All posts by Bill James

Pro-Life

Culture of Life Report for June 2013

Abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted on May 20 of three counts of first-degree murder. Dr. Gosnell ran an abortion business in West Philadelphia that prosecutors called a “house of horrors.” After ten days of deliberation, the jury found Gosnell guilty in the deaths of Baby A, Baby C, and Baby D.

Also on May 20, Cardinal Sean O’Malley boycotted Boston College’s graduation ceremony due to the Jesuit university’s decision to confer an honorary law degree on Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, whom the Cardinal protested for “aggressively promoting abortion legislation.” Since 2004, the USCCB has called on Catholic institutions to “not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.”

The Choice Medical Group, a chain of six Northern California late-term abortion businesses, went out of business in May. A Choice Medical representative explained, “We just didn’t have enough patients.” In 2008 and 2009, the Sacramento 40 Days for Life prayed at Choice Medical on Butano Drive, one of the businesses that closed.

In parting, I’d like to share a poem that I wrote for one of the babies saved from Choice Medical on Butano.

Khya (kai-ya)

The courage of a mother and
The love she showed her child
The Lord repaid a thousand-fold
When baby Khya smiled.

The doctors said her baby could
Not possibly survive,
But Khya proved the doctors wrong
And is today alive.

The doctors said abortion was
The only thing to do,
But Stephanie had faith and hope
And love to see her through.

Vivat Jesus!

Bill James
Culture of Life Director

Council, Pro-Life

Culture of Life Report for May 2013

The trial of abortion provider Kermit Gosnell has dominated pro-life news headlines. The seventy-two year-old Gosnell was the owner and only licensed doctor at the Women’s Medical Society in Philadelphia’s poor Mantua neighborhood. Prosecutors allege that Gosnell killed seven babies who were delivered alive as part of a late-term abortion procedure, by snipping their spinal cords with scissors after delivery or directing his workers to do so. A worker at Gosnell’s clinic, Stephen Massof, testified: “It was literally a beheading.” Gosnell is charged with capital murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.

A recent statement by Archbishop Alan Vigneron of Detroit has also been in the news. On April 7, Archbishop Vigneron told the Detroit Free Press that Catholics in office who publicly support gay marriage and yet receive Communion “contradict themselves” and “bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury.” The statement’s pro-life implication became clear, when, two days later, a spokesman for the Archbishop wrote in an email to CNN: “If a Catholic publicly opposes the church on a serious matter of the church’s teaching, any serious matter—for example, whether it be a rejection of the divinity of Christ, racist beliefs, support for abortion or support for redefining marriage—that would contradict the public affirmation they would make of the church’s beliefs by receiving Communion.” This dilemma has ramifications for the Knights of Columbus. Unless the bishop bars him from receiving Communion, the expulsion of a politician-Knight who publicly supports intrinsic evils, such as abortion, is forbidden by Supreme Council.

In local pro-life news, Sacramento 40 Days for Life pioneer Wynette Sills was featured in the April 29 webcast of the national 40 Days for Life, where she was happy to tell of the recent, unexpected closure of a nearby late-term abortion business.

Vivat Jesus!

Bill James
Culture of Life Director

Pro-Life

Culture of Life Report for April 2013

On March 29, “Good Friday,” the spring 40 Days for Life came to a close with a day-long pilgrimage to local abortion businesses, culminating at the Wright Street abortion business. Director Wynette Sills reports that six babies were saved from abortion in Sacramento alone. Our own Knights of Columbus Council 953 has been active in pro-life work, donating $1,000 each to the Sacramento Life Center and Bishop Gallegos Maternity Home in proceeds from our Pasta Feed for LIFE. Since a picture paints a thousand words, this month’s report will be short in order to share photographs of our two worthy donation recipients. Thank you once again to our Knights for supporting the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death!

Vivat Jesus!

Bill James
Culture of Life Director

DSCF10033

Pro-Life

Culture of Life Report for March 2013

With just three weeks to go before our Pasta Feed for LIFE, seats for only three tables had been sold. Yet, by the grace of God (and some sweat of the brow by our Knights), Council 953’s first annual Pasta Feed was a whopping success, with some 180 guests in attendance! This year’s Pasta Feed fell on Thursday, February 28, the same day that a pre-born baby’s life was saved at the local Wright Street abortion business. Prayer volunteers from the 40 Days for Life collected more than enough money to pay the rent for a couple about to go through with an abortion due to financial hardship. Their generosity was sufficient to inspire the couple to choose LIFE and keep their baby! Later that very evening we had our Pasta Feed, profits from which went to the Sacramento Life Center and the Bishop Gallegos Maternity Home. One of the speakers, “Tina,” told us how she had come to the Sac Life Center homeless, with stage 2 cancer, and pregnant. A referral was made to the Bishop Gallegos Maternity Home, where Tina has found love, shelter, and transportation to her chemotherapy appointments. The day after our Pasta Feed, Tina gave birth to a healthy baby girl, whose adoptive parents had already driven up from San Diego in anticipation. Thank you to all of our Knights who made the Pasta Feed possible, especially our Worthy Grand Knight Ricardo Saldana. Approximately $1500 was raised for these worthiest of charitable organizations!

The day after our Pasta Feed was also the day that Knights from our council prayed with the 40 Days for Life on the sidewalk outside of the Wright Street abortion business. Thank you to PGK Alex Kachmar, who prayed with me on the sidewalk, and to all of our brother Knights praying for the 40 Days for Life at home. In closing, let us remember the life of former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who died on Monday, February 25, at the age of 96. Koop, a pro-life giant, will leave behind a legacy of helping evangelicals and the general public to understand the critical importance of fighting against abortion and euthanasia.

Vivat Jesus!

Bill James
Culture of Life Director

Pro-Life

Pro-Life Report, February 2013

The 9th annual Walk for Life was held on Saturday, January 26, 2013. It was attended by some 50,000 pro-life witnesses. Speakers this year included the papal nuncio to the United States, who relayed a message from Pope Benedict XVI to us that we who attended the Walk represent “the best of America.” Knights of Columbus members were ubiquitous during the Walk, and proudly displayed the banners of their respective councils. While counter-demonstrators were a bit more numerous than in recent years, the Walk remained, as always, peaceful and respectful of all. It was an honor and a privilege to have been part of this powerful witness to the gospel of life. The presence of so many young people in the Walk underscored the thundering words of Reverend Childress, another speaker at the event: “We will not stand down!”

Steve Patton, Respect Life Coordinator for our Diocese, recently sent a bulletin insert to Respect Life leaders from local parishes. The insert, written by Sacramento public health physician Steve McCurdy, a Catholic and Knight of Columbus, concerns abortion and science. Excerpts include the following:

“The human fetus is a human life. This is not a religious or ethical teaching, as some would have it. It is a scientific fact. From the moment of conception, human life prior to birth differs from us only in its stage of development, not in its fundamental character as a unique human life. While some argue that the fetus is not a “person,” this represents philosophical opinion, not scientific fact, and is often used to deny the human fetus that most fundamental right to its own life. Sadly, denial of rights based on the notion that members of some groups are somehow “not really human” is common throughout history. While society has made great progress in the last centuries against such prejudice, discrimination against fetal life is a glaring exception.”

“Abortion is the most common preventable cause of loss of human life. Nearly a quarter of all recognized pregnancies end in abortion. There are approximately 1.2 million abortions in the U.S. each year, accounting for one third of all deaths. The next largest preventable cause of death, tobacco, is not even a close second at 440,000 deaths per year.”

“As informed Catholics, we have the right and obligation to participate in the debate over abortion. Some Catholics have accepted the argument that opposition to abortion is based solely on our own religious beliefs, and these should not be pressed on others. While this is true for articles of faith (e.g., belief in God, transubstantiation), it is not true regarding scientific facts and universal human values, such as the importance of human life. Just as Catholic citizens have the right to argue for speed limits on city streets, so too must we engage to protect human life.”

Fraternally in Christ,

William (Bill) James
Culture of Life Director
Knights of Columbus
Council 953

Pro-Life

Pro-Life Report, January 2013

The Christmas month began with a victory for life. On December 4, LifeSiteNews.com reported that the US Senate fell short of the two-thirds majority vote needed to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The UN treaty calls upon nations to provide free or affordable reproductive health care, including abortion, to disabled persons. The article quotes Josh Craddock of Personhood USA, who observes: “The irony of including abortion in this treaty is that abortion especially targets the disabled in the womb. Persons with disabilities should not be exposed to violence and discrimination, either before or after birth.”

Later in the month, Pope Benedict XVI addressed abortion in his Message for World Day of Peace 2013. An article in LifeSiteNews.com on December 14, offers the following excerpt from the Holy Father’s address:

“Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenseless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offense against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life.”

Here in Sacramento on December 28, Bishop Jaime Soto led a candlelight Rosary procession for the sanctity of life to commemorate the feast of the Holy Innocents. Beginning at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, the procession ended at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, where Bishop Soto presided at Mass. On January 22, Bishop Soto will lead a six-mile “Pilgrimage of Churches in Reparation for Abortion and other Sins Against Human Dignity.” The Bishop has designated January 22 as a Diocesan Day of Reparation on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which the faithful are asked to observe by fasting, prayer, penance and works of charity. For more details, please see the diocesan website at http://www.diocese-sacramento.org/.

The 9th annual Walk for Life will be held on Saturday, January 26, 2013. The Info Faire at Civic Center Plaza will open at 11 am, followed by the main speaking event at 12:30pm, and the Walk at 1:30pm. The Walk will end at the Justin Herman Plaza. Please consider witnessing to the sanctity of life by participating in the Walk. For a bus ride, please contact Gary Hickman at (916) 806-6736. For more information about the Walk, please visit: www.walkforlifewc.com.

Fraternally in Christ,

William (Bill) James
Culture of Life Director
Knights of Columbus
Council 953