Choosing Life
Fred Barnes has a piece on how do people become pro-lifers and lists the stories of Henry Hyde, Ramesh Ponnuru, Wesley Smith, and himself. [Via Kevin Miller]
I once wrote an essay in High School defending abortion. This was just a couple of years after Roe v. Wade. My pro-choice views though died when I became a father. The idea that a baby was not yet a human being became repugnant to me during my wife's pregnancy. Though until reading the Gospel of Life that I came upon in a library I had been only partly pro-life in that I held to the rape and incest exceptions. The great thing about being Catholic is that you become fully pro-life when you understand the totality of Church teaching. From contraception, to abortion, euthanasia, IVF, ESCR, ect the Church has a consistent life ethic that fully understands the human person without the hypocrisy inherit in other understanding of people who consider themselves pro-life and especially those that are not.
Known as 
Same here, I used to be for abortion until I, myself, become a mother. Now, well, I just can't see it any other way.
Same with the death penalty. Used to be for it but since becoming Catholic I can't support it. If I'm going to be pro-life with the babies I think I have to be pro-life with everyone else, right?
Years ago I was pro-choice but now I just can't imagine how I could have ever been so misguided.
The non-Catholic husband of a friend had probably already been inching his way towards the Church. The possibility that their second baby might have very, very serious birth defects, such that the OB was heavily pressuring them to abort, however, appears to have been what drove him over the edge. :-) Naturally they changed OBs, but it seems that having to face the stark reality of having a very handicapped child versus his strong objection to abortion helped crystalize things in his mind.
Thanks be to God, the baby was actually in much better shape than originally diagnosed, and the husband is starting RCIA this fall...
Great stories all the way around.
Being a cradle Catholic and eventually learning on my own the Catholic faith (poor elementary school catechesis), it is incredible how God's Word completes itself in explaining all things.
Einstein once said, "How could God allow disorder in the Universe.", or something along those lines. Einstein wasn't making a statement about his atheism, but making a case that there was order in the Universe and he was having a difficult time reaching a formula.
This is a perfect order and I am grateful upon coming closer to Christ through our beautiful faith.
My college-aged opposition to the death penalty brought me around to the anti-abortion side.
I have to admit that driving past the Planned Parenthood in my town and seeing all the protesters outside the clinic reinforced my early pro-choice opinions. I kept thinking, "If those people are against abortion, then I have to be for choice!" So long ago...
Fr. Philip
On a slightly related topic, Gianna Jensen was interviewed last Sunday on the BBC World Service (radio).
Here is a link to their website, and audio download.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/heart_and_soul.shtml
But you will have to be quick, because I fear they will take this down Sunday morning to put up the next programme.
There is reference on the website to "archive" but I couldn't find an archive for Heart and Soul, so I don't believe they will be keeping this Gianna Jensen audio available permanently.
Tito, I believe it was "God doesn't play dice with the universe."
-El S.