In This Issue:
- Breaking News
- The Devil and Communist China
- PRI in the Media
- Victory in Peru
- Shocking Revelation
- Bring America Back to Life
- USCCB Efforts Conflict
- Deepening Depopulation
- Have More Kids
- Family Unfriendly
- Communist China
- Marriage on the Rise
- Treason in Confession
- UN Misdeeds
- PRI Teams Up to Fight UN
- Pro-Life Around the World
- Abortion in Ukraine
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- 60% of Abortions by Pill
- Ignoring Women’s Health
- Good News
- Adoption Over Abortion
We hope you enjoyed a blessed Feast Day of St. Joseph this past week. Saint Joseph, patron of fathers and protector of families, pray for us!
Breaking News
The Devil and Communist China: PRI President and well-known China expert Steven W. Mosher is back with his best—and timeliest—book ever. Called The Devil and Communist China, it lays bare the sheer evil of this hateful political system that has enslaved one-seventh of the world’s population, and lusts to enslave the rest. He knows the CCP leaders, from the “lawless and godless” Chairman Mao down to the Machiavellian Xi Jinping like few others. This book highlights the opposition of Communism’s darkness with the light and truth of Christianity. Get your copy today!
PRI in the Media
Victory in Peru: On March 13th, the Peruvian Congress approved pro-life legislation by a vote of 87-18. The bill establishes the obligation of the state to guarantee “the protection of the pregnancy, the pregnant mother, the unborn child, and their family environment.” In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, PRI’s Ibero-American Office, Carlos Polo, said the legislation represents “true progress in the agenda for respecting the life of the conceived child.” Mr. Polo went on to add that on March 25th, the Day of the Unborn Child in Peru, a significant celebration will be held to commemorate the achievement that “Congress established by law that the state protects both lives.”
“Carlos Polo, the director of PRI’s Latin American office, is to be congratulated,” says Mr. Mosher. “This new legislation is the result of years of efforts by Carlos and his staff to protect and defend innocent human life. He is the most effective Latin American pro-life leader in the world today.”
Shocking Revelation: On March 6th, the Lepanto Institute and PRI held a joint press conference to release the results of our CRS investigation. Now, you can watch a one-hour documentary-style breakdown of the most pressing allegations and pieces of evidence. Joe McClane, Host of “A Catholic Take” on The Station of the Cross Catholic Media Network, created this new presentation of the facts. It includes new, exclusive interviews with Michael Hichborn, Rob Gaspers, and PRI President Steven Mosher on the investigation. McClane poses the following questions:
- Will they [CRS and the USCCB] even look at the allegations? Or the evidence?
- What is Lepanto Institute and the Population Research Institute claiming Catholic Relief Services have done?
- Can they [LI and PRI] back that up with documents?
- Will Catholic Relief Services come clean?
Watch the video to see how they are answered.
To watch the entirety of Joe McClane’s interview with Mr. Mosher, featured in this video, on whether Catholic organizations, like CRS, should take government money, click here.
Bring America Back to Life: PRI President Steven Mosher was the opening speaker for the 2024 Bring America Back to Life Conference, hosted by Cleveland Right to Life. Mr. Mosher presented the content of his latest book, The Devil and Communist China. From Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, Mr. Mosher detailed what communism has done to China. Furthermore, he described what the practice of communism, or socialism, could do to our country and the world.
USCCB Efforts Conflict: The USCCB is calling for nationwide prayer to St. Joseph for an end to abortion as the Supreme Court is set to hear an abortion pill case on March 26, with an expected ruling in June. Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, president of the USCCB, and Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, shared the statement calling for these efforts. The National Prayer Campaign is set to begin on March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation and the anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae. While this is a good initiative for the national pro-life movement, Lifesitenews points out that the USCCB has continued to support and fund Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which has been shown to promote abortion, contraception, and sexual immorality in several African countries. We hope that the USCCB will address this and rescind their support until CRS makes a substantial change, so they support not only the national pro-life movement but the international as well.
Deepening Depopulation
Have More Kids: In this argument for her audience to have more children, Leah Libresco Sargeant breaks down why increasing your family size is a good thing. The issue goes beyond economics. In Sargeant’s words, saying no to children is a no to hope, need, particularity, and something better than our plans. Her compelling speech describes how children are not just society’s future, but each individual’s connection to the future. Parents are truly lucky to be needed by their children; to love and be loved in return by their children. Children pull parents out of selfishness and give them the opportunity for personal growth. Further, children require parents to grow in magnanimity–greatness of soul. Children may challenge you and change you, but in that, they are blessings, not burdens.
Family Unfriendly: Here at PRI, we have been reporting for years on how society does not value marriage and family. We see this devaluation reflected in the falling U.S. fertility rate. Now a new book by Tim Carney is diving deeper into our “family unfriendly” culture. Released this past Tuesday, “Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs To Be” addresses how cost isn’t the only thing discouraging couples from having children. Raising a family requires community. But in a society where individualism and autonomy are prized above community and support, parenting becomes much more difficult. Society needs to learn to value community again to foster an environment where families can grow and thrive.
Communist China
Marriage on the Rise: According to China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, the marriage rate rose in 2023. The official stat shows that there were 7.68 million newlyweds in the country, which is a 12.4% increase from the previous year. This alleged increase was attributed to government campaigns promoting marriage in hopes of increasing the birth rate over time. However, the number of couples filing for divorce also increased last year, with 2.59 million couples filing for uncontested divorce. CCP stats have been known to be increased, or decreased, in the past to put the country, and its government, in the best light. It’s possible that the marriage rate could be lower and the divorce rate higher.
Treason in Confession: Hong Kong legislators are pushing for the passage of a new security law that would require priests to violate the confidentiality of the confessional. The proposed law would increase penalties for sedition and treason, with steep charges proposed for priests who neglect to report national security crimes revealed during a religious confession. Priests could spend up to fourteen years in prison for learning of treasonous actors and failing to report them. The Catholic Church in Hong Kong has been pushing back. Last week, the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong made an official statement that the legislation would not “alter the confidential nature of Confession (Sacrament of Reconciliation) of the Church.” Whether the new law passes or not, it is clear that the persecution of Catholics in China has no end in sight.
“The CCP will not stop until either the Catholic Church, or the Party itself, is destroyed,” says Mr. Mosher. “My money is on the institution founded by Christ out of love of humanity, not the corrupt and venal club founded by evil men like Mao Zedong for their own enrichment and aggrandizement.”
UN Misdeeds
PRI Teams Up to Fight UN: PRI’s European Office has been working with the NEOS Foundation in Spain to produce a document exposing the 2030 Agenda’s true nature. According to the president of NEOS, “The main objective of the Agenda is the replacement, substitution, and destruction of the Christian foundations of our current social order.” Dr. Carlos Beltramo, director of PRI Europe, emphasized that in the 2030 Agenda, “we are facing an example of ideological smuggling: sexual and reproductive health is presented as something indisputable, when it is really a euphemism for the promotion of contraception and abortion.”
Meanwhile, Carlos Polo, Director of PRI’s office in Ibero-America, and his team are editing a book on Agenda 2030 in Peru with the text of the NEOS book. In addition to this text, the book will include research conducted with the Origen Association on financial flows in the International Cooperation in Peru on Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender). This book will be presented on April 5th in Lima, Peru. Both Mr. Polo and Dr. Beltramo will be present, with the latter participating as a speaker.
Pro-Life Around the World
Abortion in Ukraine: The UK government has given £1.5 million of taxpayer funding to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, for “sexual and reproductive health services” in Ukraine. As we know, these so-called “health services” include abortion and contraception. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) tried to defend this choice by saying, “this crucial funding has supported over 20,000 people to access vital medical care” including “access to safe abortion care.” As ever, the argument that abortion is medical care is bogus, as abortion involves harming a woman and killing an unborn child.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
60% of Abortions by Pill: According to a new report, over 60% of abortions in 2023 were completed chemically. More than half of the women seeking abortion are turning to the dangerous two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol. The same study reported an estimated total of 1 million abortions were provided in 2023. This means that over 600,000 babies were starved and ejected from their mothers’ wombs. This statistic highlights the need for the Supreme Court to end mail-order abortions and reinstate restrictions on abortion pills in general.
For more information on the dangers of the abortion pill, read our fact sheet.
Ignoring Women’s Health: In the wake of the shocking abortion pill statistics, one researcher shared the truth that the abortion pill expansion puts women’s health and safety last. As mentioned above, nearly two-in-three abortions are chemical, “self-managed” processes. This process is one that post-abortive mothers have said inflicted “the worst physical pain of my life” and forced them to “experience the trauma again every time I used the bathroom.” As the researcher shared with The Washington Stand, “the abortion pills have produced so many fetal deaths and seriously harmful side effects for women that the growing number of chemical abortions represents ‘a tragedy.’” Aside from the abundant anecdotal evidence, the FDA has also documented 4,207 adverse events from mifepristone use — including 26 deaths, 1,045 hospitalizations, 603 events requiring a blood transfusion, and 413 infections between 2000 and 2021.
Good News
Adoption Over Abortion: After learning her son was almost aborted, a mother is promoting adoption as an option for mothers in crisis pregnancies. Amy Simmons and her husband tried to conceive for years with no success. The fertility testing that the couple underwent was unable to uncover the reason for their infertility. Later the couple was offered a chance to adopt the baby of a seventeen-year-old facing a crisis pregnancy. They felt called to do so and were involved every step of the way. It wasn’t until after their baby boy was born that the birth mother shared that she had considered aborting her baby. She had even gone to the clinic for the appointment but ultimately felt compelled to leave.
“It just reinforced for me the value of my son’s life,” Amy Simmons said. “I loved watching my son grow up, looking at his future and all that he will become and do. He has such a big personality, loves life and is gregarious. It’s heartbreaking to think he might not have been here.”
Today, Amy Simmons is a vocal advocate for adoption over abortion.
Quote of the Week
“I’m asking you to put children first, prioritizing them well beyond what the world around you considers prudent. After all, children are the only truly universal experience shared by members of this body, and by all members of the human race. Whether or not you become a parent, each of you was once a child.”
~ Leah Libresco Sargeant, source
