The Day of the Unborn Child Procession

will be held on Sunday the 6th April, 2008
commencing with 10:30am Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney,

followed by the procession and concluding with Benediction.”

to honour Mary Help of Christians Patroness of Australia

Sunday 27th January 2008
2.30 - 4:00pm
St Michael’s Church Margaret St. Belfield NSW

Procession of the Most Blessed Sacrament,
Recitation of the Rosary and Benediction

HOMILIST: FR Reg Wilson

TO OFFER REPARATION FOR THE SINS OF CONTRACEPTION, ABORTION AND EUTHANASIA IN AUSTRALIA. PRAYING FOR CHASTITY IN YOUTH, HOLINESS IN MARRIAGE, AND VOCATIONS TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE.

Sponsored by Family Life International (Australia) Ltd.
PO Box 205 Broadway NSW 2007 Ph (02) 9519 9111
Web: www.fli.org.au

The Australian Catholic Bishops in October 2007 stated that the abortion policy of Amnesty International is incompatible with Catholic teaching and hence disqualifies Catholics from being members of that organisation or supporting it. Their press statement to that effect can be found HERE.

The important words outlawing membership of AI state:

“..because of this change in policy, membership of Amnesty International is no longer compatible with Catholic teaching and belief on this important point’ says Archbishop Wilson’”

“After due consideration, we now also urge Catholics, and all people who believe in the dignity of the human person from natural conception until natural death, to seek other avenues of defending human rights,” the archbishop said.”.

Given this courageous advice the same advice logically should apply to the Australian Labor Party. The ALP has had a pro-abortion policy since 1984 and despite a limited use by a few within the party of a ‘conscience vote’, and whenever the party is in office the pro-abortion policy is implemented. ALP members who use their ‘conscience vote’ to vote against pro-abortion legislation are powerless to affect policy.

The ALP abortion policy is clear for all to read on their web site and can be found in their Platform in section 21 under ‘Women: Making Equality Equal” to be found HERE.

We are waiting for the day when our Bishops “..also urge Catholics, and all people who believe in the dignity of the human person from natural conception until natural death” to stop supporting the ALP.

In the last Federal election (2007) the Australian Labor Party won convincingly. Those who naively believed that the ALP would be harmless regarding life issues have been shown to be wrong. As of June 2008 the process to facilitate abortion as public policy has begun. The government is considering lifting abortion-related restrictions on overseas development aid which was introduced by the Howard Government 12 years ago.

“Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who has the power to lift the restrictions without any change in legislation required, has asked the Labor caucus to debate the matter and make a recommendation on whether he should do so.” (www.acl.org.au/)

In spite of reminders of the explicit abortion policy of this party they However, as we showed the explicit policy on abortion in the ALP would not take long to surface. As of and even on same sex unions. How is this possible?

The ALP allows individuals who are for abortion and those against abortion to be members of the party. It means that the matter of abortion may be disucssed within the ALP, but since all members are bound to the policy, there is no freedom for any member to publicly campaign against any party policy. To do so would incur expulsion.

For those who have never read the policy or the conscience clause you will find them here.

If you wish to read the the abortion policy in the Platform on the ALP site c.f. no 21 for which can be found here.

The 1984 Conference resolution enshrining the conscience vote in the Platform on the ALP site can be found here.

The reasoning behind the free vote has been outlined by a prominent member of the party for at least thirty years, Mr Bob McMullan. You can find his speech on this issue here.

What do our politicians hold about human life? Here are the words of one that must never be forgotten:

“In the end, I could not find a sufficiently compelling moral difference between allowing a surplus embryo to succumb by exposure to room temperature, on the one hand, and the use of those embryos for potentially therapeutic research, on the other. That is why, in the end, I come down in favour of therapeutic research. I think some good can come out of that research. I hope it does. I wish the scientists well.”

These are the immortal words of Mr John Howard recorded in the House of Representatives on 29 August 2002 in debate on “Research Involving Embryos and Prohibition of Human Cloning Bill 2002.”

A similar anti-life view stated on the previous day on the same bill is this one:

“On the question of surplus embryos, my judgment is this: one form of death to surplus embryos is no more humane than another. Succumbing of an exposed embryo is no more or less humane than the use of those embryos for research. If we were to oppose the human destruction of surplus embryos, it would mean, by definition, the destruction of the IVF program, something which I could not in conscience support. For this reason, I see no fundamental reason to oppose this bill, because the research may offer potential relief to human suffering. In this question we are all subject to our own individual human circumstances.”

The author of these words is the leader of the Australian Labor Party, Mr Kevin Rudd.

Even though other members in the debate went on to make even more chilling comments, the fact is the bill passed into law by a substantial majority of members who shared Mr Howard’s and Mr Rudd’s anti-life sentiments.

What relevance is that to us now?

Members of the current parliament seeking re-election and who voted against life, as well as those who uphold views and participate in organisations that do not promote the good of human life from conception to the grave, do not deserve to be elected to parliament. Their anti-life views contradict the principle that that parliament is intended by God to uphold God’s law and to be His servant in upholding and promoting the good among the citizens of this society. Those standing for parliament who, by their votes and statements and memberships, promote a culture of death need to be remembered by voters at the next election.

The following list of parliamentarians in the current parliament shows the anti-life votes and memberships they have chosen to follow. Until the election is called and the final list of who will be seeking re-election this list is current. To see the list in total please click HERE.

By Wanda Skowronska
Monsignor Reilly, the founder of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants has often said that evil of great magnitude calls for a spiritual response of great magnitude. One could say his motto is ‘A spiritual war must be fought by spiritual means’. And yet how deeply do we as a society and as Catholics in Western society truly understand this? Do we understand that the spiritual war against life with all its aspects—abortion, contraception, sterilisation, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research—has such a Goliath-like grip on our society that it pervades it at every corner. Many of our ‘normal’ activities actually are in the midst of the ‘new killing fields’ of Western society. We go to pharmacies where the morning after pill and ‘contraceptives’—which kill infants—are dispensed to numerous customers standing alongside us. When we drive through the suburbs, we pass modern abortion clinics doing ‘business as usual’. When we go to hospital to visit a sick friend genetic testing proceeds nearby sounding the death knell for unborn children. Invisible orphans surround us in the ‘frozen orphanages’ where embryos are stored in numerous suburban laboratories. In schools children are presented with sex education programs which prepare them to accept these realities as a matter of course. [Read more…]

by Joseph Nicolosi PhD
The greatest myth we hear these days about homosexuality is that “the homosexual is normal in every way except for his sexual preference.” Yet as we begin to understand the nature of homosexuality we begin to see that homosexuality is not just about sexual choice. It’s a whole psychology, beginning with the idea that the homosexual suffers from a gender identity problem. We must therefore approach the issue with the understanding that homosexuality is not a sexual problem. It is an identity problem. Homosexuality is not a problem about sex. It’s not about sexual behaviour. It’s about identity, specifically gender identity. [Read More…]

by Jane Instance
During my time in highschool, I regarded Karl Marx, co-author of “The Communist Manifesto” as a failed economic theorist whose grand idea of a Western revolution where the workers would seize control of the means of production somehow failed to come about. To my mind, Communism brought nothing but economic ruin to those countries behind the ‘iron curtain’ and to call someone a “Marxist” was to suggest that they were a passionate but misguided fanatic, with a possible penchant for little black hats and Mao Tse Tung pyjama shirts.
What I didn’t realise was that the Marxist cause had been taken on and revamped by a whole new group of theorists, otherwise known as Radical Feminists, and that Karl Marx’s social teachings were alive and well in universities and government departments throughout the West. (More…)

by Jane Instance
The more feminist literature I read, the more profound becomes my conviction that women will never enjoy their unique dignity and equality as long as feminism exists.

Wait a minute! That’s a pretty strong statement to make. Surely we can keep a little bit of feminism? Just keep the good parts which talk about equality and women’s rights and education and all that. Must we throw out the baby with the bath water?

That’s a fair question. As pro-lifers we tend to be against throwing out babies. But when I look closely at this particular infant, whose mummy calls it ‘equality for women’, I start to see that it’s not quite what I’d expected. (More…)

The Viennese psychiatrist, Viktor Frankel once observed that man has an infinite capacity to deceive himself. This three time escapee from Hitler’s concentration camps has written eloquently how hard it is for people to face and accept the truth – to say nothing of practicing it. This must be harder if one has lived, acted, spoken, or written contrary to the truth. A good example of this is the number of bishops, theologians and intellectuals who refuse to believe that contraception leads to abortion! (More…)