Thursday, July 6, 2017 #endorsingcultureofdeath

1 Maccabees, Chapter 3, Verse 25

Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the Gentiles about them.

The Battle of Beth Horon was fought in 166 BC between Jewish forces led by Judas Maccabaeus and an army of the Seleucid Empire under the command of Seron. The rebel army led by Judas Maccabeus was growing in strength. They had just inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Seleucid General Apollonius and now they faced the forces of the Syrian Governor Seron, who was widely overconfident. With Maccabeus' superior knowledge of the terrain, he prepared his forces to ambush the larger Seleucid force . Seron had anticipated this and spread out his force, but the Maccabees exhibited superior tactical skill by decimating the general's leading unit and killing Seron himself. With their leader dead, the shocked and disconcerted remnants of the Seleucid army took to the hills and ran. The stubborn Seleucids refused to give up their slow phalanx-based tactics when compared to the lightweight and quick Maccabean militia thus always creating problems for them on the battlefield. Another force was soon sent against Maccabaeus, which led to the Battle of Emmaus.[1]

Reflecting on this constant struggle between the culture of death and the culture of life; I have just received a communique that my UNION is endorsing a PRO-CHOICE candidate. Ah now comes the rub. So begins the battle of sorts. I called 3 times to get a call back. The answer well union dues are not used to support the candidate (killing of children) but if I want to quit the union 1) I must draft a letter stating I want out and 2) ask for a window (2 weeks) of when I can request again the stoppage of my union dues. (We got your money-ha, ha, ha) or I can divorce myself and remain silent because I am not responsible. Hmm. I would appreciate getting feedback on this from my readers. My feeling it is like being silent during the holocaust but please let me know your thoughts.

On the "Pro-Choice" Position on Abortion[2]

Papal Teaching

But responsibility likewise falls on the legislators who have promoted and approved abortion laws, and, to the extent that they have a say in the matter, on the administrators of the health-care centers where abortions are performed. ... In this sense abortion goes beyond the responsibility of individuals and beyond the harm done to them, and takes on a distinctly social dimension. It is a most serious wound inflicted on society and its culture by the very people who ought to be society's promoters and defenders.

Pope John Paul II, Evangelium vitae (1995), no. 59.

When a parliamentary or social majority decrees that it is legal, at least under certain conditions, to kill unborn human life, is it not really making a 'tyrannical' decision with regard to the weakest and most defenseless of human beings?....While public authority can sometimes choose not to put a stop to something which – were it prohibited – would cause more serious harm, it can never presume to legitimize as a right of individuals – even if they are the majority of the members of society – an offense against other persons caused by the disregard of so fundamental a right as the right to life.

Id., nos. 70, 71.

Laws which legitimize the direct killing of innocent human beings through abortion or euthanasia are in complete opposition to the inviolable right to life proper to every individual; they thus deny the equality of everyone before the law.

Id., no. 72.

Utilitarianism is a civilization of production and of use, a civilization of "things" and not of "persons", a civilization in which persons are used in the same way as things are used. In the context of a civilization of use, woman can become an object for man, children a hindrance to parents, the family an institution obstructing the freedom of its members. To be convinced that this is the case, one need only look at certain sexual education programmes introduced into the schools, often notwithstanding the disagreement and even the protests of many parents; or pro-abortion tendencies which vainly try to hide behind the so-called "right to choose" ("pro-choice") on the part of both spouses, and in particular on the part of the woman.

Pope John Paul II, Letter to Families, February 2, 1994, no. 13

On "social sin":
Also social is every sin against the rights of the human person, beginning with the right to life and including the life of the unborn or against a person's physical integrity...The term social can be applied to sins of commission or omission-on the part of political, economic or trade union leaders, who though in a position to do so, do not work diligently and wisely for the improvement and transformation of society according to the requirements and potential of the given historic moment...Whenever the church speaks of situations of sin or when the condemns as social sins certain situations or the collective behavior of certain social groups, big or small, or even of whole nations and blocs of nations, she knows and she proclaims that such cases of social sin are the result of the accumulation and concentration of many personal sins. It is a case of the very personal sins of those who cause or support evil or who exploit it; of those who are in a position to avoid, eliminate or at least limit certain social evils but who fail to do so out of laziness, fear or the conspiracy of silence, through secret complicity or indifference; of those who take refuge in the supposed impossibility of changing the world and also of those who sidestep the effort and sacrifice required, producing specious reasons of a higher order. The real responsibility, then, lies with individuals.

Pope John Paul II, Reconciliation and Penance (1984), no. 16

Daily Devotions/Prayers

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         Novena to the Holy Face

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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Beth_Horon_(166_BC)

[2]www.usccb.org