Spirit & Life Newsletter

Looking Back and Surging Forward We are grateful to the Lord for the results of the elections of last Tuesday November 2nd.  This victory is a great step towards returning to America's Christian roots. A nation that refutes the Lord can not survive, especially when among the founding ideals of this country is the desire to be a Nation under God. It represents a move towards breaking the totalitarian shackles that were menacing the nation, giving increasing power to the government. In the last decades we have witnessed the growth of this abusive power that has led to the destruction of innocent lives and the corruption of the family, and these electoral results are a healthy response from Americans who want to be freed from this tyranny.  This tyrannical power has not only been exercised by the growth of the federal government, but also through a dangerous growth of the power of the judiciary. This has led to the establishment of a "Judgeocracy" as the wise bishop of Honolulu His Excellency Clarence Silva recently explained to me. So it was a particularly good development when the good people of the state of Iowa decided to remove three members of their State Supreme Court. These judges bypassed the democratic will of the citizens of their state by sanctioning same-sex "marriage" last year. Then they received a very democratic comeuppance. We have to be aware that the founding ideals of this nation, like the ideals of other countries in North and South America, were heavily influenced by the liberal ideology of the eighteenth century. So north and south of the border we have to revisit our founding ideals to purify them of the excesses of liberalism-an ideology that in many instances refuses to accept the total Lordship of God over His creation, because it is based on the autonomy of man. This Lordship of God over His creation is the basic foundation of our defense of life and family, even if the same goods are completely evident on a natural level. The Lord is the giver and at the same time remains the owner of life. We are only the administrators of this gift, in much the same way that we are the stewards of the environment, and not its owners. At the creation of man, this loving Lord inscribed in his heart and mind a law on how to administer his life and his relations with his Maker and his fellow man. In this most basic law we have the rules that regulate marriage, which is the faithful and permanent union between a man and a woman for the generation and education of children and their mutual support. To give the name of "marriage" to any other arrangement is a grave violation of the nature of marriage. All resistance to the abuse of power has to be grounded not in emotion, but in the full recognition that there is no sovereignty on this earth that is not ultimately derived from and subject to the Lordship of God and to the rule of his permanent and unchangeable Law.   So as we look to the future we see a need for a many-pronged effort. We should continually explain, first and foremost, the foundation of a healthy natural society so that our fellow citizens might stop acting in a self-destructive way. This discussion must also include the economic aspects of society, because without a healthy economy it is difficult for young people to start families or to be generous with life. To build a healthy economy we have to drastically reduce the budget deficit and the tax pressure on individuals and families. Foreign assistance should be selective, remembering that often foreign aid can end up in the wrong hands, or create a destructive spirit of dependence in a nation. Carefully allocated humanitarian assistance to extremely poor countries in need of emergency assistance due to catastrophic events is very good, otherwise such assistance should take the form of investment and should involve the private sector as well. We have to remain vigilant. Newly elected national and state congressmen and state governors must remain faithful to their electoral campaign promises to defend life and family. In their political decisions they should act in coherence with the principles they proclaimed when they seeking our votes, and we must help them and hold them to their promises. As for us, we will continue to proclaim the Gospel of Life so that our fellow citizens will have a stronger reason to reform our nations north and south of the border on the basis of the only truth that saves: the Gospel of Christ. We have to remember that the worse subjection is the slavery of sin and that the true freedom for which we all long can only be found in the service of Christ the King.     Sincerely yours in Christ,

Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula
Interim President, Human Life International