FACTS FOR LIFE
A Canadian Students Pro-Life
Paper
"Assisting and Encouraging Canadian Students in the Facts For Life"
Volume 2001, Issue
Two
Catholic
Education ???
A Challenge
to Cultivate Life
|
Education: Cultivation of a Culture
of Life
Witness for Life
For Class Discussion
Historical Outline
of the Devotion to Our Lady of Schools
What You and Your School
Can Do
Did You Know...
Prayer
EDUCATION:
CULTIVATION OF A CULTURE OF LIFE
(OPEN MIND OR EMPTY STOMACH?)
By: Fr. Jim Whalen
By Fr. Jim Whalen
The choice of cultivating an education for Catholic
youth that fosters a culture of life rather than a culture of death is something
that begins in the family and should be strengthened by both the school system
and through parish evangelization. The role of the family in education is
primary, fundamental and indispensable. The role of the school and parish
is to be supportive and challenging. In each of these environments, the essential
is a loving and patient atmosphere where spiritual health, the dignity and
value of the person, respect for life at all stages and the common good
are witnessed to, lived and promoted.
This challenge is especially critical today when youth are bombarded with
relativism in the media - television, radio, newspapers, computers and books,
when youth are surrounded by various organizations such as Planned Parenthood,
with its false propaganda and government support.
No one wants to be deceived. No one wants to waste time searching for
error. We are, in fact, drawn towards truth, for mankind, by disposition,
is inclined in that direction. We seek, by our nature, the truth, the good
and the beautiful. We search for freedom, justice and equality. The speculative
precedes the practical. This is where the Catholic Church is called to speak
out the truth, to live out the truth as a model for our youth, in commitment
to pro-life principles, as well as in pro-life prayer, pro-life action and
defence of the rights of the unborn. It is also essential to teach abstinence
and chastity, to help the handicapped and the chronically ill and to uphold
the sacred dignity of every human being. The parish encourages and invites
youth to be aware and active in prayer and commitment.
Pope John Paul II has reminded us repeatedly that we cannot side-step
truth and expect to find or implement justice. We cannot deny truth and
claim to be free. We cannot avoid truth and claim equality. Truth must go
hand-in-hand with justice, freedom and equality. Our reasoning, informed
and in union with faith, can lead us to greater and greater dimensions of
living. Extremes are not the answer. Truth is the object of both reason and
faith. Reason without faith denies us its natural goal of wisdom - how we
use the knowledge we have to its greatest potential. Faith without the structure
and discipline of reason results in subjective, limited experiences.
It is in the area of peer group communication that youth especially can
make a difference: in speaking out the truth on pro-life issues, in sharing
personal experiences of participation in pro-life chains, pro-life hikes,
pro-life conferences and pro-life teamwork. The energy, enthusiasm and example
of our youth can make a tremendous difference in our parishes and in our
society, and can do much to bring about a change from a culture of death
to a culture of life.
Pro-life education in our parishes must move from the speculative to the
practical level, with parish youth pro-life teams. Youth must step away from
a mentality that avoids making distinctions between good and evil, truth
and falsehood. There is a distinction between light and darkness which is
obscured by opting for relativism. Light and darkness are not the same, nor
are they equal. What youth has been fooled into believing and has mistaken
for open-mindedness is really closed-mindedness. Professor Donald de Marco
states it clearly: “To be open-minded without any prospect of grasping truth,
to be always in a state of intellectual suspense, defeats the purpose of being
open-minded and reveals a condition of empty-mindedness. In this sense an
“open mind” is no more fulfilling than an empty stomach. To be always open
is to be always empty”. (Thoughts for Timeless Catholics, St. Martin de Porres
Press, 2000, p.123)
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WITNESS FOR LIFE
INTERVIEWING A 19-YEAR OLD ABOUT
THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS
OF ABORTION ON HER LIFE
Pembroke, Ontario
September 2001
Questions and answers from a recent interview with a 19-year old girl
from the Pembroke, Ontario area by a Catholic volunteer of Priests for Life,
Canada.
Question:
How old were you when you first became pregnant?
Answer:
The first time, I was fourteen and I had the baby at fourteen. I got
pregnant again at fifteen and had an abortion at fifteen. The date was the
4th of September, 1997. I was nine and a half weeks along. The third pregnancy
I was nineteen. I had my second abortion at nineteen. I was 8-9 weeks along.
I aborted my baby on 11th January, 2001. You always remember the date of
the abortion, and the dates the baby was supposed to be born.
Question:
What was going through your mind when you decided to have the abortions?
Answer:
You didn’t have any other choice. I was pregnant and I didn’t think. Adoption
was too hard a choice. I couldn’t carry the baby and then give it up.
It was a selfish decision because I didn’t want another baby. I was afraid
of what my Mom would say because she is pro-life. I was afraid she would
disown me.
Question:
How did you get to the abortion clinic and who helped you?
Answer:
I made the decision myself, but a woman who was helping me with counselling
took me down when I got pregnant for an abortion. She told me that along
with adoption there was also abortion – to keep my options open. I couldn’t
abort. I decided to have my son, which I did.
The second time I got pregnant I had no money and no way to get there,
so I called the same woman back and she got me a bus ticket and the number
to seek the abortion. I went with a friend to an abortion clinic and had
the abortion. The third time I got pregnant I arranged it myself. I had my
boyfriend drive me there and I made the arrangement alone.
Question:
Was your mother informed? What was her reaction to this? Did you understand
everything clearly about the abortion procedure?
Answer:
No. The physical part, no. They don’t tell you exactly what is going on.
That was the way it was with both abortions. They give you a pill and it
is supposed to relax you. You start to feel funny, they tell you that they
are just going to take out tissue. You see a counsellor, well they say it
is a counsellor. They ask you why you want to have an abortion. You tell them,
they say okay. Then they ask you to change, sit in a chair. They send you
for an ultra sound. It is like an assembly line, like pick a number. All
the girls are sitting there, like pick a number. They give you cookies and
a drink after you wake up. Oh, and a heating pad for my stomach. When you
wake up all these women are all lined up in beds waiting to go home.
I guess, Mom was hurt at the time. She is against abortion. She was, well,
I guess disappointed. I’m sure this has affected my mother.
Question:
Did you feel pressured?
Answer:
A bit of pressure, but from myself, because the father was in jail, and
talking to people it was just a procedure. The baby was just like the ball
at the end of the pen, a speck – they told me that, and I already had a
baby. What was I going to do?
Question:
How did the doctors and nurses treat you?
Answer:
Respectful on the nurses part, because they make you believe that you
aren’t doing anything out of the ordinary. They hold your hand, they become
your mother figure. But the medication, the pills they give you, I was nervous
even with the pills. The Doctor doesn’t even talk to you. No eye contact.
The nurses hold your hand. I was scared but knew it would be over in five
minutes. The nurses remind you of that.
Question:
How did you feel on the drive home?
Answer:
Relief, but it was only temporary. It’s over, but you realize it’s only
just begun. I just wanted to leave the abortion at the clinic. I turned
to drugs and alcohol. I smoked marijuana everyday for two years. I drank
heavy to escape. After the second abortion it really hit me – what I had
done, not once, but twice. My drinking really increased.
Question:
Do you believe abortion has effected your life? How?
Answer:
Definitely! It took two of my children. There isn’t a day that goes by
that I don’t think about it. You always keep track.
Question:
Do you think parents should be informed in such a situation?
Answer:
Definitely! People are so blind to the facts, because there are some parents
that will tell their child to do it. If they are still living with their
parents, the parents have a right to know.
Question:
What would you like to see happen in your community to help someone
like you in a crisis pregnancy?
Answer:
If I knew someone that I could talk to. I didn’t know about pro-life support
in Pembroke. There are no advertisements.
Question:
What would you say to people to get them to realize that abortion is the
wrong CHOICE?
Answer:
YOU’RE KILLING PEOPLE, not to mention what you are doing to yourself.
Okay, the baby is gone, but you deal with it for the rest of your life.
Girls think that because they haven’t had an abortion, well, if I have to
have one, it’s okay.
Abortion is not a birth control that you can use over and over again.
I would say DON’T DO IT! THINK ABOUT IT! I would tell them I had two abortions
and it’s a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE thing. It’s something you never want to experience.
It haunts you every day.
Question:
Do you think schools should educate young people against abortion?
Answer:
Catholic schools do. But they only teach you that it is a sin. They don’t
educate you about what it will do to you. Get someone from a pro-life group
to come and talk about it, instead of the teachers; someone who is pro-life,
or someone that has had my experience, someone that is educated in this way.
Question:
Have you developed any symptoms or habits which you feel have been caused
as a result of abortion?
Answer:
Drugs, drinking, nightmares, always looking for and calling my baby. I
dreamt last night that the father kidnapped my baby. It’s returned
to me by my aunt, and I look at my baby and it looks like my first son, and
I’m like, oh he looks so much like my other son. This baby was definitely
a boy [she tells me the name of her aborted son, then tells me the name of
her aborted daughter]. Depression, mood swings and you think you are crazy,
happy one minute, and crying the next, and I don’t know what’s going on.
I’m sad and mad, wanting to sleep eighteen hours a day. Bursts of anger,
frustrated at the littlest things. I haven’t forgiven myself. I still don’t
think God has forgiven me. I just keep hoping, if I can help people, it will
help me. And if one person doesn’t go through with it I’ve helped.
Question:
Is there anything else you want to say about abortion overall?
Answer:
IT’S SICK, ABSOLUTELY SICK. Society is warped into thinking and believing
that you can’t walk down the street and shoot somebody, but you can scrape
babies out of our bellies.
Question:
Is there anything else you what to say?
Answer:
Anniversaries are a hard thing. I know the exact date of my abortions,
and the exact birthday. It’s ALWAYS in my head.
Question:
How do you think this all began?
Answer:
You’re looking for the abandoned father you felt you never had. I guess
you look for that father figure. I have dated men ten years older than myself.
I was also molested at a young age. I lost my virginity by twelve years of
age, but with my consent. Molestation made me very promiscuous, because after
sex it felt like someone was showing me love, and it was the way to keep
a man.
Question:
What did you think about ‘Life Chain’* around the time of your abortions?
Answer:
I thought they should mind their own business, like to each their own.
It’s my decision.
Question:
What do you think of ‘Life Chain’* now?
Answer:
I think more power to them, it’s awareness. I’d help them with anything.
People need awareness, for the baby’s sake, and for the way the mothers are
left to feel, because even if you have an abortion you are still a mother
grieving for your children, even if it takes ten years, or you don’t even
know you are grieving. I still party away because I’m grieving.
Question:
What would you do to have your babies today?
Answer:
What would I do? What any mother would do. I’D DO ANYTHING. I’d die for
my children.
-------------------------------------------------------------
* ‘Life Chain’ is a peaceful and silent witness held annually in
many communities across Canada and the United States.
We thank Sharon McNaughton of Pembroke, Ontario, for sharing with us this
interview with an anonymous nineteen year-old girl (September, 2001).
This article has been presented with permission of the author. ©This
article is not to be reproduced without permission of the author.
FOR CLASS DISCUSSION
Situation #1:
Susan, a grade ten student is pregnant. Her boyfriend wants nothing
to do with her unless she has an abortion.
FOR CLASS DISCUSSION: Are your school and the students in your
school ready to provide Susan with the support she needs to prevent her from
having an abortion?
—————————
Situation #2:
Joe’s girlfriend, Mary, is pregnant. They are both in grade 11. Mary
wants to have an abortion but Joe wants her to have the baby.
FOR CLASS DISCUSSION: What rights does Joe have as father of
the child? Does your school have any services available to help Mary and
Joe? Does your community have any programs available to help Mary and Joe?
ASK YOUR PARISH
PRIEST,
SCHOOL PASTORAL ANIMATOR
OR
CHAPLAIN TO SIT IN
ON YOUR CLASS DISCUSSIONS. |
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Historical Outline of the
Devotion to
Our Lady of Schools
By: Denise Le May
The devotion to Our Lady of Schools originated in France. A Burgundian
priest (from the province of Bourgogne), Abbé A. Guyot, in the parish
of Laroche, of L’Yonne, near Troyes (homeland of Blessed Marguerite Bourgeoys)
founded this devotion with the blessing of the then-reigning pope, His Holiness
Leo XIII.
This took place in 1894, and the first temporary sanctuary was located
in the church of Our Lady of Victory in Paris. Later on, Abbé Guyot
erected near his parochial church, a chapel that was showered with spiritual
favours.
This religious organization aimed at honouring Our Lady under this gracious
title in order to call on her protection over school children, to have them
keep the faith of their childhood, and to work to save society through the
prayers of the young.
Trouble arose in 1903 when the Christian schools were abolished by the
French government. The founder of the devotion died broken-hearted as he
watched the collapse of a work he had so devoutly established.
The nuns of the Congregation of Our Lady in Montreal, the daughters of
Blessed Marguerite Bourgeoys - the renowned lady from Troyes - spread this
devotion of “Our Lady of Schools” to French Canada. In 1903, a banner was
blessed in their teachers’ training college. Two years later, His Holiness
Pope Pius X personally signed a benediction as an approval of Our Lady’s
picture.
On July 12, 1911, during an audience granted to his Excellency Msgr. Bruchesi,
archbishop of Montreal, the Pope gave his permission to have the chapel of
the Congregation’s Teachers College named after Our Lady of Schools.
The Holy See granted a solemn feast day in honour of Our Lady of Schools,
to be observed at the convent of the Daughters of Blessed Marguerite Bourgeoys.
Soon, with the spreading devotion, Msgr. Charbonneau, archbishop of Montreal,
took it upon himself to ask the Holy See to proclaim the feast of Our Lady
of Schools in all the schools in the province of Quebec. Pope Pius XII himself
proclaimed Our Lady of Schools patron saint of the students, the teachers
and all those involved in the development of education in Canada.
On August 27, 1958, the Sanctuary’s banner was taken on a pilgrimage to
Europe, starting in Lourdes, France. After being greeted in Vatican City
and in various churches and teaching institutions, the banner came back home
on October 27, 1961, honoured with twelve decorations.
In 1961, a weekly Canadian journal, La Patrie du Dimanche, stated: “Our
Lady of Schools sanctuary has become a place of pilgrimage for the youth
of Canada and the United States as well as Europe”.
Our Lady of Schools is the one who will instill in the young - tomorrow’s
productive citizens - righteous ideas, respect for the given word, genuine
taste for work, honesty, piety, love of others and practice of virtues -
all things which will rebuild our decadent world.
May Heaven permit that Our Lady of Schools extend her maternal kingdom
over all places where the education of the young takes place (i.e.: the coming
World Youth Day 2002, Toronto).
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WHAT YOU AND YOUR
SCHOOL CAN DO….
- Set up a pro-life education week in your school.
- Encourage classroom posters, essays, religion
class discussion, etc. on how to help those experiencing a crisis pregnancy.
- Start a ‘Pregnant Mother’ support group
in your school (consisting of teachers and students) to assist students and
young women in your community who are pregnant.
- Have a pro-life ‘Life Chain’ at your school
once a month.
- Check with your community pro-life group
or with Priests for Life, Canada for details
on how to run a ‘Life Chain’.
|
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THERE’S AN EASY WAY
TO START A STUDENTS’
PRO-LIFE GROUP
IN YOUR SCHOOL…
JUST DO IT!
-----------------------------------------------
WITH TRUE
CONTRITION, JESUS
UNDERSTANDS, AND
JESUS FORGIVES.
DID YOU KNOW….
- Thousands of Canadian are waiting to adopt children. Adoption
is an excellent alternative to abortion.
- At judgement, God will look at your pro-life efforts and say,
“Did you try?” rather than “Did you succeed?”
- There has not been a single organization of parents of mentally
retarded children that has ever endorsed abortion.
- Unwanted pregnancies do not mean unwanted children.
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In many high schools, students are permitted to assist
in opening announcements and prayers. We encourage you to say the following
prayer at least once a week in your school.
Dear Lord,
We know that You would not let anyone down. We also
know that You would not give anyone a burden they could not handle.
Give our school, its teachers, and its students the
grace and courage needed to help those who need to deal with an unplanned
pregnancy.
Amen.
|
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The Facts for Life
a publication by
Priests for Life, Canada
P.O. Box 31, Pembroke, Ontario, K8A 6X1
Tel:(613) 732-3950 Fax: (613) 732-9196
E-mail: priests@priest.com
Home Page: http://www.webhart.net/vandee/priests.shtml
NATIONAL DIRECTOR
Rev. Fr. James Whalen
Box 99, Cumberland, Ontario, K4C 1E5
Tel/fax (613) 833-3264
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