New Issue of Life Matters Journal Out           Published quarterly, this excellent on-line magazine is “dedicated to the aborted, the bombed, the executed, the euthanized, the abused, the raped, and all other victims of violence, whether legal or illegal.” They’ve just released volume 4, number 3.         The newest issue covers the Syrian refugee crisis, pro-life feminism, physician-assisted suicide, responding to the Paris terrorist attacks, a review of It's a Wonderful Life, a "Life Lessons with Josh" Q&A column, and more.         See also back issues.   ^^^^^^^   Life/Peace/Justice Conference           Life Matters Journal will be hosting its second Life/Peace/Justice Conference, April 22-24 at Villanova University in Philadelphia. They describe it: “We will have presentations like 'Toward the Abolition of Strategic Nuclear Weapons: A Just War Analysis of Total War' (with Jason Jones and John Whitehead), 'Alike in Dignity: Racism, Poverty, and the Consistent Life Ethic' (Ismail Smith-Wade-El), 'How to Lose a Pro-Life Secularist in 10 Days: Things We Do to Push Away Pro-Life Atheists & How to Win Them Back' (Kelsey Hazzard), 'Beyond the Abortion Wars: Pro-Life is Pro-Woman' (Charlie Camosy) and so many more.”   ^^^^^^^   Arguments Heard this Week: Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt           Law professor Teresa Collett gives a good overview of the arguments in favor of Texas’s law on health practices in its abortion clinics in the Supreme Court of the United States blog. Her conclusion:         “All of these facts – proven cases of unsanitary and dangerous conditions in some abortion clinics; declining numbers of women seeking abortions; restructuring of the abortion industry; shrinking numbers of emergency care providers in rural areas; and greater regulation of health care in general – make the case that the Texas law will improve women’s health care.         “The objection of abortion activists to the efforts of Texas can easily be read as demands of a protectionist industry that cares little about the quality of care it delivers and more about its ability to survive in a shrinking market for its services. It would be a height of judicial pretention to constitutionalize these claims into a basis for striking down the Texas law.”   ^^^^^^^   Six-Week Course on Nonviolence           CL Endorser John Dear is offering an on-line class on: living a nonviolent life; cultivating inner nonviolence; practicing nonviolence toward others; universal nonviolence toward all people, creatures, and the earth' joining the grassroots global movement for nonviolence; and working for a nonviolent world.         Registration closes March 31, and the class goes weekly from April 4 to May 9.       ^^^^^^^   Quotation of the Week America Magazine, February 1, 2016 Cupich: Confront Gun Violence   Editor’s note: this comes from a Catholic publication; the consistent-life ethic is of course shared by people of diverse religious and non-religious views.         The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago once used the image of a seamless garment to describe a Catholic ethic of life that includes respect for the unborn; the dignity of the weak, disabled and elderly; and opposition to the death penalty. Blase Cupich, the current archbishop of Chicago, is seeking to extend that fabric to include curbing gun violence.         “This is a pro-life issue and should be front and center with all of the others,” the archbishop told me recently in a far-ranging interview that addressed a mounting homicide rate in Chicago, the strained relationship between that city’s minority communities and its police . . . On assault weapons, he says, high-powered weapons that “really can only be used to create havoc and mass destruction need to be banned.”

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