+Metropolitan Herman To Lead Orthodox At Pro-Life March

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+Metropolitan Herman To Lead Orthodox At Pro-Life March

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http://www.oca.org/News.asp?ID=902&SID=19

Metropolitan Herman to lead Orthodox marchers at 33rd annual rally for life in US capital

Article posted: 1/9/2006 12:59 PM
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His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman speaks to Orthodox Christians gathered at last year's 2005 March for Life in Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, DC [OCA Communications] — His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America and well-known spokesman for the sanctity of life, will once again lead hundreds of Orthodox Christian marchers from around the US at the 33rd annual March for Life here Monday, January 23, 2006.

The annual march laments the US Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision of January 22, 1973, that legalized abortion on demand in the US.

Metropolitan Herman has been a visible and vocal presence at the annual gathering for nearly two decades, leading hundreds of Orthodox Christians in prayerful witness to the sanctity of life from the moment of conception.

Orthodox marchers are asked to assemble between 11:00 and 11:30 a.m. under the large “Orthodox Christians for Life” banner on the Mall at 7th Street, instead of at the Ellipse, as in years past. After the opening program, at which Metropolitan Herman is expected to address hundreds of thousands of marchers, the march will make its way to the US Supreme Court.

For additional details on the march, contact Nellie Gray at 202-543-3377, visit www.marchforlife.org, or send an e-mail to info@marchforlife.org.

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Post by joasia »

Wow. It's great to see Orthodox hierarch and laity get involved. The pro-life groups tend to be more from the catholic or protestant groups. If only all the Orthodox jurisdictions can assemble together for such an important cause. Maybe more lives could be saved.

In Christ,

Joanna

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 50)

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abortion advocates Threaten To Shut Down Pro-Life March

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http://www.lifenews.com/state1347.html

Abortion Advocates Threaten to Shut Down Pro-Life March in San Francisco Email this article
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by Maria Vitale Gallagher
LifeNews.com Staff Writer
January 11, 2006

San Francisco, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A group of pro-abortion protesters are planning to try to shut down a West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco.
The protesters are calling their effort a demonstration to “Defend Women's Reproductive Autonomy, Confront the Right-Wing Invasion, and Shut Down the Walk for Life.”

A group calling itself Anarchist Action plans to meet January 21st in San Francisco and “stop the anti-choice march in its tracks.”

Organizers of the Walk for Life West Coast say they are “fully committed to the right of peaceful protest.” They say they expect a vocal counterdemonstration to their 2006 walk.

In a statement on its website, Walk for Life West Coast states, “Our witness to peace in the face of such vile hostility is our greatest contribution to the pro-life movement.”

Pastor Clenard Childress, a leader of the African-American pro-life movement in the U.S., has said, “In every generation there is a people who rise above complacency and mediocrity and cry against injustices that deny access and privilege to its citizens. Such are those who will march in the streets of San Francisco for the well-being of our most precious citizens, whose rights have continually been denied and their lives destroyed.”

Last year, thousands gathered to celebrate life in San Francisco, which is considered to be a pro-abortion stronghold.

Those who rallied focused on how the pro-life message is more pro-woman and they carried signs saying, "Women Deserve Better Than Abortion."

"Abortion is not the emancipation of women," Sally Winn, the vice president of Feminists for Life, told the large crowd. "Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women."

"When they ask us, ‘What about the woman,' we will not say, ‘What about the baby?' We will give them a good answer. We will say, ‘We refuse to choose between women and their children. We will fight for you who deserve better than abortion."

Related web sites:

Walk for Life West Coast - http://www.walkforlifewc.com

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leftist "pro-choice" radicals Vandalize BART Ad

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... GMTU81.DTL

BAY AREA
Anti-abortion ad on BART angers activists
Many placards have been defaced or destroyed
Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, January 13, 2006

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Bay Area abortion-rights activists say a Roman Catholic group's advertisements on hundreds of BART trains and in scores of stations -- attacking the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision and asking "Abortion: Have we gone too far?" -- have gone too far in a region known for its progressive politics.

Many of the ads have been torn down or defaced since the campaign began three weeks ago.

"I think every woman has noticed them,'' said Suzanne "Sam" Joi, a member of Code Pink, a social justice and anti-war group. "I couldn't believe BART would allow something like this. Why are they doing this?''

The ads began appearing in BART trains and stations the day after Christmas. According to BART spokesman Linton Johnson, 280 of them appear in BART's rail cars and 48 larger versions are displayed in stations. The Respect Life Ministry of the Oakland Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church paid $43,200 for the ads, scheduled for display through the end of the month.

BART officials say they had little choice but to post the ads, given the free-speech provisions of the First Amendment. The transit district also has a policy of accepting point-of-view advertising and has displayed other political material -- including advertising from its employee unions during last year's contract talks.

"We're not in the business of censorship and don't believe a government agency should be in the business of censorship,'' Johnson said. "It shouldn't be up to a government official to determine whose opinion is right and whose is wrong.''

Many public transportation agencies allow political or point-of-view advertising on their systems, including Muni, which is displaying anti-war ads.

Some supporters of abortion rights have called BART to complain about the ads and demand their removal. The political Web site www.indybay.org urged activists to call BART and members of its Board of Directors to register their discontent. As of Thursday, the transit agency had received 29 complaints, Johnson said.

Critics of the ads also seem to be taking matters into their own hands. Hundreds of the ads have been defaced with markers, had stickers placed over them or have been torn down and ripped up, according to Monika Rodman, coordinator of the group that placed the ads.

"The defacement has taken to religious epithets, profanity, everything you can think of,'' she said. A billboard at the MacArthur station in Oakland was torn to shreds, she said, and mini essays were written on others.

So many of the ads have been destroyed, she said, that a supply of a couple of dozen extras has been exhausted, and the ministry has ordered reinforcements from its printer. The group, which funded the campaign through donations, according to Rodman, is also asking BART's ad agency, CBS Outdoor (formerly Viacom Outdoor), for extra display time to compensate for the vandalism.

The campaign features two ads, each slickly produced and featuring a blurry photograph of a woman against a turquoise background. One ad, headlined "9 months" in large letters, features nine months of a calendar and reads: "Because of Roe vs. Wade, this is the amount of time the Supreme Court says it's legal to have an abortion."

The other contains the message: "The Supreme Court says you can choose: after the heart starts beating, after its arms and legs appear, after all organs are present, after the sex is apparent, after it sucks its thumb, after it responds to sounds, after it could survive outside the womb.''

Both ads conclude with the tagline "Abortion: Have we gone too far?'' and the name and Web site address (www.secondlookproject.org) for the Second Look Project, an effort sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which created the campaign and unveiled it on Washington's Metro subway system a year ago.

"It was clear that these eye-catching graphics and thought-provoking messages could serve as an effective pro-life educational tool in our area, too," Rodman said. She said she had tested the ads on female employees of local cafes and was emboldened by their positive responses.

Abortion-rights activists are responding differently, calling the ads misleading, manipulative and part of an effort to undermine the pro-choice movement in the Bay Area.

"They're calling for the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, which will lead to the slaughter of women,'' said Elizabeth Creely of the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights, referring to fears of unsafe, back-alley abortions if the procedure were illegal. "The Catholic Church is very strong here and is working hard to erode reproductive rights.''

Some backers of abortion rights think BART should have rejected the ads, while others say BART should have warned pro-choice groups that the ads were about to appear and offered them a chance to run their own ad campaign.

"At the very least they should have made sure both sides were represented,'' Joi said.

In mid-December, anticipating controversy, BART put out a passenger bulletin explaining its advertising policy. BART may consider revising the policy this year to prohibit point-of-view advertising, Johnson said.

"But that could have a lot of implications -- like no political ads (for candidates or ballot measures),'' he said.

E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com.

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Reverend Rescues Destitute "Jane Roe"

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http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060 ... -9204r.htm

Reverend rescues destitute 'Jane Roe'
By Hugh Aynesworth
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 14, 2006

DALLAS -- Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff "Jane Roe" in the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide, is destitute, unemployed and spends all of her time caring for her godmother and a long-time friend who is partially paralyzed.
"I've eaten so much spaghetti and prepared it so many different ways, I can hardly look at it anymore," Miss McCorvey told The Washington Times. "I don't know what's going to happen to us, but I still have faith."
She said that "outside of some bread and a few potatoes, we don't have anything left."
But within hours, things suddenly began to improve, greatly.
"When I came back from the Post Office Thursday," she said, "a man was sitting in his car in my driveway. When he saw me, he jumped out of his car and started opening doors and carrying in sacks and sacks of groceries.
"I never saw so many groceries all at one time," Miss McCorvey said. "He was sent from God."
The man had responded to a call for help Miss McCorvey had sent to a New York anti-abortion leader a week earlier. He had posted it on the Internet with her permission.
"I'm not ashamed of being hungry," said Miss McCorvey. Others have begun contacting her, sending money, visiting and praying.
Miss McCorvey, who after being baptized in 1995 declared her opposition to abortion, became a symbol for anti-abortionists and had made a living out of appearances and speeches, working with a group known as the Crossing Over Ministry.
But when her godmother became ill and her long-time friend Connie Gonzales lost movement after a stroke, she said, "I couldn't travel around the country -- just couldn't be gone that long."
She decided she would honor what speeches she had scheduled, then "look for the Lord to give us direction after that." Since November there has been no income.
Miss McCorvey credited her friend, Mrs. Gonzales, with saving her life in the late 1970s when she was homeless and living in a Dallas park.

"I was hungry," she explained, "and I went into a food market and stole a can of soup. She caught me but refused to call the police. Connie has seen me through so many changes. I can't leave her now."
The Rev. Flip Benham, the former leader of Operation Rescue who baptized Miss McCorvey, said he had lost contact with her during the past couple years and did not know of her plight.
"I have been far away from the situation," said Mr. Benham, who is now head of Operation Save America in Concord, N.C. "I don't know what God is doing with Miss Norma." He said he felt it "sad" that she had to make a public appeal for help.
Within hours of receiving Miss McCorvey's plea for aid, his organization sent representatives to the McCorvey home, with food and financial help.
Miss McCorvey said she realized the sudden outpouring might be a temporary thing and that she needed to find some kind of work she could do in her home.
"God takes care of those who love Him," she said. "Something will work out for us."

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Cardinal McCarrick & The Catholics' War

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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=48363



Cardinal McCarrick
& the Catholics' war


Posted: January 16, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.

It was during the second day of questioning that Sam Alito's wife broke down, wept and left the room after hearing Sen. Kennedy imply that her husband was a bigot.

What was Kennedy's evidence?

In 1985, Sam Alito belonged to Concerned Alumni of Princeton. He had joined to protest the ouster of ROTC from campus. Alito was neither an officer nor active, but like future Sen. Bill Bradley, he joined.

What were CAP's sins? Headed by National Review publisher William Rusher, CAP had a magazine called Prospect that carried an essay opposing affirmative action and regretting that Princeton had ever gone co-ed.

Yet support for single-sex education, as practiced at Smith and dozens of women's colleges, is hardly a mark of bigotry. And opposition to affirmative action and quotas is core conservative dogma.

So, what is going on here? Answer: a smear. Because Judge Alito belonged to an alumni group that had a magazine which had an offensive article, he must share those views. Therefore, he is a bigot and the Senate must reject him as morally unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

This is a textbook example of what liberals used to call McCarthyism.

Why are the Democrats disgracing themselves and disgusting decent people with such tactics? Why are they desperate to kill the nomination of Sam Alito?

The answer, in a word, is abortion. By the end of the third day of hearings, analysts had toted up the questions. The subject that had been brought up in more questions than any other was abortion.

Why? Because, as Sen. Chuck Schumer fears, Judge Alito may just vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

For Alito has said that while he respects precedents and has an "open mind," Roe v. Wade is not some "super-duper precedent" or "inexorable command." And Sam's mom, in her 90s, when asked where her son stands on abortion, replied, "Of course, he's against it."

Why has the Democratic Party become a party of fanatics on abortion? Because the feminists of NARAL and NOW regard abortion as a sacrament and will cut dead any Democrat who fails to protect a woman's "right to choose" to kill her unborn baby.

Which brings us to the unspoken issue here. Judge Alito is Catholic. If confirmed, he will join three other Catholics on the bench: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who have already voted to overturn Roe.

On the Senate Judiciary Committee sit four Catholic Democrats: Leahy, Kennedy, Biden and Durbin. All have 100 percent pro-abortion voting records. All have attacked Alito out of fear he may overturn Roe.

Query: Why is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops so deathly silent in this war of Catholics to decide if abortion on demand is to remain the law of the land forever in God's Country?

Where are the Catholic echoes of John Paul II's condemnations of the Culture of Death?

Where is Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who was designated to address the moral obligations of Catholic politicians? When John Kerry ran as the Democratic nominee, McCarrick's task force refused to tell priests to deny him Communion. Suddenly, pro-abortion Kerry was seen at the altar rail and won half the Catholic vote.

Said McCarrick, "Our task force does not advocate the denial of Communion for Catholic politicians," for, otherwise, the "sacred nature of the Eucharist could be trivialized and might be turned into a partisan political battleground."

What should bishops do when Catholic politicians fight to uphold a decision that has caused the slaughter of thousands of times as many Holy Innocents as were massacred by King Herod?

Cardinal McCarrick urged "new efforts to teach clearly, advocate effectively, organize and mobilize Catholic laity, and to engage, persuade and challenge Catholic politicians to act on the moral teaching of our church."

Fair enough, Your Eminence.

Sixty-six years ago, Bishop Clemens von Galen took to the pulpit of Munster Cathedral to darn Hitler's regime at the peak of its power for "plain murder" in its euthanasia program and to direct Catholics to "withdraw ourselves and our faithful from their [Nazi] influence so that we may not be contaminated by their ... ungodly behavior."

Cardinal von Galen is headed for sainthood.

What is asked of you, Cardinal McCarrick, and your fellow bishops is less heroic. Just issue a statement before the 32nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Jan. 22, 2006, declaring:

We pray to God that Roe v. Wade is overturned. We commend all Catholics and fellow citizens working toward that goal. We condemn any Catholic politician who would deny a seat on the Supreme Court to a fellow Catholic – on the grounds that he might vote to overturn this abomination.

That too much to ask, Your Eminence? As Dante said, there is a special place in Hell for those who, in times of moral crisis, fail to take a stand. By the way, Dante put a lot of bishops in there.


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Archpastoral Message

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http://www.oca.org/News.asp?ID=908&SID=19

Archpastoral Message of Metropolitan Herman for Sanctity of Life Sunday

Article posted: 1/17/2006 1:30 PM
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The Most Holy Theotokos
The Joy of All Who Sorrow
January 22, 2006

To the Very Reverend and Reverend Clergy, Venerable Monastics and Faithful of The Orthodox Church in America

Dearly Beloved in Christ:

Over the past three decades, we have heard a great deal about stewardship. Time and time again we have been reminded that the many gifts we have received from God – our time, our talents, our treasures, creation itself – must be managed wisely. Everything that we have, ultimately, belongs to God, freely given to us so that, in all things, God might be glorified.

Perhaps the greatest gift God has given us is life. When He spoke to Moses in the burning bush, God revealed that He is the very Source of Life – Life and Existence Itself. All life is an extension of and a participation in His life. As such, life must be respected, honored, seen for what it is: a revelation of the One Who is Life Itself, a gift given to mankind that ultimately leads us to become “partakers of his divine nature,” as Saint Peter reminds us.

As Orthodox Christians, we are called to wisely steward the precious gift of life. This means, quite simply, that any diminishing of life’s importance must be shunned, any willful acts that prematurely or unnaturally bring human life to an end must be loudly rejected and condemned. One cannot be a wise steward of God’s gift of life while, at the same time, supporting agendas that minimize this gift or see life as something expendable, unimportant, or “cheap.”

An entire generation of Americans has experienced – and, sadly, has come to accept – the notion that life is something held in mankind’s hands, rather than God’s. Every day, the number of innocent children being aborted grows. The acceptance of euthanasia as a means of providing “death with dignity” for those who are beyond medical help or terminally ill is gaining momentum. The call to expand the use of capital punishment is growing louder by the year. In the meantime, appropriate care for the elderly, the poor, the institutionalized, and the disenfranchised is becoming harder to find and is seen as a secondary issue, one that hardly involves the need for wise stewardship.

There are those who, right or wrong, have perceived that our nation is engaged in a “war against Christianity.” While this can be – and is being – debated, it is clear, however, that we are engaged in a “war against life.” And it is in this war that there is only one “exit strategy” – the recognition that all life is indeed a sacred gift from God, that it must be preserved and protected, and that it must be a priority for those called to be stewards of God’s creation. Persons of faith have been challenged to speak out, not “against” abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, inadequate care for the elderly and needy, but “for” life as a gift from God and a very participation in His divine nature. Our society’s failure to recognize these truths stands at the root of its readiness to accept such travesties; it is our calling to proclaim the truth, to reveal God’s presence and image in “the least of the brethren,” and to do all we can to ensure that life is protected on every level, at all costs.

Let us recommit ourselves to the God Who is Life and Existence, Who “is” and who “always will be,” and Who so lovingly shares His life with us. At the same time, let us recommit ourselves to the fundamental task of being wise stewards of the sacred gift of life, joining with the millions of other Americans who demand that life be placed back in the hands of the God Who literally died that we might live, in this world and in the world to come.

With love in Christ,

  • HERMAN
    Archbishop of Washington and New York
    Metropolitan of All America and Canada
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