Way back during my Chicago years, 1947-1948, I worked for philosopher Mortimer Adler as he was putting together publication of the Great Books of the Western World and its accompanying Syntopicon. I then married and left his employ and often wished I could have seen the finished product. The cost for the complete set was hundreds of dollars, which was quite out of my reach for many years.

Just recently I thought I would see what was available on Amazon and found that the two volumes of the Syntopicon could be purchased separately from sundry dealers and I managed to acquire a set. It gave me pleasure to see (at long last) my name among the editorial staff in the front of the volume Angel to Love.

Further investigation revealed the following announcement in 2009:

Coming to a library near you:

Beginning in January of next year, Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World will be available electronically, in its entirety, at libraries and institutions. Through an agreement between Britannica and Ingram Digital, the Great Books will be accessible through Ingram’s industry-leading MyiLibrary e-book platform.

The electronic Great Books will contain precisely the same contents as the printed version, with hypertext links from entries in the Syntopicon—the idea index—and the places in the text those entries refer to. The digital corpus will be fully searchable.

If your library doesn’t subscribe, you will have the option of purchasing the electronic version of the Great Books yourself. We’ll have more details when the product becomes available next month.

Amazon has this to say:

There is no better way to own and appreciate the world’s greatest written works. Great Books of the Western World is one of the most acclaimed publishing feats of our time. Authoritative, accurate, and complete, this collection represents the essential core of the Western literary canon, compiling 517 of the most significant achievements in literature, history, philosophy, and science into a color-coded set as handsome as it is affordable. From the ancient classics to the newest masterpieces of the 20th century, Great Books traces the ideas, stories, and discoveries that have shaped modern civilization. Volumes 1 and 2 of this collection is the Syntopicon, a unique two-volume guide (not sold separately) that enables you to investigate a particular idea and compare what different authors have to say about it. The Syntopicon comprises a new kind of reference work — accomplishing for ideas what the dictionary accomplishes for words and the encyclopaedia accomplishes for facts.

They have seven new sets available for $900 and 12 used sets for $100!

On December 1, 1958, a fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago claimed the lives of 92 children and 3 nuns. Three of my children were at school at that time. This dreadful memory is re-awakened by the killing, last week, in the next town to me (Sandy Hook, Newtown) of 27 people, including 20 first grade students, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The shooter then took his own life.

I am astounded to find I have nothing on my blog about the OLA fire and that needs to be remedied now. Unlike the parents in Newtown, I did not have to go running to the burning school fearing to find my children burned or dead. I had left my house planning to go to the store with the two little kids in the stroller. On the way to the store I found Wendy coming from school who told me the school was on fire! Fortunately, and thank God!, Terry and Peggy soon came along. They had gotten out safely. Some of our neighbors did not fare so well.

We are blessed to be have available photos of Wendy’s classroom and Terry’s classroom taken a couple of years earlier. Terry is first, in the first row. Wendy is second, in the first row. Note, please, the size of the class. In those days one nun was able to deal with sixty students! How things have changed!

Terry in class

Wendy in class

For those with an interest in the Our Lady of the Angels school fire the link (first line) above presents an awesome overview put together by someone quite some time after the fact. At the time of the fire Wendy was in room 206. This little note explains why she escaped safely.

About this classroom:
This classroom was located on the second floor of the annex, closest to the north wing classrooms. While no children or staff in room 206 suffered significant injuries, this is the room from which a 10-year-old boy was excused to go to the restroom shortly after 2 pm, a few minutes before the fire started in the basement. Several years later, at age 13, he confessed to setting the fire in a trash barrel in the basement. In court, however, he recanted the confession, and neither he, nor anyone was ever prosecuted for the fire at Our Lady of the Angels. Room 206 was one of only three classrooms with an exit leading to the school’s single external fire escape.

Last night after a bit of prayer I wanted to go back to sleep but I kept thinking about Martin. I first met Martin as a pro-life activist at the Dobbs Ferry NY abortion mill in 1990. He was tall,quiet, a Jewish convert to Christianity, had big brown eyes and was clearly very intelligent. Later we did a rescue at Dobbs and both Martin and I were arrested and jailed at Valhalla. We called it a “rescue” because of Proverbs 24:11 which reads: “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If we say, ‘We did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?’ We knew there were abortions scheduled to be performed in that facility and our intent was to sit down and block the mill entrance (the more people the better!) and prevent those deaths. When we refused to move out of the way, the police tended to arrest us.

At first I couldn’t even remember Martin’s first name, and I tried to put him out of my mind as I struggled to recollect his last name, thinking it would come to me later on its own. But my mind was troubled by this memory lapse and sleep was escaping me. I thought there was a ‘z’ in his name someplace! Finally, it occurred to me that Martin had long ago written a short pro-life booklet which I considered one of the best things I had ever read! By some miracle, I was able to remember the title of his booklet: Acquiescence to Slaughter. I promptly entered “acquiescence to slaughter” in Google and, presto! – there, readily available, was lots of information about my old friend, Martin Wishnatsky!

Martin’s book was listed on Amazon as currently unavailable but, much to my delight, there were YouTube videos that had been uploaded in 2009 to bring me up to date as to what Martin has been up to. He had continued his pro-life activity in Fargo ND and in 2009 was planning to add to his Harvard Ph.D. a law degree by attending Liberty Univerity. What a delight to once again see this old friend in the following interviews (in four parts) with one John Strand in Fargo.

Martin has long had a website titled Good Morals (http://www.goodmorals.org/) which aims to promote sexual purity.

A Liberty U site in 2010 posted the following:
Martin Wishnatsky, 66, chose Liberty because of its ties to the conservative legal community.  Jewish by birth and Christian by faith, Wishnatsky holds a PhD in political science from Harvard University. Today, he considers his alma mater a “spiritually deadening” school.

After a decade-long career on Wall Street, Wishnatsky decided to dedicate his life to the pro-life movement, and moved to North Dakota to work for a Christian ministry called the Perry Center.

In 2009, Wishnatsky enrolled at LU’s law school with the hopes that a law degree would give him further clout in the fight against abortion.  “It seemed to me to have the strongest Christian commitment,” Wishnatsky said, adding that so far the school has fulfilled his expectations.

Martin Wishnatsky, Liberty University

Currently holds this position –

President, Liberty Counsel Student Organization (2010-2011);

Submissions Editor, Law Review

Liberty University
J.D., Law

2009 – 2012
Now to get in touch with Martin and say “Hi!  Good job, getting a law degree!  Where are you living and what are you up to now?  I am attaching a copy of Fr. Weslin’s obituary, in case you have not seen it.   So glad you are still a Christian and a pro-life activist!  Hope you approve of my blogging about you.   God bless.”

LATER:

Now that I have been able to get in touch with Martin, it turns out that he is studying to take his Bar Exam in July.  It also turns out that Martin’s life and writings and doings have been meticulously  documented at www.goodmorals.org/mw as well as goodmorals.org/poetry and litigation at goodmorals.org/hb1242.  Martin has surfaced big-time!   I especially want to read what he has written on evolution, as that has been one of my favorite subjects also.   He is a complex living, breathing, producing, intriguing Christian!

AND JUNE IS THE MONTH OF THE SACRED HEART

Could the two be more diametrically opposed?

The President and First Lady hosted the first-of-its-kind LGBT Pride Month reception at the White House yesterday. On the heels of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the reception brought together LGBT families, volunteers, community leaders, lawmakers and heads of LGBT organizations to celebrate the LGBT community. (video here)

Every generation of Americans has brought our Nation closer to fulfilling its promise of equality. While progress has taken time, our achievements in advancing the rights of LGBT Americans remind us that history is on our side, and that the American people will never stop striving toward liberty and justice for all.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2011 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

BARACK OBAMA

(see entire proclamation here)

~~~

Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.  If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. — Ezekiel 33:7-9

I can’t say anything bad about my old Nokia 1100 cell phone. It has served me well for years – and even got better over the years as improvements were apparently downloaded every now and then. It worked. It was cheap. It was simple. It was apparently unbreakable. It didn’t take pictures, or browse the internet but when I wanted to call someone, even across states, it was there and ready. I part with it somewhat sadly, as with an old friend.

Enter LG900G. I could have it for $40. The monthly charge would stay the same. But, oh, the possibilities! It has a voice recorder, FM radio, a camera and a video camera, and an organizer. I was told I could store quantities of contacts and music, I could surf the internet! I don’t have a clue as to what its capacity really is. I could have a “smart phone” for only $40! I thought it was time for this old lady to treat herself and to move on up to the big time. I succumbed.

It came. Putting in the battery and the back cover went easily enough. Then I plugged it in to charge. It lit up and told me it was charging and activation was required. So far, so good. So pretty.

Activation was something else. I could activate my new phone on my computer or by phone. I wanted the number of my old phone transferred to the new one, as well as the minutes I already had. I liked the anonymity of doing it on-line so I could take my own sweet time to figure things out and not tax anyone’s patience. It did not go well, in part because I started out using my wrong email address, wondering why they would not recognize me. Eventually it was suggested that if I was having problems I could “call this number.”

I got this guy from Ghana with an accent, using a kind of stilted pre-programed English. I had to keep asking him to repeat himself as he gave me directions as to what I should be doing with my old phone. Push this, push that, see the little box that says code? Now in that box put in #*3#2 or some strange combination of numbers and symbols, and push OK. When the box said “code accepted” is seemed like some sort of miracle. We went through that little routine once more, and got another “code accepted” in spite of his language difficulties and my hearing difficulties. All in all, it was a challenging, patience-trying experience.

So there I was, with the minutes gone from my old phone, no time on the new phone, and just the assurance that sometime in the new two business days the new phone would be activated. In actuality, it took only about 24 hours when my new phone started carrying on in my pocket and it announced that I had some 700 minutes of air time and my coverage would not expire until 2012.

Getting a new cell phone is not for the weak of heart. Or the technically challenged. Next thing you know the thing rang. I pushed the wrong button and ended the call. They left a voice mail! What to do? Look in the booklet. Push 1, hold it down. Well, it has one of those querty keypads with numbers all mixed up in it. I had to figure out which were numbers and which were letters. I didn’t know where to put my ear when someone started talking.

I was delighted to find out that I already had one loaded app – Facebook, of all things. In a fit of hubris I said OK to Facebook. I was warned that if I went online it would cost me minutes but I felt adventurous. Facebook login came up. I got as far as “babydot@” and I couldn’t find an @ key. And when it wanted my password, I couldn’t figure out how to switch from letters to numbers! So much for my first sally into “smart phoning.”

My LG900G and I have been getting to know each other for two days now. I found the @. I found the thing to switch to numbers from letters. I even found the key to make spaces between my words. I learned how to enter my contacts and spent quite a while doing that. Then I actually called my doctor and communicated my desire to change an appointment. Oh, the wonders of my new phone. But still, so much to learn. I know it has a camera and will take pictures. I don’t dare try. Not quite yet. For a while my LG900G and I are just going to take it easy and gradually become friends.

If there is anyone out there who would care to mentor me in this new relationship, I sure could use the help!

This is the lounge in International House at the University of Chicago. I used to live at International House in 1944. Things have gone downhill.   Below  is a picture of the kinky “leather library” where, in the interest of “diversity” perversity is promoted.

University of Chicago Promotes Sadomasochism and Pedophilia to Students — in the Name of Diversity

CHICAGO–The University of Chicago provided nearly $3,200 to a “kink” student group for a traveling sadomasochistic “leather library” exhibit at the University that eroticized pedophilia, incest, and the most deviant pornographic perversions known to mankind.

Americans For Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) sent a reporter yesterday to the exhibit – at the University’s International House – and came back with photos of the shockingly perverse offerings of the “Carter Johnson Leather Library,” including:

• The lesbian porn book “Macho Sluts,” by Pat Califia, which includes a story about a mother who engages in sadistic, violent “sex play” with her own 13-year-old daughter;
• Numerous books celebrating “Master-Slave” relationships;
• “Gay” male pornographic fiction books with pederastic themes, including one 1975 book, “Small Town Boy,” about a 15-year-old boy who meets up with and is sodomized by an adult businessman visiting from New York City;
• Photos and posters depicting the twisted violence and “consensual” degradation and cruelty of S&M – including one of a woman caning her ball-and-chained male ”slave.”

Incredibly, the University of Chicago now officially sanctions a “student group” for sexual sadists: RACK (Risk-Aware Consensual Kink), through which the traveling “leather library” exhibit was funded. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, RACK “received nearly $3,200 in university grant money to bring the display to campus.”

The grant for the “fetish” exhibit came from the “Uncommon Fund,” a $40,000, student-run program that “offers a chance for students to pursue a wide range of ideas that can benefit the campus community and campus life,” a U-Chicago spokesman told the Sun-Times.

In my college days, way back when Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler held sway at the U of C, they would never have spent good money to promote such sick behavior. Nowadays this kind of porn is common not only in colleges but in grade school. The oral sex taking place on school buses is just the beginning of a nation gone haywire.

Meanwhile, on another campus, Notre Dame, a “catholic” university named after Our Lady, voted down a resolution a resolution failed that would affirm the University’s commitment to the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life.  According to the minutes of that meeting, eight senators were in favor of the resolution and 22 were against it.

Diversity has come to mean that anything goes, that a university has no truth to teach.  Why bother to go there?  They echo Pontius Pilate’s “What is truth?” and wash their hands of the consequences of teaching nonsense.

I began this blog three years ago for no other reason than I wanted a way to publish a tribute I had written to Dr. Herbert Ratner, a Chicago doctor  who made a real difference in my life.  Today I write another tribute, to Felice, a lifelong friend.

I met Felice when I was 18 and attending  a dinky college, the Junior College of Connecticut, which later went on to become the University of Bridgeport.

A noble schoolie, J.C.C., it nestles ‘mong the maples
It teaches facts and theories, and offers all the staples.
Ten loving profs have charge of it, both male and female teachers
And in their arms they now embrace 170 creatures.

I don’t remember the rest of that little verse by Prof. Goulding – it has, after all, been 70 years!  And I still wonder at the chutzpah of the people who gathered 10 teachers together and dared to call it a college.   It struggled for years but now, as the University of Bridgeport,  has a beautiful campus at Seaside Park on Long Island Sound.

Felice, at that tender age, already knew she wanted to go to the University of Chicago and JCC was a stepping stone.  I, on the other hand, had no dreams of college.  I knew my family couldn’t afford to pay college tuition.  I had taken a commercial course in high school and considered myself competent in bookkeeping and stenography.  I only applied to JCC because it was (a) in town and (b) I had received a $100 scholarship when I graduated and didn’t want to waste it.  My plan was to add to my skills by becoming a medical secretary.

Felice and I became fast friends and sure enough, when the two year course was done, she  headed off to the University of Chicago and I went to work at Bridgeport Hospital as secretary to the pathologist.

That would have been the end of our friendship had Felice not come home on summer vacation and talked me into writing the U of C and applying for a scholarship.   She was excited by what she had found at the U of C and urged me to write to Norman McLean – I forget his title – send my records and ask if they could help me.   I still remember the first sentence of his reply: “Not everyone who writes to me is lucky, but I think you are.”   As I recall it, my tuition would be taken care of and I would manage my own room and board.

Wow!  My Daddy liked me working and bringing home some money.  I had to ask him for permission to go to college – not for him to help pay my way but for me to do it on my own.  And he said OK.

So off I went to the big City of Chicago and the big University of Chiago.  But I was blessed with Felice who had already been there two years, knew the ropes, had a group of friends – and as she swam in the main stream I just swam alongside.   Felice is friendly and talkative – what would I have done without her to grease the skids?  She got me a room in International House right next to hers and shepherded me until I knew my way around.  Who but Felice would have inspired me to sit in on Mortimer Adler’s Great Books classes?  Had it not been for her I would never have meet the luminaries in my life, Mortimer Adler and Herbert Ratner.

In due course we graduated.  Felice married Octavio who was from Mexico and went to live in Mexico City.   I married Dick, a Loyola student, and we lived in Chicago where we produced seven children.  Over the years Felice and I  kept in touch, remembering Christmas and birthdays.  I think I saw her once again when she visited the States, and I went to Mexico to see her at one point, but those memories are quite vague. I do remember I took my Polaroid camera with me on the first trip.

The years flew by.  Finally, the year of Felice’s 80th birthday, I persuaded  my friend Dolores into going to Mexico City with me to visit Felice.   Octavio had died and Felice had a lovely home in a gated community just calling to us.   She had not changed.  She had the same facial expressions, the same drive, the same intelligence.   She had her chauffeur drive us thither and yon, shopping, dining, visiting the shrine of our Lady of Guadalupe, seeing the sights.   I remember abundant fruit, finger-ready, a refrigerator stocked with Cerveza in our little guest suite, beautiful art work by Felice’s daughter.  It was a totally lovely visit.

More years. Felice’s 89th birthday is coming up.   Correspondence from Felice has stopped.   Her brothers, Al and Lenny, still live in Connecticut and tell me they have heard very little from her.   When Lenny called Mexico he was told she was in the hospital.   We knew she had had a long time battle with a slow growing thyroid cancer.  Finally, in desperation, I asked my Spanish-speaking daughter-in-law, Martha,  to call to see if she could find out anything from the servants.  That was yesterday.

Finally, I have Felice on the phone.  It is truly an Easter gift to learn that she is still alive! What a pleasure to talk with her, to hear her laugh!  She had been in the hospital with bronchitis but is home now, with a nurse who comes every day.  She spends a lot of time in a  recliner.   Time and time again I have wished we could communicate via computer – her grandson Pedro has one – but she is having none of it. She could read my blog and keep current  – as long as I keep current.

Felice will be 89 in early May.    She tells me she still reads the New York Times and The Economist.   Yep, that’s Felice, all right!  I have to admit I’ve never seen a copy of The Economist but I have high respect for it as it is admired by people I respect.  Isn’t that the way we decide what (or who) is good, and what’s not?

Felice was a pivotal person in my life.  She changed the whole trajectory!  A true friend!  Thank you, Felice, and God bless.   Vaya con dios!

P. S. Be it known that in order to remedy my unfamiliarity with The Economist I looked it up on Google and forthwith posted on Facebook a quote and a link to an article saying that Obama was “unfair” and “misleading” in his recent budget talk.   If Felice could only go on Facebook I could “friend” her!

~~~

A faithful friend is the medicine of life. – Ecclesiasticus 6:16

Before it was a sitcom, the Big Bang Theory was a scientific answer to how the universe began 13.7 billion years ago. We have, they say, an expanding universe which started way back then when a very dense “primeval atom” went bang! I have just recently read a couple of lay explanations of what actually happened at the Big Bang which have stuck in my mind.

The first goes something like this:

In the beginning was nothing

And nothing happened to nothing

Until nothing suddenly, magically, exploded into a universe

For no reason.

Does that make sense to you? That’s what atheists believe!

I have been unable to locate the website for the second explanation which compares the Big Bang to a fireworks display so I will have to wing it on my own:

Imagine the best fireworks you have ever seen. One after another they are propelled into the sky where they explode into a series of brilliant light clusters in many different colors, which radiate outward until they disappear into the night sky. Sometimes such a cluster will give rise to many smaller light shows which no sooner disappear than another is sent into the air with more bangs, more brilliance and more ooh’s and ah’s until the grand finale when the sky is filled with bursting lights and the earth rocks with the sound.

You know that this amazing display didn’t “just happen.” You know that there are people who specialize in making fireworks and each firework is designed to produce a special effect in a certain color with a certain sound, and they will die doing it. You might say each firework is “programmed” to produce a special display.  No one entertains the thought that this whole show produced itself.

In like manner it seems more reasonable to believe that the universe exploded into existence when God said “Let it be!” God knew when it began how it would end and so fine-tuned it that our own Earth, for instance, was just the right distance from the sun, had just the right atmosphere, just the right substrate, just enough water to support life — and he then put plants, animals, and people there. Until I learn of a better explanation for how our expanding universe began, why it has laws that can be learned, and why we are here on earth, this is the explanation that makes the most sense to me.

12-year-old Jake Barnett, a genius with Asperger’s syndrome and an IQ of 170, is tackling the theory of relativity and disputing the Big Bang theory. He says he thinks in four and five dimensions and wants to do research in the field of astrophysics.

Glenn Beck introduces Jake Barnett:

Perhaps in his lifetime Jacob Barnett will contribute to our understanding of the beginning of the cosmos. For the time being, as you can see, he is quite good at calculus. He is a truly gifted child (doesn’t “gift” imply a giver?)

George Washington Carver wrote: “When I was young, I said to God, god, tell me the mystery of the universe. But God answered, that knowledge is for me alone. So I said, god, tell me the mystery of the peanut. Then God said, well, George, that’s more nearly your size.”

Let’s see how Jake Barnett will play out the hand he has been dealt. He has done nothing to merit his extraordinary talents. May he appreciate his gifts, seek truth, enjoy beauty, and be good to his fellow man.

~~~

A nonsensical history of the increasingly complex universe.

We get closer to God as we get more intimately and understandingly acquainted with the things He has created. I know of nothing more inspiring than that of making discoveries for one’s self.” — George Washington Carver

Ennui has set in. I attribute it to the medication for my vertigo which makes me sleepy. But I’ve read three really, really good books in the past couple of weeks and can’t in good conscience not post a little something about them. The writing in each is extraordinary.

So, first:

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, by Tim O’Brien.

This is a book about the Viet Nam War and it is fiction, but so real you can taste and feel it.   O’Brien at the age of 22 was drafted into the infantry and served a year in Viet Nam. He came home, went to Harvard, and launched a writing career. As he says, “a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot solder. Almost everything else is invented.” Then he explains why story-truth is sometimes better than happening-truth.

Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier. There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I am left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief.

Here is the story-truth. He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay in the center of a red clay trail near the village of My Khe. His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other was a star-shaped hole. I killed him.

HURRY DOWN SUNSHINE by Michael Greenberg.

The first line reads:   “On July 5, 1996, my daughter was struck mad. She was fifteen and her crack-up marked a turning point in both our lives.” You cannot help but wonder what happens next when someone near and dear to you is struck mad. The story is told as it is happening, the onset,the symptoms, the diagnosis, the hospitalization, the treatment, the return home. At one point Greenberg takes a full dose of his daughter’s medication and we see clearly how potent a drug must be to treat a psychosis.

FATHER JOE: The Man Who Saved My Soul, by Tony Hendra

Tony Hendra, English comedian, satirist, writer for the National Lampoon, as a teenage boy wanted to become a Benedictine monk. This is the story of a lad aspiring to the simple, holy life, who became an blasphemous agnostic to whom nothing was sacred. He is a word-smith and has a delicious way with words. I remember the writer each morning at Mass when I look at the sanctuary light which according to Hendra, says, “Jesus is……IN!”   I was also impressed by the impact it had on the teenage Tony when he realized that Jesus had actually lived and walked  on earth if not “in the here and now, in the there and then.”

These books are not Catholic or even Christian. The language, especially in the war stories,  is vulgar (of course) but these authors are top-notch storytellers  and each book  is worth the time it will take you to read it.   You want insight?   You get insight!

I would have linked the books to their pages on Amazon but perhaps the affiliation of my website with Amazon has expired for lack of use.  They are there and cheap.  Treat yourself.

I wonder how many conservatives are aware of the work done on our behalf by C-FAM — the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute.  Under the headship of Austin Ruse C-FAM was instrumental in protecting the Vatican’s observer status in the United Nations when pro-abortion groups (including Catholics for Free Choice) sought to remove it.

I have just learned of C-FAM’s  exciting new program of bringing  young Catholic college students to meet with UN delegates in New York.  According to Mr. Ruse, when “the delegates meet Americans who pray, they are shocked.   Most people of faith around the world form their impression of America by our exportation of pornography,  homosexual propaganda, and abortion-promoting, radical feminism.  But when they meet our young people, our Catholic college and law students, these elite UN delegates can actually be moved to tears…

“For the past thirteen years, C-FAM has been the ONLY Catholic pro-life group dedicated to monitoring, reporting, exposing and countering the pro-abortionists at the UN.  And in all my 13 years doing this work, I have never seen a reaction as I saw on the faces of these hardened diplomats from the Third World!  They practically swooned over these pink-cheeked pious
kids!”

Celine Dalimata tells of her experiences at the UN:

Growing up on a ranch in Montana, the United Nations was as foreign an institution and incomprehensible a concept as Confucian philosophy or baklava. Even as a college student here at Christendom College, UN concerns, documents, and events were no more than a mere echo of the outside world in the general hubbub and academic demands of our small, yet dynamic campus.

When I was invited to apply for the Edmund Burke Fellowship to lobby at the UN with C-FAM on pro-life and pro-family matters, I was very intimidated, to say the least.  However, one thing led to another, and on March 9 I found myself rubbing shoulders with the wonderfully inspiring C-FAM staff, as well as various foreign delegations.

To the outsider, the words “foreign delegates” have a sort of sacred, ominous tone; however, I found them to be quite surprisingly human.  They smiled (and frowned) at what you had to say; some condescendingly patted you on the head; others barked you away for not speaking their language or crossing their views; still others were amazingly receptive and willing to form an alliance in the name of life and family.

At the first meeting I attended, I was appalled to hear motherhood labeled as “unpaid labor” and child rearing as a great “burden.”  Such language did not belong in my world, but there it was, threatening to become part of my world through the power of a United Nations policy document.  I suddenly realized: this is the way the world-at-large thinks, this is their language.

I was further appalled, though less surprised, to hear the United States delegation offer support to language which would include the representation of “all sexes” while ridiculing those who sought for the representation of women who have suffered severe psychological effects from abortion.

In the midst of all these unnatural and dehumanizing discussions, there were more glimpses of hope than I would have expected.  Malta and the Holy See were wonderfully supportive as well as many of the African and Islamic countries who still have a sense of some of the tenets of natural law.

By the end of the week we had achieved our goal.  We were able to assist in the elimination of homosexual language which was hostile to the family, and limited the language about ‘reproductive health services’ to ensure that it would not be possible to misinterpret it in favor of a “right” to abortion.

I think we were all eternally grateful for our Christendom background and the philosophical and theological training necessary to coherently recognize and combat such ideologies on their own level.

We were also amazed and edified by the caliber of the C-FAM representatives with which we worked and grew more and more in awe of the work they do and their incredible effectiveness.  Their mission is living proof that God is on the side of the Good and I was honored and edified to partake in their efforts.

C-FAM wants to bring 100 more such students to the upcoming Commission on the Status of Woman in three months and to the UN General Assembly a few months after that.  Of course they need funds.

Their address is:   Austin Ruse, President, C-FAM Mail Processing Center, P.O Box 9317, Pueblo CO 81008-9317.

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For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. — Genesis 2:24