Our LifeSiteNews team is a family of defenders of life, faith, family, and freedom, all called by God to this work during these turbulent times when the lies of the mainstream media echo around the world. Rest assured, with over 70 staff members in multiple countries, someone is always ‘online’ working at every hour of the day, defending the truth!
Let us take a moment to give you a quick glimpse into what a “Day in the Life” at LifeSiteNews truly looks like!
We start each day with morning prayers. We humbly pray for you, our dear readers and supporters, for any special intentions you send us or may hold in your heart, and for our team members and their special needs. We pray for the conversion of erring clergymen, and for persecuted Christians, for the conversion for all those who oppose us and for the safety of those working for life, faith, family and freedom. We also include a special prayer composed for us by Fr. Ripperger, asking for deliverance and spiritual protection, and thanking God for the gift of His work of LifeSiteNews.
Each morning our Video Team discusses upcoming interviews and projects: Which special guest is coming on the various video shows next? Is there a breaking news story that needs our mobile video crews on the ground? We take the time every day to analyze what video you need to see. One topic constantly being addressed – censorship! Our video team is not afraid to speak the truth; no topic is off the table; we are not afraid of being silenced!
Each day our different teams of Journalists and Editors come together to discuss and select the stories to cover. We make sure we bring you the most up-to-date and honest reporting on topics relating to our unique mission. We encourage all members of our staff to pitch news stories. We have multiple eyes and ears on reports around the world and take pride in bringing you the top stories.
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We are proud of our staff and hope you are proud of them, too. We have a group of ‘youngsters’ from the Post-Roe generation, some of the strongest voices in the pro-life movement, fighting for you. We have young moms and dads who feel called to work at LifeSiteNews to protect their children and the next generation. (Sometimes we even get a hello from a toddler in the background during team calls!) We have colleagues who have left corporate life because of forced COVID-19 requirements or simply because they could not work for a company whose values did not align with their own.
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We leave you with a message from one of our youngest journalists, Clare Merkowsky:
When it comes to writing news, especially breaking stories, I find it invaluable to come together with the Canada team for daily meetings, where I find surrounding evidence and synthesize global happenings that inform my delivery. During these calls, I get to discuss current cultural issues with other Canadian journalists on how we can best cover them. I also love hearing about what they are working on. I love being Canadian because, being a young country, Canada is still deciding what it is going to grow into. This summer and fall have been particularly exciting, for pro-family protests have spread, showing that Canadians are determined that the LGBT agenda will not define our country.
LifeSiteNews is important because it focuses on telling the truth, which is something that is so lost by mainstream media. It's often hard to discern what the truth is when we're faced with so many lies and half-truths, so it's important to have a source that you can trust. LifeSiteNews makes it a priority to research stories, so readers don't have to. We examine multiple sources to understand the full picture before publishing it for readers.
Last week Clare wrote a powerful article in which Dr. Jordan Peterson, a Canadian clinical psychologist known for his political and cultural views, shared exclusively with LifeSiteNews remarks condemning the “Catholic” school system in Canada for embracing the LGBT agenda and Catholics who succumb to the demands of the LGBT mob.
This story was so important, Dr. Peterson himself re-shared it on his personal page — exposing the truth of the matter to countless people!
If you were inspired by this story, or if there was another story that touched you or gave you a new perspective on the world, we encourage you to give a gift to show your support for LifeSiteNews today and help us reach our Fall Campaign fundraising goal before FRIDAY: give.lifesitenews.com
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Run With Life: We know the world is upside down when this happens...: The Coronavirus is here. We have people dying all over the world from this horrible pandemic. The world is shut down because of it. Financial markets are in free fall. People have lost their jobs. People of faith are prevented from attending their Church services, their Mosques and their Synagogues. Catholic Christians are prevented from receiving the sacraments including reconciliation, baptisms and the sacraments of the sick for the dying. We can't even enter our churches for private prayer, even if we follow all the social distancing rules.
So what are the pro-abortions up to here in Canada? Unlike many US states, Canada is pathetically still performing abortions. None of the rules the rest of us have to follow apply to killing babies.
In fact the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada has put out a fundraising call for Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.
Dr. Gerard M. Nadal Note: H/T to Deacon Greg Kandra who posted this earlier this month on the 70th Anniversary of this Homily. This comes from historyplace.com which has an excellent repository of historical speeches and commentary. This homily, slightly reworded for current leaders is a commentary for our present age. For distributing copies of this homily, the Nazis beheaded three priests, but left the Cardinal alone for fear of making him a martyr. See the link for additional commentary before and after the homily. Now, the commentary and homily:
Commentary:
This is an excerpt of the sermon by Catholic Cardinal Clemens von Galen, delivered on Sunday, August 3, 1941, in Münster Cathedral, in which he risked his life by openly condemning the Nazi euthanasia program.
Code named “Aktion T4,” the Nazi program to eliminate “life unworthy of life” began on Hitler’s order in October 1939. The program at first focused on newborns and very young children. Midwives and doctors were required to register children up to age three that showed symptoms of mental retardation, physical deformity, or other symptoms included on a questionnaire from the Reich Health Ministry.
A decision on whether to allow the child to live was then made by three medical experts solely on the basis of the questionnaire, without any examination and without reading any medical records.
Each expert placed a + mark in red pencil or – mark in blue pencil under the term “treatment” on a special form. A red plus mark meant a decision to kill the child. A blue minus sign meant meant a decision against killing. Three +++ symbols resulted in a euthanasia warrant being issued and the transfer of the child to a ‘Children’s Specialty Department’ for death by injection or gradual starvation.
The decision had to be unanimous. In cases where the decision was not unanimous the child was kept under observation and another attempt would be made to get a unanimous decision.
The Nazi euthanasia program soon expanded to include older disabled children and adults. Hitler granted “the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such manner, that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable, can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death.”
Questionnaires were then distributed to mental institutions, hospitals and other institutions caring for the chronically ill. A total of six killing centers were established including the well-known psychiatric clinic at Hadamar. The euthanasia program was eventually headed by an SS officer named Christian Wirth, a notorious brute with the nickname ‘the Savage Christian.’
At Brandenburg, a former prison was converted into a killing center where the first experimental gassings took place. The gas chambers were disguised as shower rooms, but were actually hermetically sealed chambers connected by pipes to cylinders of carbon monoxide. Each killing center also had a crematorium where the bodies were taken for disposal. Families were then falsely informed the cause of death was medical such as heart failure or pneumonia.
Homily:
Fellow Christians! In the pastoral letter of the German bishops of June 26, 1941, which was read out in all the Catholic churches in Germany on July 6, 1941, it states among other things: It is true that there are definite commandments in Catholic moral doctrine which are no longer applicable if their fulfillment involves too many difficulties.
However, there are sacred obligations of conscience from which no one has the power to release us and which we must fulfill even if it costs us our lives. Never under any circumstances may a human being kill an innocent person apart from war and legitimate self-defense. On July 6, I already had cause to add to the pastoral letter the following explanation: for some months we have been hearing reports that, on the orders of Berlin, patients from mental asylums who have been ill for a long time and may appear incurable, are being compulsorily removed. Then, after a short time, the relatives are regularly informed that the corpse has been burnt and the ashes can be delivered. There is a general suspicion verging on certainty, that these numerous unexpected deaths of mentally ill people do not occur of themselves but are deliberately brought about, that the doctrine is being followed, according to which one may destroy so-called ‘worthless life,’ that is, kill innocent people if one considers that their lives are of no further value for the nation and the state.
I am reliably informed that lists are also being drawn up in the asylums of the province of Westphalia as well of those patients who are to be taken away as so-called ‘unproductive national comrades’ and shortly to be killed. The first transport left the Marienthal institution near Münster during this past week.
German men and women, section 211 of the Reich Penal Code is still valid. It states: ‘He who deliberately kills another person will be punished by death for murder if the killing is premeditated.’
Those patients who are destined to be killed are transported away from home to a distant asylum presumably in order to protect those who deliberately kill those poor people, members of our families, from this legal punishment. Some illness is then given as the cause of death. Since the corpse has been burnt straight away, the relatives and also the criminal police are unable to establish whether the illness really occurred and what the cause of death was.
However, I have been assured that the Reich Interior Ministry and the office of the Reich Doctors’ Leader, Dr. Conti, make no bones about the fact that in reality a large number of mentally ill people in Germany have been deliberately killed and more will be killed in the future.
The Penal Code lays down in section 139: ‘He who receives credible information concerning the intention to commit a crime against life and neglects to alert the authorities or the person who is threatened in time…will be punished.’
When I learned of the intention to transport patients from Marienthal in order to kill them, I brought a formal charge at the State Court in Münster and with the Police President in Münster by means of a registered letter which read as follows: “According to information which I have received, in the course of this week a large number of patients from the Marienthal Provincial Asylum near Münster are to be transported to the Eichberg asylum as so-called ‘unproductive national comrades’ and will then soon be deliberately killed, as is generally believed has occurred with such transports from other asylums. Since such an action is not only contrary to the moral laws of God and Nature but also is punishable with death as murder under section 211 of the Penal Code, I hereby bring a charge in accordance with my duty under section 139 of the Penal Code, and request you to provide immediate protection for the national comrades threatened in this way by taking action against those agencies who are intending their removal and murder, and that you inform me of the steps that have been taken.”
I have received no news concerning intervention by the Prosecutor’s Office or by the police…Thus we must assume that the poor helpless patients will soon be killed.
For what reason?
Not because they have committed a crime worthy of death. Not because they attacked their nurses or orderlies so that the latter had no other choice but to use legitimate force to defend their lives against their attackers. Those are cases where, in addition to the killing of an armed enemy in a just war, the use of force to the point of killing is allowed and is often required.
No, it is not for such reasons that these unfortunate patients must die but rather because, in the opinion of some department, on the testimony of some commission, they have become ‘worthless life’ because according to this testimony they are ‘unproductive national comrades.’ The argument goes: they can no longer produce commodities, they are like an old machine that no longer works, they are like an old horse which has become incurably lame, they are like a cow which no longer gives milk.
What does one do with such an old machine? It is thrown on the scrap heap. What does one do with a lame horse, with such an unproductive cow?
No, I do not want to continue the comparison to the end–however fearful the justification for it and the symbolic force of it are. We are not dealing with machines, horses and cows whose only function is to serve mankind, to produce goods for man. One may smash them, one may slaughter them as soon as they no longer fulfil this function.
No, we are dealing with human beings, our fellow human beings, our brothers and sisters. With poor people, sick people, if you like unproductive people.
But have they for that reason forfeited the right to life?
Have you, have I the right to live only so long as we are productive, so long as we are recognized by others as productive?
If you establish and apply the principle that you can kill ‘unproductive’ fellow human beings then woe betide us all when we become old and frail! If one is allowed to kill the unproductive people then woe betide the invalids who have used up, sacrificed and lost their health and strength in the productive process. If one is allowed forcibly to remove one’s unproductive fellow human beings then woe betide loyal soldiers who return to the homeland seriously disabled, as cripples, as invalids. If it is once accepted that people have the right to kill ‘unproductive’ fellow humans–and even if initially it only affects the poor defenseless mentally ill–then as a matter of principle murder is permitted for all unproductive people, in other words for the incurably sick, the people who have become invalids through labor and war, for us all when we become old, frail and therefore unproductive.
Then, it is only necessary for some secret edict to order that the method developed for the mentally ill should be extended to other ‘unproductive’ people, that it should be applied to those suffering from incurable lung disease, to the elderly who are frail or invalids, to the severely disabled soldiers. Then none of our lives will be safe any more. Some commission can put us on the list of the ‘unproductive,’ who in their opinion have become worthless life. And no police force will protect us and no court will investigate our murder and give the murderer the punishment he deserves.
Who will be able to trust his doctor any more?
He may report his patient as ‘unproductive’ and receive instructions to kill him. It is impossible to imagine the degree of moral depravity, of general mistrust that would then spread even through families if this dreadful doctrine is tolerated, accepted and followed.
Woe to mankind, woe to our German nation if God’s Holy Commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ which God proclaimed on Mount Sinai amidst thunder and lightning, which God our Creator inscribed in the conscience of mankind from the very beginning, is not only broken, but if this transgression is actually tolerated and permitted to go unpunished.
Life Chain Sunday is an opportunity for pro-life advocates
from across the U.S. and Canada to unite together in prayer.
There were twelve participants in the Life Chain at the Vanier Parkway / Montreal Road Intersection in Ottawa, Ontario. We are a small but faithful group and are in it for the long haul!
Among the participants were Father Geoffrey Kerslake, Francis Barrett and Sean Mulligan from theChristian Heritage Party with his wife Grace. Sean is the CHP Candidate for Ottawa West—Nepean in the upcoming Federal Election,
Father Geoffrey Kerslake
Francis Barrett below on the left
Sean Mulligan with his wife Grace.
Counter Protestor
This poem was in our Sunday Bulletin Yesterday
(Annunciation of the Lord Parish)
The unborn child asks...
If I am not alive, why am I growing?
If I am not a human being, what kind of being am I?
If I am not a child, why am I sucking my thumb?
If I am a living, human child and humans have value, why is it legal to kill me?
I am troubled by what appears to be a growing trend of violent attacks on peaceful pro-life activists. Perhaps the most famous recent instance was caught in a dramatic video last fall. The video shows a twenty-something-year-old man wearing a purple sweater, with a pentagram (a pagan symbol) on a necklace around his neck. He asks the pro-life woman behind the camera what should happen if a 16-year-old gets pregnant by rape. From his tone, it is clear that he doesn’t really want an answer. Still, the woman begins to explain that the child is still a child, and should not be murdered, regardless of how the baby is conceived. Before she can finish, however, the young man sticks out his tongue, winds up, and kicks her. The camera falls and clatters on the ground.
A female voice is heard crying, “Someone call the cops!”
The woman who was assaulted, Marie-Claire Bissonnette, described in a written account the astonishing indifference of the Toronto police who arrived on the scene. Eventually, however, the attacker was identified, and charges were filed. As it turns out, the same man was responsible for another violent assault on a pro-life activist some months before.
As Bissonnette points out, the attack on her is far from an isolated incident. And while the video of the assault against her was viewed millions of times, most of these assaults receive little to no public attention. On the very same day that Bissonnette was attacked, for instance, a woman walked up to a pro-life man who was silently praying at a location just West of Toronto and poured paint down his back. This was mild in comparison to what happened just days before, also in Toronto, when Gabby Skwarko, a member of the Ryerson Reproductive Justice Collective, walked up to pro-life activist Blaise Alleyne and proceeded to repeatedly punch her, attempted to grab her bag, and threw a metal dolly at her.
One elderly woman recently had her leg broken when she was assaulted outside Kentucky’s only abortion facility, in Louisville. Another elderly man, participating in the recent Lenten 40 Days for Life campaign, was thrown to the ground and viciously and repeatedly kicked. Then there’s the woman who was left bruised after being punched outside a clinic in Alabama. Or the young man who was repeatedly punched by a pro-abortion woman during a pro-life demonstration at the University of North Carolina.
As a life-long pro-lifer, Bissonnette has participated in pro-life demonstrations for years. She says she has repeatedly suffered physical and verbal assault. “Rocks have been thrown at me,” she writes. “I’ve been spat upon multiple times and pushed. Men have aggressively asked how I would like it if they raped me and forced me to have an abortion.”
Brian Sims’ Contemptible Attack
Thankfully the issue of aggression and violence against peaceful pro-life activists is receiving some (but still shockingly limited) media attention right now, thanks to the contemptible antics of Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Brian Sims. Earlier this month Sims posted a video of himself harassing a pro-life woman who was praying the rosary outside an abortion facility, calling her “shameful,” “disgusting,” “racist,” as well as “old white lady.”
Even worse, he also filmed himself approaching two young girls (aged 13 and 15), calling them “a bunch of pseudo-Christian protesters who’ve been out here shaming young girls for being here.” Sims then offers $100 to anybody who can identify the girls. This is called “doxing” – that is, publicly identifying ordinary citizens in order to subject them to systematic shame and harassment. It’s a terrible practice. Coming from an elected politician, aimed at young, minor girls, it’s downright evil.
Ironically, in posting the footage of his harassment of the girls, Sims accused the pro-life activists of “prey[ing] on young women.” People who protest Planned Parenthood” use white privilege, & shame,” he claimed. “They’re racist, classist, bigots who NEED & DESERVE our righteous opposition.”
Got that? According to Sims, young pro-life girls “need” to be harassed by grown men such as himself. Astonishingly, at the time of this writing, Sims has neither resigned, nor been dismissed from office, though he did record and release a video apology. If instead of a pro-abortion Democrat, it had been a pro-life Republican who berated and doxed young teen girls I think this story would have ended quite differently.
This is further to my thoughts on violence directed at Pro Lifers that I posted a few days ago. Because I am a Catholic I am presenting this from the Catholic perspective although I believe the majority of Christians and other People of Faith share this view.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law" (No. 2271). click here
As Catholics we are called To participate in the Church's mission of Evangelization of Souls
click hereso it follows that Catholics are called to proclaim the Gospel of Life. I have come to realize over the past few years that here in Canada it is perfectly acceptable to persecute us for our beliefs because they are contrary to what our Our Prime Minister views as Canadian Values. Abortion on demand has become a "Canadian Value" . Lord have Mercy!
Surprisingly Pro-Life Quotes from President Trump’s State of the Union Address
President Donald Trump presented his State of the Union address on February 5, 2019.He discussed some of the abortion issues facing our culture, especially regarding New York’s legalization of full-term abortions.
Here’s some of his quotes addressing the protection of the unborn:
1) “These are living, feeling, beautiful babies…”
“There could be no greater contrast to the beautiful image of a mother holding her infant child than the chilling displays our nation saw in recent days.
“Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from a mother’s womb, moments from birth.
“These are living, feeling beautiful babies who will never get the chance to share their love and their dreams with the world.”
2) “To defend the dignity of every person…”
“We had the case of the Governor of Virginia where he stated that he would execute a baby after birth.
“To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking Congress to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.”
3) “Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life.”
4) “All children, born and unborn, are made in the holy image of God.”
“Let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: All children, born and unborn, are made in the holy image of God.”
Our Lady of Guadalupe, please pray for and protect the unborn
It is with gratitude that I convey my sincere appreciation and thankfulness to all 40 Days Reps who took on this important and vital role in this fall’s campaign.
All your efforts are valued and have contributed to at times a logistically challenging campaign in church and ministry group participation this year.
Outreach to churches and ministry groups began in late July. From this outreach, 28 churches, 3 ministry groups, and 1 small faith community committed to vigil day participation. Overall, 26.5 of the 40 days were committed vigil days, slightly down from overall vigil coverage last year. Special thanks to St. Hyacinth Parish, for committing to 2 separate vigil days this year. That was a first in our history of doing these campaigns.
As in previous years, efforts were made in other church communities to organize or strengthen themselves to eventually participate in a vigil day. Hopefully this will materialize with prayerful persistence and with exhortations of our pro-life responsibilities as people of faith.
We benefited from the intercessory prayer role of church communities that were either very small or very far out from downtown Ottawa.
As in previous years, there were committed individuals who helped out with a regular almost daily prayer vigil presence in covering uncommitted hours.
Thank You to all the clergy: pastors, assistant pastors, deacons, and religious sisters who participated in the vigil; your prayerful presence encourages the rest of us.
Given the logistical challenges of recurring thefts of our vigil site supplies throughout this campaign, the overall coverage of vigil hour participation is not fully known. Not all on-site vigil participation got recorded in our sign-in book. Based on the current posted website calendar, there was 82% coverage of the 480 total vigil hours. This is down from our 91% coverage in past campaigns. At the same time, we know that the 82% coverage was most likely higher because of vigil presences not recorded especially on uncommitted days.
In the pro-life movement, over the past decade, one of the most effective spiritual instruments God has been leading us in, are 40 Days for Life Campaigns. God has been encouraging us to keep on doing these campaigns, and as of Monday, Nov 5th, 414 known lives have been saved through this fall’s campaign. To God be all the glory! The final international results will be known later this month.
Given the current legislation criminalizing free speech and expression outside abortion facilities in Ontario it is tempting to grow fatigued in our enthusiasm and resolve to participate whole-heartedly in these campaigns.
However, it may well be that God is testing our resolve to participate fully in these public prayer vigil campaigns, after over a decade of doing them in Ottawa. With the current bubble zone restriction, do we slacken in our participation or do we keep on labouring? In my view, our response should be tied directly to our reality.
Which is: on average 1 in 5 babies are aborted in the womb; there are an estimated 100,000 abortions a day, and over 45 million abortions a year worldwide. In Canada, there are approximately 280 babies a day lost to surgical abortion, and this number does not include chemical abortions. These estimated overall numbers are declining somewhat in recent years, but they are nonetheless staggering. Abortion remains the leading cause of death in this country. At its root, abortion is a spiritual crisis, and 40 Days campaigns are a strong spiritual response to this pervasive crisis.
Comfortable Christianity and comfortable Catholicism isn’t an option with what is happening under our watch, because we know what our obligations are to those little ones that do not have a voice.
Please keep praying and challenging more of our pro-life brothers and sisters to support us with their sacrifices and prayer presence at the vigil site during our fall campaigns. We need them.
I will end with this short prayer taken from the daily devotionals of the American 40 Days Headquarters report on Canadian vigil sites in Ontario.
Father, help us to embrace the fact that we are our "brother’s keeper." When we try to cast off this responsibility please call to us to account, that we would be pleasing to you and to our "brother." Through the help and grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thank you so much for your participation in this year’s campaign.
