Pope St John Paul II Memorial

Pope St John Paul II and the “Gospel of Life”

On October 22 the Catholic Church celebrated Pope St John Paul II as a saint, poet, athlete, philosopher, and a man of prayer.  He began the tradition of World Youth Day, was devoted to Mary and the Rosary, wrote fourteen Encyclicals during his 26 years as Pope, and gave the world the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  He was known for recognizing and combating secular humanism throughout his travels, preaching and example.  The US National Conference of Catholic Bishops treats his encyclical  Evangelium Vitae  (“the Gospel of Life”) as a guiding light in the fight for life.  In this important encyclical the pope reminds us of the Truth that Jesus proclaimed:   I came to bring life and life in abundance.  He tells us in Evangelium Vitae  how “this Truth is written in the heart of every living person because the reality of life is not an ultimate but a penultimate reality”.  He said on World Youth Day that “In our century as at no other time in history the opposing “Culture of death” beginning with Herod’s  massacre of the Innocents, has assumed a social and institutional form of legality to justify the most horrible crimes against humanity including the massive taking of human life before they are even born”...  Alarmingly, he goes on in The Gospel of life: ”broad sectors of public opinion justify certain crimes against life in the name of the rights of individual freedom, and on this basis, they claim not only exemption from punishment but even authorization by the State, so that these things can be done with total freedom and indeed with the free assistance of health-care systems…. To claim the right to abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom.”   

Evil gives birth to more evil

“The end result of this is tragic” he says in Evangelium Vitae  “not only is the fact of the destruction of so many human lives still to be born, or in their final stage, extremely grave and disturbing, but no less grave and disturbing is the fact that conscience itself, darkened as it were by such widespread conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil”.  They have eyes that can’t see, and ears that can’t hear.  “In much of contemporary thinking” the Pope claims on World Youth Day, “any reference to the one Truth is missing and without this reference vast sectors of society are at the mercy of those with the power to create “opinion” and impose it on others…  ”  In the Gospel of Life the Pope tells us: “A large part of contemporary society looks sadly like that humanity which Paul describes in his Letter to the Romans. “It is composed of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth" (1:18): having denied God and believing that they can build the earthly city without him,  they became fools" (1:22)  When conscience,  calls "evil good and good evil" (Is 5:20), it is already on the path to the most alarming corruption and the darkest moral blindness.”  "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct" (Rom 1:28)..

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world— to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice… And mockingly, Pilate said… “What is the Truth?”

Satan gave birth to the “Culture of Death.” ”God thus shows that he does not delight in the death of the living (cf. Wis 1:13). Only Satan can delight therein: for through his envy death entered the world (cf. Wis 2:24). He who is "a murderer from the beginning", is also "a liar and the father of lies" (Jn 8:44). By deceiving man he leads him to projects of sin and death, making them appear as goals and fruits of life. “ Evangelium Vitae

Our mission 

“In a special way” the Pope says  in Evangelium Vitae “believers in Christ must defend and promote the incomparable value of every human person… because God so loved the world that he gave his only son.  This is no time to be quite he said:  “Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like the apostles who preached Christ and the good news….  It is time for us to invite everyone to the banquet that God has prepared for his people”.  But Thomas a’Kempis (“Imitation of Christ”) illumines us about the enemy. “The gifts of nature - the arts, riches, beauty, strength, genius and eloquence are common to the good and bad alike. ” The Culture of Death” is  a serious, talented,  well-equipped, sophisticated, well financed enemy who learned the art of deception and through deception they have become entrenched in the fabric of society and governments around the world.  a’Kempis goes on to say, however,  that what separates the “Children of light” from the “Children of darkness” is the Grace of God, which is granted in abundance to those who pray.  Be attentive then to the promises made by Mary to her faithful servants “I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.” Listen to the promises of Jesus to those who say the Chaplet of Divine Mercy “I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in my mercy.”  When the “Children of Light” with the abundant Grace of God, and the words of the Holy Spirit, proclaim the Truth their voices will be heard over the mindless lies, deceptions and prater of the “Children of Darkness.”  “For whoever will save his life shall lose it, and whoever, shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel shall save it.” (Mk 8:34)

What prominent Catholics say about Abortion

Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  In her acceptance speech for the Nobel peace prize in 1979 Mother Teresa said” I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing, direct murder by the mother herself.  If a mother can kill her own child what is there left but for me to kill you and for you to kill me…. A nation that kills its children in the womb they are the poorest ones.” Mother Teresa  

Pope Francis 2021:” Abortion is murder even soon after conception” 2021; “Those who carry out abortion kill” Pope1 “There is the discarding of children that we do not want to welcome, with the law of abortion that sends them to the dispatcher and kills them directly.”  Pope2

Pope St John Paul II In discussing legislation that permits abortion and euthanasia, the Pope said there was "no obligation in conscience to obey such laws." “Instead," he said, "there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection."

Evangelium Vitae:    8th World Youth Day: