Thomas McKenna, president of Catholic Action for Faith and Family, addressing the crowd

A large crowd of people gathered on Sunday, May 17, outside the San Diego County Administration Building for a “Choose Life!” rally. The rally was scheduled to coincide with President Barack Obama’s commencement speech at Notre Dame University. Event organizers said the official crowd estimate by San Diego police was 1100.

It was very inspiring to see so many people gathered together giving witness to the right to life of the unborn in our country. There was great enthusiasm in the crowd as the speakers addressed many aspects of the pro-life effort.

Speakers included the Rev. Walter Hoye, a Baptist minister who was recently jailed for violating Oakland’s so-called “bubble ordinance,” and UCLA student Lila Rose, who has spearheaded a series of undercover investigations that have exposed Planned Parenthood cover-ups of statutory rape laws in various states across the country. Pastor Jim Garlow of Skyline Church, who helped organize the event, Pastor David Jeremiah of Shadow Mountain Community Church and Host of The Turning Point, were also featured speakers at the event.

Among the notable Catholics participating in the rally were attorney Chuck Limandri, West Coast director of the Thomas More Law Center, Dr. George Delgado of Culture of Life Family Services, Leslie Brunolli, San Diego coordinator of Silent No More, and Fr. Nabil Mouaness of St. Ephrem Church in El Cajon and Thomas McKenna of Catholic Action for Faith and Family

Below are a few excerpts of  Thomas McKenna’s address on behalf of Catholic Action for Faith and Family:

Today we come together to protest the pro-abortion position of our current Administration. And sadly, for many of us as Catholics, to protest and publicly decry the fact that the most pro-abortion president in the history of our country is speaking at the commencement ceremony at Notre Dame University and receiving an honorary doctorate degree.

This is a scandal of the greatest proportions and an outrage to us as Catholics.

We Catholics are here today to stand with all of you of different denominations, to give witness and be a voice for the unborn.

We are here today to make a statement against relativism. We are here to say and show that we care more for principles than prestige. We are called to give witness to the Culture of Life in America.

Last week a new Gallup Poll was released for the first time finds that a slight majority of Americans now call themselves "pro-life" regarding abortion. The poll also shows that a majority of Catholics once again consider themselves pro-life while the number of Americans who think abortion should be legal "under any circumstances" has declined. It reported that 51 percent of Americans now call themselves "pro-life," while only 42 percent call themselves "pro-choice."

So there is hope on the horizon. We must always remember that we are inspired to what is right because we have our faith and we believe in God. No matter what society tries to tell us. We see the increasing expulsion of the Faith from the public square in America. We see activist judges and opportunistic legislators who are placing marriage and same-sex unions on the same footing. We see many new appointments of notoriously “pro-choice” officials who favor abortion on demand and American funding of this “slaughter of innocents” in foreign countries.

This should only serve to raise our indignation and inspire us to redouble our efforts to stand up for God Rights. Yes, these are not our laws that we are fighting for. They are God’s Laws and we should never let anyone forget that!

He who created us, governs us. And to those who have strayed and want to convince others to follow, we stand together as people of Faith and shout NO.

I close with a saying that the founder of the Jesuit order, St. Ignatius of Loyola, used to tell his followers, and that I have always found inspiring. I would like to leave you with this thought today as we continue to carry out our peaceful and legal fight for the right-to-life of the unborn.

“We must work as though everything depends on us. But pray as though everything depends on God.”

Monday, March 9, 2009, was another very sad day for the U.S.A. In a failing economy that is anything but improving, President Obama has again diverted valuable tax dollars to fund a further assault on innocent human life. A few weeks ago the President issued an executive order vacating the Mexico City Policy thereby allowing our tax dollars to be used by “family planning groups” that promote and perform abortions in foreign countries. You and I are now paying to impose our Nation’s immorality on others. The President has now used the power of his office to co-opt the American taxpayer into paying for embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) that promotes the destruction of human embryos. This may include research on stem cells derived from so-called “spare” embryos as well as on stem cells derived from embryos that were created and destroyed specifically for research purposes with non-federal funds.

Both orders, which fulfill campaign promises, demonstrate this administration’s disregard for the moral law and its determination to advance the culture of death. These executive orders are an affront to the consciences of all Americans who oppose these unspeakably heinous practices and who do not want their hard earned money used to support these violations of basic human rights here or abroad. With incredible arrogance, President Obama dismissed moral concerns about ESCR by referring to the previous ban on federal funding for ESCR as creating “a false choice between sound science and moral values.” Apparently he thinks there is no moral ground for opposing the killing of innocent human beings at the earliest stages of their existence.  But it is he who has created the false choice, by wrongly implying that we cannot have medical progress unless we throw aside moral restraint.

The President says that his executive order to fund ESCR will make up for the valuable time lost by not funding such research. The facts belie this claim. Federal dollars have been used to fund research on embryonic stem cells that were in existence before President Bush’s August 9, 2001, executive order, which banned the use of tax monies to encourage the destruction of more embryos for such research. ESCR has also continued with private funding. Of course businesses conducting this research would prefer to have the American taxpayer take the risks involved with research that has so far produced no benefits, even as they plan to reap the profits should it ever prove successful. If any time has been wasted, it has been in failing adequately to support adult stem cell research, which can be done without killing innocent human beings. Adult stem cell research has actually been successful. Adult stem cells have been used “to help people with Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, juvenile diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia, heart damage, corneal damage, and dozens of other conditions” (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning).

Still, if those who believe that pluripotent stem cells (the ones extracted by destroying human embryos) offer the greatest promise, despite their lack of therapeutic usefulness to date, they should work to develop ever better methods for reprogramming adult cells to produce the same type of pluripotent stem cells. In addition to avoiding the destruction of human life, these embryonic-like induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC) have many advantages over those extracted from embryos, including the ability to use one’s own cells. These cells are a perfect match to the patient’s body and will not be rejected as foreign organisms. In recent months new techniques for inducing pluripotent stem cells, which are simple, cost effective and safe, have been developed. Further advances are anticipated in the near future. Why then did President Obama also reverse President Bush’s June 20, 2007, executive order that encouraged the National Institutes of Health to explore sources for pluripotent stem cells that do not require the destruction of human embryos?

Adult stem cell research, including research using induced pluripotent stem cells, should be supported. The U. S. Bishops had good reason to warn that progress toward cures using adult stem cells may be halted or slowed by campaigns that divert attention and resources toward embryonic stem cell research (Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning).

Science is morally sound only when it respects the inherent goodness and dignity of every human life. No scientific endeavor that denies the dignity and rights of some human beings by treating them as raw material for scientific advances can rightly be considered good. We learned this lesson here in the States by the tragic and racist Tuskegee syphilis experiments. The world learned it from the horrifying experiments conducted by the Nazis on persons viewed by them to have life unworthy of life. This philosophy ultimately led to the “extermination” of persons with disabilities, social misfits, those considered as threats to the Third Reich, including Catholic religious Sisters and Brothers and priests, and six million Jews.

By lifting the ban on federal funding for research that encourages the destruction of human life, President Obama has helped to advance a science of utility that violates the natural moral law and the consciences of millions of Americans. There is, in fact, a real conflict between bad science and moral values.

THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL

JANUARY 25, 2009, THE YEAR OF SAINT PAUL

(Liturgical Texts: Acts 22:3-16; 1Cor 7:29-31; Mk 16:15-18) 

Msgr. Kevin T. McMahon

Cathedral Basilica of St Louis 

      The Acts of the Apostles presents an account of St. Paul’s conversion and commissioning as an Apostle in three places – in Chapter 9, in Chapter 22, which we just heard, and in Chapter 26. Each account is given in a different setting and emphasizes points of particular relevance to the individuals and groups being addressed. However, they all include a detailed description of the central point, which is Paul’s personal encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus.

      The scene is familiar to us all: Paul, a zealous persecutor of Christianity, is en route to Damascus to arrest Jewish Christians and to bring them back to Jerusalem where they will be tried and possibly executed for abandoning the faith of their fathers and becoming Christians. On the road, Paul encounters the Risen Lord, who identifies Himself as Jesus whom he is persecuting. Paul does not ask why or how this is so, rather he immediately understands that the union between Christ and His disciples is such that to persecute the Church, which is the Body of Christ, is to persecute Christ Himself. This was a complete revelation to Paul although he had witnessed the willingness of Christ’s followers to embrace suffering and death in union with the passion and death of their Master. Seeing Christ and His Church as one, led Paul to discover the meaning of St. Stephen’s martyrdom as a sacrificial act joined to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Paul now understood what Stephen and all those who had accepted death rather than deny Jesus died proving; namely, that they were one with Christ. In his physical blindness, Paul is given internal sight and so moves closer to the Light. After this conversion, Jesus requires even more of Paul. He is to carry the name of Jesus to “the Gentiles, and kings and the sons of Israel” (Acts 9:15).

      As Paul would demonstrate throughout the rest of his life, the effects of this encounter with Jesus on him were profound. In every respect, Paul was changed forever. Paul, the Pharisee, who, as he put it, “...was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 26: 9-11), was now an Apostle of Christ.

      Christ entrusted Paul with a daunting task. As Paul himself describes it, Christ sent him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18).

      Indeed, Paul’s mission reflects the very purpose of the Church, which is to bring Christ’s redemptive love to the people of every age and every land. A living-faith in Jesus –- Christian life itself — is all about redemptive love and redemptive living. Like the Eleven apostles in today’s gospel, Paul had a particular role to play in the Lord’s saving action. He was sent into the world to proclaim the Gospel to every creature, so that they may be saved through baptism. Scripture attests that Paul received many of the gifts promised by Christ in today’s Gospel to those who believe in him. He experienced the forgiveness of his own sins, he drove out demons, healed the sick, spoke new languages, and was unharmed by the bite of an Asp. He converted many pagans to Jesus and established or ministered to Christian communities in places like Thessalonika, Philippi, Galatia, Ephesis, Corinth, Colossae, and Rome. But, as Jesus had also promised His disciples, Paul knew persecution as well.

      As the Acts of the Apostles and his own letters to these Christian communities demonstrate, Paul preached the message of Christ crucified, and willingly accepted a share in that suffering himself. He experienced disappointment and disillusionment because of his own personal failings and those of the Christian community. These included the backsliding of converts into their former sinful ways, and the divisive disputes within the Church regarding the specific demands of Christian life. He was deeply saddened at seeing the diverse gifts of the Spirit used to divide rather than to unite the Body of Christ. He was even driven to anger by the erroneous teachings of some leaders within the Christian community, and by the allegiance given to them by those who had professed Jesus Christ as their one Lord and Savior.

      But, through it all, Paul fulfilled the mandate of Christ to preach the Gospel, whether welcomed or un-welcomed, with a firm hope in the resurrection and life eternal. His dedication to spreading the Gospel brought Paul ever closer to his Lord, culminating in the triumphal proclamation of his self-surrender: “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

      On June 28, 2008, the Eve of the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict XVI designated June 2008 to June 2009 as the Year of St. Paul, and in his homily given at Vespers that evening he highlighted his own aspirations for the year by issuing this invitation to us:

Dear brothers and sisters, as in early times, today too Christ needs apostles ready to sacrifice themselves. He needs witnesses and martyrs like St. Paul. Paul, a former violent persecutor of Christians, when he fell to the ground dazzled by the divine light on the road to Damascus, did not hesitate to change sides to the Crucified One and followed him without second thoughts. He lived and worked for Christ, for him he suffered and died. How timely is his example today!

      On this feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, we are asked to examine our own apostolic zeal. We are invited to think about our own personal encounter with the Risen Lord in Baptism, by which sin was replaced with God’s grace, and we were incorporated into the Body of Christ and commissioned by Him to live holy lives.

      St. Paul was a Jew and a Pharisee who witnessed to Christ before his fellow Jews, even though they considered the new Way apostasy. He was a well educated citizen of Rome who proclaimed the Gospel to Greeks and Romans, even when they rejected and scorned him. Paul would not deny Christ or His message, even when threatened with imprisonment and death.

      In light of the witness of St. Paul and the mandate of Christ to us, we might well ask: Have we done our share to spread the Gospel and to build up the Kingdom of God by our service to Christ in His Church? Have we loved God and our neighbor as we ought? Have we developed the mind and heart of Jesus, and lived the Beatitudes, which find concrete expression in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy?

      Or, to put it negatively, have we done anything to impede the Church in fulfilling the mandate of Christ to preach the Gospel? Have we failed to live our faith in the past, do we fail to do so in the present?  Do we limit the demands of faith to what is convenient, or express it only when we know that it will be well received? Do we ever dismiss the teachings of the Church as outmoded and naive, perhaps in an attempt to be viewed as intellectually sophisticated, objective, urbane, or just “with-it”? Do we try to convince ourselves of the lie that it is possible to follow Christ while rejecting the teachings of His Church? Whether at home, at work or in social settings, do we accept or even join in on what is becoming a relentless and often public mockery of the Church and a vilification of her Apostles? In brief, do we ever, in counter distinction to Paul, abandon the Crucified One to gain the favor of those who persecute Him?

      In Paul’s time, as in our own, the Gospel is counter cultural. The demands of conversion are not always well received by those who are committed to doing evil. If they sought to kill the Righteous One because He was obnoxious to them, they will certainly seek to silence those who teach the truth in His name. When they are not able to embarrass us into silence by ridiculing the tenants of our faith, they may drag us into courts or, as in some places in the world today, put us to death.

      In 1990 Pope John Paul II invited us to reignite our dedication to redemptive living:

The mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church is still very far from completion. As the second Millennium after Christ’s coming draws to an end, an overview of the human race shows that this mission is still only beginning and that we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its service. It is the Spirit who impels us to proclaim the great works of God (Redemptoris Missio, No. 90).

      By the example of St. Paul, may we be led to encounter our Lord anew, to firm up our conversion from sin and to deepen the life of grace within us. May we be attentive to the tasks the Lord is asking us to undertake for our own good and for the salvation of the world. In everything, may we remember that our redemption in Christ is the fullest expression of God’s love for us, and that our mission is to make His loving presence known to all the world. Paul encourages Christians to carry on the redemptive mission of Jesus with full confidence in the power of His love, and reminds us all that true love, Christian love,   “...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [Through the example of Paul we must come to hold on to the truth that this] Love never ends” (1 Cor 13:7-8).

People gathered from 4:00 to 6:00 PM at the intersection of Grape St. and Pacific Coast Highway that runs along the busy San Diego bay. The time coincided with the city’s rush hour when endless lines of traffic must pass by the location. People held signs that made it clear to all who passed by why they were there. As they stood giving witness opposing the evil sin of abortion that takes the lives of more than 3,500 unborn infants every day in our country, they prayed the rosary and sang inspiring hymns.

The forecast of heavy rain didn’t dampen the spirits of anyone and when light showers began to fall, bright colored umbrellas only added to the attention calling spectacle. The presence of several local Catholic priests who joined the ranks was a great also an added consolation.

“We are here to show that even though it has been thirty six years since abortion has been legal in our country, it doesn’t make it right” said Chris Morales, who is an associate director of the Goretti Group, an organization based in San Diego that conducts seminars about chastity for teenagers across the country.

Several local new stations covered the vigil and the abortion issue. One local news station, KUSI, invited Thomas McKenna, the president of St. Gianna Physician’s Guild who participated in the vigil, as well as a Planned Parenthood representative, Dr. Kenneth Edelin, to appear the following day on Good Morning San Diego to discuss the controversy that still exists over Roe v Wade after thirty six years. (see interview at: www.catholicaction.org)

As the sun was setting over the bay illuminating the vigil a beautiful and vivid rainbow suddenly appeared in the sky. As he gazed in admiration, Thomas McKenna recalled "the rainbow is a symbol of hope.” “It symbolizes God's covenant with humanity, despite the dark vicissitudes of human infidelity. The rainbow reminds us that the love of God is greater than evil, and it stirs hope in the midst of challenges faced by the Church and the world.” This beautiful scene was like a promise from heaven that one day soon, Roe v Wade would be overturned and the rights of the unborn rightfully restored.

Note: There is a 7 second delay to see the larger, high-resolution images.

Thomas McKenna, president of Catholic Action for Faith and Family, organized the event. He called it a "Procession of Reparation" to decry the January 22 anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the United States. McKenna said that the infamous anniversary coincided with the three week tour of the statue he had organized for the diocese in January, so he tied the two together. "In the past 35 years more than 48 million children have been killed in their mother's womb and the message Our Lady gave at Fatima in 1917 spoke of this type of extreme moral decay," he said. "At Fatima the Blessed Mother asked for prayer and reparation and that is what we did" he continued.

In the early afternoon people gathered in the cathedral where the Fatima Statue was displayed. As the choir intoned hymns, the faithful filed out onto the street. Some of the participants stayed in the cathedral in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament which was exposed on the main alter after people left.

The procession stretched over three city blocks with the Fatima statue carried aloft by four men. As they walked, the people prayed the rosary in unison and chanted hymns. A police escort stopped traffic at intersections as the faithful walked just over a mile to the Family Planning Associates Abortion Center located across the street from San Diego's Balboa Park. At the park people gathered on the lawn across the street from the clinic for a brief addresses by Bishop Cordileone and Mr. Kent Peters, the director of the diocesan office of Social Ministry. After the bishop gave his Episcopal Blessing, the procession returned to the cathedral along the same route.

"It is not ever day you see a bishop in beautiful liturgical vestments, with miter and crosier, leading hundreds of the faithful in procession through the streets of a major city in our country," commented Sue Lopez of Helpers of God's Precious Infants who leads weekly prayer vigils at the clinic. She said "it was very inspiring, a day to be remembered." The presence of many religious in their habits added to the solemnity of the day.

Upon arriving at the cathedral people filled the pews and sang the Salve Regina as the beautiful statue entered the church led by the bishop and a color guard escort from the Knights of Columbus. With Our Lady beside the alter and the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the monstrance, the bishop delivered a very inspiring meditation followed by Benediction.

As the bishop processed out blessing the faithful, the church was filled with voices singing Holy God We Praise Thy Name and tears could be seen in the eyes of many.

Bishop Cordileone's Meditation:

Meditation given by the Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, Auxiliary Bishop of San Diego, during Eucharistic adoration on the occasion of the visit of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima to   St. Joseph's Cathedral on January 20, 2008.

The LORD tells us through his prophet Moses: "Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving Him, and walking in His ways, and keeping His commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore He would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

Dear Lady, Mother of our Savior and our Mother: we thank you for choosing life, and for choosing to serve the God and Creator of all life, the one, true God whom you bore in your womb. The Eternal, All-powerful and All-holy One took on the weakness and corruptibility of our human flesh, and the mystery of that flesh you carried within your own flesh, so that, in his flesh, he might die, nailing our sins to the cross, and he might rise incorruptible to hold out to us the path to holiness and the promise of incorruptibility.

Meditation: Eucharistic Adoration - Visit of Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima Oh most blessed Virgin, please intercede to your Son for us, that he may forgive us, our entire nation, of the sins and crimes we have committed against the sanctity of human life, especially in these last 35 years. He came to sanctify our flesh, to ennoble our human nature, and how have we responded? Have we obeyed the commandments of the LORD, our God, which He has enjoined on us, loving Him, and walking in His ways, and keeping His commandments, statutes and decrees? Have we treated the least of our brothers and sisters with the dignity with which your Son has endowed us, cherishing and welcoming them as you did your divine Son? Or rather, have we not turned away our hearts from Him and closed our ears, to be led astray to adore and serve other gods, strange gods who make strange promises, who induce us to sacrifice the most vulnerable in our midst on the altars of greed, expediency and self-indulgence?

And not only this. Immaculate Virgin, even in your sinless state you knew the embarrassment and pain of bringing a life into this world which you did not anticipate. Be present now to all of those new mothers, carrying new life within them, who feel frightened, alone and desperate. Cast upon them the light of your Son, that they may find the path that leads out of the darkness which envelopes them, that they may be given the support they need to make the choice which will bring them happiness and peace. Holy mother, so many of your sisters feel trapped in a darkness which seems to never end because of the life they once bore within them and is no more. These are your sisters who have been subject to the deepest and most violent transgression of their feminine dignity. Lead them to your Son, in whom they will find forgiveness, healing, reconciliation and welcome back into the arms of their loving eternal Father.

The toll of human suffering, the unspeakable carnage that shames us, is a weight too heavy for us to bear. And yet, we rejoice, we rejoice because your Son Meditation: Eucharistic Adoration - Visit of Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima took all of our sin, all of our shame, guilt and disgrace upon himself. He told us, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends," and he lived these words in the flesh which he took from you, loving Mother. And he invites us to do the same: "you are my friends, if you do what I command you." What greater hope, what deeper joy can we have than to be his friends, to lay down our lives for him? In the midst of the suffering of this world, he paves for us the way to salvation, the way to be happy with him forever.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you." Thus spoke the LORD to His prophet Jeremiah, calling him to his sublime vocation. Dear Mother, may you, along with your most chaste spouse, St. Joseph, Patron Saint of your Son's Church and of a happy death, intercede for us, that we, whom the LORD knew and called from the moment of our conception in our mother's womb to be happy with Him forever, might be His prophets in the world of this time and place, messengers of His light, peace, healing and joy. May He help our nation to be a people that chooses life that we may live; may He help our nation to be a beacon to all the world, a beacon of the Good News that to love Him, the LORD, our God, to heed His voice and hold fast to Him means life, not simply a long life in this world, but life eternal in the world to come, in his Kingdom where, in communion with all the saints, we will behold, face-to-face, the glory of the one, true God:

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.