February 2010 Newsletter
Back to Main Newsletters Page"A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members, and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying."
-- Pope John Paul II
On January 22, pro-life Americans marked the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which attempted to permanently enshrine into law the values of the "Culture of Death."
I say attempted because, like many other Great Lies throughout the ages, the abortion culture exists on a very shaky foundation, even though it gives the appearance of being impervious to change. People once thought that slavery was a permanent feature of culture. Now it rests on the ash heap of history. Many people thought Communism in Eastern Europe was here to stay. Yet in 1989 the Berlin Wall came crashing down.
These momentous changes did not happen because of impersonal or accidental forces. They occurred because individual human beings decided they would not tolerate the status quo, and refused to compromise with the moral poverties of their own age of history.
In the 21st century, the pro-life movement is the force for cultural reform that will ultimately change the way society views human rights. We envision a world where, as Pope John Paul II wrote, society will measure its progress based on how we treat the most vulnerable among us.
Normally, my husband and I would mark the Roe v. Wade anniversary by attending the March for Life in Washington, D.C. or the Walk for Life in San Francisco or the March for Life in Olympia, Washington. But this year we stayed at home and spent the day caring for a very tiny person who we think of as the "newest volunteer recruit" for Healing the Culture
On January 13th at 5:22 a.m., I gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Juliette Patricia. For Michael and I, it's been an eye-opening experience. We certainly expected that we would love our first-born child in a very special way. But we were incapable of knowing just how smitten we would be with her - even when she keeps us up all night long!
Between the two of us, we probably have 50 years of experience in the pro-life movement. With that many years under the belt, it's easy to think that your pro-life convictions are as well formed and intense as they're ever going to be. And yet... we find that little Juliette is teaching us things about the pro-life ethos that perhaps can never be fully understood until you're placed in a situation where another human being's life is 100 percent dependent on your care.
Juliette is tiny, vulnerable, and dependent on her parents to meet every basic need. How analogous to our dependence on God the Father for every need we have! No person is more capable than a tiny infant at dispelling our illusions of self-sufficiency.
Then there is the feeling of gratitude we have for our own parents. With each feeding and diaper change, we have that keen awareness that we too were once helpless infants whose very survival would not have been possible except for the tireless efforts of a mother and father who loved us and nourished us.
Fr. Spitzer is fond of observing, "I have never met a grateful person who wasn't happy, and I've never met an ungrateful person who wasn't unhappy." Our daughter has filled our hearts with such a powerful sense of gratitude that we want to share it with everybody. She has also filled us with even more zeal to continue and advance the pro-life work we do at Healing the Culture.
If our pediatrician approves, we look forward to taking Juliette on her first pro-life mission trip in March. I'll be speaking on the Life Principles at a pro-life conference in Billings, Montana. It's the first trip in a busy year for Healing the Culture.
In addition to our work on the high school pro-life curriculum, we are constantly looking for opportunities to teach our pro-life message through media interviews, speeches, and publications. For example, I'll be interviewed in February by a radio network with affiliated stations in Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In April, we'll be traveling to British Columbia to speak to a meeting of provincial pro-life leaders. Just yesterday I was on the phone making arrangements for some of our publications to be shipped to a Christian bookstore in California.
These are examples of the day-to-day work that occurs in our pro-life mission - and each day it happens, we give thanks for the faithful support of our donors, including you, who make it possible.
If you are able to support our on-going work with a donation this month, we would be very grateful. We know that many worthy causes likely compete for your support. Each day we work hard to make sure your contribution is wisely used to leverage the greatest amount of cultural change possible.
I truly believe that we in the pro-life movement stand at a critical crossroads. Most recent public opinion polls show that the pro-life position is now embraced by a majority of Americans, and this sentiment is most obvious among the younger generation. We have the opportunity, with your financial support, to transform these trends into lasting cultural change.
Thank you in advance for your generous support of this life-saving work!
Camille Pauley
President
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