December 2025 & January 2026 Newsletter
Featured Article: "The Immaculate Conception and Being Open to Life"
Emily Duplechin
Some of you may know that December is the month dedicated by the Church to the Immaculate Conception. As Catholics, we all ought to know what that means: that Mary, the Mother of God, began her life without the stain of original sin upon her soul. We know that God created her this way so that she could be the mother of Jesus. But do you know how old Mary was when she accepted the responsibility of raising the Messiah? Here's your answer: she was only around fifteen or sixteen years old when she became pregnant with Jesus. Mary was a teen mom!!
In today's age, pregnancy and having children is seen by most of society as a curse, especially at a young age. Even in biblical times, Mary would have faced some backlash, since she and Joseph weren't officially married and living together yet. It clearly took incredible courage to say “yes” to being the mother of the Messiah. Because of her courage and trust in God, because of her “yes,” Jesus was conceived, and the world was eventually saved from sin by His sacrifice on the cross. Many young women today, however, don’t say “yes” to God’s plan. They don’t trust Him, instead choosing to end the lives of their babies through abortion. How much do they need Mary as a role model! Her strength of heart, trust in God, and of course her Immaculate Conception, all allowed her to become the Mother of God at the age of sixteen.
Mary’s story is remarkably similar to what many young girls’ stories could be if they chose to let their babies live. Was her life hard? Yes. She had to watch her son die to make up for the world’s sins. But did she ever regret her yes? No. Historical and biblical accounts don't give us any sense that she did. If young moms today would choose faith in God's plan, their lives would be hard, yes. We don't deny that motherhood is an incredible responsibility– but it is also a beautiful gift. Mary understood this, and girls today should as well. Though many accounts hold that Jesus’ mother had consecrated her virginity to God (and so did not plan to have children), she still offered herself and her womb to the service of the Most High.
So many young girls could use Mary as a role model, even in today's modern world. If I ever become pregnant unexpectedly, I hope and pray that I would have courage and faith in God's plan, just like Mary.
Second Article: "What We Are Made Of"
Annabella Salvucci
"In my world a star is just a big flaming ball of hot gas."
"Even in your world, that's not what a star is, but only what it is made of."
That line is one of C.S. Lewis's best, found in The Voyage of the Dawn Treador, book five in his Narnia series. In our modern scientific world, the essence of many beings has been degraded to no more than a stark overview of its elemental makeup, and this simple sentence perfectly undermines that notion. There is more to being than substance.
The belief that substance, or matter, is the only thing in existence is called materialism, which is one of the most depressing views of the universe one could possibly have. Not only is there no God, but no soul, no afterlife, no morality, and most importantly, no humanity. In their world, humans are only greater than animals because they have been selected by evolution to have large brains and a community-centered life strategy, allowing them to reach the height of ecology. Without a concept of rational souls, rationality and reason are merely an accident. They genuinely believe that billions of years later, a new animal will become smarter than us and overtake the planet. They call life an illusion, no more than neurons firing in your head. Like I said, depressing.
Materialism, if true, could be used to argue that we should protect life more. If we are truly no greater than animals except for our intelligence, then it would be just as immoral to be a cannibal as it would to attend a summer barbecue with spare-ribs and hamburgers, hence the rise of veganism. They can't comprehend the concept of rational versus sensitive versus vegetative souls, only that if humans came from fish in the Cambrian era, then fish must be no better than humans.
But not only does it humanize animals, it dehumanizes humans. If a person is no more than a blob of proteins, fats, bones, and microbiomes, then they have little to no importance, no rights, and no standing in society. So, many materialists, unable to deny the idea of existence, say that life and humanity inlies solely in the concept of consciousness, or how aware you are of your existence. If you're not aware, you're not alive. This is where ideas like braindead come from. See where this is going?
The common teaching of the Catholic Church, found in St. Thomas's Summa Theologica, is that all living things have a soul. Only humans, however, have a rational, reasonable, and immortal soul. When the soul leaves the body, whether it be that of a bat or a bacterium, the creature dies. Scientists, on the other hand, measure life based on...awareness? If you're in a deep coma, you are, according to them, dead. If you haven't developed a brain yet because you're a week old in utero, you're very dead. The Church thinks you are alive because you, at those times, still possess a soul. But nope! Big pharma and the medical industry both say you're dead.
Materialism is a very widespread belief these days. Essentially every science channel on YouTube is grounded in this idea. Humans are being dehumanized, God's very existence is being denied, animals almost have more rights than we do. That's why I like Lewis's quote about the stars so much. It reveals a divide in what something--or someone--is in substance and what it is in essence. The who is not the same as the what.
Pro-life is about more than just babies. It's a fight to bring back humanity to our world. It's a fight to remind everybody that we are more than just cells: we are humans. People of all ages are affected by the degradation of identity, and the dejection of meaning, purpose, and rationality. Even something as simple as objective morality has been discarded.
But bodies are not what we are, only what we are made of.
Prayers
O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life: Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of the men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy. Grant that all who believe in your Sone may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our time. Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life. Amen.
Pope John Paul II - Evangelium Vitae, 1995
Quotes
"See that you do not despise these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in Heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father." – Matthew 18:10
"The right to life is the first among human rights." – Pope Francis
"I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion is already born." – Ronald Reagan
"But a couple of weeks before I saw the light/ mine flickered out when you changed your mind." – Rachel Holt, I Was Gonna Be
Memes
News
Steven Ertelt
Steven Ertelt
Steven Ertelt
Steven Ertelt
Upcoming Events
Rosary for Life: January 6 @ 7pm ET
Apologetics Night: January 13 @ 7pm ET
Monthly Meeting: January 19 @ 7pm ET
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