The Immaculate Conception is an event that happened only once in history. The Immaculate Conception is God’s power to create a person free of original sin. That person is Mary, the mother of Jesus who is the Son of God.
When the Holy Spirit overcame Mary, Jesus’ humanity and divinity were placed in her womb for protection and the necessary space for the divine seed which had been planted – with a human nature alongside the divinity. In her womb, the God-man grew and, at the right time, he was born like any other child, except this child had two natures: human and divine, without blending.
To plant such a divine seed, who was His Son, God first created a woman who never experienced sin, because she had been conceived Immaculate, so that the Messiah that had been promised to Israel would acquire His human nature in a womb that did not know sin.
Mary has the protection of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was so powerful in Mary that we first became aware of the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity when Gabriel said the Holy Spirit would act in her, without any human intervention.
It’s through the Virgin conceived without sin that man is first introduced to the most powerful and glorious being: the Triune God.
“Love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving. Without sacrifice, there is no love.”
Today we celebrate someone whose short life was an embodiment of these words: St. Rose of Lima.
Born Isabel Flores in 1586 in Lima (Peru), she felt called by God from a very young age, consecrating herself to Him at the age of 10 and practicing great austerities which she offered as redemptive suffering. She wore a thick circlet of silver on her head which, unbeknownst to others, was studded on the inside like a crown of thorns.
Forensic reconstruction of the face of St. Rose (2015). Click for details.
She received Confirmation by St. Turibius with the name “Rose of St. Mary”, thus consecrating the nickname she bore from childhood. She bravely opposed her parents’ wishes in order to give herself entirely to Christ. With the eccentricity typical of many saints, she rejected the admiration of her beauty by cutting her hair and rubbing her face with pepper to produce disfiguring blotches.
Forbidden by her parents to become a nun, she imitated her model (St. Catherine of Siena) and joined the Third Order of St. Dominic. She then built and lived in a hermitage in the garden of the family home. A great penitent and mystic, she only left her hermitage to attend Church or to serve the needy – particularly the indios who suffered great discrimination. In time, she set up a room in the family house where she cared for homeless children, the elderly, and the sick. She would say:
<<When we serve the poor and the sick we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we serve Jesus.>>
St. Rosa in her hermitage, source of engraving unknown. (Click for more)
On top of her penances and illnesses, she was often tormented by the devil, but she received reassurance by another Third Order Dominican from Lima: St. Martin de Porres. When someone brought her to the attention of Inquisition interrogators, they quickly affirmed that she was under the influence of divine grace. She had many visions of divine origin, including one in which the Lord called her “Rose of my heart“. She deeply and sincerely loved Christ, and once wrote:
<<Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases. Apart from the Cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to Heaven.>>
In 1614, severely ill, she was forced by her family to relocate to the house of a devout family who tended to her care (currently, her Monastery stands in this place). There she died 3 years later, aged 31. Her holiness was so well-known, that such crowds gathered as to cause her funeral to be delayed by several days. She was privately buried in the cloister of the Church of St. Dominic at her own request.
St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres – author unknown
She was beatified in 1668 and canonized only 3 years later. She was proclaimed the Primary Patron of the New World, and was celebrated as the first canonized saint of the Americas.
On this Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Supreme Court of the United States has formally held that the United States Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.
Furthermore, SCOTUS overruled both “Roe v. Wade” and “Planned Parenthood v. Casey” and stated that, in the United States, “the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives“.
We wish to quote some salient points from the Statement:
the Constitution makes no express reference to a right to obtain an abortion
procuring an abortion is not a fundamental constitutional right
the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition
the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does not protect the right to an abortion
Roe and Casey have led to the distortion of many important but unrelated legal doctrines…that effect provides further support for overruling those decisions
The Court emphasizes that this decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right.
A few more points worth quoting from the SCOTUS Statement:
until a few years before Roe, no federal or state court had recognized such a right. Nor had any scholarly treatise. Indeed, abortion had long been a crime in every single State.
by the time the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, three-quarters of the States had made abortion a crime at any stage of pregnancy
Finally, the Court considers whether a right to obtain an abortion is part of a broader entrenched right that is supported by other precedents. The Court concludes the right to obtain an abortion cannot be justified as a component of such a right.
The nature of the Court’s error. Like the infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe was also egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided. Casey perpetuated its errors
An even more glaring deficiency was Roe’s failure to justify the critical distinction it drew between pre- and post-viability abortions. The arbitrary viability line, which Casey termed Roe’s central rule, has not found much support among philosophers and ethicists […] viability has changed over time and is heavily dependent on factors—such as medical advances and the availability of quality medical care—that have nothing to do with the characteristics of a fetus.
Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act is supported by the Mississippi Legislature’s specific findings, which include the State’s asserted interest in “protecting the life of the unborn.” These legitimate interests provide a rational basis for the Gestational Age Act, and it follows that respondents’ constitutional challenge must fail.
Today’s decision of the US Supreme Court overturning the fateful Roe v. Wade is certainly welcomed by all those who recognize that human life begins at conception and that this is a scientific and biological fact and not merely a religious belief or ideological theory. As such the unborn child should be welcomed in life and protected by law. […]
We hope that dismantling Roe will allow legislation protecting the unborn to move forward in our state legislatures and to survive constitutional challenges in the future.
Abortion too often is seen as the solution to an unforeseen problem, a fall back position if contraception failed or was not used. But abortion is no solution — and it is no right. It is a wrong, a grievous wrong that has prematurely ended the lives of more than 60 million souls in this country alone since 1973.
A number of sources, among which we quote this one(without by this intending to endorse in any way the source) have summarized the current situation as far as individual States banning abortion:
Would ban most or all abortions.
Bbortion bans within one month
Abortion bans within weeks or months
Abortion bans uncertain
Abortion likely to remain for a while
(Click on map to enhance)
We encourage you to continue praying – in private, with your community, even with us – and to find out locally (as well as through the major Catholic institutions and associations) how you can continue supporting this aspect of the pro-life ministry at this crucial moment in the history of the United States.
The date chosen by Divine Providence is very fitting indeed. Today we celebrate Our Lord’s Most Sacred Heart, and tomorrow we celebrate the Immaculate Heart of Mary, ever-virgin, the most pure Theotokos who, when in her kindness she appeared at Fatima, promised triumph!
We continue united in prayer and action, against all violence and evil, proclaiming the sanctity of human life and reaching out – as much if not more than before – to women and men facing a crisis pregnancy.
One of the brothers recorded a video of the first trimester of pre-natal human development making use of the beautiful physician-approved, child-friendly, non-graphic models by Heritage House ’76
We will embed the video, but the link is https://youtu.be/9ANZSKkzVsg and you can also download and re-upload / share anywhere you want by clicking here.
We have observed in the span of a few days, some major celebrations, namely the feast of our patron Saint Maximilian Kolbe OFM Conv., confessor and martyr, and the great Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady!
The fact that St. Max was martyred on the vigil of the Assumption and his body cremated in the ovens of Auschwitz is no coincidence. He spent his existence at the service of his Queen, striving to earn the two spiritual crowns She had offered him when just a boy – purity and martyrdom – and he once wrote to his brothers:
Would that my ashes might be scattered to the four winds in order to bring Jesus to souls, to bring to them the cause of His Mother and our Mary!
We invite you to read more about St. Max on our blog as well as on St. Max’s Parish website, but in this article we’d like to highlight the glory that is the Assumption (known in some places as the Dormition) of the Blessed Virgin Mary!
Had you attended the 11 AM Mass this morning at St. Max, you’d have heard a wonderful theological sermon on the subject by our good friend and “out of the ordinary” preacher, Dcn. Pierre. You were right – I should have taken notes!
We will however do our best to celebrate the momentous occurrence with a few words.
Fr. Ludwig Ott wrote in his eminent work on Dogmatic Theology, “it seems fitting that Mary’s body, which was by nature mortal, should be, in conformity with that of her Divine Son, subject to the general law of death…” and, on that same note, St. John Damascene wrote:
It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in the act of giving birth to him, should look upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting that God’s Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God.
“Encomium in Dormitionem Dei Genetricis Semperque Virginis Mariae, Hom. II, n. 14” (as quoted by Ven. Pius XII)
and, in a more “eastern” tone, bishop Theoteknos of Livia wrote:
It was fitting that the most holy body of Mary, God-bearing body, receptacle of God, divinized, incorruptible, illuminated by divine grace and full glory, should be entrusted to the earth for a little while and raised up to heaven in Glory, with her soul pleasing to God.
The Venerable Pius XII, who infallibly defined what the Church always believed on this matter in his Apostolic Constitution “Muneficentissimus Deus” on November 1st, 1950, also wrote in the same document:
Immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages.
Such is a summary of a doctrine that was already believed and accepted by Christianity from the very beginning! Indeed Ven. Pius XII reminds us:
the liturgy of the Church does not engender the Catholic faith, but rather springs from it, in such a way that the practices of the sacred worship proceed from the faith as the fruit comes from the tree…it follows that the holy Fathers and the great Doctors, in the homilies and sermons they gave the people on this feast day, did not draw their teaching from the feast itself as from a primary source, but rather they spoke of this doctrine as something already known and accepted by Christ’s faithful
I delivered to you first of all, which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures: and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures: and that he was seen by Cephas; and after that by the eleven.
[…] if the dead rise not again, neither is Christ risen again. And if Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain […] But now Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep […]
For by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead. And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But every one in their own order: the firstfruits Christ, then they that are of Christ, who have believed in his coming.
Our Lord Jesus Christ never found more perfect believer in his coming that She who conceived Him in her immaculate womb, so much so that Christ Himself found it fitting to underscore this aspect of the Immaculata’s glory:
A certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: “Blessed is the womb that bore thee…” But He said: “Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it!”
How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled!
This blessing, this glory, is in primis of Our Lady, the perfect disciple. In imitation of Christ, she died, was buried, rose again, and she was seen by so many witnesses (we bear in mind in a special way St. Francis, St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Bernadette…though so many from the very early days of the Church attest to Her visits and support…).
Yet, a most kind mother, and in perfect alignment with the divine economy, she wills us to be her imitators in her belief until that glorious day when we, too, will be reunited to our glorified bodies and rejoice with the angels and the saints, God willing.
What Deacon Pierre stated this morning, St. Ambrose made extremely clear in one of his own homilies:
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit after conceiving a son; Mary was filled before. “You are blessed,” said Elizabeth, “because you have believed.”
You too are blessed because you have heard and believed. The soul of every believer conceives and brings forth the Word of God and recognizes his works. Let Mary’s soul be in each of you to glorify the Lord. Let her spirit be in each of you to rejoice in the Lord. Christ has only one Mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ by faith. Every soul free from contamination of sin and inviolate in its purity can receive the Word of God.
Oh, Immaculata, beloved mother, who in your great sorrow consoled your Lord and Savior on the way to Calvary, rejoice and be glad, for today He in His great joy consoles you on the way to Eternity! Pray for us, your children, your servants! We are all yours, o Mary, this is our fiat to you, o Immaculata, that through your intercession we poor sinners may be made fit instruments to extend the kingdom of Christ!
Image edited by one of our brothers, based on the icon of the IV Station of the Cross at St Maximilian Kolbe Parish
My mother always said, “Darkness can never conquer light.” Looking at the world today things look dark if we don’t seek out the light.
Covid-19 has done more than making some people sick and kill others. It has thrown families into crisis. Some mourn a loved one. Others wonder about an elderly relative in a nursing home where visitors are not allowed. Spouses spend hours sitting, praying, and wondering if their partner is ever coming off the ventilator. Patients struggle to breathe. Their bodies ache. They have lost all sense of taste and even of smell. The endless coughing does not allow them a peaceful night’s sleep.
We must also consider how this virus has impacted the lives of healthcare professionals. They do not lose their humanity. Many have loved ones, including spouses, parents, children. Upon entering nursing school or medical school, they never dreamed that their lives would be on the line. Those things happened to people in the armed forces, not to healthcare professionals.
Long days on your feet were to be expected, but caring for more than ten patients was not a common occurrence among nurses. There was little fear of taking home a virus that could literally kill one of your children or elderly loved ones. As the number of nurses, doctors, medical technicians, and others contracted the virus, the workload became heavier. Instead of 12-hour shifts, some people were putting in 18-hour shifts. Yet, these people have spouses, children, parents, and even pets at home, waiting for them.
When your loved one is a patient in a hospital, a resident in a lockdown nursing home, a nurse, physician, or technicians, one doesn’t always enjoy a good night’s rest, wondering, worrying.
Also, the loss of income to many workers has stretched their resources beyond their means. When businesses are locked down, real people are home paying bills and buying groceries, with no idea when they will go back to work and bring home a paycheck. People who have worked hard all their lives to open a small retail store are now paying bills with no income.
Then there is also violence, looting, and confrontations on our streets. This has been one of the most active hurricane seasons in decades. Wildfires have left thousands of people homeless. Terrorism and military posturing have not taken vacations.
People wonder: “where is God in all of this? If God is so loving and merciful, why are so many people suffering? Does prayer really produce results?” Some are angry at God. They feel abandoned.
Given the picture of the world today, it is very natural to question one’s faith. God does not get angry because we doubt, or because we are angry at Him.
We find answers to our questions of faith when we reflect on the lives of men and women of faith such as: Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe who died in a concentration camp to save the life a family man; Saint Teresa of Calcutta who left home at the age of 18 to become a missionary in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Then there are spouses and parents such as Saint Gianna Beretta Molla who chose to give her life rather than abort her preborn child. She delivered this child and died shortly after.
Speaking of people with strong faith, I can never forget what the Blessed Mother said to Saint Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes, as she lay, dying of very painful bone disease, at the age of 35:
I cannot promise you happiness in this life, only in the next.
Christ never promised us that life in this world was going to be painless. As we enter the Christmas Season, we must meditate on the fact that the Son of God was born with a price on His head. Herod was looking to kill the little boy. His parents had to flee with Him into Egypt. Despite the threat of infanticide and later execution on a cross, God chose to be born into a world that offered Him no exemption from suffering and loss.
God chose to be born into a world filled with suffering and loss of many kinds. He navigated through this world always remembering that nothing is impossible for the Father. Let us never forget that God brought light into the world at a stable in Bethlehem and later at the resurrection from the dead.
Christmas is a commemoration of the time when God broke into the darkness of humanity to bring the light of faith, hope and charity. It is also a time of anticipation. Christ promised that He would return to judge the living and the dead. He will return to shed light on our sins and our acts of love.
Christ said the greatest act of love man can do is to lay down his life for his neighbor.
The chaos, fear, conflicts, and confusion that we’re experiencing can be moments of light if we reach out to those who suffer. We don’t have to give them anything. The shepherds who went to the manger to see the divine infant didn’t come bearing gifts. They were poor themselves. But they brought the greatest gift of all: support, love, and companionship to a young family in trouble.
Much has happened during the first half of 2019 to stir the human conscience. While some legislators try to place restrictions on abortion, which would protect the life of the preborn child, others have legislated that abortion is permissible up to the end of the pregnancy. In some cities, the government has declared that it would pay for abortions of its residents and of those who come from other places seeking such service.
The battle between good and evil has intensified. While states regulate abortion, organizations, special interest groups and individuals are using every means available to block the enactment of such restrictive laws. Certain legislators have publicly stated that those who restrict abortion “hate women”. Another popular junior legislator has publicly denied the holocaust of abortion. The saddest thing of all is that some religious leaders have preached the abortion is “a gift from God”. To the best of my knowledge, no Catholic bishop has made such a statement. But I don’t live in every Catholic diocese. I neither condone nor condemn those whose position on this grave issue I don’t know.
We must examine certain important facts. Unfortunately, this article can turn into a book if we were to discuss all the faults in the reasoning of those who are pro-abortion.
Let’s carefully examine the one myth, “pro-life people hate women.”
First, accusing someone of hating another group, sex, or religious community must be proven using observable and measurable hateful acts that targets women or anyone else.
Those who make such statements must prove what they say. The burden of proof is on them. Anyone who takes their opinions as dogma, without any evidence, is not acting intelligently. They’re drinking the Kool-Aide.
If someone said that all Black people are thugs, all Hispanics are drug dealers, or all wealthy people care only about themselves, aren’t those very broad generalizations? Many of us would be outraged by such allegations and demand proof or condemn the speaker of hate speech.
However, when someone says those who vote for restrictions on abortion hate women, is that not hate speech? Does that not pit one group against another, rather than inviting the other to a mature dialogue in search of Truth?
Such statements are dismissive and condescending. It is dismissing the person who is prolife and the woman in a crisis pregnancy, offering her no support or empathy. On the contrary, if offers a quick way out for politicians that can leave a lasting scar in the life of a woman.
But that risk is not taken into consideration, because it requires commitment from the greater community to be supportive of women in crisis pregnancies and to hold their partner responsible for his preborn child. Many believe that challenges can be solved if we throw a few million dollars at them. As if money can truly liberate us from our social and moral responsibility.
We need to help the world’s legislators see that throwing money at a problem does not make it go away. Society has a duty to protect every human being’s right to life, especially those who are not guilty of any crime, whose only “crime” is to have come into existence.
If being born is an inconvenience or an evil, does that mean that our conception and birth was without any inconvenience to our parents? Did our conception not demand of our parents a change of life and agenda? That’s a very haughty position to take. “I’m allowed to be here, because I was never a challenge or required my parents to change; but the conception of children today, presents a challenge to parents, is a burden to society and a crime against humanity.”
If these statements do not touch us, or our loved ones, then we can make them freely and sleep well at night. Is this true social progress, or the height of arrogance?
As we approach Holy Week it’s important to examine our conscience and to ask ourselves, “Have I looked at mothers and fathers who submit to abortion with kindness or with aversion?”
God gives us rights from the moment of conception
Abortion is a heinous crime that cries out to God for vengeance. While it is true that the unborn child is the innocent
victim whose life is taken during the early stages of human development, one must ask, what of the mothers and fathers who agreed to abort their unborn child? Are they aware of the gravity of their choice? If so, do they mourn the death of their unborn child? Do they hide their grief and their guilt so as not to be judged by others?
Saint Francis of Assisi wrote in one of his admonitions,
“Blessed is the man who bears with his neighbor according to the frailty of his nature,” (admonitions of St. Francis).
To be aware of the deep-seated guilt in the conscience of the post abortion parent, instead of judgment and indignation, requires spiritual sacrifice and often the courage of the crucified Christ who forgave rather than condemned. This kind of courage requires sacrifice and strength to go against our natural temptation to lash out at such people.
Why does Saint Francis say that we’re blessed if we bear with [our] neighbor’s human frailty? If we look at the story of the woman caught in adultery, we will find the answer to this question.
Jesus asks her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared.
“Go now and leave your life of sin,” (John 8:10-11)
Kindness toward the post abortive parent, along with encouragement to avoid this and other sins, is to do as Christ does. That is how we become blessed. Along with blessings that God may bestow on us for such mercy and kindness, to behave toward the sinner as Christ did draws us closer into his blessed nature.
Infra-red photo of the hurricane
Men and women who struggle with the guilt of abortion are carrying a cross, but they’re not moving in a forward direction. Each day is another walk around the same circle of grief, shame, and guilt. People of faith have a moral duty to point those who carry such a cross in the right direction. This is a spiritual work of mercy.
We must remember Christ’s words, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me,” Luke 9:23.
We cannot erase a chapter from another person’s history book, nor should we want to do so. However, we can point the sinner toward Christ. We have a duty to counsel the sinner to carry the cross that that’s a consequence of abortion and turn it into a holy life, denying themselves of self-pity, instead following Christ through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Holy Mass, and daily prayer.
Those who treat their neighbor as they would want to be treated are truly blessed. Christ’s love and mercy shines through us.
This week, hundreds of thousands will be marching in many cities around the country in defense of life. There are some important points to keep in mind these days.
First: Abortion will not go away because people protest one day a year. There must be a concerted effort on the part of all pro-life people to educate their neighbors and families on the issue.
Second: Images of baby body parts are impressive, but they don’t tell the full story. We must begin to tell the full story. EVERY HUMAN BEING HAS THE RIGHT TO BE BORN GUARANTEED BY NATURAL LAW. The fact that the Constitution does not cover the child in the womb, does not mean this child has no right to be born. What it means is that the amendments and laws passed have been short-sighted and must offered protection to the pre-born person.
Third: Christ said that certain demons could only be driven out by prayer and fasting. We invite those who are interested to follow the Franciscans of Life in the matter. We fast every Wednesday and Friday. We abstain from meat on Fridays. This is part of the sacrifice that we offer for the protection of life and the salvation of souls.
Fourth: Abortion is not a religious issue. It is an issue of justice. Every woman has the right to medical care; but no one has the right to medical care at the expense of another person’s life. The child in the womb has as much right to be in this world as do the parents. Our struggle is not a struggle against abortion, but a struggle for justice for everyone from conception to natural death.
Fifth and final point: There must be a national effort or campaign that promotes the right of men and women to be parents. It seems that the argument against abortion is about a woman’s right to “medical care”, completely ignoring or even looking down on men and women who strongly believe that they have the right to conceive and parent a child.
While driving down the road to Mass, I noticed a trailer park that I had not seen nor heard of before. It sits in the center of a middle-class neighborhood. It looked overcrowded with trailers. There was no paved road leading into the development. People lived in trailers, not mobile homes. The trailers did not appear to be sturdy nor new. They looked rather shabby. For a moment, I saw a woman walking through the trailer park. I did not have time to take a close look at her, which would probably have been rude. Her clothes gave her away as a member of a low economic class.
A trailer park. (c) Caren Mack Photography
When we arrived at the church, I began to pray; but all I could think of was that trailer park and the woman. Questions began to surface in my mind.
Why did people live in such a place? It’s not a safe place. A hurricane can come through and destroy many of the old trailers in the park and hurt many more people like the woman whom I saw.
Were the men and women who lived in this poverty the people who came to our emergency pregnancy centers looking for an abortion; which is contrary to what we do.
How long had they lived in such a state that they had begun to take it as “normal”?
(c) Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
As a human community, a social body and as a Church, no effort should be spared to help these families safeguard family values, from respect to unborn life and senior citizens who often need assistance to accomplish the tasks of daily living. The first and most important value is the family itself. Any attempt to alter the natural definition of family contributes to the creation of such impoverished communities. Until we acknowledge the dignity of the family brought together through matrimony and that no other type of relationship is analogous to this divine plan, there will not exist the indispensable human act, the recognition of the world’s obligation to protect the family not redefine it.
(c) Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The promotion of the family is the first step in the process of protection. Protection is a process. It is not a single isolated act, legislation or moral law. To eliminate impoverished communities such as what I describe above, Catholics must cooperate with each other and organizations to protect the definition of the family, to identify what humanity needs to maintain families in healthy environments, and activate systems within the political, industrial and ecclesial world that recognizes that these are real families living in squalid conditions.
Until the world recognizes that natural society is founded on marriage and procreation, we will continue to focus on meeting the demands of those who lobby for marriages and family structures that are inconsistent with God’s plan for humanity. One can say that the energy, time and money involved in redefining family and parenthood has been stolen from the poor.
Special interest groups do require our attention and services. It would be a great injustice to ignore the dignity, needs and humanity of special interest groups. However, our outreach must be rounded, like the flame of a camp fire. You can sit on any side of the fire and feel its warmth and use the light that such a fire gives off. If we redefine the properties of fire and force it to fit into our definitions, those who are in search natural fire are ignored. Attention, protection and support is usually provided to those with deep pockets. If there is anything left of the flame, we allow those who are poor to gather around a dying flame in search of a little light and warmth.
Catholics must pay close attention to Saint James when he says, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” We cannot just say that we believe in the family and its place in society. Catholics must engage legislators, business people, and other members of the community to protect the social priority of the family. When this happens, our eyes will be opened, and we will see those families who have been left out of the mainstream.
It does not take much: volunteering an hour or two a week, tutoring their children, educate the adults in the real meaning of family and provide them with some of the basic supplies needed to begin to work toward the expression of the family that was Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Our families must reflect the family of Nazareth, not through stories, paintings or statues; but by our everyday lives.
Is the Lord calling you to be a Franciscan of Life?
Franciscans of Life 
