Denver Newsroom, Feb 14, 2021 / 02:00 am (CNA).- Mardi Gras in New Orleans has been canceled only a handful of times, including during World War I and II, and the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918. This year will be added to that list, as the mayor of New Orleans has canceled Mardi Gras because of the coronavirus pandemic. But seminarians at Notre Dame Seminary are still planning to celebrate Mardi Gras, in their own way.
“I can’t have everybody go home and then come back again, as we’re trying to keep the virus out of the seminary. Which means everybody has to stay here,” said rector Fr. Jim Wehner. “So we’re going to do our own celebrations.”
Many of the seminarians have pickup trucks, and Wehner said there will be a competition to transform those trucks into Mardi Gras floats. The seminarians will then have their own parade of floats in a space behind the seminary. The seminary invited residents at a nearby Catholic nursing home to sit outside to watch the makeshift parade.
“The whole point of Mardi Gras, one of the points, is to promote community…from the neighborhood, from the city, from the Church,” Wehner said. “This will be a chance for us here to step out of the academic world for a few days and just have some really strong community building.”
“Isn’t that what a pastor does, through the sacramental, spiritual life of the Church, we’re building a parish community and that can involve good social encounters. So we’ll model that here a little bit for those days here.”
Wehner was not always a fan of Mardi Gras. In fact, he remembers being scandalized his first year at Notre Dame Seminary, when he first realized seminarians had several days off for Mardi Gras celebrations.
“Why are seminarians participating in Mardi Gras events? Isn’t this pagan and secular?” Wehner said, recalling his memory of that time. “I was pre-judging what I thought Mardi Gras was, which is debauchery, heavy drinking, drugs. Just, you know, immorality.”
“And that maybe is what a lot of people who aren’t from here, the tourists or outsiders…that would have all of this perception of what Mardi Gras is. And there is an element of that that would be maybe more expressed in the tourist parts of the city, but that was completely not the case.”
“I fell in love with the city and then the culture, the history— and certainly Mardi Gras.”
More than one day
Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans is closed the Friday before Mardi Gras until Ash Wednesday. But Mardi Gras actually begins much earlier— on the Feast of the Epiphany, traditionally celebrated January 6th.
“When we speak of Mardi Gras, it’s not just of course the day itself, but the whole season and the attitudes surrounding that,” said Earl Higgins, a Catholic author and New Orleans native. “On the traditional day of the Epiphany, which is January 6 … we shift from the Christmas season to the beginning of the Carnival season, Mardi Gras.”
January 6 is also the birthday of Saint Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orléans. One of the first parades of the Mardi Gras season is hosted by a group of women known as the ‘Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc.’ The parade passes through the French Quarter, beginning at the foot of a statue of St. Joan of Arc, gifted to the city by the town of Orléans in north-central France.
“There is actually a procession that is not a liturgical procession, a festival procession that goes from her statue to the cathedral and the rector of the cathedral is waiting,” Wehner said. “The person who’s dressed up on a horse as Saint Joan of Arc reaches out the lance and then…the rector…blesses it. And that’s become the informal unofficial start to Mardi Gras.”
January 6th is also the day New Orleanians traditionally eat their first King Cake of the season.
“We call it La Galette du Roi in French,” said Father Keenan Brown, a priest of the Diocese of Lafayette in southern Louisiana. “That tradition comes from France.”
Lafayette is about a two hour drive north west from New Orleans, but the city has a lot of the same Mardi Gras traditions.
“Traditionally, it’s a brioche batter that’s braided and baked, and it’s topped with this really sweet glaze in the three colors and sometimes sprinkles,” he said, referenced the three colors of Mardi Gras: green, gold and violet. The colors represent the gold, frankincense and myrrh that tradition holds the three kings brought to the baby Jesus.
Originally, a bean or a piece of jewelry was baked into the King Cake. But lately, at least in New Orleans, any tokens have been replaced by small plastic dolls representing the infant Jesus.
From Epiphany to Ash Wednesday, the city of New Orleans and many other cities and towns in southern Louisiana light up with masquerade balls – and, of course, parades.
“These parades always run on the same day, at the same time. So everyone in the city refers to the parade and not the day,” Wehner said.
Notre Dame Seminary sits along the path of Endymion, the largest Mardi Gras parade that runs through the city of New Orleans on the Saturday before Fat Tuesday.
“Leading up to this, the custom here – and everyone respects it – is that several days before each parade, you can reserve your spot,” Wehner said. “If you do it the right way, no one will confiscate it. So it’s a gentleman’s agreement— and it’s spray paint and tape.”
It is also customary for locals to man their spots at least 24 hours before the start of the parade.
“So for two days before Endymion, the seminarians will sleep out during the night and we will protect our spot that we have spray painted,” Wehner said.
During that time, the seminarians are praying the rosary, playing cards. Wehner will even celebrate a sunrise Mass.
“People are very, very respectful of the fact that we’re doing this,” Wehner said. “Of course, we’re in our collars, and we’re not embarrassed of who we are. For the seminarians… this is the perfect time for evangelization.”
One of the last parades of Mardi Gras traditionally begins first thing Tuesday morning. I’m talking before dawn. A group called the Skull and Bones Gang runs through the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans dressed as skeletons.
“They go around and knock on the doors at five o’clock in the morning,” Higgins said. “And say ‘wake up, wake up!’ You don’t know how much time you have. It’s to remind people, ‘Hey, life is short! Get up and party!’”
As Fat Tuesday progresses, the historic French Quarter gets pretty saturated with tourists. Higgins said those tourists bring their own ways of celebrating Mardi Gras.
“The French Quarter is not a place where you want to bring your Aunt Maude, or any anybody with any, shall we say social sensibility because it’s pretty raunchy,” he said.
The partying continues until midnight, when yet another great New Orleans Mardi Gras ritual takes place: clean up.
“At one end of Bourbon Street, a team of the police lines up,” Higgins said. “The chief of police is usually at the head of the procession. And policemen on horses and dogs, and they have bullhorns. Right behind the police and the horses are the cleanup crews…And that marks midnight. Mardi Gras is over.”
Brown remembers the end of Mardi Gras was very clear to him as a child.
“We were very aware that when midnight hit, party’s over,” he said. “The next day, everybody goes to Ash Wednesday [Mass]…and everyone goes in for the ashes to begin the penitential season and to make the fast.”
“Now, the funny thing about that is, they’re not just Catholics that get ashes,” Brown said. “Everybody goes to get ashes. I’ve heard of Jews going to get ashes at the cathedral in New Orleans, because it’s just cultural. For some people, it’s very cultural.”
Higgins remembers a pastor who visited his church many years ago from out of town.
“He says he was amazed at the piety of the people in New Orleans. And the rest of us were kind of looking around. ‘What’s this guy talking about?’,” Higgins laughed. “The churches packed on Ash Wednesday in New Orleans, and by many, many people who are not only Catholic, probably don’t believe in anything. But part of the ritual of being in New Orleans is to get ashes on Ash Wednesday. That’s what you do.”
Celebrating Mardi Gras like a Catholic
Tradition runs deep in New Orleans, especially when it comes to Mardi Gras. These traditions have a Catholic flavor that is accepted and celebrated by everyone, even non-Catholics.
“In New Orleans, the culture and Catholicism are inextricably intertwined. You cannot imagine New Orleans without the Catholic Church. It’s just part of the history and the culture, and it affects everybody,” Higgins said.
Fr. Patrick Broussard is vocations director in the Diocese of Lafayette, and pastor of a parish in the town of Church Point. Broussard grew up in Lafayette, and he remembers going to parades with his family when he was a child. He never really enjoyed the Mardi Gras traditions who grew up with, until he moved away to study in Rome.
“Being so far removed from home, I realized how special South Louisiana is in a number of ways, particularly with the Catholic culture…Just seeing how ingrained the Catholic life is in people, even if they don’t practice it or don’t appreciate it,” he said.
“Everything that we do has that sort of Catholic flavor to it.
Higgins likened it to popular devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.
“Mardi Gras has always been a mixture of, you know, secular and religious. In a way it’s like the Virgin de Guadalupe in Mexico. That’s just part of their culture, whether people believe in whatever they believe in. That’s just who they are. That’s Mardi Gras in New Orleans.”
Wehner was scandalized when he first heard that his seminarians got time off to join in Mardi Gras celebrations. But by now, he’s learned Mardi Gras isn’t something to be afraid of.
“You know, it can be if you’re in the wrong places, in the wrong spaces in the wrong times. But that’s really not the practice when you’re with parishes, you know, the different local parishes have their parishioners at different parts of the parade route, and it’s an all day cooking out and these types of things,” he said.
Plus, it can be a great opportunity to evangelize.
“We have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water,” Broussard said. “if you think of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, you think of all the kind of scandal and craziness that goes on with it. But there is a lot of good in it too.”
“I think just to say, ‘we should not do Mardi Gras’…I think that would be a mistake because there is so much good tied up in it that we could draw from. And even, it could be very beneficial to us in our proclaiming the Gospel. So, hey, you love Mardi Gras. You know that’s a time of preparation for Lent, right? It’s intimately tied in with the Catholic faith. People may not realize it anymore, but I think that’s our sort of way to re-evangelize them.”
Wehner said celebrating Mardi Gras can be incredibly Catholic.
“I always preach to the seminarians, the Catholic Church is not counter-cultural,” he said. “We can be counter societal. Culture is an expression of God’s design. So we will critique anything that tears down what God wants. Society is what man produces. Culture is an expression of God’s Providence.”
“So we are not counter-cultural, we’re all about culture. We’re about promoting it. And at the heart of that is life. It’s family, and we know how to celebrate life very well, with festivals and food and family. That’s a part of our tradition, even tied into the saints. You go to various parts of the world where the whole town is celebrating that saint that came from their neighborhood. And it turns into a festival.”
“I think Mardi Gras is the same way. We’ve just come from the Christmas season. And in between, before we move into the Lenten season, we’re celebrating. The Gospel that can evangelize culture. And when that happens, everybody wins. And you could see that here in New Orleans, which has its own – like any culture – it has its issues and problems. But when the Christian faith speaks to it, you see the best of people.”
This story originally aired on Catholic News Agency’s podcast, CNA Newsroom. It has been adapted for print. Listen to the episode below.
CNA Newsroom · Ep. 91: Mardi Gras (and all that jazz)
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Yesterdays judgement on abortion drugs shows quite clearly that Sen. Finkelstein was wrong, the dogma DOES NOT live loudly in E.C. Barrett! Like the supposed red wall myth, the prolife leanings of her and Cavanagh are just that: A MYTH! she should reflect on her decision before Sunday, or did the fear of the mob get to her? A shame and pox on them all, the exception being judges Alito and of course, the great Clarence!
Horrific as it sounds but I think there is such a thing as abortion fatigue.Here in Ireland there is a movement to further liberalize abortion law. Many good people who believe abortion to be evil have given up the fight and it is easy to see why. Abortion was legalised by the will of the people. All msm is pro choice the church threw the towel in and the battle and war appear won. It is not right but I do think many now think it is down to conscience and God will have the final word.
Hi Alice I am Irish & somewhat agree with you. But late term abortions need to be banned & the fight must continue. Many people support this so-called right to choose, but forget about a females right to be born. Females suffer horrible deaths in the womb. And its so-called womens organisations who support/advocate & demand their deaths through abortion. Quite hypocritical.
Has his position actually evolved? Return of the abortion rights issue to the States was, when he assumed the presidency, his, as well as Supreme Court Justice Alito’s position, the jurist who wrote the majority Opinion. As well as the realistic opinion of most lettered Catholics, Republicans.
Certainly, it would be best if abortion were prohibited altogether. Although the striking down of Roe is a realistic beginning with the prospect of changing the majority mindset of a nation. As well intended as Marjorie Dannenfelser is, it isn’t prudent to attack the person responsible for overturning Roe, and hopefully beginning the process of changing minds and hearts.
Father, with all due respect I must take issue with your position, “Certainly, it would be best if abortion were prohibited altogether.” Of course we pray that all abortions are unnecessary. However, I would consider medical conditions as the exception… emotional/physical reasons for an abortion. If my innocent 10 year old daughter were raped, I would not abandon her by forcing her to carry the fetus of the rapist. I would support a families decision with their doctor’s for a woman whose life is threatened by an ectopic pregnancy, or intrauterine infections that happen from infections that start in the vagina and travel to the uterus.
Catholics must reject all frivolous abortion. Given the use of abortion as woman’s health does not state any exceptions. The Church has been reticent to vocally allow for medical and emotional exceptions.
We pray that one day the word abortion will no longer be a part of our vocabulary.
“Catholics must reject all frivolous abortion.”
Please define “frivolous.”
And read some of the many secular publications (print and online) and listen to the many liberal TV/radio broadcasts featuring pro-choice activists. (Have a barf bag and your Maalox ready, as well as your Rosary and Kleenex to cry into.)
You will learn that many women in the U.S. consider ALL of their reasons, including their education, their career, their current relationship with a man, their weight, their salary, their home, their city or town, their plans for a big trip, their retirement plan, etc. as SERIOUS reasons not to have a baby just now.
Most “woke” women today and the many organizations and online sites that shape their opinions, believe that there is no such thing as a “frivolous” reason to avoid an abortion.
ALL reasons, including “I don’t want to gain weight” are considered legitimate and serious reasons to choose abortion. ANY attempt to deprive women of this “CHOICE” is a dangerous act, and those who advocate limiting access to abortion are extremists who must be “stopped,” or even criminals who must be imprisoned.
Don’t kid yourself and don’t give any ground, not even the “rape exception”, over to the “pro-choice” crowd. ALL abortions kill a human being. There are people today who were “rape babies” who denounce abortion because they like being alive and are grateful that their mother chose to let them live.
Dear Mrs. Whitlock. Your response leaves me aghast. Your well thought out position on the subject reflects a depth I will not challenge. However, my grasp of English may help US with the following definition…
Webster: ADJECTIVE, frivolous, not having any serious purpose or value for life. I may have used “abortion on demand” or “woman’s total disregard for the fetus”.
Thank you.
Well-stated, Mrs. Whitlock. The Church’s teaching on abortion is crystal clear and supremely compassionate, but many Catholics wrongly believe that they can ignore the Church’s moral teaching and substitute their misguided self-righteous immoral rationale for permitting direct abortions in certain circumstances.
As indeed the Church rightly teaches, there is absolutely no legitimate moral reason that would permit any direct abortion. The oft-cited circumstances of pregnancy via rape or incest, as hideous as these are, do not rise to the level of permitting the murder of the innocent child in the womb. Interestingly, morally compromised people who support such exceptions invariably resort to the bogus “burden” and/or “unfairness” arguments to try to justify murder of the innocent child in the womb, and they always wrongly present their views as morally superior in their hideous advocacy of murder.
Thankfully the Church has remained steadfast in its teaching. Part of this teaching involves the moral reasoning known as double effect, and this can also confuse people who do not learn the basic elements of the approach while preferring their own ignorance over clear Church teaching. Under this principle, a mother’s serious life-threatening medical condition can be treated with the understanding that such treatment will likely result in a most unfortunate and most regrettable side effect of the fetus not surviving the procedure, but in no way, shape, or form is the fetus to be directly killed (direct abortion) in the process, and the good effect of the treatment of the mother must not come about from or through the death of the fetus.
Because of such circumstances wherein the child is indirectly killed, unthinking people wrongly accuse the Church of hypocrisy in “permitting direct abortion in some circumstances but not others,” but an honest review of the Church’s teaching and application of the teaching also clearly demonstrates why the teaching is morally sound, and no direct abortion is ever involved.
Well-stated, Mrs. Whitlock. The Church’s teaching on abortion is crystal clear and supremely compassionate, but many Catholics wrongly believe that they can ignore the Church’s moral teaching and substitute their misguided self-righteous immoral rationale for permitting direct abortions in certain circumstances.
As indeed the Church rightly teaches, there is absolutely no legitimate moral reason that would permit any direct abortion. The oft-cited circumstances of pregnancy via rape or incest, as hideous as these are, do not rise to the level of permitting the murder of the innocent child in the womb. Interestingly, morally compromised people who support such exceptions invariably resort to the bogus “burden” and/or “unfairness” arguments to try to justify murder of the innocent child in the womb, and they always wrongly present their views as morally superior in their hideous advocacy of murder.
Thankfully the Church has remained steadfast in its teaching. Part of this teaching involves the moral reasoning known as double effect, and this can also confuse people who do not learn the basic elements of the approach while preferring their own ignorance over clear Church teaching. Under this principle, a mother’s serious life-threatening medical condition can be treated with the understanding that such treatment will likely result in a most unfortunate and most regrettable side effect of the fetus not surviving the procedure, but in no way, shape, or form is the fetus to be directly killed (direct abortion) in the process, and the good effect of the treatment of the mother must not come about from or through the death of the fetus.
Because of such circumstances wherein the child is indirectly killed, unthinking people wrongly accuse the Church of hypocrisy in “permitting direct abortion in some circumstances but not others.” However, an honest review of the Church’s teaching and its application also clearly demonstrates why the teaching is morally sound, and no direct abortion is ever involved.
Although your judgment may be understandable, it is nonetheless emotionally-based and logically indefensible. It’s not the baby’s fault how he/she was conceived. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
With all respect the emotional let out is a piece of string. A spot on the face of an ordinary person is annoying but to a supermodel it is devastating. Abortion is the head of a rotten plant who’s roots need a thorough root and branch clear out. All of us hold some guilt for a society where a ten year old could be raped. It goes back to acceptance of wide spread filth, societies who hold a two tier morality for men and women, neglect of children, diminished respect for life, the list goes on. Abortion will never disappear until a truly Christian society is at least seriously attempted. I understand your perspective, but even contemplating such a fate for a ten year old should make all of us double down on attempts to clean up our own backyard at least
Sorry morgand your analysis is wrong..you state that all abortions should be illegal and then hive reason to not do that…ectopic pregnancy has always been treated as a serious condition even before 1973 to terminate results in that the doctor has 2 patients to care for and unfortunately on life is sacrificed for the life of the othet…that is not abortion…also emotional distress is not a reason to murder an innocent life..the same for rape…however I would make an exception but encourage the victim to choose life by praising her decision thanking her for her sacrifice and choosing adoption as an end good…we should always protect life….period
Ronald:
Just a bit of a clarification is needed. The death of a fetus during a procedure to help the mother must only come about indirectly to coincide with Catholic Moral teaching. As such, regarding the ectopic pregnancy example you mention, if you say the child is sacrificed, an assumption can easily arise that the child is directly killed in the process in order to save the mother. This is not the case. The child’s death is a regrettable side effect of treating the mother. The Principle of Double Effect is what the Church employs in such situations, but always keep in mind that the direct killing of the child to save the life of the mother is never approved by the Church as it would be an immoral act.
There are also no exceptions for rape, incest, or anything else. Exceptions excuse murder for the benefit of another, and they cannot be approved. Thankfully, the Church is crystal clear on this teaching even though many Catholics are unfamiliar with significant parts of this teaching, and other Catholics have wrongly convinced themselves that some exceptions are morally acceptable when they are actually quite despicable and flat out wrong.
Agreed, Father!
Thank you for being a clear voice in the discussion. No one but Trump got Dobbs done; it was due to his Supreme Court appointments. Seems like some who have commented are unaware of the facts: all optional abortions are prohibited by Church law. You want this to apply nationally? Then get busy at the state level and make it happen.
Trump is right, in a sense.
Under the Constitution, each State can decide whether a live birth of the victim is required if causation of death can lawfully be proved, or whether the clearance of an earlier life stage is sufficient. At common law, a child in the womb cannot (save under statute) be a victim of a crime of violence – but if injured in the womb, and afterwards born alive, then the defendant is guilty of murder if the child subsequently dies.
Only a State can legislate to the effect that the death of a child in utero can be a criminal homicide and that causation of the death in utero admits of lawful proof. It is not within the power of the Congress of the United States to remove such legislation or prohibit its application in court.
The fact that causation of death is not proved (or cannot lawfully be proved) does not assist a defendant arraigned of attempted murder – this is a crime under Federal law as well as under the law of several States.
Feinstein. More to the point, we are still trying to pretend that Donald Trump is some sort of savior when the reality is that his candidacy has been a narcissistic farce from the beginning. If we still want a two party system the Republicans need to repair once again to the little white schoolhouse in Racine.
Ann, you are right about the savior, Trump. Seems that he conveniently switched to Pro-life when he decided to run for the Presidency. It was then that we Catholics were duped. We ignored his continued prolific lying, narcissism, power hungriness, insurrectionist with the insanity of denying Biden’s fair election by enticing the invasion of our US Capitol. Today, Trump has entered the 2024 run for his disgraced former tenure.
Moreover, Trump’s recent statement that he would support the states assumption of abortion. That would cause a “patchwork” of control.
Excerpts: “It was the abortion issue, poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on no exceptions, even in the case of rape, incest, or life of the mother, that lost large numbers of voters,”. It was my understanding that our Church supported the exceptions of rape, incest and the mental and physical health of the mother.
“It was my understanding that our Church supported the exceptions of rape, incest and the mental and physical health of the mother.” As for rape, incest and mental health of the mother–NOT true! As for the physical health, the church’s teaching is a bit more complicated, and I hope I’m doing it justice–but it boils down to abortion being excusable (although not justifiable) if it is the UNintended result of treatment for the mother’s medical condition. But it can never, under any circumstances, be the intended result of any treatment, even for a serious maternal medical condition.
Funny how no one listened to this back in 2016. I guess he got it done and sadly to many liberals his position is still horrid but it should be to truly pro life people too, but sadly in America it seems that rather than wanting abortion gone Trump and co just want it far away from them. What sucks is much like his fellow candidates in 2016, he’s just like them. Also, I think he used us like they have for years. Maybe we need to vote with our feet and either go to another party or actually create a real culture of life and not just one where the minimum becomes the maximum.
I think it’s time we moved past Trump. He was never more than a populist. He supported pro-life people when he thought it was politically advantageous and he’ll abandon us the moment he thinks it will help him somehow. It’s time conservatives rallied behind a dependable candidate with less baggage who can win comfortably in 2024 instead of maybe squeaking in 49% to 48%. We thank him for his service and for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, but it’s time to upgrade to a better candidate.
I m hoping he and DeSand run together so we can knock back Biden, UNMASKED NEWSTONED, and Whitmer, amongst others
Trump and DeSantis cannot run together, P and VP from the same state are not allowed.
Mark: Actually, there is no constitutional provision against a presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate coming from the same state. There is, however, a funky situation involving how the electoral college operates, and it could cause a rare but significant problem in a very close election involving the total electoral votes. This is also where the ongoing myth of “there cannot be a presidential and vice presidential candidate from the same state” originated. In fine, the Constitution prevents the electors from voting for both candidates from the same state as the electors, so it only impacts one state. All of the electors from the other 49 states are free to vote for both candidates, but in the state where both candidates on the same ticket are residents of that state, each elector can vote for either the prez candidate to be the president, or they can vote for the vp candidate to be vice president, but not for both.
Again, in a very close election, this rule could cause a serious problem, and so to avoid the rare possibility, it is prudent to have a ticket of candidates from different states. Of course, if it is assumed that having candidates from the same state will lead to a blow-out where splitting the electoral votes between the VP and Prez candidate in their home state will not alter the final outcome, then that would be considered a reasonable risk to take.
All that being said, it is highly unlikely that Trump would select DeSantis or anyone else from Florida as his running mate, so this issue will not be in play.
Sorry, I am a Republican and want to win in 2024. However, many GOPers do not support Trump. They feel, as I do, that he lost us the race in 2022. The Teflon Donald With the court calendar, he carries to much potential criminal baggage.
Andrew, agree with you with one minor exception, i.e., “squeaking in with 49%.” Trump probably can win some Republican primaries due to their “winner take all” rule even if the winner gets far less than 50% on the vote. But he can’t win in the general election. Couldn’t get anywhere near 49% of the vote. But apart from that nitpick, you’re absolutely right. Time for the Republican Party to move and stop losing election after election.
In earlier notes I insisted on challenging the 15-week assumption and other assumptions and that there should be no giving in or wrong cooperation!
US pro-life has always been the vanguard for no exceptions. Why I have so admired you! The 15-week compromise, propositional or temporary, is not that; and I am standing in solidarity instead, with what I know the truth to be. Integralism handicaps the topic philosophically and thus politically; and makes it so much easier for other topics to get carried off, such as we see now with the abortion pill.
But integralism also misapprehends the meaning of abortion in legal circles and in doing that is giving the judges the free pass all over again.
Listen! I must reprimand my friend!
Listen! Listen outside the box.
Listen! Apprehend!
Abortion is crime of murder: intention to eliminate a known pregnancy. The stage is irrelevant, what matters is evidential knowledge.
THAT is law.
But law also recognizes criminal negligence not just murder. So that if a child is born deformed as a result of the pill, the people are liable both in tortious negligence and in criminal grievious bodily harm (“GBH”) notwithstanding that at the time of prescribing and taking the pill there was no conception or knowledge of any particular conception. If the infant then dies, manslaughter. THAT is law.
THAT is law. The rest is gibberish killing and maiming.
This is about JURIDICAL RESPONSIBILITY or integrity. It was the problem with Roe and it remains the problem with Dobbs. The JURISTIC BASES are still very wrongly being rooted up/flouted/bypassed/de-structured/carved up and left as -somehow- “unknown”; not responsibly acknowledged and effected as JUSTICIAL DUTY.
So that now the Supreme Court is in effect saying JURIDICALLY that there can be no such thing as tortious negligence and/or GBH in the use of the pill. Which is just absurd and stupid. Rubbish!
AND that abortion is for the States (Dobbs) but the abortion pill is for the Supreme Court (Danco). Which is self-cancelling or meaningless.
In its own way this description of things proves how Trump can not lead the charge. But is pro-life America going to let us down too?
No! No! No! No! No! NOT MY FRIENDS! NO!
US pro-life can not / may not negotiate abortion. Do not do it. Bargaining over babies lives and for their flesh is the work of the Devil who needs to establish his position in every related dimension including inside pro-life milieu.
Satan is the Big Snake in the Garden of Redemption. “What did God say? Did God really say that?”
“Of course you may bargain about the babies, it is all to the good. Yes? Good lord in the morning, God knows your eyes will be opened and you will avoid being an ideologue. You will be able to study Dante and Peguy in peace and allow the atheists like Scalfari enough time to interview the Pope and eventually repent with no-one getting flustered. Babies have nothing to do with that. Or do you want to be a temptation to the Pope for him to rebuke you as the gattopardo with the diaper? It will all be all your fault.”
Kudos to Marjorie D. for being willing to start criticizing Trump. If he gets the nomination he would lose to Biden again and likely drag Senate and House candidates down to defeat with him, resulting in one party, Democrat, control of the entire US government. DeSantis could beat Biden, Haley could beat Biden, Tim Scott could beat Biden, Chris Christie could beat Biden. But the Bozo Base says it wants Trump again. Somehow the party of Lincoln needs to be wrested back from this suicide pact with the most self-centered man ever to head a major party, and from his ignorant fan base (not the millions who voted for him because, duh, he was better than Hillary and Joe) who can sway many primaries but appear politically clueless about the end result. Pro-lifers are a major force and can be key if they back DeSantis or some other candidate who could win the general election and ask their supporters to leave Donald behind in the dust of history.
Mark, Trump has a maniacal MAGA base and illegal dark money support. In the first week of announcement for 2024 he raised more than $150K. He continues to be the GOP gold-standard. But, the GOP has many more drags on its integrity. McCarthy sold his soul to the extreme and dangerous volatile right for the Speakership. After a round of kisses the toxic rebels, Marjorie Taylor Green, Paul Gosar, Laure Bobert and Jim Jordan, etc. emerged to take powerful committee assignments. DeSantis, with his blatant autocratic control of Florida could be even more radical.
We can’t let 2020 happen again. We must seek a voice that encourages American unity by getting past Trump and his past .
Let’s get this straight.
Roe was about The Constitution. It goes like this “Congress has certain and enumerated rights ….” Nowhere in The Constitution is there a right to abortion. There is, however a right to life. in Roe the Warren Court in 71, I think it was, found some clause about privacy and created a right to abortion. Not unlike Dreed back before the Civil War, where the head judge found that you could own a human being via private property.
So, don’t try to blame this on Trump. When he says it’s a matter for states (or in fact Congress) the point is that Congress and the states make the laws of the land. They can of cause make an amendment to The Constitution. No one in the GOP or DNC dare touch the abortion issue. It goes back to early progressivism and Mageret Singer. And their idea was that it was a violation of the woman’s right to deny her the right to kill her baby. “My body my choice”
Now, that is of cause a disgusting idea. And they are overlooking a dilemma about the right to life of the unborn child. But femminism has taken this in as some kind of women’s rights.
Trump is not perfect. He’s done a lot of things and said even more. He’s come a long way, and if it wasn’t for Trump’s nomination of constitutionalists to the Supreme Court, Roe and quite a few other creative findings in The Constitution would still be in place.
Btw. Joe didn’t win the election of 2020. They cheated and got Joe on the podium to take the oath of office. Likewise in 2022 they cheated and only lost The House by a narrow margin and gained one vote in The Senate. In both elections, Trump and the GOP won in a landslide.
So the USA is run by an illegitimate government, a regime. With the help of God and his Son, Jesus Christ, all these crimes and many more will be exposed and Trump will be reelected for a third time in 2024.
SBA is proposing a federal law allowing abortion up to the 15 week mark? This is a pro-life position? This is more pro-life than Trump’s leave it up to the states position?
We have abortion not because of anything the POTUS or SCOTUS did or didn’t do, but because we are an unchaste society that barely tolerates babies but very much tolerates fornication, contraception, porn, IVF and the like.
I don’t think the 501c3 pro-life groups are really able to come to grips with that in any meaning way, since they likely get a large percentage of their monies from people who favor contraception and sterilization (and IVF).
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I am guessing Protestants no longer have the theological foundation to condemn contraception or the other sexual sins. Rome and the bishops seem to be disinterested in that fight as well–indeed, they seem to be doing all they can to join with the Protestants in overturning nearly 2,000 of condemning the various sexual sins to lead us into the child sacrificing culture in which we find ourselves.
I supported Trump with my money, my mouth, and my vote twice; he was clearly better than either of the ghouls who opposed him. But let’s be clear, he is far, far from perfect and there are very legitimate reasons to oppose his politics. To enumerate just a few: [1] he often hangs around with disreputable scoundrels like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo and then compounds this error by appointing these people to offices of great power; [2] his thinking about both abortion and sodomy is muddled at best, a reflection of political calculation rather than solid principles; [3] try as he may (and he’s never really tried at all), he cannot escape responsibility for Operation Warp Speed, one of the greatest blunders, perhaps even one of the greatest crimes, in human history. Excepting his SCOTUS appointments — and they too can be questioned to some degree — Trump’s political history is rather shabby at best and was mostly erased in one day by strokes of the pen of the fake Catholic fake president who followed him into the Oval Office. Knowing all this sorely tempts me to close my wallet, my mouth, and my front door on voting day for the 2024 campaign.