Every year we see the same thing happen, or should I say don’t see? The mass media, for whatever reason, refuses to report on the Annual March for Life in our nation’s capital. Estimates approaching half a million people from every faith, every age (though mostly young) and from states across America come to walk, pray, sing, and share their passion for Life and the dignity of all, from womb to tomb. What could be so threatening about that? Why does this lead otherwise respectable newscasters and journalists to present complete distortions and out right lies, or turn their gaze elsewhere while we March for Life?
I challenge the news media to objectively report on this March next year. The quotes in this video are from some of the biggest names in the news. They have failed miserably and should publicly apologize for their ridiculous and intentional ignorance.
America has spoken, open the window and take a look. His Truth is marching on…
Tune in to the Oprah Winfrey Show tomorrow (Check your local listings) for her interview with Four Sisters from the Dominican Sisters of Mary. Tomorrow is the 13th anniversary of the founding of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The Sisters were asked to participate in a show on religious life to speak about a hidden life that many people might never experience.
It was such a blessing this year for my wife and I to bring our little boy to the March for Life in our nation’s capitol. And this year’s numbers were incredible; over 300,000! All of us from all over the country, different colors, different creeds, all in support of the dignity of human life, born and unborn, womb to tomb. The Boy and his sign got lots of smiles and oooos and ahhhs. He even marched a few steps! As always, the mass media either completely ignored or grossly misrepresented the March for Life this year. For the most accurate coverage and for links to the mainstream media’s poor reporting, read this article!
The Twelve – they so often adorn facades and rest atop pillars, gilded, massive, epic figures, each Atlases on whose shoulders the Church rests…. or so we grow up imagining. But what do we know, really, about these figures when the dust of millennia settles and we glance back at Sacred Scripture?
We know their names. We know they were mostly an “uneducated” lot (though schooled strong in the Book of Nature). We know they didn’t always have a clue what their Master was saying. We know all but one abandoned Him at the moment when He would have needed them most. A pretty shaky foundation for a Church, you might be thinking. But we also know that they came back to Him, and preached His Name from the rooftops, and in every conceivable way they poured themselves out for Him. That’s about it. But isn’t that what it’s all about?
The good news is that this shaky foundation has Christ Jesus as the capstone, and through Him the whole structure is held together. The good news is that Simon and Jude and all of the Apostles were madly in love with the God Who had become flesh for us. They cared little about themselves anymore. It was always
Jesus. The bad news is… this cornerstone has been rejected. So were all but one of the Apostles (John died in exile in his old age). Jude, whom we celebrate today, was eventually murdered with an ax, and Simon, also celebrated today, was beaten and cut to pieces. Destroyed, just like their Beloved Master.
They died for Jesus. What else do we need to know? They were open to God. That’s the key. They were martyred by the world, that’s the lock. They were open to the possibility that God had come in Jesus… They were closed off and shut up by a world that did not want to hear it. A world afraid of the possibility that the Door they opened might lead to Sacrifice, to Suffering, to Real Love, and to Mercy Immeasurable. Too much work for many of us.
Simon and Jude lost their lives but found themselves. And they now point us to that Cross-Shaped Door that leads to our true selves, for in Heaven we shall know as we are known. Let us pray that we too can stretch out our arms, clutching nothing, for a chance at winning everything.
I chose this week’s Mission Moment from a perhaps little known saint whose bio alone is food for a major motion picture. Here’s the quote:
Christ said, “I am the Truth”; he did not say “I am the custom.”
…and here’s the man: St. Toribio Alfonso Mogrovejo ________________________ St. Toribio Alfonso Mogrovejo Archbishop of Lima; b. at Mayorga, León, Spain, 1538; d. near Lima Peru, 23 March 1606. Of noble family and highly educated, he was professor of laws at the University of Salamanca, where his learning and virtue led to his appointment as Grand Inquisitor of Spain by Philip II and, though not of ecclesiastical rank, to his subsequent selection for the Archbishopric of Peru. He received Holy Orders in 1578 and two years later was consecrated bishop. He arrived at Payta, Peru, 600 miles from Lima, on 24 May, 1581. He began his mission work by travelling to Lima on foot, baptizing and teaching the natives. His favourite topic being: “Time is not our own, and we must give a strict account of it.” Three times he traversed the eighteen thousand miles of his diocese, generally on foot, defenceless and often alone; exposed to tempests, torrents, deserts, wild beasts, tropical heat, fevers, and savage tribes; baptizing and confirming nearly one half million souls, among them St. Rose of Lima, St. Francis Solano, Blessed Martin of Porres, and Blessed Masias. He built roads, school houses, and chapels innumerable, and many hospitals and convents, and founded the first American seminary at Lima in 1591. He assembled thirteen diocesan synods and three provincial councils. Years before he died, he predicted the day and hour of his death. At Pacasmayo he contracted fever, but continued labouring to the last, arriving at Sana in a dying condition. Dragging himself to the sanctuary he received the Viaticum, expiring shortly after. He was beatified by Innocent XI in 1697 and canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726. His feast is celebrated on 27 April.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s photo-op with Pope Benedict XVI turned sour when the Pontiff used the 15-minute meeting to reaffirm the teachings of the Catholic Church on the right to life and the duty to protect the unborn. No photo of Nancy Pelosi and the Pope will be forthcoming, since the meeting was closed to reporters and photographers. The two met in a small room in the Vatican just after the Pope’s weekly public audience…
“His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in co-operation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.”
I wonder what Nancy will be thinking tonight, as she says her prayers and beds down in her Italian B&B, after having been schooled by the Pope himself. I pray that she and her husband Paul rediscover their faith, a faith that reverences human life as the building block of all culture. What a force for good they could be!!
It was early, it was cold, it was just twenty three students from Malvern Prep. A day “off” from classes and away from campus, but this was in exchange for a thirteen hour day that began at 6:30am with Mass, a long drive to the nation’s capital, and ended with us pulling into Malvern Prep after 8:00pm. It was the March for Life in Washington, D.C. It was March Madness.
We stood in lines, we stood in the cool shadows of the National Shrine Basilica, with mosaics and sculpted columns swirling up and over us, and before us nearly 4000 people spread out, filling pews and corridors, attending a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Rigali. And everyone was there for Life; standing tall, young and old, babies in arms, swaying, hands clasped in prayer, hearts and minds wondering what this new presidency would bring.
From the train to the trek to the National Mall we marched with a mass of humanity up Capitol Hill. Now the little streams of buses that came from all over the country joined and formed a great river of souls. Thousands upon thousands gathering for the 36th annual March for Life. There was singing, praying, and small talk as we shuffled along. Smiles between strangers from all over the country warmed us up a bit, strangers from every creed and color. But the great madness of this March was that such a strong and vibrant presence was at the same time, invisible.
Once again, the secular media was silent when it came to this event, and our numbers were ignored. We seemed just as hidden as the children in the womb we all wanted to protect and defend; as invisible as the deep pain and grief young mothers and fathers feel after they are pushed and pressured into clinics that promise to “erase” their problems and give them a new start.
Climbing the hill flanking the Capitol building, I turned and looked back and saw an ocean of Americans who believed life is a gift always to be received, no matter what the wrappings and trappings that cover its beginning and end. Life is precious. For nearly 20 years in attending this Trail of Tears myself, I’ve looked down that hill, and hoped we could overturn by our presence and prayer the decree that has “sanctioned” the extermination of 50,000,000 unborn children; The law that continues to wound just as many women and men who were told it was their “right” to terminate a so-called unwanted pregnancy.
I searched for an account of what we did in the news that evening, and the day after… Nothing. I looked for an official count on just how many came to Washington D.C that day to speak their minds, to witness to the sacredness of human life from the womb to the tomb. Nothing. Nearly a week later, I discovered the statistic given by the Beltway Police (a neutral group to be sure, and not prone to overestimating): they reported a quarter of a million people in attendance for the March! Where was this fact earlier? Why did I have to find it on some obscure blog and not a major news service? Unbelievable… How is it that a crowd of 250,000 of such diversity in age, ethnicity, and religious belief could be right outside the windows of our nation’s capital and not be seen?
Sadly, there was something else that occurred in a hidden way the following day, January 23. This action was also “unseen” by reporters, accomplished in the late afternoon once the presses had cooled. Our newly elected President signed an order with no fanfare and with no news media in the room. This was a strong contrast to the signings of executive orders earlier in the week. It was an executive order reversing the ban first instituted by President Reagan in 1984, reversing the Mexico City policy, a move that clears the way for the federal government to provide aid to programs that promote or perform abortion overseas. With all that we are going through as a country right now, this is on the list of top priorities?
“What a terrible way to begin a new administration, with an abortion business bailout that will exploit women in developing countries for political ends,” said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life Action, the Washington-based organization. “We should not export the tragedy of abortion to other nations, and we certainly shouldn’t do so via the hard-earned dollars of American taxpayers,” she said. “We’re concerned this can only be the tip of the iceberg for President Obama’s abortion policy. This should strengthen our resolve,” she said.
In a letter addressing this move, Cardinal Rigali stated “An administration that wants to reduce abortions should not divert U.S. funds to groups that promote abortions.”
Despite the frustration of having our voices silenced, our steps covered up and our presence ignored, our small band of brothers from Malvern took solace in the fact that we were there. We gave our witness. And we’ll give it again, and again, and again.
So let’s get fired up, let’s lift our heads high again…
For “the victory of truth is certain!” – August Rodin
And we must “Yield thou not to adversity, but press on the more bravely.” – Virgil
This story shall the good man teach his son… From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered – We few, we happy few, we band of brothers… – Henry V, Shakespeare
Violence against even one human being is violence against all. – Pope Benedict XVI
Thanks to the Blue Boar for finding this inspiring collection of clips…. this is one to play again and again when the world’s got you down!
These are two short clips of Senators Obama and McCain, each answering the very simple and direct question “At what point is a baby entitled human rights?” One answer lasts 1 minute and 25 seconds, the other 41 seconds (much of which consists of applause). For all of their individual weaknesses, on this point more than any other we need strength. If life is not reverenced, what are we living for? When the womb is no longer sacred, the world suffers.
Today is the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle. Beautifully, his quest for tangible “proof” in the resurrection of the dead, the turning of the tide that sweeps all of humanity under her tow, was initiated by this man. A man of science we might say. A man who wanted to affirm sensory data, to take in all the reports, not just of hearsay or someone else’s witness, but quantifiable, experiential evidence. Thomas wanted to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” and would not rest with merely the fragrance of that food from another’s plate. He would feast his own eyes on Incorruptible Flesh, and would plunge his own hands into those very real wounds to be sure this was no impostor.
Good for Thomas. Faith needs works like this sometimes. We should all press on to taste and see, to experience the Lord not just through another’s feelings or philosophy. We should enter through that Door ourselves with our whole person, and never be afraid of the results. God has given us faith and reason, not as enemies, but as complements. One reaches up from the earth, the other shimmers in the heavenly realms. “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit soars to the contemplation of Truth.” (Pope John Paul II)
I hear a tone of quiet peace and an invitation in Jesus, not an angry tone, when he says to Thomas the Questioner, Thomas the Seeker, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
On that day, the experiential became the quitessential, the climax of all questions…. So to Thomas the Scientific we are grateful, and we are invited to taste and see ourselves. He is Risen!
Yesterday the Church remembered and celebrated the birth of St. John the Baptist, who was crazy.
He lived in the desert, which is a sweltering stretch of HOT SAND and SCORPIONS with little water and lots of wild animals, in addition to the scorpions. He had a huge, ZZ Top, bird’s nest of a beard. He ate bugs and wore camel hair, which I imagine was a wee bit abrasive on the flesh. St. John the Baptist was a wild man. He was crazy.
And yet, people flocked to him. Beyond those exterior and eccentric markings, there must have been a deep well of peace, and a truly magnetic personality. What else could have drawn not only the carnival curious but the learned, the leadership, the local government, heck, everybody living in an enemy-occupied land and longing for the freedom that this crazy man seemed to be swimming in down by the Jordan?
Something must have shone through those ragged clothes, that behemoth beard. Some fire burned out from his spirit that illumined every act and action of this wild man of southern Palestine. They say “clothes make the man.” But the man also makes the clothes. The body of the Baptist, like our bodies, was the outward sign of the invisible reality of his person. It’s like a sacrament; well, it is a sacrament. The body is the first marriage made by God of the spiritual and the physical, heaven and earth, and we perceive and encounter spiritual realities through the physical sign of the flesh. Wow.
So what is this wild man saying with his body? What truth is revealed in and through the radical posture of his personality?
A Totally Intentional Digression…
I was in Manhattan last Saturday giving a talk to engaged couples on the Theology of the Body. At the end of the day we discovered that there was a ton of leftovers from lunch. Probably 100 little sandwiches, chips, soda. So we loaded up the car and drove up to the Bronx to drop off the food at the Franciscan Friars house, knowing the boys in the hoods would know plenty of hungry bellies to fill. I drove through an amazing microcosm of humanity on the way to the Bronx; faces from all over the world, clustered together, crammed into row homes, bustling through the streets, music from three continents playing from windowsills and cars and little corner shops. When the door of Our Lady of the Angels Friary opened, I kid you not, the scent of incense poured out and over me like a river, like the odor of sanctity! The Holy One was in the heart of the city. Isn’t He always at the heart of things?
A young friar named Brother Joachim greeted me in bare feet, gray robe, a huge ZZ Top bird’s nest of a beard, and a smile that said peace in the midst of all the noise and haste. We brought the boxes of sandwiches into the friary and set them on a massive wooden table in the dining room, beneath a beautiful crucifix and shelves of books. The exchange was simple and then I was on the road, heading back to Philly, left thinking of the Wild Men that lived in that wilderness of concrete and glass and noise, and of the Wild Women, living in cloisters and convents, serving the poor, taking radical vows of poverty and chastity and obedience in the midst of a culture too often bent on amassing wealth, indulging lust, and breaking the rules whenever the rules try to break us.
What are these Wild Ones saying in and through their bodies for the Church and the world at large? Some thoughts….
THE BEARD: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. A crazy beard says I am not consumed with how polished I look, I am consumed by the Mystery of the Living God. THE BARE FEET: Feel the earth, walk in simplicity, suffer the chill and the heat, and remember from whence you came. Thanks St. Francis! THE ROBE: It’s penitential, it’s poverty, it’s simplicity (and it has cool pockets in the sleeves) THE ROPE: Wild men and women are bound to the Heart of God with three promises of poverty, chastity and obedience, and the rope holds three knots to remind them of this every day. THE SUFFERING: The radical life of the Wild Ones brings many disparaging looks. Why are they so different? Why are they giving their lives to what can’t be seen or touched? (so they think). And hasn’t the experiment of Christianity been tried and failed? In the words of G.K. Chesterton, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found too difficult and not tried.”
Thank God for the Wild Men and Women of the Church! May they continue to be a sign of contradiction for us all, a sign pointing to Something More beyond the circles of this world! They inspire and encourage us all to be that voice crying out in the wilderness “Prepare the Way of the Lord!”
The Heart of Things 