Pro-Life from the start: Cardinal O'Malley

It doesn't matter when you got on board, it just matters that you are on board.

Some people are joining the March for Life for the first time this year, while taking pot shots at those who have so far never participated - publicly, waving flags and banners.  One might ask the questioner, 'where were you before?' - but the March is not a competition, nor a time to be applauded for one's commitment or personal role or achievement, rather it is time to join together for the cause of LIFE!

That said, Cardinal O'Malley has been there since he was a young priest:

Where were you when the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Roe v. Wade?

 

I was a young priest working with Hispanic immigrants in Washington, D.C. Later on, after the ruling, I heard that Nellie Gray wanted to start the March for Life, and I contacted her and worked with her.

 

She was a real prophet: The Church was stunned, and people didn’t know how to react. But she knew immediately that we needed to mobilize and use the anniversary of that terrible decision as a way to rally people.

 

I was determined to get people from my Hispanic parish to the first march [in 1974] and gave impassioned sermons on the pro-life issue, reminding them that the anniversary was coming soon, and they promised to come.

 

The morning of the march, there was a line of rented buses at the church, but no people. In my naive youthfulness, I did not realize that "Si, padre" did not mean "Yes." The following week, I told the people how disappointed I was.

 

After Mass, they told me, "You know we are undocumented. And in our own countries, whenever there is a demonstration, the army comes out and arrests and shoots people. We are here to send money home to our families who live in Nicaragua and El Salvador, where civil wars are raging. We cannot afford to do this."

 

I told them that the army would not shoot at them and that the march would be a peaceful demonstration. That is what we do in a democracy where we need to witness to certain values. - NCRegister

 

The question today should not be, "Where were you then?  Where are you/they today?"  or "Will CHA have a banner in the March for Life?"  But rather, "Will you please come on board and support life?" 

 

Let's get over our sectarianism and divisiveness...

 

 

 

Japanese Minister to Elderly: "Hurry up and die"

Elderly Japanese woman passing shrine.

Sound familiar?

Kind of like the people who can't wait for the baby-boomers to die off, and those who applaud the biological solution in effecting change in the Church.

Nevertheless, the more recent "hurry up and die" PSA was made by a different biological-solution Aso, this one is from Japan.

Japan's new government is barely a month old, and already one of its most senior members has insulted tens of millions of voters by suggesting that the elderly are an unnecessary drain on the country's finances.

Taro Aso, the finance minister, said on Monday that the elderly should be allowed to "hurry up and die" to relieve pressure on the state to pay for their medical care.

"Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government," he said during a meeting of the national council on social security reforms. "The problem won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die." - Source

 

 Those who can't wait for other people to die off will simply have to wait their turn.