• Contraception - Why Not? - Stan Martin.
• Acceptance of Contraception leads to Promotion of Legalised Abortion - Fr Lino Ciccone, C.M.
• Abortion Is Murder
• Do I have trouble relating abortion to Scripture? - © 1998 by Priests for Life.
• Abortion-relevant References from Scripture and Church History - Randy Alcorn.
• The Angel of the First Plague - M.M.P. message no. 412.

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Contraception -
Why Not?
By Stan Martin

A recently-married person who had visited the Couple To Couple League for Natural Family Planning's Web site sent me this question. In order to answer him, I attempted to summarize Christian reasoning about contraception. I hope that you may find this summary helpful as a starting point for your own consideration of this important issue.

Stan Martin
[email protected]
January 6, 1997
 
 

"And one other thing: though I've heard it before, I don't understand the moral dilemma of contraception. And after glancing through all your pages, I couldn't find that anywhere. 1.) Maybe that should be displayed more prominently, and 2.) could you explain to me what the moral problem is?"

Point 2) is a big question. I'll try to do it justice in a brief space but understand that there are whole books on the subject. If what you see here seems of interest, I could send you some of those pamphlets, or recommend some books, if you want more detail.

First, I will offer a strictly Biblical perspective. (All quotations are from the Revised Standard Version). Then I'll offer the natural law view. Finally, I'll offer some information from a pro-life perspective.
 
 

But in Genesis 38, we find the story of Tamar and Onan. Tamar was married to Er, but Er died before they had any children. Following a custom called the "Law of the Levirate", Er's brother Onan is commanded by Judah (their father) to have intercourse with Tamar.

38:8 Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother".

38:9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother.

38:10 And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD, and he slew him also.

Several things about this passage are significant. The Law of the Levirate was a mechanism for preserving and perpetuating a family line. But the penalty for not following it was not serious; if a brother refused to perform his duty, the offended sister-in-law could publicly strike him on the face with his sandal, and henceforth he would be surnamed "The Unshod". The death penalty was not involved. But 38:10 informs us that God considered this incident more than a mere refusal of duty; it was such a serious offence that He slew Onan.

For 19 centuries, until 1930 in fact, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox commentators were in unanimous agreement on their interpretation of this passage: Onan attempted to have the pleasure of intercourse, but defrauded it of its procreative meaning by withdrawing. That this was a violation of the earlier commandments in Genesis was underscored by the magnitude of the divine penalty - God apparently took this very seriously!

The conclusion of Christians (and Orthodox Jews) was applied to all similar forms of sexual behaviour: masturbation, homosexual acts, bestiality, etc.; as well as to chemical/pharmacological attempts to thwart conception [which have been attempted throughout history; the 20th century is unique only in the effectiveness and acceptance of such methods]. Protestant leaders such as Luther and Calvin soundly condemned what we would today call "contraceptive behaviours". Calvin said "If any woman ejects a foetus from her womb by drugs, it is reckoned a crime incapable of expiation."
[1] Interestingly enough, it was the legal process of overturning nineteenth-century Protestant anti-contraceptive laws (Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965) that gave rise to the "right to privacy" argument, later used with deadly effectiveness in Roe v. Wade.

Notice also that Genesis 38 precedes the establishment of the Mosaic Law; Christians understand themselves to be freed from the specifications of the Mosaic Law, but not from other OT morality. So this section of Scripture "still applies" in most interpretations.

An approach to the theology behind this is the "covenantal" interpretation, advanced most thoroughly by John Kippley in his book Sex and the Marriage Covenant. Basically, the idea is that God established a covenant relationship in marriage. The Old Testament Hebrew notion of covenant is actually stronger than the idea of "contract" which we typically equate it with today. To the Jews, a covenant is a promise that establishes a family bond. And all covenants have some act by which they are instituted and re-enacted; usually one at which blood is spilled. Biblical examples would be circumcision and the Passover, as well as Jesus' death on the cross.

Kippley points out that marriage is the first covenant in the Bible; the covenantal act is the act of intercourse, which (in the first instance with a virgin) spills blood with the breaking of the hymen. Therefore, every sexual act is intended by God to be a renewing of the marital covenant, the pledge of total self giving that was made by bride and groom in their vows. However, contraceptive intercourse is a restraining of that self-giving; in effect, it says "I take you for the 'better' of sexual pleasure but not for the (imagined) 'worse' of an additional child". So it defrauds the covenantal renewal of its meaning and is therefore outside of God's will. Incidentally, this interpretation provides a framework for comprehending all Biblical sexual morality; you can probably see that it extends to fornication, masturbation, homosexual acts, and adultery.
 
 

If you haven't read Humanae Vitae, I recommend it. Even if you aren't Catholic, it is still valuable for its discussion of natural law arguments, as well as theological ones, and it now (27 years later) appears prophetic in the discussion of the effects of widespread contraception upon society. It isn't long, maybe 10 letter-size pages.
 
 

The birth-control pill ("The Pill") is widely understood by the medical profession (but not by the general public) to have an abortifacient mechanism. The Pill basically has three mechanisms for preventing births:

1. suppressing ovulation.
2. thickening cervical mucus, thus preventing sperm migration and reducing sperm life.
3. altering the uterine lining (endometrium) to prevent implantation of the embryo.

In fact, the existence of mechanism (3) was cited at Congressional hearings regarding the importation of RU-486; supporters of RU-486 argued that if Congress was consistent in their logic (for excluding RU-486) that they would have to ban the birth control pill as well. Since the Pill was legal, they argued, RU-486 should similarly be legal.

• Norplant is also a progesterone-only formulation.

• The IUD also acts to prevent implantation; it has no known effect upon ovulation.

Stan
 

[1] Calvin's Latin Commentary On Genesis (38:10), as quoted on p-25, The Bible and Birth Control, Charles D. Provan, Zimmer Printing, Monongahela, PA 1989. Note that the online version is a slightly different translation from that quoted by Provan.

[2] Dr. Bogamir M. Kuhar, Pharm. D. (president of Pharmacists For Life), Infant Homocides Through Contraceptives, Eternal Life, P.O. Box 787, Bardstown, KY 40004.

[3] There are numerous sources of information on the abortifacient properties of the Birth Control Pill, Norplant, and other chemical/hormonal contraceptive devices; such properties have been disclosed in various public references including Congressional hearings. For medical detail, in addition to reference [2], refer to a current Physician's Desk Reference. See also p-9, Kippley, John. The Art Of Natural Family Planning, fourth ed., The Couple-To-Couple League, Cincinnati, OH. 1996. ISBN 0-926412-13-2 (More information here).
 
 

 Reflections on the Holy Father's Encyclical 'Evangelium Vitae' - 8

Acceptance of contraception
leads to promotion of legalized abortion

by Fr Lino Ciccone, C.M.
Professor of moral theology, Lugano

      Faced with the enormous number of forms of "violence against life done to millions of human beings" (n. 10), in his Encyclical John Paul II has made a very precise choice, which is that of concentrating his attention on the attacks "affecting life in its earliest and in its final stages". The reason is that they "present new characteristics with respect to the past and which raise questions of extraordinary seriousness" (n. 11). Some of these attacks are radically new, non-existent and unthinkable up to a few decades ago. Others, even if existing for centuries have taken on in our time completely new purposes, meanings and functions, and have had a real reversal in social evaluation. Among the attacks on life at its earliest stage, abortion is obviously one.
Among all peoples of ancient Christian civilization, abortion was always severely condemned by common consent and likewise severely punished by the legal system. But in recent decades, among the majority of these same peoples, a tendency has been established which the Encyclical describes: "in generalized opinion these attacks tend no longer to be considered as 'crimes'; paradoxically they assume the nature of 'rights', to the point that the State is called upon to give them legal recognition and to make them available through the free services of health-care personnel" (n. 11). An emblematic example of "how the value of life can today undergo a kind of 'eclipse'" (ibid.).

The analysis that the Pope develops concerning the causes and factors responsible for this tragic phenomenon is complex and well-structured. Elements of a general nature emerge, elements which belong to the whole modern social and cultural context such as: "scepticism in relation to the very foundations of knowledge and ethics" (n. 11), a "completely individualistic concept of freedom, which ends up by becoming the freedom of 'the strong' against the weak who have no choice but to submit", a freedom, furthermore, that is separated from "its essential link with the truth" (n. 19; a subject dealt wish in depth in the previous Encyclical Veritatis splendor); and at the heart of everything, "the eclipse of the sense of God" with the consequent loss also of the "sense of man, of his dignity and his life" (n. 21).

        With these and other deeper and more general factors a systematic and organic action is combined, one that is "fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency ... a kind of 'conspiracy against life"' (n. 12). And this conspiracy [involves] "even international institutions engaged in encouraging and carrying out actual campaigns to make contraception sterilization and abortion widely available", with "the mass media ... often implicated in this conspiracy" (n. 17). The Pope can dispense with citing proofs in support of these grave condemnations, since the UN Conference in Cairo on Population and Development, which brought them starkly to everyone's attention, is still so recent.

It is worthwhile pausing briefly on the connection just mentioned between contraception and abortion. The Pope recalls two positions, widely known and believed, which are logically connected and, at first sight, very persuasive: 1) "contraception, if made safe and available to all, is the most effective remedy against abortion" (n. 13); In other words, the true prevention of abortion is the spread of contraception; consequently: 2) the Catholic Church, by persisting in condemning contraception, ends up by "actually promoting abortion" (ibid.).
It is clear that this heavy accusation against the Catholic Church stands or falls depending on whether the first statement is true or false. The principal proof rests not on ideas but on facts.

A first fact, as pointed out by the Encyclical: "Indeed, the pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected" (n. 13). And in reality wherever in the world legal abortion has been promoted by persons, movements or organizations openly involved in the spread of contraception for some time.
The same can be said for the promotion of scientific research focusing on pharmaceutical products capable of killing the newly-conceived child in the easiest, safest and most innocuous way for the woman, without calling on healthcare personnel and unregulated by society.
Furthermore, sociological studies on the practice of abortion in individual countries have shown that the ease with which a woman resorts to abortion is noticeably greater for those women who use contraceptives, as compared to other women, especially if they use natural methods of fertility control.

In human society, this passage from accepting contraception to legalizing abortion follows logically. In fact the contraceptive culture, with regard to fertility, encourages a hypocritical attitude that is labeled "responsible", while in reality it is a "refusal". When firmly established, it soon creates a contraceptive mentality,that is, the prejudiced and clear rejection of every child unwanted by the couple, or the woman. Once it is widespread in society, this refusal is the most suitable ground for accepting as legitimate the idea of eliminating every child of an unwanted pregnancy. And thus we arrive at abortion and its justification.

Contraception is a false language of love

        The transition from contraception to abortion has found another and more subtle incentive in a clever elimination of the border between contraception and abortion. New medicines have been sold as contraceptives, whose only, or at least unfailing, effect is not to prevent conception but the newly-conceived's chance of survival: products therefore that are definitely abortive. Thus new terms have been invented and promoted, terms such as "postcoital contraceptive", "emergency contraception", "morning-after pill". Then their abortive character is often concealed by presenting their action as "regulating menstruation"; therefore as a simple medicine for curing a health problem of the female organism.

We are confronted with a real mystification, which the Encyclical does not fail to condemn. The Pope sees in them an attempt to silence conscience, which, in spite of everything, continues to perceive life "as a sacred and inviolable value". Thus there is "a tendency to disguise certain crimes against life in its early or final stages by using innocuous medical terms which distract attention from the fact that what is involved is the right to life of an actual human person" - (n. 11). A procedure which the Pope also sees in the widespread terminology for abortion in its most obvious and common form. The expression "interruption of pregnancy" is now widely used, "an ambiguous terminology..., which tends to hide abortion's true nature and to attenuate its seriousness in public opinion". And the Pontiff observes: "Perhaps this linguistic phenomenon is itself a symptom of an uneasiness of conscience" (n. 58).

The mass of lies and dishonesty hidden behind the statement that abortion can be prevented by contraception is truly incredible. In fact the opposite is true! On the other hand, contraception is already in itself a false language of love. John Paul II has widely and repeatedly illustrated this in his rich teaching on love, marriage and the family. In the Encyclical, he confines himself to a simple reminder by briefly comparing contraception and abortion: contraception "contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of conjugal love" n.13)'

It is absurd that we could rediscover and respect the truth about human life through a series of lies. The road to follow is quite different. The whole Encyclical Evangelium vitae is committed to marking it out. The firm and constant moral condemnation of contraception by the Catholic Church is only one of the signposts. To be more precise, it is the "no entry" sign, because this is a road to be followed only if one wishes to help strengthen rather than contradict our contemporary culture of death.
L'Osservatore Romano 14 June 1995

        As the Psalmist, David, was writing under the inspiration and anointing of the Holy Spirit of God, he defined the wicked (man) in Psalms 10:5-8 thusly "His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor."I am not saying that it definitely is, but perhaps this is a prophetic passage speaking of today's American Holocaust, the taking of millions of tiny lives through this barbarian practice we call abortion.

In this passage David speaks of a secret place where this occurs and by simple thought process I believe there could be a two-fold identification of it. Could the secret place be the womb of the mother who has just allowed the abortionist to destroy her baby? The Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, suggested that this might be possible when he stated, "...my mother might have been my grave..." (Jeremiah 20:17). As the physician, or whoever is doing the abortion, invades the womb to destroy that little life, it very well could be that the womb is the "secret place" where the murder transpires. Or could the abortion clinic where the vast majority of abortions are performed each day, be the "secret place" where the innocent are murdered? A mother- to-be, "confused" for whatever reason, walks unsuspectingly into the most heinous edifice on this earth and places the very life of her child into the hands of mortals with twisted and devious minds to destroy God's creation inside of her. It is behind the closed doors of the abortionist's clinic, it is far away from the public eye, it is in this "secret place" where "doth he murder the innocent".

Still yet all of this does not answer the question, "is abortion murder?". As I see it, the answer to this question lies in the definition to two key thoughts. Webster defines "murder" as, "the violent taking of human life". Certainly, according to Webster's definition, abortion is murder! Abortion is an act of violence against the person of the baby. The very nature of the procedure itself is violent.

First of all, the abortionist must invade the domain of the child, the womb. One may argue that there are several methods of aborting a baby, but all are barbaric and gruesome. While I won't go into all of the different ways to kill a baby, how does a person take the life of earth's most helpless inhabitants in a non-violent manner? What defense can they raise? Can they raise an angry fist and strike back at the abortionists scalpel? Can they escape the abortionists probe into their little skull as he proceeds to suction their tiny brains out? Where can they hide to avoid the hideous, painful, agonizing death that surely awaits them at the abortionists hand? We are told in the Bible that according to the Old Testament law if a man (or woman) would do anything to cause a woman to lose her baby, he MUST be punished (Exodus 21:22). However, let us be quick to say that God did not deliver the punishment of such criminals to individuals. No, No. God delivered that to the authority of human government. That is why it is so important for God's people to search out candidates for political office who stand uncompromisingly against the pagan practice of infanticide. One of the Hebrew words translated "murder" is the word "haw-rag". According to the Strong's Dictionary of Hebrew Words, this means "to smite with deadly intent". This, too, would prove that abortion is murder according to definition. It is more than certain that the intent of the abortionist is to kill the baby that grows inside the womb. Thus, it makes no difference whether the source of definition for the word "murder" be secular or sacred, by definition, abortion is murder!

The second thing to be considered, is that which grows in the womb a human baby? Is it living or is merely a mass of dead tissue. Recently I read where one reprobate "scientist" (?) said that a fetus was an unwanted parasite. However, even at that, that same scientist would be forced to admit that parasites are living; they have life. Did you know that orchids and the beautiful Christmas plant, mistletoe (the Oklahoma state flower), are parasites? And yet, what scientist would propose the killing of all the world's orchids because they are parasitic? Even from the secular source of the Webster's Dictionary comes the indicting definition of a parasite; "...an animal or plant that lives on or IN a living organism...". That addlepated scientist who thought to absolve the abortionist from murder by calling an unborn child "a parasite" is condemned and convicted by his own profession of killing something that is alive. What defines human life? Is something living if it has a heart-beat? A baby has one three weeks after conception. Is something considered living if it has a brain pattern? That comes to the baby six weeks after conception. And it is certain that the Bible declares an unborn baby to be alive. The answer to the question of a "fetus" being alive is an undeniable YES!! And what about it being human. Well, humans don't give birth to any type of creature other than human. That is ridiculous to think that an unborn baby is not human. So, both by secular and sacred definition a "fetus" is both a human and it is living.

Further, according to both secular and sacred definition, that killing of an unborn human is murder. Is abortion murder? Yes, abortion is murder! In both the broadest or strictest definitions of the word, abortion is murder! In both the most secular or sacred sense of the word, abortion is murder! Pure and simple, all of the undergrowth mowed away, abortion is murder! Whether the observer be most compassionate or calloused, abortion is murder! It makes no difference if it is legal according to the letter of the law or banned by Holy writ, abortion is murder! If all of the courts of human justice proclaim their approval, the highest court room, the Judgment of God, declares abortion is murder! Regardless if the infant is nine minutes or nine months old, abortion is murder!
 

If the Supreme Court of our land sentences all of those who cry out against this heathen practice to prison in an attempt to silence their voice, abortion is still murder! If every preacher of righteousness in the world sells their birthright for a mess of the world's pottage, if every preacher of the truth falls and joins ranks with the modernists and no longer preaches it to be so, abortion is murder! If no prince or no pauper believes it to be so, abortion is murder! Abortion is murder! Abortion IS murder! ABORTION IS MURDER!!

© 1998 by Priests for Life

"The babies [Jacob and Esau] jostled each other within her [Rebekah]." (Genesis 25:22)

"In the womb he [Jacob] grasped his brother's heel; as a man he struggled with God." (Hosea 12:3)

"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit." (Job 10:8-12)

"Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?" (Job 31:15)

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made . . . My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:13-16)

"Surely I was sinful at birth; sinful from the time my mother conceived me." (Psalm 51:5)

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)

"His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit . . . an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:18-20)

"But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. . . . The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.'" (Luke 1:30-31, 35)

Note: Later in this passage, in Luke 1:39-44, the preborn John the Baptist (in his sixth month after conception) responded to the presence of the preborn Jesus in his mother Mary. Judging by the time it would take Mary to get to Elizabeth-she left "immediately" after the angel appeared to her-Jesus was probably no more than ten days beyond his conception. Since implantation doesn't begin until six days after conception and is not completed until twelve days, it is likely Jesus was not even fully implanted in his mother's womb when the preborn John responded to his presence.

"You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not slay a child by abortion. You shall not kill that which has already been generated." (Epistle of Barnabas 19.5; second century)

"Do not murder a child by abortion or kill a new-born infant." (The Didache 2.2; second century catechism for young Christian converts)

"The fetus in the womb is a living being and therefore the object of God's care" (Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians, 35.6; 177 A.D.)

"It does not matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. In both instances, the destruction is murder." (Tertullian, Apology, 9.4; second century)

"Those who give abortifacients for the destruction of a child conceived in the womb are murderers themselves, along with those receiving the poisons." (Basil the Great, Canons, 188.2; fourth century)

Jerome called abortion "the murder of an unborn child" (Letter to Eustochium, 22.13; fourth century). Augustine used the same phrase, warning against the terrible crime of "the murder of an unborn child" (On Marriage, 1.17.15; fourth century).

The early church fathers Origen, Cyprian and Chrysostom likewise condemned abortion as the killing of a child.

"The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being and it is a most monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light." John Calvin (sixteenth century reformer)

God is Creator and Owner of all people
(and therefore has sole rights over all)

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)

"Know that the Lord Himself is God: it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture." (Psalm 100:3, NASV)

"For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son." (Ezekiel 18:4)

"Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." (Isaiah 64:8)

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

God has exclusive prerogatives
over human life and death

"See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand." (Deuteronomy 32:39)

"The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up." (1 Samuel 2:6)

"You shall not commit murder." (Exodus 20:13)

Note: Except when he specifically delegates that right to men (e.g. capital punishment, self defense, or just war), God alone has the right to take a human life.

"And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man."(Genesis 9:5)

"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." (Exodus 21:22-25)

"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." (Hebrews 4:13)

"The LORD said to him, 'Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?'" (Exodus 4:11)

"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'? Woe to him who says to his father, 'What have you begotten?' or to his mother, 'What have you brought to birth?' "This is what the LORD says, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: . . . do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?" (Isaiah 45:9-11)

"Neither this man [who was born blind] nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." (John 9:3)

Jesus said, 'When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (Luke 14:12-14)

"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin." (Deuteronomy 24:16)

"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven." (Matthew 18:10)

"But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." (Luke 18:16)

"Your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." (Matthew 18:14)

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him." (Psalms 127:3-4)

"Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD." (Leviticus 18:21)

"The LORD said . . . 'Any Israelite or any alien living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the community are to stone him. . . . by giving his children to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. . . . If the people of the community close their eyes when that man gives one of his children to Molech . . . I will set my face against that man and his family and will cut off from their people both him and all who follow him . . ." (Leviticus 20:1-5)

"Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed." (Deuteronomy 19:10)

"The LORD sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him. He sent them to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by his servants the prophets. Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord's command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was not willing to forgive." (2 Kings 24:2-4)

"The LORD said, 'What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.'" (Genesis 4:10)

"For God will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight." (Psalm 72:12-14)

"There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers." (Proverbs 6:16-19)

"Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you." (Ezekiel 35:6)

God's Offer of Forgiveness

"God does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:10-14)

"Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:18-19)

"He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy." (Proverbs 28:13)

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

"When I kept silent [about my sin], my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. . . . Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD'óand you forgave the guilt of my sin." (Psalm 32:3-5)

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

The Impact of Unconfessed Sin

"Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart." (Psalm 24:3-4)

"If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." (Psalm 66:18)

"If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable." (Proverbs 28:9)

"'When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' says the LORD Almighty. (Zechariah 7:13)

"Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." (1 Corinthians 5:6-7)

"For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" (1 Peter 4:17)

Bear Each Other's Burdens

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." (James 5:16)

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).

"Be merciful , just as your Father is merciful. (James 2:13)

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." (Matthew 5:7)

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Defend the Weak and Helpless

"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing" (Deuteronomy 10:18).

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." (Psalm 82:3-4)

"Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?" (Proverbs 24:11-12)

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." (Proverbs 31:8-9)

"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." (James 4:17)

"House of David, this is what the LORD says: 'Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done-burn with no one to quench it.'" (Jeremiah 21:12)

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come . . . take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. . . . I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me . . . . For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. . . . 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'" (Matthew 25:31-46)

Choose Life

"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live." (Deuteronomy 30:19)
 
 

     "You are recalling today my last apparition, which took place at Fatima on the 13th of October, 1917, confirmed by the miracle of the sun. Look more and more to the Woman Clothed with the Sun, who has the task of preparing the Church and humanity for the coming of the great Day of the Lord. The times of the decisive battle have come. The hour of the great tribulation has now descended upon the world, because the angels of the Lord are being sent, with their plagues, to chastise the earth. How many times have I urged you to walk along the road of mortification of the senses, of mastery over the passions, of modesty, of good example, of purity and of holiness! But humanity has not accepted my urging and has continued to disobey the sixth commandment of the law of the Lord which prescribes that one shall not commit impure acts.

    On the contrary, it has sought to exalt such a transgression and to put it forward as the acquisition of a human value and a new way of exercising one's own personal freedom. Thus today it has reached the point of legitimating as good all the sins of impurity. It has begun to corrupt the consciences of little children and of youth, bringing them to the conviction that impure acts committed by oneself are no longer sins; that relations before marriage between those engaged is licit and good; that families may behave as they please and may also make use of the various means of birth control. And they have come to the justification and the exaltation of impure acts against nature and even to the proposing of laws which put homosexual cohabitation on a par with marriage. Never as today have immorality, impurity and obscenity been so continually propagandized, through the press and all the means of social communication. Above all, television has become the perverse instrument of a daily bombardment with obscene images, directed to corrupt the purity of the mind and the heart of all. The places of entertainment-in particular the cinema and the discotheques - have become places of public profanation of one's human and christian dignity. This is the time when the Lord our God is being continually and publicly offended by sins of the flesh. Holy Scripture has already warned you that those who sin by means of the flesh find their just punishment in that same flesh. And so the time has come when the Angel of the first plague is passing over the world, that it might be chastised according to the will of God. The Angel of the first plague cuts - into the flesh of those who have allowed themselves to be signed with the mark of the monster on the forehead and on the hand and have adored his image - with a painful and malignant wound, which causes those who have been stricken by it to cry out in,desperation. This wound represents the physical pain which strikes the body by means of grave and incurable maladies. The painful and malignantwound is a plague for all humanity, today so perverted, which has built-up an atheistic and materialistic civilization and has made the quest for pleasure the supreme aim of human life. Some of my poor children have been stricken by it because of their sins of impurity and their disordered morals and they carry within their own selves the weight of the evil they have done. Others, on the other hand, have been stricken, even though they are good and innocent; and so their suffering serves for the salvation of many of the wicked, in virtue of the solidarity which unites you all. The first plague is that of malignant tumors and every kind of cancer, against which science can do nothing notwithstanding its progress in every field, maladies which spread more and more and strike the human body, devastating it with most painful and malignant wounds. Beloved children, think of the spread of these incurable maladies, throughout every part of the world, and of the millions of deaths which they are bringing about.

    The first plague is the new malady of AIDS, which strikes above all my poor children who are victims of drugs, of vices and of impure sins against nature. Your heavenly Mother wants to be a help, a support, a comfort and a source of hope for all, in these times when humanity is being stricken by this first plague. For this, I urge you all to walk along the road of fasting, of mortification and of penance.

     Of little children I ask that they grow in the virtue of purity and, in this difficult journey, let them be assisted by their parents and teachers. Of the youth I ask that they form themselves in the control of the passions through prayer and a life of union with me, and that they renounce going to the cinema and the discotheques, where there exists the grave and continuous danger of offending this virtue which is so dear to my Immaculate Heart.

     Of engaged couples I ask that they abstain from all relations before marriage. Of christian husbands and wives I ask that they form themselves in the exercise of conjugal chastity and never make use of artificial means of birth control, as they follow the teaching of Christ, which the Church still puts forth today with enlightened wisdom. How very much I ask of priests the scrupulous observance of celibacy and, of religious, the faithful and austere practice of their vow of chastity!

To my poor children, stricken by the first plague of the painful and malignant wound, I present myself as a merciful Mother, who assuages and comforts, who brings to hope and to peace. Of these I ask that they offer their sufferings in a spirit of reparation, of purification and of sanctification. Above all, for them my Immaculate Heart becomes the most welcome refuge and the sure road that leads them to the God of salvation and of joy. In this, my heavenly garden, all will be consoled and encouraged, while I myself personally and lovingly take care to give consolation in suffering and, if it be in the will of the Lord, to offer the gift of healing. Consequently, in this time when humanity is being stricken by the first plague, I urge you all to look to me, your heavenly Mother, that you may be comforted and assisted."
 
 

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DIVINE MERCY THE