Respect Life Radio

Jeremiah Keenan: Transgender legal case in Canada erodes parental rights

The Supreme Court in British Columbia ruled in 2019 that a "14-year-old girl can receive testosterone injections without parental consent, on the sole basis of her own consent" and "if either of her parents refer to her using female pronouns or address her by her birth name, they would be considered guilty of family violence," said Jeremiah Keenan, a writer at The Federalist.

Keenan has been covering the case of the father, including a recent article, "Canadian Father Jailed For Talking About Court-Ordered Transgendering Of His Teenage Daughter." Follow Keenan @jeremiah_keenan on Twitter.

Mary Szoch: How Planned Parenthood leads the culture of death

“Planned Parenthood's mission is deny science, exploit people and make profits,” said Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, which recently published the 2021 edition of “The Real Planned Parenthood: Leading the Culture of Death.”

“Planned Parenthood took the lives of 354,871 unborn children in 2019, the most in any given year. It is also the second largest provider of hormone therapy to those who identify as transgender/have gender dysphoria,” according to a key-point summary in the report.

“They say that they're about 'Care, no matter what,'” said Szoch in this Respect Life Radio interview. “But they don't actually care that the teenagers that they're giving these cross-sex hormones to will have lasting side effects. Some of them may actually experience sterilization as a result of these cross-sex hormones.”

Fr. Thomas Morrow: How to overcome sinful thoughts

"By turning away from sin, we have the opportunity to become happy. That's why the saints are so important. You realize, when you read their lives, that they were virtuous and they were happy. When people live lives of sins, they're not happy. They live...the life of an addict who needs another fix from their sins and they don't find the happiness that they're looking for, " said Father Thomas Morrow, author of "Overcoming Sinful Thoughts: How to Realign Your Thinking and Defeat Harmful Ideas" (Sophia Institute Press) and other books. Follow him at Catholic Faith Alive! 

Jonathan Butcher: Critical Race Theory and the new intolerance

Critical Race Theory “is the idea that we can only see the world through a racial lens: America is systemically racist. And we must disrupt and, frankly, overturn systems of governing authority in the United States," said Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education at The Heritage Foundation. He is the co-author, with Mike Gonzalez, of "Critical Race Theory, the New Intolerance, and its Grip on America," published by The Heritage Foundation. Follow @JM_Butcher on Twitter.

 

Fr. Edward Meeks: Why politics is not our religion

"Whether we're accused of being overly political or not, we have to take a stand for the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage and religious liberty, because all three of them are under assault in this culture today," said Fr. Edward Meeks, the founding pastor of Christ the King Church in Towson, Md. "And if we don't stand up and say: this far and no more, then we will wake up one day with all of them gone..." 

His homilies, published on his YouTube channel, include "Politics is Not Our Religion" from January 2021. "Staring into the Abyss" from October 2020 has more than 2.4 million views. Fr. Meeks discussed his path into the Catholic Church on an episode of EWTN's "Journey Home."

Fr. Quan Tran: Follow Our Lady to be a disciple of Jesus Christ

The Blessed Virgin Mary is "the perfect disciple. She is God's masterpiece. To imitate Mary is to imitate Christ. There's no contradiction," said Fr. Quan Tran, parochial vicar at St. Bonaventure Parish in Huntington Beach, Calif., and a former deputy district attorney. He is the author of "The Imitation of Mary: Keys to Growth in Virtue and Grace" (Sophia Institute Press) and leads FullnessOfGrace.org.

George Weigel: Calling out incoherent Catholicism

“We've had a serious problem with Catholic public officials who are incoherent in their Catholicism for a very long time,” said George Weigel, the Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics & Public Policy Center, the author of books including The Next Pope, and of the recent First Things article, “President Biden and a Catholic inflection point.”

“This is a bit different. President Biden is the most visible Catholic in the country. He's the most important Catholic public official in the world. And he is actively advancing and facilitating policies that deny the truth of that first principle of Catholic social doctrine: the inalienable dignity and value of every human life.”

Archbishop Cordileone: Defend life in the womb and a response to Catholic politicians who don't

“There's a danger that now these Catholics in high-profile prominent positions — now even the president — can mislead Catholics, so that's a problem of scandal,” said Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, who also expressed concern about "further division in the Church..."

Responding to comments by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who represents San Francisco in Congress, Archbishop Cordileone issued a statement in January that "on the question of the equal dignity of human life in the womb, she also speaks in direct contradiction to a fundamental human right that Catholic teaching has consistently championed for 2,000 years."

In this Respect Life Radio interview, Archbishop Cordileone also discusses the efforts of FreeTheMass.com, which seeks to "end unfair restrictions on worship and to protect our churches and religious liberties," according to the website.

Fr. Timothy Gallagher: Understanding "Discernment of Spirits in Marriage"

A "spouse is not going to try to be your spiritual director in a formal sense, but is someone who can walk with you, with whom you can talk about the burdens — and it makes all the difference," said Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., author of "Discernment of Spirits in Marriage: Ignatian Wisdom for Husbands and Wives" and many other books. Follow him at FrTimothyGallagher.org. He was previously on Respect Life Radio to discuss "Overcoming spiritual discouragement in a time of pandemic."

 

 

Monsignor Pope: The priestly robes replaced by lab coats

"It's astonishing to me the levels of fear that have utterly collapsed us into this — whatever the government says, I'll do — and even in the Church: whatever the government says, we must follow. The priestly robes have been replaced by the lab coats. Ultimately, we're in trouble. The main bugaboo is fear. How many times did Jesus say, 'Do not be afraid,'" said Monsignor Charles Pope, a parish pastor in Washington, D.C., a writer and speaker.

He recently wrote a two-part reflection for the National Catholic Register, "5 Hard Truths We’ve Come to See With 2020 Vision" and "5 More Hard Truths We’ve Come to See with 2020 Vision." Follow him at msgrpope.com.