Posted on 05/17/2012 7:52:01 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
From Randal Caffery:
We'll see who receives the honors in heaven.
Ping to this sad news.
May millions of Americans find the kind of moral courage demonstrated by this decent, honorable man.
Memory Eternal, Father.
A great man. May he rest in peace.
Here is the original Youtube video of his arrest at Notre Dame, by Pass the Salt. It is one of the most beautiful and inspiring films I have ever seen, as wonderfully crafted as it was heroically done by Fr. Weslin.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiz4tfjSuPc
May the choirs of angels welcome him home.
Fr. Weslin’s singing “Ave Maria” while being manhandled at ND stands out as one of the most profound videos I ever saw.
Amen.
I’ll never forget it, or him.
Requiem Aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetuae luceat eis.
Requiescant in pace.
Amen.
There will come a day in this country when future generations will look back on legal abortion with the same shame and abhorrence that we now look upon slavery. In that future those who stood up for the unborn will be regarded as heroines and heroes. On that day no name will be more praised than that of Father Norman Weslin.
Father Weslin followed an extremely unlikely path to the priesthood. Born 80 years ago to Oscar and Hilma Weslin, he was the 16th of 18 children, the first ten of whom died in infancy. The family lived in Iron City in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A tough land, it often produces tough people, and Norman Weslin was no exception. Always in trouble in school, a bright spot in his life was his future wife Mary Lou who he met in the fifth grade. She was Catholic and he was Lutheran, but that made no difference to him. As they reached high school age she became the center of his life.
At 17 he joined the Army and asked Mary Lou to marry him. She flatly refused unless he made something of himself. Perhaps to the astonishment of both of them he did. He graduated from Officer’s Candidate School in October of 1951 and was commissioned a second lieutenant. He went on to artillery and missile school at Fort Bliss, Texas. While there he converted to Catholicism and he and Mary Lou were married.
He then attended Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia which began his association with the 82nd Airborne. Unfortunately, it was here that he began to drink heavily and became, in the words of Father Weslin, for the next twenty years “a hopeless alcoholic”. While stationed in Panama in 1952 he almost killed Mary Lou while driving drunk. The doctor treating her after the collision told him that she had suffered a massive brain concussion and was going to die. A nurse gave him a green scapular and told him to pin it to Mary Lou’s pajamas and pray, “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us, now and at the hour of our death.” He did so. Against the odds Mary Lou fully recovered and left the hospital three days later.
While on assignment in Japan Mary Lou and he adopted their children, two Japanese-American kids, a 2 month old boy and an 11 month old girl. (Along with his kids, Father Weslin now has two grandchildren and a great-grandchild.) After Japan it was back to Fort Bliss, where Weslin graduated at the top of his class in nuclear missiles. High level positions followed. He served tours of duty in both Korea and Vietnam during his career in the Army.
All during this time Weslin continued to drink heavily. In 1963 he accidentally set himself on fire while trying to restart a barbecue grill and nearly burned himself to death. The drinking continued until 1968 when he retired from the Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Joining Alcoholics Anonymous, he turned his life completely over to God and has never drank a drop of alcohol, other than that contained in the sacramental appearance of the Blood of Christ, since that time.
Turning his life over to God was not just a phrase to Norman Weslin. He began to read some of the spiritual classics of the Faith, including the writings of Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint John of the Cross and he especially was touched by Saint Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary. He received a master’s degree in theology from the Roman Catholic School of Applied Theology at the University of Berkley, of all places, and was disgusted, in his words, at the heresy and blasphemy taught at that institution.
In 1969 he began his involvement in the pro-life cause when he led the fight in Colorado to defeat a bill legalizing abortion. Mary Lou fully shared his passion for the pro-life cause.
Mary Lou and Norman planned to spend their retirement teaching Indian kids on a reservation in Montana. These plans came to a tragic end on July 2, 1980. A car rear-ended the Weslin’s car which their daughter was driving, and Mary Lou was killed. After her loss Norman was buried in grief for some time. Ironically the driver of the car that struck his car was drunk at the time. Norman personally forgave the driver. Pulling his life back together, he transformed their home in Colorado Springs into the Mary Weslin Homes for Pregnant, Unwed Mothers. To date over 226 mothers have stayed at the home prior to giving birth to their children.
In 1982 Weslin entered the Sacred Heart Seminary in Hales, Wisconsin to begin his studies for the priesthood at age 52. This was during the misrule of Archbishop Rembert Weakland. After two years the orthodox, and outspoken, Weslin was kicked out by the academic dean after Weslin refused to attend a class he believed taught heresy. He continued his studies at Mater Dei Seminary in Spokane, Washington. After ordination he joined the Oblates of Wisdom Order.
Prior to his ordination Father Weslin had taken part in abortion blockades at abortion clinics, once with Bishop Austin Vaughan, his spiritual adviser. On retired status from his Order in 1988 he decided to take part in an abortion rescue in Atlanta. He and 260 other pro-lifers were sent to Key Roads prison. While there Father Weslin, for attempting to say Mass, spent nine days in solitary. Imprisonment can often be surprisingly productive for those willing to use the time to think, as Father Weslin did. During his time in solitary Father Weslin came up with the idea for the Lambs of Christ. This would be an organization which would engage in civil disobedience at abortion clinics and thereby buy time for women to change their minds about aborting their kids.
Father Weslin immediately began to carry out his plan. By 1992 he was successful enough that Time magazine had an article on the Lambs of Christ which may be read here. Father Weslin has been imprisoned since 1988, 70 or 80 times, he has lost count. Occasionally he has been found not guilty by juries , but usually he is convicted and goes to jail. After he gets out he goes on to the next abortion clinic.
To its ever lasting dishonor, the administration of Notre Dame had Father Weslin arrested on May 15, 2009 when he protested the granting of an honorary degree to President Obama, the most pro-abortion president in our nation’s history.
http://amcatholic.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/father-norman-weslin-champion-of-the-unborn/
A bio which I had not seen before. Hard to read though - my monotor is all blurry
Father Norman Weslin is a missionary priest of the Oblates of Wisdom. He was ordained in 1986 by Juan Fremiot Torres, his incardinating Bishop of Ponce, Puerto Rico. His superior is Monsignor John F. McCarthy, who served on the Roman Curia at the Vatican in Rome.
Prior to ordination, Norman Weslin served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and retired after twenty years of active military service. He was a paratrooper, commander and chief of a war plans division on the General Staff. He was the Operations Officer responsible for the Army nuclear-tipped missile defense of New York City, Chicago and South Korea.
While in the Army, Norman Weslin married. He and his wife Mary adopted two children. He currently has two grandchildren and one great grandchild. He and his wife became involved in the pro-life movement early in their marriage, and they started Birthrights, Life Support Centers, and political action committees in an effort to stop the killing of Jesus' babies. In 1980 Mary died in a tragic automobile accident. Norman then decided to convert his home to "The Mary Weslin Homes for Pregnant, Unwed Mothers." Since then, over 300 mothers have lived in his Homes. Many of these mothers were reconciled with their families before giving birth to their babies. 226 babies were born directly through the Homes in the hospital - under doctors' care.
After his wife's death Norman decided to join the priesthood and became a missionary priest. One of his experiences in the priesthood was to work with Mother Teresa for a nine-month learning experience counseling alcoholics and drug addicts in the slums of New York. Father had been an alcoholic for twenty years prior to this assignment, but he has been recovered for more than thirty years now.
Father Norman has been faithful in fighting abortion his entire adult life. After twelve years of picketing killing centers and sidewalk counseling, Father realized that we could not stop satan's multi-billion dollar child-killing industry by ourselves - but that Jesus could and would if we made the sacrifice of confronting satan directly at the killing centers.
Father has been to prison 70 to 80 times as a result of peaceful, non-violent efforts to place his body between the killer and Jesus' babies. His last jail term was a five-month sentence in Federal Prison.
Father Norman has faced four federal charges for praying on his knees on a public sidewalk in front of a Planned Parenthood killing center. He is committed to stopping satan from killing Jesus Christ's babies while they are still helpless in their mothers' wombs.
Compare Obama’s life story with Fr. Weslin’s as posted by Mrs. Don-o in #10 and see who the real man is.
How sad that the one who supports the unborn was arrested and the one who voted to deny medical care to a baby surviving an abortion is honored. God help us!
No doubt.
Sad indeed.
Happy Birthday Father! The new life, the Good Life begins!
Good job!
Wow!
God coulda took me instead.
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