NARAL has Announced a “Blogs for Choice Day” on January 21, just prior to the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. In return, pro-lifers are proposing that the same day be celebrated as “Ask Them What They Mean by ‘Choice’ Blog Day”
Jill Stanek explains on her blog:
The idea is simple. Any time any of us reads pro-aborts spouting their obscure “choice” rhetoric on a blog, website, Facebook, or Twitter, we call them out on it. We ask them to explain what the “choice” is.
Is it to eat carrots rather than broccoli? To wear red instead of blue? No, of course “choice” is code for killing babies. What’s their problem with the A-word?
In the excitement over the news of John Paul II’s beatification, and thoughts about John Paul I not accompanying him to the honors of the altar, I completely missed another bit of news; on January 14, Pope Benedict also signed the decree approving a miracle for an Italian Catholic layman, sociologist and economist Giuseppe Toniolo, which qualifies him for beatfication.
Toniolo (1845-1918) had immense impact on Catholic thought; his ideas on workers’ rights influenced Pope Leo XIII in his writing of his great social encyclical Rerum Novarum. He spoke on behalf of agricultural laborers and supported the spread of dairy cooperatives in northern Italy; he spearheaded the Catholic Action movement and had a great influence those who wanted to move Catholics back into politics, from which they were shut out during the forming of the Italian nation in 1870.
His ideas were adapted by the early leaders of the Partito Popolare in the 1920, and the future Democrazia Cristiana.
Toniolo was also married and with his wife raised seven children.
This is a delight and pretty heartening for me, because Toniolo was quite important to John Paul I. An admirer of Pope Leo’s encyclical, and an upholder of workers’ rights Luciani was very well acquainted with Toniolo’s thought.
In the 1960’s, he was bishop of Vittorio Veneto, which was not far from Toniolo’s birthplace of Treviso. Toniolo was buried in the church of the Assumption in Pieve di Soligo, in Luciani’s own diocese. Luciani recalled in one of his sermons how the farm workers would go to the church to venerate Toniolo. It was in fact in this very church that the healing that led to approval for the beatification took place. (It was of a young man in his 30’s who had sustained some injuries in a fall).
It was also in this church in May 1961 that Luciani gave a talk commemorating both the 70th anniversary of Rerum Novarum and Toniolo’s life and work. (I gave an exceprt from it here while talking about Benedict XVI’s social encyclical, Charity in Truth). At that time Toniolo was known as the “Servant of God,” because his cause had been introduced. He was declared Venerable by Pope Paul VI in 1971.
Here is a portion of Luciani’s talk, on Toniolo’s influence on Rerum Novarum and on his social innovations in the Veneto (I’ll repeat what was in the earlier post for better context):
I want . . . to explain the reason why Pieve di Soligo was chosen for today’s event. And the reason is right over there: the tomb of Giuseppe Toniolo, to the right of those who enter by the main door of this church. The diocese of Vittorio Veneto wants to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Rerum novarum. And where else, but close to the one who contributed from close by to the preparation of the famous document and who was a convinced and tireless propagator of the ideas of Rerum Novarum?
But I must clarify in what sense and within what limits Toniolo contributed to preparing the encyclical. Rerum Novarum, like other papal documents on social themes, contains three sorts of truths: truths of faith, of reason, and of simple observation.
Truths of faith: for example, in Rerum Novarum, the supernatural destiny of man is present from beginning to end; the reasoning that emerges, now here, and now there, is this: “Yes, let’s seek a good arrangement for the workers, but let’s recall that no arrangement can be good if it puts the other arrangement of heaven in danger!” In this area of truth, obviously, Toniolo had nothing to suggest to Leo XIII.
Nor did he in the sector of “truths of reason,” which is the sector of good sense, of natural law, old as the centuries, which the Pope interprets authentically. To this sector belong, for example, the statements of Rerum novarum about the right to property and the right of workers to unite in associations.
It is instead in the sector of observation that the advice of Toniolo could be useful. Social phenomena formed the material for observation. Society, in fact, changes as life changes, and to the changes there must correspond, on the part of the Church, not a different truth, but a different dose of the same truth. Hence a constant adaptation, an opening of our eyes to quickly register the signs of the new times.
I will supply an example: it is a truth of reason that the state must intervene in favor of the workers, in cases where they are not succeeding in reaching just and reasonable goals on their own. Well then, in Quadragesimo anno we hear Pius XI concerned with indicating the limits of state intervention and it is understandable; it was in 1931, the period of totalitarian governments that actually intervened too much in social questions.
In Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII urged the state to intervene in favor of the workers. This means that the Pope was convinced that in 1891 the workers could not do it alone and that the states were taking little action. But from where did this conviction come to him? Not from Sacred Scripture or from philosophy, but from the world itself, which from the observatory that is the Vatican, he sought to read as though in a book. He tried to make the reading easier for himself with the help of Catholic thinkers, who, however, were divided on this point.
“The state is like pitch,” said some; “if we dip our finger in it, we will not get it out again; the workers must act alone without the state!” “If the state does not intervene with its massive power, the workers will remain as miserable as they are, the power of the employers are too great!” answered the others, and they were the flower of bishops, thinkers and politicians, in France, Belgium, Germany and England. Among these was none other than Giuseppe Toniolo and he was distinguished among them by the moderation of his tone and the acuteness of his reasoning.
Did he have an influence on inserting the thesis of state intervention and other points in the encyclical?
The decree of introduction of the cause of Giuseppe Toniolo says the Leo XII “doctissimos in hac encyclica conscribenda consuluit viros, quos inter Servum Dei Josephum Toniolo [consulted very learned men in the writing of this encyclical, among them the Servant of God Giuseppe Toniolo.”
When questioned on the subject, the Servant of God was accustomed to change the subject. The thesis, however can be confirmed by comparison of passages of Rerum novarum with passages of two works by Toniolo and by the statement of well-informed people. And it is a pleasure to be able to say this here, in Pieve, from where in the vacation period of 1889 the letters were sent that consolidated the basis of that Unione cattolica per gli studi sociali, which called the attention of Leo XII to the Servant of God and his teachings. As if to say that Pieve too is connected by a thread, however thin, to the famous document!
Toniolo was a propagator of the social ideas of Leo XIII before and after the issuing of Rerum Novarum.
A few kilometers from here the social dairy of Soligo, the first in the province, was begun on May 24, 1883. It was founded by a lawyer, Gaetano Schiratti, but the idea belonged to his brother-in-law Toniolo. To how many social words did Toniolo give ideas, impetus and a contribution of work, of words, of writing?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Luciani, through his admiration for Toniolo, has helped pray this beatification into being. And so it turns out that he is connected by more than one “thin thread” to the announcements of of beatifications this week.
I blogged about Abby Johnson’s story when it first happened (here and here). A little over a year ago, Johnson, the director of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Texas, crossed the battle lines to join the pro-life movement.
Now the story again is expanding in a major way. Abby’s book about her experience, Unplanned, which is being released today, is now climbing Amazon’s bestseller list.
The book (so far I’ve only read excerpts) details how Abby Johnson had an abortion early in her college days, and began to volunteer at Planned Parenthood because she thought that by educating women and giving them contraception, they worked to prevented abortions. Later she found that they actually promoted abortion. Her clinic was trying to increase the number of abortions it performed. These revelations could hardly come at a more opportune time, because the new, more pro-life Congress is looking into stopping all federal funding for Planned Parenthood — it’s about time!
If enough copies are sold today, Unplanned could hit no. 1 spot on Amazon. I’ve just bought my copy. Why not buy yours now?
This story has been building for some time. The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) has targeted New York City’s Crisis Pregnancy Centers for unfair harassment. Saying that the centers lie to women and try to trick the into thinking they are abortion centers, they have proposed a law requiring the centers to post a long list of disclaimers saying that they do not provide abortion or contraceptives, and stating whether or not a physician is on the premises, on the front of their buildings, in their offices and in all their ads. If they don’t, they face shutting down of the centers, stiff fines and even imprisonment. Of course, Planned Parenthood and other other abortion centers are not required to publish any disclaimers at all.
No woman who has been treated at a CPC in New York City has ever filed a complaint or a lawsuit against the single Crisis Pregnancy center there. The only people complaining are the abortionists, who find the centers are eating into their business. The attack on the centers is part of a national effort by pro-abortion forces to attack pregnancy care centers; laws similar to the one in New York have been proposed in several states and actually enacted in Maryland.
This is not an especially good time for abortion providers to make their move. In the last few days, the city has been up in arms over the just-published data from the New York City Department of Vital Statistics on the numbers of abortion in the city in the last decade. In 2005, the year in which the numbers are lowest, New York had over 117,000 abortions, meaning that 41% of pregnancies in the city ended in abortion. For black women, it was 60% of all pregnancies. The numbers for the remaining years are all higher.
Most Planned Parenthood and other abortion centers are in minority neighborhoods.
Pro-lifers, especially African-Americans, are raising cries about black genocide. This is little surprise in regard to Planned Parenthood, whose founder, Margaret Sanger, was an ardent supporters of eugenics, a popular movement in the 30’s and 40’s, which suggested fewer children should be born to the “unfit,” including non-white races.
On Wednesday, Archbishop Dolan of New York said: “This is the first time in my happy 21 months as a New Yorker that I am embarrassed to be one. This New York community, which prides itself on its gritty sensitivity to those in need, is tragically letting down the tiniest most fragile and vulnerable, the little baby in the womb. We’ve got to do more than shiver over these chilling statistics. I invite all to come together to make abortion rare.”
A coalition has been formed to fight this law, and a petition to stop the law from passing has been set up. People not only in New York but around the country are signing.
Anyone who cares about crisis pregnancy centers needs to sign the petition, and attend the rally on Monday January 10 at 7 p.m. at the Manhattan Bible Church, where Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, and other pro-life leaders will be speaking.
See the ongoing coverage on Dr. Gerard Nadal’s blog, especially his hard-hitting interview with black pastor Clenard Childress, featured in the documentary Maafa 21, and how Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood, and the eugenics movement have sought to reduce or wipe out the black race since their beginning. Here is the trailer for this excellent documentary
Update: January 11, 2011. The rally last night was fabulous. Many black pastors spoke, as well as activitists from all over, including Dr. Gerard Nadal (who I met for the first time last night, after knowing him online for months) and Chris Slattery, the great defenders of pregnancy care centers in New York. I was only able to take a quick cell phone video of Alveda King’s speech.
Developments in the great condom controversy have been coming thick and fast in the last few days. The furor now seems to be dying down a bit, so perhaps it’s safe to comment again without having to issue constant updates or corrections.
One correction that I should issue is that what appears to be the “official” German text of the crucial passage — that is, the one coming from the actual book — has now surfaced on Sandro Magister’s blog - it replaces the text I quoted in my first post below; the text was replaced without the slightest word of explanation. This text contains the clause that the original text Magister quoted did not, as well as the addition of the words “the HIV-infection” also lacking in his original. (Emphases mine).
“Es mag begründete Einzelfälle geben, etwa wenn ein Prostituierter ein Kondom verwendet, kann das einerster Akt zu einer Moralisierung sein, ein erstes Stück Verantwortung, um wieder ein Bewusstsein dafür zu entwickeln, dass nicht alles gestattet ist undman nicht alles tun kann, was man will. Aber es ist nicht die eigentliche Art, dem Übel der HIV-Infektion beizukommen. Diese muss wirklich in der Vermenschlichung der Sexualität liegen”.
The big question here is: where did these two versions of the text come from? I now suspect that Magister may not have been one of the journalists authorized to receive an actual copy of the book pre-publication. But is he perhaps well-connected enough to have been able to get hold of a copy of the final edited MS, or perhaps the uncorrected galley proofs so as to be ready in advance? But this doesn’t really work out, since he never showed any real understanding of what was in the German compared to the Italian Maybe he just knows someone who did have access and who supplied him with that text? Because of its length, it was unlikely to have come from a press report.
If what Magister reported was the original MS or proofs, it would indicate that someone, most likely the Pope himself, added those introductory words to this controversial passage before publication, attempting to clarify what he had originally said in the interview.
The German words themselves — Es mag begründete Einzelfälle geben are translated as “there may be a basis” in some individual cases” in the official English text. They could just as well be rendered as “There might be individual cases in which there is a foundation [for a more human understanding of sexuality]” in the case of some condom users.
If the Pope did add these words, it would also strengthen my idea that he was trying to make a connection between his thought in the previous paragraph about the re-humanization of sexuality and his words about condom users in the next. I think the whole thing is best understood as a parenthetical statement: ‘Of course I realize that all moral considerations are not necessarily absent in condom users, and someday this may lead them to actual moral actions; nevertheless this is not a good or moral choice.”
The fact that the Pope has clarified his words personally to Father Lombardi as referring not just to male prostitutes (whose sexual acts with condoms are non-contraceptive) but to everyone (possible married contracepters included) makes it much clearer to me that Benedict did not mean to say that condom use was to be approved in this or any case, because this would contradict official Church teaching. Especially since, in the same interview, Benedict definitely upholds the teaching of Humanae Vitae.
I have tried to make some of the basics of this clear in my little video parody (my first ever animated film! Thanks to Xtranormal, which is an extremely cool site. I finished it yesterday while waiting for my Thanksgiving dinner to cook. I also finished it before learning that Manuela Camagni, a consecrated woman who worked in the papal household and often shared conversations with Poe Benedict was killed in an automobile accident Tuesday night. I’d like to dedicate this video to her.
Hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving, as I did mine!
Pausing to look at all the sights on our way to Jerusalem. . . Mainly about faith, the Church, film, writing, famous Christian authors, and anything else I'm interested in at the moment.
The photo above was taken at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in March 2007.
Quote of the Month
"The conviction that there is a Creator God is what gave rise to the idea of human rights, the idea of the equality of all people before the law, the recognition of the inviolability of human dignity in every single person and the awareness of people’s responsibility for their actions. Our cultural memory is shaped by these rational insights. To ignore it or dismiss it as a thing of the past would be to dismember our culture totally and to rob it of its completeness. The culture of Europe arose from the encounter between Jerusalem, Athens and Rome – from the encounter between Israel’s monotheism, the philosophical reason of the Greeks and Roman law. This three-way encounter has shaped the inner identity of Europe. In the awareness of man’s responsibility before God and in the acknowledgment of the inviolable dignity of every single human person, it has established criteria of law: it is these criteria that we are called to defend at this moment in our history."
Pope Benedict XVI to the German Parliament, Sept 22, 2011.
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