Shocking photo: late-term aborted baby lies in open casket at city hall funeral (Graphic Alert!)

Orlando, FL, July 25, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On this past Thursday, July 21, Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, preached at a memorial service for an aborted baby girl.

The child was intact and her body was retrieved after a late-term abortion. The memorial service, organized by Operation Save America, was held outside of City Hall in Orlando.

“We are here because this baby was killed in the darkness, and we come to honor her in the bright light of day,” Fr. Pavone declared in his remarks. “The abortion industry wants to hide the violence done to these children, but we must be committed to expose it. Therefore we need to hold many more of these services, with tens of thousands of people looking at these children and recommitting themselves to end abortion.”

Fr. Frank invited any pro-life activists who obtain the remains of aborted children to be in contact with him to arrange for a proper wake service and burial.

It’s not the first time that aborted babies are afforded funerals. In 2008, Detroit Bishop John Quinn offered a funeral for 18 aborted babies whose bodies were discovered in dumpsters at the Woman Care abortuary. Later that same year, Fr. Pavone offered a funeral for three aborted babies at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament that EWTN’s Mother Angelica built in Hanceville, Alabama. In 2010, Michigan Bishop Earl Boyea celebrated a funeral mass for 17 aborted children.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/17-abortion-victims-to-be-buried-in-catholic-funeral-in-michigan

Legislation on the matter was passed in 2001 in the Czech Republic when President Vaclav Havel signed into law a bill regarding funeral arrangements which included a clause ensuring that the remains of aborted babies receive a proper burial. In 2010, in Michigan a bill was proposed to protect the remains of aborted babies from being simply discarded as biohazardous waste.

The debate over the indiscriminate practice of infant baptism has gone on for more than 160 years, since Soren Kierkegaard’s Attack upon Christendom. I will not add to the debate. However, from what I have read, the Roman Catholic Church is moving away from its emphasis on infant baptism. This is a good thing. It performs infant baptism as a affirmation of the faith of the adults present. The adults promise to provide the infant with a Christian upbringing. I suppose in the early church, with entire households being baptized, that the objective was to bring a commitment to the faith by all members of the family. It is my criticism that with extended families being smaller in size and spread out due to the mobility of our society, that the commitment is not as strong. It would be better if more emphasis were made for adult baptism as a sacrament of faith and according to the Church of England Theological Commission, "the focus of a creative act of God whereby a man is made one with Christ in his death, and resurrection, cleansed from his sin, admitted into the fellowship of the Ecclesia which is Christ’s Body, given the adoption of Sonship to the Father, and sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption."(The Theology of Christian Initiation (London: SPCK, 1949), pg 9.

I will credit the Roman Catholic Church with its practice of Confirmation. However it is the entire process of conversion, beginning with adult baptism and culminating in mature confirmation that is sacramentally effective. Being raised in the Roman Catholic Church, I believe that being confirmed at 11 years old was not what I consider a mature confirmation. I believe the Church puts it members through such a sacrament at too young of a age. By doing so, the person misses the real benefit one would get through their maturity. It is like the Church is so hung up on their theology that they fail to make their theology effective for the believer. And by doing so, many of their believers are falling into the moral quagmire because of their weak faith.

from what I have read, the Roman Catholic Church is moving away from its emphasis on infant baptism.

Well, that's news for me! Do you have a source?

Pope Benedict XVI baptises a newborn baby in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel on January 10, 2010 in Vatican City, Vatican. Held on the same day as the Baptism of the Lord and started by John Paul II, this annual event celebrates the baptism of children and marks the end of the Christmas season.

The present Catholic attitude accords perfectly with early Christian practices. Origen, for instance, wrote in the third century that "according to the usage of the Church, baptism is given even to infants" (Holilies on Leviticus, 8:3:11 [A.D. 244]). The Council of Carthage, in 253, condemned the opinion that baptism should be withheld from infants until the eighth day after birth. Later, Augustine taught, "The custom of Mother Church in baptizing infants is certainly not to be scorned . . . nor is it to be believed that its tradition is anything except apostolic" (Literal Interpretation of Genesis 10:23:39 [A.D. 408]).

Since the earliest times, Baptism has been administered to children, for it is a grace and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit; children are baptized in the faith of the Church. Entry into Christian life gives access to true freedom. (CCC, 1282)

The radical Islamists teach their children hate and encourage them to blow themselves up, killing as many innocent civilians as possible.

We have aborted tens of millions of our children.

Yes, it’s different.

But I fear not as different as many believe . . .

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