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AmericanPapist: Not Your Average Catholic!

The latest news, content and tips from one of the largest Catholic blogs on the internet.


Papist Picture of the Day - 01/09/09Today
"Fine, so there isn't a papal Mass every day of the week."
[source: REUTERS/Tony Gentile (VATICAN)]
'Cancer-free' baby born in London, but how "cancer-free"?Today
Keep track of stories like these, and how they describe with other names what is actually eugenics:

The first child in Britain known to have been screened as an embryo to ensure she did not carry a cancer gene was born Friday, a spokesman for University College London told CNN.

Her embryo was screened in a lab days after conception to check for the BRCA-1 gene, linked to breast and ovarian cancer.

People with the gene are known to have a 50-80 percent chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer in their lifetimes.

British newspapers have dubbed the girl the "cancer-free" baby.

"The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter. The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations." (CNN)

But here's the reality check: no disease has been cured here. Instead, if the test revealed that the baby girl carried the gene, she would have been destroyeed (and the parents would have presumably tried to conceive again, then re-tested, and on it goes).

Thus, to say "the parents ... have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter" is misleading. What the parents were actually spared was "the chance that a daughter with the potential to develop a disease would be allowed to survive until birth."




Highlights of '08 March for Life CoverageToday
Here's the best of my March for Life coverage last year:

Plenty to peruse.


Don't miss it! Live streaming of Pro-Life SummitToday
I've been hearing rumblings about this summit for some time and I think it is very important.

It's hosted by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and will be taking place this Saturday at Christ the King parish in Ann Arbor, MI. The topic is how to end abortion in post-election America.

The bad news? It's sold out (500 attendees).

The good news? The summit is being streamed live on local WDEO Catholic radio here at 10am EST.

The better news? Relevant Recordings will be recording and selling CDs of the event here.

Speakers include Janet Smith,









Lodging for the March for Life?Today
Housing for people coming into DC to attend the March for Life is a bit crunched this year because of Obama's inauguration two days prior. It's going to be hard enough functioning in DC the weekend before, and the revelers aren't expected to leave right away, either.
Several folks have emailed me asking for housing tips. I'd love to help them out, and here's where you come in - do you know of any solutions? Are you coming with a large group who reserved extra rooms? I'd hate to see living accommodations go to waste in one group while others miss out on attending the March because they couldn't find a place to rest their head at night.
So, drop me a line by email or comment below. If there's already a place where people are having this conversation - that would help too!
Thanks, papists!