Category: Disability, Sickness & Suffering

Our Children Radiate the Joy of the Gospel
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Our Children Radiate the Joy of the Gospel

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by on Jun 19, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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I was recently reading about an upcoming conference at the Vatican entitled “The Pastoral Project of Evangelii Gaudium” to implement the Holy Father’s new apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel”. The keynote speaker is Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche communities, a group of homes for the disabled where their gifts are cherished. For a […]

Be Not Afraid! St. John Paul II’s Key to Building a Culture of Life
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Be Not Afraid! St. John Paul II’s Key to Building a Culture of Life

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by on Jun 06, 2014 in Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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The recent canonization of Saint John Paul II offers an impetus to reflect on both his life and his papacy. The Pope’s leadership of the Catholic Church was exemplified by his signature phrase “Be not afraid!” Yet, what exactly was he exhorting the faithful to face without fear? Pope John Paul II first uttered this […]

A Market for Disability: Down Syndrome and the Economic Imagination
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A Market for Disability: Down Syndrome and the Economic Imagination

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by on Jun 04, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, On the Job, The Social Order
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In a powerful profile of his son Jamie, a young man with Down syndrome, Michael Be?rube? explores some of the key challenges that those with disabilities face when trying to enter the workforce: The first time I talked to Jamie about getting a job, he was only 13. But I thought it was a good idea to […]

Life's Trials and Hope in Christ
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Life’s Trials and Hope in Christ

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by on May 22, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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A number of months ago I accepted a request to speak at a Baptist church about an hour and a half drive from where I live. They asked me to speak about the rising acceptance of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada, and my Christian perspective about suffering. Unfortunately as the date drew nearer, this […]

Boomers in the Middle
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Boomers in the Middle

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by on May 15, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Health & Fitness, Parenting
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Somewhere along the expanse of rails from New Haven to New York, as I daydreamed during the two-hour train ride to visit my dad in the hospital and take my mom back to the apartment, I realized the accuracy of the term “sandwich generation.” This was my second weekend trip to New York in so […]

A Study of Transcending Disability
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A Study of Transcending Disability

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by on May 09, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, History, Music, MyChurchParish.com
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I keep a bust of Ludwig van Beethoven on the fireplace mantle in my home. It reminds me of the human capacity to overcome adversity to achieve great things. When I doubt myself in my own acquired disability of multiple sclerosis, I listen to Beethoven — particularly his 9th symphony — written in total deafness, […]

Little Lents, Little Easters
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Little Lents, Little Easters

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by on Apr 30, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ, Those in Need
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There are few things as toxic as envy.  Schadenfreude, envy’s cousin, is close.  To envy means to mistrust Jesus.  It is to say, in effect, that God has erred in what He has given you,  where He has placed you and what He has made you. When I am the object of someone’s envy, I […]

Our Risen Lord Gives us Strength to Build a Culture of Life
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Our Risen Lord Gives us Strength to Build a Culture of Life

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by on Apr 29, 2014 in Catholic Bioethics, Cloning, Embryo Research & Genetics, Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? (Romans 8:31) This exhortation by Saint Paul vividly expresses the full extent of the love of God the Father and […]

Down Syndrome Discovery Has Implications for Human Genetic Engineering
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Down Syndrome Discovery Has Implications for Human Genetic Engineering

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by on Apr 29, 2014 in Cloning, Embryo Research & Genetics, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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The 21st human chromosome is the smallest of all our chromosomes. It contains a few hundred genes and is only 1% of our total DNA. As most people know, an extra chromosome 21 causes Down Syndrome. What most people did not know, until research published this week, is that tiny chromosome has an effect across […]

Are You Suffering? Trust God
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Are You Suffering? Trust God

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by on Apr 17, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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This past weekend I met four other people with multiple sclerosis. It was not by design. I met them at events that had nothing to do with MS or disability. The uncertainty of the disease is terrifying them all. Multiple sclerosis can take a benign course and cause very little disability or it can take a […]

The Big Lies of Our Age Versus the Truth Found in Jesus Christ
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The Big Lies of Our Age Versus the Truth Found in Jesus Christ

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by on Apr 07, 2014 in Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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My father’s generation knew the Holocaust of the Nazis. The holocaust of abortion and soon euthanasia and  assisted suicide hangs over mine. Nazi propaganda Minister Josef Goebbel’s guiding maxim was “If  you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will come to believe it.”[1] The Lie was of Aryan superiority and their […]

Open Letter to the Biomedical Community on Down Syndrome and Other "Undesirable Life"
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Open Letter to the Biomedical Community on Down Syndrome and Other “Undesirable Life”

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by on Mar 24, 2014 in Catholic Bioethics, Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured, Health & Fitness
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This letter is addressed to every physician, scientist, and genetic counselor who believes in a eugenic agenda that targets the unborn specifically because of diagnosed genetic anomalies. It asks a series of penetrating questions that invite thoughtful response, and are not meant to be rhetorical. The first question is: WHO? Who taught you in medical […]

I’ve Had a Difficult Life, and That’s Okay
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I’ve Had a Difficult Life, and That’s Okay

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by on Mar 19, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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Lizzie Velásquez is a 24 year old American woman who was born with a very rare disease (shared by only two other people in the United States) that doesn’t allow her to gain weight. She has been bullied most of her life, including being labeled the “World’s Ugliest Woman” in an internet video that received […]

Faith: The Only Sure Foundation for Human Dignity
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Faith: The Only Sure Foundation for Human Dignity

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by on Feb 20, 2014 in Catholic Bioethics, Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards recently tweeted out a short video featuring her suggestions of what women really need for Valentine’s Day. Among a litany that included “well woman visits,” “cancer screenings,” and “birth control,” was “safe & legal abortion.” All of this, we’re mockingly informed, is “really radical stuff” which, of course, is a sarcastic quip […]

An American Antidote for Belgium Euthanizing Children
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An American Antidote for Belgium Euthanizing Children

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by on Feb 14, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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News today that Belgium has approved euthanasia for any age. From BBC: Parliament in Belgium has passed a bill allowing euthanasia for terminally ill children without any age limit, by 86 votes to 44, with 12 abstentions. When, as expected, the bill is signed by the king, Belgium will become the first country in the […]

The Great Family of the Heavy-Hearted
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The Great Family of the Heavy-Hearted

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by on Feb 07, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ
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I read about a young man paralyzed in a freak accident. The story gave a glimpse of his grief and sorrow. It’s been just a year since his accident. The terrible prospect of permanent disability is beginning to sink in and it’s breaking his heart. He told the reporter, “It’s really, really hard.” And so […]

One Third of Evangelicals Believe Suicide is Moral for the Incurably Ill?
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One Third of Evangelicals Believe Suicide is Moral for the Incurably Ill?

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by on Jan 31, 2014 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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In the January/February edition of Christianity Today (they called themselves CT now) a small article caught my eye. It was entitled  “More evangelicals see suicide as moral.” Really? According to the Pew Research Center, 1 in 3 evangelicals who worship weekly think that “a person has a “moral right” to suicide if, they are “in […]

Save the Pandas <em>and</em> Down Syndrome
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Save the Pandas and Down Syndrome

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by on Nov 15, 2013 in Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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One of the casualties during the recent Government shutdown was the Washington DC Zoo Panda Cam: “The National Zoo announced that all its live zoo cams, including the one trained on the zoo’s 5-week-old panda cub, will go dark.”  The Panda Cam allows viewers to watch the activities of Giant Pandas Mei Xiang and Tian […]

Defeating Autism: Joseph at Year Three in Boy Scouting
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Defeating Autism: Joseph at Year Three in Boy Scouting

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by on Nov 11, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Health & Fitness, Parenting
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This is a story about defeating autism, the practical attainment of hope for devastated parents, and a whole new way of approaching a scourge upon our beloved children. Our son, Joseph, happens to be its protagonist; but the joyful hope in this story resides in the certainty that it is a template into which parents […]

Google Launches Calico to "Solve Death"
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Google Launches Calico to “Solve Death”

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by on Nov 06, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Health & Fitness
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Google has launched a new company called Calico (California Life Company) whose focus is to “solve death.” CNN reports: Last month Google announced a new medical company called Calico, whose explicit aim is to take on aging itself. But what will Google’s approach be? And what other research into prolonging life already exists?… Calico — […]

Good News About Down Syndrome
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Good News About Down Syndrome

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by on Nov 04, 2013 in Cloning, Embryo Research & Genetics, Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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It was one of the most heartwarming moments of the 2013 baseball season. On April 18, after a pep-talk from his “best friend and greatest batboy,” Cincinnati Reds third baseman Todd Frazier ripped a two-run homer to center field off John Maine, extending the Reds lead to 11-1 over the Miami Marlins in the sixth […]

Caring for Life Near the End of Life
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Caring for Life Near the End of Life

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by on Oct 25, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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My wife, LaRee, and I were asked to address a conference about critical life issues sponsored by the Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey. They wanted us to speak about a Christian perspective on suffering, disability and end of life care. It is a timely topic because New Jersey is considering a law to allow […]

The Pain of Loneliness
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The Pain of Loneliness

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by on Oct 23, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Health & Fitness, Those in Need
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There can be a fine line between loneliness and solitude. In solitude, there is a quiet joy — time spent by yourself in nature or at eucharistic adoration, an opportunity for contemplation and prayer and just basking in a peaceful presence. I love solitude. Like so many, however, I dread loneliness. And unfortunately, I have […]

Five Types of Guilt After Pregnancy Loss
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Five Types of Guilt After Pregnancy Loss

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by on Oct 17, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Women
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You can never anticipate the feelings you will go through following a pregnancy loss. Nothing in life prepares you for it and no one ever thinks it will happen to them. Of all the emotions I went through after each of my three losses, the one that kept surprising me over and over again was […]