Denver Catholic

CATHOLIC LIFE I 5 DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER I FEBRUARY 5, 2014 1. B, 2. A, 3. C, 4. None of the Above - St. Boniface, as we learned in a previous quiz, is known as the "Apostle of Germa- ny." 5. A, 6. A, 7. B REAL LIFE CATHOLIC CHRISTOPHER STEFANICK On Jan. 22 I spoke at an event planned for 8,000-plus young people at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. The event I was at had been set up to accommodate an overflow crowd because the Verizon Center, which can hold more than 18,000, had been maxed out. The Arlington Diocese planned two events the day before the March for more than 15,000 youths. The only reason these events aren't all bigger is the seats are all gone. Bitter cold temperatures and snow, which canceled flights and closed roads, knocked down the numbers for the 2014 March for Life, but protestors were still in the tens-of-thousands, most of them young people. Of course, if there had been a protest of that magnitude against guns or global warming, mainstream media would have been swarming the event. Sadly, they managed to overlook our presence. They like to create cultural trends instead of reporting them. Regardless, the fact that young people are taking a turn toward life is fast becoming undeniable. Anyone who saw the endless river of teens and college students march down Constitution Avenue—not embittered protestors, but joyful young people celebrating the gift of life—could see the culture-shift in progress. This is the generation that will end abortion. Young people don't remember the explosion of slogans and emotions that followed Roe v. Wade. The dust has settled. They're seeing the obvious. They can see what science has made irrefutable: a fetus is a human life. A baby has a heartbeat at 18 days, brainwaves at 42 days, all body systems pres- ent at 8 weeks, fingernails at 11 weeks, has vocal cords and can cry at 12 weeks, can feel pain at 20 weeks, and can survive if delivered instead of aborted at 23 weeks. They can see the obvious ethical implications of abortion. If a fetus is a life, how can it possibly be deemed moral, or legal, to grab it with forceps and twist and pull it to pieces through all nine months of a pregnancy? (Sorry for the brutal language, but we have to look at the act of an abortion for what it actu- ally is.) If that isn't wrong, what is? They've seen the impact it's had on women. The book "Complications" cites 650-plus papers, mostly from medical journals, that show abortion has a negative impact on almost every area of a woman's health, from breast cancer to infertility to autoimmune disease to mental-health problems. In Finland a study of 600,000 women showed that women who have an abortion are six times more likely to commit suicide. A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that women who had an abortion were 81 percent more likely to suffer from mental health problems. (If that's you, please visit Project Rachel for help: hopeafterabortion.com.) Thanks to the efforts of people like Lila Rose (not to mention the moral atrocity of people like Kermit Gosnell) they have seen the dark business of abortion for what it is. Doctors walk with $500-$900 and young women, often desperate and convinced there are no other real options, end up with scars that last the rest of their lives. They know it's a farce that abortion is about saving women's lives. The American Life League has a declaration signed by 481 medical doctors who all confirm that an abortion is never necessary to save a mother. Sometimes a procedure that indirectly results in the baby's death is necessary, like when a fallopian tube is removed in an ectopic pregnancy or when a pregnant woman needs chemotherapy, but that's not an abortion. The difference between the two is as clear as the difference between shooting someone and unintention- ally letting someone die. But all that aside, the number of abortions performed even with the intent to protect a woman's health are astronomically small compared with the abor- tions of convenience or as a result of desperate circumstances, which could have been helped in other ways at a crisis pregnancy center. Many young people have encountered good couples who wait indefinitely for adoptions, thanks to the shortage of "unwanted" babies who manage to survive the womb. They've heard stories like Father Tom Vander Woude's. He learned of a couple about to abort their Down syndrome baby if they couldn't find someone to adopt. He posted about it on the parish Facebook page and got hundreds of offers—900 emails poured in and volunteers had to come to the parish to help man the phones. Every baby is a wanted baby. Forty-plus years after Roe v. Wade almost 25 percent of pregnancies end in abortion in the United States. We've created a cultural climate of death. It's bad for society, it's bad for women, and it's a moral atrocity. Sure, it's "a choice," but it's the wrong choice. Thankfully, all of that seems crystal clear to this young generation. The peo- ple at the helm in politics and media can pretend not to notice them, but you can only overlook a tsunami for so long. Visit speaker and author Christopher Stefanick at www.RealLifeCatholic.com. Stefanick's column is distributed by the Denver Catholic Register, the official newspaper of the Denver Archdiocese. 'A child shall lead them' BY DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER Clarence Miller, known for his friend- ships to people from all walks of life, was remembered Jan. 31 during a me- morial service downtown attended by 150 people, including representatives of Colorado governors, legislators, and humble street people. Clarence be- lieved that his developmental disability should not prevent him from achieving anything he set out to do in life. He died Jan. 14, just four days shy of his 64th birthday. Born Jan. 18, 1950, in Wray, Clarence began living in Capitol Hill in the 1980s where he worked for lawmakers and lobbyists at the State Capitol. He was such a familiar figure there that he was called "the 101st lawmaker." Much like the book and film char- acter Forrest Gump, Clarence seemed to be everywhere notable events were happening and he was the subject of many news stories. He was welcomed into the Catho- lic Church in 1994 after meeting Pope John Paul II when the pontiff celebrat- ed Mass during World Youth Day at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immacu- late Conception. He was also a mem- ber of Council 539 of the Knights of Columbus. "Clarence had an innate ability to be present at important events and was a blessing to everyone who knew him," said former Denver Catholic Register editor Peter Droege, who was Clar- ence's sponsor during the Rite of Chris- tian Initiation process for his entry into the Catholic faith. Friend to all, 'Clarence, the 101st lawmaker,' dies CLARENCE Miller was well-known on Capitol Hill where he worked at the state Capitol and worshipped at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

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