THE CULTURE OF LIFE VS THE CULTURE OF SIN

No More No-Tell Hotels

Let’s Fight Back Against Pay-Per-View Porn

BY Mary Ann Kuharski

October 25-31, 2009 Issue | Posted 10/16/09 at 12:28 PM

Every summer our children looked forward to a family vacation. Granted, with 13 children, our leisure spots were not always exotic.

In the early years, we were content with summer weekends at Grandma’s two-bedroom cabin. (Yep, I said two bedroom!) It was all we could afford. But as the children grew and the diapers and routine became manageable, our entire crew would save throughout the year — the kids doing babysitting, lawn and snow jobs, and John and I tightening our budget a bit more — to afford traveling to cities and sites we hoped would create lasting memories for all of us. And each trip did.

Through the years, we traveled to South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore, Wisconsin’s Dells, Iowa’s farms (to see Pope John Paul II), Chicago’s Alder Planetarium and Sears Tower, Gettysburg’s battlefields, Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Philadelphia’s historic sites and Washington’s patriotic treasures.

One of the big travel bonuses for our kids was dining out. In a super-size family the chance to eat out — even at fast-food stops — comes only rarely. When traveling, our vacation routine was to eat breakfast and dinner at picnic tables and road stops. The best treat was lunch out at a local restaurant. (Lunch costs less than dinner.)

Better even than eating out, though, was staying at a hotel — especially one with a swimming pool. We stayed in two rooms — one for my husband and the boys, and another for me and our girls. Still, it was first-class “luxury” to pull up to an out-of-state “inn” with our 12-passenger van and see the neon sign broadcasting: Pool and TV!

The kids could hardly wait.

No one minded the long day’s drive, the cold cereal out of plastic bowls or the simple sandwiches on yesterday’s bread. All that mattered was the chance to swim and splash around in a hotel pool in the evening.

We have wonderful memories of those trips. We chuckle over more than a few, such as the time our older kids brought their sister Kari, then a toddler with plaster casts on both legs to correct an abnormal walk, into the hotel pool. Her casts unraveled and then came apart. Or the times we’d start to drive away from a place and discover we hadn’t “counted off” and one kid was missing.

By now fun memories of family events have become more precious than gold.

Which is why I shudder to think of what today’s young parents face when planning vacations that include hotel stays. I say this because I recently learned that even so-called “nice” hotels offer pay-per-view pornography in every guest room.

Yes, I did say “pornography.” The term should not be confused with R-rated and unrated film fare. Bad as the latter may sometimes be, it’s a lot tamer than today’s “Triple-X” garbage. The depravity of this stuff is hard to fathom in a civilized society.

How did I learn of the hotel-porn connection? The hard way. A supporter contacted us at ProLife Across America saying she would not attend our annual banquet because it was being held at a hotel that offers pay-per-view pornography.

She also contacted Archbishop John Nienstedt of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese, who was to give the keynote address at the event. Needless to say, the archbishop would not appear at a hotel that offered pornography to its guests. We at our pro-life organization felt just as strongly. After all, life and family is why we exist.

When I called the hotel to ask if they indeed offered pay-per-view porn, the representative responded, “Yes we do.”

No hesitation. No apology. No exceptions. And the moral rot is in every room.

This would have been our fourth consecutive year with this particular hotel chain. We’d had nothing but positive results from the three previous years. From the caterer to the wait staff to the quality of the food, the elements had always added up to a pleasing event for our guests and us.

Ultimately, Prolife Across America canceled the scheduled banquet and relocated to a wonderful church hall with a terrific caterer. Sadly, we were charged a $3,000 “cancellation fee” by the hotel — in spite of the fact we gave almost a four-week notice.

Since the cancellation and relocation, I have learned that pay-per-view porn is offered at many hotel and motel chains across the country. The one we’d been doing business with is far from an exception to the norm. They are smack-dab in the middle of the hotel-industry mainstream.

What a shame that once reputable hotels are involved in contributing to an industry that has wreaked untold havoc on marriage and family life.

Despite the evidence documenting this damage, some maintain that there is no harm in pay-per-view pornography at hotels. “If you don’t like it,” they say, “don’t watch it.”

I say that’s not enough. Among the reasons not to even patronize hotels that offer pay-per-view porn:

• Since when is it right to “look the other way” while an industry that denigrates women, marriage, fidelity and family life benefits by your silence?

• Pornography of every kind uses and abuses women (and, sometimes, children). The industry degrades women and supports abortion.

• The hotel is decidedly not “family friendly.” Rather, it chooses to profit by catering to a clientele that is indifferent to concerns about the state of the family.

• If parents with children are staying at a site that offers pornography, will their young be safe from a possible predator? In today’s climate of child exploitation and kidnapping, the proximity of porn can increase a danger most parents do not want to risk.

• There is a risk. Ask any law-enforcement officer. It is a well-known fact that when a child molester, predator or rapist is apprehended, pornography can be found in his possession, his car or his home.

• Will adolescent and teen children be tempted to “take a peek” when parents are not in the room? After all, children are children. They come loaded with “curiosity.”

It’s not too late to turn this ship around. In fact, I have since learned of a website — CleanHotels.com — that offers a list of family-friendly hotels. These are totally free of pornography. In this mom’s view, these establishments are safer and far more deserving of our patronage.

That’s a start. But together we could do more to clean up America and rid our nation of the evil of pornography. A good place to start is taking the time to express our views and concerns to any hotels purveying pay-per-view pornography.

Whether you patronize a hotel for business, personal travel or family vacations, especially where children are involved, check first before booking to ensure it is pornography free — and that includes pay-per-view.

For our children’s sake, we can’t afford to “look the other way” any more.

Mary Ann Kuharski, author of Outnumbered! Raising Thirteen Kids With Humor and Prayer (Servant, 2006) and three other books, is director of the billboard company Prolife Across America.

Copyright © 2007 Circle Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Love Beyond the Grave

Teens at Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

BY EDDIE O’NEILL

November 1-7, 2009 Issue | Posted 10/26/09 at 12:04 AM

When the liturgical calendar rolls around to November, our thoughts rightly go to the faithful departed. This holds true not just on the first two days of the month — Nov. 1 is the feast of All Saints; Nov. 2 is dedicated to All Souls — but right up to the start of Advent.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition. We ask the saints to pray for us in heaven while we pray for the poor souls to complete their journey through purgatory and into heaven (even though their eventual arrival there is assured).

For some of us, the poor souls (also known as the holy souls) are in our prayers all year. Take the young-adult members of the Dead Theologians Society, for example. Praying for the poor souls is part of their mission.

Begun in 1997 in Ohio, the Dead Theologians Society seeks to inspire teens and young adults to become “the saints of tomorrow.” Open to kids in grades nine through 12 as well as young adults as old as 24, the group lives by a motto that says it all: “Dead to the world, alive in Christ.”

Twelve years after its initial launch, the apostolate is active in 300 parishes in 45 states, as well as Canada, the Philippines and Guam. (The group is online at DeadTheologiansSociety.com.)

According to Eddie Cotter Jr., the group’s founder, praying for the poor souls has been a charism of society meetings from the start. It came about as the founding members tried to come up with a service component for the group that would unite young people around a sanctifying cause.

“There were some good ideas tossed around, like feeding the hungry or cleaning a part of the highway, but there were groups already doing these types of things,” recalls Cotter. “When we prayed and discussed with the teens the idea of praying for the souls in purgatory, we felt that that was something all of us could do regardless of ability or disability.”

Cotter explains that local chapters use the prayer of St. Gertrude the Great for the holy souls each week. The prayer comes after the group’s recitation of the Rosary. (See “Prayer of St. Gertrude” on page B2.)

Praying for the poor souls — a spiritual work of mercy — has been met with great zeal, says Cotter.

“All these high schoolers, as well as the adults who help facilitate the group, had loved ones who have died,” he adds. “There was a genuine enthusiasm when we realized that there was actually something that we could do that could benefit them.”

Olivia Smithmier-Bohn, 18, remembers well her introduction to prayers for the poor souls in purgatory. As a high-school freshman, she attended her first meeting of the Dead Theologians Society at St. Mary’s Catholic Church near Madison, Wis.

“I was immediately struck and intrigued by this prayer for the poor souls,” she says. “I loved it and grew to love it more.”

At first, she recalls, it all seemed “too easy.” Smithmier-Bohn felt she should be doing more. So she went to talk to a priest who told her that one bite from the forbidden fruit “lost sanctifying grace for all mankind. God delights in the simple.”

“This profound and simple insight helps me grow a lot spiritually,” explains the freshman from Franciscan University of Steubenville. “It was a calling from the Lord. Though I may not do great things, if I can do this small thing with the greatest of love, why should I not do it daily?”

Small Things, Great Love

Charlene Rack has been a Dead Theologians Society leader in the greater Cincinnati area for the past several years. She has seen similar reactions in the teens she leads.

Rack says the key to making this devotion come alive is by making it tangible in the lives of the teens. The more the kids know about St. Gertrude and the story behind her prayer, she says, the more they make it their own.

“I have always made a point to make things more understandable, more attainable to the teens themselves so that it means more to them,” says Rack.

This has led to what she describes as a greater awareness of the dead and the need to pray for them. When it comes time for the adolescents to offer petitions, Rack says, invariably there are teens praying for deceased loved ones.

“They always mention people who have died,” says Rack. “Once they know that we are doing the St. Gertrude the Great prayer, they always mention friends or relatives who have died.”

It probably helps that Rack practices what she preaches. The mother of three older teens says that the prayers for those in purgatory are part of her own family’s prayer life. Also, she explains that she makes a point to pray for anybody who has died that day.

“Being a leader in the Dead Theologians Society has given me an awareness of the need to pray for the dead,” says Rack. “Before, I might not have seen a need for it — but now I am very much aware of it and want to make others aware of it, as well.”

Heavenly Intercessors

Father Richard Simon, pastor of St. Lambert’s Catholic Church in Skokie, Ill., and frequent host of Relevant Radio’s program “Go Ask Your Father,” says that the Church’s teaching on purgatory is at the very heart of intercessory prayer.

“We pray for the poor souls to help them get to heaven. And they intercede for us to help us get to heaven,” explains Father Simon. “Their job, so to speak, is to intercede for us.”

At Dead Theologians’ headquarters, Cotter attributes the fast growth and success of the apostolate to this very intercessory power.

“We believe that because we are praying for the suffering souls and they are praying for us, we attribute the growth of the apostolate to that intercessory prayer,” says Cotter. “We continue to grow — and we do not have a huge marketing budget or department.”

Cotter estimates that in the 12 years of the society’s existence, more than 10,000 young people have participated in its prayer experience.

“I believe that the majority of those kids continue to pray for the dead even when they are no longer in the program,” he says. “That is a lot of prayer power from young people. We are answering that call to empty purgatory for the poor souls.”

Father Simon shares Cotter’s passion for this work. He says that praying for the holy souls in purgatory isn’t just a November event, but should be a part of our daily prayers all year.

“Love does not stop at the grave,” says the priest. “Those who die in the Lord are not dead.”

Eddie O’Neill writes from

Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Prayer of St. Gertrude Eternal Father, I offer thee the most precious blood of thy divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.

The Church celebrates the feast of St. Gertrude the Great (d. 1334) on Nov. 16.

Copyright © 2007 Circle Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

‘Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry’

St. Padre Pio’s Prescription for Eternal Health

BY Joseph Pronechen

September 20-26, 2009 Issue | Posted 9/11/09 at 3:04 PM

During World War II, many Allied pilots failed to complete their missions over the Italian town of San Giovanni Rotondo. It seemed a Franciscan friar flying through the sky was staying their hands, preventing them from dropping their bombs. One aviator after the other testified to this otherworldly phenomenon, corroborating one another’s incredible tale of supernatural intervention in the midst of battle.

The friar, of course, was Padre Pio of Pietrelcina — now St. Pio, whose feast the Church celebrates on Sept. 23. And the story, of course, is private revelation; Catholics are free to believe or disbelieve its veracity according to their own prudential judgment.

Either way, its widespread acceptance throughout the Church is itself testimony to the great love and respect many have for St. Pio.

Along with bilocation (being able to be in two places at once, including the sky), the humble friar’s extraordinary spiritual gifts, it is said, included the ability to read souls. In the confessional, where he often spent upwards of 15 hours a day, he often told people their sins — accurately — before they had a chance to tell them for themselves.

And, most famously of all, for 50 years he bore the stigmata — the nail wounds of Christ — on his hands.

Although he spent nearly his entire 60 years of religious life at San Giovanni Rotondo, he became a household name around the world during his own lifetime. Before he died in 1968, and before John Paul II canonized him St. Pio of Pietrelcina in 2002, pilgrims came in droves to San Giovanni Rotondo.

“People felt they could really experience Christ through him,” says Frank Rega, author of Padre Pio and America (Tan, 2009).

St. Pio’s example and spiritual guidance are beams of light for individuals and families striving to live out the Catholic faith in a sin-darkened world. Of the Mass, he said: “It is easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!” To many who came to him with every manner of trouble, he said simply: “Pray, hope and don’t worry.”

“Look at all the people from all over the world he gathered around him! Why?” said Pope Paul VI in 1971. “Because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from dawn to dusk and was — it is not easy to say it — one who bore the wounds of Our Lord. He was a man of prayer and suffering.”

Despite his suffering, he was unfailingly compassionate and jovial. Rega (who is online at San PadrePio.com) points out that Padre Pio was kind and loving toward children and always gave them special blessings. “Many couples not able to have children asked for his prayers,” he adds. “He would tell them, ‘You will have a son in a year’ or ‘May you have eight children.’ He believed in large families.”

Family Man

Eternal Word Television Network host and author Father Andrew Apostoli of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal identifies one reason Padre Pio is a great saint and so important for families today: because his life reflects the character-forming influence of his own close-knit family.

“We can see in his life how the nurturing of faith plus the human qualities, the love and concern for one another, became very evident,” says Father Apostoli. For instance, his mother taught each of her children to have a special devotion to their baptismal patron saint. Pio’s was St. Francis.

Father Apostoli also finds in Padre Pio “a certain charm” to which many can be drawn, from grandparents to young children. The saint gave and continues to give spiritual and even physical assistance to families, including many healings, he adds.

“He had that concern, knowing the family is ‘the first school and the first church,’” says Father Apostoli, “because that’s where the children learn to pray, learn about God, and learn the things they need for the rest of their life, by words and example.”

The saint’s intercession and help can come at any time. Sometimes it comes at unlikely times and in unforeseeable ways.

“Padre Pio is the reason we are in the Catholic Church,” says Californian Diane Allen. She converted to the Catholic faith in 1995; her husband, Ron, followed two years later. Raised as Protestants, then members of what she calls a “self-realization fellowship,” Diane had heard a brief mention of Padre Pio. Until then, she’d had no contact with Catholics, but she couldn’t get that story out of her mind. “I thought about it hundreds and hundreds of times over the next 20 years,” she says.

Upon waking one morning, she decided to find out who Padre Pio was. Once she read his biography, she quit her fellowship and began walking the road to becoming a Catholic. First, though, she spent two years studying about the Church, listening to tapes 40 hours per week. Discouraged by a significant roadblock hindering her progress, she found none other than Padre Pio dispelling her doubts and leading her on into Holy Mother Church.

Today, along with Ron — a deacon who heads the religious-education program at their parish, Our Lady of Grace in El Cajon, Calif. — she leads the booming Padre Pio Prayer Group at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in San Diego.

“Padre Pio gave five steps for spiritual growth,” Diane says. “One is daily Communion; another is daily Rosary.” She and Ron are faithful to these, joining others for daily Mass followed by the Rosary.

“This is what makes us tick,” she says. “We’re a Padre Pio family.” Indeed, her daughter converted to the Catholic faith after college. So did her son-in-law — and her mother, at age 84.

Today, Diane writes extensively on Padre Pio and edits the monthly online newsletter Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry (online at SaintPio.org), which has received well over one million hits.

Let God Be God

In everything, St. Pio constantly counseled people, by word and example, to “pray, hope and don’t worry.” Could there be a more fitting message for our time of stress and uncertainty — or a more effective means to spiritual growth? Father Apostoli thinks not.

“Once you make known your needs, fears, hopes, concerns, doubts and struggles to God in prayer, and have asked for his help,” explains the Franciscan priest, “you have to now trust the Lord to listen because of his great compassion.”

Padre Pio asked his spiritual charges to show the sincerity of their trust by working hard at not worrying. As Father Apostoli explains, “It’s a big order. We tend to push the panic button, to look at the things that can go wrong. We worry like mad.”

And worry may signal that we’re trying to take control of matters that belong to God. “If I really believe God does love me and will truly take care of me, I should not worry,” concludes Father Apostoli.

As St. Pio himself put it: “The Lord is a father, the most tender and best of fathers. He cannot fail to be moved when his children appeal to him.”

Staff writer Joseph Pronechen is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.

Copyright © 2007 Circle Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Death by Disarray

Washington Cooks in Assisted-Suicide Stew

BY Elenor K. Schoen

Register Correspondent

October 18-24, 2009 Issue | Posted 10/9/09 at 3:05 PM

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Since the enactment of physician-assisted suicide in Washington last March, confusion has arisen over statistics, the interaction between government agencies and assisted suicide organizations and the role of medicine.

Non-governmental organizations seem to be taking over as “handlers” of the message and statistics — and as self-appointed hand-holders of those about to die. The question remains as to whether anyone in an official government capacity is looking out for potential abuses to the elderly and sick or watching for misrepresentation of the facts.

Since the state’s Death With Dignity Act went into effect, pharmacies have reported giving life-ending drugs to 32 patients, according to the Washington State Department of Health. The department received 19 reports of deaths as of Sept. 24 among those who had requested drugs.

Christie Spice, registrar and director for health statistics for the state, said the attending physician has 30 days to submit an attending physician’s after-death reporting form.

“The stats we publish on our website reflect the current number of forms the department has received,” she said. An annual report will go into more details about how many of these deaths were actually caused by taking prescription drugs to end lives.

The health department site, which is updated weekly, listed 30 attending physicians’ forms turned in, 32 forms from consulting physicians, as well as consultation forms sent by psychiatrists or psychologists for three patients, when the Register went to press.

At a press conference held at the beginning of September, Robb Miller, executive director of Compassion & Choices of Washington, reported that according to their records, 14 people have actually died from assisted suicide, while another four people “who had requested the medications but elected not to take them” died of natural causes.

When asked if there existed any working relationship between the state office and Compassion & Choices, Donn Moyer, media relations manager with the Department of Health, said: “We’re not going to be able to explain what an advocacy group says or does. We’re not connected to that group (Compassion & Choices) and, to my knowledge, don’t know anything about their clients or tracking methods.”

Presently, Compassion & Choices of Washington has 58 clients, according to Miller. “Some of those do not intend to use the (Death With Dignity Act), but of those who do intend to, 10 presently have the medications,” he explained. He added that his organization has given support and information to more than 2,000 patients, families, physicians, pharmacists and other medical professionals.

‘A Tragedy’

Compassion & Choices supplies a “support volunteer” to be present at each death. Recalling those who died, Miller stated that “none of these clients died alone, all have died at home, and all were receiving hospice care.”

Hospice nurse Eileen Geller, president of True Compassion Advocates, said recently that “all of Washington’s assisted-suicide deaths are a tragedy.” She emphasized that although “29 vulnerable ill people have requested lethal, life-ending drugs, thousands of other Washingtonians have received the message that they, too, are expendable.”

She added that, in light of the present health-care debate, and Washington’s own “draconian health-care cuts, this news is especially disturbing.” As far as the accuracy of either the health department statistics or Compassion & Choices’ numbers, she believes that with the way the law is written, the true statistics of those dying from assisted suicide may never be known.

In response to Miller’s remarks that all Compassion & Choices clients have been under hospice care, Geller says that this reality has taken a toll on those in hospice work.

Hospice workers “are suffering from a complicated grief, experiencing severe emotional and spiritual distress, caused by the trauma of being forced to participate in the legalized medical suicide of vulnerable, ill, and possibly depressed, patients.

“Nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and health-care professionals across the state are worried that they, too, will be forced to stand by as ‘suicide-support volunteers,’ provided by Compassion & Choices, to assist in legally sanctioned medical suicides of their ill and vulnerable patients.”

She was not optimistic for the future, saying: “In Oregon, where assisted suicide is also legal, the per-year rate of physician-assisted suicide actually tripled over the first 10 years and is continuing to trend upward. At the same time, Oregon’s senior suicide rate has increased steadily. The state now has one of the highest rates of senior citizen suicides in the country.”

With increasing frequency, in fact, it has been reported that patients in Washington state, with mild or moderate illness, are refusing even basic treatment so they can meet the loosely defined criteria contained in the Death With Dignity Act — which states a patient must have six months or less to live (with or without treatment). This would then allow them to get a lethal prescription. Hospices have received phone calls from representatives of Compassion & Choices trying to pressure them to accept nonterminal patients in order to qualify people as “hospice appropriate” so they can take a legally prescribed drug overdose.

Trying to find trustworthy medical practitioners and medical institutions is becoming increasingly difficult, as well. Even hospitals, which officially “opted out” of participating in physician-assisted suicide, are becoming unwilling, and possibly unknowing, participants through those who practice medicine in their facilities.

In a recent article in the online American Thinker, Rita Marker, executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, writes about an incident at a training session in Mount Vernon, Wash. It is a regularly scheduled event for law enforcement officers who deal with crisis and hostage negotiating.

Marker reported in “Dial 911 for Assisted Suicide?” that at the event social worker Amber Ford, who works for a local hospital’s oncology department, discussed the suicide risk among cancer patients. “Ford explained that assisted suicide, like hospice care, was among the alternatives available to cancer patients” and proceeded to pass out brochures on the services provided by Compassion & Choices. Her employer, Skagit Valley Hospital, was among medical centers around the state that had announced it would not be participating in physician-assisted suicide.

According to Marker, if hospital staff are involved in assisted-suicide cases, but are doing so off the premises, technically the hospital is not breaking the law, and maintains its “opted out” status.

Philip Nitschke

But Compassion & Choices may not be the only organization providing its services to the elderly, sick and handicapped.

Exit International, founded by the Australian euthanasia advocate and physician Philip Nitschke, has suggested a possible move to the city of Bellingham, hoping to establish a U.S. branch of the organization.

Bellingham is near the border with British Columbia. As the Canadian Parliament debates legalizing assisted suicide, Exit International may be hoping to “kill two birds with one stone.”

“Bellingham had several advantages,” Nitschke explained in a recent e-mail. “It is close to Canada, particularly Vancouver, where we have a number of members.”

He noted that Washington legislation “is helpful to us and has not limited the interest and questions coming in to Exit from people in this state.”

This is in stark contrast to reactions to his activities in England, Australia and Canada, where authorities have attempted to prevent the spread of his message and death devices, most recently banning an Exit International event at a library in Vancouver, B.C.

The Australian physician remains undeterred, stating that his organization has found that: “As the population ages, [many] people are interested in developing their own personal end-of-life plans ‘in case things go bad.’” He referred to these interested individuals as the “well elderly” who have become “our core activity.”

He stated that the organization’s long-term plans “depend on the reaction and interest of our upcoming Exit U.S./Canada tour.” Although a scheduled stop in Bellingham has been canceled, he said, “We hope to put things in place for a U.S./Canadian gathering for 2010, to [work on] reliable end-of-life options,” referring to this initiative as “ExiTech.”

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, who also serves as chairman of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition International, recently expressed his concern about the “social consequences related to Philip Nitschke actively campaigning in the United States and possibly Canada.”

He said that Nitschke has successfully moved “the pendulum of social acceptance by moving public opinion on [who accesses] assisted suicide [to include] people who are either tired of living or those not terminally ill but experiencing a loss of abilities.” In the eyes of the general public, this will turn mainstream euthanasia lobbying into a socially acceptable position, Schadenberg feared.

He explained that Nitschke has not really been very successful in Australia because “the Australian government has rejected his antics, placing barriers around his suicide counseling, his distribution of materials, and his promotion of his so-called ‘peaceful pill’” used for committing suicide.

The Australian physician has promoted various “self-deliverance” devices, including the “exit bag” (a plastic bag with drawstring), and the COGenie (a machine incorporating a face mask and supply of carbon monoxide gas). He is now pushing the use of Nembutal, a drug used by veterinarians to euthanize ailing animals.

Nitschke believes that assisted-suicide devices and drugs “should be available for anyone, including troubled teens,” Schadenberg stated. “Hopefully, the Washington state authorities will also keep a close eye on his operation and shut him down when vulnerable, depressed people are victimized by his philosophy.”

Elenor Schoen writes from

Shoreline, Washington.

Copyright © 2007 Circle Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Defending Marriage

BY The Editors

September 9-15, 2007 Issue | Posted 9/4/07 at 11:11 AM

Here’s an updated version of our resource list of arguments and actions for readers.

See also: "Same-Sex Marriage: What About the Children?"

"http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/15981 " title="Courage and Homosexuality">Courage and Homosexuality"

The nature of marriage.

Western cultural and legal history has never thought of marriage as anything but one thing: the union of a man and a woman. But just as most abortion proponents want to skip the debate about when life begins and argue about “choice,” most homosexual activists want to skip the argument about what marriage is.

Instead, they argue about “rights” or about “discrimination.” But the fact is, the law already severely restricts who can and can’t marry. Marriage is restricted by age, by previous marriage status and by kinship, for starters.  And marriage necessarily has to be “discriminatory.” Its definition has to exclude other pairings (roommates, brothers and sisters, etc.) from claiming the benefits given to married couples.

Why does society have to restrict marriage so severely? Because marriage performs a crucial function. Its purpose is the propagation and protection of children, and to conform sexual relationships to morality. Homosexual “marriage” would do none of these things.

If either of your parents chose a homosexual “marriage,” you wouldn’t be here. And if you’re a parent, you know how having children changed you. Parenthood provides a citizenry with more patience, ambition and dedication to the next generation than it ever would have developed otherwise.

A dangerous lifestyle.

There is an “inconvenient truth” that few are willing to mention. Homosexual lifestyles are not healthy — physically, emotionally or morally.

Doctors advertise heavily in homosexual publications, because male homosexual sex routinely injures its participants. Even in countries where homosexuality is accepted, the evidence is irrefutable that homosexuals suffer higher rates of depression and suicide than the general public.

The arrest of Sen. Larry Craig, is telling. Who can imagine anonymous sexual liaisons between men and women becoming such a problem that police details would have to be dispatched to airports? Women’s different sensibilities put a natural check on the sexual appetites of men.

Children are bound to suffer if their parents are part of the homosexual scene. From the Village People song “YMCA” to the Showtime television show “Queer as Folk,” homosexual culture has long celebrated sex with teens. One of the most-often searched for pornography terms on the Internet is a homosexual slang word for teenage boys.

In The Gay Report, by homosexual researchers Karla Jay and Allen Young, the authors report that 73% of homosexuals surveyed had at some time had sex with boys 16 to 19 years of age or younger. Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, calls a report of the John Jay Criminal College a “bombshell.” John Jay found that the Catholic abuse crisis wasn’t pedophilia but “homosexual predation on American Catholic youth.” He told the Register: “I’m astonished that people throughout America are not talking about it, thinking about it, and wondering about what the mechanisms were that set this alight.”

Consequences.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that legalized homosexual “marriage” will mean simply keeping things the way they are, only being more kind and fair to homosexual couples.

In fact the changes will be dramatic: The word “marriage” will be applied to more and more relationships. Polygamists in Canada are already making significant strides in gaining legitimacy for their “marriages.” American polygamists are gearing up to follow.

If homosexual “marriage” is legalized, it will — by law — be as celebrated as marriage is today. Public schools will include texts and materials treating the two types of marriages identically. So will ads, billboards, posters and displays at your public library. If you die, your children could be adopted by either a homosexual couple or a heterosexual couple — to prefer one over the other would be illegal.

What you can do.

Write to your representatives in state and federal government. Find their names and addresses by typing in your ZIP code at Vote-Smart.org. Use the arguments above or your own arguments. Ask them to back the Federal Marriage Amendment. Ask what they plan to do to stop the assault on marriage.

Pray. Pope John Paul II asked Catholics to pray daily Rosaries for defense of the family. He said attacks on the family were “menacing … so as to make us fear for the future of this fundamental and indispensable institution and, with it, for the future of society as a whole.”

Evangelize. Pope Benedict XVI says the world needs to see evidence that traditional marriage is a path to human flourishing. The world is looking to us as examples — for good or ill. The first way to evangelize is by joyfully living our own family lives deeply.

Copyright © 2007 Circle Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

REPEAL OF THE 1993 LAW RE HOMOSEXUALS IN THE MILITARY WOULD BREAK THE VOLUNTEER FORCE Home   |   About Us   |   Issue Overview   |   Contact Us   |   Frequently Asked Questions Concerns Regarding Recruiting, Retention, And Readiness Legislation (H.R. 1283) has been introduced in the 111th Congress to repeal the 1993 statute regarding homosexuals in the military, Section 654, Title 10, U.S.C., which is frequently mislabeled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” In anticipation of this action, a number of retired flag and general officers decided that it would be important to show support for this law, which was written to protect unit cohesion and morale in our military. Congress approved the statute in 1993 with bipartisan, veto-proof majorities in both houses, and federal courts have upheld it as constitutional several times. We believe firmly that this law deserves continued support. This is a list of 1,152 distinguished retired military leaders from all branches of the service who have shown their support for the 1993 law with personal signatures requested and received by regular mail. The list includes two former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, several Service Chiefs, a number of combatant command, theater, and other major U.S. and allied force commanders, together with two Medal of Honor recipients and hundreds of retired flag and general officers who have led the men and women of our armed services at every echelon, in both peace and war, past and present: We, the Undersigned Flag & General Officers On March 31, we delivered an open letter to the President of the United States and other administration officials. This letter and a similar one addressed to Congressional leaders covered this statement, which was prepared and delivered with 1,050 signatures at that time: Statement of Support for Section 654, Title 10, U.S.C. As our Statement to the President and Members of Congress affirms, we consider this issue to be a matter of national security: "Our past experience as military leaders leads us to be greatly concerned about the impact of repeal [of the law] on morale, discipline, unit cohesion, and overall military readiness. We believe that imposing this burden on our men and women in uniform would undermine recruiting and retention, impact leadership at all levels, have adverse effects on the willingness of parents who lend their sons and daughters to military service, and eventually break the All-Volunteer Force." Retired officers who initiated this independent Flag and General Officers for the Military project appreciate the support of those who responded with good wishes and more than 1,000 personal signatures. We trust that the presentation of these signatures to the President and Members of Congress will encourage serious, responsible debate on the consequences of repealing the 1993 law. Many of our concerns regarding recruiting, retention, and readiness are summarized here: Issue Overview We believe firmly that Section 654, Title 10, which Congress passed to protect good order, discipline, and morale in the unique environment of the armed forces, deserves continued support. More information on this issue is available from the Center for Military Readiness, which provided administrative support for this project. CMR is an independent, non-partisan public policy organization that specializes in military/social issues.