I grew up right here in Chicago where I attended public school and graduated from Hirsch High on the south side.  I attended Columbia College and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and a major in Writing
 

We decided to leave our previous parish because it was no longer meeting either our spiritual, mission or community needs.  Our Lady of Mount Carmel is in our neighborhood though not the closest parish geographically and we understand that community is an essential part of our spiritual life.
 

As relative newcomers Miriam and I wanted to learn more about the parish and how we fit in.  There was no method or mechanism for introducing new parishioners to the various opportunities for participation in the parish so we kept our eye on the weekly bulletin to learn more about what was going on in parish life and devotions.  We have tried to attend many of the educational events and to join in the prayer life of the community beyond limiting ourselves to Holy Mass, which, of course, is the center of everything.  We attend holy hours and spend time with the Lord whenever possible.  Along with that we attend those events that include the Rosary and growth in understanding of Church teaching and a deeper understanding of the Bible.
 

Why did you get involved with the Parish Transformation?

At first it was not my intention to be a part of the Transformation program because I was so new to the parish and did not know enough about what was happening and not happening in the parish.  In addition, I had participated in the Parish Transformation in my previous parish and the pastor had abandoned the Transformation Plan as soon as the facilitators were gone.  Miriam and I had a chance to sit down with Fr. Lee to learn more about the parish and the direction of the community for the future.  He was kind enough to give us his time so that we could understand where the parish was and at least some of what his vision for the parish was.  Fr. Lee asked me to participate in the Transformation and I agreed with some foreboding.
 

SB 1564 was brought to my attention through an email notice from the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the arm of the Illinois bishops which seeks to protect the Catholic Church in Illinois from discrimination, immoral practices and attacks on our religious freedom.  The ICC sent out alert notices that the Illinois legislators were seeking to force Catholics and other faith communities to participate in actions that are intrinsically evil.

Why are you opposed to the legislation?

It was in that mode that I lived my life and viewed the world and its institutions.  During this time I found every opportunity to rebel and to fight for justice.  In that spirit I began in the “Ban the Bomb” movement during the nuclear threats of the Cold War; moved into the Civil Rights movement and then into the anti-Vietnam War movement.  I campaigned, to a much lesser degree, to promote abortion and its mother, artificial contraception.  Through a long-term series of circumstances and events in my life, including slowly going blind, my life fell into despair and I became suicidal as most of my life and my relationships disintegrated.  This lead to a suicide attempt in 1992. 

Out of that suicide attempt there followed a process of psychological healing that was only partially effective.  Despair set in again and out of that despair came a trip to a Catholic Church, St. Michael in Olde Town.  It was there that I encountered Jesus Christ and I learned that he was real and I came to believe. 

One day I was laying on my sofa at home and I was watching a Catholic TV network, EWTN.  There was a priest who was showing a video of a late-term abortion on a pre-born baby who was more than 6 months in her mother’s womb.  Because of my very poor vision I could not see what was taking place but the priest, Fr. Frank Pavone, described in detail the horrific dismembering of this little, living girl.  She was being cut to pieces while alive.  By the end of that video, which nearly caused me to vomit, I had been converted to want to protect these helpless little babies.  Later I learned, first hand, that rather than these mothers having their “problem” of being pregnant solved by the abortion, many of them were scarred for life and many fell into depression, suicide, addiction, promiscuity and an inability to maintain deep relationships with a man.  The abortionists and their supporters had never told us that side of the story. 

That is the process that brought me into the pro-life, pro-child and pro-woman ministry.

I think that it has been going on for much longer than a decade.  Many people grew up in the same period of rebellion and self-will that I did.  This secular view of the world poisoned many minds and hearts and infected so many with the idea that they needed to decide for themselves.  Along with that Vatican II came out it seemed to give even many bishops and priests a license to reject the teachings of the Catholic Church and the fundamental moral values that are the foundation of a Christ-centered society.  Between seminarians that were being formed by very bad and untrue theology and the lack of solid catechesis for the laity people lost track of who they were as children of God in his Church, the Catholic Church.  Without that strong rock of Catholic teaching many have become their own false gospel and have become self-centered and no longer Christ-centered.  You cannot be Catholic and pro-choice.  It is that simple.  Vatican II was not at all intended for that, quite the opposite, but something went terribly wrong and I cannot give you an answer as to why?   

This nation is filled with the walking wounded and the walking dead, in my view, the lack of faithful and courageous priests and bishops bares much of that responsibility.  Most Catholics no longer go to Church and among those who do, the majority have decided that; “I think...” and “I believe...” is more important than; “Jesus Christ says...” and “My Church teaches...”  Try asking people what they believe about abortion and contraception and see how many of them site scripture or the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Our beautiful Catholic Church is in grave danger from both the secular world, including the government and the press and, sadly, from within from counterfeit Catholics who follow their own false gospel rather than the true Gospel given us by God and interpreted by His Church.  So, in short, the lack of respect for human life is a part of a general disintegration in faith by a very large segment of the Catholic Church.  It would be totally impossible to be pro-abortion and believe in Jesus Christ and his Catholic Church

One thing that I have found to be profoundly troubling is the attitude of most people towards abortion.  As a Jewish kid I grew up with images and stories about the Nazi Holocaust.  We are used to learning about the evil that Hitler and his followers did and how monstrous they were.  During the anti war movement of the 60s and 70s one of the slogans was, “What would happen if politicians started a war but nobody came?”  Hitler, Gerbels and all of them could have done nothing if the people simply said, no, to the order to exterminate millions.  It took a whole nation to carry out those atrocities. 

I remember reading accounts of the GIs entering the death camps and seeing the unbelievable horror of what happened and seeing the walking skeletons of those who had not yet been exterminated.  Battle-hardened soldiers dropped to their knees in tears.  Those soldiers then went to the town where that death camp was and ordered the townspeople to go into the camps to see for themselves what was happening right in front of them.  The soldiers demanded to know if those people knew what was happening and, eventually, they had to admit that they did. 

Sometimes I feel like one of those Gis when I hear people speak of “”choice,” “women’s health,” “personal goals” and other euphemisms with respect to the pre-born babies who are being burned alive, cut to pieces or sucked up in vacuumed tubes in today’s death camps which are euphemistically being called abortion clinics.  It is especially troubling when people who call themselves “Catholic” are perfectly fine with the slaughter of more than 55 million babies in their mother’s wombs.  My personal belief is that the people who think that way are closet atheists who do not believe that each of us is a unique creation of God, conceived with an eternal soul and destined for Heaven if we keep God’s commandments.  For these people it is impossible for them to deny the reality of a baby in the womb since ultrasound images and many websites display both the beauty of the development of the baby in the womb and, for those willing to face the truth, images of what an abortion truly is.  Even in my parish I hear language like; “A woman has the right to choose,” “It’s only tissue” or “everybody is entitled to their opinion.”  That kind of language is a clear evidence that those people regard their selfish needs as more important than a human life.  If you want to make those people really angry show them the picture of an aborted baby.  They will hate you for that but they won’t hate the abortion.  Look at what is happening today and you will see that what the Nazis did is still going on with the consent of many and the contrived blindness of others.  YOU CANNOT BE BOTH CATHOLIC AND PRO-CHOICE.  I could do a whole essay on the use of the word, choice.  I have to say that it is a bit disheartening to start a pro-life ministry in the parish and receive so little support from the pews.  Some say that it is merely another social justice issue but how can anybody call mass murder just one more issue?

Do you have any suggestions for OLMC parishioners and others who believe in the sanctity and value of human life to become more involved in Prolife challenges?

Thank God, Miriam and I have found other parishioners who believe in defending life and we are working to form the ministry.  For parishioners who believe in protecting innocent and helpless people whether they are still in the womb or severely disabled or critically ill or injured we now have a Respect Life Ministry just getting started in the parish.  Please bring your prayers, your experiences, you knowledge and your hearts to this ministry.  That does not mean that you have to make a full-time commitment to the mission but offer your help when you can.  Let us know what you want to do and we will do our best to work it in.  It may be that you can offer praying the Rosary once a week for us; going before the Blessed Sacrament for an hour; offering a day of fasting or other sacrifice or offering your professional skills, testimony or other contribution.  Everyone who believes in the sanctity of each human life has something they can give-just make the move to do it.  In my previous pro-life ministry we had members from age 11 to 79 and all of them worked hard and made valuable contributions.  The young people asked for their own group and we consented eagerly to their request.  As a result many events and ideas geared to the young were produced, with some adult input of course.

Considering your leadership in Prolife challenges, some of our readers may not know that you are blind. When did you become blind and how did that affect your faith and profession.

I have a hereditary eye disease called, Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and I have been partially blind since birth.  When I was about 11 years-old I was at summer camp and my folks had given me a simple box camera to use.  One day a friend of mine was playing tennis.  I decided to take a picture of him while he was running to hit the ball.  I could only see him as a blur as he ran but, when I got the pictures back, it was incredible.  I could see him running with the racket poised as a white streak (the ball) moved toward him.  Even more interesting, his tongue was hanging out of the corner of his mouth.  I was able to study that frozen image and see things that I had never seen before.  I also had fun showing the picture around to our friends (smile). 

Today, I still have many boxes filled with negatives and I have some prints to show, but don’t ask me where it was taken or what it is...

I have a screen-reading program called JAWS, which stands for Job Access for Work, produced by a company called Freedom Scientific.  It is one of several programs on the market that range from very expensive to free.  With JAWS the program interacts with what is on the screen to read it in a mechanical voice.  It cannot read graphics but even that is starting to change.  I use Microsoft programs, surf the internet and create documents and spread sheets.  Some of the young blind tech people are doing even more advance things including programming.

 Many of my blind friends are using smart phones but I still have a flip-phone that talks me through basic functions.  The more I learn about I phones the more interested I am in learning to use one.  Good ones are expensive and it isn’t in my budget right now, but I have a feeling that, somewhere down the road, I’ll get one and try to use it.  There are other tech devices that would be of help to me, but, again, they tend to have very high price tags since they are not large volume sellers.