LifeNet

Commentaries on the concluded Family Synod

Excerpts below the links, but well worth reading in full both commentaries.

George Weigel, writing in First Things

The Relatio Finalis [final report] of Synod-2015, adopted this evening by the Synod Fathers, is a massive and encouraging improvement over the Instrumentum Laboris [working document] that was the baseline for the Synod’s work. The tremendous difference between the two documents illustrates just how fruitful a path the Synod walked over three sometimes-challenging weeks.

The working document was virtually silent on the gift of children. The final report describes children as one of the greatest of blessings, praises large families, is careful to honor special-needs kids, and lifts up the witness of happily and fruitfully married couples and their children as agents of evangelization.

The working document made something of a hash out of conscience and its role in the moral life. The final report does a much better job of explaining the Church’s understanding of conscience and its relationship to truth, rejecting the idea that conscience is a kind of free-floating faculty of the will that can function as the equivalent of a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.

The working document was full of ambiguities about pastoral practice and its relationship to doctrine. The final report, while not without some ambiguities, makes clear that pastoral care must begin from a bottom-line of commitment to the settled teaching of the Church, and that there really is no such thing as “local-option Catholicism,” either in terms of regional/national solutions to challenges or patish-by-parish solutions. The Church remains one Church.

The working document was also ambiguous in its description of “family.” The final report underscores that there can be no proper analogy drawn between the Catholic understanding of “marriage” and “family” and other social arrangements, no matter what their legal status.

Mercy and truth sometimes seemed in tension in the working document. The final report is far more theologically developed in relating mercy and truth in God, and thus inseparable in the doctrine and practice of the Church.

From Crisis magazine -

Synod Ends Without Disaster . . . Mostly

The day before the synod ended Pope Francis announced that he was dissolving both the Pontifical Council for Family and the Pontifical Academy for Life. The Pontifical Council for the Laity will absorb them as subordinate departments in a structural demotion within the Roman Curia of the status of the Church’s pro-family and pro-life ministry. Maintaining the Council for the Family and the Academy for Life, both created by Saint John Paul II, were clearly lower papal priorities than the drive to downsize the Roman Curia.

******

the final report of the synod made vast improvements over the relatio synodi, the working document, from last year. Abortion went from zero mentions to five. Condemnations of the “contraceptive mentality” and the fear of overpopulation were included in the final report. The synod fathers insisted on a firm statement of indignation at the financial blackmail used by international organizations to pressure countries into legalizing “homosexual marriage.” There was also a very strong denunciation of the gender ideology that denies the fundamental differences between men and women and their essential complementarity. The final report laments a “sharp drop in the birthrate” and calls for “unconditional openness to life” among married couples before citing Humanae Vitae and Evangelium Vitae.

Some participants from the former-communist nations found it unfortunate that terrible problems, such as alcoholism, received only passing mention in a document that went to 95 paragraphs. At the same time, so many themes were broached, from grandparents to the family in Sacred Scriptures, that no one topic could expect more than cursory treatment. The document writers definitely tried to cover a great deal of ground while proclaiming the needs of couples and children and the challenge to evangelize through the family.

 

Cardinal Pell on the Synod and Communion

The Cardinal from Australia and an excellent churchman.

 

Feast of St. John Paul II & conscience formation

Here's the article on forming conscience - interesting about Saint John Paul

How Wojtyla Might Have Answered Cupich on Conscience

Years ago Frontline on PBS had a great series on him.

John Paul II: The Millenial Pope. An exploration into his character and beliefs, and his fierce challenge to the modern world

Reminder - local euthanasia "Forum" Wednesday

As NY politicians get into the act to promote assisted suicide/euthanasia - in this case it's pro-abortion Sandy Galef, longtime member of the NYS Assembly.

It's certainly important to get the MAXIMUM prolife presence possible. 7PM, Cortlandt Town Hall, 1Heady St., Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567.

Galef propaganda below - "Death with Dignity" indeed. Better title "When the doctor kills his patient."

Dear Constituent,

I would like to invite you to attend a forum about the pros and cons of physician assisted suicide. The panel is titled Choosing your Last Day: Death with Dignity Forum. Panelists will be discussing the decisions that patients and physicians face when being treated or treating terminal illnesses and how those would be effected if physician assisted suicide were legal in New York State.

Feel free to share any of the below information with your friends and family.  I have attached a flyer for you to distribute to anyone who you think would be interested in this discussion.

The forum will take place Wednesday, October 14th, 2015 at the Cortlandt Town Hall, 1 Heady Street, Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567 from 7:00-9:00 pm.

Many of my constituents have voiced their opinions on this controversial issue, spurring the need for my public forum. By hosting a pro and con discussion on this topic, I hope that we are able to dig deep into the issue and come away enriched and more knowledgeable.

The panelists will represent both sides of the issue, evenly distributed between pro, con, and neutral speakers. The presentation will include a wide variety of perspectives from the ethics professionals and representative advocacy organizations. The Speakers include:

Dr. Ira Bedzow, Director, Biomedical Ethics & Humanities New York Medical College

Corinne Carey, New York Campaign Director, Compassion & Choices

Bruce Darling, CEO, Disability Rights, Not Dead Yet and,

Dr. Mildred Solomon, President & CEO, The Hastings Center.

I hope you will agree that the panel discussion I have organized to which you are invited to participate should be a very engaging evening. Please join me as we attempt to dive into this very important and sensitive issue.

The following are co-sponsors of the event: Bethel Homes and Services, Buchanan Seniors, Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber, and Westchester Independent Living Center.

For more information and/or directions please contact my office by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 914-941-1111

Planned Parenthood bully doesn't faze pro-lifers

UPDATE: After this Rally ended at noon, an Hispanic women's group arrived with banners and said the rosary. By then the two proaborts had left. 

At Saturday's Yonkers demonstration, with about ten pro-life people; two pro-aborts were there - see there sign below. 

The woman was your standard, well-dressed - white - lives in tony part of Westchester - from California - mis-informed, deluded young lady (30 or so?). But not nasty. But the guy was a vile piece of work who might have created an issue with his glowering presence if we didn't have a camera. Was quite proud of the women he said he'd helped get abortions. Also said he worked for Amnesty International...

The many people coming by were very supportive of us! Partly because while the pro-abort guy was chanting the usual inane lines, Floyd for half an hour loudly pointed out that PP was out to eliminate blacks, hispanics, Mexicans, and that not coincidentally most of their abortion mills are in minority areas.

See the short video at the end. Always important to have a camera at these Rallies.

Of course they didn't like the picture of the decapitated baby. We pointed out that if they didn't like the picture, maybe they should object what goes on eight floors above in PP?

Good job here!

Great job Floyd.

The video is unedited. The clueless pro-abort woman claimed the recent expose videos of PP were edited; that the audio was put in by the editors.

 

California: Assisted suicide/euthanasia now the law

Bill is signed by the Catholic in-name-only Gov. Jerry Brown. More pressure on other states - like NY - to keep up with trendsetting California.

This is inevitable -as the Nazis said "useless eaters". from the last paragraph excerpted - This will help "stabilize the General Fund’s costs for Medi-Cal".

Ironically, the bill was passed during a special session of the California State Legislature, which was originally called to address cost savings for the state’s MediCal program. Indeed, there are many who would see doctor-prescribed suicide as a “cost-savings” measure.

Excerpts below - hit the link for the full tragedy.

In his signing message, Brown said he signed the bill because he wouldn’t want to be in pain in his final days — regardless of the fact that pain relief is readily available without killing patients.

The so-called ‘right-to-die’ movement promotes these laws as simply ‘another medical option’ at the end of life, but their real goal is euthanasia on demand for any reason.”

“There are no real safeguards. It is a well-established fact that nearly every terminally ill patient who desires death is suffering from treatable depression. In Oregon, fewer than 6% of patients have been referred for psychiatric evaluation before obtaining life-ending drugs. Rather than treat clinically depressed patients, the Oregon system, and the system that would be established by the California bill, indicates that you instead help the patients kill themselves,” Tobias noted.

Tim Rosales of Californians Against Assisted Suicide  also responded to the bill signing. He told LifeNews:

This is a dark day for California and for the Brown legacy. Governor Brown was clear in his statement that this was based on his personal background. As someone of wealth and access to the world’s best medical care and doctors the Governor’s background is very different than that of millions of Californians living in healthcare poverty without that same access – these are the people and families potentially hurt by giving doctors the power to prescribe lethal overdoses to patients. At this time the coalition of organizations opposing assisted suicide is reviewing at all of its options moving forward.

Ironically, the bill was passed during a special session of the California State Legislature, which was originally called to address cost savings for the state’s MediCal program. Indeed, there are many who would see doctor-prescribed suicide as a “cost-savings” measure. Writing about the bill’s passage in The New York Times, Ian Lovett included an observation by Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, director of the medical ethics program at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine:

…[Kheriaty] said that low-income and underinsured patients would inevitably feel pressure to end their own lives in some cases, when the cost of continued treatment would be astronomical compared with the cost of a few lethal pills.

Here's more -

Supporters of physician-assisted suicide, which were not successful in passing legislation during the regular session, exploited the special Medi-Cal session to advance their agenda behind closed doors. Legislation allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs is highly controversial and opposed by disability rights groups, hospitals, physicians’ groups, as well as by Life Legal Defense Foundation.

“We expect our state legislators to uphold the State Constitution and not bend the law to further their own ends,” said Life Legal Executive Director Alexandra Snyder, “Californians have a right to an open, deliberative, and transparent legislative process when it comes to law and policy changes that are literally a matter of life and death.”

Snyder said that, while the California Constitution permits the Governor to issue proclamations to convene extraordinary legislative sessions, the Legislature is prohibited from enacting bills that are not the specific subject of the proclamation. In this case, Governor Brown’s proclamation expressly states that the purpose of the extraordinary session on Medi-Cal is to “stabilize the General Fund’s costs for Medi-Cal” and to “provide rate increases for providers of Medi-Cal and developmental disability services.”