Life, Peace, Justice: A Conference on Life Issues

From every angle, our world is faced with attacks on human life and dignity. Whether it be for the preborn, the elderly, the convicted criminal or the innocent slave, the mentally ill or the people across enemy lines - we are standing up to delcare that ALL human life is valuable and worthy of protection.

 

The purpose of this conference is to unite individuals, organizations, and young leaders to equip each in the most needed work of our modern era: educating our world to the value of human life - no matter the circumstance - and changing hearts and minds. 

 

Preregistration: $15/20/30  At-the-door registration: $20/25/35

Use this link for more information on this conference

Justices Sound Ready To Reject Contraceptives Mandate Under Obamacare

By David G. Savage
Los Angles Times

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s conservative justices sharply criticized part of President Obama’s healthcare law Tuesday, suggesting they will rule later this year that requiring Christian-owned corporations to offer their employees contraceptives coverage violates the freedom of religion.

“Your reasoning would permit requiring profit-making corporations to pay for abortions,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy told U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who defended the contraceptives provision of the Affordable Care Act.

The administration’s lawyer warned that the court would be adopting a “dangerous principle” if it gave employers a right to exempt themselves from federal laws based on their religious beliefs.

But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. countered that Congress had passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1993 to require special exemptions based on religion.

The women justices — Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — spoke in support of the Obama administration's rule. They agreed with Verrilli that it would cause problems if employers were permitted to refuse to pay for benefits based on religion.

continue reading at http://www.latimes.com

If We’re Really Pro-Life, Let’s Start Acting Like It

Rebecca Kiessling, a 44-year-old Michigan attorney, is shown in a photograph with her birth mother.

by By Steve Deace
Washington Times

Imagine having your own murder debated on national television, and then you’d know how people like Rebecca Kiessling often feel.

Ms. Kiessling, a 44-year-old Michigan attorney, was conceived in rape. Her birth mother was sexually assaulted at knife-point by a serial rapist. It wasn’t until she learned the truth of her origin that she even considered the scorching hot debate that has been raging since Roe v. Wade 41 years ago.
“I had never considered this applied to my life, but once I learned the truth of my conception, it suddenly did,” Ms. Kiessling said.

According to Ms. Kiessling’s research, her life represents the more than 30,000 rape-related pregnancies that occur in the United States each year. Now married for 15 years with five children ages 6-14, Ms. Kiessling is reconciled with her birth mother and is on the speaker’s circuit about 75 times per year on behalf of children conceived in rape.

However, since former U.S. Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock made their controversial statements about rape and abortion during the 2012 campaign, Ms. Kiessling also has spent plenty of time watching the existence of children like her debated in the media as if they’re nothing more than a statistic.

continue reading at http://www.washingtontimes.com

PRESS RELEASE FOR TODAY'S ORAL ARGUMENTS AT SCOTUS‏

From Helen Alvaré
Women Speak for Themselves

Women Speak for Themselves is delighted that Oral Argument day for the HHS Mandate has finally arrived, giving the Supreme Court the opportunity to respond to the federal government’s increasingly extreme arguments against the exercise of religious freedom.  Since the inception of the Mandate, the federal government has struggled to paint its position as the only legitimate pro-woman stance, and to paint religious Americans as irrational and anti-women.   The 41,000 strong grassroots network of women -- Women Speak for Themselves (WSFT) – has continually demonstrated that the government is wrong on both counts, by working in local communities and states, to educate politicians, the media and the public about women’s support for religious freedom, and their opposition to the HHS Mandate.

In the United States, women practice religion more often then men, and women oppose the Mandate in greater numbers than men.  Women business-owners and charitable service-providers are among the leading plaintiffs in lawsuits challenging the Mandate. 

WSFT amicus brief in the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood cases demonstrates that the government in a pluralistic society has no important interest in forcing all businesses to bow to the Mandate. It also shows that the government’s claimed “pro-woman” rationale—that women are more likely to achieve social and economic equality with men if they enter the public square childless—is a simplistic and demeaning calculation. Instead the federal government should support equal and even favorable opportunities for mothers.

For more information about Women Speak for Themselves, please visit our website (http://womenspeakforthemselves.com), or our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/WomenSpeakForThemselves).  
 

Alveda King: Pelosi Deserves Sanger Award for Trampling on Human Rights

Martin Luther King, Jr. Would Reject It Today

Alveda King's Blog
Priests for Life

Dr. Alveda King, director of African American Outreach for Priests for Life, reacted today to the announcement that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will receive Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Award.

“It’s true that Congresswoman Pelosi deserves Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Award – almost no one has done more to promote the killing of innocent babies in the womb than she has,” noted Dr. King. “If Mrs. Pelosi wants finally to take her role as a public servant seriously, though, she will reject the award named after a racist woman who had no problem speaking to a Ku Klux Klan meeting.”

The Sanger Award has been given annually by Planned Parenthood since 1966, when the Rev. Dr. Luther King, Jr., Alveda King’s uncle, was named, but did not personally accept one of the first four citations.
“It’s ironic that Planned Parenthood would extend to my uncle an award for his human rights work,” Dr. King continued. “I can’t think of an organization that has done more to trample upon human rights than Planned Parenthood.”

“Of course, in 1966, Planned Parenthood did not advocate for abortion and its racist roots were not well known,” added Dr. King. “Knowing what we know now and 56 million dead children later, I’m confident that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who gave his life defending others’ rights to life and liberty, would reject any association with Planned Parenthood.”

Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, drew a tsunami of support last year when he wrote an open letter to Mrs. Pelosi, challenging her claim to being a faithful and practicing Catholic while spreading a message that abortion is “sacred ground.”

Regarding her upcoming Planned Parenthood award, he said: “Nancy Pelosi receives this less-than-prestigious award, yet is unable to explain why she supports dismembering children. We should continue to demand that she do so. Sign on to  LetterToNancy.com"


Priests for Life is the nation’s largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit  www.priestsforlife.org.     

Ted Cruz, Veteran of 9 Supreme Court Arguments, Says First Amendment on Trial Today

By Rob Bluey

The Foundry

 

Ted Cruz has argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in his lifetime, more than any other current member of Congress. Today, as a U.S. senator from Texas, Cruz is making a different kind of argument—one in the court of public opinion.

On his Facebook page and in a statement released by his office, Cruz has declared his support for the families who own Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties in their First Amendment challenge of an Obamacare mandate.

Oral arguments in both cases take place today at the Supreme Court.

continue reading at http://blog.heritage.org 

Six Lies the Mainstream Media Are Telling About the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Case

by Ken Shepherd
LifeNews.com

 
“[I]f you read a newspaper to find out about the contraception mandate cases, you will read lies,” attorney and conservative writer Gabriel Malor argued in his excellent March 24 piece for The Federalist, “Six Lies The Leftist Media Tells About The Contraception Mandate Cases.”
 
“The leftist papers do not mention the substantial monetary burden put on religious business owners to violate their consciences,” Malor observed. “The papers do not mention that contraception was both inexpensive and widely available before the contraception mandate, and still is. The papers omit to mention that it isn’t the businesses who have radically changed, but the mandates from government.”

 article continues at http://www.lifenews.com/

Will the Owners of Hobby Lobby Have to Check Their Faith at Their Own Door?

by Joseph E. Kurtz
FaithStreet
 

Faith inspires not only charitable work, but charity in all work. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the pleas of two families whose faith has long inspired and shaped the way they do business. They seek only the freedom to continue living out their vocations through their businesses without fear of punishment by the government.

It is easy to see faith inspiring charity in the many homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and other charitable endeavors started by people of faith in our country. Studies show that people of faith donate more to charities — whether or not the charities have a religious affiliation. Americans in particular have been deemed the “most generous” people in the world.

But if we look more carefully, we can also see how faith can inspire generosity in other workplaces. Many businesses run by people of faith choose to pay employees more, commit to preserving the environment, establish college funds, or donate significant amounts to nonprofit causes.

People of faith do all of these things because they believe that religion should inspire the decisions they make outside of the four walls of their chosen house of worship. Indeed, Pope Francis has observed that “religion [cannot] be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life.” Faith moves us to show concern and responsibility for promoting the common good for the entire human family — including our employees, our neighbors, and those depressed by poverty or hurting from illness.
The Catholic Church has a firm conviction that every Christian is called to practice charity in a manner corresponding to his or her vocation. Some Catholics, like the Little Sisters of the Poor who run nursing homes for the elderly poor, devote their entire lives to helping others and embrace a vow of poverty themselves.

continue reading at http://www.faithstreet.com

  Joseph E. Kurtz, D.D. is the archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). As president, Archbishop Kurtz serves on the executive and administrative committees of the USCCB. Archbishop Kurtz also served as vice president of the USCCB from 2010-2013. He served as bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee from 1999-2007 before being appointed to Louisville. Kurtz earned bachelor and master of divinity degrees from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and a master’s degree in social work from the Marywood School of Social Work in Scranton. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Allentown (Pennsylvania) in 1972. Follow him on Twitter @ArchbishopKurtz. 

Prayer for Healing

 

Msgr. James Moroney

 

Eternal Father,

Source of all mercy and love

out of love for us you sent your Son, 

and willed that blood and water

flow from his side to cleanse us of sin 

and restore lost innocence.

Hear the cry of each woman who mourns

the loss of her child to abortion.

Forgive her sin, restore her to your grace,

and still the terror of her heart

with a peace beyond all understanding.

Through the intercession

of the Blessed Virgin Mary,

Mother of all tenderness and our Mother,

strengthen her faith in you.

Give her the consolation to believe

that her child is now living in the Lord.

We ask this through Christ our Lord,

who conquered sin and death,

and who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

 

ACTION: Hobby Lobby "Tweet Storm"

From Eric Scheidler, Executive Director
Pro-Life Action League

Tomorrow, March 25, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties cases challenging Obama's HHS Mandate.

These are the first cases on the Mandate to come before the high court, and they have the potential to overturn this unjust law that tramples on our religious freedom.

The Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby, and the Hahn family, owners of Conestoga Wood, are standing up for all of us at the Supreme Court, and we need to stand up for them too!

I'll be holding a rally outside the court in Washington, D.C., but if you can't be there, you can STILL raise your voice in support of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga.

Here's how:

Join the "Tweet Storm for Religious Freedom" from 9 a.m. to noon eastern time tomorrow, March 25.

People of faith across the country will be tweeting with the hashtag #ReligiousFreedomForAll during that time, when the justices will be hearing oral arguments in these two cases.

Will you help spread the word?

You can get DOZENS of sample tweets and more details on the Tweet Storm right here:

 http://standuprally.com/tweetstorm

Please go online tomorrow and use your virtual voice to take a stand for our religious freedom.

And don't forget to remember the justices, the attorneys and the Green and Hahn families in your prayers today and tomorrow.

This is a pivotal moment in our nation's history, Patricia. Thanks for doing your part.