Priests for Life Newsletter
Volume 15, Number 5
September-October 2005
Table of Contents:
Dear Father/Deacon,
If you have an email
address and want to hear from me to be updated more quickly about pastoral resources
and pro-life developments, please send us your email address at
clergy@priestsforlife.org! Please include also your name and the state in which
you reside. Your email will be kept confidential.
-- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director
Free Bulletin Inserts for Your Parish!
"You Can Save Someone’s Life Today" is a two-page
(four-sided) bulletin insert, revised and updated, that Priests for Life offers
free of charge to any Church that wants to insert them in its
bulletin. This is especially appropriate this Fall, as
parishes observe Respect Life Sunday. The insert contains a)
succinct and stunning facts about abortion; b) numbers people can call for
alternatives to abortion and for healing after abortion; and c) concrete,
practical things people can do to save lives. This insert has in fact
changed many hearts and saved many lives across
Priests for Life is happy to announce that Fr. Giacomo Capoverdi, a priest of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, has been given permission by Bishop Thomas Tobin to work full-time with Priests for Life. "We are very grateful to Bishop Tobin for permitting Fr. Giacomo to do this national work," said Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director, "and those to whom he will preach across the country will be grateful, too."
As an associate of Priests for Life, Fr. Capoverdi will equip his fellow priests nationwide to preach, counsel, and organize more effectively for pro-life activity. Among other things, he will promote post-abortion healing through Rachel's Vineyard, a ministry of Priests for Life, and will foster political responsibility among God's people, who are called to advance the protection of life by the way they vote.
Fr. Capoverdi said he is "very excited," about his new mission, and called abortion "the greatest travesty known to man…I want to do everything I can, using my priestly powers from Christ, to end abortion in America," he said.
Father Capoverdi
attended
He studied at the Catholic University of America where he obtained a Masters degree in 1996. While in seminary, Father Capoverdi was the president of the Graduate Students For Life group. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Robert E. Mulvee in 1997. He served for six years at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Bristol, Rhode Island, and then at St. Mark’s Church in Cranston.
Father Capoverdi
hosted a radio show the first few years of his priesthood, which was aired on
WRIB in
The fastest way to end
abortion
What slows down the abortion
debate is that people who think they are arguing about abortion are doing no
such thing, because they have totally different ideas of what it is in the
first place. Any debate about abortion -- or any other topic -- should begin by
establishing agreement about what in fact is being debated. The topic should be
defined by the facts, not merely by one's feelings or beliefs. In discussions
about abortion, one rarely hears the words of those who actually perform the
procedure, and write the textbooks that teach other doctors how to perform it.
We have provided some of
those words for you below. Please share these words with as many people as you
can reach. We are convinced that the fastest way to end abortion is simply to expose
it.
While it is true, as we ourselves
have said repeatedly, that many people know it is wrong but just don’t care,
the reason many still don't care is that they don't quite know how wrong
it is. They imagine abortion to be a benign evil, and have never been shaken to
their core by the descriptions or pictures of abortion. They have never allowed
themselves to feel overwhelmed or angry about it; they have never wept over it
or let their hearts be broken.
Of course, it is also true
that all too many people hear the descriptions or see the pictures and still
don't care. But the fact is that there are enough Americans who still
have a functioning conscience. Because of that, when they hear the descriptions
or see the pictures of abortion, they are horrified and are moved to do
something to stop it. Our job is to get as many of these people to hear and see
the truth about abortion as quickly as possible.
The quotes below are provided
for just that purpose. The photos of abortion, the justification for using
them, and numerous quotes from those converted by them, are likewise provided
at www.priestsforlife.org/images.
"The physician will
usually first notice a quantity of amniotic fluid, followed by placenta and
fetal parts, which may be more or less identifiable." (Warren
Hern, Abortion Practice, p.114, in section on
First Trimester Abortion).
"My official title … was
'health worker.' I did various duties-lab work,
leading groups … and assisting the abortionist, which included helping during
the abortion and checking to make sure all the parts of the baby were there in
the collection jar afterwards. I will never forget, in the second-trimester
abortions, holding those little feet up to a chart on the wall to make sure of
the age of the baby." -(Dina Madsen, Testimony
of an Abortion Provider.).
" The procedure changes significantly at 21 weeks because
the fetal tissues become more cohesive and difficult to dismember. This problem
is accentuated by the fact that the fetal pelvis may be as much as 5cm in
width. The calvaria is no longer the principal problem; it can be collapsed.
Other structures, such as the pelvis, present more difficulty…A long curved
Mayo scissors may be necessary to decapitate and dismember the fetus…."
(Warren Hern, Abortion Practice, p.134)
"…the surgeon then forces
the scissors into the base of the skull or into the foramen magnum. Having
safely entered the skull, he spreads the scissors to enlarge the opening. The
surgeon removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter into this hole
and evacuates the skull contents." (Dr. Martin Haskell,
"Dilation and Extraction for Late Second Trimester Abortion, Presented at
the National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar, September 13, 1992,
Dallas, Texas.)
The following passages are
from court testimony, given under oath by abortionist Martin Haskell in May,
1999, United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, case Case No. 98‑C‑0305‑S. He describes legal
activity.
"Let's just say for instance
we took a different view, a different tact and we left the leg in the uterus
just to dismember it. Well, we'd probably have to dismember it at several
different levels because we don't have firm control over it, so we would attack
the lower part of the lower extremity first, remove, you know, possibly a foot,
then the lower leg at the knee and then finally we get to the hip."
"When the abortion procedure
is started we typically know that the fetus is still alive because either we can
feel it move as we're making our initial grasps or if we're using some
ultrasound visualization when we actually see a heartbeat as we're starting the
procedure. It's not unusual at the start of D&E procedures that a limb is
acquired first and that that limb is brought through the cervix and even out of
the vagina prior to disarticulation and prior to anything having been done that
would have caused the fetal demise up to that point."
"When you're doing a
dismemberment D&E usually the last part to be removed is the skull itself
and it's floating free inside the uterine cavity. It's
not at all lodged or set in the lower uterine segment as the previous two
descriptions that I've given. So it's rather like a ping-pong ball floating
around and the surgeon is using his forcep to reach
up to try to grasp something that's freely floating around and is quite large
relative to the forcep we're using.
So typically there's several misdirections, misattempts to grasp. Finally at some point either the
instruments are managed to be placed around the skull or a nip is made out of
some area of the skull that allows it to start to decompress. And then once that
happens typically the skull is brought out in fragments rather than as a unified
piece, the result being that sharp bony edges of the skull are exposed and are
drawn out unprotected through the cervix where they can lacerate or cause other
injury or damage. The instrument themselves while you're attempting this
grasping technique can also cause damage to the uterus as attempts are made to
grab the, this free-floating skull."
"When we do a suction
curettage abortion, you know, roughly one of three things is going to happen
during the abortion. One would be is that the catheter as it approaches the fetus, you know, tears it and kills it at that instant inside
the uterus. The second would be that the fetus is small enough and the catheter
is large enough that the fetus passes through the catheter and either dies in
transit as it's passing through the catheter or dies in the suction bottle after
it's actually all the way out."
Photos like this on our
website, at www.priestsforlife.org/images, bring conversions every day, as
illustrated by the following emails we received recently:
"I have been a pro abortion
catholic... After seeing the pictures of what it exactly was, I nearly cried
thinking I supported this awful murder. I ask Jesus my Christ to forgive my
past way of thinking. I finally "get it." This is pure murder. I pray
that more people will get to know what it is they are supporting."
"Hello, I am a
sixteen-year-old female and I just finished looking at the pictures on your
site and reading what actually happens during an abortion. Up until
five minutes ago, I was extremely pro-choice. But within 3 minutes of viewing
your website, my face was covered in tears. Those pictures just really hurt to
look at. … I cannot express how grateful I am that you have shown me the truth
about abortion. God bless you."
Bulletin announcements
regarding our TV programs
Announcement 1: Learn the
Church's teaching about the right to life, and find out what you can do to
defend it. Watch Fr. Frank Pavone and his guests on
"Defending Life" (airing on EWTN every Friday at 10pm and Saturday
at 2am, Eastern Time.) More information: www.PriestsForLife.org
Announcement 2: Learn what
Christians believe about abortion, and what they are doing to stop it. Watch
Fr. Frank Pavone and his guests on "Gospel of
Life" (airing on Sky Angel's "Angel One" satellite every Monday
at 3:30am ET, Tuesday at 2:00 am, Thursday at 8:30am ET, and Saturday at 7:30pm
ET.) More information: www.PriestsForLife.org
Voter Registration -- All
Year, Every Year
Good Christians are called to
be good citizens. Being a citizen of heaven does not replace being a
citizen of earth. Rather, we work out our salvation and sanctification precisely
through the exercise of our earthly duties, including our civic duties.
And primary among our civic
duties is the duty to vote. One of the tools we need to carry out that
mission is to register to vote. The Church's role is not to set up or
run the political parties. But the Church's role does include equipping the
people with the tools they need to be good citizens of earth so that they
can be citizens of heaven. Hence, Churches should register voters.
Now we normally hear about
this only at election time. But we cannot afford to wait until then to try to
get all of the unregistered believers registered. We are called to be proactive,
not just reactive. There simply isn't enough time to do the kind of
persuasion, education, and outreach needed to activate all believers if we only
do it when a major election is on the horizon. Voter registration is an
activity Churches should do all year long, every year. The call should go
forth constantly: be vigilant, be ready, have your tools in hand. Let's not
wait until registration deadlines surprise us, or people realize too late that
because they have moved, they have to register in their new district.
And let us not tire of
repeating the rather elementary legal principle that voter registration is
an activity perfectly legal for Churches to perform, as long as it is
non-partisan. In other words, we do not limit the opportunity to register only
to people of a specific political party. Rather, we open the doors to everyone
without regard for party affiliation. That's because the motive is not to
promote a party, but rather to equip Christians to do the work for which the
Spirit impels them.
All year long, every year,
Churches can have voter registration forms available at the rectory, and
regularly have tables at the back of Church to give people an easy opportunity
to register. Mailings to parishioners can contain regular reminders about this.
The parish website can have a link to
www.VoterSunday.org, which enables people
to download the registration forms from their own computer. That same website
gives all the information you need to conduct voter registration in Church or
in a church-group meeting.
Don't wait! Let's register
voters all year, every year!
Can you make a gift to
enable us to send this newsletter to every priest in your diocese? Call Jerry
at (718) 980-4400
You are encouraged to
remember the following intentions as you pray the Liturgy of the Hours:
September intention: That
schools and universities teach the full truth about the abortion issue.
October intention: For strong
and effective pro-life homilies throughout the Church.
LifeTalk is a lively 1-hour television talk show dedicated
exclusively to the abortion issue, and every month it can be delivered directly
to your home on DVD (only). Every LifeTalk features
Mark Crutcher (of Life Dynamics) and Fr. Frank Pavone and Janet Morana of
Priests for Life. For only $35 for a one-year
subscription you will receive information about the pro-life battle that you
cannot get anywhere else!.
Order Form
Please mail your order to: Priests for Life P.O. Box
141172,
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PO Box 141172
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Tel. 888-PFL-3448, (718) 980-4400
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Click here to See What Abortion Looks Like!
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