Pray for Pope Benedict

The pope fell and broke his wrist. Say a prayer for him today.

Brave New World Here We Come!

President Obama better start reading Dignitas Personae that Pope Benedict gave him before his Science Czar starts to promote his agenda. Did anyone in the mainstream press bother to report about this?

Whisper

Pray for Christians in Iraq

There is continued persecution against Christians of all stripes in Iraq. Let's lift them up before the Lord, and be thankful for the tremendous religious freedom we are enjoying here.

Lord , send your angels to protect your children and give them the grace to withstand this tribulation. Help us to be thankful for the freedom you have given us here to worship you. We confess that we take it for granted so often. St Michael the Archangel defend them in battle.
In Jesus name, Amen

Dr. Beckwith Comments on The Pope's Encyclical

Dr. Beckwith, former president of the Evangelical Theological Society and recent convert to the Catholic faith was asked by Christianity Today to comment on Charity in Truth, the latest encyclical. Of note, this encyclical is addressed to all people of good will and not just Catholics.
Check it out here

Catholic Radio in the Lehigh Valley

Hey, this is awesome news! There is an effort to bring Catholic Radio to the Lehigh Valley.
I have hoped for this for a few years now! Check out this link, send up some prayers, and send a couple of those green pieces of paper with dead presidents pictures on them if you can afford to.

Quotes From The Pope's Encyclical That Won't Be Published in the Media

"Nature expresses a design of love and truth. It is prior to us, and it has been given to us by God as the setting for our life. Nature speaks to us of the Creator (cf. Rom 1:20) and his love for humanity. It is destined to be recapitulated in Christ at the end of time (cf. Eph 1:9-10; Col 1:19-20). Thus it too is a vocation .115 Nature is at our disposal not as a heap of scattered refuse ,116 but as a gift of the Creator who has given it an inbuilt order, enabling man to draw from it the principles needed in order to till it and keep it (Gen 2:15). But it should also be stressed that it is contrary to authentic development to view nature as something more important than the human person. This position leads to attitudes of neo-paganism or a new pantheism human salvation cannot come from nature alone, understood in a purely naturalistic sense. This having been said, it is also necessary to reject the opposite position, which aims at total technical dominion over nature, because the natural environment is more than raw material to be manipulated at our pleasure; it is a wondrous work of the Creator containing a grammar which sets forth ends and criteria for its wise use, not its reckless exploitation."

The Audacity of Pope!

Pope Benedict met with President Obama today. He didn't waste time and began discussing the Catholic teachings that President Obama openly opposes. For one of his parting gifts, the Pope Benedict gave him a copy of the Church teaching on medical bioethics(Dignitas Personae), which includes embryonic stem cell and cloning issues. Oh, the audacity of the Pope! The president said he would read it on his very next airplane flight. Lets hope his flight to Ghana gets delayed on the tarmac so he has time to really read the whole thing! The contents of Dignitas Personae could persuade one to become Catholic if their heart is open to its beautiful truth.

BTW: It should be noted that this time, President Obama's advance team did not insist on the covering up of religious icons in the room that they met in as he did at Georgetown. Wonder why?

"No Kill" Nursing Homes

I just discovered that the senator for our region of Pennsylvania, Lisa Boscola, co-sponsored a senate bill 404 that will legalize physician assisted suicide if it is eventually passed. What this will mean is that if grandma is diagnosed with "terminal cancer" and wishes to end her life, she can ask the kind family doctor for a prescription cocktail that will end her life.

The Hippocratic Oath which I took in 1985 makes me promise to not give anyone something that would end their life, nor counsel them on how to do it. Most western cultures have prohibited suicide and have laws against it. Both Christian and Jewish theologians have understood suicide to be a grave moral evil. Now in our enlightened age, we are going to change the rules and say it's ok to kill grandma or grandpa. Giving a patient a prescription to end their life is no different than me (a physician) going to K Mart and buying a shotgun and shells, sawing off the barrel for convenience and leaving it at the doorstep of my suffering patient so they can end their life.
Does anybody have a problem with this?

I am the medical director of two nursing homes and oversee the care of over 200 frail elderly patients. I spend my day attempting to alleviate the pain and suffering that is often experienced in the end stages of life. It is not usually easy, but often labor intensive and emotionally draining at times. However, I view it as my privilege to be entrusted to care for the most vulnerable of our society and would want no other job. But is if this bill becomes law, some will view it as cheaper and more convenient to encourage patients to end their life. The value of a older suffering person's life will drop faster than the stock market as it has in the European countries that have embraced PAS and Euthanasia

I am thinking of asking the administrators of my nursing homes to designate them as "No Kill Nursing Homes" just as they do with dog shelters, so the patients can be assured that they will be cared for and not put out of their misery. How can the hand that heals also be the hand that kills? How will patients trust me?

The fact that most people I have spoken to in the medical profession have no idea that this bill was proposed back in March is frightening. This is not unintentional. Will we be the next Oregon or Washington state?
In the next several months I am hoping to organize some effort to educate those around us to Physician Assisted Suicide and hopefully, by the time the bill is put up for a vote, or a public referendum, the public should be well-informed of this evil. The trick is to get to the public before the well-oiled and funded euthanasia lobbying machine gets to our legislators. Let your senators and representatives know how you feel about this.

If you wish to let SenatorLisa Boscola (Lehigh Valley Region) know about your feelings towards this bill and her co-sponsorship of it, email her at:

boscola@pasenate.com