Chile – The gay community in Chile is reacting with indignation to recent comments by 83-year-old Cardinal Jorge Medina Estévez, who led the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 1996 to 2002.

Habemus Papam

Reacting to Argentina’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage, the cardinal said that “the Church distinguishes the homosexual tendency and homosexual practice. If a person has a homosexual tendency it is a defect, as if one lacked an eye, a hand, a foot.” On the other hand, homosexual activity, he noted, is immoral.

“In my life as a priest, I have had [pastoral] care of many people with this problem,” he added. Some, like alcoholics, have overcome this tendency by “discipline, education, or reeducation,” he said, while others have heroically resisted this tendency for their entire lives.

Same-sex marriage, he added, “is something in opposition to the law of God, and no human law can go against the law of God. If a human law goes against the law of God, that human law does not exist.”

In a 2002 letter, Cardinal Medina Estévez, in his capacity as a Vatican prefect, had reiterated the Church’s discipline against ordaining men with homosexual inclinations.

“Ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood of homosexual men or men with homosexual tendencies is absolutely inadvisable and imprudent and, from the pastoral point of view, very risky,” he wrote. “A homosexual person, or one with a homosexual tendency is not, therefore, fit to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders.”

Planned Parenthood Will Only Increase
The Violence In The Omaha Community.

ArchBishop George Lucas-(full article here) – “It is profoundly disturbing that Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has announced its intention to open a new center at 3105 N. 93rd Street in Omaha that will include among its services the killing of unborn children through abortion. So many people of good will in Omaha have become involved in efforts to reduce violence in our community.

“It is particularly ironic that Planned Parenthood is now proposing to increase the possibility of violent attacks on innocent human life, attacks that are no less harmful to the life of our community even though they remain largely hidden from view.

“Women and their unborn children deserve better than to suffer the violence of abortion. As a caring community, we can offer them a compassionate alternative. I invite any woman who might be considering abortion to turn first to the loving and supportive care of the pro-life pregnancy help centers in the Omaha area. These include Catholic Charities, Essential Pregnancy Services, A Woman’s Touch, AAA Crisis Pregnancy Center, Bethlehem House and Gabriel’s Corner (in Council Bluffs).

“I also encourage Catholics and all women and men of good will in Omaha to oppose the opening of this abortion facility. Nebraskans United for Life has created a petition (the petitions have been distributed to all parishes in Omaha) to express opposition to this proposal to our elected officials. Nebraskans United for Life is also organizing a prayer vigil at the location of the planned abortion center on Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 1 pm.

“I plan to be there, and I invite you to join me. Make your voice heard in opposition to the efforts of Planned Parenthood to expand the culture of violence and death in Omaha. Please pray for a greater respect for all human life, from conception to natural death.”

So why do we pray? Because God wants us to be involved in what he is doing! Of course he’s going to do his will. But our prayers really change things, because God wills that his decisions will rely in part on whether we pray and act.

One of his firm decisions, which in fact represents the purpose of salvation history, is that he will destroy death. And we can actually hasten the process and spread the victory of life.

“The Lord will destroy death forever!” This marvelous declaration from Isaiah 25:8 should sustain us daily in our pro-life efforts. When we pray to end abortion, we are not just asking God to do us some favor or to grant a request. It’s much more momentous than that. When we ask him to end abortion, we are pleading for the fulfillment of his great plan of conquering death.

It was about this that God first spoke when he promised in Genesis 3:15 (the “first gospel”) that the head of the serpent would be crushed. It was for this that Jesus himself died and rose again; it is for this that every Church ministry exists. Proclaiming the Gospel means proclaiming life! As Paul explains in 1 Cor. 15, as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ is the first to rise from the dead; then all things are to be made subject to him, and in him, all will rise at the end of time. “Then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory!” (1 Cor. 15:54).

When Scripture talks about the new and eternal Jerusalem, urging us to look forward to that day when we will all be gathered around the throne, it declares, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying out nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). That is why we pray to end abortion, because we are caught up in a mighty dynamic of history, over which God presides. Our prayers are a great Amen to a process in which we are all involved and which culminates in the eternal victory of life!

Who Else Wants to Know
the Keys to Doing  God’s Will?

My Dear People,

We all know that we need to pray in order to know God, and His Divine Will for us. Even the Holy Apostles asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Our Lord instructs Peter and His brothers how to say the Our Father in our Gospel today. He goes on to tell them a parable about a friend calling upon his neighbor for assistance in the middle of the night. Because of the friend’s persistence, he receives what he asked from his neighbor. Jesus then tells His Apostles, that if we know how to give good things to one another, how much more will Our Heavenly Father know what we need.

Trusting in God’s Divine Providence is a difficult lesson to learn. Submitting our own will unto God’s perfect Will is not an easy task. It takes great patience and humility. But Our Lord tells us that if we ask for this grace, it will be given to us. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Pray to Him while He is still near. Trust in the Lord at all times, and know He is there.

Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,

Fr. Mark Bozada

May we learn to see the difference between the simple things we need and the many things we want.

“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.

1. The Roman collar is a sign of priestly consecration to the Lord. As a wedding ring distinguishes husband and wife and symbolizes the union they enjoy, so the Roman collar identifies bishops and priests (and often deacons and seminarians) and manifests their proximity to the Divine Master by virtue of their free consent to the ordained ministry to which they have been (or may be) called.
2. By wearing clerical clothing and not possessing excess clothes, the priest demonstrates adherence to the Lord’s example of material poverty. The priest does not choose his clothes – the Church has, thanks to her accumulated wisdom over the past two millennia. Humble acceptance of the Church’s desire that the priest wear the Roman collar illustrates a healthy submission to authority and conformity to the will of Christ as expressed through his Church.
3. Church Law requires clerics to wear clerical clothing. We have cited above number 66 of the Directory for priests, which itself quotes canon 284.
4. The wearing of the Roman collar is the repeated, ardent desire of Pope John Paul 11. The Holy Father’s wish in this regard cannot be summarily dismissed; he speaks with a special charism. He frequently reminds priests of the value of wearing the Roman collar.In a September 8, 1982 letter to Ugo Cardinal Poletti, his Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, instructing him to promulgate norms concerning the use of the Roman collar and religious habit, the Pontiff observed that clerical dress is valuable “not only because it contributes to the propriety of the priest in his external behavior or in the exercise of his ministry, but above all because it gives evidence within the ecclesiastical community of the public witness that each priest is held to give of his own identity and special belonging to God.”In a homily on November 8, 1982 the Pope addressed a group of transitional deacons whom he was about to ordain to the priesthood. He said that if they tried to be just like everyone else in their “style of life” and “manner of dress,” then their mission as priests of Jesus Christ would not be fully realized.



5. The Roman collar prevents “mixed messages”; other people will recognize the priest’s intentions when he finds himself in what might appear to be compromising circumstances. Let’s suppose that a priest is required to make pastoral visits to different apartment houses in an area where drug dealing or prostitution is prevalent. The Roman collar sends a clear message to everyone that the priest has come to minister to the sick and needy in Christ’s name. Idle speculation might be triggered by a priest known to neighborhood residents visiting various apartment houses dressed as a layman.
6. The Roman collar inspires others to avoid immodesty in dress, words and actions and reminds them of the need for public decorum. A cheerful but diligent and serious priest can compel others to take stock of the manner in which they conduct themselves. The Roman collar serves as a necessary challenge to an age drowning in impurity, exhibited by suggestive dress, blasphemous speech and scandalous actions.
7. The Roman collar is a protection for one’s vocation when dealing with young, attractive women. A priest out of his collar (and, naturally, not wearing a wedding ring) can appear to be an attractive target for the affections of an unmarried woman looking for a husband, or for a married woman tempted to infidelity.
8. The Roman collar offers a kind of “safeguard “for oneself. The Roman collar provides a reminder to the priest himself of his mission and identity: to witness to Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest, as one of his brother-priests.
9. A priest in a Roman collar is an inspiration to others who think: “Here is a modern disciple of Jesus.” The Roman collar speaks of the possibility of making a sincere, lasting commitment to God. Believers of diverse ages, nationalities and temperaments will note the virtuous, other-centered life of the man who gladly and proudly wears the garb of a Catholic priest, and perhaps will realize that they too can consecrate themselves anew, or for the first time, to the loving Good Shepherd.
10. The Roman collar is a source of beneficial intrigue to non-Catholics. Most non- Catholics do not have experience with ministers who wear clerical garb. Therefore, Catholic priests by virtue of their dress can cause them to reflect – even if only a cursory fashion – on the Church and what she entails.
11. A priest dressed as the Church wants is a reminder of God and of the sacred. The prevailing secular morass is not kind to images which connote the Almighty, the Church, etc. When one wears the Roman collar, the hearts and minds of others are refreshingly raised to the “Higher Being” who is usually relegated to a tiny footnote in the agenda of contemporary culture.
12. The Roman collar is also a reminder to the priest that he is “never not a priest.” With so much confusion prevalent today, the Roman collar can help the priest avoid internal doubt as to who he is. Two wardrobes can easily lead – and often does – to two lifestyles, or even two personalities.
13. A priest in a Roman collar is a walking vocation message. The sight of a cheerful, happy priest confidently walking down the street can be a magnet drawing young men to consider the possibility that God is calling them to the priesthood. God does the calling; the priest is simply a visible sign God will use to draw men unto himself.
14. The Roman collar makes the priest available for the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Anointing of the Sick, and for crisis situations. Because the Roman collar gives instant recognition, priests who wear it make themselves more apt to be approached, particularly when seriously needed. The authors can testify to being asked for the Sacraments and summoned for assistance in airports, crowded cities and isolated villages because they were immediately recognized as Catholic priests.
15. The Roman collar is a sign that the priest is striving to become holy by living out his vocation always. It is a sacrifice to make oneself constantly available to souls by being publicly identifiable as a priest, but a sacrifice pleasing to Our Divine Lord. We are reminded of how the people came to him, and how he never turned them away. There are so many people who will benefit by our sacrifice of striving to be holy priests without interruption.
16. The Roman collar serves as a reminder to “alienated” Catholics not to forget their irregular situation and their responsibilities to the Lord. The priest is a witness – for good or ill – to Christ and his Holy Church. When a “fallen-away” sees a priest, he is encouraged to recall that the Church continues to exist. A cheerful priest provides a salutary reminder of the Church.
17. The wearing of clerical clothing is a sacrifice at times, especially in hot weather. The best mortifications are the ones we do not look for. Putting up with the discomforts of heat and humidity can be a wonderful reparation for our own sins, and a means of obtaining graces for our parishioners.
18. The Roman collar serves as a “sign of contradiction” to a world lost in sin and rebellion against the Creator. The Roman collar makes a powerful statement: the priest as an alter Christus has accepted the Redeemer’s mandate to take the Gospel into the public square, regardless of personal cost.
19. The Roman collar helps priests to avoid the on duty/off duty mentality of priestly service. The numbers 24 and 7 should be our special numbers: we are priests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are priests, not men who engage in the “priest profession.” On or off duty, we should be available to whomever God may send our way. The “lost sheep” do not make appointments.
20. The “officers” in Christ’s army should be identifiable as such. Traditionally, we have remarked that those who receive the Sacrament of Confirmation become “soldiers” of Christ, adult Catholics ready and willing to defend his name and his Church. Those who are ordained as deacons, priests and bishops must also be prepared – whatever the stakes – to shepherd the flock of the Lord. Those priests who wear the Roman collar show forth their role unmistakably as leaders in the Church.
21. The saints have never approved of a lackadaisical approach concerning priestly vesture. For example, Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), Patron Saint of Moral Theologians and Confessors, in his esteemed treatise The Dignity and Duties of the Priest, urges the wearing of the appropriate clerical dress, asserting that the Roman collar helps both priest and faithful to recall the sublime splendor of the sacerdotal state instituted by the God-Man.
22. Most Catholics expect their priests to dress accordingly. Priests have long provided a great measure of comfort and security to their people. As youths, Catholics are taught that the priest is God’s representative – someone they can trust. Hence, the People of God want to know who these representatives are and what they stand for. The cherished custom of wearing distinguishable dress has been for centuries sanctioned by the Church; it is not an arbitrary imposition. Catholics expect their priests to dress as priests and to behave in harmony with Church teaching and practice. As we have painfully observed over the last few years, the faithful are especially bothered and harmed when priests defy the legitimate authority of the Church, and teach and act in inappropriate and even sinful ways.
23. Your life is not your own; you belong to God in a special way, you are sent out to serve him with your life. When we wake each morning, we should turn our thoughts to our loving God, and ask for the grace to serve him well that day. We remind ourselves of our status as His chosen servants by putting on the attire that proclaims for all to see that God is still working in this world through the ministry of poor and sinful men.

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan & Father Gerald E. Murray. “Why a priest should wear his Roman collar.” Homiletic & Pastoral Review (June, 1995).

Founded over one hundred years ago, Homiletic & Pastoral Review is one of the most well-respected pastoral magazines in the world. HPR features solid articles on every aspect of pastoral life and eloquent weekly sermons that illuminate through exposition of Scripture. Subscribe to HPR here.

THE AUTHOR

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan has been appointed by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, to a position serving the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Ordained in 1989, Msgr. Mangan formerly served the Diocese of Sioux Falls in several parishes.

Father Gerald E. Murray is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and was ordained in 1984 after completing studies at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, N. Y. Currently he is studying canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome.

Copyright © 2010 Homiletic & Pastoral Review

What Are Your Thoughts About Wearing The Collar?

The Devil’s Tabernacle!

Fr. Jerry Pokorsky-The pious Lutheran pastor may have had a point. He said the television set was “the devil’s tabernacle.” Some would say he was prescient when he made the observation in the early 1950s. Others would say that “Howdy Doody” and “Leave It to Beaver” and “The Milton Berle Show” (not to mention the “Fulton Sheen” program) were not the stuff of the devil. But today with a series like “Sex In the City” and the adult movies (also known as “arrested-adolescent-sexuality movies”) of expanded cable, few souls could argue with the pastor’s prediction.

Perhaps the pastor did not intend his “devil’s tabernacle” epithet as a prediction. Maybe he understood something about the obsessions of fallen human nature. To be single-minded in the face of danger or opportunity may be virtuous. While any fixation that displaces Christ as the source and summit of one’s life is diabolical, many fixations risk becoming the “devil’s tabernacle”: television, the stock market, hobbies and even human relationships.

In this week’s Gospel, Christ visits two sisters, Martha and Mary. Martha has a fixation of the moment. She is “burdened with much serving” while Mary “sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.” Martha complains, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” There is irony in the request. Mary seems to be suggesting that the Lord is part of the problem, allowing Mary to relax in His presence. Martha is demanding that Jesus fix the problem He Himself allowed through presumed indulgence. Martha, like many mothers, suspected Mary and her Guest were taking her good work for granted.

Christ responds gently (notice the kindly repetition of Martha’s name) but firmly: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Always the master of the moment, Jesus sees Martha’s problem for what it is. It is clearly not her busy work of preparation. The problem identified by Christ is Martha’s fixation on anxiety and worry. Her obsession was so untoward that it rose to impatience and resentment and likely some jealousy. One supposes Martha wanted Mary to abandon their divine Guest (perhaps to play solitaire) and help with the work of food preparation.

Food preparation is very important. Ask any priest. But listening to the words of Christ is “the better part.” Ask any (please God) priest. This passage traditionally has become a helpful launching pad to discuss the superiority of the contemplative life over the active life. This is not to disparage the active life in any way. But the contemplative life gives direction to one’s active life (much as the logistical support of an army supports the purposes of soldiers). This distinction is found also in the Book of Genesis. God “works” for six days and “rests” on the seventh, giving man a rule of life. Our work not only is meant to sustain us, but also to direct us to rest and worship on Sunday.

In this fallen world there are many distractions and distortions. Work can become an end in itself — a diabolical object of worship — rather than a necessary and praiseworthy means leading to worship. Similarly other events and conditions of life easily become ends in themselves, or obsessions and fixations. Martha was “anxious and worried about many things.” She was obsessed with worry and made it a kind of “devil’s tabernacle” of alternative worship. Her anxieties displaced Christ, who literally stood before her as the center of her life.

Most of us have a good deal of sympathy for Martha because like her we have our own fixations. In honesty Martha’s preoccupation represents us and our inclinations more than the devotion of Mary. We are anxious about our jobs, our health, our opportunities and our relationships. We too easily forget the loving providence of the Lord while turning over our lives to obsessions and anxieties.

In connection with the devil’s tabernacle and the false worship of our anxieties, elsewhere in the Gospel, Christ is clear:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ For the gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day” (Mt 6:25-34).

Sarah Laughed

Miracles still happen today, as in days of old. The reading from the book of Genesis this Sunday, is a testament of God’s almighty power. Sarah was past menopause, she was in her eighties and childless. Three angles comes to visit the tent of Abraham. Inviting them into his dwelling place, Abraham and Sarah prepared a meal for them. After the feast, the angels announce that Sarah, who was thought to be barren, would conceive and give birth to a son nine months from the arrival of their announcement.

Sarah, who was listening to their conversation behind the tent wall, laughs. How can this be? I am not capable of bearing children, she thought to herself, and so she chuckles. Nine months later, Sarah bore a son. Abraham gave him the name, “Isaac” which translates, “Sarah laughed.” Never underestimate the power of God. With Him all things are possible if we but “Believe”.

Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,

Fr. Mark Bozada

May we never doubt the power of God in our everyday lives. Like Mary, May we find time to be with Jesus in prayer.

Nancy Frazier O’Brien, WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Vatican’s decision to declare the attempted ordination of women a major church crime reflects “the seriousness with which it holds offenses against the sacrament of holy orders” and is not a sign of disrespect toward women, Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington said July 15.

Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl Holding No Punches

In such an act, the Vatican said, the cleric and the woman involved are automatically excommunicated, and the cleric can also be dismissed from the priesthood.

But, the archbishop said, “the Catholic Church through its long and constant teaching holds that ordination has been, from the beginning, reserved to men, a fact which cannot be changed despite changing times.”

The Vatican action drew a sharp response from Erin Saiz Hanna, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, “the decision “appalling, offensive and a wake-up call for all Catholics around the world. . . The idea that a woman seeking to spread the message of God somehow ‘defiles’ the Eucharist reveals an antiquated, backwards church that still views women as ‘unclean’ and unholy,” she said in a news release.

Archbshop Robert Carlson-God’s law in the Old Testament is clear and unambiguous: You shall not kill. Jesus is even more demanding: Every one who is angry is liable to judgment.

Sins against the Fifth Commandment are easy to commit. Any time we think, speak or act out of anger or hatred or jealousy or revenge, we abuse God’s commandment that we respect His most precious gift, the gift of life — especially human life.

Human life is sacred because, from its beginning until its natural end, it involves the creative action of God. The Fifth Commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. God alone is the Lord of life. No one has the right to end arbitrarily what God has begun, and sustained, through the gift of His love.

In the account of Abel’s murder by Cain (Genesis 4:8-12), Scripture reveals the presence of anger and envy in humankind, consequences of original sin, from the beginning of recorded history. God declares this as wicked, and He asks the question to be answered over the ages: “What have you done?” Today this question is asked not only of those who kill someone, but also of those responsible for violence, anger, hatred and vengeance in any form.

It is a shame that there are so many violent words expressed between members of the same family day in and day out. Anger and intolerance are also pervasive in our Church and in society. Such attitudes are destructive and sinful. They are of the Evil One and not of God.

The Fifth Commandment does not stop someone from self defense, because someone who defends his or her own life is not guilty of murder. Legitimate defense can be not only a right but also a grave duty for someone responsible for another’s life, the common good of the family or the security of a nation. We risk our lives to protect ourselves and others because we value human life and freedom so dearly. They are gifts from God that we are bound to cherish and defend.

Since the first century, the Church has addressed the moral evil of abortion and the killing of a defenseless baby in the womb. People who are casual about the sin of abortion and who choose to view it as a political issue rather than the serious moral issue that it is are guilty of violating the Fifth Commandment. You cannot be “pro-choice” (pro-abortion) and remain a Catholic in good standing. That’s why the Church asks those who maintain this position not to receive holy Communion. We are not being mean or judgmental, we are simply acknowledging the fact that such a stance is objectively and seriously sinful and is radically inconsistent with the Christian way of life.

The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council said, “God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and human life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: Abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes” (“Gaudium et Spes,” No. 51.3). That’s why formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life (see canons 1398,1314, and 1323-1324).

The Fifth Commandment also directs us to work for justice and peace — avoiding war whenever possible — and to limit the use of capital punishment to the most extreme (and rare) circumstances required to protect human life. Only God has the right to take the life of another human being. When we take that action into our own hands — in self-defense or in defense of others — we had better be sure that all other options have been exhausted!

In addition, euthanasia or deliberately taking of the life of someone who is sick, dying, disabled or mentally ill is morally unacceptable. The Church calls for the ordinary care owed to a sick person, but medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous or extraordinary are not necessary. If you are unsure about the moral implications of health care procedures that are being proposed for someone you love, contact your pastor or the archdiocese’s Respect Life Apostolate. They will be happy to help you consider approaches that are in accordance with our Church’s teaching about care for those who are sick or dying.

Taking proper care of our health, respecting others and showing respect for the dead are all matters covered by the Fifth Commandment’s demand that we reverence God’s most precious gift — human life.