Brian Clowes, January, 2009.

Dominica, the Caribbean's "Nature Isle," is a heavily jungled jewel only about 25 miles long and 12 across at its widest.  Only about 70,000 souls populate its steep slopes, mostly along a narrow ledge adjacent to the coastline.  A third of the population occupies the capital city of Roseau in the Southwest.  However, as the people like to point out, one of Dominica's main exports is Dominicans.  Twice as many Dominicans live outside the nation as in it, and this is primarily why the population of Dominica is very slowly declining.

Perhaps the amazing natural beauty and the temperate climate of the island contributes to the people's average life span of 74 years, second only to Canada in the Western hemisphere.  In fact, according to local reports, a 124-year-old woman recently died in Dominica.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD: FROM CONTRACEPTION TO ABORTION

Citizens are generally very pro-life, and even Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has said that he will never allow abortion in this nation "on his watch."  If a woman has an abortion, villagers shun her and call her a "cemetery," pushing the pro-life "womb as a tomb" saying to the next level.

However, not even this tiny, far-flung corner of the Caribbean is safe from the Planned Parenthood ideologues.  The Dominican Planned Parenthood Association (DPPA) does what PP does best - it pushes sex education and distributes contraceptives.  It knows full well that all it has to do is wait a few years, and then use the resulting illegal abortions as a propaganda tool to call for the legalization of abortion.  In fact, teen pregnancy is not a major problem on the island due to the many illegal abortions that are committed each year.  It is only a matter of time before Planned Parenthood and Dominican "women's rights" groups begin to loudly demand "safe" (i.e., legal) abortion.

Father Tom and I felt like rocks being skipped across the Caribbean as we stopped at nearly every island on our way to Dominica.  Redemptorist Father Franklyn Cuffy met us at the Melville Hall Airport, and we drove over the central part of the island to reach St. Clement's House, where we stayed.  It took an hour to cover 20 miles on a rough one?lane road with amazing vistas around every corner, including the mile-high volcano Morne Diablotins.

Father Cuffy drove us to Soufriere at the very Southern end of the island.  Everyone seems to know him, and they shout his name as he drives by.  The main local newspaper, The Chronicle, just named him the Dominican "Person of the Year," showing him in his priestly collar and wearing a military uniform as Chaplain of the Dominican Cadet Corps.

On the corner of the block in Roseau holding the Our Lady of Safe Haven Cathedral and Catholic school stands a big poster that shows a couple of kids on it and the slogan "Abstinence:  The Best Choice."  The implied message is "Abstinence yes, but if not, then contraceptives."  This is rather like saying "Abstinence [from robbery] yes, but if not, go ahead and rob people."

RESISTING CONTRACEPTIVE IMPERIALISM

We began our work with the 8:00 A.M. Sunday Mass at the Cathedral. Fr. Tom and Fr. Cuffy concelebrated with the Bishop of Roseau, Gabriel Malzaire.  Fr. Tom spoke on the threat posed to Dominica by the culture of death and implored the people to wake up and get active against it.  The next morning, we held a press conference, and almost all of the island's major press outlets were there.  Fr. Tom, Fr. Cuffy, and Mr. Wendell Lawrence, the head of the Dominican Respect Life Committee, warned about the contraceptive imperialism being foisted off on the world's nations in the name of "women's rights."  Fr. Tom's warnings about how condoms merely enable the irresponsibility of men visibly startled the two young ladies in attendance.

In the evening, Fr. Tom and I spoke on Humanae vitae and the Antilles Episcopal Commission's wonderful document "The Gift of Life."  Exactly two media people and four other people showed up, because everyone else was sitting at home transfixed by the endless media coverage of the Obama inauguration.  "Obama-mania" has a firm grip on the Caribbean.  The 30-year campaign of brainwashing people to make decisions not based on logic and facts and reasoning but emotions and personal experience has done its job well.  Let's see how fond they are of Obama in about two years when Planned Parenthood is aborting their daughters without their knowledge!

Fr. Cuffy and I also appeared on Marpin Television's "From All Angles" show, debating Valda Durand, an officer of the DPPA.  These Planned Parenthood people all have the same debating style, and I suspect they go to some kind of "charm school" in order to learn how to dodge questions and speak in vapid generalities.  I finally pinned her down after she insisted yet again that "sexual and reproductive health" is a basic human right.  I repeatedly asked if this "right" included abortion, and she finally admitted that it did, after saying that she was not pushing abortion in Dominica.  So, the logical question was, "If you believe abortion is a basic human right, why aren't you pushing it?"  I also invited listeners to read Planned Parenthood's Vision 2000 document, which instructs all IPPF associations to agitate for the legalization of abortion.

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

On Thursday, Fr. Cuffy and I traveled to the Christian Brothers' St. Mary's Academy to talk to about 90 teenaged boys.  After I had spoken about ethics and personal responsibility, Fr. Cuffy asked how many of the boys would vote for the decriminalization of homosexual activity in Dominica.  Every one of the young men gestured "thumbs down."  When asked how many would vote for the legalization of abortion, less than 20 percent said they would.  There is certainly hope for the future of this island!

Whenever I talk to students, I always emphasize a three-pronged message:

1) We all care about the external environment that we live in, but what about the internal environment?  I have seen many young women who are very militant about the environment and their own health, but think nothing of popping a powerful steroidal drug pill into their mouths every day.

2) So many people experiment with things that only give temporary amusement, such as sex, drugs, alcohol, money, travel, "personal experience," possessions, power, and so on.  But there are only two things that will make you truly content and happy, and that will give you true inner peace:  Faith and family.  In other words, if you live by the word of God, you will be happy.  If you live by the way of the world, you will not be happy.

3) There is an easy way for young people to avoid many heavy worries, and that is to abstain from sex before marriage.  We hear so much that abstinence and faithfulness is "unrealistic," but, from a scientific point of view, they are the only solutions to many of the most severe problems afflicting the world today.  Those who follow God's simple plan will not have to worry about unwanted pregnancy and single motherhood; sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS; loss of self?respect and their reputations; worrying about what their parents will think; finding and paying for expensive contraceptives/abortifacients and then getting hit with their side effects; abortion and its physical and emotional impacts; raising children alone, usually in poverty; the difficulty in finding a good husband or wife when they already have children; and, most importantly, fear of loss of their souls!  Young people should have their eyes and minds fixed on the future, not sweating out the present unnecessarily due to bad decisions.

I also tell the young girls to perform a simple test when they meet a boy they like:  Tell him to empty out his pockets.  If the boy is carrying a Rosary, he is probably all right.  If he has a condom in his pocket, tell him to get lost.

The high point of the trip was January 22, Respect Life Day, when 1,000 little schoolgirls assembled in the Cathedral to pin green ribbons to a large wooden cross Fr. Cuffy had made.  Fr. Cuffy's "Green Ribbon" campaign has as its centerpiece pro?life activism, but also includes care for the poor and the environment, among other causes.  This might be called the "Seamless Garment" in the USA, but it works well in Dominica because it does not ignore or de?emphasize abortion.  Fr. Cuffy makes certain that abortion is always front and center, and he consistently shows how it damages all other human causes.

In the evening, we traveled to the Convent High School, where eight schools sent students to make presentations on pro?life issues.  Things got interesting when the moderator asked the young people questions after the presentations.  The students were unanimous in rejecting abortion even for rape, and they argued very persuasively against it.

  On the last day of the mission, Fr. Cuffy and I spoke to the girls at the Convent High School as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations.  One girl sang a Calypso song; three other girls read some very good pro-life poetry; and a dozen others danced on the basketball court to the strains of The Lion King's "The Circle of Life."  Fr. Cuffy and I crammed a lot of advice into a very short period, and the girls seemed to appreciate it.

As always, when I leave a kind and friendly nation, I feel a clash of emotions - sadness at leaving and eagerness to get back to work in Front Royal.  But a week after getting home, I am looking forward to visiting the "Nature Island" again, in the near future.