Catholic Fire

A 60-year-old Indian woman shocked doctors, and herself, when she unexpectedly gave birth to a healthy 3.5 kg (7 lb 11 oz) baby girl last Thursday. Only identified as Lilabai, the mother of (now) four children presented herself at the Prakash Chand Sethi Hospital last Tuesday, June 11, with stomach pains, reports the India Times. Upon examination, it was determined she was with child and was presenting low hemoglobin levels. She was immediately rushed to a maternity ward at Mahraja Yeshwantrao Hospital to be stabilized before delivering the child via cesarean section. Lilabai was reportedly in “good spirits” before surgery. Dr. Lakshmi Maru, the head of gynecology at MYH, declared the procedure a success, saying, “The patient and the baby are healthy.” Lilabai was thankful for her health, but even more so for the safe delivery. Read full story.

Image Source The mother whose story inspired the hit movie “The Blindside” has taken on a new television series to assist families in navigating the process of adoption. “We are taking one family at a time and we are trying to make a difference,” said Leigh Anne Tuohy, adoptive mother of Super Bowl champion and offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, Michael Oher. Ever since her family’s real life story of taking in – and eventually adopting – a teen from the streets has captured the public’s attention, Tuohy said members of the family have been offered spots on numerous shows, from “The Amazing Race” to “Undercover Boss.” “We’ve turned them all down because that’s just not who we are,” she said in a recent press call. However, Tuohy recently decided to get involved with UP’s “Family Addition” because “it just enhances our platform and our message” that “every child is valuable” and “every kid in every country of this world is valuable and worth having a forever family....

April 22, 2013 --Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed legislation creating a new center at the state's medical school for researching potential cures using adult stem cells. The bill signed into law Monday by Brownback prohibits the new center at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City from using money or resources on research with embryonic stem cells. Instead, the aim is to make Kansas a leader in research with adult stem cells and stem cells from babies' umbilical cord blood. Excerpted from  KAKE News. Image Source

A major highlight for the Year of Faith will be a two-day celebration in Rome on the Church’s teaching about the dignity of life and how it fits with the New Evangelization. Father Geno Sylva, the English-language official for the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, hopes the event will speak so clearly to the secular world that it is “going to have to listen and say, ‘well, there is a culture of life coming out of the Church.’” The June 15-16 international gathering will begin on Saturday morning with a catechesis session on “The Gospel of Life and the New Evangelization.” The event will “explore the enduring and timeless truths of Blessed John Paul II's 1995 encyclical, ‘Evangelium Vitae,’ and the central role that the Gospel of Life continues to have in the Church's mission of the New Evangelization,” according to organizers. More

NAPLES, Fla : For the first time in 12 years, Planned Parenthood in Collier County is offering abortions. Dozens of anti-abortion rights activists from Ave Maria University gathered outside the clinic in the early morning hours in a solemn protest of the procedures. Students from Ave Maria began arriving at midnight and by 4 a.m. there were about 40 students standing on the sidewalk singing hymns and praying, with lit candles on the sidewalk. "We don't want to hurt anyone, we don't want to kill anyone. We're not asking for damnation, we want everyone to go to heaven. We're praying for salvation, for the conversion of everyone," said Ave Maria student Dave Tomaszycki. Click here to read the rest of the story and to view the videos.

On “Fox News Sunday” this past weekend, budget director Peter Orszag said he is “not prepared to rule ... out” taxpayer financing for abortions. This video accurately and concisely summarizes what Obama's disastrous health care reform legislation is trying to do -- force US citizens to pay for all abortions that will be financed by both public funds and private insurance. From the Philadelphia Bulletin: The nation’s largest provider of abortions laid siege to Capitol Hill Thursday lobbying lawmakers to include “women’s health” issues in the massive Obama health care plan. The health care push came on the same day Planned Parenthood, along with other foster care/adoption organizations, launched a new effort Thursday to reduce teen pregnancy among foster care youth. Read the entire article. Here's what Pro-lifers are doing to fight back: The largest pro-life webcast in history will take place tomorrow (7/23 @ 9 pm) to mobilize on fighting mandate of taxpayer funded abortion – ...

As Obama tries to force his socialized medicine plan on US citizens, which, if passed, will use taxpayer's money to pay for contraception and abortion, a Catholic pro-life couple in Madison, Wisconsin have found a better solution to the health care crisis by offering free care to the uninsured. Patients with insurance only pay a single yearly fee. From CNA: When Drs. Michael Kloess and Anne Volk Johnson became unhappy with the medical system in which they worked, they decided to found Our Lady of Hope Clinic. Their goal was to start a clinic where they could minister to the poor while being free to practice their Catholic faith fully. Our Lady of Hope Clinic is “totally pro-life and totally Catholic,” developmental director Steven Karlen told CNA. “So they don’t have to dispense birth control, they don’t have to refer for sterilizations or in-vitro or abortion or anything of that nature. They can practice in complete accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church.” The ab...

He’s a very serious scholar. The German professor Uwe Siemon-Netto holds advanced degrees in theology and sociology. He is director of the Center for Lutheran Theology and Public Life. So I was not prepared for his answer when I asked him how he organized a protest demonstration outside Planned Parenthood in St. Louis. “We needed to attract attention,” he said, “so, why not go in drag?” I burst out laughing. He meant, of course, not seminary professors dressed up as women, but learned profs marching for life in their full, flowing academic gowns. And what a public display they made! They took part in the Forty Days of Life movement during the last Lenten season. Dr. Siemon-Netto wanted especially to show Ph.D.s demonstrating their concern for unborn children. These Lutherans processed from Concordia Lutheran Seminary, where pastors are trained for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). Monsignor Theodore Wojcicki from the Catholic Kenrick Glennon Seminary of the Archdiocese of St. ...

Watch Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey give Hillary Clinton a lecture here: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry dialogues with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on foreign policy. Related Posts: CNA: Secretary Clinton confirms U.S. thinks abortion access is ‘reproductive health’ Inside Catholic: Clinton confirms reproductive health includes abortion

I reported on this craziness earlier ... but now a lawsuit has been filed. Michael Savage has filed a federal lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The Thomas More Law Center , a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced Thursday that it filed a federal lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The lawsuit claims that her Department’s “Rightwing Extremism Policy,” as reflected in the recently publicized Intelligence Assessment, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” violates the civil liberties of combat veterans as well as American citizens by targeting them for disfavored treatment on account of their political beliefs. Click here to read the complaint filed by the Thomas More Law Center. Napolitano tried to blunt the public furor over the Report by a half-hearted apology to veterans, but she left out of her apology all of the oth...

The University of Notre Dame’s student-formed coalition, Notre Dame Response, has announced plans for its first official demonstration on campus: a 2:00 PM prayer rally on Sunday, April 5, 2009 to be held in front of the University’s Main Building following the noon Palm Sunday Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The coalition was formed in response to the University’s announcement, earlier this month, of its selection of President Barack Obama as its 2009 Commencement speaker. The University also plans to award the President an honorary doctor of laws degree during the Commencement exercises. The main speaker at the rally will be nationally recognized attorney, Harold Cassidy , who has litigated pro-life cases that have advanced the true rights and interests of pregnant mothers. He will address the human rights violations of abortion, and how abortion violates the rights, interests and health of women. Central to that discussion will be remarks concerning the role of Catholic i...

Via LifesiteNews: WICHITA, Kansas - A Kansas jury has declared late-term abortionist George Tiller not guilty on 19 counts of performing illegal late-term abortions. Tiller was accused of breaking a non-affiliation law that required an independent doctor to sign off on late-term abortions, verifying that the abortions are needed to save the life of the mother or avoid major bodily harm. The prosecution alleged that Tiller's close association with abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus, to whom Tiller regularly sent patients to receive the requisite second opinion, turned Tiller's facility into a "one-stop shop" for abortions. During closing arguments today, Assistant Attorney General Barry Disney made the case that, based on Tiller's own notes and on his own words during the trial, he and abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus were financially affiliated, in violation of the law. Disney pointed to evidence and testimony that Tiller consulted on Neuhaus' fee and approved th...

From Stephen Ertlet at LifeNews.Com: Leading pro-life advocates have been criticized by the mainstream media for organizing an active opposition to the radical Freedom of Choice Act because the bill has yet to be filed in Congress. However, a leading pro-abortion Congressman calls FOCA a top priority and says the bill is coming soon. A spokesman for Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat who is chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee that could consider the bill, says the bill is forthcoming. FOCA "is among the congressman's priorities. We expect to reintroduce it sooner rather than later," Ilan Kayatsky told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Article.

Many people in the blogosphere are expressing their disappointment with Senator Sam Brownback's endorsement of KS Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Department of HHS secretary, but Leticia, who considered Brownback a pro-life hero seems to have been hit the hardest. Read her post here. Ángel Soto, writer and director of 22weeks , just won its first award, a Silver Angel, "for excellence in production on a film with social impact," on the 2009 Angel Awards! Jill Stanek has the story. An assisted suicide group has announced it will compile a directory of physicians who will assist terminally ill patients seeking lethal medication prescriptions after a Washington state assisted suicide law takes effect on Thursday . The group expects a “cultural shift” in the state will encourage more doctors to assist in suicides. The move follows the passage of Washington’s Initiative 1000, which won nearly 60 percent of the vote in the November 2008 election. The Ave Maria Oratory at Ave M...

Dr. Lisa Hornberger doesn't want babies to be born with broken hearts. Some she can't prevent, but others she has found and saved while they're in the womb. Hornberger is a renowned fetal cardiologist recruited by Alberta Health Services and the University of Alberta last fall. She will help women whose fetuses have ailing hearts and develop a fetal cardiovascular program, as she did in children's hospitals in Boston, Toronto and most recently San Francisco. Read the rest here.

Yes, there's always a contender - Spirit Daily , a good news-site, has long been considered the Catholic version of the Drudge Report . But there is another kid on the block, now. It is culturewarnotes.com . Read more about it here. H/T: The Fifth Column

By Judie Brown Every year, at about this time, many Americans make what are commonly known as New Year's resolutions. It is no surprise to any of us mere mortals that most of these resolutions may not last beyond the time it takes to enunciate them. But I think that there are a couple that all of us in the pro-life community could adopt with gusto and keep, regardless of the political atmosphere, cultural meltdown or increasing lack of belief in God. The first is based on the profound words spoken last month by Dominican Father Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Father DiNoia was lecturing at Rome’s Pontifical North American College, and it is reported that he said the following in his message: No one in his or her right mind will be interested in a faith about which its exponents seem too embarrassed to communicate forthrightly… We have to be convinced that the fullness of the truth and beauty of the message about Jesus Christ is p...

'Tis the season to sock it to Phill Kline. It's time to beat up on the annoying pro-life Christian attorney again. In her post today , Jill Stanek shares: I wrote in my column yesterday that part of Planned Parenthood of KS/George Tiller's strategy to beat Phill Kline's rap against them is to file nuisance lawsuits and subpoenas to persecute their prosecutor. The ink is barely dry on the KS Supreme Court's latest decision against PP and in favor of Kline, and the Associated Press is reporting PP plans to file its SIXTH subpoena against Kline to go over the same issue: the working copies of records he has.... This is interesting . According to Jill, as she understands it , the subpoena cites no case law or statute. It has been filed without legal precedent. A hearing is scheduled for December 18 before the very same judge, Stephen Tatum - who has yet to schedule a hearing to decide whether Kline has enough evidence against PP to go to trial! Read the entire post...

Via Rosary Films.

Denver, Jul 29, 2008 (CNA).- Colorado for Equal Rights, an organization backing a measure on the Colorado ballot that would define a person in the state’s Constitution as “any human being from the moment of fertilization,” has released a list of over 70 physicians and pharmacists from around the United States who agree that a person includes any human from the moment of conception. "We are honored to have received these endorsements from such respected physicians," stated Kristi Burton, head of Colorado for Equal Rights. "Science clearly proves that life begins at the time of fertilization. We are secure in the fact that we have science and reason on our side, and we are pleased to have the medical community supporting our efforts." "As support for Amendment 48 accumulates, we are very encouraged as we get closer to November's election," Burton said. "Every human life should be protected, and the endorsements we continue to receive prove that our ...