The Culture of Life and opposition to the Culture of Death- that\u2019s what our efforts in Respect Life are all about.\u00a0 And all of us in this room are committed to life.\u00a0 We feel passionate about life and we have demonstrated that over and over again in the activities in our parishes.<\/p>\n
For example, we at Holy Family have been blessed for many, many years with devoted leadership in Respect Life.\u00a0 Our leadership has been at the forefront in promoting 40 days for life; Orlando Area Billboards that are pro-life; the Spiritual Adoption Program; JMJ Baby Bottle campaigns; Postcards Campaigns to our Congress; Pro Life Auctions; Life Chain participation; White Crosses during the Roe v Wade Anniversary; strong Pro-Life homilies from the pulpit, and many other things.\u00a0 And our parishioners have been wonderfully responsive as well.\u00a0 They have been generous in their giving; applauded our homilies enthusiastically; and have participated in our events on a large scale.\u00a0 For example, we had 3000 sets of postcards submitted in the postcard campaign; and almost as many participants in Spiritual Adoption each year we have done it.\u00a0 I am sure many of you can say the same great things about your own programs and parishes.\u00a0 And the point of all that is this: we have been very successful!<\/p>\n
Why is it, then, that I have such a nagging feeling inside that something is terribly wrong?\u00a0 Because I do; I sense that things are getting worse, not better.\u00a0 I know that, despite the support we have from the parish, some people are leaving the parish because they don\u2019t like our aggressive pro-life stance.\u00a0 I know that the government is forcing the HHS mandate on us; I know that gender identity, gay marriage, in-vitro-fertilization, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, and assisted suicide are being accepted by American Society and are happening much more often.\u00a0 And that all gives me that queasy feeling that things are getting worse.\u00a0 It gives me a gut feeling that the forces of evil are out in front of us and that we are playing catch up; we are not being effective enough.\u00a0 It reminds me about something my Father-In-Law used to say over and over, that \u201dThe devil travels around the world twice before the truth gets its shoes on\u201d. \u00a0So, the question is, what can we do about it?\u00a0 What can we do to reverse this downward trend?<\/p>\n
A couple of months ago, our Parish was fortunate to have a visit from Brother Andres Gutierrez, a transitional Deacon of the Lumen Dei Order.\u00a0 Brother Andres was on his way to Latin America with the specific mission to set up crisis centers there to counter Planned Parenthood\u2019s international movement.\u00a0 Brother Andres spoke to our Respect Life Committee about the Vatican and current teachings on Life Issues.\u00a0 His message to us was truly eye opening.\u00a0 I am going to summarize that message for you as best I can.<\/p>\n
First, Brother Andres said we need to recognize that the forces of evil are focused.\u00a0 They recognize that life and the family are the main issues that need to be attacked in the fight to take God out of society.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost as if they have structured a program to attack Pope Paul VI\u2019s encyclical on Humana Vitae point by point.\u00a0 And so, their attack on life is more fundamental than being Pro-Choice, or for Assisted Suicide and the other things we are fighting against.\u00a0 Rather, their message is that Man, not God, is in control of life and can define family accordingly.\u00a0 Let me make sure you all heard that.\u00a0 The forces of evil are trying to convince society that Man, not God, is in control of life and what family is.\u00a0 The key to control of life is therefore Bioethics.<\/p>\n
Bioethics is defined as the study of the ethical and moral implications of new biological discoveries and biomedical advances, as in the fields of genetic engineering and drug research.\u00a0 In 2010, Pope Benedict realized this critical link.\u00a0 At that time he said:\u00a0 \u201cThe recognition of human dignity, in fact, as an inalienable right first finds its basis in that law not written by human hand, but inscribed by God the Creator in the hearts of men\u201d.\u00a0 He was talking about the \u201cNatural Law\u201d of God. \u00a0But by 2010 much had already been written by secular society on Bioethics.\u00a0 So, Bioethics is something our Church has been playing catch up on with secular society.<\/p>\n
The foundation of Bioethics in the Culture of Life is this: that God wills life to each person; it is a gift from God, and that each person is unique and is loved by God.\u00a0 And so, the dignity of each life that God creates must be respected.\u00a0 That is what is ethical because it is consistent with the Natural Law of God written in our hearts.\u00a0 From this flows that life begins at conception; and Catholic Teachings on morality on the bioethics of cloning and in-vitro fertilization.<\/p>\n
The foundation of bioethics in the culture of death, on the other hand, is the idea of \u201cself\u201d and the collection of \u201cself\u201d or human society.\u00a0 Dignity is preservation of self and society\u2019s self-interests.\u00a0 So, life can and should be controlled and \u201cselected\u201d by humanity to serve those interests.\u00a0 That is there spin on Bioethics.\u00a0 From that flow abortion, infanticide, cloning, and euthanasia; because whatever it takes to benefit society as they see it is what is ethical.<\/p>\n
Let me use an example to demonstrate\u00a0just how cohesive and pervasive the culture of death\u2019s position has become.\u00a0 In our evolving society, the forces of evil are pushing gender identity, gay marriage, and the goodness of in-vitro fertilization and cloning.\u00a0 How does all that work together?\u00a0 Gender identity encourages people to \u201cpick\u201d which sex they want to be when they reach the age of reason, and that legitimizes homosexuality.\u00a0 Similarly, Gay marriage makes it possible for two same sex people to be joined together in \u201cmarriage\u201d as a family.\u00a0 Now when we object that the purpose of marriage is procreation, and that gay couples can\u2019t procreate, their answer is that this is no longer so.\u00a0 You see a sperm bank, egg donors, in-vitro fertilization, cloning and a host \u201cmother\u201d are all that is needed to create human life.\u00a0 And not only that, these things can be controlled by Man to produce exactly the desired result- the right sex; the right intelligence; the right looks, etc.\u00a0 They would say that we don\u2019t need God for life any more<\/p>\n
Brother Andres talked about another reason why gay marriage is so important to the forces of evil.\u00a0 It is because gay marriage breaks down the intended basic unit of life- the conventional family unit.\u00a0 Our church teaches us that a primary purpose of humanity is marriage and the command to be fruitful and multiply.\u00a0 A Husband loves his wife and gives totally of himself to her.\u00a0 A wife loves the Husband, and gives herself back totally to the husband.\u00a0 The fruits of mutual love between the Husband and Wife in marriage are the children.\u00a0 In that sense the family unit echoes God, because it echoes the Trinity itself.\u00a0 The Father gives everything to the Son; the Son gives everything back to the Father; and the fruit of the Father and Son relationship in the Trinity is the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
Gay marriages simply can\u2019t and don\u2019t reflect this Trinitarian meaning.\u00a0 There is no fruit in a gay marriage.\u00a0 The clinical manipulation of eggs, sperm, surrogate wombs, and the like, is not the fruit of the love in a gay union.\u00a0 It is an abomination of all that God intended.\u00a0 If the heterosexual family unit is abandoned by society, so is the reflection of God in the Trinity.\u00a0 And the result of those relationships will be alternate life styles and man\u2019s idea of society.\u00a0 God and the will of God will be abandoned with it.<\/p>\n
That is the aim of the forces of evil- and it is all based on pride, the ego, and individualistic thinking.\u00a0 Where did all of that come from? \u00a0\u00a0It can be traced to the ideas promulgated in the age of Reason as ushered in by the Enlightenment.\u00a0 At its extreme, the Enlightenment teaches that Reason, Science, and critical thinking are tools that provide mankind with all we need to know.\u00a0 God is not needed. \u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s face it, our human society is being conditioned by the forces of evil to define that Man, not the Natural Law of God, decides when life starts, what it is, and whether or not it is worth living.<\/p>\n
Brother Andres then talked about why the Pope chose the year of Faith.\u00a0 It seems that Pope Benedict shared with the latest synod of Bishops the idea that Reasoning needs to be purified by Faith because Faith is God\u2019s Revelation of the ultimate truths.\u00a0 These ultimate truths cannot be arrived at by man\u2019s rules of Reasoning.\u00a0 God, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the heavenly Kingdom, the Natural Law, and many other things have been revealed to us and cannot be reasoned first.\u00a0 Faith purifies, centers, provides a foundation for reasoning.\u00a0 And so, we must be a people of Faith first, and then use science and reasoning to understand the world that God has gifted us with based on the foundation of the truths of faith; a foundation built on solid rock, not sand.<\/p>\n
And so, brothers and sisters, if we are going to be more effective against the emerging culture of death, we have got to expand our horizons by changing society to embrace Faith first.\u00a0 How can we do that, by encouraging all of our Catholics to become people of Faith?\u00a0 That means getting all of our people to pray, to reflect, and to learn about their Faith.\u00a0 Our parish is concentrating on bible studies, Catechism classes, Why Catholic, Perpetual Adoration, and adult education programs.\u00a0 That is a start, but the education in the ways of secular society is so pervasive in everything we do- the news, at work, our TV shows and movies,\u00a0 that most Catholics don\u2019t understand that they are losing their foundation of Faith.\u00a0 And I believe that all of us are just as guilty as our brothers and sisters in the pew of not knowing and internalizing our Faith.\u00a0 Why is that important; because everyone else looks to us as leaders, and will be drawn by our example?<\/p>\n
Secondly, we need to define Bioethics so that it is consistent with the Natural Law of God.\u00a0 Yes, Pro-Life needs to deal with Bioethics and all its tentacles, because that is why we have been losing the battle.\u00a0 We have been focused on some of the symptoms; not on the root causes.\u00a0 If we really knew our Faith that would become crystal clear.\u00a0 At any rate, Pro-Life initiatives need to include a clear and focused position on the definition of humanity and life, one that defines life as a gift from God- it is not under humanity\u2019s control.\u00a0 Male and female he made them- he didn\u2019t give us the option to choose what we want to be later in life.\u00a0 The gift of new life comes from the uniting of a man and a woman only- because that is the only way the fruit of the love in marriage is given by God- the children.\u00a0 And children need to grow up in a family unit consisting of a mom, a dad, and the children- because that family unit is a reflection of the image and likeness of God- the Trinity.<\/p>\n
That means no gender identity, no gay marriage, no pre-selection through cloning, no in-vitro fertilization, no contraception, no infanticide, and no euthanasia can be embraced\u00a0 in a Christian, or even in a Judeo-Christian-Islamic definition of Bioethics.<\/p>\n
So, what does all of this mean we should do in the future as Pro-Life leaders?\u00a0 Well, first of all, we need to realize the Pro-Life fight is bigger than we thought.\u00a0 It should be centered on Bioethics as a whole. \u00a0\u00a0Certainly we have been blind-sided by the effects of gay marriage, gender identity, and other seemingly unrelated social issues on the culture of life. \u00a0So, it will take some reflection and doing by all of us to correct for that.<\/p>\n
Second, it means we have to recognize that evil is way ahead of us on the larger issue.\u00a0 I think that should motivate us to work closer together, as a cohesive group.\u00a0 One of the things we are trying to do with this conference is to focus on ways that we can all select a subset of the things we are doing as parishes and work cooperatively on them as groups of parishes to be more effective.\u00a0 It could be 40 Days for Life; it could be a meaningfully large life chain; \u00a0or it could be a push against gender identity while this issue is still in the formative stage.\u00a0 It could be a lot of things, and you will all have the opportunity to discuss them and decide on something here today.\u00a0 But let me be clear:\u00a0 We can have a larger effect if we focus on a couple or three things together than if we each go our own way.\u00a0 And we need a larger effect; one that will get attention from the media and politicians.<\/p>\n
Lastly, we need to be united in prayer and Faith.\u00a0 Together, and with resolve, God will not abandon us.\u00a0 But true Faith is believing in all the Church teaches, not cherry-picking what we like and don\u2019t like.\u00a0 True Faith is humble acceptance of the things we cannot understand\u00a0that God has revealed to us.<\/p>\n
Our agenda is quite full today.\u00a0 And today\u2019s meeting is just one of a series of such meetings.\u00a0 But from this meeting, this beginning, let us resolve that we can and will make a difference.<\/p>\n
Brothers and Sisters: let us pray that God will bless us and our efforts.\u00a0 That He will recognize our sincerity, our Faith, our zeal, and our commitment to defend Him as the author of all life and to stand firm against everyone that assumes through pride and selfishness that man alone has the answer.\u00a0 We ask these things through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Respect Life Leadership Conference Keynote Address Dc. Larry Brockman The Culture of Life and opposition to the Culture of Death- that\u2019s what our efforts in Respect Life are all about.\u00a0 And all of us in this room are committed to life.\u00a0 We feel passionate about life and we have demonstrated that over and over again […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[235],"tags":[236],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}