ISSUE 3 1/22/2010

When Life Begins In the Sacrament of Marriage, the two become one in a very By : Teresa Kenney, APRN, CFCP physical way, and their marriage or covenant is a sign of the free, fruitful, life-giving commitment they have made to each other. They give themselves so completely that out of their love Did you ever ponder how completely amazing it is that we comes new life. Of course, a married couple knows that it is have been given the gift to co-create with God? We have been not just the two of them that produce this unique human given the awesome power of creating an eternal life out of being. The man and the woman give the genetic material to nothing. We are the only created beings in the universe with form a new child, yet it is God that creates the human soul this power. The angels are powerful in wisdom and that joins with the body to exist for eternity. Married couples intelligence, yet cannot create life. God is Love, and Love in its are creating the Kingdom of God by contributing new human purest form is always self-giving and life-giving. God is the beings to join in the eternal paradise God has waiting for us. image of this Love in His Trinitarian form. The Father loves the Son from all eternity; the Son loves the Father and gives the Life begins at the moment of conception. Conception happens greatest self-giving sacrifice of Himself on the cross. This in the woman in her fallopian tube. The genetic material in the perfect Love between the Father and Son is the Holy Spirit, head of the sperm and the genetic material in the ovum (egg) which is poured out for us of the woman unite and form a never-seen-before, unique through the graces of the human person. From this moment on, the journey to the sacraments. God calls us all to outside world is complex, wondrous delicate and amazing. For this self-giving/life-giving love, any of us who have had the opportunity to be a part of and whether we are married or we learn of this process, we are forever changed and humbled by become a religious or a our Creator, who teaches us this undeniable Truth—that The Development 2 consecrated single person. human creation is the product of Love, pure and simple. of the Unborn Child

Words from a 3 Modern Feminist Planned Parenthood is the largest provider in America. Seventy-eight percent of their clinics are in minority communities. Blacks make up 12% of the population but 35% of the in Quotables! Mother 3 America. Are we being targeted? Isn’t that genocide? We are the only minority in America that is on Teresa on Abortion the decline in population. If the current trend continues, by 2038 the black vote will be insignificant. Did you know that the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a devout racist who St. Gianna—Wife, 4 created the Negro Project designed to sterilize unknowing black women and others she deemed as Mother, Doctor, undesirables of society? The founder of Planned Parenthood said, “Colored people are like human ! weeds and are to be exterminated.” How is her vision being fulfilled today? Minority women constitute only about 26% of the female population (age 15-44) in the United States, but they underwent approximately 36% of the abortions. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, black women are more Resources 4 than three times as likely as white women to have an abortion. On average, 1,452 black babies are aborted every day in the United States. (From L.E.A.R.N —Life Education and Resource Network, www.learninc.org) The Development of the Unborn Child Three weeks after conception: At 12 weeks: and sweat glands are now “Approximately Approximately 22 days after The baby has functioning. The baby is now 22 days after conception, a human heart is all of the parts 12 inches long or more and beating in the unborn child. necessary to weighs up to one-and-a-half conception, a experience pounds. Prior to 8 weeks: human heart is pain, including Just prior to 8 weeks Seven to nine months: nerves, spinal gestational age, the first Eye teeth are present. The beating in the cord, and sensitivity to touch manifests 11 weeks baby opens and closes his thalamus. Vocal cords are unborn child...At in a set of protective eyes. The baby is using four complete. The baby can suck movements to avoid a mere of the five senses—vision, 8 weeks, every its thumb. hair stroke on various parts of hearing, taste, and touch. He organ is in place, the embryonic body. By 14 weeks: knows the difference between Structures for tasting are waking and bones begin to At 8 weeks: available and experts believe sleeping. Every organ is in place, bones replace cartilage, that a baby begins to taste He can begin to replace cartilage, and at that time. Tests show that relate fingerprints begin to form. By and fingerprints swallowing to the the eighth week, the baby can increases moods begin to form. By begin to hear. with sweet 31 weeks of the the eighth week, Between 6 and 10 weeks: tastes and mother. The baby’s skin The fetal body bursts into decreases begins to thicken, and a the baby can motion, achieving graceful with bitter layer of fat is produced begin to hear.” stretching tastes. 15 weeks and stored beneath and rotational the skin. Antibodies At 16 weeks: movements of the are built up, and the The baby can hear and head, arms, and baby’s heart begins to respond to sounds. The legs. 9 weeks pump 300 gallons of blood per voice of the mother is day. Approximately one week At 8 to 10 weeks: particularly powerful because before the birth, the baby The baby can “breathe” it is transmitted to the womb stops growing and “drops” amniotic fluid and urinate. through her own body. usually head-down in to the At 11 weeks: At 17 weeks: pelvic cavity. The baby The baby can have dreams can grasp (REM) sleep. objects Five to seven months: placed in Taken from “Fetal The baby practices breathing its hands; Development” (07-Jan-2003, by inhaling amniotic fluid into all organ http://www.w-cpc.org/fetal1. its developing lungs. The baby html) and “Life Before Birth: systems will grasp at the umbilical The Fetal Senses” by are B. Chamberlain, PhD (http:// cord when it functioning. 11 weeks www.birthpsychology.com) feels it. Most The baby has a skeletal mothers feel Ultrasound photographs structure, nerves, and by Thomas W. Hilgers, MD an increase in circulation. (from: Hilgers TW, The movement— Medical & Surgical Practice of kicking and NaProTechnology. Paul VI Institute Press, Omaha, NE, hiccups from 28 weeks: 2004.) the baby. Oil forearms Words from a Modern Feminist

“Injustice By: Dr. Alveda C. King, Coupled with the blatant Please respond to the anywhere Pastoral Associate, niece of practice of euthanasia, and voices of the children! Visit Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the open assault on marriage our website today, to sign is a threat and family, we have lost and up to make a difference. to justice Here, we nobly speak of continue to lose millions of It’s www.priestsforlife.org/ everywhere... the quality of rights for all our children in this culture of africanamerican. We would persons, action plans and death. Some may argue that a love to meet with you, to hear The Negro non-violent solutions, while woman has a right to choose your heart on this vital issue. cannot win the rights of the helpless and what she does with her body. God bless you. the pre-born are continually She does, but where is the if he is willing Yours for Life, violated in often the most lawyer for the baby, who is like to sacrifice the violent acts imaginable. a helpless slave in the womb Dr. Alveda C. King, pastoral lives of Indeed, in America, since of his/her mother? associate (niece of Dr. Martin 1973, over 40 million Luther King Jr.) his children This letter is an open appeal American babies have for personal to all people of good will, and been legally murdered. today, especially to African comfort and At least 13 million of American leaders, to stop the these babies were safety.” violence, to save the children, Black. Two of these to restore the to babies were mine. — Dr. Martin Luther America. King Jr.

“America needs no words from me “And, in granting this unconscionable to see how your decision in Roe v. power, it has exposed many women Wade has deformed a great nation. to unjust and selfish demands The so-called right to abortion has from their husbands and other pitted mothers against their children sexual partners. Human rights and women against men. It has are not a privilege conferred by sown violence and discord at the government. They are every human heart of the most intimate human being’s entitlement by virtue of his relationships. It has aggravated the humanity. The right to life does not derogation of the father’s role in depend, and must not be declared an increasingly fatherless society. to be contingent, on the pleasure of It has portrayed the greatest of anyone else, not even a parent or a gifts—a child—as a competitor, an sovereign.” “[Jesus] saith to intrusion, and an inconvenience. It them, “Suffer the has nominally accorded mothers of Calcutta, “Notable little children to come unfettered dominion over the and Quotable”, Wall Street Journal, unto me,, and forbid independent lives of their physically 2/25/1994, p. A14 them not; for of such is dependent sons and daughters. the kingdom of God..” Mark 10:14 St. Gianna—Wife, Mother, Doctor, SAINT!

Gianna Beretta was born in Magenta () October 4, 1922. Already as a required surgical operation, and conscious of the risk that her youth she willingly accepted the gift of faith and the clearly Christian continued pregnancy brought, she pleaded with the surgeon to save education that she received from her excellent parents. As a result, she the life of the child she was carrying, and entrusted herself to prayer experienced life as a marvellous gift from God, had a strong faith in and Providence. The life was saved, for which she thanked the Lord. Providence and was convinced of the necessity and effectiveness of prayer. She spent the seven months remaining until the birth of the child in She diligently dedicated herself to studies during the years of her incomparable strength of spirit and unrelenting dedication to her secondary and university education, while, at the same time, applying her tasks as mother and doctor. She worried that the baby in her womb faith through generous apostolic service among the youth of Catholic might be born in pain, and she asked God to prevent that. Action and charitable work among the elderly and needy as a member of A few days before the child was due, although trusting as the St. Vincent de Paul Society. After earning degrees in Medicine and always in Providence, she was ready to give her life in order to Surgery from the in 1949, she opened a medical clinic save that of her child: “If you must decided between me and the in Mesero (near Magenta) in 1950. She specialized in Pediatrics at the child, do not hesitate: choose the child - I insist on it. Save him”. University of Milan in 1952 and there after gave special attention to On the morning of April 21, 1962, Gianna Emanuela was born. mothers, babies, the elderly and poor. Despite all efforts and treatments to save both of them, on the While working in the field of medicine-which she considered a “mission” morning of April 28, amid unspeakable pain and after repeated and practiced as such-she increased her generous service to Catholic exclamations of “Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you,” the mother Action, especially among the “very young” and, at the same time, expressed died. She was 39 years old. Her funeral was an occasion of her joie de vivre and love of creation through skiing and mountaineering. profound grief, faith and prayer. The lies in the Through her prayers and those of others, she reflected upon her vocation, cemetery of Mesero (4 km from Magenta). which she also considered a gift from God. Having chosen the vocation of “Conscious immolation” was the phrase used by Pope Paul VI marriage, she embraced it with complete enthusiasm and wholly dedicated to define the act of Blessed Gianna, remembering her at the herself “to forming a truly Christian family”. Sunday of September 23, 1973, as: “A young mother from She became engaged to Pietro Molla and the diocese of Milan, who, to give life to her daughter, sacrificed was radiant with joy and happiness during the her own, with conscious immolation”. The Holy Father in these time of their engagement, for which she words clearly refers to Christ on Calvary and in the Eucharist. thanked and praised the Lord. They were Gianna was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 24, 1994, married on September 24, 1955, in the during the international Year of the Family. Gianna was canonized Basilica of St. Martin in Magenta, and she on May 16, 2004. became a happy wife. In November 1956, to Biography taken from www.vatican.va her great joy, she became the mother of Pierluigi, in December 1957 of Mariolina; in Pope Paul VI Institute July 1959 of Laura. With simplicity and For the Study of Human Reproduction equilibrium she harmonized the demands of 6901 Mercy Road l Omaha, NE 68106-2621 mother, wife, doctor and her passion for life. In September 1961 towards the end of the (402) 390-6600 l www.popepaulvi.com second month of pregnancy, she was touched by Comments/questions: [email protected] suffering and the mystery of pain; she had Gianna Beretta Molla developed a fibroma in her uterus. Before the