A Look Back at 2013: What Priests for Life Has Done

A Look Back at 2013: What Priests for Life Has Done

December 30, 2013

Below is my latest column, Christmas and Holy Impatience, but first let me give you some other important updates.

I have prepared two important reports that I invite you to read, the Priests for Life Report for 2013 and the Priests for Life Plans for 2014. You are part of our Priests for Life family, and so you share the credit for what we have accomplished! We look forward to having you be part of what 2014 will bring! Meanwhile, please feel free to spread these reports to others you know who may be interested in our work!

Join us for a Novena in Reparation for Roe vs. Wade from January 14-22. Find the prayer at prayercampaign.org.

We are gearing up for the January Pro-Life events in Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA. Please join me for the 20th Annual National Memorial for the Preborn and Their Mothers and Fathers on January 22, the day of the March for Life, from 8:30-10:30am at DAR Constitution Hall, Washington, DC. I will be joined by clergy from across the country and across denominational lines. There will be a Mass before the event at 7:30am at the same location. For more information see NationalPrayerService.com.

Are you leading a bus/group to Washington DC for the annual March for Life? Or do you know the organizer(s) in your community who are doing so? We will once again make special materials available for the people on your bus. Just let me know if you are interested, at orders@priestsforlife.org. (If you are a bus captain yourself, please let me know that, too!)

For more information on March for Life events in Washington, DC and San Francisco, see PriestsForLife.org/MarchForLife. We are also inviting men and women who have lost children to abortion and have found healing to consider marching with us in either city, and to share their testimonies as part of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. See SilentNoMore.com if you are interested!

As you may have heard, the judge in our case in District Court in Washington DC ruled against us regarding the HHS mandate. Because the mandate would go into effect for us on January 1, we filed, within an hour of the judge’s decision, an emergency request with the US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit, to provide an injunction to maintain the status quo, protecting us from the mandate until our appeal to the same court can be heard and decided. We expect to get a decision from the Court of Appeals today or tomorrow. Please keep this in your prayers. Go to PriestsForLife.org/HHSMandate for more information.

Finally, LifeTalk for January 2014 has been posted and is ready to watch. This is a powerful and informative pro-life show that I am on with Mark Crutcher and other pro-life leaders. Go to lifetalktv.com.

Blessings,

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life

Praise for our work: Fr. Frank, your knowledge about the law regarding unborn babies was inspiring and you gave us the courage to get out there and keep up the good fight to save babies and some babies have been saved! I wish PRIESTS FOR LIFE was around when I was taking on the School Board – this organization has so many great resources that you can reach at your fingertips. Father, you started so many good programs that I can’t remember all of them. You worked hard and never stopped to rest and helped us not get discouraged. I am proud to be part of this army and the Priests for Life organization. It is a tremendous help for all of us. We can never thank you enough, God will have to do it for us! – Bea

Christmas and Holy Impatience

by Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life

Christmas is about self-giving love. God becomes human to set humanity free from the oppression of sin and death.

Accepting Christ, and celebrating Christmas, means welcoming that freedom, and striving that every human being may experience it. Hence we evangelize.

And hence we work for justice. “Truly he taught us to love one another; His law is love, and His Gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name, all oppression shall cease.” (“O Holy Night”).

Abolitionists used this verse of this Christmas hymn to stir their fervor to end slavery. Today, we in the pro-life movement use it to stir our fervor to end abortion.

And we do so in the spirit of William Wilberforce, the key catalyst in the abolition of the slave trade. In his “Abolition Speech” to Parliament on May 12, 1789, he expressed the human imperative that took hold of him and made his commitment to abolition absolute:

“How then can the House refuse its belief to the multiplied testimonies … of the savage treatment of the negroes in the middle passage? Nay, indeed, what need is there of any evidence? The number of deaths speaks for itself, and makes all such enquiry superfluous. As soon as ever I had arrived thus far in my investigation of the slave trade, I confess to you sir, so enormous so dreadful, so irremediable did its wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for the abolition. A trade founded in iniquity, and carried on as this was, must be abolished … let the consequences be what they would, I from this time determined that I would never rest till I had effected its abolition.”

Three years later, on February 18, 1796, he made another motion for abolition in Parliament. Weary colleagues called for “suspending the question” until the end of the year. Wilberforce responded,

“There is something not a little provoking in the dry, calm way in which gentlemen are apt to speak of the sufferings of others. The question suspended! Is the desolation of wretched Africa suspended? Are all the complicated miseries of this atrocious trade – is the work of death suspended? No sir, I will not delay this motion, and I will call upon the House not to insult the forbearance of Heaven by delaying this tardy act of justice!”(Metaxas, p. 163)

Notice what motivates him. The humanity of the victims connects with his humanity. He did not observe the oppression from a distance, or keep himself emotionally detached from the plight of the slaves. He was not afraid to be moved — and that is the only way he moved others.

Yet so many try “not get too worked up” about the abortion tragedy. But that is precisely the wrong approach. We will end abortion only when enough of us connect, both mentally and emotionally, with the human tragedy it represents, and then drink deeply of that human imperative, and become inebriated with that holy impatience.

Read and listen to this column online at Priestsforlife.org/columns/4826-christmas-and-holy-impatience

Comments on this column? Go to Askfrfrank.com

Fr. Frank’s columns are podcast. See Priestsforlife.org/podcast

Remember to support our work at Priestsforlife.org/donate

La Navidad y la sagrada impaciencia

La Navidad se trata de entregar amor. Dios se hace humano para liberar a la humanidad de la opresión del pecado y la muerte.

Aceptar a Cristo y celebrar la Navidad se traduce en abrazar esa libertad, y esforzarse para que cada ser humano la experimente.

Por eso evangelizamos. Y por eso trabajamos por Justicia.

“Realmente él nos enseño a amarnos los unos a los otros, su ley es amor, y su evangelio es paz. Las cadenas él romperá porque el esclavo es nuestro hermano, y en su nombre, toda opresión cesará. ”

Abolicionistas usaron este verso de este himno de Navidad para encender el fervor y acabar con la esclavitud.

Hoy, nosotros en el movimiento Pro-vida la usamos para despertar el fervor y acabar con el aborto.

Y lo hacemos inspirados en William Wilberforce, principal catalizador de la abolición del comercio de esclavos.

En su “Discurso de Abolición” al Parlamento, el 12 de mayo de 1789, él expreso el imperativo humano que se apoderó de él e hizo su promesa de abolición total de la esclavitud.

“¿Cómo puede entonces la Cámara negarse a creer los múltiples testimonios sobre el trato salvaje de los negros en la travesía intermedia? Más bien, en verdad, ¿Qué necesidad hay de pruebas?

El número de muertes habla por sí sola, y hace que toda investigación sea superflua.

En cuanto llegué a este punto en mi investigación acerca del comercio de esclavos , confieso, era tan grande, tan perverso, su crueldad irremediable me hizo comprometerme a su abolición.

Un comercio basado en la iniquidad y continuado como era este, debe ser abolido. Dejo que las consecuencias sean lo que serían, y a partir de este instante he decidido que no descansaré hasta que se haya efectuado su abolición.”

Tres años después, el 18 de febrero de 1796, hizo otra moción por la abolición en el parlamento. Colegas aburridos llamaron a suspender el tema de la abolición hasta el final del año, Wilberforce respondió,

“Hay algo ni un poco incitador en la manera serena y seca en la que los caballeros están propensos a hablar de los sufrimientos de otros. ¡Suspendida la moción! ¿Está la desolación de la miserable África suspendida? ¿Están todas las complejas miserias de este atroz comercio-Está el trabajo de la muerte suspendido? ¡No señor, no demoraré esta moción, y le voy a pedir a la Cámara no insultar la paciencia del cielo al demorar este tardío acto de justicia!” (Metaxas p163)

Presta atención a lo que lo motiva. Lo humano de las víctimas se conecta con su propia humanidad . Él no observó la opresión a la distancia, y no se mantuvo desapegado emocionalmente del aprieto de los esclavos. No tuvo miedo de ser conmovido — y esa fue la única manera que conmovió a otros.

Y aún muchos tratan de no verse “involucrados” en la tragedia del aborto. Pero es precisamente esa la aproximación errónea. Detendremos el aborto sólo cuando suficientes de nosotros nos conectemos, mental y emocionalmente, con la tragedia humana que representa, y finalmente beber profundamente de ese imperativo humano, y embriagarnos de esa sagrada impaciencia.

Esta columna se puede encontrar en la página de Priestsforlife.org/spanish/document-sp.aspx?ID=4826

Our Media Schedule

Special Appearances

Dr. Alveda King will be on with JD and Kristina Miniear on the Conservative Commandos Radio Show at 3:30 p.m. ET. on Monday, December 30. Listen live at http://wnjc1360.com

Father Frank Pavone will be on “God in Our City” with Pastor Dave Watson at 11 a.m. ET Jan. 5 to discuss the National Memorial for the Pre-born. Listen live at www.wmca.com

Fr. Frank will be on with Teresa Tomeo on January 9th at 8:35 a.m. Call-in to the live show with questions at 877-573-7825. For more information and to listen to the live show on the internet, go to avemariaradio.net/hosts/teresa-tomeo

On Thursday, January 23, 2014, Bryan Kemper of Priests for Life Stand True Youth Outreach will be on EWTN’s Life on the Rock at 10:00 PM ET.

Regular Schedule

Defending Life TV/Radio

Airing Schedule: Watch on EWTN Wednesday, January 1st at 2:30 a.m and Thursday, January 2nd at 11:00 p.m. Listen on EWTN Radio every Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 5 a.m. (All times Eastern). Topic: Disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sr. Cecilia Bushnell of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ discusses with Janet and Fr. Scott about what inspires her to defend human life in all stages.

The Catholic View for Women

Topic: Grey is the Devil’s Favorite Color. Teresa, Janet and Astrtid discuss purity, pornography, and the book 50 Shades of Gray. Airing Schedule: Wednesday, 01/01/2014 11:00 PM and Friday, 01/03/2014 10:30 AM.

Defendiendo La Vida
Estados Unidos (United States)

La Santidad de la familia y la defensa de la vida – P. Jordi

El Padre Víctor Salomón, Director del Apostolado Hispano de Sacerdotes por la Vida, entrevista al Padre Jordi Rivero, de la arquidiócesis de Miami, Fl, y hablaran del tema La Santidad de la Familia y Defensa de la Vida.

Horario de transmisión: Saturday, 01/04/2014 04:30 AM

Dr. Alveda King is on “Airing the Addison’s with Wil and Meeke” on Mondays from 11:20-12:00 ET and “Changing Your Community” with Emmanuel Boose at 4:00 PM ET and 4:00 AM ET on Saturdays. Listen online at UrbanFamilyTalk.com.

Fr. Victor Salomón hosts a weekly pro-life radio program in Spanish on Radio Maria, Washington DC. The program called Gospel of Life airs every Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. ET. Listen by cell or internet by going to radiomariausa.org. It can also be listened to by a radio with a subcarrier option. For purchase of this type of radio call 718-247-9100 or write info.nyc@radiomaria.org.

El Padre Victor Salomón es el presentador de un programa radial pro-vida en español, en Radio María, Washington DC. El programa llamado Evangelio de Vida, sale al aire todos los martes a las 9:00 a.m., hora del este en los Estados Unidos. Pueden escucharlo en radiomariausa.org. O a través de los radios de Radio María, los cuales pueden comprar llamando a 718-247-9100 o escribiendo a info.nyc@radiomaria.org.

Fr. Victor Salomón will be the guest on Radio Jesus, 93.9 FM, Bronx, NY, every 3rd Saturday of the Month from 1-2pm ET. You can also listen on-line at misionerosdejesus.org/.