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The Biden administration is under fire for selectively prosecuting pro-life advocates who protested abortion inside abortion centers while ignoring hundreds of pro-abortion attacks on churches, pro-life groups and pregnancy centers.

Heather Idoni is one of the dozen pro-life advocates who have been charged or convicted of violating the bogus FACE law that denies free speech rights to pro-life Americans. As LifeNews reported, the pro-life advocates have been found guilty of violating a federal law protecting abortion centers and now face the possibility of 11 years in prison.

That political persecution is bad enough, but recent reports indicated Idoni was placed in solitary confinement for 22 days for sharing food with fellow prisoners. After that, a second report indicated Idoni suffered a stroke as a result of the cruel and unusual punishment.

Now, a further update on her situation indicates Idoni has been denied the essential heart medication she needs. Here’s more about what happened when reporter Louis Knuffke interviewed Idoni.

Knuffke learned ” that she had had 3 stents placed above her heart two weeks ago and was told to take daily doses of heart medicine. However, prison officials have not given her a single dose, she told Knuffke, and DC Jail personnel have told her that their records say she has been given them every day.”

Idoni, who said she was suffering from fluttering of the heart, terminated the interview after saying she would request a trip to the hospital. Knuffke then called both Idoni’s lawyer and the emergency dispatch.

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“I ended up calling 911 to get a dispatch sent to the jail to make sure they didn’t ignore her,” Knuffke told this reporter. “Her lawyer said that if the doctor declares her condition was due to negligence in medical care, the marshals at the jail would be civilly liable.”

Idoni told Knuffke that she was frightened that she might die, as doctors told her not to miss a dose. Idoni, who is now a prisoner at DC Jail at 1901 D Street in Washington DC, suffered a stroke two weeks ago.

Sentencing hearings for nine pro-life advocates that Biden is attempting to put in prison for a decade are set to commence Tuesday.

The post Woman Who Biden Put in Prison for Protesting Abortion Denied Heart Medication After Stroke appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Several well-respected and established organizations have come together to fight Amendment 4 including, Florida Right to Life, Florida Eagle Forum, Florida Citizens Alliance Action, Citizens Defending Freedom, Priests for Life, Women Impacting the Nation, The Florida Catholic Medical Association, Florida Republican Assembly, Vote your Vision, Freedom Fellowship, Thy Protector, Watchmen Action, Sherloc, Community Pregnancy Clinics, and The Matt Buff Show as well as many individual faith and community leaders!

“Do No Harm Florida” is led by: Dr. John Littell, Chairman, Dr. Rebecca Peck, Spokesperson, Lori Bontell, Volunteer Outreach, Nancy Randolph, Prayer Outreach, and Israel Hall, Jewish Outreach.

“As a practicing physician, I’m pleased to represent Do No Harm Florida (DNHF) as its’ Chairman” stated Dr. John Littell. “We must be ready to expose the truth about this dangerous amendment and defeat it!”

Father Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, explains, “The work of Do No Harm Florida is critically important for us all and is a way to combine our strengths to keep Florida a state where the unborn and their families are safe and the laws we have already passed to protect them are intact.”

DNHF spokesperson, Dr. Rebecca Peck stated, “As a post-abortive woman, and a licensed practicing physician, it is imperative we bring truth into the discussion, and expose the dangerous and deceptive language of Amendment 4…. I’m beyond proud to represent DNHF as spokesperson.”

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“We realize the importance of building a strong coalition of affiliates to fight this radical and deceptive amendment that would enshrine abortion through birth and leave minor girls in danger with the removal of parental consent,” stated Lynda Bell, President and Spokesperson of Florida Right to Life.

Please join Do No Harm Florida in fighting this dangerous, deceptive, and deadly amendment to Florida’s Constitution. For more information and our call to action, please visit our website www.DoNoHarmFL.org. We have a speakers bureau ready to share our important message at your church, temple, or community event. We can’t fight this evil amendment without your help. Please pray, share our website, volunteer, give as generously as possible, and vote NO on Amendment 4 on election day!

The post Multiple Pro-Life Groups Join Forces to Stop Florida Amendment 4 and Abortions Up to Birth appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Canada’s Medical Aid in Dying law took effect in June 2016. The law allows those with disabilities or chronic illnesses to be killed by a doctor at their request.

Many stories have come out about disabled people “choosing” Medical Aid in Dying, which is really euthanasia, because of poverty or inability to get treatment.

A Charity Worker Speaks Out

As of 2023, over 1.5 million disabled Canadians were living in poverty. Many of them are turning to MAID (Medical Aid in Dying).

Charities that help poor disabled people have noticed the problem. Meghan Nicholls, CEO of the Mississauga Food Bank, said:

We’re at the point where clients on these programs are telling us they’re considering medically assisted death or suicide because they can’t live in grinding poverty anymore.

A client in our Food Bank 2 Home delivery program told one of our staff that they’re considering suicide because they’re so tired of suffering through poverty. Another client asked if we knew how to apply for MAID (medical assistance in dying) for the same reasons…

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When people start telling us they’re going to end their life because they can’t live in poverty anymore, it’s clear that we’ve failed them.

Delays in Getting Approved for Government Assistance and Being Turned Down

One example is 33-year-old Rose Finlay. Last June, Finlay, a paraplegic, requested MAID because she was unable to find personal care support. She had once run her own business, but her condition worsened, and she couldn’t pay her support workers.

She applied to the Ontario Disability Support Program but was told it would take at least six to eight months to get approved. Euthanasia would be approved in 90 days.

Finlay said:

It’s not what I want. But if I don’t receive the support that I need, the outcome is the same … I would like to have other options.

A woman named “Madeline” with myalgic encephalomyelitis turned to crowdfunding to pay for the help she needed after being turned down five times for government assistance. She’s facing euthanasia when she runs out of money.

She said:

I found treatments, but I can’t afford them … MAID, for me, is not a life and death choice. It’s about what kind of death I want when I run out of money.

Sathya Dhara Kovac, 44, died of euthanasia, which she “chose” because the government refused to provide enough care hours. Before she died, she said:

Ultimately it was not a genetic disease that took me out, it was a system … I could have had more time if I had more help.

Her friend Shayla Brantnall said:

She accepted the changes in her body, but without enough support, how could anyone keep going?… You’re constantly stressed, you’re constantly struggling, like, ‘How am I going to get to the bathroom? How am I going to eat food?’ That’s not really a great quality of life either.

Once again, the cause of her “request” wasn’t her disability, but a lack of money for care.

Tracey Thompson suffered from long covid. She couldn’t get approved for assistance, which, even if granted, would barely cover her rent and would leave her with nothing for other expenses.

Choosing euthanasia, she said, was “exclusively a financial consideration.”

She also said:

I’m very happy to be alive. I still enjoy life. Birds chirping, small things that make up a day are still pleasant to me, they’re still enjoyable. I still enjoy my friends.

But with no income, she didn’t feel she could survive.

Medical Aid in Dying Due to Lack of Appropriate Housing

Michael Fraser qualified for euthanasia because of liver disease, incontinence, and the inability to walk.

He died because his apartment, which was on the second floor, had become a prison, and he couldn’t afford to move anywhere else.

The doctor who killed him, Dr. Navindra Persaud, struggled with the decision.

Persaud said:

Professional standards were met. It’s legal, but I do feel guilty. I’m conflicted about it … There were a number of factors that led to Michael’s decision, and I think poverty was one of them….

Sometimes poverty is pushing people to MAID who can be helped by other supports. For sure, I think the fact that he had trouble paying his rent made it harder for him to be in this world.

51-year-old ‘Sophia’ had multiple chemical sensitivities. She did everything she could to get access to safe housing but was turned down and denied it at every turn. So, she died by euthanasia.

Rohini Peris, President of the Environmental Health Association of Québec, said of her case:

This person begged for help for years, two years, wrote everywhere, called everywhere, asking for healthy housing … It’s not that she didn’t want to live. She couldn’t live that way.

Dr. Riina Bray, who treats her condition, said:

It was an easy fix. She just needed to be helped to find a suitable place to live, where there wasn’t smoke wafting in through the vents.

Lack of Resources and Poor Quality Care Lead to Medical Aid in Dying

Paraplegic Jacques Comeau was getting in-home care from orderlies that had worked with him for years. But the local health center began sending new orderlies who gave poor care. One orderly left him sitting in his waste. They made mistakes with his procedures, causing him pain.

So, he chose euthanasia.

Adèle Liliane Ngo Mben Nkoth, an accessibility advocate, said about his case:

Everywhere in Quebec, we see this … It’s deplorable to see that … we find ourselves in these situations for a country so rich as ours.

Dr. Paul Saba from Lachine Hospital said:

People are choosing it because they can’t get proper housing, can’t get affordable housing, can’t get food, where they’re not getting enough social services, not enough nursing help.

“Falling Through the Cracks”

Jennyfer Hatch appeared in the pro-euthanasia propaganda film “All Is Beauty.”

What the makers of the film didn’t reveal was that she had said:

… I feel like I’m falling through the cracks so if I’m not able to access health care, am I then able to access death care?’ And that’s what led me to look into MAID and I applied last year…

From a disability and financial perspective as well, I can’t afford the resources that would help improve my quality of life. Because of being locked in financially as well and geographically, it is far easier to let go than keep fighting.

Fraser Health’s MAID documentation includes the statement, “There were no other treatment recommendations or interventions that were suitable to the patient’s needs or to her financial constraints.”

Les Landry’s disability benefits ended when he turned 65. His senior benefits weren’t enough to cover his medical transportation, prescription coverage, or service dog’s care. So, he applied for MAID.

Euthanasia Averted by Generous Donors

Amir Farsoud of Ontario was living in “never-ending agony” from a back injury. But it wasn’t pain that drove him to seek euthanasia, but homelessness after the owner sold the house he was renting. He said, “I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to be homeless more than I don’t want to die.”

His story has a happy ending. Strangers raised $60,000 for him, allowing him to find a place to live, and he withdrew his application.

31-year-old “Denise”, who also had multiple chemical sensitivities, applied for assisted suicide “essentially, because of abject poverty” as she said. But her GoFundMe account brought in enough money for her to get help for her condition.

A Goal of Saving Money?

These are just a handful of examples showing that disabled people are being forced into euthanasia by poverty and lack of services.

But there is some evidence that the law works exactly as it was meant to.

Before Medical Aid in Dying was legalized, the Canadian Medical Association released a report documenting how much money the law would save. Dead people, after all, don’t cost the government any more money in healthcare spending or support. An article covering the report stated:

New research suggests medically assisted dying could result in substantial savings across Canada’s health-care system.

Doctor-assisted death could reduce annual health-care spending across the country by between $34.7 million and $136.8 million, according to a report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday.

Aaron Trachtenberg, one of the report’s authors, told CBC News:

In a resource-limited health care system, anytime we roll out a large intervention there has to be a certain amount of planning and preparation and cost has to be a part of that discussion… It’s just the reality of working in a system of finite resources.

Arguments about the money that MAID would save were rarely made publicly. Instead, euthanasia supporters relied on claims of ‘death with dignity’ and ‘relieving human suffering.’ But reports like this one were available to legislators, and issues of cost were spoken about behind closed doors.

Lies and Denial

How do supporters of Medical Aid in Dying respond to these cases?

Mostly by denying they exist. In response to allegations that disabled people were choosing death because of poverty and lack of housing, Helen Long, CEO of pro-euthanasia group Dying with Dignity said, “This is simply not true and there is no evidence that I’m aware of to support those claims.”

LifeNews Note: Sarah Terzo covered the abortion issue for over 13 years as a professional journalist. In this capacity, she has written nearly a thousand articles about abortion and read over 850 books on the topic. She has been researching and writing about abortion since attending The College of New Jersey (class of 1997) where she minored in Women’s Studies. This article originally appeared on Sarah Terzo’s Substack. You can read more of her articles here.

The post Canadians are Killing Themselves in Assisted Suicides Because They’re Too Poor to Afford Medical Care or Housing appeared first on LifeNews.com.

The breakdown of ceasefire talks and the resulting civilian deaths are a result of weak and indecisive American diplomacy

Israel has been threatening a full-scale invasion of the Gazan city of Rafah for months, with the US government belatedly warning against the move and calling for a ceasefire. However, the Biden administration has consistently flip-flopped on the issue and refused to take serious measures to pressure Israel into reaching a deal.

On May 6, Hamas publicly announced that it had accepted a ceasefire proposal, triggering celebrations throughout Gaza. The rejoicing was short-lived though, as the Israeli government reiterated its refusal to accept a deal and pledged instead to launch a ground operation in Gaza’s southernmost city, despite US government objections.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even stated that “the day after is the day after Hamas. All of Hamas,” meaning there is no ceasefire deal he will accept.

Despite the Israeli military capturing the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, in addition to killing dozens of civilians after bombing 100 targets throughout Rafah, Israel announced that a delegation had been sent to Cairo to “exhaust” all possibilities of reaching a ceasefire. As it would later turn out, the ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted was almost identical to one drafted by the CIA and Israeli intelligence, and lauded by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a “strong proposal”.

Meanwhile, in cities like Haifa and Tel Aviv, Israeli protesters – led by the families of captives held in Gaza – had taken to the streets to demand their government accept the ceasefire terms, which included the release of all Israeli prisoners. Clashing with the police and labeling the Netanyahu government liars, the demonstrators threatened to burn the country if their prisoners were not freed.

The US response the very next day was to gaslight reporters by telling them that the whole world was wrong and that Hamas had not accepted any ceasefire proposal. It was not long before US President Joe Biden was to sit down for an interview with CNN and state that he would not supply Israel with offensive weaponry to be used in a “major invasion” of Rafah. What he refused to do, however, was define what a major invasion means – and where the red line is.

This unclear approach comes after the Israeli military violated the terms of the 1979 Camp David agreement, which normalized ties between Egypt and Israel, by invading what is known as the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza. Not only did the Israeli army send in its Givati Brigades, who published videos of themselves recklessly crushing the border crossing for fun, they also sealed off the key aid route to Gaza’s civilian population, who are on the brink of famine. 

A weak and confusing American approach

The Israeli government has been threatening to invade Rafah since the start of the year, with Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly asserting, since the beginning of February, that Israel will “lose the war” if there is no invasion. it's a move that the US not only says will mean defeat militarily, but more importantly, threatens the lives of over a million civilians, most of whom have nowhere else to go.

In early March, Biden gave a confusing interview to MSNBC, where he repeatedly contradicted himself when addressing the issue of an Israeli invasion of Rafah.

While claiming that entering Rafah is a “red line,” he then said that “there’s no red line [where] I’m going to cut off all weapons... but there’s red lines that if he crosses them”, before he seemed to lose his train of thought.

The sudden changes in the stance of policymakers in Washington are not limited to Biden’s MSNBC interview. In early February, the US said it would oppose an invasion of Rafah, calling it a “disaster,” to which the Israeli prime minister responded that he was preparing his forces to invade – and ramped up aerial attacks on the area. Yet, in mid-February the US government prepared a $14 billion military aid package for Israel and would go on to say that it could only support a limited invasion of Rafah.

Then there were reports that emerged, citing unnamed US officials, alleging that Biden was growing frustrated with Netanyahu and that he had even sworn at him. There was then the American push towards a “six-week ceasefire” in March, which the US president publicly said he hoped would happen prior to the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan. Even now, the Biden administration is still talking about an alleged “six-week ceasefire”, despite its own proposal to Hamas being a detailed agreement designed to end the war or at least to last for several months.

Silently, the US approved over 100 weapons transfers to assist the war effort against Gaza, in which they used loopholes to avoid Washington’s own new laws on weapons sales. Then, with two weeks left until the end of Ramadan, the US finally abstained in a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) vote, which called on Israel to implement a ceasefire until the end of the Muslim Holy month. In response, Israel immediately canceled the pre-planned visit of a high-level American delegation to Tel Aviv. 

However, the very next morning, following the passing of the UN Security Council resolution, the US State Department announced that the resolution was non-binding. This not only meant that Washington was denying the reality of the internationally understood consensus that all UNSC votes are by their nature binding, but also that it would allow Israel to violate the resolution. So, even though Washington technically took a measure to pressure its ally temporarily, the very next day it gave an informal veto of the resolution, signaling to the Israeli government that it would retain American support no matter what.

While admitting that an invasion of Rafah will inevitably lead to the mass killing of Palestinian civilians, and block humanitarian aid transfers during an impending famine, and that it will not lead to the collapse of Hamas or the return of Israeli prisoners, the US government is effectively twiddling its thumbs.

The US has had nearly seven months to formulate a coherent policy when it comes to its goals and red lines in the Gaza-Israel war, yet it cannot articulate what its red lines are – and what ceasefire it even desires – without constantly contradicting itself. Western corporate media are now pointing to the postponing of a singular weapons shipment to Israel by the Biden administration, as if this constitutes pressure. But the US has done nothing to force Israel to allow aid to pass through the Rafah Crossing, which it immediately called upon Israel to do.

At this point, the US government is not helping to achieve Israel’s publicly stated war aims, it is not helping the families of Israeli prisoners, and it has failed to achieve a ceasefire or the sufficient transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Instead, Joe Biden appears to be doing one thing – helping Benjamin Netanyahu prolong the conflict, with no end goal, no exit strategy, and no political solution or even the most basic idea of a post-war situation on the horizon. If anything, the US government has proven itself to be incapable of playing any constructive role to any side’s benefit. In fact, it is detrimental to the situation. If there were any people of conscience left in Washington, they would be urging their colleagues to step aside and hand the issue over to nations with coherent foreign policy platforms and intelligent diplomats.

Democrat AGs from 17 states have formed a working group to promote abortion and shut down pro-life pregnancy centers that provide women with real help and support during pregnancy.

Making it clear they’re pro-abortion not pro-choice, the liberal attorneys general are led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who says the group started to “protect access to abortion across our country.”

The group will use the offices of AGs nationwide to advance their radical abortion agenda.

Here’s more:

Campbell said that the group held its first meeting this week and had 17 state attorneys general in attendance. She said they plan to use member attorney general offices’ resources to advance “reproductive health care.”

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“Every office has different resources and human capital,” she told The 19th. “If we come together across offices in this coalition and working group, we can make sure everyone has what we need as we take on this collective fight.”

Campbell said the group will be prioritizing the use of abortion “shield laws.” These laws provide legal protection to doctors and other entities that provide abortions or mail abortion pills to women in states where they are banned.

Campbell and the other attorneys general in the group would like to increase the number and scope of these laws.

The group appears to be a new effort to follow on the heels of New York AG Letitia James trying to shut down pergnancy centers in her state.

The post Democrat AGs Form Group to Promote Abortion, Shut Down Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Poland’s new government discovered foul play while auditing the #StopRussiaNow initiative

Auditors have claimed that the #StopRussiaNow campaign to vilify Russia over the Ukraine conflict was in fact a thinly-veiled scheme to line the pockets of businesses close to the former ruling party, according to Poland’s largest online news portal Onet.

The #StopRussiaNow ad campaign was launched in March 2022 by then-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of the Law and Justice (PiS) party. Its goal was to present Russia to the EU and NATO countries as the “aggressor” in Ukraine, at a cost of nearly 23 million zloty ($5.7 million).

“A large part of the funds spent on the campaign may have been misappropriated,” sources from the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) in Warsaw told Onet.pl. “We are preparing a report on this matter for the prosecutor’s office.”

NIK began looking at the campaign sometime after last December, when PiS lost power to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition. The audit’s official results are due sometime in June.

According to Onet’s own investigation, Morawiecki entrusted the campaign to Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), which issued a no-bid contract to Tak Bardzo Group (TBG), a relatively unknown ad agency based in Warsaw. 

However, TBG is headed by Paulina Palka, whose husband Piotr is a PiS politician and an associate of President Andrzej Duda. TBG then contracted two other companies linked to the ruling party: Ixodes and 1450. The agency even paid 90,000 zloty for legal services to a firm owned by its founder, Rafal Sikora.

TBG was billed 15.4 million zloty ($3.88 million) by 1450, but the company records showed only 2.8 million zloty spent on online media purchases, which were supposed to be the lion’s share of the contract’s estimate. The other subcontractor, Ixodes, was paid 4 million zloty for services that included branded vehicles driving around EU capitals and setting up a website – stoprussianow.eu – that ended up defunct just five months after its launch.

The campaign’s costs were “exorbitant,” a Polish PR executive who wished to remain anonymous told Onet, adding that the sums involved are equal to the annual budget of a medium-sized client.

“Taking into account the size of the budget for promotional activities and the provisions in the contract and the bid, it can be clearly stated that we are dealing with far-reaching mismanagement,” said Onet’s source.

One major red flag was that the campaign spent millions on direct mail services that did not seem necessary at all, since its target was not the general public, but the media and the political elites in the EU.

My astute comments embedded within the text of the pope in “red”. 

Your Beatitude,
Your Excellencies,
Dear brothers and sisters,

I am pleased to welcome you, your brother bishops and those who have accompanied you on your first trip to Rome after your election. It was good to have this election! I also fraternally greet the representatives of the Syro-Malabar community in Rome.

The faithful of your beloved Church are known, not only in India, but throughout the whole world, for the “vigour” of their faith and piety. Your faith is of an ancient origin, as it is rooted in the witness to the point of martyrdom of Saint Thomas, the Apostle of India. You are all custodians and heirs of his apostolic preaching. You have had many challenges over the course of your long and difficult history, which has also seen some members of the faith commit unfortunate acts against you because of their insensitivity to the particular nature of your flourishing Church. Yet, you have remained faithful to the Successor of Peter. 

And so it gives me great joy to welcome all of you and to confirm you in the glorious legacy that you have received and which you carry forward. You are obedient, and where obedience is present, there is the Church. Where there is disobedience, there is schism. You are obedient; this is one of your glorious attributes: obedience. I know this is not without suffering, but continue to press forward. (Obedience to the authentic teachings of the popes uncontested by other bishops, is a hallmark of Catholics, clergy and laity!)

Your history is unique and precious, and it is a special heritage for all God’s holy people. And I take this opportunity to stress that Eastern traditions are indispensable treasures in the life of the Church. This is especially important to recall in a time like ours, which severs the roots connecting us to the past and measures everything based on what is useful and immediate. (If the pope would only say this to those who embraced Pope Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum and with gusto, rather than calling them backward looking and demanding that Latin Rite Catholics walk in lockstep with only what is useful and immediate by jettisoning the Latin Rite’s rich liturgical heritage!) This unfortunately can also include religious attitudes. The Christian East allows us to draw from ancient and ever new sources of spirituality; these become fresh springs that bring vitality to the Church. It is, therefore, good for me, as Bishop of Rome, to encourage you, the Syro-Malabar Catholic faithful, wherever you are, to cultivate the sense of belonging you have to your Church sui iuris, so that your great liturgical, theological, spiritual and cultural heritage may shine ever more brightly. (Again, if only Pope Francis could be humble enough to say this very same thing to those who were obedient to Pope Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum and what Pope Benedict told the entire Latin Rite Church about our liturgical heritage!)

 I also told His Beatitude to ask for jurisdiction with regard to all your migrants in so many parts of the Middle East. I said that they have to ask for jurisdiction in writing, but I have given it today and they can already exercise it. This has to be put in writing, but again, as of today, you can exercise it. I wish to help you, not supersede you, because the nature of your Church sui iuris empowers you not only to examine carefully the situations and challenges that you face, but also to take appropriate steps to address them, with responsibility and evangelical courage, remaining faithful to the guidance of the Major Archbishop and the Synod. This is what the Church wants, for apart from Peter, apart from the Major Archbishop, there is no Church.

To this end, I have recently sent letters and a video message to the faithful, warning them of the dangerous temptation to focus on one detail, (i.e. celebrating their Liturgy in a novel way by facing the congregation rather than obedience to the now expected posture of ad orientem for the Liturgy of the Eucharist) and an unwillingness to let it go, even to the detriment of the good of the Church. It stems from a self-referentiality, which leads to listening to no other way of thinking but one’s own. In Spanish we call this self-referentiality “yo, me, mi, con migo, para mi”: “I, me, with me, for me, everything for me”. It is here that the devil, the divider, who truly exists, creeps in and thwarts the most heartfelt desire that the Lord expressed before dying for us: that we, his disciples, be “one” (Jn 17:21), without division and without breaking communion. For this reason, guarding unity is not a pious exhortation but a duty, and it is especially so when it concerns priests who have promised obedience and from whom the faithful expect the example of charity and meekness. (Pope Francis wants obedience to ad orientem since it is not only the Latin Rite’s rich liturgical heritage, but that too of the Eastern Rite, thus uniting both rites in celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the same direction!!!!)

Your Beatitude, let us work with determination to protect communion and pray tirelessly that our brothers and sisters, tempted by a worldliness that leads to rigidity and division, may realize that they are part of a larger family that loves them and waits for them. Like the Father in the parable of the prodigal son, let us leave the doors open and our hearts open so that, once they have repented, they will not find it difficult to re-enter (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 46): we are waiting for them. Let us meet and discuss without fear, this is fine, but above all, let us pray, so that the light of the Spirit, which reconciles differences and brings tensions back into unity, may resolve disputes. There is one certainty: pride, recriminations and envy do not come from the Lord and never lead to concord and peace. Showing a grave lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament – the Sacrament of charity and unity – by arguing about the details of how to celebrate the Eucharist, the pinnacle of his presence among us, is incompatible with the Christian faith. The guiding criterion, the truly spiritual one that derives from the Holy Spirit, is communion: this requires us to do a self-examination of our dedication to unity and our faithful, humble, respectful and obedient care for the gifts we have received. (Yes, the liturgical progressives in the Syro Malabar rite, have caused violence and chaos and sacrilege as well as vandalism due to their rigid opposition to ad orientem for the Liturgy of the Eucharist and closed mindedness to both rite liturgical past much like what the progressive left has done in the Latin Rite, but aided and abetted by Rome and modernist liturgists!)

I would like to say to everyone, in moments of difficulty and crisis, do not be overcome by discouragement or a sense of helplessness in the face of problems. Brothers and sisters, let us not extinguish hope, grow weary of patience, or close ourselves off to prejudices that fuel animosities. Rather, let us think about the vast horizon of the mission that the Lord has entrusted to us, the mission to be a sign of his loving presence in the world, and not a scandal to those who do not believe! When making decisions, let us think of the poor and the estranged, those on the peripheries, in India and the diaspora, and those in an existential crisis. Let us also be mindful of those who are suffering and waiting for signs of hope and consolation. I know that the lives of Christians in many places are difficult, but the difference is that we Christians respond to evil with good and we work tirelessly with all believers for the good of humanity. (Pope Francis could say this to those suffering due to their fidelity to Summorum Ponticum and renewal in continuity which is derided and mocked by the progressive liberals of the Latin Rite Church.)

I would like to thank you for your Church’s commitment in the areas of family formation and catechesis, and I support your pastoral work aimed at youth and vocations. I am close to you in prayer and carry you in my heart every day. Please also take my encouragement to your brothers and sisters.

Together we look to Jesus, crucified and risen, who loves us and makes us one, who wants us united as one family around one altar. Like the Apostle Thomas, let us look at his wounds. They are still visible today on the bodies of the hungry, thirsty and discarded, those in prisons, hospitals and on the streets. As we touch these brothers and sisters with tenderness, we welcome the living God in our midst. Like St. Thomas, we look at the wounds of Jesus, which had stunned the disciples and could have thrown them into a hopeless guilt, and see that it is from those wounds the Lord made channels of forgiveness and mercy. A big heart, always a big heart! What amazement must have seized the Apostle Thomas as he contemplated them and saw his doubts and fears vanish before the greatness of God! It is an amazement that generates hope, an amazement that prompted him to go out, to cross new borders and to become your father in faith. Let us cultivate this amazement of faith, which enables us to overcome every obstacle!

And you, dear faithful of the Syro-Malabar community in Rome, descendants of the Apostle Thomas in the city of Peter and Paul, have a special role to play. From this Church, which presides over the universal communion of charity (cfr. Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans), you are called to pray and cooperate in a special way for unity within your Church, not only in Kerala but also throughout India and the whole world. Kerala is a treasure-trove of vocations! Let us pray that it will continue to be so.

Your Beatitude, thank you for this fraternal visit; I am pleased by it. Dear brothers and sisters, from the bottom of my heart I bless you and entrust you to the Virgin Mary, Saint Thomas the Apostle and your saints and martyrs; and I ask you, please do not forget to pray for me. Thank you, thank you very much!

Francis,

Bishop of Rome

Patriarch of the West

Opponents of new law say it will turn pimps into state-sanctioned ‘managers’

A new labor law concerning Belgian sex workers will allow a pimp to demand that the government mediate in cases where a prostitute refuses sex with clients too frequently. Anti-prostitution activists say that the law will allow prostitutes’ managers to “further entrench and maintain their power.”

Passed earlier this month, the law allows sex workers to obtain employment contracts from their pimps. These contracts classify prostitutes as hospitality employees and entitle them to health insurance, pensions, unemployment benefits, holidays and maternity leave.

Pimps must be licensed by the government to issue employment contracts, and must allow prostitutes to refuse or to stop sex with clients for any reason. However, if a prostitute refuses or stops sex more than ten times over six months, their pimp can open a labor dispute and involve a government mediator.

Belgium decriminalized sex work in 2022, allowing prostitutes to work as freelancers. However, employing a sex worker under contract remained a criminal offense, meaning that agreements between pimps and prostitutes existed in a legal gray area and contained no legally-binding protections for the prostitute.

UTSOPI, a trade union for sex workers in Belgium, hailed the new law. “Without a labor law, sex workers would still be legally discriminated against,” UTSOPI spokesman Daan Bauwens said in a statement. “That is now over.”

“We hope that other countries will copy this text, as they did on topics such as same-sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia and transgender rights,” Bauwens added. 

However, anti-exploitation activist Andrea Heinz argued that the new model simply allows pimps to “become ‘managers’ with the backing of the state to further entrench and maintain their power.”

“Pimps see women they sell as products, not people deserving of full dignity and respect,” Heinz wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “And ‘government mediator’...Wtf is that? Someone to mediate pimp-victim ‘contracts’, ie. gently encourage women to get back in the brothel bed when they are ‘not fulfilling their [sexual] obligations?’”

According to official estimates from 2022, there are around 3,000 sex workers active in Belgium. However, some studies put that number at ten times higher. The Belgian Federal Police claimed in 2015 that around 26,000 women were working as prostitutes, and that 80% of them were being exploited by trafficking gangs from Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Nigeria, among other countries.

As someone whose family once proudly embraced the Democratic Party, I mourn the decision by three Democratic presidents to make the loss of life made into a business by unleashing the chemical abortion pill on the U.S. market. Chemical abortion pills, which end hundreds of thousands of lives annually, represent the dark legacy of Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and now Joe Biden. Their administrations’ actions allowed the pills to be sold in ways known to harm women and girls as a financial gift for a powerful interest group: the abortion industry.

The business of chemical abortion pills in America is a federal issue. Reversing the neglect and abuse of power by federal agencies will demand leadership and key appointments to undo Democrats‘ gift to the abortion industry.

President Clinton manipulated the levers of federal power, working behind the scenes to bring the drug to the U.S. market in 2000 with assurances that protecting women’s safety would be a priority. To fast-track this means of abortion, the FDA deemed pregnancy an illness and death by abortion pills a treatment.

Health and safety standards (known as REMS—risk evaluation, and mitigation strategies) put in place to protect mothers in 2000 came under attack during Barack Obama’s tenure. Obama’s head of the FDA, Dr. Robert Califf, supported efforts to make it easier to sell the life-ending pills. President Joe Biden followed in those footsteps, appointing a legal attack dog against pro-life groups and policies—former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra—to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He also brought Califf back to the FDA for an encore performance.

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The FDA knows these pills can kill women. But under the last three Democratic administrations, that fact became politically irrelevant in the push for policies that allow for a quick online sale.

For example, chemical abortion pills will not end an ectopic pregnancy, which is when a human in embryonic form implants outside of the womb. While the combination of the two pills sold for abortions in the U.S. will cause bleeding, leading a woman to believe her pregnancy has ended, in fact, the life-threatening ectopic pregnancy continues. Requiring that pregnant women have an ultrasound to determine the location and length of pregnancy would save lives, but that requirement is missing from the REMS issued by Biden’s FDA.

Also missing is any requirement for blood testing and treatment of Rh-negative status. About 15 percent of the population is Rh-negative, which means that a mixing of blood between mother and child during birth, miscarriage, or abortion can lead to antibodies forming in the mother that can attack future pregnancies, effectively leading to infertility without an injection of Rh immune globulin. But abortionists and illegal chemical abortion pill distributors don’t provide that treatment, since there’s no blood tests in the world of online distribution.

And then there is the reality that anonymous online distribution makes chemical abortion pills the dream drug for abusers and sex traffickers, who have used them against mothers without their knowledge or consent.

The risks of chemical abortion pills—injury, infertility, empowered abusers, and death—also include environmental harm. When the pills were rushed onto the U.S. market, Clinton’s FDA accepted an environmental assessment report from the pro-abortion Population Council that basically said littering was the only potential problem.

The post By Pushing Dangerous Abortion Pills, Democrats Have Failed Women For Decades appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Democrats are polling normally in the Senate races, suggesting voters may see Biden himself as the problem

Former US President Donald Trump would beat the incumbent Joe Biden in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania if the November election were held today, according to the latest poll by the New York Times and Siena College.

The polls showed Trump leading by seven percentage points in Arizona and Michigan, ten in Georgia, three in Pennsylvania and a whopping twelve in Nevada. 

The poll is “littered with bad news for Biden, whether it’s on abortion, the economy, Gaza, and so on,” said the New York Times’ chief political analyst, Nate Cohn. “Trump’s strength is largely thanks to gains among young, black and Hispanic voters,” he added.

Muslim or Arab Americans have also swung around to favor Trump in “huge defections” from the Democrats, mainly driven by Biden’s support for Israel’s offensive against Gaza. Voters who are Muslim or of Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) origin now favor Trump 57% - 25% with 18% undecided, the poll showed; in 2020 56% favored Biden and only 35% backed the then-president. 

“When we asked Arab or Muslim voters who didn’t back Mr. Biden about their most important issue in the race, around 70 percent cited foreign policy or the war in Gaza,” the Times noted.

Almost 4,100 registered voters were surveyed between April 28 and May 9. According to Cohn, the answers given by voters who used to back Biden but are now turning to Trump were “typical: economy, wars, immigration” and “Biden skepticism.”

The lone outlier was Wisconsin, scheduled to host the Republican convention in July, where Biden appeared to be two points ahead. 

Suggesting that the problem was with Biden himself and not the party, the poll showed Democrats leading the Senate races in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The “ticket-splitting” was the most pronounced in Nevada, where many likely Trump voters said they backed Senator Jacky Rosen, the incumbent Democrat, over a hypothetical Republican challenger. The GOP is scheduled to pick its Senate candidate there in a June primary. 

The New York Times called this good news for Biden, suggesting that “these voters haven’t yet abandoned Democrats in full, and they might still be available to return to his side.”

Biden won all six swing states in the 2020 election, which Trump has disputed as irregular. The two are now set for a rematch in November, once their nominations are formally confirmed at the party conventions this summer.

After granting amnesty to hundreds of separatists, Spain’s socialists won regional elections in Catalonia

Pro-independence parties in Catalonia have lost their parliamentary majority, with the socialist allies of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez emerging as the region’s largest party. 

The Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), a sister party of Sanchez’ Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, won 42 out of 135 seats in regional elections on Sunday. Although the party fell short of the 68 seats needed for an absolute majority, the result represents a significant increase from the 31 seats it won in 2021 and makes the PSC the largest single party in the region.

Despite the separatist Together for Catalonia (Junts) gaining four seats to finish in second with 35, losses for other pro-independence parties meant that the separatist movement no longer enjoys a parliamentary majority. The Republican Left of Catalonia, a pro-independence party that has led the region’s government since 2021, lost 13 seats to finish with 20, the most significant fall in support for any party contesting the election.

Sanchez’ conciliatory position toward the separatists is widely seen as having defanged the pro-independence movement. The most controversial of his policies is an amnesty law passed last year, which once in effect will pardon hundreds of separatist leaders involved in organizing an independence referendum in 2017. The passage of the law outraged Spain’s right-wing parties and triggered massive protests in Madrid.

Speaking after votes were counted on Sunday evening, PSC leader Salvador Illa said that his party’s victory was the result of “the policies implemented by the Spanish government and its prime minister, Pedro Sanchez.” 

Although the 2017 referendum passed overwhelmingly, it was declared illegal by Spain’s constitutional court. Junts leader Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium after the failed independence bid, dodging charges of rebellion, sedition and the misuse of public funds. The sedition charges against Puigdemont were dropped last January, and the Junts leader is expected to return to Catalonia when the amnesty bill comes into force later this month.

With Illa now seeking coalition partners, Puigdemont has called on the ERC not to join forces with the PSC. A former ally of ERC leader Pere Aragones, Puigdemont said on Sunday that “if Esquerra is willing to rebuild bridges” and build a coalition of pro-independence parties to keep the PSC out of government, “we will also be willing.”