March for Life 2023 -- a very different year

On Friday, January 20, the annual March for Life will occur in Washington, D.C. In the past it was a rally of hundreds of thousands of pro-life people to the U.S. Supreme Court, commemorating the January 22, 1973 anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. This time it will be a (peaceful) march to the U.S. Capitol.

So many things have changed since last year's March for Life. On the positive side, Roe was overturned, with the Dobbs decision. On the negative side, D.C. Cardinal Wilton Gregory banned all traditional Latin Masses at parish churches, allowing just three Sunday TLMs for the entire Archdiocese of Washington (one in D.C. and two in Maryland). Weekday Masses are not permitted by the cardinal.

Nellie Gray Mass, March for Life 2020

So this means there will not be a traditional Latin Mass on Friday in the Archdiocese of Washington before or after the March for Life. The annual "Nellie Gray Mass" -- which for many years was a solemn, and sometimes pontifical, TLM at Saint Mary Mother of God church in Washington honoring the founder of the March for Life -- will instead be a novus ordo liturgy, despite Miss Gray faithfully attending the TLM at Saint Mary's until her death.

Francis names pro-abortion atheist as member of Pontifical Academy for Life

 A nightmare that has no end: that is the sick pontificate through which we are suffering. 

The Pontifical Academy for Life was one of the very few positive post-conciliar creations. Unsurprisingly, it was born of the mind of Dr. Jerôme Lejeune, one of the greatest pro-life heroes, who suggested it to John Paul II and was named its first president.

Since the advent of Francis, the new Pontifical Academy for Life has become a hotbed of dissent from Catholic moral teaching: from contraception to homosexuality to abortion, and other doctrinal issues, there is no matter on which it has not caused scandal under the leadership of Abp. Vincenzo Paglia.

Its newest members were named by Francis yesterday, among them a radical leftist economist, an Italian living in the U.S. named Mariana Mazzucato. Mazzucato is an avowed atheist:

On Abp. Paglia's Statement on the Italian Abortion Law (by John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family)

 [For Paglia's statement, see previous post on Rorate.]

Last Friday 26 August, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), was a guest on the RAI 3 programme Agorà – Summer. At one point (1) , the presenter Giorgia Rombolà asked Msgr. Paglia for an opinion on law 194/1978, which legalised procured abortion in Italy. Msgr. Paglia replied: “I think that law 194 is now a pillar of our social life”. It should be made clear immediately that the President of the PAV, in expressing himself in this way, did not intend to merely report a judgement present in the community on the 194 law, a judgement that he did not share – as Dr Fabrizio Mastrofini, Monsignor Paglia’s spokesman, attempted to claim a few days later in an official note – but rather was it not that he wanted to express his own personal judgement, a judgement of appreciation?

LIFE WINS - Roe is Overturned!

 The Dobbs decision is here.

Gratitude to God Almighty, the Blessed Virgin, and scores of faithful Christians, including so many Catholics, who have prayed, fought, canvassed, voted, waited patiently for this moment.

This is not the end, but it is the beginning of the end.

Moloch Loses One Round: Roe

Memorial of Unborn Children, Madison, Wisconsin (Martin Hudáček)

 Or so it seems, if the final decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health resembles the February draft leaked most likely by a liberal clerk to the website Politico late last night, a draft in which the monstrous 1973 Roe v. Wade and 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions are explicitly overturned.

If so, and if confirmed, may God be praised in his Angels and in his Saints! 

+Schneider: Abortion-tainted vaccines and the culture of death

                                                   By Bishop Athanasius Schneider

Via Gloria.tv

The blood of murdered unborn children cries to God from abortion-tainted vaccines and medicines

Anti-Christian world powers that promote the culture of death are seeking to impose on the world’s population an implicit — though remote and passive — collaboration with abortion. Such remote collaboration, in itself, is also an evil because of the extraordinary historical circumstances in which these same world powers are promoting the murder of unborn children and the exploitation of their remains. When we use vaccines or medicines which utilize cell lines originating from aborted babies, we physically benefit from the “fruits” of one of the greatest evils of mankind — the cruel genocide of the unborn. For if one innocent child had not been cruelly murdered, we would not have these concrete vaccines or medicines. We should not be so naive as not to see that these vaccines and medicines not only offer a health benefit but also promise to promote the culture of death.

March for Life and TLM photos

On Friday, 24 January, thousands of traditional Catholics attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C., from the Fraternity of Saint Peter to the Institute of Christ the King to diocesan parishes that offer the traditional Latin Mass.

Rorate was there and took a few photos:

President Donald Trump, speaking in-person at the March for Life

Congressman Chris Smith, co-chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus

Nellie Gray Mass 2020; Saint Mary Mother of God church in Washington, D.C.

March for Life: First U.S. president in-person, and plenty of TLMs around

The announcement that President Donald Trump will speak in-person at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., tomorrow (Friday) at 12 noon is a game-changer for the annual commemoration of the Roe versus Wade court decision overturning pro-life state laws in the U.S.

Ronald Reagan was the first president to address the March for Life, in 1985, but via telephone from the Oval Office. He did so again in 1986, 1987 and 1988.  This was a big deal for America, as both Republican and Democrat presidents avoided the significant gathering on the National Mall each January 22nd until the second term of President Reagan. Both President George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush spoke to the March for Life via audio, the latter usually from an out-of-town trip scheduled for January 22nd.

Mike Pence made history as the first vice president to address the March for Life in-person in 2017, the only time Secret Service was employed for security screening. He spoke again last year, unannounced (no screening) -- a bold move. For this year's March for Life, tomorrow (as the March for Life is now held on the Friday closest to January 22nd), Vice President Pence (baptized Catholic, no longer practicing) will be at the Vatican.

President Trump, who previously spoke to the March for Life via video/audio, will speak in-person for at least 15 minutes as early as 12 noon on Friday, January 24th.  The speeches, which will also include House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, Congressman Chris Smith, Louisiana First Lady Donna Edwards and Louisiana State Senator Katrina Jackson, will be at 12th Street on the National Mall.

It is highly recommended visitors plan ahead for extreme traffic and extensive security screening (the Secret Service prohibits even pieces of fruit).  Buses should depart earlier than they think if the goal is to see and hear the president inside the secure National Mall perimeter.  Expect the unexpected, such as the closure of the nearest Metro station (Smithsonian) and other hassles that result in delays to the main event.

It goes without saying many traditional Catholics come to the nation's capital for the March for Life.  To that end, there are numerous traditional Latin Masses offered in the District that day.  Saint Mary Mother of God church at 5th and H streets, NW, will have several visiting priests offer Low Masses at side altars starting as early as 7 a.m. Here are four scheduled Mass options in walking/Metro distance from the March for Life.

TLMs before and after the March for Life in D.C.

The annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., will be held on Friday, 24 January 2020.  Several speakers will address the thousands upon thousands of attendees on the National Mall at 12 noon.  During the current U.S. presidential administration the March for Life has featured Vice President Mike Pence speaking in person (announced) in 2017 and (unannounced) in 2019, and President Donald Trump has addressed the March via video/audio.  After the speakers the March goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Saint Mary Mother of God church at 727 5th Street, NW

Many traditional Catholics come to the nation's capital for the March for Life.  To that end, there are numerous traditional Latin Masses offered in the District that day.  Here is a running list based on various sources for TLMs to be offered in churches in Washington, D.C. -- publicly or privately via public announcement, at main or side altars -- on Friday 24 January:

8 a.m. Low Mass, Saint Mary Mother of God church at 5th and H streets, NW.  The pastor of the parish, Father Vincent De Rosa, will offer this Mass on the feast of Saint Timothy.

8:30 a.m. Low Mass, Saint Mary Mother of God church church at 5th and H streets, NW.  Father John Zuhlsdorf will offer this Mass.

8:45 a.m. Low Mass, Saint Mary Mother of God church at 5th and H streets, NW. Father Ron Floyd of the Diocese of Fall River will offer this Mass.

9 a.m. pontifical Low Mass, Holy Comforter church at 1357 East Capitol Street, SE.  Raymond Cardinal Burke will offer this Mass assisted by the Institute of Christ the King. [ N.B. this is quite a welcome development in the Archdiocese of Washington compared to the Mr. McCarrick and Cardinal Wuerl years.]

Anno Domini MMXX - Notes for the Year - January 3rd: Roe should be overruled

"For while I was yet little I pleased the Most High, and from my womb have I brought forth God and man."

Roman Breviary

Responsory for the First Lesson for Matins, January 3rd

***

'Roe’s jurisprudence has been haphazard from the beginning. Roe did not actually hold that abortion was a “fundamental” constitutional right, but only implied it. ... Roe’s jurisprudence has been characterized by Delphic confusion and protean change.'

*

'[We] respectfully suggest that the court’s struggle—similar to dozens of other courts’ herculean struggles in this area—illustrates the unworkability of the “right to abortion” found in Roe and the need for the Court to take up the issue of whether Roe and Casey should be reconsidered and, if appropriate, overruled.'

From the Amicus Curiae brief signed by over 200 members
of the United States Congress
to the Supreme Court of the United States
in the pending case June Medical Services LLC v. Gee

On the 80th Anniversary of Victory Day in Spain

RADIOMESSAGE
«CON INMENSO GOZO»
OF HIS HOLINESS

PIUS XII

TO THE SPANISH FAITHFUL

(April 14, 1939)

With great joy We address you, most dear children of Catholic Spain, to express to you our fatherly congratulations for the gift of peace and of victory, with which God has deemed worthy to crown the Christian heroism of your faith and charity, tried in so many and so generous sufferings. Our Predecessor, of venerable memory, expected, with longing and trust, this Providential peace, which is undoubtedly the fruit of that copious blessing which he sent, in the very beginning of the struggle, "to all those who had devoted themselves to the difficult and dangerous task of defending and restoring the rights and the honor of God and Religion" [1]; and We do not doubt that this peace shall be the one that he himself foretold since then, "the sign of a future of tranquility in order, and of honor in prosperity" [2].

IRELAND: a post-mortem examination - by Roberto de Mattei (Revisited)

Almost exactly three years ago, in May 2015, following the "same-sex marriage" referendum in Ireland, Roberto de Mattei made his "post-mortem examination" of the formerly Catholic powerhouse.

On this sad Saturday, as vote tallies confirm that an overwhelming majority of Irish voters chose to remove the 8th amendment of the Irish Constitution, we take a moment to revisit his piece.

What did the 8th amendment say exactly? These words:

The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.

Beautiful, noble, sound, correct, Catholic: all that Ireland has ceased to be.

___

IRELAND: a post-mortem examination

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondeza Romana

May 27, 2015

In his masterpiece “The Soul of the Apostolate”, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935), Trappist Abbot of Sept-Fons, expressed this maxim: “A holy priest coincides with a fervent populace; a fervent priest - a pious populace; a pius priest - an honest populace; an honest priest - an impious populace” (Italian version, Rome 1967, p. 64). If it is true that there is always a degree less in the spiritual life between the clergy and the Catholic people, after the vote in Dublin on May 22, we should add: “An impious priest coincides with an apostate populace.”

A homily from Silverstream Priory for Low Sunday — Ireland's Eleventh Hour

(Our thanks to Dom Mark Kirby, O.S.B., for his permission to share this homily with our readers.)

Hæc est victória, quæ vincit mundum, fides nostra.

This is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith. (1 John 5:4)

The Primate of All Ireland, His Grace, the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Eamon Martin, enjoins all priests today to address the great question that very soon will be put to the people of Ireland. By God’s liturgical providence, a number of things converge in today’s Holy Mass to offer us, at this crossroads in Irish history, both light and truth.

De Mattei: The historical background of the abortion law in Italy

Abortion in Italy forty years later (1978-2018)

Roberto de Mattei 

Corrispondenza Romana 

March 21, 2018

Recently the attention of the media in Italy has been focused on the fortieth anniversary of Aldo Moro’s kidnapping. On March 16th 1978, in an ambush on Via Fani in Rome, the Christian Democrat politician was kidnapped and his bodyguards murdered by the Red Brigade. On May 9^th, after a captivity of 55 days, his body was found riddled with bullets in the boot of a car in Via Caetani. No-one has yet to recall though, that, during that same springtime of 1978, the law n.194 on abortion was debated and approved by the Italian Parliament and that since then, it has been the cause of six million victims in our country. 

Op-Ed: "Better a Millstone" - Catholic school principal left alone: Planned Parenthood wins another battle

Fr. Richard Cipolla

It is always local situations that show how deep the problems in the Church are at the present time. The problematic issuances from Rome, Germany and  Chicago are indeed disturbing, but to see how far things have gone, one must go to the local level of the Church:  the diocese and the parish.  Go to a typical parish Mass to see the fruit of the liturgical experiment of the post-Conciliar Church.  The unmooring from the Tradition of the Church is plain to see in the carrying out of the deliberate misunderstanding of the Mass and the disappearance of reverence.  Not to mention the precipitous decline in the percentage of Catholics who go to Mass regularly.

But one sees what has happened and is happening to Catholic doctrine also at the local level.  I live in one of the most wealthy counties in the United States.  There is also poverty in this county.  But when the median family income of the county is calculated, the poverty disappears in the wash of super-affluence.

This poverty is talked about by those who are entrusted with running the government and by those running the Church.  But those who run the Church understand that nothing can be done, at least at the basic level of dollars and cents, without the wealthy of Fairfield County.  Nothing to be done.  What they mean by “to be done” has little to do with Jesus’ directive to go out and preach the Gospel.  What the hierarchy means by “to be done” is to pay attention to the assurance that the bureaucracy continues to function, much like the government in Washington D.C.  in the continuous pseudo-crises of government funding.

Call for Masses for Ireland's abortion referendum

A previous Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Caversham, outside Reading, England. This year's Pilgriamge,
whose Mass will be offered for this intention, takes place this Saturday at 11:30am.

Latin Mass /  Una Voce groups throughout Britain and Ireland call for Masses to be offered for the Irish abortion referendum.

March for Life TLMs in Washington, D.C.

Friday, 19 January 2018, will be the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Pro-life speeches begin on the National Mall at 12 Street, NW, at 12 noon, followed by the peaceful walk up Constitution Avenue to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last year Vice President Mike Pence addressed the March for Life in person -- the first time any of America's top two leaders has done so in person. It is expected there will again be very high-level officials speaking in person at the March for Life at noon. (Get there early.)

UPDATE; 17 Jan.: President Trump will address the March for Life via satellite.  Speaker Paul Ryan will address the March for Life in person.

Many, many American Catholics who attend the traditional Latin Mass will be at the March for Life. To that end, Saint Mary, Mother of God church at 5th and H streets, NW, becomes the de facto hub for the day (and Sunday morning at 9 a.m. for a Missa Cantata). Several visiting priests each year offer traditional Latin Masses at the four altars in the church on the day of the March for Life.

There will be at least four traditional Latin Masses at Saint Mary's on Friday, 19 January:

De Mattei - Forty years against life: from abortion to euthanasia (1978-2017)

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

December 20, 2017

 

The Renzi-Gentiloni governments will go down in history as those that imposed two of the most wicked laws in the Italian Republic: pseudo-homosexual-marriage, called “Civil Unions” (May 20^th 2016) and euthanasia, under the name of the “living will" or DAT (Dichiarazione anticipata di trattamento [Declaration Advance of Treatment]), approved definitively by the Senate on December 14^th 2017. This law will be registered in the Official Journal on the fortieth anniversary of the legalization of abortion, which  passed on May 22, 1978 with Law 194.  Thus the circle closes.

Episcopal Bastards: Bishops' Conference of France celebrates country's greatest Abortion Figure

Simone Veil, who died last week in Paris, was a woman with a long and quite eventful life. After surviving the Holocaust, she thanked God for her survival by doing all that was necessary to legalize and normalize abortion in the Eldest Daughter of the Church. In very few nations of the world has abortion become a mark of almost national identity as in France, where the practice of what they like to call euphemistically "IVG" ("voluntary interruption of pregnancy") kills over 200 thousand babies every year.

When Veil was Health Minister in the 1970s, she led the campaign to legalize abortion, which only moved forward (as she herself recognized later) because of the feeble opposition of the French bishops, amidst the upheavals that followed Vatican II. Since they did not wish to appear "Constantinian" following the documents of the Council, they just mouthed milquetoast objections, and lukewarm Catholic legislators could not find anything in their conscience to stop the bill. The Loi Veil ("Veil Act") went into force on January 17, 1975, and the survivor of a hideous genocide ushered in a new kind of genocidal era.

So, as she died, what would one expect from the Bishops of France? At most, in the name of "nil nisi bonum", silence. But that's not at all what happened: the Conference of Bishops of France (Conférence des Évêques de France - CEF) made sure to honor and celebrate her memory with this tweet:

Catholic University of Louvain: abortion a 'fundamental right'

In response to a junior philosophy lecturer distributing a document to students making the argument for calling abortion 'murder', a spokewoman for the 'Catholic University of Louvain' (UCL) in Belgium has made it clear that this is 'contrary to the values' of the institution.

From LifeSiteNews:

Tania van Hemelryck, the special adviser to the university president on gender politics, spoke to Belgian television on behalf of the university, saying: “The authorities want to find out the exact status of the text and how it was used during this course, bearing in mind that in any case UCL defends the fundamental right to abortion, and particularly women’s right to choose.”...

The official statement published by UCL on its website says much the same thing:

“Whatever the outcome of the inquiry, the right to abortion is enshrined in Belgian law and the note that was brought to the attention of UCL is at odds with the values upheld by the university. Conveying standpoints that contradict these values in the framework of a teaching course is unacceptable.”

Louvain has not been a very 'Catholic' Catholic University for a long time, but these statements take matters to a new level. Please consider signing a petition to support the lecturer at the centre of the row, Stéphane Mercier.