“Then You Have Been Warned!”

Vampires Transform And Corrupt Lives To Give Themselves Eternal Life.

Christ Died For Us To Give Us Eternal Life.

Father Thomas Euteneuer/-With the issuing of the third movie in the Twilight series I have to speak out about our culture’s twisted fascination with vampires. I don’t hesitate to tell people that I am totally disgusted with the new fad sweeping over our youth culture these days. It is not just kids that are taken up with the wiles of the dark world either: many moms of teens are swooning for them too. I think that these seductive creatures are simply the spawn of the Harry Potter culture that has for over a decade now been indoctrinating kids to think that the occult world is normal and that all this evil messaging is harmless when dressed up as entertainment. That’s vampire logic – and just what the devil wants us to think.

Gone are the days of Bella Lugosi’s Dracula (1931) where good was good and evil was evil. A crucifix would drive Dracula away and then he had to go into his infernal coffin when the first streaks of dawn appeared. He was in every way presented as a creature of evil, dark of heart and dread to encounter. He drank human blood too, a feature that was supposed to strike terror in every person who valued his life’s essence. The image of a blood-sucking creature who lives in slime and darkness and will pounce on you to drain out your very essence should terrorize every decent person. This is because vampires used to be images of demons. That’s what demons are all about: the vanquishing of all human decency and life. They represent the spiritual vortexes of the demon world that drag down to the depths of hell all who fall prey to their wiles.

But, my, how vampires have come up in the world these days.
Nowadays vampires are divided into good and bad – no longer intrinsically evil. The good ones rescuevulnerable women instead of biting them and, allegedly, drink only animal blood (well, we haven’t seen the last Twilight movie yet…). And crucifixes? Don’t think you’ll see any of those driving away bad guys in these movies. The heroes are the “good” vampires, not the Church or religious faith in Christ.

These super-star vampires also walk around in sunlight and, as a matter of fact, their skin just happens to glisten like diamonds when exposed to direct sunlight. Isn’t that wonderful? The glam vamps are gentlemen, chaste and well-intentioned, yet they are always hovering around the edge of “falling” and in seductive situations which cause young people to think that they are capable, like their hero vampire, Edward Cullen, of going just so far and pulling back, out of self-control. That’s teaching them to play with fire, not a real chastity message for kids.

The worst part of this fascination with vampires from a faith point of view, however, is its blasphemy of the Eucharist. “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you,” said our Blessed Lord in Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. He is the One who offers His flesh and blood for the life of the world. The vampires eat (bite) the flesh and drink the blood of victims rather than give their own to redeem others. Their bites corrupt and transform their victims into vampires like themselves. They have no life in them. They are the “living dead” by their own estimate.

How sad that this generation has been so taken in by those who represent the very antithesis of the core reality of our Faith – the Eucharist. Vampire logic is anti-Eucharistic logic, and it’s very dangerous for our kids. In their obsessive fascination with such darkness, kids (and adults) turn their backs on the One who actually died for them.

To those who say, “Oh, Father, it’s only harmless entertainment,” I say simply: You’ve been warned.

That Christ Gave to His Catholic Church.

Father Thomas Euteneuer-One of the three commands that Jesus gave to the disciples was to “drive out demons” (Mk 16:17) in His Name. “Heal the sick” and “preach the good news” (Lk 10:9) are regular ministries of the Church, but the ministry of exorcising demons has received less attention. It is my view that the next decade will force the Church-and priests in particular-to embrace this ministry of casting out demons with professionalism and zeal as we will have to deal with the nuclear fallout of the pervasive and increasing occultism in our society. In order to do that, however, the Church needs to give people a proper understanding of spiritual warfare against the devil and his minions.

Unfortunately, many false and illusory images of fighting the Evil One define people’s thinking about exorcism and demonic possession. The only correct view of the power of evil comes from faith, not the culture. Popular movies like The Exorcist (1973) and The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), while containing some truthful elements, create the picture that even when the Church “wins” an exorcism battle, the Church is somehow damaged and the devil gets his hour of glory. Hollywood would have us believe that Christ’s Church cowers before the power of the devil-nothing could be further from the truth!

I am also concerned about real abuses that happen in spiritual warfare when people are trying to deal with evil without the protection of the Church. They may have a legitimate desire to be free from demonic forces but they can unwittingly get caught up in the very evil they are trying to quell. Some recent reports of “exorcisms” or allegations of possession are listed below but only for the purposes of indicating what happens when exorcisms are attempted without the shield of the spiritual authority that Christ gave to His Church. These have all occurred within the past couple of years and are not exorcisms-they are abuses-but it is easy to see how the devil might use these distortions to further his purpose of leading people away from authentic faith:

• In 2007 there was a disturbed man in Phoenix, Arizona trying to violently “exorcise” his three-year-old granddaughter while the girl’s unclad mother participated in the bizarre and bloody ritual. The girl was injured and traumatized and the perpetrators went to jail;
• A 58-year-old central Iowa man set his couch on fire and burned down his house, according to him, as a way to get rid of demons in the home.
• In New Zealand, a 22-year-old woman was killed by drowning in a native Maori “makutu-lifting” ritual after having her eyes gouged out because, it was said, that the devil could be seen in her eyes. Forty family members watched the killing and then attempted to do the same to her 14-year old niece.
• A 70-year-old Tunisian grandmother was killed in a mental hospital in France by her daughter and a friend who suffocated her with a plastic bag trying to “trap the devil” inside of her.
• A 44-year-old Haitian man in Florida thought his girlfriend was possessed and hit her in the head with an iron in order to “release the demons that were inside her.” When his mother tried to fend off the attack, he bit off her fingertip and started to actually pull out his own teeth. As he fought with police he was chanting “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” and praying in Creole.
• A 33-year-old Washington DC woman killed her four teenage and pre-adolescent daughters with blunt force trauma, strangulation and stabbing claiming that all four of them were possessed. She stored their bodies for four months in her house until they were discovered by police in a badly decomposed state.
• The videos of “exorcisms” that are available on the Internet are utterly dehumanizing and abominable, but the “entertainment” value of such postings, in the modern mind, is immense for a faithless age.

Father Euteneuer-I am happy to announce the publication of my long-awaited book on exorcism entitled Exorcism and the Church Militant! It has been three years in the writing, but by the grace of God, it is finished, and today, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, I am able to announce it to my own Spirit and Life friends. The “official” launch of it will be on Monday, but you have a unique opportunity to get an advanced copy. Check out our website which is appropriately titled, www.exorcismbook.com.

Here are a couple highlights of the book to entice you:

• Pre-eminent Catholic preacher, Fr. John Corapi, wrote the Foreword to the book
• An Introduction explaining my view of the Church Militant
• A total of 7 Chapters with 178 Questions and 9 Appendices including the full ancient exorcism ritual of the Catholic Church in three parts

• An extended Table of Contents in the front for easy review of the material
• A detailed Index at the back for easy reference of terms and research
• Six chapters contain an Afterword which explains the subject matter from the actual ministry experience of the author
• The seventh chapter contains a list of “Spiritual Resources for Busy People” to help priests and parents to learn more about the subjects addressed in the book and other related matters
• An extended Bibliography including relevant Church documents.

My main purpose in writing the book is to get more of my brother priests involved in the work of forming the Church Militant, but it can be easily read by anyone. Your own favorite priest may appreciate a copy! I also intend the book as an antidote to the bizarre understanding of exorcism that most people have from the movie industry. Many of the exorcism movies contain a grain of truth about the Church’s warfare against the Evil One, but only the Catholic Church truly understands spiritual warfare in all its fullest-and only the Church Militant has all the weapons to fight it!

Note also that I am publishing a companion edition to the exorcism book called simply Demonic Abortion. It is an extended commentary on the satanic nature of the abortion industry and culture of death. Originally a chapter in the larger work, I took it out and made it into its own shorter book because the subject needs much more attention, and I hope that I have done justice to it in this book. Demonic Abortion will be available for shipping on July 7th, but you will receive a $4.95 discount if you order it now with Exorcism and the Church Militant, and we will send it to you with no additional shipping charge.

One final note about these books: All proceeds will directly benefit the Human Life International global pro-life network which spans 100 countries of the world, and your generosity is greatly appreciated!

May the Lord bless your faith as you read these books, and may St. Michael and his angels protect you and your family in the spiritual battle which we have to sustain against the forces of hell!

Don’t forget to order the book at www.exorcismbook.com!

It Is Blood Sacrifice To The Demon Moloch!

Father Thomas Euteneuer-Those who are uncomfortable with the thought and talk of demons have a decision to make: Remain in the dark and ignore a basic teaching of the Church regarding spiritual warfare or open your eyes and join the rest of us in the fight against the demons who are working evil in our midst. One such wicked work is the dirty business of abortion. No human activity glorifies Satan and his minions more than abortion.

Abortion is fundamentally a business — a business based on a perverse concept of human rights. Abortion is a commodity cleverly marketed to women under the ideological rubric of “free choice” that draws in huge profits from the deaths of innocents. The abortion industry is a profit-driven, raw killing machine. The enormous amount of cash it generates is the “lifeblood” that perpetuates its existence.

The spiritual dimension of this grisly business, however, is its systematizing of ritual blood sacrifice to the god of child murder who, in the Old Testament, is called Moloch. This demon of child sacrifice appears in many forms and cultures throughout history — Phoenician, Carthaginian, Canaanite, Celtic, Indian, Aztec, and others — but it is always the same bloodthirsty beast that demands the killing of children as a form of worship. This demon seeks public endorsement and ever new expressions of killing to increase its “worship.” In some of the ancient forms of these evil practices, huge drums were beaten beside the places of sacrifice as the rituals proceeded. These drums were used to drown out the screams of the victims who were being sacrificed on the altars.

The practice of child sacrifice was universally condemned as an abomination by the prophets of the Old Testament. Ezekiel said to the people of Israel: “The sons and daughters you had borne me you took and offered as sacrifices to be devoured by them [false gods]! Was it not enough for you to play the harlot? You slaughtered and immolated my children to them, making them pass through fire” (16:20-21). Jeremiah was equally unequivocal in his opposition to this evil: “They have built high places to Baal [Moloch] to immolate their sons in fire as holocausts…such a thing as I never commanded nor spoke of…. Therefore, the days will come when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but rather, the valley of Slaughter” (19:5-6). It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word for “valley” is ge, and so the name “Valley of Hinnom” is ge-hinnom, whence we derive the word “Gehenna.”

By Making The Eucharist The Source And Summit Of Our Lives!

Father Thomas Euteneuer-As the Church departs the glorious season of Easter and returns to Ordinary Time, we take a moment to pause and remind ourselves how we may grow in holiness during the “normal” course of our spiritual lives. The liturgical seasons of the Church immerse us in the greatest mysteries of our faith, but as necessary as they are for our souls, true spiritual growth doesn’t happen in just a season. It happens in an organic process, over long periods of time and with diligent effort. For advancement along that arduous pathway of holiness, then, we need to be sustained and encouraged: and that is the role of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Let us never forget what the Church teaches about the Eucharist. Our Catechism tells us that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of our faith (n. 1324). That is another way of saying that it is the very reason why the Church and each individual Christian believer has the gift of faith at all. Accordingly, even those separated Christians who do not believe in the Eucharist have faith in Jesus Christ because of the Eucharist! As the “summit” of our faith, it is the culmination of all goodness, the treasure of God’s Life and the very thing that holds the Church and all of reality in existence. What a marvelous source of grace, healing, virtue and union with God and man is this Most Blessed Sacrament!

In this Sacrament we find the entire Christ: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. His Body and Blood, given to Him by the Virgin Mary, we are now able to consume sacramentally for the transformation of our souls. He communicates and even squanders His Soul and Divinity upon us like a holy Prodigal Son who cannot cease spending Himself for those He loves. How is it that every Christian is not flocking to Mass every single day to be nurtured by the Lord’s very Life?

We must never forget either that the Eucharistic is a sacrifice, not just a meal. To reduce the Eucharist to a fraternal sharing only is to miss the essence of Jesus’ redeeming act of love, which was the perfect act of self-giving and dying to self on Calvary that He asks each of us to imitate. As such, this Sacrament is the one font of all consolation for all the myriad sacrifices of our lives, those willed directly and those suffered. Every pain and sorrow in heaven and on earth can be offered to the Sacrificial Victim on the altar and will be met with the deepest of compassion and understanding. We must just stay in His divine Presence long enough to hear His tender words that address our particular sorrows: “Be not afraid, my dearest friend, I have trod this path before you. You are not alone!” What strength that consolation gives us for the journey and difficulties of life!

As the absolute epicenter of our spiritual lives, rivers of grace flow inexhaustibly from the Eucharist. One font of grace is the obligation to “keep holy the Sabbath” which requires us to have weekly contact with God in the Eucharist. Many parishes nowadays even have Eucharistic Adoration chapels that allow us to pray before the Blessed Sacrament directly and with greater frequency. Thanks be to God! We may also see the Eucharist as a repository for all our intercessory intentions on behalf of others by presenting them to Christ any time we have contact with the Eucharist. How wonderful that the Eucharistic Lord allows every one of us to see Him face to face, something that was only allowed to Moses in the Old Testament!

In Ordinary Time, let us renew our love for the greatest gift ever poured out upon mankind, the gift of God’s very essence that has no equal in this world. Given faith and time, this Most Blessed Sacrament transforms us, strengthens our virtue, detaches us from sin, purifies our imperfections, inflames our charity and perfects our souls. He Himself calls and invites us to center our lives once again on the Eucharist. Who could possibly turn down such a gracious invitation from the Eucharistic King of Heaven?

By Those Who Are Carrying Out the Work of Demons!

Father Thomas Euteneuer-Anyone who has watched national politics closely in the past year and a half has seen a panoply of aggressive political moves that are reported about in hostile terms. There are government “takeovers” of huge industries, public officials “moving against” businesses and individuals, court decisions “striking down” statutes and executive initiatives “attacking” fundamentally sane institutions and plans. Even in times of war, I don’t think we have ever had such violent social and political maneuvering in our public life. The worst aspect of it is that all the rapaciousness is directed inward. If we were laying waste the enemies of the innocent citizens of our society in the same way we are consuming our own healthy institutions, how different our public life would be! The current hostile initiatives are nothing of the sort, however. They are essentially demonic takeovers of sacred institutions by the pagans who hold the reins of power.

Let me be clear: I am not saying that our public officials are demons. I am saying that they are acting like demons. Demons lie, cheat and steal – obsessively. It is their nature. Once the demons rejected God, they fell into a dark world devoid of love and dominated by the ethic of the survival of the fittest where “might is right”. The human beings that serve them act in much the same way when they implement their agendas and policies. Whenever they are in control of institutions or governments, they lie, cheat and steal. In their minds, they are right because they have the might – and to the victors go the spoils.

But what did we expect, really? Our nation elected unabashedly pagan representatives who are possessed of a tapestry of unclean ideologies who have an almost religious fervor in advancing their control over greater sectors of our common life and economy. The sad part is that these people who govern us are simply being true to their convictions: before the election, they were not abashed in telling us how radical they are, and now we are reaping the fruits of the demonic agenda of the death and destruction that they have brought with them.

But Wait!  There Is Hope!

I would despair of this situation had I not met so many decent and God-fearing Americans who do not agree with the mainstreaming of paganism into our culture. I have met the virtuous side of America, and it is to these that I write these words of encouragement: Be strong! We must be true to the core Christian principles that made this nation great! Be not afraid of the severe conflicts with the pagan world that we will have to endure in the very near future. We are not alone in this battle. There are many more moral and decent Americans than we realize. It’s just that the good ones are busy about raising families and keeping the basic fabric of our society intact. They are not the hedonists and manipulators that strive obsessively to control public discourse and institutions. They are there in the background and form the true foundation of our society.
In time, the proper spiritual leadership will emerge which will bind us together and form us into a fighting force called the Church Militant – the only spiritual force that can truly resist the hostile spiritual takeover of our nation. Let us not forget, however, that we must get down on our knees and beg, plead, and implore God to restore our once-great nation to its grandeur. We will not see the dawn of a renewed nation without prayer and sacrifice. The momentum of righteousness, consisting of all the humble goodness taking place at the grass-roots level of the Church and society, will eventually build, and we will take back our nation – not only at the ballot box but above all in the hearts and minds of all those who love God and are doing their best to love their neighbor. We will then be able to cast out the unclean spirits that are destroying everything that we hold sacred, and society will once again be governed by righteous men. For such an end we place our deepest hope in Christ, our true and only Savior!

Because Easter Sunday

Always Follows Good Friday

Fr. Tom Euteneuer-Even a casual observer of American society can tell that there is a certain sinister chaos spreading throughout every aspect of public life these days. Naturally, as it filters through society it finds its way into our homes, families and personal lives as well. The reports of monumental breakups and takeovers, meltdowns, dysfunctions, cutbacks, disasters, protests, catastrophic events, scandals, and just plain moral chaos are, shall we say, legion, and it does not look like there will be any let up in the dismantling of our formerly decent society any time soon. Public officials and the movers-and-shakers of social communications long ago divorced American culture from authentic Christian values, and the result is that modern America has found itself first wandering then running down a very slippery slope to moral and social anarchy. The darkness has settled upon us.

This idea came home to me this week when I attended the 5th Anniversary Mass of Terri Schindler Schiavo at Ave Maria University in FL. How well I remember the horrible killing scene in Pinellas Park, FL in 2005 when the combined efforts of pro-lifers and some political allies were not able to stop the forward motion of such raw evil. From the Florida circuit courts all the way up to the US Supreme Court, the corrupt judiciaries refused to intervene and even ordered her killing, with impunity. The US Congress was almost laughably powerless to help. The utter uselessness of the bishop and clergy in the diocese where Terri was murdered was a microcosm of the Church Impotent rather than the Church Militant. The thousands of calls that the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation now gets in their attempt to stop other similar killings are an indication that this same darkness is now penetrating our society at an alarming level.

Every aspect of American society is touched by this chaos: the pervasive and unstoppable corruption in government, the major media, Hollywood, academia, healthcare, and even within our own churches! All of this corruption is multiplying the shadows over our society and penetrating into every aspect of personal and family life as we speak.

What I find most alarming, as an exorcist, is the spread of truly occult phenomena in our youth culture. It used to be that vampires had to go back into their coffins with the first streaks of dawn. Now handsome young vampires are sullying the covers of every gossip magazine and tantalizing prime time audiences with their evil – and teenage girls are just swooning for them…. Don’t be fooled: the vampire culture is the spawn of the Harry Potter culture that has washed over our youth for a decade and still seduces parents into thinking it is all just “harmless entertainment.” Kids dressing up as sorcerers, blogging about vampires, dabbling in Wicca – it’s just plain seductive and evil. Our Baptismal Promises demand that we “reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises,” and that includes demons, witches and vampires!

If I were anything other than a Christian, I would probably despair of the status of the culture all around us. Yes, there are movements fighting to take the culture and politics back, but most of these are just about political power and, if they have an effect at all, they will just install another version of corruption in place of the political devils they cast out.

The reason I don’t despair in the face of all this darkness, though, is because I remember that once-upon-a-time Evil had its Hour. I am not talking about sixty-minutes of willowy darkness. I am talking about the worst crime ever committed in history, the blackest deed ever known to man: the killing of the Son of God on Calvary. The corrupt politicians, clergy and laity of the day were all implicated in the crime. Worst of all, the devil was sitting back gloating at his masterpiece of evil.

But much to the devil’s surprise, evil did not win the Day…because at that very moment of deepest darkness, the Son of God did something utterly unforeseen and caught the whole wicked world unaware: He shattered the darkness and rose from the dead! Who would have imagined!

Ever after, those who persevere through Good Friday looking toward the joy of Easter Sunday find themselves immersed in the same eternal mystery of Light. Christ has pierced the darkness and given us Hope! We can sing the great “Te Deum” hymn with the greatest fervor now in every dark hour of our lives: “In you Lord is our hope — and we shall never hope in vain!”

Do Not Waste the Graces!

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday – hard to believe that Lent is here already! Join with me, friends, in making a firm intention not to waste the phenomenally-rich season of grace that is Lent. How will we derive maximum benefit out of this season of preparation? Let me count the ways:

First, begin with the end in mind; that is, remember for what it is that we prepare! The historical events of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our blessed Lord Jesus were anticipated by the People of Israel wandering forty years in the desert and by Jesus’ own forty days of prayer and fasting in the desert. We can surely spend a little time in a “desert” of self-renunciation, fasting and prayer to prepare our souls to enter into the Paschal Mystery, the greatest of all gifts that touch our lives. Acts of self-abnegation are not ends in themselves; they are means to the end of becoming more pure in our relationship with God and man.

Second, stay simple; that is, don’t load yourself down with too many spiritual exercises or intentions that may discourage you if you run too fast out into the desert. While I am all for heroism in religious practices, I am also realistic about the power of the world, the flesh and the devil to undermine our best efforts. This is why the Church gives us very minimal and, quite frankly, rather easy “penitential” practices in Lent: required fasting is only on two days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday; guaranteed, these won’t kill anyone!), abstinence from meat is only on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent (a modest inconvenience for any active person) and our “Easter duty” (Communion at Eastertime and sacramental confession as needed before that). Despite its minimal rigor, though, the Church makes sure that the penitential dimension of this season remains intact. Each person can invest himself in penitential practices beyond this, but make sure you are diligent about the very basics that the Church requires, for obedience is the first of the virtues in religion.

Finally, go for high spiritual impact. That is, identify and practice faithfully just one really magnificent goal for your personal conversion this Lent. I say conversion and not “personal improvement” lest anyone interpret the call to spiritual discipline as a chance to lose weight or quit smoking! What Lent demands of us is to look into our vicious, slothful and petty nature and challenge it with the full prophetic force of the Gospel. A well-intentioned person who stacks up a dozen goals for personal change but accomplishes few or none of them is not a better person at the end of Lent. He is more scattered, less disciplined and under a the illusion of false piety thinking that he is doing something holy by multiplying activities without transforming his heart. In contrast, the one who targets his habit of petty backbiting with a shock-and-awe campaign of generosity toward those he finds disagreeable is the one who receives a blessing from the Lord because he acts like John the Baptist who Jesus said “took the Kingdom by storm.” Any mature person will know that a single, firm and effective intention to convert one’s heart is worth more than a thousand acts of superficial piety.

Focus on the goal, remain simple and obedient, go for true conversion of heart – those who resolve to walk through Lent with these intentions will reap the benefit of conformity to Christ when we finally arrive at the High Holy Days of our blessed Faith.

Blessings for the journey and be assured of my prayers!

Sincerely,

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International

And The Dance

With The Devil!

Honestly, the last place I ever imagined seeing my face was on the big screen at the Sundance Film Festival. I actually appeared in a documentary film last week called “12th and Delaware” which attempted to show the struggle between life and death in the real-life scenarios of abortion-minded women. The name of the film derives from the street names on an ordinary corner in Ft. Pierce, FL where extraordinary things happen every day. On one side of the street is a death camp (i.e., an abortion mill) and on the other side is a center of life, the Pregnancy Care Center (PCC), which I helped found in 1999. I still serve on the Board of the PCC, and my greatest privilege is listening to the first-hand accounts of the miracles that happen there everyday. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of babies have been spared from a violent death at that abortion mill – and their mothers spared the agony of suffering from an abortion because of the work of Pregnancy Care Center.

The film did not win any Sundance honors or Academy nominations, but then again, the greenie avatars that frequent these rarified environments were not likely to be thrilled with a subject that most of them just want to go away. After all, abortion is an ugly business and even the most avid abortionists and left-wing radicals don’t want to draw too much attention to it.

We agreed to do the documentary for the purposes of telling the story of the heroic work of crisis pregnancy centers all over the world. As in all dealings with those who favor abortion, however, a cloud of deceit blanketed the film project right from the very beginning even though the directors came dressed as “objective” reporters. They promised us that the film was to center solely on the ministry and good work of the Pregnancy Care Center, but they began secretly filming at the abortuary across the street in order to get a “balanced” perspective, and of course they did not tell us of it until the movie actually premiered. Since the abortion center and its workers knew from the beginning that the PCC was being filmed, their responses, attitudes and actions were of course well-constructed to present a Hollywood-type view of abortionists as compassionate helpers of women. In one scene, for example, the abortion clinic owner, whose name is – appropriately – Candace Dye, hastily decides on camera to give one of her clients a $50.00 discount on her abortion. Can you imagine an abortionist giving away her profits? Now that is genuine acting.

Despite the mendacity of the pro-abortion media, the story of the heroism of the women who work in pregnancy care centers needed to be told. The extraordinary commitment of the women in the crisis pregnancy ministry undoubtedly makes them the unsung heroes of the pro-life movement. Best of all, the film highlights the uniquely creative and positive response of the movement that loves both the woman and the baby but does not make a single cent helping them. No one in the abortion business can say that – something else curiously left out of the film!

Anne Lotierzo, the director of the Pregnancy Care Center was the protagonist of the story and could not have given a better example of the profound zeal for the welfare of the abortion-minded women and their babies that is typical of pregnancy center directors. She told me once about a young woman who came into the PCC in error, thinking it was the abortion clinic where she had an appointment to abort that very morning. When Anne told her it was not, she began to sob. Through her tears she looked up and cried,

“I was up all night talking to God. I haven’t lived a good life, I have ignored Him but I knew He would listen. I said, ‘God, give me a sign, just give me just one sign that you want this baby!’ This is it, this is the sign.”

The young woman went on to make a complete change of life, returned home to another state into the loving embrace of her parents who were thrilled with their new grandson.

By the way, I forgot to tell you about my scenes in the film. The filmmakers came to a pro-life Mass and talk I did in IL last year and filmed me giving my main stump speech about the role of the devil in the grisly abortion business. I can only imagine the faces of the movie industry big-wigs when they were forced to listen to one of my homilies at Sundance! Come to think of it, maybe that’s why the documentary didn’t win any awards: the people in the rabidly pro-abortion movie industry don’t like anyone saying bad things about their boss.

Sincerely,

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International

And Lead Your People

We are in the middle of the Year for Priests in which it is hoped we will all see a strong re-affirmation of Christ-like models of priesthood. Thanks to Pope Benedict we may just exit that age of sell-out clerics like Fr. John Jenkins of Notre Dame and come back to some sanity in priestly leadership. As an indication of how bad clerical hypocrisy gets, Fr. Jenkins presided over the arrest of Catholic pro-life protesters on campus and has consistently refused to ask the authorities to drop the charges. Some may spend a year in jail due to his “leadership” on this issue. Jenkins followed this by an announcement that he will attend the March for Life in Washington this year – a shameless two-faced gesture not lost on any of us who know what it means to be pro-life. We expect more from priests. In the new era of the priesthood, we need to get away from the flimsy, politically-motivated, “empty sutanes” (i.e., cassocks) and look to those who are providing the kind of priestly leadership that really brings souls to Christ.

Thankfully examples of good priests are becoming more readily available these days. One of these guys is Fr. James Farfaglia who is a new member of HLI’s Board of Directors and pastor of St. Helen’s Parish in Corpus Christi, TX. Father has written a book that is second to none in calling men to holiness and accountability for their marriages and their faith. The book is called Man to Man: A Real Priest Speaks to Real Men About Marriage, Sexuality and Family Life. Father James is a very strong priest, and his writing reflects that. His no-nonsense explanations of our fundamental commitments to God and others are a refreshing re-statement of how we are supposed to live – and thrive – in a world hostile to our basic values. Father has spent his priestly life ministering to people in real-life situations, so his pastoral judgment is tried and true.

Please continue to pray for your priests, and commend us to Our Lady; more than anything, pray for a total renewal of the priesthood and hierarchy so that we may be able to stand strong against the evils of the day and meet the severe challenges of the days to come.

Sincerely,

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International