#20 - Peace and the Value of Life

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* 1. The Roman Catholic celebration of “World Day of Peace” on January 1st was instituted before the United Nations established “Peace Day” for all humanity to commit to peace.

Answer: True

In his January 1, 1968 message, Pope Paul VI launched the first “World Day of Peace” and exhorted everyone throughout the world to celebrate it on the first day of the year. He asked all the faithful to pray for Peace, "praying all together, in our churches and in our homes. . . . Let no voice be missing from the great chorus of the Church and of the world, beseeching Christ Who was immolated [kill as a sacrifice] for us to 'Grant us peace!'"  It has been celebrated each year on January 1 since 1968; World Day of Peace 2020 is the fifty-third celebration.
http://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/messages/peace/documents/hf_p-vi_mes_19671208_i-world-day-for-peace.html

The United Nations established The International Day of Peace ("Peace Day") nearly thirteen years later, in 1981.  It is observed each year on September 21st.  “Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.”  https://internationaldayofpeace.org/

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* 2. Regarding a common end of life issue, artificial nutrition and hydration are considered to be extraordinary care, meaning it is care that is morally optional. 

Answer:   False

Two expressions are used to clarify the moral status of any medical treatment or its suspension:
   ·  Ordinary care, which is care that is “morally obligatory.”
   ·  Extraordinary care, which is care that is “morally optional.”

Food and water are basic human needs.  Although many in the medical community will designate artificial nutrition and hydration as extraordinary care, “for the Christian believer and for people of goodwill, the option of starving or thirsting someone to death is not an option. . . . Giving food or water to another person is always a charitable act and one that parallels a basic human need.  Only in situations when the body is unable to assimilate them (or they become harmful to the patient) are artificially administered food and water classified as extraordinary care and properly suspended.” We Are the Lord’s, A Catholic Guide to Difficult End-of-Life Questions by Jeffrey Kirby, STD, pp 44, 51-52.

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* 3. Who came up with our current numbering system for marking years before and after Christ? 

Answer:  Dionysius Exiguus, a Roman theologian and monk

“Roman scholar and theologian Dionysius Exiguus [c. A.D. 465 - c. A.D. 530] is best known for his creation of a calendar that led to the modern Gregorian calendar. From his calendar stem the designations ‘B.C.’ and ‘A.D.’ Dionysius championed the system that is still used to determine the date of Easter, and his many translations and writings have influenced canon law and helped preserve early Church texts for study.”
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-european-biographies/dionysius-exiguus

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* 4. We celebrate the Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church, on January 28th.  Which of the following does not apply to St. Aquinas?

Answer (which does NOT describe St. Aquinas):  He was born and grew up in poverty.

“January 28th is the feast of [Saint Thomas Aquinas, a] great saint and doctor of the Church, the patron of students and Catholic schools. Thomas is one of the most brilliant philosophers and theologians the Catholic Church has ever had. . . . Thomas was from a well-to-do family in Roccasecca, Italy. . . . He ran away from home to follow his Dominican vocation. . . . Although it may seem incredible, it’s well documented that Thomas could dictate to [two or three secretaries] at one time. He could think a lot faster than they could write. . . .  The closest he ever came to criticizing someone in his writings was when he called an opinion of a certain David of Dinant stultissimus, which loosely translated means, ‘wow, what a stupid idea!’  But it was the idea he was criticizing, not David.”
https://aleteia.org/2018/01/30/10-fun-facts-about-st-thomas-aquinas/

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* 5. Who organized the first “March for Life” in 1974 in response to the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion throughout the United States in the previous year? 

Answer:  Nellie Gray

Nellie Gray (1924 - 2012) is foundress of the "March for Life" and organized the March for nearly 40 years. She and a small group of pro-life leaders planned the first March for Life, which was held one year after the Supreme Court’s decision that invalidated 50 state laws and made on-demand abortion legal.  “Soon after realizing congressional protection of the unborn was not on the horizon, Nellie Gray decided to hold a March for Life every year until Roe v. Wade was overturned.”  https://marchforlife.org/about-the-march-for-life/

A short note about Margaret Sanger:  “Sanger in 1921 would launch the American Birth Control League. . . . It would eventually become Planned Parenthood. . . . The passionate racial eugenicist expressed her wish to rid America of its ‘idiots’ and ‘morons’ and ‘imbeciles’ and ‘mentally and physically defective’ as part of her crowning vision for ‘race improvement.’ . . . Progressives today dare not raise the grim specter of Sanger’s Negro Project. . . . Sanger urged, ‘We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.’  It is not entirely clear what Sanger meant there, with interpretations differing. . . . [H]er liberal defenders rushed to her defense.  My negative assessment is influenced by other revolting Sanger race-related actions, such as her May 1926 speech to the Ku Klux Klan in Silver Lake, New Jersey.”
TAKEDOWN: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left has Sabotaged Family & Marriage by Paul Kengor, Ph.D., pp 55-56

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