Notre Dame Right to Life

Have a great summer!

2008-06-02T13:11:00.003-04:00

Check back in the Fall for information on meetings and activities.

Annoucements from February Meeting

2008-02-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

Announcements for February 7:

Theology of the Body - starts today!
Rosary - Fridays, noon & 3:30
RTL story on ND Homepage!
3rd Annual Conference, April 11-12
Edith Stein Conference, March 28-29
Join the Leadership Team!__________________________________________________________

TODAY, 6:15pm, Pasta Room, North Dining Hall

Our THEOLOGY of the BODY Group is finally meeting again!

Today will just be casual conversation over dinner to find out what people areinterested in discussing this semester. Please join us!
The group plans to meet at this time every(other?) week if it works for most ofthe interested people. No commitment needed - just come when you can!__________________________________________________________

ROSARY @ the Clinic now has 2 scheduled times this semester!
Meet at Main Circle, Fridays, Noon & 3:30pm!__________________________________________________________

Visit the UNIVERSITY HOMEPAGE right now to read a story on the MARCH FOR LIFE!www.nd.edu
__________________________________________________________

Mark your calendars now for the 3rd Annual CONFERENCE!

Friday & Saturday, April 11-12
Invited speakers are:
Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand
Dr. Eugene Diamond
Phyllis Schlafly
Dolores Meehan
Rebecca Keissling

Be sure to spread the word to your friends around campus and at otheruniversities!
__________________________________________________________

Don't forget the EDITH STEIN CONFERENCE!!
March 28-29

For more info: http://nd.edu/~idnd/edithstein/2008.html
__________________________________________________________

Want to join the Right to Life Leadership Team next year?
Email Mary Liz formore information (prolife@nd.edu)__________________________________________________________

A March to Remember: ND Right to Life Goes to the White House

2008-02-05T19:06:00.000-05:00

A March to Remember: ND Right to Life Goes to the White House
By: Julie Hail Flory
Date: February 5, 2008
University of Notre Dame Newswire
Source

It’s a yearly trip Mary Elizabeth Walter has made for most of her life. Growing up just outside of Baltimore, the Notre Dame senior joined in many family outings to Washington, D.C., for the March for Life, an event that draws some 200,000 people to the nation’s capital each year to rally for legal protection for the unborn.

Now in her second year as president of Notre Dame Right to Life, she has kept the tradition alive throughout her college career, traveling by bus to Capitol Hill each January with a group of students to participate in the march.

But this year was a little different.

“It was kind of a surprise,” Walter says of the day, about two weeks before the trip, when she learned that this would be no ordinary march experience.

The woman who coordinates the group’s stay in Washington had contacted some friends of hers – who happen to work at the White House – and arranged an opportunity of a lifetime. She wanted to know, would the students be interested in meeting a certain commander-in-chief?

“And, of course, we said ‘yes,’” Walter recalls.

It was Bill McGurn, a 1980 Notre Dame graduate and chief speechwriter to President Bush, and his wife, Julie, who set up the presidential visit for 25 members of the Notre Dame contingent, who first enjoyed breakfast at the White House.

“It was incredible,” Walter says of the experience, which she found especially significant as a history major. “We ate in the Red and Blue and Green Rooms, and those rooms are usually museum space, but there we were, eating breakfast while sitting on the couch that Dolly Madison sat on.”

The group then joined a small crowd of about 200, including about 50 students from nearby Christendom College, in the East Room for an up-close and personal address by the president, who shared his admiration for their commitment to the cause. “I see people with a deep conviction that even the most vulnerable member of the human family is a child of God,” President Bush said. “You're here because you know that all life deserves to be protected. And as you begin your march, I'm proud to be standing with you.”

Held each year to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that required the legalization of abortion, the March for Life’s mission is to urge the adoption of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to overturn the decision.

The yearly Notre Dame trip is about more than just the march itself. Participants spend time exploring Washington and learning about the history and ideology of the pro-life movement.

“We try to set aside a day to explore the religious sites around D.C. – the National Shrine, the Franciscan monastery – all the sites that remind us why as Catholics, and as Christians, we believe in the right to life,” Walter said. “Then we take another day to explore the secular side; to try to understand why we as Americans, as humans, believe that we have the right to life.”

For the first time this year, the group also spent a day volunteering at various locations around the city.

But not too surprisingly, the highlight most certainly was the audience with the president, who left the crowd with some parting words of encouragement.

“As you give voice to the voiceless, I ask you to take comfort from this: The hearts of the American people are good,” he said.

Walter plans to continue attending the march, even after graduation. But she knows this year’s trip will be hard to top.

“Will we be disappointed that we don’t get to go the White House? Well, we’ll miss it,” she admits, even though future trips certainly won’t be lacking with the week of activities.

“It’s not everyday that the president says thank you and then shakes your hand and says, ‘Go Irish!’”

February Meeting

2008-01-31T12:06:00.000-05:00

Please join us for the first meeting of the semester, Wednesday, February 6 at 8pm in the Montgomery Auditorium! Come learn about this semester's events and share ideas. Mass will follow at 9:30 in the Log Chapel.

Embrace Life

2008-01-23T14:11:00.000-05:00

Embrace life

The Observer: Viewpoint
By: Charles Rice

Posted: 1/23/08

Would you call it an exercise in futility? On Jan. 22, Notre Dame and Saint Mary's students joined the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., calling for reversal of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling on that date in 1973 which mandated, in effect, elective abortion at every stage in pregnancy. The Court defined the unborn child as a nonperson who is therefore not entitled to the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution to persons.

The Supreme Court will not reverse that holding of Roe. Even the Justices who say that Roe should be "overruled" define that as a "states' rights" approach that would allow the states to permit or forbid abortion. That would affirm the holding of Roe. If your life is subject to extinction whenever a state legislature so decrees, then, so far as the United States Constitution is concerned, you are a nonperson.

Depersonalization is the theory of the Nazis' treatment of the Jews and of the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott case in which the Court held that freed slaves could not be citizens and said that slaves were property rather than persons.

Abortion is not simply a legal issue. It is embedded in American culture. The Alan Guttmacher Institute reports that from 1973 to 2005, more than 45 million surgical abortions occurred in the United States, with 1.21 million in 2005, down from 1.31 in 2000. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies in the United States end in abortion. These figures do not include the uncountable number of early abortions by abortifacients, including most "contraceptive" pills.

Abortion is a symptom of what Pope Benedict XVI called "a dictatorship of relativism… that recognizes nothing as absolute and which only leaves the 'I' and its whims as the ultimate measure." The secularism, relativism and individualism of that culture affect the most fundamental human activity, the generation of life.

Abortion is a product of the contraceptive ethic. "[D]espite their differences," said John Paul II, "contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree…. rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and … a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfillment."

Until the Anglican Lambeth Conference of 1930, no Christian denomination had ever said that contraception could ever be objectively right. Contraception deliberately separates sex from procreation. It affirms that there is such a thing as a life not worth living, and that man (of both sexes), rather than God, is the arbiter of whether and when human life shall begin. If you claim the right to decide when life begins you will predictably claim the right to decide when it ends, as in abortion and euthanasia.

With the marketing of the pill in the 1960s, Roe v. Wade was inevitable. A contraceptive culture needs abortion as a back-up. The meltdown of that culture is accelerating.

Francis Fukuyama called the introduction of the contraceptive pill "The Great Disruption" in relations between men and women. In the nature of things, sex is reserved for marriage, and marriage is permanent, because sex has something to do with babies. The contraceptive separation of sex from life leads to the separation of sex from marriage and to the irrelevancy of marriage. In 2006, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control, a record 36.9 percent of all births were out of wedlock. Out-of-wedlock births are 80 percent of births to teens and 60 percent to mothers in their early 20s. In 2006, they were 26.6 percent among non-Hispanic whites, 70.7 percent among non-Hispanic blacks and 49.9 percent among Hispanics.

Government officials, including educators, throw fuel on the fire by promoting contraception even among pre-teens. Not surprisingly, the birth rate to teens rose three percent in 2006, the first rise since 1991. Cases of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis, the STDs for which reporting is required, continue to rise.

In such a Copulation Explosion, you have to expect a rise in pregnancies and that many will end in abortion. The "morning-after pill," an abortifacient, is available over-the-counter and is easily, if illegally, obtainable by minors without parental knowledge.

Neither the law nor politics can get us out of this mess. Contraception and abortion are a subset of the question: Who is God? Who decides whether and when life begins and when it ends? Abortion is an aspect of our contraceptive rejection of God's gift of life. Before he became Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said, "[T]he ultimate root of hatred for human life… is the loss of God. When God disappears, the absolute dignity of human life disappears as well…. Only this divine dimension guarantees the full dignity of the human person…. In the struggle for life, talking about God is indispensable."

The March for Life is not a futile exercise. It focuses on abortion, the ultimate secular sacrament. The March is an in-your-face, on-site reminder to the Executive, the Court and the Congress of their derelictions and of what they ought to do. Under the leadership of Washington attorney Nellie Gray, the March, from its inception, has also been an act of prayer. The message: Human life is sacred because it is a gift of God. The students in the March bring honor to the Notre Dame community.

Professor Emeritus Rice is on the faculty of the law school.
He can be reached at (574) 633-4415 or rice.1@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

© Copyright 2008 The Observer

Club joins March for Life

2008-01-22T14:05:00.000-05:00

Club joins March for Life
Right to Life travels to Washington, D.C. to protest legalized abortion

The Observer: Frontpage
By: Marcela Berrios

Posted: 1/22/08
More than 230 students from Notre Dame, Saint Mary's and Holy Cross have made the 12-hour bus trip to Washington, D.C. to join thousands of other pro-life advocates at the March for Life on Tuesday.

The march is an annual demonstration against Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973.

The Notre Dame Right to Life Club offered students three travel options, ranging in length from 36 hours to four days. Students on the two longer trips participated in service projects and mini pro-life conferences as a prelude to the march.

"So far everybody seems to really be enjoying themselves," Right to Life president Mary Liz Walter said Monday night. "And tomorrow should be even better. I think for most it'll be such a powerful experience to be in the heart of the nation's capital next to hundreds of thousands of other people, all united for one cause."

More than 200,000 people attended last year, according to the Right for Life Web site.

In addition to a 27 percent increase in the number of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's and Holy Cross participants, Walter said there are about 30 students from Purdue University who registered to attend through Right to Life. She said the club's travel options were affordable and convenient for many college students.

Tuesday's itinerary will include attending a youth Mass, rallying at Capitol Mall and finally marching from the Mall to the Supreme Court building, the Notre Dame Right to Life Web site said.

"Hopefully this will be an opportunity for everyone to be in solidarity with other people who are also fighting for the dignity and the respect for human life in all of its stages," Walter said.Notre Dame students traveling to Washington, D.C. for the march have been excused from classes by the Office of Residence Life and Housing because the march represents an integral part of Right to Life's mission, Associate Vice President for Residence Life Bill Kirk said Monday.

"Right to Life is a recognized student organization and like many other student organizations with national conferences and events that are critical to their underlying purpose, they were granted excused absences to be able to participate in the march," Kirk said.

The decision to allow these students to miss their classes, he said, is in accordance with the absence policy outlined in duLac, which says members of groups that officially represent Notre Dame may receive excused absences when they are away from campus performing duties for the University. Like many students involved in varsity or club athletic events, mock trials, choir tours, honorary society national conventions and student union board national conferences, among other events, participants of the Right for Life March were eligible for an excused absence from their classes through Kirk's office.

"This is not the first year that excused absences have been granted for participants in the Right to Life March," Kirk said. "Our office only maintains class absence records for the immediately previous year, so I am unable to say with certainty for how many years excused absences have been provided, but I do recall excused absences being granted for at least the last several years," he said.

Last year, about 120 students took advantage of this option and filled three Right to Life charter buses to Washington, D.C. This year, as the number of participants surpassed 100, Kirk was "delighted" to approve their absence from class.

He said he hopes these students will be "a very visible sign" of the University's commitment to its Catholic mission.

"I can think of few better ways to do so than through this march," Kirk said.

The students on the four-day trip, which came with a price tag of $85 per person, have been lodged at the St. Agnes Parish in Arlington, Va. since Saturday morning. The second batch of students, who paid $75 to cover the cost of transportation and some food at the parish, arrived one day later. The third and final group, which contributed $50 per person to cover the cost of the buses, arrived this morning after an overnight drive.

But for many students, spending the night on a bus is a minor inconvenience for a chance to make their voices heard.

Senior Ana Laura Virzi said she just wants to protest abortion on behalf of "all the unborn souls that didn't have the opportunity to protest themselves."From the bus carrying the third group to Washington, D.C., she said that though she is a Panamanian citizen, she thinks it's important to make a difference in the United States - a country that may well serve as an example for other countries in Latin America and the world on the abortion issue.

© Copyright 2008 The Observer

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

Road of Bittersweet

2007-12-14T16:43:00.000-05:00

Amy Welborn posted this beautiful link today.

She writes:

The little boy featured in this video with his loving family died 11 minutes after he was born, last week. The parents had received a diagnosis of anencephaly earlier in the pregnancy, were advised to abort, but made the decision to accept the “counsel and wisdom of the Church and bring him to full term” (from a letter accompanying the video). This video was played at his funeral. Beautiful and profoundly life-affirming.

Be Not Afraid is a website dedicated to supporting, in life-affirming ways, parents and families who receive a poor or difficult prenatal diagnosis for their child. Take a look and keep it in mind - someone you know might need it someday.

A step in the wrong direction

2007-12-05T23:21:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, December 4, 2007, I picked up a copy of The Observer, ND's student newpaper, as I was walking out of Flanner Hall following my college seminar, "Perfect God, Imperfect World: The Problem of Evil," and I was stopped dead in my tracks by a head line that I never thought I would read: Contraceptives Available for Medical Needs. I was in utter and complete shock at reading this, mind-blown really, how did this happen?!
Yes, the article did say that Health Services will be only administering contraceptive prescriptions for patients with irregular or painful menstrual cycles, no menstrual cycle or abdominal pain. However, I do not think that even extreme situations such as these necessitate that Health Services have contraceptives readily available to the double-X student population. Why? Well, my reasons are multi-fold and i would be more than happy to tell you.
[1] Although contraception may offer the best or easiest treatment for these medical conditions, there are other, good quality treatments available that Health Services can offer to student-patients. These could be offered as a "first try," and if these don't work, well then Health Services can refer students off-campus.
[2] The medical resources in South Bend are of high quality and quanitity. If a young, ND female student is needing treatment, then she should have no problem in traveling a whole mile and a half off campus to a medical facility for consultation. And I would have no problem with Health Services having medical referrances available for these students.
[3] With contraception being so closely tied with the abortion industry, which is wrought with dishonesty and deceit, I do not find it much a stretch to believe that those doctors and patients respectively prescribing and being prescribed contraception will have no problem faining an excuse for "medically-necessary" contraception. I know that this sounds a little like conspiracy theory, but I find it hard to believe that doctors wouldn't have any qualms about prescribing contraception for contraceptive purposes, with the claim of it being for legitimate health needs.
[4] Notre Dame, as a prestigious institute in the world of academia, should stand as a beacon of Catholicism in a world where most prestigious universities have succumbed to most pressures and demands of secular society. We should not sacrifice or undermine our Catholic Identity and Character when society can only benefit from our remaining strong in the face of adversity.

Notre Dame has so much potential and its students have exponential potential as well, but we must make sure that we [Notre Dame] take every mean possible to make sure that this potential is realized only through means that benefit the student bodily, spiritually, intellectually, and ethically.

http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2007/12/04/News/Contraceptives.Available.For.Medical.Needs-3130689.shtml

Project Mom ends soon!

2007-11-29T16:26:00.000-05:00

We're throwing a huge baby shower on December 8 and we need your help! Over one third of all babies born in St. Joe County last year had a mother who was a client of the Women’s Care Center in Northern Indiana. Project Mom is in its fourth year of having a baby shower for about 25 of these women. We plan on giving each mother-to-be a gift full of all of the things that she will need during her pregnancy and the first few months of her baby’s life.

Please consider making a donation of either mom/baby items or money, which will be used to buy the gifts for each mom. Not only is this a really great way to get into the holiday spirit, but by doing so, you will be helping women and children who live right here is South Bend. (more info)

A Father's Story of Forgiveness

2007-11-05T15:28:00.000-05:00

"Vengeance Solves No Problems - A Father's Story of Forgiveness"
Wednesday, 11/07, 8:30pm
Montgomery Auditorium
--
Bud Welch, the father of a young woman killed in the Oklahoma City Bombing, will speak to us about his loss, the death penalty and forgiveness.
--
This will follow our 8PM MONTHLY MEETING in the Montgomery Auditorium.

Respect Life Week

2007-09-30T13:29:00.000-04:00

This week, October 1-7, is Respect Life Week – dedicated to increase of respect and understanding of the dignity and value of all human life from conception until natural death.

Notre Dame observes this week along with other universities and organizations – particularly National Respect Life Sunday, October 7.

The events for this year are listed below. All are welcome and encouraged to attend and join in the discussion of life issues.

MONDAY
7:00pm 331 Colman Morse Center
Round Table Discussion on Life Issues
Participants include: Human Rights ND, ND ASK, Peace Fellowship

TUESDAY
All are invited to wear prolife or green shirts this day

9:00am; 9:00pm Sorin Statue, South Quad
Rosary

3:00pm Grotto
Divine Mercy Chaplet

7:00pm Coleman-Morse Chapel
Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration

WEDNESDAY

8:00pm Montgomery Auditorium, LaFortune
Right to Life club meeting

8:30pm Montgomery Auditorium, LaFortune
Lecture, Prof Charles Rice, Law School

9:30pm Log Chapel
Mass

THURSDAY

7:30pm 155 DeBartolo
Lecture, "Fight for the Soul of a Country"
Dawn Parkot, ND '95 '00 - First Domer with multiple disabilities

FRIDAY

6:30pm CSC Coffeehouse
Theology of the Body 101
Discussion led by Prof. Adrian Reimers, Theology

SUNDAY – Respect Life Sunday

Observed at Masses and prayer cards distributed across campus

This week is sponsored by ND Right to Life, Campus Ministry and the Center for Ethics and Culture with the support and participation of a number other groups

For more information email prolife@nd.edu

Fr. Eduardo Chavez Lecture on Our Lady of Guadalupe

2007-09-24T13:54:00.000-04:00

TONIGHT!
September 24, 7:30pm
Hesburgh Library Auditorium
Fr. Eduardo Chavez Lecture on Our Lady of Guadalupe

In honor of the 475th anniversary of the Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
the Knights of Columbus is sponsoring Fr. Chavez on a national lecture tour
entitled "Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Woman who Changed the Hemisphere."
Since Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the unborn, we encourage all our
members to attend this great event!

For more information visit the Knights

Richard Dieter - Death Penalty Lecture

2007-09-19T12:47:00.000-04:00

THURSDAY, September 20, 7:00PM

Hesburgh Center Auditorium

Death Penalty in the U.S. - Present and Future
Richard Dieter, Executive Director Death Penalty Information Center

Sponsored by ND ASK & Campus Ministry

Richard Dieter, ND alum, attorney, and Adjunct Professor of Law at Catholic
University, will address the issues surrounding America's death penalty and
offer his thoughts and research on the future of capital punishment in our
nation.

Read more on the ND ASK blog

Conversation in Farley

2007-09-17T21:56:00.000-04:00

Campus Outreach Commissioner David will be leading the first of a series of informal discussion/debate in the dorms this week. We hope that the familiar dorm setting will encourage people to attend and feel more at ease discussing and questioning the beliefs we uphold here at Notre Dame Right to Life

All are welcome!

Details:
Tuesday, September 18
8:00pm
Farley Hall Basement

Thanks for Rosary

2007-09-15T15:48:00.000-04:00

Dear Right to Life Members,

I just wanted to express my appreciation to all those who prayed the Rosary at the Grotto on Friday for the intention of the new Planned Parenthood in Aurora, IL, not opening. I know Bishop Doran would also be very appreciative of your efforts. May God continue to bless you and help you promote a culture of life and end the culture of death.

In Christ and Notre Dame,
Joseph F. Jaskierny
Seminarian, Diocese of Rockford

Rosary against PP

2007-09-13T15:48:00.000-04:00

Dear RTL friends,

It's been dubbed the "Abortion Fortress", and it sounds like something out ofsome campy pulp fiction book, except it's actually true:

In the last few months, Planned Parenthood has pulled some sort ofprobably-illegal stealth operation, has bought land under a FAKE NAME, and thenbuilt a huge 'clinic' there. ...'Clinic,' as in bulletproof windows, high brickwalls, tons of security cameras, and, it seems, INDOOR PARKING so that motherswon't be able to listen to any possible pro-lifers outside trying to convincethem not to abort.

The fact that Planned Parenthood was so secretive about all this should tell yousomething .... Honestly, the whole thing sounds really creepy. It's set toopen in four days.

The Bishop of Rockford, IL, Bishop Doran, has asked that this Friday the 14th bea day of "prayer and penance" for an end to abortion, and ESPECIALLY to stop theimminent opening of this huge new Planned Parenthood center that will no doubtresult in thousands of deaths and shattered lives.

Therefore, RTL will pray a ROSARY at 3 PM at the GROTTO, for this intention.Please also offer up all of your sacrifices tomorrow for the sake of stoppingthis new Planned Parenthood scheme.

Thanks to Philip for the heads-up; also, here's one of the many links to the story:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/550932,2_1_AU11_CLINIC_S1.article
Please all keep this in your prayers.

Will
Spiritual Commissioner

Welcome Back!

2007-09-07T00:54:00.001-04:00

We hope you've had a wonderful summer and are ready for another semester of pro-life efforts. A special welcome to all freshmen and other students joining us for the first time!