Events

from Jessica Kessler

Opening up a word document feels like school again. I am definitely not in school anymore, although sometimes I feel as if I ought to be with fall coming.  After school is work.  That is what I wanted to talk about, an experience at work.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a nurse.  In being so, I meet all sorts of people in different moments of their life, whether they be tragic or miraculous.  Daily, I am blessed by the beauty of life in all its forms.

I met a very special person last week who I had the honor of caring for.  She had been born with Spina Bifida and shouldn’t have lasted the night of her birth.  She did though.  Then she beat a rare infection in her spine.  Then, against all the “scientific speculation,” she grew into a unique person who is fully cognitive and interactive to the world around her. 

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by David Jonathan Valentin

Before the Madrid Convocation, many people in my life passed away unexpectedly, and it made me doubt God.  It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in God anymore, but I doubted Him.   At first, I felt bad and tried to remove that thought.  But, after a time, when I found myself doubting God I didn’t even really care.  I gave in to it and meditated on my doubts.  Suddenly, I didn’t know why I went to church or why I even believed in God.

I was so focused on the losses that I experienced in the recent years that I couldn’t see the blessings of God anymore.  I didn’t think that God wanted to punish me, but I started asking myself if God even really existed.  I stopped thinking like a Christian and started thinking in a very secular way.  I would say things like, “if God doesn’t want me to do something, then He should try and stop me.”  And I definitely didn’t want to go to the Convocation in Madrid, because I didn’t want to spend a week with people gathered just to talk about the God that I doubted.

Obviously God didn’t want me to miss out, however, because I ended up in Madrid and at the Convocation.  Still, I didn’t expect anything, even sitting in the room for the youth sessions, until Fr. Terry Gensemer got up to speak.

Fr. Terry told us how children are being aborted, even after birth.  As he spoke, I kept thinking of my nephew, who was born in less than perfect circumstances.  I couldn’t bear the thought of him being aborted, and the more I thought of his little face, the more I realized what a blessing he was.  I realized that, amidst all the hardships and all the lives that God called back in the past few years, I had failed to see the blessings that God had still given.  Even more, I realized that every life God called back was a sacred one.  Every one of the people I lost believed and loved God with all of their hearts.  Each of them tried to bring me closer to God and wanted to make sure that I loved and believed in Him with my whole heart.

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If you’ve ever been to the March for Life in Washington, DC, or the Walk for Life in Cali, then you know what it’s like to stand in the midst of thousands and thousands of like-minded people and experience the rush and joy of remembering that you’re not alone in this fight.

Many of us spend a great deal of time organizing local pro-life events with small numbers, ceaselessly recruiting volunteers, and inviting anyone we meet to rallies and prayer vigils. It’s tough work to be a pro-lifer some days, and there are times when you feel a bit lonely. Thankfully, however, it is all to the glory of a God who is incredibly faithful, and He gives us those moments, those seasons, in which we glimpse the greatness of His plan and the unity of His people. He lets us know that we are not alone — we are part of a Body, and that Body is drawing together with the power of Christ to bring Life to a death-dominated culture each and every day.

CEC For Life’s time in Ireland and Madrid could be narrowed down to these words: the power of Christ in the unity of His Body. From the streets of Belfast, where Fr. Terry spoke as the sole representative for the American pro-life movement, to the Convocation youth sessions and even the hot Plaza del Sol of Madrid, we could see, throughout the entire trip, the power of God manifested through the work of those who serve Him.

In Belfast, CEC For Life stood with more than 7,000 other people — some Catholic, some Protestant, all proclaiming the Gospel of Life – and together we made known to the world that abortion would never have a place in the cities and towns of Ireland. It was incredibly encouraging! Just to stand in a country that is statistically the safest place in the world to have a baby, where abortion is completely illegal, and where the majority of the nation is willing to fight to keep it that way…it’s astounding. And strengthening. It reminds us that the fight in America will be won.

Next, we tackled the Madrid Convocation. CEC For Life arrived to discover that the government had changed our Rally time and that the majority of our literature did not survive the trip over. Not our smoothest start but, as mentioned before, God is faithful. And not only that, but our youth are absolutely amazing.

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I have been struggling at how to respond to the recent Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Healthcare Act. What is clear is that I am not a politician, though I have political views. Nor am I by any stretch of the imagination a legal expert, particularly a constitutional legal expert. So when it comes to politics and legal issues I tend to take the posture of listening rather than speaking.

The issue of government involvement in the life of the citizenry has been a discussion that has been taking place since our very foundations. This discussion has always been tense and resulted in a Civil War that almost divided our country and cost the lives of hundreds of thousands. That discussion continues today and has again divided our country right down the middle between so-called Red States and Blue States. There is also a division being created along economic and racial lines. And, from what I hear, this upcoming Presidential election will be extremely close and will be decided by a small majority of people who call themselves independent.

Though I have a political position, my heart is distressed by the divisions in America and what appears to be a total lack of real leadership from both sides of the divide. Those who make the claim that they want to unite are often the same people who fuel the division. It seems that all agree on the need to reform our health care system and address some very tough issues like the uninsured, pre-existing conditions, removal from health care plans because of serious illness, and affordable insurance for the most vulnerable in our country. Yet, the issue has become so politicized that both sides cannot reason together because they would lose the base that has put them in office. At the heart of the issue is not health care reform, or concern for the citizenry, but re-election.

Where is the Church? The Church is as divided as the nation. Even when Church leaders have made declarations, they have found that the person in the pew isn’t much interested in what they have to say. There are numerous reasons for this, but at the core it is because Church leadership has failed in the past to hold itself accountable and has immersed itself into the political fray, often times not for moral reasons, but because the government has funded its various programs and ministries and they fear the loss of finances.

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This Slideshow tells the story in photos of the closing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama.

New Woman All Women Health Center has committed more than 35,000 abortions since opening more than 20 years ago according to the owner Diane Derzis, known to the citizens of Alabama as the “Abortion Queen. ”

This video captures the 2 year victory lap of the Birmingham Pro-life community that followed the more than 20 year effort of prayer and witness at this corrupt and bloody business.

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by Steven Ertelt Lifenews.com

After a back and forth with the Alabama health department, a Birmingham abortion business has closed for good and surrendered its license to operate. The New Woman All Women (NWAW) abortion facility surrendered its license to the State Health Department Friday and ceased operations.

Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation, told LifeNews:  “This is a huge victory that would not have been possible without the dedication of pro-life activists such as Fr. Terry Gensemer of CEC for Life, who tirelessly worked with Operation Rescue, Life Legal Defense, The Survivors, and others to make sure that this dangerous abortion mill closed for good. It is an example of what can be accomplished when pro-life groups work together toward a common goal.”

“Without our combined work, this clinic would still be taking the lives of innocent babies today,” he said.

The State ordered the closure after pro-life activists filmed two women being carried out of the run-down building to awaiting ambulances on January 21, 2012, and reported the incident to authorities. A 911 call obtained by the activists revealed that the abortion clinic had overdosed the women on a dangerous drug.

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