January 22: Day of Penance

For my Catholic readers particularly, I want to draw attention a day ahead of time to the fact that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has established January 22 as a day of penance, which applies to all of us Catholics:

"In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass "For Peace and Justice" (no. 22 of the "Masses for Various Needs") should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day."

General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373

January 22 this year marks the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton--both decided the same day--which took away states' rights (read: our rights as state citizens who can vote) to decide about abortion laws, and which established federal law that abortion is permitted through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason. Many people to this day don't know that last part. Another interesting fact most people don't know is that "Jane Roe" (Norma McCorvey) and "Mary Doe" (Sandra Cano)--both very young, impoverished, and ignorant--consider themselves duped and used by the political and legal system into being plaintiffs in those cases. McCorvey never had an abortion, but did place all her children through adoption: She now has her own pro-life ministry. Cano never had an abortion, was, in fact, always pro-life, and believed her lawsuit was about obtaining a decree of divorce, not an abortion. Her story is well worth reading. Both McCorvey and Cano are avid pro-life advocates and speak for such organizations as "Silent No More."

In light of this sad anniversary and having just come from the children's doctor's office, I thought I'd also share a website for any interested parents which provides information about which vaccinations are created using aborted fetal cell lines. Click on "Vaccine Sources" here to check on the source of each vaccine. It sounds so clinical and reasonable to talk about a "fetal cell line," but it is quite Frankensteinian that, in one sense, these children are forced to live forever, their cells being kept alive perpetually in vitro, sold perpetually to vaccination manufacturers (reminds me of slavery), and then inserted into all of our children's bodies, where their cells forever float around with our children's cells. So much for resting in peace.

One can read descriptions of five fetal cell lines here. For example, the RA 27/3 cell line used for the Rubella vaccination means, if I understand everything right, that this was the 27th baby aborted before successfully finding a fetus infected with Rubella. There had been a Rubella outbreak in the 1960s and all pregnant women exposed to the disease were encouraged to abort their babies in case the babies were born ill or deformed. The vaccine researchers obtained the aborted remains of 26 previous wanted babies who had been exposed to Rubella, who were then aborted, but who had not contracted the disease. Only on the 27th abortion, did the vaccine researchers hit the jackpot with a baby who had contracted Rubella, whose cells could be perpetually kept alive to create the vaccination we use today.

It's shaking to me to see that a company can buy a "human cell line" (read: cells of someone's precious baby) for $75. Not a whole lot of money for living body parts, it seems to me.

Please know that our family doesn't believe in a one-size-fits-all solution for what each family decides about vaccinations: our decisions to delay and separate (and exclude some entirely) are based on our circumstances of being a homeschooling family that is not currently traveling internationally. We are blessed to have the flexibility to make these choices and I don't forget it.

Please pray, fast, and do reparation on January 22.