An hour into our first marriage preparation class, my husband and I discovered our first big challenge as a couple...

Have you ever put much thought into the passage in Genesis, “God created man in his image, in the divine image He created him, male and female he created them”?

I recently gave a talk to the women and teens of our youth ministry program about this very passage.  As I discerned about the direction God desired me to take, I concluded that it was important to let the women know about the great value and dignity that our Lord and his Church, have for women.  As females created in the divine image we have a critical role to play in family life, society, and the world.  Additionally, I felt it was of critical importance to affirm the role of marriage in God’s plan and the great blessing that children truly are to a marriage.

One of the many blessings of the prophetic encyclical of Pope Paul VI, HUMANAE VITAE, was its call for new research to provide couples with improved methods of family planning that are natural, healthy and good (ethically and spiritually).

I want to talk tonight about the kind of people we’re becoming, and what we can do about it.  Especially what you can do about it.  But it’s always good to start with a few facts before offering an opinion.  So that’s what I’ll do. 

A number of my friends have children with disabilities.  Their problems range from cerebral palsy to Turner’s syndrome to Trisomy 18, which is extremely serious.  But I want to focus on one fairly common genetic disability to make my point.  I’m referring to Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome...