Fr. Thomas Enteneur, the current head of Human Life International, called LifeSiteNews today with the news of Fr. Marx’s death and stated the following about his organization’s founder:

“Because of Fr. Paul Marx, the world has a pro-life movement. He travelled 3 million miles to over 90 countries and was like the Johnney Appleseed of the pro-life movement planting pro-life groups everywhere he went. Pope John Paul II called him the apostle of life with good reason. We miss him terribly but we pray that he has not entered into the fullness of life for which he worked so hard in this world.”

Stephen Mosher of the Population Research Institute, also mourned Fr. Marx’ passing in a release today.

“It grieves me to tell you that Father Paul Marx, OSB, my mentor and spiritual Father, went to his reward this morning, March 20, at 8:30 a.m., said Mosher.

“Father Marx touched my life in many ways—he helped to bring me into the Catholic Church, he founded the Population Research Institute and served as its long-time Chairman, and he did me the honor of allowing me to work alongside him in defending Life.”

In his statement Mosher also urged, “May we all, in honor of this great Apostle of Life, redouble our efforts on behalf of God’s little ones.”

Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life also issued a statement about the passing of the great pro-life priest:

“I just learned with sorrow of the death of one of the world’s greatest pro-life advocates, Fr. Paul Marx, OSB.

“Fr. Marx was, first and foremost, a priest who was not afraid to be a prophet. He knew that his mission in bearing witness to the Gospel and in fostering love of God and neighbor compelled him to speak up for our smallest neighbors, those in the first moments and weeks of life. He undertook countless initiatives, made seemingly endless trips, gave innumerable talks, wrote a warehouse of articles and books, and inspired countless people in the effort to build a Culture of Life.

“I first came to know Fr. Marx through his founding and leadership of Human Life International and the remarkable conferences he held for pro-life advocates around the world. He was always a clear reminder to his brother priests that we should never be afraid to speak about abortion, contraception, and the beauty of human sexuality as taught by the Church. All of us at Priests for Life are grateful for the strong encouragement he gave to our ministry. We will pray not only for the repose of his soul, but for the continued fruit of his labors in the minds and hearts of so many people and in the policies of so many nations.”

Fr. Euteneur stated that the wake service for Fr. Marx will take place on Thursday night, the Feast of the Annunciation, at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Benedictine Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. The funeral will follow on Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the same location.

Roger Scruton, a British philosopher whose area of specialty is the study of aesthetics, recently aired a 1-hour special on BBC, a visual essay entitled “Why Beauty Matters.” I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this video, in the way one does stumble upon things on the internet, and it has sent my head spinning.

Towards the beginning of the essay Scruton lays out his thesis, stating in his rich British accent as Giovanni Pergolesi’s haunting Stabat Mater plays in the background: “I think we are losing beauty, and there is a danger that with it we will lose the meaning of life.”

To prove his point, Scruton looks at the world of art and architecture, detailing how in the last century there has been a conscious rebellion by artists against the old ethic of beauty, in which beauty was considered “a value as important as truth or goodness,” towards a new “cult of ugliness,” characterized by selfishness and an endless searching for originality, “however achieved, and at whatever moral cost that won the prizes.”

It is hard to dispute Scruton’s point.

However, there is one especially excellent section of the program that does not have to do with art, and which therefore serves to enlarge his argument. In this section Scruton treats of the typical reaction we might have to a newborn baby.

He says:

Consider the joy you might feel when you hold a friend’s baby in your arms. You don’t want to do anything with the baby. You don’t want to eat it, to put it to any use, or to conduct scientific experiments on it. You want simply to look at it and feel the great surge of delight that comes when you focus all your thoughts on this baby, and none at all on yourself.

This experience is what C.S. Lewis once labeled “Joy.” According to Scruton, it is what Emmanual Kant called a “disinterested attitude,” which occurs “when we put our interests to one side, when we look on things not in order to use them for our purposes, or to explain how they work, or to satisfy some need or appetite, but simply to absorb them and endorse what they are. ”

Earlier this year I became a father.  What has struck me since the birth of my son is that while I was very much prepared to be a father (inasmuch as one can be prepared), and while I expected to find great joy in fatherhood, I was not prepared for just how great that joy would be. If I had watched Scruton’s program eight months ago, I would not have understood fully his description of what it is like to look at a baby. Like any typical younger man, I had never before taken much interest in babies. I did not dislike them; in fact, I was relatively sure that I liked them quite a bit. But I had certainly never taken the time to “focus all my thoughts” on one.

I have, therefore, been shocked to find that I would willingly spend all day simply contemplating my son, and, what is more, would not feel that I had wasted any time in doing so – on the contrary, I would feel that I had done something extremely worthwhile.

Every human being feels in the depths of their being this pull towards doing absolutely nothing – nothing, that is, except beholding something that is good, and, in the words of Scruton, “absorbing” it and “endorsing” what it is. We feel this pull to suspend all “worthwhile” activities, the activities that produce things, in order to appreciate things. And we intuitively feel that if only we could do this always, we would have peace, and would be exquisitely happy.

Many names have been given to this activity of “appreciation,” but probably the most common is “contemplation.” Interestingly, both the philosophers and poets and the saints have used this term to describe the same core experience, but in reference to two very different things. The philosophers and poets use the term to describe the activity of appreciating some good or beautiful natural thing – like a beautiful idea, or a breath-taking landscape, or a loved one, or a newborn baby. The saints, on the other hand, have used it to describe the experience of absorption into God – the pure, lofty activity of simply pondering Who God is, and worshipping (endorsing) Who He is.

One of the greatest achievements of Christianity has been the manner in which it has given its blessing to both types of contemplation, and woven them together into a seamless and beautiful whole. This was no small task. Throughout history narrow-minded, but often extremely shrewd and determined men have tended to worship one form, and to condemn the other, pitting the two against each other – either praising the spiritual realm, and condemning all things natural, or worshipping the natural world, and denying even the existence of the spiritual.

Christianity, however, has always avoided such narrowness, affirming that while God is the Ultimate Good, the contemplation of nature can be a powerful and effective method of discovering Who God is – in the understanding that the author (God) can never entirely remove himself from his work (nature). This has led to Christianity’s being the greatest source of beauty that the world has ever yet seen – a religion teeming with Churches of the most astonishing harmony, complexity, and majesty (think St. Peter’s or Notre Dame), with paintings and frescoes and statues that defy description (Michaelangelo’s Pieta, Caravaggio’s St. Paul), and liturgies celebrated to the sounds of musical compositions of heart-rending sublimity (Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, mentioned earlier in this article).

This all began, however, with the nativity.

In the stable in Bethlehem, nature and God were allied so intimately that, in some mysterious way, they were contained within the same newborn baby. We do not understand this mystery. We cannot understand it. However, what we can understand is the effect that this union of man and God has had upon the world.

One of these effects is that it introduced beauty into the world, in a way that had never before been seen.

In the stable in Bethlehem, nature and God were clearly seen not to be opposed to one another, but allies in the task of saving the human race. In the world of nature, there is perhaps nothing more beautiful than a newborn baby. And in all the universe there is nothing more beautiful than God Himself. In the manger, these two beauties were brought together, and the combination of the two was so explosive, so volatile, that it altered the face of the earth.

What has always distinguished Christmas from any other time of year is its painfully acute beauty. It is full of sounds and sights and smells that lift one’s spirit, that are designed to be transporting. But in our broken and materialistic age this beauty has become a cause of despair for so many, because so many do not know or understand what they are being transported towards. Everything about Christmas demands that we consider something greater than ourselves, that we abandon all thoughts of ourselves, and focus all of our thoughts on this other thing. But we no longer know what this other thing is. Therefore we try to fill the void, and the essence of the season’s celebration is reduced to “the holiday spirit,” or “brotherhood,” or “peace,” or “giving.” But none of these things can fully satisfy. Hence, the “Christmas blues.”

No, the satisfaction of the yearning in our hearts inspired by the rich traditions of Christmas can only be found in the stable in Bethlehem. There the sublime natural beauties of birth and baby are joined together with the supernatural beauty of God. The consequence is that when we truly encounter the Christmas mystery it engages our whole being – our senses, our emotions, our intellect, our will – raising us above ourselves until we are forced to our knees, overcome with a feeling of awe at the sheer, breathtaking sublimity of the thing.

We will know, then, that we are celebrating Christmas well when we have taken at least a few moments to focus all of our thoughts on the beauty of Bethlehem, and none at all on ourselves - when we “absorb” this great mystery and simply “endorse” what it is.

FRC states, “It’s going to be tough sledding for Senate Democrats over Christmas–and not because of the snow. America’s rage over the leadership’s bill is exploding on all sides.” The leading US family action organization notes that Democrat Senators are already being faced with rallies at their local offices. FRC says, “The biggest bulls-eye seems to be squarely on Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who sold out his pro-life soul faster than you can say “Medicare exemption.”

Nebraskan politicians are said to be mortified by Sen. Nelson’s “betrayal of his pro-life principles” with Nebraska Sen. Johanns stating that Nebraskans are “outraged that a backroom deal” for their state might have been what put “this deal across the finish line.” FRC reports that “even Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, said he wants no part“ of the special deals negotiated by Nelson for the state and that Heineman “made it quite clear that “the responsibility for this special deal lies solely on the shoulders of Senator Ben Nelson.”

FRC reports that in a new video Secretary Kathleen Sebelius praises Nelson’s language, because, “it ensures that everyone will pay for abortion–no matter how the funds are divided up.” This will cause political reaction, says FRC, since, “according to a new Quinnipiac poll, Americans–by a huge three to one margin–are overwhelmingly opposed to using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion.”

FRC stresses that ObamaCare is not inevitable because of the abortion controversy and that at least seven more obstacles listed on FRC’s Cloakroom “could kill the bill for good.”

FRC notes that many “ne’er-do-well” agencies such as Planned Parenthood, ACORN, unions and even the liberal George Soros Moveon.org stand to benefit from billions of dollars of new funds as a result of the deals arranged in the final health care bill.

Lastly, in today’s Update FRC reports that home town protest rallies at Senators’ offices are sprouting up everywhere with special targets being Senators Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson and Jim Webb. It is reported that “Americans everywhere are putting their Christmas plans on hold to turn out by the thousands against the Senate version of health care reform” and that “this is just a preview of things to come if the bill survives the Senate and heads to conference.”

Massive Funding Received by Anti-Life Organizations

In Canada, all abortions are fully funded by taxation dollars. Abortion advocating feminist and other organizations are given millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars from all levels of government, plus funds from wealthy multinational foundations and other sources. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation reported that Canada’s Conservative government gave $80 Million to de-population groups in 2006/07. $44,050,000 went to the UNFPA, and $18 million each went to Planned Parenthood and UNICEF.

The Minister for Canadian International Cooperation Minister in the federal Liberal government in the year 2000 unveiled a $2.8 billion five-year plan to promote population control, abortion, abortifacient contraception, homosexuality and sex education targeted at poor nations. The list of abortion funding sources seems endless. By comparison, Canadian pro-life groups have had to work with a fraction of 1% of the amounts give to pro-abortion organizations to counter the influence of these groups.

In the United States, Planned Parenthood receives massive funds from government. Jim Sedlak, the executive director of STOPP International reported that according to PP’s 2005-06 report, the organization received taxpayer funds for that year alone totalling $305.3 million and it has amassed assets worth $839.8 million. According to PPFA’s financial report for 2007-2008, the abortion provider brought in total revenue of $1.038 billion and posted an $85 million profit.

The giant pro-abortion US foundations have given hundreds of millions towards population control related initiatives throughout the world. One of the nation’s ten largest foundations, the MacArthur Foundation, in 2002 had assets of $4.2 billion and was reporting to be making grants totalling approximately $227 million annually. LifeSiteNews reported then that a list of recipients of grants from the MacArthur Foundation includes most of the enemies of life, faith and family that exist on the international level, as well as those in specific countries which the foundation targets. Apart from funding ‘Catholics for a Free Choice’ and International Planned Parenthood, the foundation targets funds towards abortion and population-control-promoting groups in Brazil, India, Mexico and Nigeria.

Then there is the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Packard Foundation and the newer, far larger Buffet and the Gates Foundations - all for many years pouring millions into initiatives and groups around the world that advance what we emphasize is a Culture of Death. A 2002 Vida Humana Internacional report gives some idea of where these foundation funds went to in Latin America at that time.
“The Most Important Work on Earth”

Wealthy principled, pro-life leaning groups and individuals regularly give millions, if not billions to all kinds of worthy charitable and religious organizations every year. This is good. But they still have not caught on that the work that organizations like Campaign Life Coalition do is of an even higher level of importance. Pope John Paul II told HLI’s Father Paul Marx in 1979 that pro-life is “the most important work on earth.” Other leading figures have made similar statements.

“The pro-life movement is really all that there is consistently and daily fighting the death movement,” says Hughes. “They are the David fighting the Goliath and yet they’re not even given the slingshot and stones which were all that David needed to slay Goliath.” “It can be disheartening at times,” says Hughes, especially given the intimate knowledge that the organization has of the great tragedy and destruction of abortion and its many related evils.

The situation is more crucial now than ever in history. In Canada, there is a greater vacuum of political and other leadership on the life issues than Hughes has ever seen. In the United States, the Obama administration is the most anti-life, antifamily government in U.S. history. Under President Obama the powerful American UN delegation has had it’s direction completely reversed and is now committed to pushing a world-wide right to abortion. The growing power of what is becoming a totalitarian EU bureaucracy is a massive threat to life and family.

“In other words,” says Hughes, “there’s never been a time that a strong national and international pro-life movement has been needed so much, including a much stronger LifeSiteNews international news service.” “And yet”, he says, “we are crippled by not receiving even remotely sufficient support from those who should be logically supporting us.”

Hughes says, “we don’t need much, you know, compared to the resources of our opponents. Pro-life workers around the world perform miracles with whatever they are given because of their incredible dedication and the fact that they are strengthened by their religious faith and their passion for justice on this issue.” “But,” he emphasizes, “they do need far more support than they have been getting — especially from the wealthy and influential who are pro-life.

Why CLC, for instance, hasn’t been getting donations of $1 million, $5 million, $10 million — is beyond me,” Hughes says. “But that has to change and very soon. Those amounts would provide the comparative slingshot and pebbles needed to slay the anti-life Goliath with it’s billions of dollars of funding.”

The veteran national and international pro-life leader suggests that “if those with large financial resources give a healthy proportion of their usual charitable donation funds to pro-life, they will save vastly more lives and do more long-term good for the world than everything else that they normally support combined.”
This is About More Than Abortion

“The pro-life moment movement is not only about abortion,” he says. “It is fighting an international movement engaged in a variety of efforts to massively reduce the world’s population.” “And to achieve that”, Hughes explains, “they know they must also eliminate or at least severely limit the influence of religion and traditional cultures that emphasize the dignity and sacredness of human life and the importance of the natural family. They are doing that now.”

“Their movement is a danger to everyone,” Hughes says. “And unless we begin to take seriously that we have to fight this war, all the other things that we fund will achieve very little.” “There will be far less of a future for people of principle and traditional values and a disturbing future for their children and grandchildren in this new world order that will be radically different from what we have worked and hoped for.”

“However,” Hughes stresses, “as big and as powerful as our opponents are, we are on God’s side, so we have truth on our side. We have natural law on our side.” The condition, he says, is that “we need much more support of every kind from those who know what is right and what is wrong.”

The CLC President says, “Right now, our organization, for instance, is struggling to not have to lay off more critically needed staff. It’s not going well. And yet, that is ridiculous. We have so much to do.”

Angel Investors Needed

The little people are still doing their very best for the cause of life. What is needed, as can be seen from Jim Hughes’s comments, is for those with larger financial means to finally come on board.

There is a special need at this moment for what is termed in the business world, “angel investors”, to not only just keep CLC, LifeSiteNews and all the other effective, dedicated groups in the world going, but to help them get to that higher level of organization and influence that will eventually result in more funds coming in to sustain the new level of activity.

The return of investment for the angel investors would however not be a direct financial return on their investment. Pro-life angel investors would receive the same return as all those who have already been giving so much of their lives for this cause — the sure knowledge there that they are contributing their required share to “the most important work on earth.”

At the end of their days they would be assured of the blessed certainty that they responded to God’s call to protect the precious lives of the most innocent and vulnerable of his highest creation willed by him specifically to be with him for eternity.

“In other words,” says Hughes, “being involved in or at least supporting pro-life work with the right motivation, has lasting benefits that cannot be compared to the always passing rewards of the material life. It is a work of justice at its very highest level. It is the best possilble type of legacy to leave the world.”

Some years ago U.S. Congressman Hyde made a speech on the abortion issue that struck so deep to the core of the responsibility and rightness of defending the unborn that it has been repeated on numerous websites and in many print publications ever since. The quote seems to be especially appropriate to end this article.

When the Time Comes by Henry Hyde:

“When the time comes as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I’ve often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God and a terror will rip through your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, “Spare him because he loved us,” and God will look at you and say not, “Did you succeed?” but “Did you try?”‘

See also Beggars vs. Giants: More Powerful Quotes

Mother Teresa said, “The greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.” Pope John Paul II called abortion “legal extermination.” He compared abortion to the Nazi Holocaust and stressed that the abortion “rights” movement could “drive democratic regimes to transform themselves into totalitarian regimes.” That decline in fundamental freedoms has been occurring now in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

Pope Benedict XVI told the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2007 “to guarantee the right to life for all and in an equal manner for all is the duty upon which the future of humanity depends.” He has also stressed that “today’s gravest injustice” is the destruction of new life.

Abortion has spawned a long and still growing list of related assaults on life that are taking us down a truly frightening path, leading to even more massive killing of the most vulnerable and innocent.

And yet, mysteriously, despite all of this, there are still relatively few people who are taking seriously enough the great dangers of the international death culture spawned by abortion and its parent movement – the perversion of human sexuality.
The Beggarly Pro-Life Movement

Coincident with all of this is the mystery of the relative beggarly existence that most pro-life organizations around the world have been forced to endure while they have attempted to fight the massively supported and financed anti-life Goliath.

Pro-life leaders, through their intense commitment to the cause for many years, have developed an expert knowledge of the many issues involved in this struggle and the actions needed to restore a culture of life. And yet, their effectiveness has been crippled by poor or inconsistent support or even active opposition from influential persons or organizations that should have been their natural allies.

The “politically incorrect” and “controversial” work of pro-life organizations has been repellent to much of the secular and even religious establishment. It is not seen as attractive work. It is about opposing killing and about promoting traditional sexual ethics, which receives much hostility from the popular culture. Pro-life causes discomfort.

The result is that pro-life groups have been forced to depend overwhelmingly upon volunteers and minimally compensated paid staff. These groups, including LifeSiteNews, which assists them, are fighting the greatest war in history. And yet, they are usually handicapped by a severe lack of resources and a pattern of enthusiastic, bright young workers who come and then go because they cannot be given sufficient income to marry and raise a family. They also move on because of the long, stressful hours and seeming lack of success of what should normally be successful actions undertaken with the same effort and skill in almost all other contexts.

Most people believe that pro-life organizations are heavily supported by Church organizations. Idealistic new workers to the movement usually soon experience a shocking and deflating realization about this.

With the notable exceptions of some individual clergy and certain special events, church institutions and leaders are inconsistently supportive of the pro-life cause. Many do not in practice give it a high priority. Communications with pro-life leaders is poor. Indifference is common. Some Church leaders even actively oppose crucial actions undertaken by the movement’s organizations. This is especially the case with regard to political and legislative decisions and efforts. That is often the most disheartening aspect of pro-life work.

The Culture War

The Culture War is now at a dire crossroads. Peter Kreeft, in his book and frequently given talk, How to Win the Culture War, notes that “To win any war” one of “the three most necessary things we must know” is “that we are at war.” This has been a huge problem for the always struggling pro-life movement since its beginning: most principled, moral people still do not realize that this great war is going on, has been for about 40 years, and that they cannot avoid being affected by it.

As Kreeft says, “If you are surprised to be told that our entire civilization is in crisis, I welcome you back from your nice vacation on the moon.” The renowned Catholic philosopher and prolific author continues, “Many minds do seem moonstruck, puttering happily around the Titanic, blandly arranging the deck chairs.”

That, to some degree explains what most pro-life leaders and we at LifeSiteNews have been up against since we began our various missions to try to stop the advance of what Pope John Paul II labelled The Culture of Death or as Chuck Colson has warned is a looming “new dark age.”

Kreeft explains that there is a deeper, more ominous dimension to the Culture War. He says, “eternal souls will die – billions of Ramones and Vladimirs and Tiffanys and Bridgets will go to hell. That’s what’s at stake in this war.” It is really, he says, a war against “powers and principalities” – on a very great scale – perhaps the greatest in all of human history.

One Organizations’ Past and Current Struggles

Canada’s national pro-life organization, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), is an example of one of the larger and more effective organizations that has been heroically waging this seemingly impossible battle on many fronts. During it’s over 30 years of existence, CLC has been doing truly extraordinary things against a vastly greater funded opposition on both the local, national and international levels. Among its numerous projects, CLC was the original parent organization and the main financial backer of LifeSiteNews.com, but is no longer able to provide that support.

Right now CLC and many other pro-life groups are struggling financially like they never have before. At the same time, the organizations promoting the death culture have been receiving hundreds of millions, if not billions, from governments at all levels, giant private foundations and numerous other sources. In addition they receive massive ongoing other support for their agendas from the world’s mainstream media, government and education institutions, the United Nations and other international agencies and textbook, magazine and other publishers.

It is not even remotely a fair fight.

The leaders and workers at CLC (and for that matter the workers of most pro-life groups in the world) see up close every day the enormity of what the death movement is doing to individuals and to all of society. They are the professionals, the experts on these issues. And yet everyday they have to beg and plead for financial and other support that never even begins to approach the levels needed.

What would have happened if during the Second World War the Allied generals and troops had to constantly, personally beg for money and other resources to wage each desperate battle against the enemies of freedom, but were met with indifference from those whose help they needed the most? That is the situation of the pro-life movement.

Pro-life soldiers in the field at the battle front are often fighting with pea shooters, while at the same time having to constantly expend much time and energy pleading for even a minimum of moral support and financial support for real weapons to wage the culture war – which they know they can and will one day win.
Ordinary People The Real Heroes

Campaign Life Coalition, LifeSiteNews and the large majority of pro-life organizations in North America and elsewhere have been supported almost entirely by generous ordinary people – the real heroes of the movement. They have sacrificed year after year, giving up precious time and limited personal financial resources while not expecting anything in return, not even a tax receipt. They understand what this is all about. Many of them are dismayed over the lack of support and even opposition from the more powerful and wealthy in both civil and religious society.

Without these ordinary folks, there surely would not be any pro-life movement. The battle would have been over long ago. There would be no one putting the finger in the dyke these past many years limiting the great flood of physical death, death of consciences and the complete collapse of our traditional civilization that the anti-human, anti-God movement is leading us all towards.
Wealthy and Powerful Still do Not Comprehend Importance of Pro-Life Work

CLC leaders are very concerned that even the very limited financial support they have relied upon has been plummeting because of the current financial crisis. The little people, the traditional supporters of CLC, are hurting. The ongoing mystery is that wealthy individuals and organizations still do not comprehend the enormous importance of CLC’s work and have never, in 30 years, given any substantial donations to this life and civilization-saving organization compared to what they often give to other worthy causes.

Jim Hughes, president of CLC and vice president of International Right to Life, reports that in all the years of CLC’s existence the largest donation the organization has received was $150,000. That amount was received three times from an anonymous person who thankfully did not demand a tax receipt (In Canada, charitable tax rulings have been notoriously biased against groups that might upset the abortion status quo). That level of donation was an extreme rarity. Hughes says he has tried ceaselessly and mostly unsuccessfully to find wealthy benefactors to support the work of CLC and its incredibly dedicated workers.

Part 2 tomorrow…in which some of the massive dollar amounts given to pro-abortion groups are listed.

It was a fascinating funeral with many touching moments and fine speeches. Ted Kennedy was shown to have presented in many ways a very attractive image – an exceptionally generous person, a good father, a faithful friend to many, an accomplished man of the world despite many personal setbacks and hardships.

For Kennedy, Obama, and many of the pro-abortion politicians at the funeral – image is crucial. They rely upon it to influence the public to trust them and to support their political goals. They know that the public can be lulled away from critical thinking and attention to facts if political image is well cultivated and presented.

As we have repeated a number of times in our coverage of Ted Kennedy’s illness and then death, we do not judge his relationship with God. No one can do that. But his public record is another thing. We can and must judge that. He profoundly helped to advance the Culture of Death and other developments harmful to life, family and faith in America.

As for the grandiose funeral broadcast around the world – the Mass, the Church, the priests and Cardinal O’Malley – all appeared to be merely useful props for the liberal establishment to exploit. That establishment was given the keys to do whatever they wanted.

This was not a funeral to beseech God on behalf of the dead and to remind the living of what God expects from them in this life and that they too will meet their maker. That is the purpose of a Catholic funeral. Nothing is taken for granted. We beseech God’s mercy at a Catholic funeral. A Catholic funeral reminds all that there is eternal reward for the faithful but also, a price for sin, a need for repentance, and a need to pray for the dead – since Catholic understanding is that there is indeed a Heaven, a Purgatory and a Hell.

However, the Catholic Church in Boston and Cardinal O’Malley totally capitulated. I felt embarrassment and shame for the good Cardinal.

Saint Kennedy was canonized with not even one appropriate reference from anyone during the entire proceedings addressing his extreme pro-abortion record. By implication, everything that the senator from Massachusetts did in his political life was affirmed during that Catholic Church event.

The tyranny of moral relativism triumphed. The false, very selective, "spirit of Vatican II" social justice version of Catholicism dominated. The beatitudes taken out of context from the gospel can give false assurance and soothingly warp consciences for those who live personal lives in serious violation of that real gospel.

The message from the Boston Catholic Basilica event to all Catholic politicians, to all Catholics in positions of authority and to the world was clear. In the end, abortion doesn’t really matter. Same-sex marriage is not really an important issue. Church moral teachings in general are just talking points for consideration. And finally, the central teaching authority of the Church is an outdated concept. It does not matter what Christ, the Ten Commandments, the Pope’s and the saints have said. Image, worldly respect, your local bishop or priest friend or theologian trump all the other universal things of the faith. I do not at all mean to say that Cardinal O’Malley believes any of this. He does not. But he let this happen and gave the event his presence.

Much of what took place in the Basilica, regarding Kennedy’s political legacy, was missing real love and real charity. Christ showed what true love was and they crucified him for it.

Despite all this, and the Notre Dame scandal and much more of the same, we at LifeSiteNews will continue to do what we must. Pro-life, pro-family leaders will soldier on.

A few years ago in Toronto, the late Fr. Richard Neuhaus addressed the issue of what our attitude should be to disappointments in the pro-life struggle. He stated,

"There are many who do not understand that this is the great civil rights movement of our time, that this is the great human rights movement of our time… and the future will vindicate that we are the avant guard – we are the vanguard.

There are those in the pro-abortion camp who view their position as the progressive position. They are wrong. It is not progressive but barbaric.

This cause will not let you go. Will the Gospel of Life prevail? Oh, yes. The Gospel of Life will prevail. When and in what way we do not know. I am sure some of you know the lines of T.S. Elliot…"For us, there is only trying, the rest is not our business." I understand Elliot to be saying, "the rest is not our business, the rest is God’s business."

In the First Things article, Scandal Time, regarding the clergy sexual abuse scandals, Neuhaus made some comments that would also seem pertinent to Church tolerance of pro-abortion Catholic politicians. Neuhaus wrote,

"What is this crisis about? The answer is that this crisis is about three things: fidelity, fidelity, and fidelity. The fidelity of bishops and priests to the teaching of the Church and to their solemn vows; the fidelity of bishops in exercising oversight in ensuring obedience to that teaching and to those vows; and the fidelity of the lay faithful in holding bishops and priests accountable.

I have been told that the proposition is "controversial," but I suggest it is almost embarrassingly self-evident: if bishops and priests had been faithful to the teaching of the Church and their sacred vows, there would be no scandal. Those who would confuse the subject reflexively reach for complexity. No, I am sorry, it is as simple as that. We are reaping the whirlwind of widespread infidelity."

And finally, a LifeSiteNews reader sent us this excerpt from an address by Archbishop Fulton Sheen to the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in June 1972,

"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious."

Neuhaus’s empathy with the struggles of the ordinary person was very real and unforgettable. He was a great orator, a true, high level Catholic intellectual and yet still a most humble and always approachable man – a rare human. Personal encounters with Fr. Neuhaus were not forgotten.

Neuhaus’s erudite fraternal correction of wayward bishops and other fellow clergy was a rare breath of fresh air compared to the obfuscation, secrecy,  general cowardice and often deep corruption that has reigned in much of the Catholic Church in the US in recent decades. 

Following are excerpts from notable articles on Fr. Neuhaus statements that have been published or referred to in LifeSiteNews.

The first is a six minute clip of audio excerpts from a powerful talk Fr. Neuhaus gave at an International Pro-Life Forum in Toronto on October 25, 2002. Many who heard that talk still often refer to it. The messages impressed them as being especially meaningful to the struggles encountered by pro-life activists.

1. Download and listen to Excerpts from A Blueprint for A Culture of Life
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/audio/Neuhausexcerpts.wma (Window Media file)
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/audio/Neuhausexcerpts.mp3 (mp3 file)

2. Fr. Neuhaus criticizes Archbishop Wuerl on Pro-Abortion Politicians Fiasco
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus wrote on the First Things site about the Pelosi situation.  “When the aforementioned Nancy Pelosi orchestrated a four-day gala in Washington celebrating her familial, ethnic, and-very explicitly-Catholic identity, people were alert to what would be said by the new archbishop of Washington, Donald Wuerl,” wrote Fr. Neuhaus.  “He said nothing. Part of the festivities was a Mass at Trinity College, a Catholic institution in Washington. The celebrant of the Mass was Father Robert Drinan, a Jesuit who, more than any other single figure, has been influential in tutoring Catholic politicians on the acceptability of rejecting the Church’s teaching on the defense of innocent human life. Asked by a reporter, Archbishop Wuerl responded that Fr. Drinan has ‘faculties’ in Washington, meaning he is authorized to celebrate the sacraments. That was it.”

“It is understandable,” concluded Neuhaus, “that Catholics and others have drawn the conclusion that,” for Archbishop Wuerl, “rejecting the Church’s teaching on the human dignity of the unborn child is not a big deal.”  (see full comment by Neuhaus: http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=598 )
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07012501.html

3. “Not Even the Economy Trumps Culture of Life Issues in This Election”: Fr. Richard Neuhaus
“You can ask economic questions, foreign policy questions, fiscal questions et cetera; [and these] will bubble to the surface because that’s what the media are mainly paying attention to; but if you look underneath that, especially where a community looks at itself to be religiously serious – which is a majority of Americans – the thing that cuts most deeply is the culture of life questions.”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091702.html

4. Pro-Abort Politicians “Friends of Mine” says New York Cardinal Egan
Edward Cardinal Egan, as archbishop of New York city, arguably one of the two most important Catholic prelates in the United States, indicated in a January 5 interview on NBC, that he had little problem with politicians, even Catholic politicians, who repudiate moral principles on such issues as abortion, euthanasia and marriage.

Commenting on the interview, Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the respected Catholic magazine First Things, noted that the politicians Egan referred to were not “struggling with the moral questions involved or trying to reconcile their position with the Church’s teaching.”
 
Neuhaus writes that Egan “was making a statement of momentous political consequence” in which “he seemed to be saying, as far as he is concerned, that the Church has no problem with pro-abortion politicians.”
 
Cardinal Egan’s statement coupled with the refusal of Washington’s Archbishop Wuerl to respond to the same issue, Neuhaus says, indicates that there is “no suggestion by the bishops that [the politicians'] longstanding and adamant support for the unlimited abortion license should be a matter of concern.”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07012609.html

On the sexual abuse scandals, Fr. Neuhaus was by far the most honest of all prominent commentators. He called his fellow bishops to serious account for their severe negligence and deadly refusal to acknowledge the real causes of the scandal – tolerance of theological dissent and widespread homosexuality among the clergy. Neuhaus wrote a great deal about this deadly problem that was threatening to destroy the Church in the West with consequent great loss to the culture.

5. U.S. CATHOLIC PAPER SAYS CHURCH SEX ABUSE INCIDENTS EXAGGERATED
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus stated in First Things “Some still complain that the entire crisis…was manufactured by the media and motivated by anti-Catholicism…but without the deeper crisis of the infidelity and negligence of bishops, the media could not have produced the public and, consequently, episcopal sense of crisis. The scandal was in the chanceries, parishes, and seminaries before it was on the front page or television news. ”

In an earlier article Neuhaus stated, “Homosexuality is very close to the center of the crisis. At the epicenter is the grave negligence of bishops. Not all bishops, to be sure, but too many.”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/feb/03022107.html

6. US BISHOPS ZERO TOLERANCE ABUSE POLICY SEEN AS BADLY FLAWED
In his latest article, Scandal Time III, First Things editor, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus states “Another name for the zero tolerance policy is scapegoating. In setting themselves against their priests, the bishops have turned themselves into assistant district attorneys…This is not ‘for the good of the Church’. This has nothing to do with ‘the protection of children and young people.’ This is panic and panic results in recklessness.”

Neuhaus continues, “The bishops have succeeded in scandalizing the faithful anew by adopting a thoroughly unbiblical, untraditional, and un-Catholic approach to sin and grace. …they end up adopting a policy that is sans repentance, sans conversion, sans forbearance, sans prudential judgment, sans forgiveness, sans almost anything one might have hoped for from bishops of the Church of Jesus Christ.”

The highly respected, faithful Catholic intellectual emphasizes that the media did not make up this scandal and were rightly disappointed in the Dallas results. Neuhaus writes “They (reporters) expected bishops… to do their job (at Dallas), to respond as bishops. Instead…there is the perception that they behaved more like Senators or CEOs engaged in damage control more than as moral teachers engaged in the gospel.”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/aug/02080702.html

7. SCANDAL TIME (Continued) by Richard  John  Neuhaus
Let it be stated unambiguously: the leaders of the Catholic Church, meaning mainly the bishops, are responsible for the crisis and for the consequent frenzy.

The scandal is only very marginally about pedophilia. With very few exceptions, it is about adult men having sexual relations with adolescent and older teenage boys.

Homosexuality is very close to the center of the crisis. At the epicenter is the grave negligence of bishops. Not all bishops, to be sure, but too many. And, as in the case of Palm Beach, Florida, not only grave negligence but active complicity. Two months ago a lawyer and friend of the Church told me that before this is over we will see a bishop or two in jail. I thought that hyperbolic. Now I am not so sure.

The point is that this is a crisis, and this crisis must be permitted to do its work. That work involves scrupulous self-examination, candid confession, firm contrition, and believable amendment of life. And the doing of that hard work is chiefly up to the bishops. They are the ones who got us into this mess and, given what we believe is the divinely constituted structure of the Church, they are the ones who have to lead in getting us out. Faithful Catholics owe it to the Church and owe it to their bishops not to let them off the hook. In this instance, the virtue of docility includes a respect for bishops that requires recalling them to the duty and the dignity to which they were ordained. Too many of them have neglected that duty and debased that dignity.

At the epicenter of the continuing crisis is the simple, however difficult, virtue of fidelity. What is this crisis about? The answer is that this crisis is about three things: fidelity, fidelity, and fidelity. The fidelity of bishops and priests to the teaching of the Church and to their solemn vows; the fidelity of bishops in exercising oversight in ensuring obedience to that teaching and to those vows; and the fidelity of the lay faithful in holding bishops and priests accountable.

I have been told that the proposition is “controversial,” but I suggest it is almost embarrassingly self-evident: if bishops and priests had been faithful to the teaching of the Church and their sacred vows, there would be no scandal. Those who would confuse the subject reflexively reach for complexity. No, I am sorry, it is as simple as that. We are reaping the whirlwind of widespread infidelity.
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2031

See many past Fr. Neuhaus articles at
http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/Neuhaus/

8. Christianity “Disestablished” in Canada – Richard John Neuhaus
Neuhaus wrote in First Things, “It is true to say that, in most aspects of public life [in Canada], Christianity has been not only disestablished but also banished.” In an interview with the National Post, Neuhaus linked the erosion of the Christian foundation of Canadian society with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms imposed by the late Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

Referring to the Charter as a “thoroughly American” document, Neuhaus told the Post’s Charles Lewis, that it “is riddled through and through with the radically individual notion of the unencumbered self and equality enforced by state power.”

“I think Canada has suffered from it grievously. All of Canada is a fascinating case study in terms of the meaning of modernity relative to religion generally and Christianity in particular.”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07100103.html

Still, Fr. Gerard Murphy of the Diocese of St. Petersburgh, Florida actually helped Judge Greer make the decision to dehydrate and starve Terri to death. Fr. Murphy did not consult with any members of Terri's family and did not even visit Terri. Murphy did however consult with Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, an assisted suicide/euthanasia activist, and testified on behalf of Michael Schiavo.

Bishop Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg refused to help the family stop the euthanasia death order and supported Father Murphy's seriously flawed position. The bishop eventually issued a confusing statement that was of no help to the situation and after that the Florida bishops supported Bishop Lynch's position.

Other prominent US clergy also made public statements condoning what was happening to Terri.

Schindler said Jesuit Father John Paris, professor at Boston College, commented on Pope John Paul II's statement mandating life sustaining treatment.  Paris said in these situations, "I think the best thing to do is ignore it and it will go away. It's not an authoritative teaching statement. The problem here is that non-Catholics think when the Pope says 'Jump,' we all say, 'How high?'"

Father Kevin O'Rourke, ethics professor at the Loyola University of Chicago Medical School, told the Miami Herald that preserving Terri's life was "blasphemy." He also said, "For Christians, it is a blasphemy to keep people alive as if you were doing them a favor."

Father Richard McBrien, theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, told Bill O'Reilly of Fox News that, "This is not a question of euthanasia," directly contradicting the Vatican. "This is the removal of an 'extraordinary' means of sustaining life …"

Fortunately, there were many other priests and some bishops who were appalled by what was happening. The Vatican began issuing their own statements. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care, said, "Food and hydration are never considered medicine. To remove them means euthanasia, it means killing, and so this woman was killed by hunger and starvation. Let's stop with the euphemisms – they killed her."

Then, on March 31, Cardinal (Renato) Martino issued the strongest statement yet from Rome, when he said, "Whoever stands idly by without trying to prevent the death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo becomes an accomplice to murder."

Terri was successfully murdered as she succumbed to the extended withholding of food and water on March 31, 2005.

See the complete interview as published in the November The Interim newspaper at http://www.theinterim.com/2007/nov/08schindler.html

In addition to chairing the House Judiciary Committee, Hyde was President of the Clinton impeachment trial, a high-level participant in the response to the 9-11 attacks, and a major player in the worldwide response to the HIV/AIDS crisis.  However, more than anything else, Henry Hyde is known for his stalwart defense of the right to life of unborn children.

In a statement to insidecatholic.com today U.S. Rep. Chris Smith stated, "Henry Hyde was one of the rarest, most accomplished, and most distinguished Members of Congress ever to serve. He was a class act in the greatest human rights issue of our time — the right to life."

Some years ago Congressman Hyde made a speech on the abortion issue that struck so deep to the core of the responsibility and rightness of defending the unborn that it has been repeated on numerous websites and in many print publications ever since. The quote is especially appropriate to repeat on this day of Hyde's death.

When the Time Comes by Henry Hyde:

"When the time comes as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I've often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God and a terror will rip through your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, "Spare him because he loved us," and God will look at you and say not, "Did you succeed?" but "Did you try?"'

On October 31 of this year, in announcing that Henry Hyde would be a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, President George Bush noted his pro-life stance first.  "Henry J. Hyde has served America with distinction. During his career in the House of Representatives, he was a powerful defender of life and a leading advocate for a strong national defense and for freedom around the world," said the announcement.
Hyde was the first person to win a political victory for the pro-life cause since Roe vs. Wade, with his famous Hyde Amendment in 1976 banning public spending on abortions.

While in public office, Hyde was often described as "U.S. Roman Catholicism's most distinguished laymen."

Hyde noted with dismay the disastrous effects of the repeated failure of the Catholic hierarchy to remain strong on the abortion issue when dealing with politicians.  In 1994 while the US Bishops were debating whether or not to give communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians, Hyde told the Chicago Sun Times, "I am greatly disappointed with the failure of much of the church hierarchy to take an unequivocal stand on abortion."

Speaking of the tendency to equate issues such as poverty and healthcare and abortion, Hyde said it provides, "people like Ted Kennedy, Dick Durbin and John Kerry the cover they seek to maintain their Catholic affiliation and at the same time pander to Planned Parenthood."

"If the church doesn't come out strong and condemn those who want to receive Holy Communion while not in the state of sanctifying grace, then the church has lost its moral authority, and that is tragic," he concluded.

Following are links to various sites that list details of the activities from Saturday to Monday, the day of the actual March.

The largest events are the National Vigil for Life mass at the huge Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Sunday evening, the Rally for Life at the Verizon Centre (formerly MCI stadium) on Monday morning and then the March which follows soon after the Rally for Life.

For those unable to attend, some of the major events can be viewed live on EWTN TV which normally provides extensive coverage of the March for Life and related activities.

Information Links:

March for Life Defense Fund web page (organizers of the actual march)
www.marchforlife.org

NCCB National Prayer Vigil for Life Information Jan. 21-22, 2007
www.usccb.org/prolife/index.shtml

Archdiocese of Washington 2007 Rally for Life and Youth Mass
www.adw.org/service/jan22.asp

Events Surrounding the March for Life
www.drvc.org/respectlife/march_for_life_homepage_info/events.pdf

See March for Life Live on EWTN TV and Internet
www.ewtn.com/tv/index2.htm