Fr. Paul Marx, OSB: Rest in Peace, Good and Faithful Servant of God

Pro-life warrior Fr. Paul Marx died today. I first met Fr. Mark in the 1970s when I attended his Marriage and Family Life Workshops at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, MN. What an experience. Those were opportunities to meet some of the pioneers in Natural Family Planning as well as many laity and religious fighting for the unborn. It was a real encouragement to my own commitment in working for life.

Later on I had other contacts with Fr. Paul when he started Human Life International in a warehouse in Maryland. I went over one day with some friends and he invited us to have lunch in his spartan apartment right there in the warehouse. He gave us a tour of the facility which was a lot different from the current HLI building in Front Royal.

Fr. Marx was one of my heroes. His book, The Death Peddlars and his long article, The Mercy Killers, were two early works that exposed the abortion/euthanasia movement in all their demonic ugliness. Reading his well-researched writings was essential to understand the scope and nature of the culture of death here in the United States.

I have no doubt that this giant for Life was escorted to his Master by Mary, the Mother of God, "terrible (to Satan) as an army dressed in battle array" and a whole army of angels, the guardians of the little unborn babies he worked so hard to save. No doubt Father will continue his powerful work on earth through his intercession in heaven. We need you, Father, please pray for us.

Please pray for Fr. Marx today. None of us, even the holiest, is guaranteed a pass from Purgatory. He was so faithful to us; let us pray faithfully for him. May the Divine Assistance be always with us, and may the souls of the faithful departed, especially Fr. Marx, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Heroes to Remember: Ed Freeman, November 20, 1927 – August 20, 2008

This story has been travelling around the internet since August, but it seems especially appropriate to post it at this time between Veterans Day when we honor our military and Thanksgiving when we express our gratitude for our blessings. Ed Freeman is one of those blessings. Ed would have been 81 this Friday, but the day of the assault he was a thirty something army captain, a helicopter pilot who put the welfare of men in the field above his own. When his commander, Major Bruce Crandall, asked for volunteers to fly into the battle zone, bring out the wounded, and deliver much needed ammunition and supplies, Ed responded. If you want to know more about these two courageous men get the 2002 Mel Gibson film, We Were Soldiers, based on the book, We Were Soldiers Once and Young.

Ed Freeman made 14 trips into that war zone hell; Bruce Crandall made 22. They certainly illustrate Jesus' statement, "No greater love is there than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends." Say a prayer of thanksgiving for real super-heroes like Ed and Bruce.

November 11, 1965. LZ X-ray, Vietnam.

You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.

As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter. You look up to see an unarmed Huey. But ... it doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you.

He's not Medi-Vac so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway. Even after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses. And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!! He took about 30 of you and your buddies out who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last August at the age of 80, in Boise, Idaho. May God Rest His Soul.

I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we've sure seen a whole bunch about Michael Jackson.

Shame on the American media !!!