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March 26, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
Each month a different topic pertaining
to pro-life will be addressed. Please share them with your family.
Keep the hope that “together we can make a difference”. As our parish
family faces the attack today on life, we are ever mindful of God’s
admonition: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and
the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendents may
live…” Deuteronomy 30:19.
See you at The Way of Love
www.TheWayofLove.org Lenten prayer walk at Burnett Woods on
Sunday, March 26, April 2 and April 9 from 2 to 3 PM>
Check out some websites for pro-life
information; the sites will also be posted on the St. Antoninus
website:
God is good!
Jane Hoffman
St. Antoninus
Pro-Life, Pro-Family Commission
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April 30, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
At the beginning of our pro-life
monthly columns, let’s reflect on the “foundation”: God is
love. Out of love, God’s precious gift to each of us is Life itself.
He created us, for all eternity; making each of us in His own image
and likeness, endowing us with intellect and free will. Beloved child.
“‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born
I consecrated you’ (Jer 1:5) God said to the Prophet Jeremiah…God
intervenes directly in the creation of the soul of every new human
being. God does not differentiate between the newly, conceived infant
still in his or her mother’s womb and the child or young person, or
the adult and the elderly person. God does not distinguish between
them because He sees an impression of His own image and likeness (Gn
1:26) in each one.” (Pope
Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Academy for Life 06)
As we continue to put our faith into
action, let’s further develop our family’s education: have our
web-savvy family members check out:
www.Vatican.va e-mail:
ornet@ossrom.va;
www.HumanLifeInternational.com ; for all our referenced websites
www.saintantoninus.org
God is good!
-Jane
Hoffman,
St. Antoninus Pro-Life, Pro-Family Commission
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May 28, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
Look at your own beautiful
children and family! Continuing to reflect on the “foundation”,
we recall that each person, lovingly created by God Himself, is gifted
at the moment of conception with an immortal soul. From our beginning,
each person is a beloved member of our human family. “‘When God
created man, He made him in the likeness of God. Male and female He
created them and He blessed them.’ (Genesis 5)…the life of every
individual, from its very beginning, is part of God’s plan...Expressions
of awe and wonder at God’s intervention in the life of a child in its
mother’s womb occur again and again in the Psalms. How can anyone
think that even a single moment of this marvelous process of the
unfolding of life could be separated from the wise and loving work of
the Creator and left prey to human caprice?”
(The Gospel of Life, John Paul
II’s Encyclical Letter)
The Gospel of Life
is “therefore meant to be a precise and vigorous reaffirmation of the
value of human life and its inviolability, and at the same time a
pressing appeal to each and every person, in the name of God:
respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in
this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace
and happiness!”(ibid)
Our families need us and the times demand us to become more informed
and involved now. Come to our next St. A’s meeting: this Tues. 5/30,
7:30 pm
To help develop our Catholic
intellectual life: read the
encyclical, The Gospel of Life
http://www.pauline.org/store/searchresults.php Psalms 22:10-11
71:6 139 13-14
For all our
referenced websites
www.saintantoninus.org
God is good!
-Jane
Hoffman,
St. Antoninus Pro-Life, Pro-Family Commission
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June 25, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
Banning Abortion has been in our
news both here in Ohio and across the country.
Let’s take a look at it in light of our
recent bulletin reflections: on the “foundation” (getting a better
understanding of the basis for the sanctity, dignity of each human
being from conception to natural death); on the vital need for each of
us, “in the name of God: respect, protect, love and serve life,
every human life!” (The Gospel of Life, JP II’s ency.)
God made the first chapter of our human
life’s journey from conception to birth. Our new life has inherited
23 chromosomes from each of our parents…all the complex genetic
blueprint for the person we will continue to be is there – our sex,
hair and eye color, height, skin tone and more. All that will be
added to us is time and nourishment. By a mere 21 days, our heart has
begun to beat and the foundations of our brain, spinal cord and
nervous system are already established. As every parent knows, this
continuum of growth is rapid especially now and even more so in their
teen years. But through each step of our journey along our continuum
through life, whether pre-born, newborn, toddler, adolescent,
teenager, young adult, middle age, “silver and golden ager” we are
God’s Beloved, created with an immortal soul, “endowed by our Creator
with certain inalienable rights…among these are the right to LIFE,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. (U.S. Declaration of
Independence).
“Abortion willed either as an end or a
means, is gravely contrary to the moral law…formal cooperation in an
abortion constitutes a grave offense…and excommunication…not thereby
restrict the scope of mercy...rather she makes clear the gravity.” (Cathechism
of the Catholic Church). Parents, consider sitting with your
teens and looking at
www.TheologyoftheBody.org and dot net …click on links.
www.saintantoninus.org/Church/Bulletins/c_bullet.htm
(LIFE column is last week of each month since March.)
God is good!
Jane Hoffman, St. Antoninus Pro-life,
Pro-family Commission
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July 30, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
Hidden wounds. The knees of her jeans
were damp from her bowed head’s falling tears. The loss of her child
in an abortion has filled Ellie’s life with secret grief. She’s a
client who now wants me to tell others how grateful she is for the
hope of healing she has found in the outstretched arms of Christ at a
local pro life pregnancy center. For many years Brad had a difficult
time with the abortion of his three lost children; sorrow is now
replacing his anger. Finding the unconditional love of Christ, he is
supported in forgiving himself and grieving the loss of his little
children.
As these parish columns have been
looking at the foundation of God’s sanctity of human life and our call
to witness our Catholic faith, we also turn to welcome those who have
been wounded by abortion. Mother, fathers, grandparents, sisters and
brothers…the entire extended family is touched and suffers…the Body of
Christ grieves.
You or someone you know are not alone.
“Healing after abortion is a long road. Few steps along that road are
more powerful than Rachel’s Vineyard retreats. In the name of
the Lord of Life and Mercy, I invite you to enter this place of
welcome and understanding.” (Fr. Frank Pavone, Natl. Dir. Priests for
Life).
Consider clipping
this column to lovingly share/mail: a Post-Abortion Healing Ministry
of the Catholic Church
www.RachelsVineyard.org or call 877-HOPE-4-ME. Note: our
Cincinnati retreat is coming in October.
www.HopeAfterAbortion.com Project Rachel: 513-784-0531.
Pregnancy Center West’s pregnancy loss: 513-588-0080 All our
services are strictly confidential. More on this next month.
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September 24, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
It's the unasked question. It remains the hidden wound that
longs to find healing.
A parishioner told me that she has never known anyone who had an
abortion and she was certain that neither had I. Sadly, wrong on both
counts; we all know someone, somewhere…we just don’t know that we do.
We often have seen the pain, the change in someone without considering
the question: “is this someone wounded by an abortion?”
“My Dad never knew what happened to me, why I changed. I used to do
pretty well at school, student council and all. My Mom took me; she
was worried I was too young to have a baby. I didn’t really want that
abortion. I cried a lot. So did my boyfriend. So did my Mom. We
still do, inside. Life has never been the same. I wish I’d made an
adoption plan instead.” Emily’s family is like so many others who are
misinformed: well meaning parents or friends are sometimes ‘the
pressure’ not to give life but to abort the child. Consider clipping
and lovingly sharing this and July 30 column
www.saintantoninus.org:
Healing and hope after abortion for women and men: call 513-588-0080
Rachel’s Vineyard Cinti. Retreat Oct. 13-15.
www.HopeAfterAbortion.com
God is good!
Jane Hoffman, St. Antoninus Pro Life/Pro Family Commission
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October 1, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
When Jesus founded the holy Catholic
Church, He said that in listening to His church we are listening to
Him “He who hears you, hears Me; and he who rejects you rejects
Me.”(Luke 10:16). So, what is Jesus telling us through His Church
about setting priorities in celebrating and defending His loving gift
of human life, especially the most vulnerable?
Pope John Paul II :
“Above all, the common outcry, which is
justly made on behalf of human rights – for example, the right to
health, to home, to work, to culture – is false and illusionary if the
right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition
for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum
determination.” (Christifideles Laici).
It is the underpinning of all concerns for
social justice.
Pope Paul II and the United States Council of Catholic
Bishops (USCCB) made it clear that:
“the fundamental right and the source of all other rights…is the right
to life, a right belonging to every individual. Consequently, laws
which legitimize the direct killing of innocent human beings through
abortion or euthanasia are in complete opposition to the inviolable
right to life proper to every individual.” (Evangelium
Vitae)
“Not all issues can be given equal
weight: the issue of life is paramount, different from all other
issues of social import. A failure to recognize that abortion takes
priority over other issues at this point in our history is to
misunderstand the social teachings of the Church.” (Cardinal George).
“Today the recognition of human life as a fundamental value is
threatened. Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of abortion.”
(Cardinal Bernadin)
www.USCCB.org (click on Life Issues link)
www.priestsforlife.org
God is good!
Jane Hoffman
St. Antoninus Pro-Life, Pro-Family
Commission
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October 29, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
The Nov.
7th elections are on the minds of
most adult Catholics. “Not all issues can be given equal weight: the
issue of life is paramount, different from all other issues of social
import. A failure to recognize that abortion takes priority over
other issues at this point in our history is to misunderstand the
social teachings of the Church.” (Cardinal Francis George).
Let us continue to pray: may voters,
using an educated conscience, seek to make a right judgment in
accordance with reason and God’s law. May we remember the Church has
been given to us and teaches that the following are always morally
wrong and our opposition to them must be non-negotiable: abortion and
infanticide; euthanasia; embryonic stem cell research; human cloning;
the legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same
level as marriage. Other important issues are then to be considered
which allow “a plurality of morally acceptable policies and
solutions”. (Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the
Participation of Catholics in Political Life)
Consider checking out resources:
www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations Cathechism of
the Catholic Church,
www.saintantoninus.org (click pro-life)
God is good!
Jane Hoffman
St. Antoninus Pro-Life, Pro-Family
Commission
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November 26, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
Our parish school children recently
completed a week “Everybody Counts”. What an upbeat way to
answer God’s call to respect and support each group represented on the
logo of Right to Life! “Everybody Counts” always cherishes the
most vulnerable innocent in our human family, no matter how small or
how old or how ill: the very young person still in her/his mother’s
womb, from conception on, who needs protection from dying in abortion
or embryonic stem cell research or infanticide; those with
disabilities (like Downs syndrome), the elderly, and the ill who each
need protection from euthanasia; and each of us to be protecting human
life from cloning.
As Advent
approaches, let’s consider that Jesus was a human person: from
His moment of conception in Our Lady’s womb; as He was in Mary’s womb
when she visited her cousin and John the Baptist leapt to greet Jesus
from his place in St. Elizabeth’s womb; Jesus was in Mary’s womb as
she and St. Joseph found their way to Bethlehem; as He waited outside
the inn when St. Joseph was told there was no room so they went to a
stable awaiting His birth. Everybody Counts…Jesus showed us
the way, even from His home in Our Lady’s womb. Check out
www.saintantoninus.org (click on pro life).
God is good!
Jane Hoffman
St. Antoninus Pro-Life, Pro-Family
Commission
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December 31, 2006
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
The week before
Christmas I had the blessing of speaking at an assembly with 1000+
fantastic teens at Elder High School. They want to “make a
difference” … to “stand up” for God’s awesome gift of human life.
This means making a commitment, a resolution for 2007 we all need to
consider: I have decided that I will not be silent any longer, I will
learn and speak the truth with love, and I will pray daily…this is the
spiritual battle of our times.
More than 48,000,000
American children have been legally killed before birth in
abortion…their parents and families wounded. St. Mother Teresa of
Calcutta made an imperative statement for our world, our nation: “The
greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill
her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me?
There is nothing between.”
Our St. Antoninus
parish family can put Mother Theresa’s imperative into positive action
by starting with a discussion at the dinner table, in the car ride
home, or on the way to school. Discussion begets action. As a tool
for starting, visit www.RockforLife.com, a site dedicated to
the life movement for our youth. Also, check our parish website for
TEN WAYS A TEEN CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND STAND UP FOR LIFE.
God is good!
Jane Hoffman
St. Antoninus Pro-Life, Pro-Family
Commission
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