DAILY CATHOLIC   Monday, January 19, 1998   volume 9, no. 13

      This week in honor of the March for Life in Washington D.C. on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision, we feature the a website sponsored by the one organization that has been heads and tails above all others in the fight against the "culture of death." That site is Human Life International at http://www.hli.org. Founded by that great crusading priest of pro-life from the sixties and seventies, Father Paul Marx, OSB. HLI today is truly international with 87 branch affiliates of HLI on every continent of the this globe, plus 56 chapters in the United States alone. Their influence and clout as the largest pro-life and family educational apostolate in the world for promoting the culture of life are legendary. In fact, it was largely through the assistance of HLI's network that the students at Mother Seton High School in Virginia, calling their organization We Are Catholics in rebuttal to the radical and heretical We Are Church, were able to accrue over 90,000 signatures of support for the Holy Father and Holy Mother Church. It dwarfed similar efforts against the Pope by Sister Maureen Fiedler of We Are Church by nearly 70,000 votes. In addition, with HLI's immense help, We Are Catholics reached their goal in a matter of months, while We Are Church had nearly two years to reach their announced goal of one million signatures and were lucky to get less than 40,000 signatures, many of them suspect.

     Now for their site. It is easy to navigate at this site, with connections in English, Spanish, French and Polish. Categories branch out from the Gateway to the World showing each location around the globe. Then there is the FAMILY LIFE ISSUES section in which they deal with everything from Abortion to United Nations with such subjects of Chastity and Sex Education, Feminism, Homosexuality, Planned Parenthood, to name just a few - inbetween. We noticed there was no category yet for cloning, but we suspect it won't be long before HLI addresses this in depth. There are articles here from Hot Topics and the Newsroom dealing with the recent announcement of Father Richard Welch, CSsR, JCL which we ran last week, as well as stories about the upcoming March for Life in which they will debut the new bumper-sticker slogan "Bill, Do you Feel THEIR Pain?" Abortion Hurts Babies, Women & Families. Another main section is the PROGRAMS & SERVICES which covers a plethora of topics and departments including a special search engine for the site and video and audio clips that can be downloaded if one has the software plugins. Probably one of the best and most unique features of this site is the Congressional Life Links. Here they provide the information for finding any member of Congress, with bios on the major ones and their e-mails, plus their voting record...even their religious affiliation. But an even better feature is that all you have to do is look up the senator or congressman of your choice, state or federal, and click on the topic you want to send to the politician of your choice. HLI composes the letter and all you do is fill in the blanks and send. It makes it quite convenient to storm Washington with letters to the people who make the decisions and remind them of what is right and what is wrong and the value of human life. HLI believes strongly in non-violence and not confrontational tactics, putting much emphasis on peaceful petitioning but even more on prayer. They offer a Prayer-Net page with special prayers, one by Pope Clement that we feature in today's PRAYERS & DEVOTION. Therefore, we proudly present to Human Life International the "Golden Chalice Award", conferring SEVEN Hail Mary's for outstanding service in making the world aware of the wonderful culture of life. After all there is no other alternative.

January 1998