News of the Diocese of Baker October 20, 2019 THE Vol. 10 • Number 21 DIOCESAN CHRONICLE Central Oregon Right to Life Palluppetta, Father Todd Unger, and Father Jose Thomas Mudakodiyil for allowing us to gather volunteers kicks off and donations from their parishioners as well. We could 40 Days for Life Campaign not do this without all those who work behind the scenes Fasting and Praying for the campaign. And last but never The 40 Days for Life least, a big thank you to our Awesome God who inspired Campaign kicked-off on each and every one of you and called YOU to be here. Wednesday, September 25th God bless us all, Patty Marx, CORTL for Central Oregon. It was freezing cold weather for the prolife warriors that day, but we dressed in layers and came Early birds! Brrrrr! out to represent a Presence and a Voice for children in the womb and their parents considering an abortion. The couple who come every week from Silver Lake, the Monday captain who comes from Chiloquin, and all the wonderful people, made a sacrifice of time and comfort to show up at the vigil to make it clear to the world that every life is sacred and we’re willing to do whatever it takes to support life. We had a few people who were apprehensive to stand outside Planned Parenthood since they had never done it before, but in the end they were thankful they did. If you are pro-life and want to be a Silent, Peaceful, Prayerful Presence in front of Planned Parenthood, you can expect a wonderful team who will be there with you on your first time. It’s not too late to join up — go to centraloregonrighttolife.org and send us an email. Thank you to Father Paul Antao and the La Pine, Christmas Valley, Gilchrist, and Sun River parishioners for giving us the seed money to get the 40 Days for Life Campaign started. Thank you also to Father Sibi Poulose never foresee unforeseeable circumstances (including Thoughts Along The Way changes in myself) that turn weakness into strength or Bishop Liam Cary despair into hope. This I know: my most carefully thought -through expectations are vulnerable to being turned The Snares of Death completely upside down by a future I cannot know in a world I did not make. Respect for Life Month touches down on both ends But unshakable depression, unbridgeable loneliness, of the human spectrum: our first hours, in the darkness of or dread of intolerable pain can weigh so heavily upon me the womb, and our last hours, on the way to the darkness that I give up on my Creator. I make myself judge of His of death. power to save and find it wanting. I can’t bring myself to What we observe in October we need to keep all year trust that He will be true to His promise and stay with me round, for a culture that once fostered respect for life to the end. I fall down in disbelief that He can give me— now forcefully resists it with abortion and assisted suicide. and others—new strength to bear the unbearable in ways These practices converge on the same legally sanctioned I could never foresee. objective: to bring death about or speed it along. Both It comes down to this: I don’t know what the future dispense from the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” will bring, but God does. Time belongs to Him, not to Nonetheless, opinion polls show the public to be me, and He has time for me still, He Who makes all things deeply unsettled about the rightness and wrongness of new. He asks only that I put my time in His hands. If legalized death dealing. As regards life’s beginning, many His is a world where “all things are possible,” who am I people evaluate the morality of abortion in relation to the to refuse? age of the fetus. Late-term abortion, when the little being is recognizably human, counts as infanticide and cannot be justified; but “termination” in the early months, when our Pensamientos A Lo Largo Del Camino creaturely resemblance has scarcely begun to develop, is Obispo Liam Cary seen to be just a form of contraception. In this view it’s not “really” abortion at all and is therefore acceptable. Las Trampas de la Muerte Opinion about the end of life is confusingly conflicted as well. In a 2016 Gallup poll only 18% approved of El Mes del Respeto por la Vida llega a ambos self-administered suicide, but 53% favored the practice extremos del espectro humano: nuestras primeras horas, en with doctors’ assistance. “The only way this makes sense,” la oscuridad del vientre, y nuestras últimas horas, en Matthew Lu concluded, “is if they think that doctor- camino a la oscuridad de la muerte. assisted suicide isn’t really suicide at all.” They may indeed Lo que observamos en Octubre, debemos mantenerlo think this way, Nicholas Frankovich notes, because suicide durante todo el año, porque nuestra cultura que una vez prevention campaigns are “on a collision course with a fomentó el respeto por la vida ahora la resiste con fuerza creeping social acceptance of suicide as a ‘rational’ exercise con el aborto y el suicidio asistido. Estas prácticas of a right to die. convergen en el mismo objetivo legalmente sancionado: The “right” to abortion sets the stage for the “right” to provocar la muerte o acelerarla. Ambos prescinden del die. A woman may end a pregnancy out of compassion for mandamiento: “No matarás”. the hardship her child’s future holds in store for him. Sin embargo, las encuestas de opinión muestran que She judges his future prospects to be so terrible that it is el público está profundamente inquieto sobre lo bueno y not in his best interest to live them, that he should be lo malo de la muerte legalizada. Con respecto al comienzo spared them, that he has a right to die. On his behalf, de la vida, muchas personas evalúan la moralidad del therefore, she exercises this right as his proxy, the person aborto en relación con la edad del feto. El aborto tardío, designated to make life or death decisions for someone cuando el pequeño ser es reconociblemente humano, unable to decide for himself. And she does this as she cuenta como infanticidio y no puede ser justificado; exercises her own right to abortion. The two “rights” are pero la “terminación” en los primeros meses, cuando joined at the hip. nuestra semejanza de criaturas apenas ha comenzado a At the beginning of life as at its ending the choices desarrollarse, es visto solo como una forma de before us can be soul-twistingly difficult to contemplate, anticoncepción. En este punto de vista no es “realmente” but it helps to remember several characteristics they all un aborto en lo absoluto, y por lo tanto, es aceptable. have in common. They all have to do with the future, with La opinión sobre el fin de la vida también es what’s going to happen. But I live in the present and can’t confusamente conflictiva. En una encuesta Gallup del know for sure what’s going to happen until it does. I can 2016, solo el 18% aprobó el suicidio auto-administrado, (and must) project my present understanding forward in pero el 53% favoreció la práctica con la asistencia de los reasonable anticipation of situations to come, but I can médicos. “La única manera en que esto tiene sentido”, concluyó Matthew Lu, “es si piensan que el suicidio BISHOP CARY’S SCHEDULE asistido por un médico no es realmente un suicidio en absoluto”. De hecho ellos pueden pensar de esta manera, Oct 20 8:00 AM Mass & Acolyte Installation, Wallowa señala Nicholas Frankovich, porque las campañas de Oct 20 10:30 AM Mass, Enterprise prevención del suicidio están “en curso de colisión con Oct 22-23 Episcopal Conference, Mt. Angel Abbey una aceptación social creciente del suicidio como un Oct 23 7 PM Vigil Service, Cardinal William J. Levada, ejercicio ‘racional’ del derecho a morir. Archdiocese of San Francisco, El “derecho” al aborto prepara el escenario para el Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption “derecho” a morir. Una mujer puede terminar un embarazo por compasión por las dificultades que le depara Oct 24 10:00 AM Mass of Christian Burial, el futuro de su hijo. Ella juzga que sus probabilidades de Cardinal William J. Levada, exito en su futuro son tan terribles que no le conviene Archdiocese of San Francisco, Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption vivirlas, que debería salvarse de ellas, que tiene derecho a morir. Por lo tanto, en su nombre, ella ejerce este derecho Nov 2 Day of the Spirit, Diocesan Retreat Center como su apoderado, la persona designada para tomar decisiones de vida o muerte de parte de alguien que no PRIESTLY ORDINATION ANNIVERSARIES puede decidir por sí mismo. Y ella hace esto al ejercer Congratulations to the following as they celebrate su propio derecho al aborto. Estos dos “derechos” están their ordination anniversaries this month: unidos a la cadera. Al comienzo de la vida así como en su final, las Rev. Joseph Kunnelaya, Prineville Nov 05, 1984 elecciones que tenemos ante nosotros pueden ser muy Rev. Mr. Stephen McGlone, Bend Nov 10, 2007 Very Rev. Rogatian Urassa, Klamath Falls Nov 20, 1983 difíciles de contemplar, pero ayuda a recordar varias características que tienen en común. Todas tienen que We are most grateful for the years of service of all ver con el futuro, con lo que irá a pasar.