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Month: March 2007

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Perspective,

Good health, science, dead babies

I received the occasional E-mail newsletter I get from the American Diabetes Association (ADA). As I’ve mentioned here before, I am a diabetic.

Their lead story was: NIH Chief: Stem Cell Ban Hobbles Science

Lifting the ban on taxpayer funding of research on new stem cells from fertilized embryos would better serve both science and the nation, the chief of the National Institutes of Health told lawmakers Monday. Allowing the ban to remain in place, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni told a Senate panel, leaves his agency fighting “with one hand tied behind our back.”

“It is clear today that American science will be better served – the nation will be better served – if we allow our scientists to have access to more cell lines,” Zerhouni told two members of the Senate health appropriations subcommittee during a hearing on the NIH’s proposed 2008 budget. The NIH, with a nearly $29 billion annual budget, is the main federal agency that conducts and funds medical research…

Stem cells are created in the first days after conception and typically are culled from frozen embryos, destroying them in the process. Because they go on to form the body’s tissues and cells – Zerhouni called them “software of life”…

The ADA has a position paper on stem cells. Because of their position I do not support the ADA, and I strongly encourage people to drop any financial support they offer the ADA.

The testimony of Doctor ‘Mengele‘ Zerhouni is chilling. Human babies as software. Killing babies to “serve both science and the nation“. The man is as murderous as Dr. Mengele. He even uses the same excuses:

The subjects of Mengele’s research were better fed and housed than ordinary prisoners and were for the time being safe from the gas chambers. To Mengele they were nevertheless not fellow human beings, but rather material on which to conduct his experiments. On several occasions he killed subjects simply to be able to dissect them afterwards.A quote from Doctor Miklós Nyiszli’s book Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, emphasis mine.

Everything Else, ,

Supporting adoption

From Christian Newswire: Brownback, Kudlow Help CFF Promote Adoption at Lincoln Center

Gala Benefit will help fund Pregnancy Resource Centers and Safe Haven Program in the Tri-State Area

Pro-life U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, and Larry Kudlow, CNBC host, will speak at the Children First Foundation’s “Gala Concert for Adoption” at Lincoln Center on Wednesday evening, April 11, 2007, at 6:30pm.

CFF’s “Gala Concert for Adoption” is part of a national effort to raise greater awareness about the important “Safe Haven Laws” that have been enacted in 47 states during the month of April so that, as stated by Tim Jaccard, “not one single baby is ever thrown in the garbage pail again.”

Senator Brownback, the Gala’s keynote speaker, is an adoptive parent and a congressional leader who understands the importance of promoting adoption, family values and a Culture of Life in our nation and the world. Larry Kudlow, the benefit’s emcee, is a renowned economist, host of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Company” and a strong advocate of conservative values in the media.

The Children First Foundation’s “Gala Concert for Adoption” will begin at 6:30 pm with a New York Philharmonic performance of the Shostakovitch Violin Concerto No. 1 followed by a Post-Concert Reception on the Grand Promenade at 8:00 p.m. CFF will honor Tim and Aedan Jaccard of the AMT Children of Hope “Safe Haven” Program and six Pregnancy Centers located in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

“The Gala’s important goal,” says Dr. Elizabeth Rex, CFF’s President and Co-Founder, “is to help fund these outstanding organizations that generously provide desperate women with the financial and moral support they so often need in order to choose life and consider adoption for unwanted pregnancies or unwanted newborns.” Charles Rex, a CFF Director and Co-Founder, is a concert violinist with the New York Philharmonic and helped organize CFF’s festive fundraiser at Lincoln Center.

CFF’s Benefit Committee includes leaders of the New York State Right to Life Committee, the Connecticut Right to Life Committee, the New Jersey Family Policy Council and the Family Institute of Connecticut, organizations that support CFF’s efforts to promote Adoption and Safe Havens as positive, compassionate and life-saving choices that deserve greater public understanding, appreciation and support.

Benefit Tickets begin at $250 and must be purchased in advance. Please call the Children First Foundation toll-free at 1-877-386-3236. Donations are greatly appreciated and are tax-deductible.

Poland - Polish - Polonia

The communion of saints

There was a great genealogy article from the Detroit Free Press, wich was brought to my attention through the Polish American Forum newsgroup.

As you may know, I have an interest in genealogy. I think of it as more than a hobby. Genealogy reminds me of my connection to the past, to the people of faith who came before me, and that the dead are not dead, but alive forever in Christ in the communion of saints.

From the Detroit Free Press see: Remembering Piotr

Cecile Jensen wants headstones on her ancestors’ graves, starting with her great-grandfather’s

On a windy day last week, Cecile Jensen and Russell Burns, director of the historic Mt. Elliott Cemetery in Detroit, counted their paces across a snowy stretch of ground at the back of the sprawling site. Using directions from a century-old ledger, they were determining the location of an unmarked grave.

“There are thousands of others, just like this one, spread out across the back of the cemetery,” Burns said.

When they finally stopped, Jensen spread her arms wide, “I’m trying to feel it. Just think! Right here, 110 years ago, my great-grandmother and her seven children stood at my great-grandfather’s grave.”

Jensen is haunted by the thought of poor immigrant Piotr Wojtkowiak, laid in an unmarked grave to save money to feed his children. A host of memories connect the retired teacher and author from Rochester Hills to the curly-haired Polish immigrant who died of typhoid fever at 34, while leading a crew digging Detroit’s sewer system.

Among the memories are family stories about his wild hair, so unruly that a hat wouldn’t stay on his head.

He was a multitalented man. He’d been a locksmith on the staff of a nobleman’s manor in his native Poland, and he could bake a tasty apple pie, too. When he and his wife, Marianna, arrived in Detroit in the late 1880s, he first worked at a mining camp in the Upper Peninsula. Later, he found work closer to home in Detroit.

The family stories cover painful details, as well. In the years after his death, for instance, Marianna took in laundry to support her family and was plagued by bleeding hands.

“Their whole story, even my great-grandfather’s unmarked grave, is a part of the story of the thousands of Polish immigrants who helped to build this city,” Jensen said. “He wasn’t alone even in death. There are thousands of unmarked graves in Detroit just like his.”

That’s why Jensen spent several years researching two of Detroit’s historic east-side cemeteries: Mt. Elliott, which Catholic churches opened in 1841, and Mt. Olivet, opened in 1888 because the portion of Mt. Elliott that was reserved for poor people was filling up rapidly.

“Just look at the causes of death listed for the people around Piotr,” Burns said, as he and Jensen examined the old ledgers
chronicling many of Mt. Elliott’s 75,000 burials. “Typhoid, pneumonia, diphtheria — a lot of this, I’m sure, was related to the
city’s terrible water back then.”

The column in the ledger listing age at death speaks eloquently of hardships in immigrant families. On a page near Piotr’s burial, the
ages listed are 6, 6, 7, 1 hour, 1 day and 10 minutes.

A century later, a nonprofit corporation oversees the two Detroit cemeteries. The Mount Elliott Cemetery Association has properties in several counties.

“After all our ancestors gave us, it’s not right that there’s nothing to mark their graves,” Jensen said. “So, my goal is to honor them, starting with Piotr and then I’ll move on to my ancestors in Mt. Olivet.”

To finance this effort, Jensen used her research and artistic background to create two picture books, “Detroit’s Mount Olivet
Cemetery” and “Detroit’s Mount Elliott Cemetery.” Published by Arcadia ($19.99 each), the books are available online and at major
bookstores.

Profits from such books are modest, but Jensen is hoping she’ll make enough to purchase tombstones.

“I’m already thinking about the gathering we’ll have at his grave to dedicate the stone,” she said. “Just imagine! All these years later, there’ll be hundreds of his descendants gathering from all over, coming back to the city once again to honor him.”

Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Literary introduction

The Consulate General of Poland in New York invites you to the De Lamar Mansion Salon of Arts & Ideas, Thursday, March 29, 8pm, for the formal introduction of a new work of historical fiction JADWIGA’S CROSSING by Aloysius A. Lutz and Richard J. Lutz with Readings by co-author Richard J. Lutz.

Photo ID is required for admittance to the Consulate

233 Madison Avenue (at 37th Street), Manhattan, New York City, NY

Media, Poland - Polish - Polonia

Polish Film Awards – Eagles (Orły)

From Cineuropa: 2007 Eagles bring no surprises

It seemed like a repeat of the Gdynia Polish Film Festival at the 2007 Eagles (Poland’s top film awards) ceremony yesterday evening.

The event threw up no surprises, with Saviour Square taking the top honours. Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze’s film took four of the major awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress (Jowita Budnik and Ewa Wencel respectively).

This was not Krauze’s first time at the Eagles, having won Best Screenplay (Jerzy Morawski) and Best Director for his film The Debt in 2000.

However, in terms of statuettes won, Jan Jakub Kolski’s Jasminum beat out Saviour Square with its six prizes: Best Actor (Janusz Gajos), Best Cinematography (Krzysztof Ptak), Best Music (Zygmunt Konieczny), Best Set Design (Joanna Doroszkiewicz), Best Costume Design (Ewa Helman-Szczerbic), and —“ as Kolski emphasised —“ the most prestigious of all, the Audience Award.

Another highly recognised title was Marek Koterski’s We’re All Christs, which won Best Editing (Ewa Smal) and Best Screenplay (Koterski).

Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver (see Focus) predictably took Best European Film of 2007.

The Award for Best Lifetime Achievement went to distinguished DoP Witold Sobociński, who has worked on over 40 films (notably by Andrzej Wajda, Wojciech Jerzy Has, Jerzy Kawalerowicz and Roman Polański) and will soon celebrate his 80th birthday.

The cinematography maestro received his prize from Minister of Culture Kazimierz Ujazdowski to a standing ovation.

The Winners

Best Film
Saviour Square

Best Director
Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze – Saviour Square

Best Actor
Janusz Gajos – Jasminum

Best Actress
Jowita Budnik – Saviour Square

Best Screenplay
Marek Koterski – We’re All Christs

Best Cinematography
Krzysztof Ptak – Jasminum

Audience Prize
Jasminum

Best Supporting Male Role
Krzysztof Kiersznowski – Statyści

Best Supporting Female
Ewa Wencel – Saviour Square

Best Score
Zygmunt Konieczny – Jasminum

Best Set Design
Joanna Doroszkiewicz – Jasminum

Best Costume Design
Ewa Helman Szczerbic – Jasminum

Best Editing
Ewa Smal – We’re All Christs

Best Sound
Jacek Hamela – Jasminum

Best European Film
Volver – Pedro Almodóvar

Homilies,

United under God’s Tent

The following is a reflection I will be offering for the World Day of Prayer which we are hosting in our parish on Friday, March 23rd at 7pm.

ñandutí­

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

Taken from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verse 15

Today we gather around Jesus Christ, and we come to Him in the form of the ñandutí­, (niun-doo-tee) offered to us by the women of Paraguay.

If you look at the cover of your booklets you will see the ñandutí­, an intricate lace weave, with a proper center surrounded by symmetrical, yet differing, patterns.

I could spend a good few minutes up here pointing out the obvious. Jesus is the center of our lives. We are all different, unique. We are to be like Jesus, different in our gifts, yet symmetrical with him.

I might also focus on the long history of the people of Paraguay; the history of the Guarani, the land’s original inhabitants, whose native language is one of the few to be officially recognized, and widely used in South America. I could talk about historical suffering, the role of women in a society that lost seventy-five percent of its men to wars and brutal dictators. I could focus on poverty, and our lack of a giving response, at the political and personal level.

Rather, I will focus on minutia.

You’re probably thinking, oh no, as a Catholic, minutia is something he’s well versed in.

Charles Dickens is reported to have said:

My view was that the minutiae of faith was unimportant, if the heart be in the right place. Love, charity and duty are the core of my religious life.

But today we have the ñandutí­ and the ñandutí­ is about minutia.

In our first reading we heard of Abraham and Sarah preparing a good many things for the Lord. Water to wash their guest’s feet, cakes to eat, meat from a slaughtered calf, curds and milk, and the whole aspect of presenting their hospitality before the Lord.

That, my friends, is minutia. That’s not something that’s easy to throw together. Oh honey, prepare a five course meal and make the guests comfortable. It may have taken the whole day.

We see a brief snapshot of what happened from a mile high. Consider what it took to bring it all together.

So it is with the ñandutí­. You have to prepare a place to house it, a frame and an underlayment to hold it, the thread, the tools, and the time.

Sewing the ñandutí­ together is a process. Weaving the ñandutí­ is all about minutia.

So it is in our lives. It’s the minutia of how we respond when our spouse comes home in a foul mood. It’s the way we respond when we are partnered with someone who is as affectionate as a rock. It’s how we respond to the toilet cleaning, clothes washing, vacuuming, grass cutting, snow blowing chores. It’s how we respond when we come to church and one half of the church has daggers out for the other half, and all have daggers out for the pastor. It’s how we respond on Easter morning when the kids want gifts, we want to get to church, and we have to go visit uncle Bob who will regale us with stories of his first ever plane flight during World War 2.

Each and every moment is filled with minutia. We cannot escape it, medicate it, or drown it. While we’re waiting for the next big splash, the next excitement, we must use the minutia to do as St. Paul teaches: —grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.—

In a few moments the trustees will come around and pass the basket. More minutia. We’ll pull out our wallets and look at what we might find there.

I have some receipts, I forgot to turn in the bottle return vouchers at Price Chopper, credit cards, medical cards, license, registration, Polish club membership, oh, and $30. 30 iTunes downloads, a bunch of java at Starbucks, five Lenten fish fries. How will I respond with this minutia. How will I take the minutia of my wants, desires, hopes, dreams, and fantasies and transform them into action in accord with Christ.

Dickens was wrong. The minutiae of faith is important. In it we meet Christ crucified and risen. We meet Him and are changed at the core level. What is separate is sewn together, what is discordant is made symmetrical. What is broken is made whole. What is small in our lives, the individual threads, are woven into the beautiful and perfect.

Come Lord Jesus, bind us together. Bind us under the mantle of your love.

Current Events, Perspective

Peace, thy name is million

One Million Blogs for Peace has officially launched today, the fourth anniversary of the Iraq ‘war.’ Yours truly is one of the two-hundred seventeen inaugural blogs, or as the site refers to us the inblogurals.

Each Tuesday a special topic for discussion will be posted. This week’s is:

Think back four years ago, to when you first heard that the Iraq War had started.

Were you for or against the war at the time?

Against.

If you were for it, what has changed your mind over the last four years?

N/A

If you were against it, why were you against it?

In a word, contrived. There was such a stunning lack of international unity on the issue. Those who were with the United States were cobbled together. Beyond Great Britain, Australia, and Poland, the others seemed to be there only for the quid-pro-quo.

Even Poland, sadly, was not strong in that regard. The funny thing was that the quid-pro-quo was never completed. Poland was no better off for having participated. You know what they say about shaking hands with the devil, make sure you still have a hand afterward.

These days things don’t happen like that. We’ve moved beyond the stage where anyone with a brain believes the USA has all the secret data and the rest of the world is filled with bumbling secret agents (Inspector Jacques Clouseau style). If the threat were real no country and no leader in striking distance of Saddam’s weapons would have been reticent.

More than the contrived nature of the whole thing, any student of propaganda saw the run up. Us against the mean bad man… Those who are not with us are against us… Those crazy (ignorant, bumbling, disloyal, self interested, greedy, armpit hair wearning ) foreigners, especially the French… Iraq, half starved and poor (except for the elite) had the wherewithal to devastate the United States… The press jumping in with both feet – USA, USA, USA, like a hockey game…

My question would be, were people drunk when they took the government’s and the media’s word for it? Did people believe Colin Powell orating at the UN on this issue? He will forever be a sellout and requisite liar. He’s certainly smart enough not to have had the wool pulled over his eyes by President Bush etal.

The other word is smarmy. President Bush is smarmy. A poor businessman, a weak intellect, riding the crest of a family with money and power. Someone like President Reagan would have stayed on-point. Go after Al-Qaeda, hit them, do what needs doing to protect the US. The Bush administration used Al-Qaeda as a reason, once their initial reason fell apart, and the whole tie-in was, well, smarmy, self-serving, and irrelevant.

Now, here we are, thousands of our sons and daughters dead, tens of thousands physically and mentally destroyed (and those are just our citizens – magnify that by 10, 20, or 30 times for Iraqis), for a smarmy leader leading us into a contrived war.

Sad, regrettable, lowest point, waste… all words to describe what we have done. Mistake, as President Bush has said, is not one of those words. It was no mistake. It was intentional.

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