Prayers for the Catholic Church

[MaxPC]

The Rev. Stephen Gutgsell
was assaulted Sunday “during an invasion” of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska,
the Archdiocese of Omaha said in a statement.

“Iowa man arrested in the death of a Nebraska priest”
(report doesn’t open) ..

Archdiocese of Omaha / “News Release: Archdiocesan priest dies following invasion at rectory”
https://archomaha.org/news-release-arch ... t-rectory/

Priests are kidnapped or martyred every year, usually by political factions. There have been a number of priests kidnapped or martyred in the past months in Africa, China, the Middle East, etc. Seminaries teach them that martyrdom both red and white, is a part of the job when the Lord wills it.

[temporal1]

The Rev. Stephen Gutgsell
was assaulted Sunday “during an invasion” of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska,
the Archdiocese of Omaha said in a statement.

“Iowa man arrested in the death of a Nebraska priest”
(report doesn’t open) ..

Archdiocese of Omaha / “News Release: Archdiocesan priest dies following invasion at rectory”
https://archomaha.org/news-release-arch ... t-rectory/

Priests are kidnapped or martyred every year, usually by political factions. There have been a number of priests kidnapped or martyred in the past months in Africa, China, the Middle East, etc.

Seminaries teach them that martyrdom both red and white, is a part of the job when the Lord wills it.

i believe this is correct, and virtually ignored in msm.
i didn’t add this report because of its uniqueness, but as a reminder that it happens.

This priest had some sin/legal problems (i think theft) that he was punished for and repented of, i’m not sure why the media included this - with note that it’s believed to be unrelated to his murder.

i’d not known of colors of martyrdom.

[MaxPC]

Frankly no one with any maturity of judgment cares about mainstream media. There were and are antiCatholics; antiAnabaptists; antiSemites; anti - pick your favorite victim. Mature Christians do not care what msm says about them. It was thus 2000 years ago; it was thus 200 years ago. We simply stay calm and disciple on.

[temporal1]

“HOT ON THE HEELS” of Pope Frances’ leadership in Catholic blessings, baptisms for homosexuals+others ..

Soloist / Baptism in the Catholic Church
viewtopic.php?t=6225

briar patch
viewtopic.php?t=136&start=460
Bunny Trails
viewtopic.php?t=209&start=1040

- - - - - - -

SURROGACY / now big business, big international business

POPE FRANCES / USCCB affirms pope’s description of surrogacy as turning a child into ‘an object of trafficking’
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/news-co ... afficking/

(OSV News) — Pope Francis told diplomats Jan. 8 that he finds surrogacy “deplorable” and would like to see the practice universally banned.

“I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs. A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,” he said in an annual New Year’s meeting with members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. “Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”

The remarks made headlines among major U.S. secular news outlets, prompting calls to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the conference’s spokesperson and Executive Director of Public Affairs Chieko Noguchi told OSV News.

“As Pope Francis stated, with surrogacy, an unborn child is turned into ‘an object of trafficking’ because it exploits the birth mother’s material needs and makes the child the product of a commercial contract. This is why the Catholic Church teaches that the practice of surrogacy is not morally permissible. Instead, we should pray for, and work towards, a world that upholds the profound dignity of every person, at every stage and in every circumstance of life,” Noguchi said in a Jan. 8 media statement.

Gestational surrogacy is the practice in which a woman carries and delivers a baby for an individual or couple, sometimes for compensation. The gestational carrier is impregnated through in vitro fertilization, a practice the church also proscribes.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child’s right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses’ ‘right to become a father and a mother only through each other.'”

Pope Francis has denounced surrogacy before, including in a 2022 meeting with members of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe, during which he said, “The dignity of men and women is also threatened by the inhumane and increasingly widespread practice of ‘womb renting,’ in which women, almost always poor, are exploited, and children are treated as commodities.”

In 2016, Pope Francis briefly reflected on surrogacy in “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”), a post-synodal apostolic exhortation that followed the 2014-2015 synods of bishops on the family, noting, “History is burdened by the excesses of patriarchal cultures that considered women inferior, yet in our own day, we cannot overlook the use of surrogate mothers and the ‘exploitation and commercialization of the female body in the current media culture,'” citing a catechesis he gave at a general audience in April 2015.

The commercial surrogacy industry was valued at $14 billion globally in 2022,
and is projected to reach an estimated value of $129 billion by 2032,
according to a November 2022 Global Market Insights report. Surrogacy laws vary by country.

Surrogacy was just one of many topics Pope Francis touched on in his Jan. 8 meeting with members of the diplomatic corps.
After thanking them for their “efforts to foster good relations between the Holy See and your respective countries,” he reflected on areas of war and political tension throughout the world, including Israel and Palestine and Russia and Ukraine.

- - - - - - -

P.230 / Russia Invades Ukraine /

i don’t believe Ukraine’s surrogate mother (industry?) has been mentioned.
i’ve read some about it in the last year. the war has affected it, sometimes leaving babies in political limbo.

Before the 2022 invasion, the pandemic caused problems for these babies, the surrogates, the paying (families?)

2010 / Women Head East for Wombs to Rent
Banned from paying someone to carry a child for them at home, infertile women travel as far as Ukraine in search of surrogate mothers.
https://balkaninsight.com/2010/10/26/wo ... s-to-rent/

undated / Womb to rent – the harsh realities of surrogacy (biotex)
https://biotexcom.com/womb-to-rent-the- ... surrogacy/

2018 / Ukraine’s ‘baby factories’: The human cost of surrogacy (biotex)
After India, Nepal and Thailand banned surrogacy, Ukraine soaks up demand. But women on both sides report exploitation.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018 ... -surrogacy



2018 / In search of surrogates, foreign couples descend on Ukraine
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42845602

2020 / Surrogate motherhood and exploitation in Ukraine
https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Area ... ine-203929


2022 / Wombs for rent and the war in Ukraine
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/do ... 15_EN.html

2022 / Ukrainian Women in Womb Rental Industry Facing Unique Challenges after Russian Invasion
Some women were left behind when the babies they gestated were taken abroad, others have been asked to travel with a newborn to another country.
https://4w.pub/ukrainian-womb-rental-war/

2022 / Poverty In Ukraine Makes Uterine Rental Business Legal, Issues Exploitation Of Women Set Aside
https://voi.id/en/bernas/149880

2022 / For foreign babies carried by Ukrainian surrogates, nowhere is safe
The Russian invasion has placed mothers and babies at risk in Ukraine’s booming surrogacy industry
https://wng.org/roundups/wombs-for-rent ... 1646499722

There’s more.
Worldwide, with or without war, there’s lots more.

^^Ukraine is an example. Ukraine is NOT alone in this “industry.”

[Josh]

I've gotta side with Francis's view on this one. Surrogacy is really not a good thing, particularly the modern, industrial form of it.

It would be good to see other churches start to take a stance on this issue and also teach against it. Infertile couples often go through a lot of heartbreak, and fertility clinics are more than willing to make a buck - or 100,000 bucks - from these grieving couples.

[MaxPC]

I've gotta side with Francis's view on this one. Surrogacy is really not a good thing, particularly the modern, industrial form of it.

It would be good to see other churches start to take a stance on this issue and also teach against it. Infertile couples often go through a lot of heartbreak, and fertility clinics are more than willing to make a buck - or 100,000 bucks - from these grieving couples.

Quite; so many children in need of adoption.

[temporal1]

I've gotta side with Francis's view on this one.
Surrogacy is really not a good thing, particularly the modern, industrial form of it.

It would be good to see other churches start to take a stance on this issue and also teach against it.

Infertile couples often go through a lot of heartbreak, and fertility clinics are more than willing to make a buck -
or 100,000 bucks - from these grieving couples.

He does not mince words about it.
So much evil flies “under the radar” - and is allowed to do so by powerful protectors+enablers with self-interests.

Evil shamelessly uses the innocuous+vulnerable as cover to thrive.

Pope Francis has poked a wasp’s nest with this one. He’s getting lots of pushback. Evil does not want to be disturbed.

[JayP]

As a Catholic, why is there so much posting about the RCC?

Does not make much sense to me.

[Soloist]

As a Catholic, why is there so much posting about the RCC?

Does not make much sense to me.

Not a lot makes sense here. Why do we have three Catholics as members on an Anabaptist forum?

[MaxPC]

MennoTwilight Zone?