British docs say breast-cancer patients should never have been born

Think about the women you know who have suffered from breast cancer. Would the world be a better place if they never had existed?

Yes, say British doctors—not in so many words, but in their mission: killing "unfit" embryos that carry an increased risk of breast cancer, so that a woman may fulfill her dream of the "perfect" baby.

The Times of London reports that six unique human beings were destroyed for the benefit of a choosy would-be mother:

Doctors screened out from the woman’s embryos an inherited gene that would have left the baby with a greater than 50% chance of developing the cancer.

The woman decided to have her embryos screened because her husband had tested positive for the gene and his sister, mother, grandmother and cousin have all had the cancer.

The couple produced 11 embryos, of which five were found to be free from the gene. Two of these were implanted in the woman’s womb and she is now 14 weeks pregnant.

By screening out embryos carrying the gene, called BRCA-1, the couple, from London, will eliminate the hereditary disease from their lineage.

If every would-be mother had chosen to have this expensive and invasive procedure done to "eliminate the hereditary disease from [her] lineage," no woman you know who suffered from breast cancer would exist.

The media portrays embryo selection as though it were a "cure" for breast cancer. It is not. It is an end to human beings who may develop breast cancer.

There is a difference, and I am afraid we may find out about it too late. Unless good people speak up, insurance companies will continue to pressure doctors to pressure women to have preimplantation genetic diagnosis for Down syndrome and other conditions that would be costly to treat, while doctors will likewise encourage women to combine PGD with expensive IVF treatment. In time, those women who do have breast cancer or other "eliminable" hereditary diseases may come to be seen as "useless eaters."

What many seem unwilling to admit is that "choice" has consequences—for individuals and society at large.

From Madonna to Masada

A teenage Madonna wannabe finds an Israeli role model who saves her from the life of a Material Girl. It's an inspiring story, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Kabbalah. Read it on Pentimento's blog.

Welcome, EWTN viewers!

If you're visiting this site after having seen me on EWTN's "Faith and Culture," welcome! Here are a few quick links if you'd like to learn a bit more about me and my book:

• The show was taped last September, when I was the first and, so far, only director of the Cardinal Newman Society's outreach effort to help Catholic colleges promote chastity, the Love and Responsibility Program. The society cut out the outreach component of the program a few months later, so I left to continue as a freelance writer and speaker.


• My next speaking appearances will be at World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, where I will be speaking at the Sisters of Life's Love and Life Site July 16 at 6 p.m. Details on my other WYD appearances will be available on the Juventutem Web site.


• My book, The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On, is available from Amazon in English and in Spanish. It is also available in Polish and will soon be available in Chinese. More information about my book is available on thrillofthechaste.com. (The site's Appearances page needs an update, as I've yet to list my WYD dates, but it will tell you where I've been.)


• My most recent freelance writings include articles for InsideCatholic on feminism and Pope John Paul II (how his call for a "new feminism" was misinterpreted) and stem-cell politics. I also wrote an article for the American Spectator online this month on how "Sex and the City" influences young girls: "Sex and the Kiddies."


• Since taping "Faith and Culture," I have discussed The Thrill on NBC's "Today" show and on the Australian "Today" knockoff "Weekend Sunrise (below).
  
  


• I am grateful for your interest in my work and particularly for your prayers. Readers of this blog buoyed me greatly with their prayers earlier this year when I had my second operation for thyroid cancer. Right now, I am very thankful to be cancer-free and working on a proposal for my second book. It will not be the follow-up to The Thrill that I had originally planned, but rather a book encompassing a wider theme of recovery and healing in Christ. More as it develops, but in the meantime, thanks again for all your prayers, good wishes, and support. To borrow a phrase from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a hero of mine, God love you!

Ribbeting

Can it be 20 years since I read The Wind in the Willows? Picking it up on the advice of a boyfriend who adored the book, I was surprised. I normally love children's classics, but Toad was so repulsive that I found myself rooting for the ferrets.

Today, reading Fallen Sparrow's thoughts as he revisits Kenneth Grahame's novel is almost enough to make me wonder if, given the understanding of grace that I have now, I too should give the book another chance.

Fallen Sparrow writes:

As I read the book again, it occurs to me that, even as a youngster, I had a certain amount of identification with the character of Toad, perhaps because I saw some of his personality traits in myself even then. I'm happy that his friends love him as much as they do, and want to see him get better, just as I have come to see how fortunate I am to have family and friends who have loved me despite my capriciousness all these years.

Perhaps my real problem with the book was that I refused to see how much I had in common with Toad. We were both trying to fool ourselves into thinking we were making our lifestyle choices in a vacuum. The truth is that, however deeply embedded one is in one's own personal bog, everything one does makes ripples.

UPDATE: Fallen Sparrow offers more thoughts upon completing the book.

Eden readin'

Good morning! A few short items and I'm off for the weekend:

• I am delighted to announce I will be speaking at the Sisters of Life's Love and Life Site at World Youth Day in Sydney July 16 at 6 p.m. Details on my other WYD appearances will be available on the Juventutem Web site.


• Today's InsideCatholic.com features contributors' suggestions for a "Summer Reading List." My recommendations are at the bottom of the first page.


• Do tune in to see me this Sunday a.m. on EWTN's "Faith and Culture," which is available online as well—details here.

Quote of the day

Today's quote was from Hadley Arkes' "Tim Russert: The Story Untold." I've removed it because it did not provide enough context for Arkes' point, and if I excerpted enough to provide the proper context, it would violate copyright. Catch-22. Do read the entire piece.

Whapping good job

Yippee! My new portrait by Matthew Alderman of Shrine of the Holy Whapping has arrived (that's it at upper left)! I love it! Many thanks to Matthew for doing his usual masterful job, this time adding a Sacred Heart icon at my request. It's wonderful, exactly what I wanted, all the way down to the mod Mondrian-inspired background.

Serbian Orthodox monastery threatened by wildfires

Passing on this prayer request from a reader:

His Grace Bishop Maxim of the Western American Diocese urges all of our Orthodox faithful to offer prayers for the protection of the St. Herman of Alaska Serbian Orthodox monastery in Platina, California. Wild fires are quickly approaching the monastery grounds and the Monastery is in great danger of being burned down. The monastic community has been evacuated and are seeking refuge in the neighboring parish of Redding. Check the diocesan Web site for updates.

Quote of the day

"We should not expect our lives to make complete sense in this world. We should not expect them to turn out beautiful and well proportioned and perfectly acceptable from a temporal point of view, because we are cooperating with God's plan for our eternal happiness. Our task is not to build a beautiful edifice in this world, but rather, as Gaudium et spes 38 puts it, to prepare material for the Kingdom of God. And our best efforts, even if unsuccessful from a this-worldly perspective, constitute solid building material that the Lord uses in constructing his kingdom. That is why Gaudium et spes 39 explains: 'after we have obeyed the Lord, and in his Spirit nurtured on earth the values of human dignity, brotherhood and freedom, and indeed all the good fruits of our nature and enterprise, we will find them again, but freed of stain, burnished and transfigured. This will be so when Christ hands over to the Father a kingdom eternal and universal.'"

— Rev. Peter F. Ryan S.J., "How to Discern the Elements of Your Personal Vocation". The entire article is highly recommended.

I'd like to thank the Academy

This just in from Warsaw: Dreszcz czystości—that would be the Polish edition of my book The Thrill of the Chaste—has received the endorsement of the Master Academy of Love. The academy is associated with Warsaw's diocesan radio station, Radio Józef.

MAL's Web site features a review of my book and also an excerpt from the Polish edition. Those links will take you to Google's computerized Polish-to-English translations of both. The translation of the review jumbles the critic's prose, but it's clearly a rave: "Topic close the book to anyone who is not ashamed to admit that sex is terribly compelling sphere of life, energy and the bomb that can not easily over her reign. On my nose will bestseller!"

Where Planned Parenthood's ideology comes from ... and where it leads

Jonah Goldberg on Margaret Sanger and her ideological children. Read. Discuss.

Friend needs help and prayers

I am posting the following on behalf of a dear friend of mine in Connecticut who is back on the job market after spending three years taking care of her mother, who passed away last August. I can personally vouch for her talent and character. She writes:

From November 2004 until her passing in August 2007, I had the privilege of caring for my mother full-time as she battled a crippling illness. Since Our Lord called her home last summer, I have been involved in settling her affairs. I have been involved in the (volunteer) coordination of spiritual and social activities at my parish as well – a role that has helped me refresh and improve all of my workforce skills.

I have begun in earnest to look for a full-time job. Prior to my caregiving vocation, I spent twenty-five years in the administration field in various industries including marketing and advertising, executive search, and fundraising for various non-profits (healthcare and education).

I have a broad skill set that enables me to work in almost any environment. I am looking for a position as an executive assistant, a director of development, an event planner – all of which fit with my particular talents. I am a whiz on the computer (PC and Mac), I type like the wind, and I possess excellent communication skills, both written and oral. I can learn anything – fast!

As a daily communicant, I would dearly love to continue going to morning Mass – something I managed to do before I left the workforce and continued to do during my caregiving vocation. I was always blessed to have understanding supervisors in this regard. So finding a job that allows this vital part of my day would be ideal.

I am reminded of Mother Teresa’s daily prayer. I found it on a prayer card I in my mother’s prayer book after she passed away. It now resides in my own prayer book.

'Let me preach Thee without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to Thee.'

Whatever job I find, I hope to work for the greater glory of God. He has given me so many blessings, and I want to be a leaven in the midst of society. I don’t need to work in a Catholic or Christian company per se (although I wouldn’t object…), but I hope to find a position where I can show others the joy that comes from following Our Lord every day.

I am looking for a position in mid-Fairfield County, Connecticut. I could also do Putnam County, N.Y., and am flexible on other locations. Also, I am flexible on salary, which people can inquire about directly.

Truly, your prayers on my behalf are appreciated.

If you have any leads for my friend, please e-mail me (or use my feedback form). She will also be reading the comments to this post, and I know she will be encouraged by your prayers. Thank you.

'Candide' camera

Thinking about Latin love (see entry below) reminds me of the only conjugation I know in that language—via Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein.



The clip is from From the 2005 "Live on Broadway" version of "Candide," with the New York Philharmonic under conductor Marin Alsop, and I am so sorry I missed it. Let me know if you want to see more clips from this performance, as a generous soul has posted several to YouTube, including an amazing performance by Patti LuPone as the Old Lady.

Dr. Pangloss: Sir Thomas Allen
Candide: Paul Groves
Cunegonde: Kristin Chenoweth
Paquette: Janine LaManna
Maximillian: Jeff Blumenkrantz

Preparing to meet Latin lovers at World Youth Day

I am delighted to announce that next month, when I give talks in Sydney during World Youth Day, I will be surrounded by Latin lovers—so to speak.

One of my appearances will be at an event on July 14 in conjunction with Juventutem, an international delegation of Catholic youth attached to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass). Being a Latin lover myself, I am also looking forward to attending the traditional liturgies at the church that will be hosting Juventutem's events, St. Augustine's Balmain.

My talk will, however, be in English, as I cannot tell my amas from my amo.

Not-so-pretty poly

Touchstone editor David Mills makes his debut in InsideCatholic.com with a solid piece on why the arguments for same-sex marriage also enable polygamy.

FIRST TIME IN PRINT!Archbishop Sheen pays tribute to the Jesuits

Today, I am honored to present a wonderful find, courtesy of reader David Sailer, archivist of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy: a previously unpublished speech given at the school by then-Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in 1952. Sailer writes, "The only copies of the speech in existence are in my possession and in the archives of the school."

Only an excerpt from the speech appears here, as I do not wish to offend the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation or whoever owns the copyright to the speech. If the speech is not already in the possession of the foundation, I hope they will acquire it from the school and make the full text available to all.

I am sharing this as a tribute to my Jesuit readers, and especially to the newly ordained Father Phil Hurley S.J. The next words you hear will be those of Bishop Sheen:

"... [W]hat is peculiar, characteristic of all of the Jesuit missions, from the very beginning, is how much they have been blessed with martyrs. In America, in Mexico, in China…that is the sign of the blessing of God. Knowing the name of His Divine Son, it was fitting in some way that they should be heralded before the world, in the same way as the Savior Himself, by a kind of Crucifixion. Their influence in some communities has been so great that there is one fact that is worth mentioning that happened within the last two years.

"There are nine countries in the world that will not allow the Gospel to be preached. One of them is the little state of Nepal. It is near India and Tibet. The Jesuits conducted a school, something like this school, in India, and some of the sons of the political leaders of Nepal went to this particular school. They came back, they told their parents about the good education they received, and the result was that this year, for the first time, the missionaries are allowed in, the Jesuits were invited in, given over three or four hundred acres of land, all building erected by the Nepalese government, and now, the Nepalese will begin to take their place with the other countries of the world for beginning to see the light of Christianity. (slight clapping)

"But, I was speaking particularly of the martyrs. You’re all familiar with Fr. Pro, of Mexico, but perhaps you do not know how very much they have also followed the whole spirit of the Church by educating native clergy when they go to the Philippines, when they go to India, when they go to Japan or anywhere else, they educate native clergy. Just as you want to be educated here by Americans, so the Japanese want to be educated by the Japanese, the Chinese by the Chinese. Now there raised up in China some very remarkable priests. One of them was a Fr. Beda Chang. November the eleventh, nineteen hundred and fifty-one, Fr. Beda Chang was exposed to martyrdom by the reds. He was asked to give up his faith; he refu- he refused to do it, and as a result, died a martyr to the faith. The Communists refuse to allow a solemn Mass to be held in Shanghai. So great was the devotion of the people to young Fr. Chang. When the people, the following weeks, began going out to the grave of Fr. Chang, the Communists then stationed guards. Miracles began to be worked through the intercession of Fr. Chang. And now comes the last and most curious expression of the Communist mentality in China, it goes to show you the Communists have no sense of humor. The Communists went to Bishop Kung, the bishop of Shanghai, and they told him that he would be held responsible for any miracles that were worked through the intercession of Fr. Chang. (laughter) You see how the Jesuits have to be watched all over the world with the Communists. (laughter) It’s a wonderful thing when any evil influence fears sanctity, and it is a great and high tribute to know that the Communists in China fear the sanctity of those who have received their training from the Jesuits. ...

"... We are witnessing in our world today what might be called the influence of the demonic. It’s something new. The demonic means that there is coming out of deep, cavernous, libidinous depths evil influences that are affecting the whole world. Two men have largely been the spokesmen of the cavernous, libidinous instincts; one was Marx, who said that all civilization was to be made by the revolutionary mass movement of people; the other was Freud, who said that the individual was to be made by something that was libidinous in him coming to the surface. That the super-ego, morality and tradition and religion, was something that hindered, and in some way stopped the influence of that which was truly man, namely what he called the id.

"And all over the world there is the outbreak of the demonic spirit, the glorification of irrational forces. How meet these mass movements, these subterranean, irrational depths? We can meet it only by the creation of an elite. Not a money elite, but a spiritual elite. A world in a crisis is always saved by a creative minority and not just by a majority. And the creative minority is born by men and women who follow the Gospel. In the words of Our Lord: 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice and all of these things will be added unto you.'

"Yes, men who will leave the lights and glamours of the world for the shades and shadows of the Cross where the saints are made. Who will pick up the Exercises of St. Ignatius and particularly that chapter that has to deal with the Discernment of Spirits? So that they may understand something of the spirits, good and evil, that there are in the world today. And may be able to judge and decide between them, for these are days when we must stand up all of us now and be counted. And if the world is to be remade, it will be done, not by masses being pushed by revolutionary leaders; it will be done by these men who remake their own hearts and souls, as Our Blessed Savior Himself remade a human nature by a resurrection and make that a pattern of all of us. He could leave Caesar on his throne, and Pilate on his judgment seat, and Roman coins in the pockets of people that were already being obsessed by foreign leaders. Then He would take twelve men, and He would completely change the world. So that is the way our world is to be remade.

"And if there was a greater knowledge throughout the universe, of this thirty-days prayer and this discernment of spirits, then we might have leadership born like – the leadership that came to us through Gideon. You remember that he was to go out and do battle with the Medionites that had an army of over one hundred thousand men; he had only thirty thousand men. God said, 'Your army is too great. Tell all the cowards to leave.' Twenty thousand cowards left. He had only ten thousand men. God said, 'Your army is still too great. Send the men to the river and watch them drink.' And the ten thousand men went to the river and Gideon watched them drink. And some of them threw themselves prone upon their stomachs at the river’s edge and drank, and others ran along the bank and they dipped their hands into the water and lapped it into their mouths as they ran. And God said, 'That's your army, only three hundred. Now if you win, you will know that you have won by My power and not by the power of men.' And with that army Gideon won!

"And so the students who have been trained here, the men who have been trained also in the retreat houses, belong to this, the army of Gideon. And therefore, we salute the Jesuits on this the occasion of their seventy-fifth anniversary. We read in the epistle that when the name of Jesus is mentioned, every knee bows, every knee, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, where the abysmal forces tremble. And if all knees bow at the mention of that Name, then of this, the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary, we should say to this Society that has followed that Name, 'We salute you!' And though we bow the knee only to the Savior after Whom you are named, we take off our hats today. We salute you! God love you!"

Gdansk fever

What a joy it is to see the Polish version of The Thrill of the Chaste featured on the home page of the Gdansk Dominicans' Web site!

Good morning! Have been busy—will post something new tomorrow a.m. Watch this space for an excerpt from a previously unpublished talk by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, sent to me by a friend who found it in an archive.

That was GRE-Z

Got some great news yesterday with regard to my grad school prospects. I took the GRE cold and got 680 verbal and 640 quantitative (math), which according to that reliable source Wikipedia put me in the 96th and 58th percentiles, respectively. (The fact that I ranked above the mean at all in the math section is absolutely amazing.)

When you take the GRE test, you get to see your scores on the multiple-choice sections instantly, which is how I know how I did. It will be another couple of weeks before the analytical-writing score comes in, as that section has to be reviewed by two college faculty members. I am not worried about my score on that, though I suppose perhaps I should be concerned that a secular academic might not enjoy reading my conversion story.

In hope of entering full-time studies for a master's in theology this fall, I had my scores sent to four area schools, but I already have a particular one in mind: Dominican House of Studies. The volumes of Archbishop Sheen I have read in the past couple of years have whetted my appetite for Thomism, for which it looks like DHS is the place to go. It is also appealing as it is the home of many excellent minds such as John Corbett. No, that wouldn't be "Aidan" of "Sex and the City," but rather the Rev. John Corbett O.P., a professor of moral theology whose lectures at my parish this past year made me want to learn more.

Contraception vs. desire for unconditional love—guess which wins

Time magazine and a Massachusetts TV station have the sad story of the pregnancy pact that led to 17 Gloucester High students age 16 and younger becoming pregnant.

Time gloats over how the "fiercely Catholic enclave"'s school failed to provide sex-ed and contraception access that's up to Planned Parenthood's standards, but that doesn't seem at all to be the issue, according to a former student:

Amanda Ireland, who graduated from Gloucester High on June 8, thinks she knows why these girls wanted to get pregnant. Ireland, 18, gave birth her freshman year and says some of her now pregnant schoolmates regularly approached her in the hall, remarking how lucky she was to have a baby. "They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally," Ireland says. "I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m."

Even Time's reporter admits that throwing contraceptives at underage teens isn't going to solve this one:

Gloucester's elected school committee plans to vote later this summer on whether to provide contraceptives. But that won't do much to solve the issue of teens wanting to get pregnant. Says rising junior Kacia Lowe, who is a classmate of the pactmakers': "No one's offered them a better option."

I think proponents of abstinence education—the best programs of which stress building healthy relationships—can be forgiven for thinking there must be a better way to help these teens than attempting to persuade them to simply use "protection."

One wonders what kind of love the teens are getting at home. It would be interesting to learn how many of them have parents who are still together. Not very many, I fear.