Why We Need A Benedict

In ancient Rome, if a child was born with a deformity, of the wrong gender, or for some other reason was not wanted, all the parents had to do was leave the child on the walls outside the city. The baby would die of exposure.   

The early Christians would organize "watches" to rescue these children from abandonment outside the walls and take them into their homes. They called these children "foundlings." In fact, among the most remarkable characteristics of the early Christian community was the way it treated orphans and widows.  The impetus was clear:  Every human life had dignity because God himself had chosen to take on a human life as the method to be encountered.

Today, the culture is not so different from that of the Roman Empire.  Witness:

Angele, a single mother in her thirties with two children, thought that abortion was the answer to her circumstances. At almost 23 weeks gestation, she entered the EPOC Clinic in Orlando, Florida. Little did she realize that the next day she would give birth to a live, perfectly healthy boy whom she named Rowan. Cradling Rowan's moving body, her screams for help were ignored by abortion clinic workers while her son took his last breath.

The clinic is known for late-term abortions and its well-known founder, Dr. James Pendergraft. A few years ago he served time in a federal prison regarding an alleged scheme to extort the city of Ocala, Florida by means of his other abortion clinic in that city.

This is our culture.  This is how we are treating the young.  This is why we need a Benedict again.  We need one who will lead us into a Christian response that confronts all of life with courage and hope.

If abortion clinics will abandon a woman and a dying child because of their ideology, then we are truly at the mercy of a dictatorship of relativism.

Comments

[Forrest Gump]

Read Shock Therapy over at the Japery.

http://japery.newpantagruel.com/

[Nathan]

I would point out to you that it is Pope Benedict XVI who has fervently opposed the rights of some Christians, i.e. gay Christians, to adopt babies and perhaps save them from abortion. I think this is a case of one trying to have one's cake and eat it too.

More people to adopt children is a good thing. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church under then-Cardinal Ratzinger has come down on the side of fewer people to adopt children. I hope, as Pope Benedict XVI, he will look at reality and make a better decision.

[Therese Z]

Bad facts, Nathan. There aren't ENOUGH children to adopt, which is why so many people are going to foreign countries to do so. That's a wonderful thing, by the way, I wouldn't want it to stop.

Don't you know any prospective adoptive parents? They wait years and years and may never be successful.

And when the horror of in-vitro fertilization, in which many embryos, complete persons, are frozen, or immediately discarded, can be stopped, there will be even more prospective parents available to adopt children.

[Nathan]

Are you crazy? Of COURSE there are more than enough children to adopt; the reason the wait is so long is because of the bureaucracy of the whole thing. And if you're going to come back and say there aren't enough children to adopt, can you explain to me why so many are shipped from foster home to foster home?

[Stephen]

Nathan,

Two things: First, the majority of kids in foster care are older . . . children who were removed from their homes for various reasons already after 6 years old. They are not little "babies," which is what just about everyone who is looking to adopt wants.

Second, those kids who are up for adoption and are babies are usually minority children or children with various handicaps. Most people don't want to adopt these children.

Now, I agree these are serious issues, but quite honestly (I have good friends who work in adoption), it's not like homosexuals are just knocking down the doors looking to adopt. In fact, there are very few . . .

[k]

Well, is there any possibility of organising a "watch" in the world we live in today??

Didn't Mother Teresa say "give them to me"?

I am aware that I am speaking as one who hasn't even got a long-term job... but we live in hope, right?!

k