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Category Archives: Christian Witness
Jane Roe of Roe vs Wade, Pro-Life Since 1995!
Norma McCorvey is better known as Jane Roe, the plaintiff in the landmark case in 1973, Roe v. Wade, that legalized abortion. Did you know that she is a passionate pro-life advocate since 1995? Her personal history is amazing. She was a troubled child, an active lesbian and had three children of her own (who were given up for adoption). In 1995, she had a profound conversion experience. By 1998, she entered the Roman Catholic Church. Here is an excerpt from her book, “Won by Love,” co-written with Gary Thomas:
I was sitting in O.R.’s offices when I noticed a fetal development poster. The progression was so obvious, the eyes were so sweet. It hurt my heart, just looking at them. I ran outside and finally, it dawned on me. ‘Norma’, I said to myself, ‘They’re right’. I had worked with pregnant women for years. I had been through three pregnancies and deliveries myself. I should have known. Yet something in that poster made me lose my breath. I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, 10-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, that’s a baby! It’s as if blinders just fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth — that’s a baby!
I felt crushed under the truth of this realization. I had to face up to the awful reality. Abortion wasn’t about ‘products of conception’. It wasn’t about ‘missed periods’. It was about children being killed in their mother’s wombs. All those years I was wrong. Signing that affidavit, I was wrong. Working in an abortion clinic, I was wrong. No more of this first trimester, second trimester, third trimester stuff. Abortion — at any point — was wrong. It was so clear. Painfully clear.
See her testimony in this video produced by VirtueMedia:
Continue reading “Jane Roe of Roe vs Wade, Pro-Life Since 1995!”
Twin Blessings
This article originally appeared in the January 2015 issue Columbia Magazine, page 25. Kevin DiCamillo is a freelance writer and editor in northern New Jersey, and is a member of the Don Bosco Knights of Columbus Council 4960 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Seeking to adopt a child following medical difficulties, a Knights of Columbus couple received an unexpected gift.
After my wife, Alicia, and I were married, we were looking forward to welcoming the children that God would send to our family. Yet we never expected the challenges that we confronted when I was diagnosed with cancer. Following surgery and months of radiation, doctors told us that we would not be able to conceive. Amid the heartbreak, we began to explore adoption.
We checked out private agencies for domestic and foreign adoption, but chose a more affordable option close to home: the New Jersey state adoption agency. After spending thousands of dollars on my cancer treatments, this seemed like the most sensible path. As with most things in life, there were good and bad aspects, and in the end, we received a surprise that only God could have arranged.
Rap Battle for Christ
What a fascinating exchange between two people who love Christ using tools of the New Evangelization: a Catholic priest responding to popular youth preacher. Both have their merits. Both are admirable for using modern communication tools to spread the Word.
Here’s the original video by the Protestant preacher, Jefferson Bethke:
Here’s the response by the Catholic priest, Fr. Claude (Dusty) Burns:
Love in the Time of SARS and War
We grew up only 20-minutes away by car. Los Angeles was and still is big enough that we would have never met except for a pandemic super-flu and a civil war. The fact that we met and married goes to show that God can make good out of evil.
I was set to graduate in 2002 and be a Peace Corps volunteer in Xian, China. Two weeks before I would leave to DC for Staging, I received a disappointing call: the Peace Corps program in China was canceled indefinitely due to SARS. All current volunteers were being evacuated immediately. My goal to get into a Tier 1 MBA school and then work in a prestigious investment bank was based on getting this work experience in China. China was where the money will be in the future and the only way I could afford two years’ worth of experience in China was through the Peace Corps. I didn’t think about the poor people getting sick in China from SARS, or the fear people felt from this super-flu. I only cared about my own dreams. Even to this day, I associate SARS to how my roadmap to become a high-flying investment banker was burned.
I tried to find new meaning in my life for two years, working in the private sector, before I decided to sign up for the Peace Corps, again. This time, it’d be a two-for-one: I’ll get both an MBA and Peace Corps’ experience at the same time via the Master’s International Program:
While I was getting ready for my Peace Corps assignment, my future wife was getting ready to evacuate from hers. Anne Marie and her fellow volunteers were in Nepal for less than a year before the Nepalese Civil War intensified. The Maoists bombed a U.S. facility in Nepal on September 10th; exactly six years later, our first daughter, Maya, was born. Three days before my 25th birthday, Anne Marie left Nepal. She didn’t quit the Peace Corps. Instead, she signed up again and was given two years in Guatemala. The threads God were weaving in His Tapestry brought the patterns of our lives closer together.
