By Randy Engel
Planned Parenthood Wrote the John Rock ‘Pill’ Book
Introduction
This new occasional series titled “Tales from the Humanae Vitae Diaries” is based on my upcoming two-volume book set on Population Control and the Catholic Church, and the ill-fated Birth Control Commission of Pope Paul VI.
Although, my research on both books was completed five years ago, I have yet to put them into final form for publication, which, God permitting, will be in early 2020.
In the meantime, July 25, 2018, which marks the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, will soon be upon us, and I’m certain that Catholics the world over can look forward to a constant deluge of pro and con commentaries on Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter.
Also, last February, Catholics learned what had long been rumored in Vatican circles, that Pope Francis had approved of a special “study group” to carry out a “historical review” of the drafting of Humanae Vitae. A topic which finds a solid and truthful home in my upcoming book on the Birth Control Commission.
Although my well-documented contribution to the on-going dialogue in the Catholic Church on population control and birth control is still two years away, I never-the-less think there are some aspects of the two controversies that really can’t wait or shouldn’t wait to get an airing – hence these short and pithy scenarios taken from my Humanae Vitae diaries.
First, in this series, is an short account of the ghostwriters for Dr. John Rock’s infamous 1963 book, The Time Has Come – A Catholic Doctor’s Proposals to End the Battle over Birth Control. The title is misleading as well as the identification of authorship, for, as we shall see, Rock, dubbed “Father of the Pill,” was not “Catholic” in any sense of the word and he was certainly not the primary author of the work to which his name is affixed. Let’s deal with the “Catholic” issue first.
John Rock was a Mass Murderer
The 1917 Pio- Benedictine Code of Canon Law was in force during the time that Rock was carrying out his human embryo experiments with Arthur Hertig from 1938 to 1954:
Canon 2350 (1983 CIC 1398) §1. Procurers of abortion, the mother not excepted, incur upon the effect being secured, automatic excommunication reserved to the Ordinary, and if they are clerics, they are also deposed.
The Time Has Come gives a blow by blow description of how Rock obtained his human embryos, ages 2 to 17 days, for experimentation and destruction:
Our procedure was to schedule operations on women who required hysterotomies at times when we estimated they would be ovulating. The conditions at the hospital were ideal for our purposes: because the clinic load was so heavy, there was a long waiting period for all but emergency operations. We utilized the waiting period, and the co-operation of many highly fertile women, to acquire accurate records of their cycles as well as dates of coitus. This data helped us estimate when fertilization could occur if an egg were present – and thus to time the operations – with some assurance.
… Dr. Hertig, by microscopic examination of the necessarily removed uteruses and Fallopian tubes, succeeded in recovering the first of our young ova [sic] in July 1938. When we concluded our series in July 1954, we had operated on 211 patients and secured 34 ova [sic], ranging from a two-day, two-cell egg [sic] to a 17-day ovum already implanted in the uterus. …
Thus, by slight of mouth and hand, the authors of The Time Has Come described the deliberate creation and demise of at least 34 human embryos – not ova or eggs, but human beings – the smallest of our kin, at the hands of Rock and Hertig.
By such deliberate actions, Rock incurred automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication meaning he was forbidden from receiving Holy Communion until the penalty was lifted by his Ordinary, in this case Cardinal Richard Cushing of the Boston Archdiocese.
But Cushing was silent, as was the Vatican under Pope John XXIII, concerning Rock’s lethal human embryo experimentation.
In February of 1963, shortly after Rock’s book was published, Cardinal Cushing, an Americanist through and through, issued a statement that appeared in the diocesan paper, The Pilot, bemoaning the fact that the book was not submitted for an imprimatur, but commenting favorably on certain aspects of Rock’s Chapter 12 on birth control as public policy which “could contribute to the establishment of peace in our pluralistic society.”
And so, the U.S. Catholic and Vatican press and secular press continued to portray Dr. Rock as a faithful Catholic and pious daily communicant, without contradiction.
And the American hierarchy, under Cushing’s leadership, would argue for “religious freedom” on the floor of the fourth and final session of the Second Vatican Council in the fall of 1965, thereby securing Griswold v Connecticut. and Roe vs Wade for posterity.
Who Actually Wrote The Time Has Come?
Now, let’s return to the question of the real authors of The Time Has Come.
According to John Rock, the book was not his idea but “the brainchild” of two officers of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) – Frederick S. Jaffe and Winfield J. Best.
At the time, Jaffe was Associate Director of Planned Parenthood’s Information and Education Department. He later became Vice President for Program Planning and Development of Planned Parenthood-World Population and the founder of the Guttmacher Institute.
Frederick Jaffe is best remembered for his infamous March 11, 1969 Memorandum to Bernard Berelson, President of Rockefeller’s Population Council as found in “Activities Relevant to the Study of Population Policy for the U.S; TABLE 1. Examples of Proposed Measures to Reduce U.S. Fertility, by Universality or Selectivity of Impact.” Measures included encouraging increased homosexuality, and compulsory abortion and sterilization. A copy of the Jaffe-Berelson Memo is available HERE.
The less well-known Winfield Best was a writer, television producer and public relations expert. In 1962, he collaborated with Alan Guttmacher and Frederick Jaffe to write the first handbook on modern family planning, The Complete Book of Birth Control. He served as the Executive Vice-President of the PPFA from 1963 to 1969. In 1972, Best joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina Population Center at Chapel Hill, one of the Federal Government’s largest population control centers where he lectured on population and ecology.
Together, the dynamic duo of Jaffe and Best convinced Rock that a book promoting “the Pill” and government funding of birth control/population control would carry more weight if it bore Rock’s name as the sole author, although they would, in fact, do the actual writing. Rock agreed to the project. He gave them verbal cues and they translated them into text and embellished the text as necessary most especially as it pertained to federal funding for the Neo-Malthusian cause.
Initially, Jaffe and Best insisted that their role as Planned Parenthood officers in the writing of the book be kept secret. And secret it would have been except for Best’s desire to share in the royalties that Rock was collecting. Rock agreed to Best’s demand.
The story of Rock’s ghostwriters and Best’s demand for royalty payments is related by Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner in The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2008. The sisters were the first researches to be given access to Rock’s vast files after his death in December 4, 1984, by Rock’s daughter, Rachel Achenbach.
The Sangerite Influence on Catholics
The timing of the publication of The Time Has Come was a stroke of genius for the Anti-Life Establishment.
Rock’s name and Malthusian message was carried world-wide by radio, and television, and a litany of magazines including Time, Newsweek, Life, and the Saturday Evening Post. The book was translated into many international languages including French, German and Dutch.
Just months before his death, Pope John XXIII established a secret six-member commission on population control and demographics in anticipation of the 1964 World Population Conference in India. The commission members continued to meet after the pope’s death and served as the nucleus for Pope Paul VI’s much expanded Birth Control Commission. The Time Has Come had a major impact on members of that commission as well as Catholics who desired a change in Church doctrine that opposed “artificial contraception,” as well as onanism. abortifacients, surgical abortion, sterilization and in vitro fertilization.
Rock’s incredible hypothesis that “the Pill” mimicked Nature attracted the attention and support of gullible and ignorant Catholic laymen, clergy and religious as well as members of the Catholic hierarchy.
Planned Parenthood Strategy Explained
The strategy to undermine Catholic faith and morals that The Time Has Come laid out was, in fact, the strategy that the Sangerites and Rockefeller and Co. successfully followed from the early 1960s. Here are some of the highlights of that strategy and accompanying myths as espoused by Jaffe and Best and occasionally Rock:
- The Comstock Law makes a public crime out of a private sin; confuses morality with legality; is unenforceable; and indefensible as a law. (Courtesy of Fr. John Courtney Murray, S.J.) The parent law passed by the U.S. Congress on March 3, 1873, prohibited the U.S. Post Office from sending articles of immoral use including pornography, contraceptives, abortifacients and sex toys through the mail. But more importantly, it prevented the Sangerites from operating free-standing birth control clinics.
- “The Pill” (which leaves a woman in the state of castration) provides a natural means of fertility control such as nature uses after ovulation and during pregnancy.
- “The Pill” increases fertility.
- “The Pill” makes rhythm work better.
- “The Pill” is safe. It is unrelated to blood clots in veins. There is no connection between Enovid and deaths from thromboembolism as reported by the Food and Drug Administration.
- The religious conflict regarding birth control is strictly over method and not over deep-seeded objectives or philosophy or theology.
- Catholics put too much emphasis on reproduction (procreation) as an end of sexual intercourse.
- Man cannot look to nature for moral norms. The frustration of nature is man’s vocation.
- Federally-funded contraceptive (read abortifacient) research is hampered by the Catholic Church and its dogma.
- The grim fact of population growth cuts across all the basic needs of mankind and, more than any other single factor, frustrates man’s achievements of his higher needs. (Courtesy of John Rockefeller III).
- The answer to the “population explosion” is not less sex, but less reproductive sex.
- We need more National Institute of Health funding for the physiology of human reproduction. (Courtesy of Fr. John C. Knott, Director of Family Life, 1962).
- Freedom of conscience, aka religious freedom, including the decision to use birth control is sacrosanct (as is the decision to abort one’s child or sterilize one’s self).
- The Catholic Church cannot impose its teachings on others. (Courtesy of Cardinal Richard Cushing).
- Catholics need to sit down to dialogue with their Protestant and Jewish colleagues to work out the details of a sound public policy for government financed birth control and population control programs in hospitals, health departments, welfare services, foreign-aid programs and medical research. (The American bishops ultimately failed to oppose the passage of 1970 multi-billion-dollar Title X to the Public Health Service Act, and Title X of the Foreign Assistance Act, Section 291. Both pieces of federal legislations opened the anti-life gates at home and abroad.)
By the time Humanae Vitae was released by Pope Paul VI in 1968 it was for all practical purposes a dead letter thanks to Dr. Rock and Misters Jaffe and Best … and dare I say… Cardinal Cushing and the rest of his hapless Americanist and Modernist colleagues in the U.S. hierarchy.
[Future installments of “Tales from the Humanae Vitae Diaries” taken from Randy Engel’s two-volume book set Population Control and the Catholic Church, and The Birth Control Commission of Pope Paul VI (set for publication in 2020) will appear in this space.]
Randy Engle: “Thus, by slight of mouth and hand, the authors of The Time Has Come described the deliberate creation and demise of at least 34 human embryos – not ova or eggs, but human beings – the smallest of our kin, at the hands of Rock and Hertig. BY SUCH DELIBERATE ACTIONS, ROCK INCURRED AUTOMATIC (LATAE SENTENTIAE) EXCOMMUNICATION meaning he was forbidden from receiving Holy Communion until the penalty was lifted by his Ordinary, in this case Cardinal Richard Cushing of the Boston Archdiocese.”
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Now wait a minute. All they did was “schedule operations on women who required hysterotomies at times” when they thought these women could be ovulating, in the hope of retrieving a fertilized egg. That is not a direct abortion, or a “procurer of abortion,” as the Code calls it. The direct action was removal of the uterus; the indirect act was the destruction of the embryo.
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According to the principle of double effect, even a procedure that is CERTAIN to cause the destruction of an embryo, such as the removal of the tube in a tubal pregnancy, is morally licit, provided that the direct action is a necessary medical procedure. Arranging the timing of a necessary procedure in the hope of finding a fertilized egg might be a sin, but it does not make the licit procedure a direct abortion.
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Additionally, to incur excommunication, not only is it necessary that the person commit the act, but he must be subjectively guilty of a mortal sin when doing so.
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Unless there was a canonical clarification that the act he performed was equivalent to a direct abortion (unlikely), and unless you have positive evidence that he was guilty of a mortal sin while performing the act (more unlikely), stating publicly that he incurred excommunication, as you have done here, is a rash judgment (an objective mortal sin), and should immediately be publicly retracted.
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Randy Engle: “But Cushing was silent, as was the Vatican under Pope John XXIII, concerning Rock’s lethal human embryo experimentation. … the U.S. Catholic and Vatican press and secular press continued to portray Dr. Rock as a faithful Catholic and pious daily communicant, without contradiction.”
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Perhaps that’s because the act he performed was not equivalent to a direct abortion, and they knew it. But why would a Traditional Catholic ever presume the best when there’s an opportunity to calumniate someone?
“The strategy to undermine Catholic faith and morals that The Time Has Come laid out was, in fact, the strategy that the Sangerites and Rockefeller and Co. successfully followed from the early 1960s.”
Do some research on Rockefeller and Co. They have been major players in the destruction of Christendom.
Here are a few examples:
The United Nations – which stands upon land that was donated by John D. Rockefeller Jr. – would replace the failed League of Nations in 1945 after World War II. The World Council of Churches continues to function to this day as an organization intimately aligned with the U.N. As with all previous attempts to centralize the churches, Rockefeller played a pivotal role with the WCC. Chateau de Bossey, located in Switzerland, functions as the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute. The institute was bought with money given to the WCC by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
During the 1961 third assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi India, the agenda of world government and a new international order was once again revealed. Interdependence, surrender of national sovereignty, and regional institutions were all themes of the third assembly. Representatives from churches around the world were present, one of whom was Rev. H. N. Riber (U.S.A). Riber, as reported by the third assembly summary,
“…desired paragraphs 61 and 62 [of the third assembly report] to be strengthened because Christians should be ahead of public opinion in requiring the nations to surrender sovereignty in preparation for world government.”
Paragraphs 61 and 62 of the World Council of Churches third assembly report carry a familiar theme,
“61. But it must be said to new nations as to older ones that the evolution of an international order will require of all a measure of surrender of autonomy and sovereignty for the sake of the world community.”
“62. Peace is dependent not only on goodwill and reconciliation, but in the first place upon the emerging of effective international institutions under the rule of law. Therefore, churches in their desire for peace must recognize the importance of the responsible use and development of international institutions, both in the United Nations and in regional affairs. The aim must be to establish a just system of world order…
Reshaping – at the very least re-focusing – religious doctrine, particularly Christianity, to conform to a globalized world is a key facet in the quest for world governance. “The Social Thought of the World Council of Churches”, written by Edward Duff, describes the philosophy that drives the WCC. Duff cites a Rockefeller endowed survey, chaired by professor W. E. Hocking, as a significant contribution to WCC ideals. The “religion of the future”, according to the survey, will represent a “common world culture.” [Doesn’t this sound like what the conciliar church is working towards?]
“A Rockefeller-endowed survey, chaired by Harvard’s distinguished philosopher, Professor W. E. Hocking, concluded that Christianity is merely the highest of the High Religions, a stage in the universal quest for ‘righteousness’, a precious component of the religion of the future that will represent the ‘New Testament of every existing Faith’ and serve as the soul of a coming common world culture.”
Hocking’s writings provide an important window into the thinking behind this Rockefeller survey. Hocking’s 1956 book, “The Coming World Civilization,” is one such window. In order for a world civilization to come about, Hocking states that Christianity must be reconceived to conform with “global” values and shed its “divisive” attributes. Hocking’s stance can be fairly summarized in this statement,
“Let me put it thus: our Christianity is in need of reconception through a deeper and humbler intercourse with the soul of the East…”
Hocking foresaw a future world state under which all religions will “…ultimately unite,”
“…having an affirmative and universal goal in history, even though the city to be built, already present in its conspectus – universus hic mundus jam una civitas – is still in its architecture out of sight. On this conception, the religions may, and will, ultimately unite.”
The age old writings and ideas of utopian philosophers are manifesting into the real world through regional governance, international bodies and organizations. With the faith of internationalism securely embedded into society, the architects of the world order hope to achieve their great dream of world governance. (http://www.oldthinkernews.com/2007/12/02/rockefeller-and-the-new-world-religion/.)
It is no accident at all that the man who helped to plan the destruction of Catholic higher education even before the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, the late Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., served as the chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1987 even though its anti-life, anti-family, pro-eugenics and population control agenda was by then entirely well-known and fully documented.
This is very important to understand in the context of the World Council of Churches as what passes for Catholic higher education in the United States of America is controlled to a very large extent by funding bodies such as the Rockefeller Foundation and even, at least in recent years, the Soros Foundation by means of its “Open Society Foundations,” thus preparing the way for future “leaders” in world governance and ecumenism. Hesburgh himself started to work with the Rockefeller Foundation as early as the 1950s to provide a roadmap for a “reform” of Catholic higher education according to the lights of the Rockefellers. The Rockefellers and those they have funded have sought to play God with human life ever since John D. Rockefeller, who founded Standard Oil in 1870, created the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913.
The World Council of Churches has been in the vanguard of promoting every theological, liturgical and moral aberration imaginable, making it a perfect “partner” in the ecumanical quest for “Christian unity” with the conciliar church which maintains close working ties with the WCC without actually being a “member church.”
Ahhh Randy, and how many young women dies due to stokes and bloodclots on the pill? I knew of one girl a few years ahead of my daughter who passed and it was her physician father who encouraged her to go the Pill. how many women have found it difficult to conceive after having been on the Pill for years? We had a blossoming of Medical Fertility Specialists in the late seventies and eighties right about the time the baby boomers were wanting to have babies and finding they were having problems. How many hermaphrodites were born because their ignorant young mothers continued taking the Pill into their third trimester? I witnessed one personally for this same reason. not to forget the Women’s Health Initiative long term study which proved conclusively that the very same hormones in B/C Pills are the ones being delivered to peri and post menopausal women which they found caused female cancers and did nothing to protect them from heart attacks as originally advertised. But what the heck for younger women when the alternative meant having a baby one might want to abort? Obviously the lesser of two evils , right? God Have Mercy on Us !! What an evil generation !
Then there is Bill Gates who is calling for a universal vaccine. Vaccines are not regulated by the same Clinical Trials medications are. See “Vaxxed” the documentary film on Amazon for free if you are a Prime member.
Gates a member of the Club of Rome who push pop control and whose own Daddy was President of Rockefeller’s Planned parenthood.
http://www.physiciansforlife.org/bill-gates-father-head-of-planned-parenthood-inspired-his-abortion-population-control-views/
……..and our corrupt Prelates were and are co opts.
Great article ! Keep on keeping on Randy !
FYI, Louie.
Blunder , obviously under another account , has posted a vile message under the previous blog article. Same IP I wonder ? IMHO he shows exactly what he is there and was doing here………..
Are there reliable medical studies linking abortion to breast cancer? It makes sense. As soon as a woman is pregnant, her breasts prepare for breastfeeding. This is artificially and abruptly interrupted when the child is aborted. Of course, if true, this would be a hidden fact.
2 Cents , I was speaking about the hormones used in birth control pills being the same as those prescribed in HRT’s for peri and post menopausal women. The WHI long term study completely reversed the previous practice stating these hormones INCREASED the risk of female cancers. In fact they warned against the practice of prescribing these hormones previously thought to decrease the risk of heart attacks too. All wrong ! the conclusions were they may even be upping that risk too.
As far as your understanding of my comment I doubt it because many women do not breast feed or have miscarried with no increased risk as far as I am aware.
Ignatio ,
Do you understand the difference between an ovum which is simply a female egg and fertilized ova that now considered a human being? Technically called a zygote, it is considered the first stage of human life. Not lump o’cell life, not fetal non human life, but human life ,period.
Fertilization of an ova IS conception at which time this is considered a HUMAN BEING
complete with a soul in the Image and Likeness of God Himself.
Re: Cdl Cushing.
From Mother Teresa , a dear friend who cared for Fr Feeney till the day he died. A former WW2 nurse he converted her to Catholicism and later she became a nun in his Order and the Mother Superior of his Order of nuns. She told me personally Cdl Cusging was a close friend to Joe Kennedy. Kennedy’s Jewish business friends asked him to get rid of Fr Feeney who was preaching in a coffee house/ bookstore, St Benedicts Ctr, in Harvard Square because their college aged sons and daughters were actually converting and being Baptized Catholic. Young Bobby Kennedy came in and criticized Fr Feeney ,stating,”so your the priest telling my friends they are going to hell?”
Fr Feeney replied,”No young man I am telling them the sure way to get to Heaven.
You call yourself a Catholic and speak to a priest with such disrespect?”….The wonderful Bobby Kennedy left in a huff….But Joe spoke to his friend Cdl Cushing and told him to get Fr Feeney off the street and out of the picture. He did with a fake…..and I do mean “fake” excommunication which was later discovered to have never been formerly registered a the Vatican…………Before he died the Local Ordinary of the Diocese of Worcester at the time came and reassured Fr Feeney of this fact. Mother Teresa was there.
Cushing. like Dolan and Wuerl are today, was nothing more than a politician.
sweep- It is my understanding that miscarriage does not have the same effect as abortion because in miscarriage the mother’s body (Divinely made) prepares for the end of pregnancy according to nature. On the other hand, abortion is an abrupt unnatural end of pregnancy which does not allow the mother’s body to prepare. Whether the mother decides to breastfed or not should not have any impact. I hope I have explained this properly. Do you agree?
Correction after I reread my post……(Louie I do wish you had an edit button)…….I was not clear enough……..Physicians have been warned NOT TO routinely prescribe HRT ( hormone replacement therapy) for older peri and post menopausal women now because they DO up the risk of female cancers and even heart attacks in women. The same hormones are in birth control pills for younger women………warning papers fine print included .
The medical rational is balanced against having an unwanted baby and or abortion vs the risk of cancers………I’ll take a baby any day!!!!
Or heaven forbid Father whoever…….since I am not physically up to having a baby at the time , husband can just keep his pants on and we can agree to offer abstaining for awhile as a sacrifice…..
Before any super theological catholic sexperts jump on me for this…….Remember we have many canonized Saints who were married and agreed to abstain and even became nuns and monks.
I know most people here know this but just in case……
Choosing to give up any pleasure need not be approved by any priest
as long both of the married couple agree. The priest does not marry a couple . He is the stand in for Jesus and the couple makes their vows
to each other before Jesus Christ. Marriage is an intimate Sacrament
and as long as both man and wife have solid understanding of what the Church teaches , we need not consult a priest on every detail as long as it not sinful.
( I have known women who think they have to)…..
My 2 Cents , Honestly I have not studied the relationship between abortion and breast cancer. I know there were articles out there but since abortion is murder I never was that interested in reading up on the microbiological aspects on the woman’s body regarding abortion.
I do know they stopped giving the old medication that inhibited lactation for mother’s who chose not to breastfeed because they found it was detrimental and I wound up being called to the ER to explain to a female Physician on duty how to bind a woman, who wanted to stop breast feeding and had a case of mastitus , with an ACE bandage to suppress lactation. ( no lactation specialist on duty).
Scheduling a hysterectomy for the purposes of retrieving a human being in the process is murder.
Dear Randy,
I am very much looking forward to your next article, No2.
Ignatio , you state,”According to the principle of double effect, even a procedure that is CERTAIN to cause the destruction of an embryo, such as the removal of the tube in a tubal pregnancy, is morally licit, provided that the direct action is a necessary medical procedure. Arranging the timing of a necessary procedure in the hope of finding a fertilized egg might be a sin, but it does not make the licit procedure a direct abortion”
Hysterectomies were commonly done as a form of birth control in the earlier part of the last century. It was only in the seventies when researchers realized two out of three hysterectomies were probably unnecessary, when insurance companies began to question it as such a common practice.
These operations described were done to retrieve a human being for purposes of research just a child’s body parts are paid for and harvested post abortion today.
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Sweepoutthefilth: ‘Ignatio, Do you understand the difference between an ovum which is simply a female egg and fertilized ova that now considered a human being? Technically called a zygote, it is considered the first stage of human life. Not lump o’cell life, not fetal non human life, but human life ,period. Fertilization of an ova IS conception at which time this is considered a HUMAN BEING complete with a soul in the Image and Likeness of God Himself.”
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Hi sweep. My earlier comments were based on the assumption that the fertilized egg that was destroyed was a human being. My point was that, according to the principle of double effect, it is morally licit to perform a NECESSARY medical procedure, even if it is certain that doing so will have the secondary effect of destroying the fetus.
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But your comment brings up another point, which is that it’s not certain when the soul is infused into the fertilized egg, that is, when the embryo becomes a human person. According to the traditional teaching, animation does not take place at fertilization, but only after the body has developed to the degree necessary to sustain the soul. The Catechism of Trent explains that delayed animation is “according to the order of nature”:
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Catechism of Trent: “But what SURPASSES THE ORDER OF NATURE and human comprehension is, that as soon as the Blessed Virgin assented to the announcement of the Angel in these words, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word, the most sacred body of Christ was immediately formed, and to it was united a rational soul enjoying the use of reason; and thus in the same instant of time He was perfect God and perfect man. That this was the astonishing and admirable work of the Holy Ghost cannot be doubted; FOR ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF NATURE THE RATIONAL SOUL IS UNITED TO THE BODY ONLY AFTER A CERTAIN LAPSE OF TIME.”
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St. Thomas and others teach that the “lapse of time” is 40 days after for a male embyo, and longer for a female.
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When treating the question of baptism for a miscarried fetus, St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote: “not every lump of flesh should be baptized which lacks every arrangement of organs, since IT IS UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED THAT THE SOUL IS NOT INFUSED INTO THE BODY BEFORE THE LATTER IS FORMED; in which case it can only be baptized if it shows some kind of vital movement, as prescribed by the Roman Ritual.”
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This traditional doctrine is another reason it was rash for Randy Engel to accuse Rock of being a “mass murderer” and incurring excommunication for the crime of abortion, since the embryos that were destroyed were all between 2 and 17 days old, and there are no signs of vital movement for at least three weeks.
Of interest relative to the topic, I recommend everyone check out this short documentary on Paul Ehrlich and The Population Bomb myth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS6EGoTuWNY
Mr. Ehrlich was invited as a speaker by the the Pontifical Academy of Science in 2017.
This is the charlatan that the Vatican is taking advice from as part of its whole Laudato Si initiative. The fact that he’s as pro-abortion and anti-Catholic as you can get didn’t put off the heroin-snorters running the place.
We all need to take a deep breath and acknowledge that the 1950’s American Catholic Church was flawed. Some priests in the confessional were condoning hysterectomies for female penitents and Cardinal Cushing was leading the charge for Americanism at home and promoting the errors of John Courtney Murray, S.J. at the Second Vatican Council. In some respects, the Catholic Church in the U.S. is like that in France or Spain. Once those national churches got so corrupted by Modernism, then it requires heroic efforts to resurrect from apostasy. In order to resurrect we need to know where we have been and to where we need to return. Thank God for Mrs. Randy Engel who is shining light on shameful episodes in our national past that involved conniving by Catholic clergy who doused both heterodoxy and heteropraxis with Holy Water, Incense and daily Holy Communion as though everything was fine, when it wasn’t and did incur latae sententiae excommunication. The whole issue of contraception/abortion involves an unwillingness to generously embrace the challenges of being married. There is a patent aversion for having children. Grandmothers are overheard complaining that they are not ready for grandchildren. Their daughters dread getting pregnant and stop having children as soon as they can. They enter into marriage with a predetermined number of children in mind and that is it — the factory is closed. A wise French spiritual director quipped: If you do not want children, do not get married. We American Catholics find ourselves beset with schismatic/heretic bishops and priests and we are obliged to educate ourselves on how we ended up in this apostasy. Mrs. Randy Engel’s investigative journalism aids all of us to examine our consciences on how and when we have sinned and not measured up as faithful Catholics. May God grant Mrs. Randy Engel all the years and energy that she needs to complete the missions to which God has called her.
Ignatio, “This traditional doctrine ….” ?
Is this Doctrine or just commentary from persons the church canonized?
I know the Scriptures are considered Doctrinal and Dogmatic from the time of the Early Church Councils whose Fathers defined Doctrine as such from Scriptural interpretation during these Councils. They say, as you correctly quoted , concerning the Conception of Our Lord was with Our Holy Mother’s assent.
Understanding just how the Sacred Mysteries occur, i.e. the Body and Blood of Our Lord transformed mysteriously from a piece of bread and some wine or the exact human understanding of the Hypostatic Union is beyond our comprehension . I question the understanding of an any individual to know for certain the exact timing of the soul into the conceptus human being . Even more questionable is the statement of exact timing the male receives his soul vs the female. Biology itself testifies to the fact the male infant in utero is more fragile and weaker than the female.
“The precise timing of ensoulment/personhood of the human embryo is irrelevant to the question of whether we may destroy such embryos for research or other purposes”
” For some it dates from the first instant; for others it could not at least precede nidation [implantation in the uterus]. It is not within the competence of science to decide between these views, be-
cause the existence of an immortal soul is not a question in
its field. It is a philosophical problem from which our
moral affirmation remains independent…
That being said, the moral teaching of the Church is that the
human embryo must be unconditionally protected and treated
as if it were already ensouled, even if it might not yet be so. It must be treated as if it were a person from the moment of conception, even if there exists the theoretical possibility that it might not yet be so.”
https://www.ncbcenter.org/files/3914/7018/8754/MSOB033_Do_Embryos_Have_Souls.pdf
My 2 Cents,
Here are two links which present different study conclusions.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/medical-treatments/abortion-and-breast-cancer-risk.html
https://www.rtl.org/prolife_issues/LifeNotes/AbortionsLinktoBreastCancer.html
It is my own 2 cents , for it is worth, to simplify as I do not believe our Creator chose to confuse or implement the need to strain the human brain in understanding His Will, based on the Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught most clearly and in Parables to achieve the understanding of his listeners.
Thous Shalt not kill.
Now I could choose to go down an analytical road and ask whether or not this covers say insects, in which case I am certainly damned !
Or , I could take all of the Word of God into consideration in full context and understand I am not to kill another human being unless in clear self defense to save my life or the lives of others in my care.
I wonder if it’s at all possible that the prolife argument may start with the wrong premise. You’re starting with, murder is a mortal sin, Sweep and that is perfectly valid at most stages of life. But, I too, see something a little off about Baptizing 2 cells. But, abortion is also thwarting the will of God and the Church has always forbidden it. Now, this should be solid standing, so maybe most of the problem lies with the “Church’s” credibility being damaged. My2cents also tries to end run the Church’s credibility problem with abortions being unhealthy for the Mother, but again, if it’s made super healthy for Mom, still forbidden, still trying to take the place of God. If they want to reach the nihilists, their not going to because in nihilism, nothing is wrong.
The INTENT here is intrinsically evil. Any moral act which originates with a mortally sinful intent makes the entire act immoral. That is basic Catholic Moral Theology 101.
Thank you, sweep. Whether abortion does or does not increase the risk of breast cancer, the bottom line is that while it may be harmful to the mother, it is deadly to her child. Abortion is not a CHOICE, it is a DECISION to KILL! Are all these precious babies being sacrificed to Satan? The very thought of it fills me with terror.
And MY 2Cents . Let is not forget the pain the little baby feels upon being pierced or chemically burned .
I do not know if you have children but I felt the first flutter of life at 10 weeks gestation. Poor little victims !
Mean while they scream about the children of illegal immigrants being given three meals a day and I venture to say snacks and drinks and a place to sleep , while they wait to be processed. in NJ and some other states I heard on the news this morning they can be aborted right up to the end. What a horror !
A Postscript to the Rock/Planned Parenthood Story:
In their 2008 book, The Fertility Doctor, pro-abortion authors Marsh and Ronner note that John Rock was morally compromised not only in the field of lethal human embryo experimentation, invitro fertilization, contraception, direct sterilization, and abortifacients, but surgical abortion as well.
They tell the story of one patient who, along with one of her son born later, always thanked Rock for making it possible for her to have an abortion in the 1920s.
In a 1979 interview for the Frontier Nursing Service Oral History Project , Rock said, “I’m not opposed to abortion… as much as many people are because in the first few weeks of pregnancy, there isn’t any human being in there anyway. It’s just a conglomeration of cells that may turn into a human being… Just when the soul enters the body it would be a little difficult for me to stipulate. ” [Shades of Ignatio?]
Also, for the record, all of the hysterectomies that Rock performed in order to retrieve the tiny human embryos were “elective,” that is, they were carried out for non-medical reasons [usually for purposes of direct sterilization as a form of birth control.] Whether the pregnant women who participated in the Rock experiment gave truly informed consent is questionable.
Although there is no evidence that Rock ever repented publicly of his anti-life actions, according to Marsh and Ronner, as he neared death, he had visitations and received communion from a visiting priest, the same priest who said Rock’s private funeral Mass and was in attendance at his burial in Forest Hills Cemetery.
John Rock died on December 4, 1984, at the age of 94. Randy Engel
Dear Randy,
May the Glorious Saint Michael protect you, and may the August Queen of the Heavens, our good and tender Mother, guide, guard and defend you, and drive far away from you legions of His cruel enemies.
Omnia Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!
Dr Chris Kahlenborn has done a great deal of research on the connections between the Birth Control Pill and Breast Cancer as well as abortion and breast cancer.
https://www.amazon.com/Breast-Cancer-Abortion-Birth-Control/dp/0966977734
His website for the most current studies
http://www.polycarp.org/
Thank you, Pavitalady. Very informative.