Pro-life people are pretty anxious right now, with pro-abortion, embryonic stem cell research and even some pro-suicide leaders of Congress in control of the agenda. I admit, if you rest your hopes for a culture of life on the political process, especially the federal government, there isn’t much cause for optimism. But that is just the thing: we shouldn’t, we mustn’t, we better not be putting our hope in Washington. Capitol Hill and the White House are magnificent examples of human foibles - conflicting motivations, the dominance of personal ambition, fear of the next election, the influence of powerful lobbies and special interests, very little at all of duty to the Common Good.

But Washington is vastly outnumbered by the ordinary people who carry on the daily life of the nation, moms and grandmas, minimum wage earners and young, idealistic students, dedicated family men and selfless hard workers, courageous law enforcement and long suffering teachers…and on and on. These are the neighbors, schoolmates, nurses and servers we work, study and play with each day. Unlike the cynical, hard bitten pols on Capitol Hill (a lot of private suffering up there in the political stratosphere), these folks are emerging as decidedly pro-life.

Young people are not turning first to the fortified, police-surrounded and politically protected abortion clinics when they’re faced with an unexpected pregnancy - instead, they’re surrounding the mom with support and even moving into lofts and communally raising the child. Not the best situation, they should be married, should be leading chaste lives, shouldn’t have compromised their virtue and had sex before they were ready to make a lifetime loving commitment, but the mistake was made and now a human being has come into being - and they’re God given instincts to embrace new life kick in.

I always say, everyone you’ve ever met, everyone you’ll ever meet and everyone you know right now was born pro-life! No one is born pro-death, it is contrary to our nature and our conscience. Instead, they have to be talked out of that. Fewer and fewer young people are falling for the twisted logic and false rhetoric of pro-death, pro-abortion razmataz. Instead, young people are quietly, unpolitically turning pro-life. Politicians can’t coopt that natural move towards life, and if any try to, they will be rejected - and that goes for all parties!

Pro-life is a-political, it really has nothing to do with electoral politics, it has to do with the heart, the soul and the nature of human beings. There is an emerging Culture of Life, but it is illuding the political culture on Capitol Hill. Eventually, just like with Jim Crowe and civil rights, pols will be forced to confront it, but by then, they will be relatively powerless to control it.

I am sure that you are as shocked as I am by the catastrophic earthquake that has destroyed the lives of so many in the poor nation of Haiti. Missions, churches, schools, hospitals, homes, and so many other buildings were leveled. There has been a massive loss of life, and many more will die without urgent medical help, food and shelter. The national Cathedral was destroyed and the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Msgr. Joseph Miot, was killed. Hundreds of seminarians, religious leaders, and priests are unaccounted for.

The National Pro-Life Action Center has already made contact with the Haitian Embassy in Washington indicating our concern and pledging our support to the people of Haiti.

This tragedy touches my life personally. I worked with two churches that have outreaches to Haiti. I also speak French and ministered among Haitian immigrants in Florida. Many young expectant mothers, children and elderly are particularly vulnerable to injury, disease and exposure.

This is a pro-life emergency. The pro-life movement is often misrepresented as only being concerned with the plight of the unborn. This is an opportunity to prove them wrong!

Please make a special contribution NOW for the people of Haiti. 100% of your gifts will go to support the critically needed emergency relief efforts now mobilizing to provide water, food, shelter, and medical care.

The Haitian people are overwhelmingly Catholic. They marry young and have big families. The images of dazed and bleeding children, homes and churches flattened, entire neighborhoods wiped out in an instant touch all people of faith, but particularly Roman Catholics. The Church is suffering in Haiti and your help is needed now.

That’s why I ask you to act now and make the most generous contribution possible to help our Haitian brothers and sisters in this unparalleled disaster.

To make your tax-deductible, emergency-assistance contribution for Haiti, please click here. Remember, 100% of your gift will go to help in the relief efforts.

Dans Jésus, notre Guérisseur,

Dr. Paul CB Schenck
Chairman

When teaching the Bible, I enjoy pointing out that science is forever catching up with revelation. One example is the discovery of the remains of Lucy, a prehistoric “hominid” considered to be the “mother” of all humans. Sometime later, geneticists using mitochondrial DNA traced every human being to a single female they renamed “Eve”! Science caught up with religion. I chuckled when I read a report of how a team of scientists had discovered that there were real and significant differences between men and women! Since there is no intrinsic conflict between faith and science, honest science is bound to catch up.

An article that recently appeared in The Times of London is another case in point. The Times reported on a European study published in Current Biology (vol. 19 issue 20, 3 November 2009) which indicates that babies cry in patterns that reflect their mother tongues. Researchers studied French and German newborns and determined that their cries conformed to their mothers’ languages. The research led the scientists to propose that the basics of language are begun to be learned in the womb. So the child is beginning her or his orientation to verbal communication before birth!

The Psalmist sings movingly of the miracle of the creation and development of one’s life and personality before birth (Ps. 139) –

“For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

And Jeremiah says that he was personally known by God before he was born (Jer. 1:5); “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Being a prophet presupposes speech, so God already began forming Jeremiah as his spokesman while he was in the womb! St. Paul too was called before birth (Gal. 1:15).

A dramatic example of communications in utero is the Visitation of Mary with Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-44). Elizabeth exults in the encounter between the preborn John in her womb and the preborn Jesus in Mary’s (Luke 1:44) – “For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy.” Is it possible that the unborn Baptist heard the greeting of the Mother of God and responded? According to the French and German researchers it is indeed.

Fetal language development demonstrates the intelligence of the preborn child. Speech distinguishes humans from even the closest primates. Anthropologists point to the uniquely human capacity for speech as one of the most important features of human personality.

In 1973 Justice Harry Blackmun wrote in Roe V Wade that the life of the unborn could not be determined “at this point in the development of man’s knowledge.” The new research takes us beyond that point. In this respect, the French and German study once again helps science catch up.