Life of Suspected Tiller Killer Scott Roeder
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09060203.html

Abortion Proponents "Exploit" Tiller Killing, Label Pro-Life Advocates "Domestic Terrorists
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09060110.html

U.S. Bishops Express 'Profound Regret' about Shooting Death of Abortion Doctor
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09060106.html

Pro-Life Champion, U.S. Cardinal James Francis Stafford Retires from Vatican Post

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

VATICAN, June 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of US Cardinal J. Francis Stafford as head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the tribunal of the Roman Curia that deals with the forgiveness of sins that are reserved to the Holy See, the absolution of excommunications, the dispensation of sacramental impediments, and governance of indulgences.

The 77 year old Cardinal was appointed Major Penitentiary in 2003 and is one of the highest ranking Americans in the Vatican.

Cardinal Stafford has been a champion of life and family issues, and has been candid and direct in his defense of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae, warning the Church that clerical dissent from this reiteration of the Church's stand against contraception has been "the deadliest thing to hit the Catholic Church in the last 40 years."

On the 40th anniversary of the signing of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Cardinal Stafford wrote a deeply personal retrospective on the world-shaking events which took place in the wake of the document's publication.

"The summer of 1968 is a record of God's hottest hour," the Cardinal recounted. "The memories are not forgotten; they are painful ... They inhabit the whirlwind where God's wrath dwells. In 1968 something terrible happened in the Church. Within the ministerial priesthood ruptures developed everywhere among friends which never healed. And the wounds continue to affect the whole Church. The dissent, together with the leaders' manipulation of the anger they fomented, became a supreme test. It changed fundamental relationships within the Church."

Cardinal Stafford has also been outspoken about his view of the election of President Barack Obama. At a lecture at the Catholic University of America (CUA) late last year, Cardinal Stafford labeled president-elect Barack Obama's anti-life policies as "aggressive, disruptive, and apocalyptic."

The Cardinal's CUA lecture dealt largely with the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, but in expressing his opinion of the president's policies regarding life and family issues the Cardinal said, "On November 4, 2008 America suffered a cultural earthquake."

"If 1968 was the year of America's 'suicide attempt,'" he said, "2008 is the year of America's exhaustion … In the intervening 40 years since Humanae Vitae, the United States has been thrown upon ruins."

"For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal," he continued, comparing the plight of the US Church under Obama to Christ's agony in the garden. "We will know that garden."

Cardinal Stafford spoke of the large-scale diminishment of respect for human life in the US, saying that Catholics must remember their core values regarding marriage and human dignity. He blamed this diminishment largely on Roe v. Wade and other anti-life decisions of the Supreme Court.

Roe v. Wade's "scrupulous meanness has had catastrophic effects upon the unity and integrity of the American republic," said Cardinal Stafford. He added that marital love is representative of the love between God and man, and that the use of contraceptives cannot be part of that relationship.

Jim Hughes, President of Canada's Campaign Life Coalition and Vice-President of International Right to Life, commented to LifeSiteNews.com on Cardinal Stafford's immense contribution to the Catholic Church and the pro-life cause.

"He was an outstanding leader and one of the few who had a good grasp of what is going on in North America on life and family issues," Hughes said.

"We are going to miss him and his crucial input in the Vatican, and we thank him for his great service to the Church."

Judie Brown, the head of American Life League and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, also offered words of admiration for the Cardinal. "We grew to respect and duly love the cardinal," she said. "We are sorry to see him retire, but we understand that that's the way things work with cardinals. We will miss him."

Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, the current Apostolic Nuncio to France, will replace Cardinal Stafford as Penitentiary Major.

New Poll Shows Majority of Spaniards Opposed to Proposed Abortion Law

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

MADRID, June 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new poll is showing a majority of Spaniards opposed to a proposed law that would allow abortion on demand for the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy, and would allow girls as young as 16 to obtain abortions without their parents' consent.

It is the lowering of the age of consent that has generated the opposition indicated in the poll. Sixty-seven percent of female respondents said that they were against lowering the age to 16, and 64 percent of all respondents held the same position. The poll was conducted by Metroscopia for the ultraliberal newspaper El Pais.

The Metroscopia poll follows another survey, announced in mid-May, that shows that a plurality of women oppose the new legislation generally, with 43% against and only 34% in favor.

The shift in public opinion follows a sustained campaign by Spain's Right to Life and other national pro-life organizations against the proposed legislation, including massive public demonstrations, petitions signed by scientists and academics, a letter-writing campaign, and other forms of protest.

The more conservative People's Party, which often ignores the abortion issue for political reasons, has made the new proposed law a major issue in the current campaign for representatives to the European Parliament.

Despite the growing public outrage against the law, representatives from Spain's ruling coalition of socialist parties say they are unwilling to compromise on permitting minors to have abortions without their parents' consent, although they may allow language that would require parents to be informed.

Current Spanish law does not criminally penalize abortions under certain conditions, including when there is a threat to the "health" of the mother. Using claims of danger to "psychological health," the abortion industry in Spain now performs well over 100,000 abortions annually.

Recent investigative reports by major media spurred by pro-life activists resulted in the arrest of Spain's "abortion mogul" Carlos Morin in late 2007, along with other abortion providers, for performing numerous late-term abortions using phony diagnoses under the "psychological health" rubric.

Spain's socialist parties, led by the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party, have responded by proposing the elimination of special conditions during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, essentially depenalizing abortion-on-demand during the first and early second trimesters. The opposition Popular Party has proposed that the existing law simply be enforced, which would eliminate the vast majority of abortions performed under the current regime.

Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

One Thousand Scientists, Physicians, and Intellectuals Sign Manifesto against the Further Legalization of Abortion in Spain
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09031907.html

Hundreds of Thousands March For Life In Spain
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09033105.html

Spanish Socialists Seek to Further Loosen already Liberal Abortion Law
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08090410.html

Full Abortions Shown On Spanish Television - First In History
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121401.html

Seven More Doctors Arrested by Spanish Police for Illegal Abortions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121801.html

Late Term Abortionist Arrested by Spain's Police
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/nov/07112913.html

Poland: Through the Pouring Rain, Thousands March for Life and Family

By Alex Bush

WARSAW, Poland, June 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ignoring, and even enjoying, a torrential downpour, approximately 2,000 Poles marched for life and family in Warsaw, Poland this past Sunday. Some participants marched carrying pro-life signage over their heads to protect themselves from the rain, while others simply allowed themselves to get completely soaked during the march. (Click here to see a photo essay of the event)

Slawomir Olejniczak organized the march this year, choosing a route through Warsaw that took two hours to complete. The march culminated with a family picnic, during which time a concert was originally scheduled, but then cancelled due to the inclement weather.

The recent Canadian March for Life saw 12,000 people march through the rain, but it appears that the weather was even worse for the Poles, with water accumulating enough in some places to cover marchers up to their shins.

"It was absolutely amazing," one participant in the march told LifeSiteNews. "People were staring at us from the windows; they couldn't believe we were actually marching in this weather."

In recent years the UN and EU have been increasingly pressuring the strongly Catholic Poland to loosen its restrictions on abortion and homosexual "marriage," despite the fact that the majority of Poles favor the true definition of marriage and are against legalizing abortion. Organizers hope that the march for life will embolden Poland to stand up to the pressure from international abortion promoting organizations.

Related LifeSiteNews.com Coverage:

Poland Embraces Successful March for Life and Family in Face of 'Human Rights' Movement - link

Polish People Support Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment - link

Poland in an Uproar after Coercive Abortion Pressure Put on 14-Year-Old by Planned Parenthood - link

Poland Pressured on Abortion and Sexual Orientation by UN Human Rights Committee - link

Canadian Governor General Accepts Resignations from Order of Canada over Morgentaler Fiasco

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

OTTAWA, May 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Michaëlle Jean officially accepted the resignations from the Order of Canada of Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, astronomer René Racine and pianist Jacqueline Richard, the Governor-General's office announced Monday.

The three were among nine Canadians who returned their medals in protest over the appointment of abortionist Henry Morgentaler to the Order in the summer of 2008 for "his commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organizations."

Archbishop of Montreal, Cardinal Turcotte, returned his award last September, adding his voice to the outrage expressed by many thousands of Canadians that Canada's highest civilian honor was being awarded to the man who was not only personally responsible for the elimination of Canada's abortion law, but also for the death of over 100,000 unborn Canadians.

"I'm worried about how we treat life, from conception to death," Cardinal Turcotte said. "I decided to take a stance that clearly reflects my convictions."

"As a result, I wish to declare that I am renouncing the title of Officer of the Order of Canada, bestowed upon me in 1996, and that I am returning the insignia that was given to me."

Pianist and conductor Jacqueline Richard, who received the award in 2004, referred to Morgentaler's appointment in her letter of resignation, and cited Blessed Mother Teresa's strong condemnation of abortion, when she announced her intention to return her award last year.

Mother Teresa said, "What is taking place in America is a war against the child. And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

"The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts - a child - as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters."

The six other recipients of the Order of Canada who returned their awards in protest are Alphonse Gerwing, Former Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick Gilbert Finn, Monsignor A.J. Goski, Madonna House foundress Catherine Doherty, Father Lucien Larre and Frank Chauvin.

See LifeSiteNews.com coverage of the Morgentaler Order of Canada Controversy:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008_docs/Morgentalerorder.html

Swedish Legislators Propose Forcing Students into Sex Ed Classes against Parents Will

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

SWEDEN, June 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two members of Sweden's Liberal Party are proposing to force students to take the country's sexual education courses in public schools, even against the will of their parents, according to the English language Swedish news service, The Local.

In an opinion article written in the Swedish publication Dagens Nyheter, Liberal Party ministers Jan Björklund and Nyamko Sabuni argue that "All pupils, including immigrant girls, have the right to swimming lessons and to take part in physical and sexual education classes ... regardless of whether the parents like it or not."

In a thinly-veiled reference to Sweden's growing Muslim population, which often rejects the loose sexual morality of European society, the two ministers argue that "The will of the girls is often subordinated to what is considered to be the best interests of the family; the men's, or the group's, 'honor' based on the girl's sexual behaviour."

However, such a measure would also affect the nation's Christians. According to The Local, the existing right to exempt one's children from such classes was established in the 1950s to protect the religious rights of Catholic and Jewish Swedes who wished to exempt themselves from Protestant classes The right to an exemption was reaffirmed in the 1960s and 1980s.

The ministers wrote their article in response to a Stockholm University study that revealed that 10% of students refuse to participate in sexual education classes, and other activities offensive to their religious beliefs.

"Taken to its extreme the oppression is a direct threat to the child's life, but even if it does not go to such drastic lengths it almost always violates the child's fundamental rights," they write.

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วันอังคารที่ 2 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2552

LifeSiteNews.com - Tuesday June 2, 2009

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