Two recent news items regarding so-called “emergency contraception”:

(1) Researchers now claim that a new morning-after pill has been shown to prevent pregnancy when used up to five days after sex — longer than any “protection” developed so far.

(2) Pentagon officials have decided to require all U.S. military bases around the world to provide abortifacient (“morning-after” or “plan-B” or “emergency contraception”) pills for the troops.

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These kinds of pills will abort a newly-conceived embryo by preventing its implantation into the wall of the mother’s womb.

Their manufacturers prefer to call what they do “contraception” rather than “abortion”, knowing that some people are a bit funny about abortion — even thinking it is wrong – which could be bad for sales. They try to claim that pregnancy begins at implantation, not at fertilisation of the egg.

Everybody knows, of course, that from the moment the DNA from the sperm and the egg unite, they form a new and unique human being — nothing further being added by implantation.

Other problems with “morning-after” pills include the fact that they are useless in preventing sexually-transmitted diseases . . . .

One might have hoped the military would focus on discipline and proper behaviour — because lives depend on it — rather than promoting risky activities.

* * *

In the earliest days of contraceptive and similar pills, Pope Paul VI warned that contraception leads inevitably to practical atheism and irresponsible deeds.

You cannot defy the natural law and still have a relationship with the Creator of that law.

In Pope Paul’s words:

“If we do not want the mission of procreating human life to be conceded to the arbitrary decisions of men, we need to recognise that there are some limits to the power of man over his own body and over the natural operations of the body, which ought not to be transgressed.”

Having decided to ignore that warning, modern man (and woman) are now badly bogged down in a morass of unnatural, bizarre and sub-human technologies — such as in-vitro fertilization, cloning, genetic manipulation, and destroying human embryos in cold blood for certain kinds of stem cell research.

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Today, 7 February 2010, Australians have been asked to make time to remember 7 February 2009 – the day bushfires in Victoria burnt out 430,000 hectares of land — and killed 173 people.

Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, has declared a “national day of mourning”, with flags flown at half mast and a minute’s silence at noon.

Remembrance services are planned for churches in towns in the fire-affected areas, including Kinglake West, Marysville, Flowerdale, Whittlesea, Toolangi and Bendigo.

Mr Rudd and Victorian Premier, John Brumby, will attend a “multi-faith” service at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne.

Multi-faith? Will nobody be praying out loud for the souls of the deceased? They will not. The Protestants wouldn’t stand for it.

Better for Catholics to arrange their own one-faith memorial services — those people need our prayers.

* * *

Mr Brumby has told the media, “We don’t want this tragedy to ever happen again. We all need to learn from this terrible disaster.”

OK. So a three-member Royal Commission was set up – Ron McLeod (ex-Defence Department public servant), Susan Pascoe (ex-CEO of Victoria’s Catholic Education Commission) and chairman Bernie Teague (ex-Supreme Court judge).

They’ve come up with an Interim Report — 51 recommendations – focussing on establishing early fire-risk warnings, relocation plans (fire refuges) and reorganising fire service command hierarchies.
They made no recommendations about fuel reduction.

* * *

Everybody knows that fuel-reduction burning is the most important preventative tool  to  help avoid future multi-fatality bushfires.

However, the Victorian government’s burn target for 2009-2010 was 130,000 hectares – unchanged over five years  – ignoring its own Parliamentary Bushfire Inquiry’s recommendation of 385,000 hectares.

Is this government so dependent on the preference votes of the (anti-fuel reduction) Green Party?

A useful recommendation which the Royal Commission probably will not make would be to stop calling that fatal day “Black Saturday” — and call it “Greens Saturday”.

Then whenever we remember those who died we’ll remember whose fault it was — and remember who never to vote for.

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Following our January 30 blog complaining about children not being banned from entering poker machine venues, a comment has been received from the Victorian Minister for Gambling Gaming.

In part, it reads:

Dear Mr Jago,

I share your concern that minors in Victoria not be allowed or encouraged to use electronic gaming machines . . . .

This Government recently made significant changes to the law relating to gambling by minors . . . .

We have increased the penalties that apply to offences relating to minors; a maximum penalty of 120 penalty units (over $13,500) will now apply . . . .

While it is important to uphold the laws that protect minors, it is also essential to recognise that clubs, hotels and the casino offer valuable non-gambling services . . . .

Prohibiting minors altogether from these venues would deny young people and families the opportunity to take advantage of the wealth of community services and facilities available.

HON TONY ROBINSON, MINISTER FOR GAMING (5/2/2010)

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So his answer to our question — will something be done to keep children out of pokies venues to prevent their learning to link gambling with having a good time? — is No.

A skeptic might wonder whether his government needs gambling to continue at its present rate so they can keep cashing in, tax-wise, at the present rate.

And whether big-time promoters of gambling machines contribute to the political party to which Mr Robinson belongs. (If they don’t, somebody please tell me — and also tell how they can be sure.)

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This blog has pointed out before, not only how shameful is the government’s position on gambling, but how the Church’s position is also unsatisfactory — Sydney’s Liverpool Catholic Club and the Campbelltown Catholic Club, for example, recently seeking approval to install more poker machines.

Local Catholic schools also all seem hooked on using Bingo and similar to help stay afloat.

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Ringo Starr, ex-Beatles drummer, now aged 70, is telling the media he has found God.

 “Religion is now one of the most important aspects in my life. For me, God is in my life. I don’t hide from that. I think the search has been on since the ’60s. I stepped off the path there for many years, and found my way back onto it, thank God.” (Los Angeles Times)

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The Beatles did harm with their promoting of drugs, superficial dabblings in Far Eastern religions etc.

Yet were there not also signs of awareness of God, even early on — most famously, perhaps, in the Paul McCartney song, “Let it be”?

“When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom: let it be . . .”

The person of the Blessed Virgin Mary certainly comes to mind. Paul’s mother’s name was Mary –perhaps he was writing about her? OK, but the person of the Blessed Virgin still comes to mind.

* * *

Saint Luke’s gospel chapter 1: “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph . . . and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel said unto her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women . . . behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus . . . . and Mary answered: “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to thy word.”

* * *

Of course, the motives of celebrities discussing their beliefs can always be dismissed as grandstanding.

But let us not judge.

Let us pray for Ringo.

Let us pray for all who seek God.

By God’s mercy may we reach heaven, there to experience what Saint Francis de Sales so beautifully described:

“O beauty of my God, how lovable you are . . .

in heaven we shall need no commandment to love you . . .

our souls will be delivered from distractions, our minds from anxieties . . .

and we shall love God with a perpetual, uninterrupted love.”

In Poland, Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek is in a bit of trouble.

He apparently said recently that, in Europe, the Jews “have a good press, because they have powerful financial resources – extremely powerful, with the unconditional support of the United States. And this promotes a kind of arrogance, which I consider to be unbearable.”

He also mentioned that the Jews created the term “Shoah”, or “Holocaust”, to define the extensive killings of Jews by German Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s – and to suggest that those sufferings were unique, with no precedent in history.

* * *

One journalist chose to misquote these latter remarks under a headline, “The Shoah, an invention of the Jews.”

Bishop Pieronek  restated his original words — that it was not the account of the historical killings, but the use of the term “Shoah”, that he calls an “invention”.

Anyway, the bishop is now threatened with “legal action for defamation”.

Various versions of this story are circulating, and it isn’t easy to get the facts.

* * *

Anyway the notion that Jewish killings by the Nazis were unique in history is not true.

Unfortunately such things have occurred since the human race began – and still do — massacres of entire populations and ethnic groups.

Christians should point this out.

It’s basic to Christian Faith that the one case of suffering that was unique was the suffering of Jesus Christ on the Cross – unique because Christ was, himself, unique.

* * *

Saint Catherine of Siena records, in her Dialogue, how Christ appeared to her, telling her that:

“Though my act of suffering was finite, the fruit of that suffering which you have received through me is infinite. This is because of the infinite divine nature joined with finite human nature. It was this human nature in which I was clothed that suffered in me . . . but because the two natures are fused with each other, the eternal Divinity took to itself the suffering I bore . . . for this reason what I did can be called infinite . . . had it not been infinite, the whole of mankind, past, present, and to come, would not have been restored.”

* * *

The central message of the Catholic Faith is that Jesus Christ — a Jewish man — was God Incarnate. Most Jews find themselves unwilling to believe this. Many others doubt it, too.

But the Church must continue to proclaim it, because it is God’s message of salvation to his human children, both Jewish and Gentile, whom he loves so much.