9 Days for Life Novena; The U.S. Bishops on Mr. Biden's inauguration

 UPDATED: 21 January to include Nine Days of Life Novena



This is the last in my series of prolife posts for the week, in preparation for the National Day of Prayer and Penance for the Legal Protection of the Unborn.

In conjunction with that special day, our U.S. Bishops have strongly encouraged all of the faithful to participate in the 9-Day Novena for Life.   (A novena is a nine-day consecutive prayer for an urgent intention).  

In order to pray it together with fellow citizens from across the nation, they are recommending starting today, January 21st, and concluding on January 29th.  

You can find information on that novena -- including prayers and suggested penances -- at respectlife.org.

This year, there is a special urgency in praying the novena as we have just inaugurated a strongly pro-abortion presidential administration.

On that note, Archbishop Gomez, the president of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (a collaborative body of all the American bishops), recently issued a statement on Mr. Biden's inauguration.  It's worth reading.  Archbishop balances graciousness in welcoming Mr. Biden and offering his prayers without avoiding the "elephant in the room": that although Mr. Biden professes to be Catholic, he has pledged to undermine core Catholic teachings.

Here's a short excerpt from that statement.

So, I must point out that our new President has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender. Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences.

We should remember that the Church teaches us to pray for all of our civic leaders, at all levels, that they may work to advance the common good of their people and not their own interests.

In that regard, it is worth reading the Catechism's brief section on civic life, including para. 1900, an ancient prayer for those in political authority, and para. 1903, a reminder that unjust laws enacted (such as requiring participation or cooperation in such intrinsically evil acts as abortion, contraception or  same-sex "marriage") are not binding in conscience.  In fact,the passage of such unjust laws causes a breakdown in authority.

Finally, this would also be a good time to pray a prayer written for the intentions of the U.S. government, written by John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in our nation.

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