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Comment by Stephen Ross Armstrong on August 16, 2021 at 2:05pm

I only just discovered this photo and script.
It's never too late to discover "Big Hearts".
It's incomprehensible to think that my own Father in 1957 sent my Jewish mother from a remote Australian sheep station to Bisbane to have me aborted.
I am so grateful that my true Father in Heaven had another plan for me.
I never did meet my biological Father....Kenneth Ross Armstrong...
He died in 1984 searching for me.He died on the car journey at Katoomba.
Please pray for his soul.

Comment by Dawn Marie on February 9, 2016 at 2:30pm

Appreciated..thank you for the extra information.  It helps one to understand it much more concisely and in a very different light.

He did what he could do in that situation.  Sadly the monarchs have lost almost all of their power and are just figure heads with no say.  I hope someday God will bring back a true Catholic monarchical system.

God bless you+

Comment by Laura Caligiuri on February 9, 2016 at 2:26pm

Thanks for listening, Dawn Marie. Like I said I'm going to make a blog entry to explain better (sorry for all the typos and so forth) what made him special in life and how his life has inspired me to make a huge change in mine.

Blessings to you!

Laura

Comment by Laura Caligiuri on February 9, 2016 at 2:25pm

I see what you mean Dawn Marie. This was a pin I made for Pinterest, so I had very limited room, as you can imagine. And it takes quite a bit of space to provide the contextualization. 

We disagree on the part about abdicating. It wasn't his idea to abdicate. He merely said I'm not approving that law in any way shape or form. The government came up with the temporary abdication. I think if it came to choosing the monarchy over the lives of babies, he would have chosen the babies. 

He also went to the red light district in Antwerp and ministered to women who had been sex trafficed into Belgium, and created support systems to help those women.

One of the prostitutes eulogized at the King's funeral.  https://youtu.be/1hQC7Jd19Yo  This is a 2+ minute video, but the very beginning is in English with the rest being in Flemish/Dutch. This is of the prostitute at the funeral with a journalist reading her message as she was crying. She called the King her friend and he was - he knew them and tried to help the best he could also through his foundation.

Comment by Laura Caligiuri on February 9, 2016 at 9:33am

PART 2

Just as an aside, for any folks interested in royalty matters. It's an interesting testament to King Baudouin's loving character and moral clarity that Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip attended his funeral, the ONLY time the Queen has attended a funeral outside of England.

King Baudouin was the last living member of the Supreme Order of Christ, the most rare and prestigious of papal honors and Pope John Paul II, after visiting the resting place of King Baudouin, paid tribute to him as a man who put Christ at the center of his life and as a monarch who defended God, human rights and the rights of the unborn. His cause for canonization has been talked about but without progress. Nonetheless, King Baudouin was and is an example to all of a dutiful, dedicated and upright Christian monarch. (paragraph from the Mad Monarchist site)

Baudouin put that monarchy on the line and said he would not touch the bill. Even the Cardinal The government found a work around, which was not of Baudouin's request. Is there even ONE story similar to this where another monarch stood again abortion? NO.

Even those in the church were trying to get him to sign the bill:

From Life Site News:

Cardinal Danneels tried to convince Belgian king to sign bill legal...

Two Belgian politicians have openly stated that Cardinal Godfried Danneels, former archbishop of Mechlin-Brussels in Belgium and a personal pick of Pope Francis to take part in the Synod on the Family, tried to convince King Baudouin that he should sign the Belgian abortion bill into law in 1990. The King was deeply reluctant to go against his personal respect for innocent human life and a major political crisis was looming over his refusal to cooperate.

The reason I know about this man is that I prayed to God many times about the abortion issue, which is very near to my heart, and asked for guidance to find if there are people who stand against this abomination. I then found out per chance about this man and started to study his life and found it remarkable in its complete devotion to and reliance on God and his remarkable relationship especially with Mary. I am writing a blog post for my page here to discuss how I know deep in my heart that God has put certain people "in" my life to help guide me during this very difficult moment of discernment about renouncing everything I know from my childhood in my own church and seeking the Roman Catholic faith. 

This is a hugely scary undertaking for me but I know that God has placed certain people in my path from whom I'm supposed to learn. Baudouin is definitely one of those people.

I hope this gives a bit of background as to why I love this man so much and look at this particular "act" of standing up important to me on a deeply spiritual level.

Blessings in Christ,

Laura

Comment by Laura Caligiuri on February 9, 2016 at 9:17am

Those are very sad words and sentiment to me, Dawn Marie. 

Baudouin was a very strong Roman Catholic. He frequently made incognito trips to Lourdes or went with a Bishop of Belgium. He even found his wife, Fabiola, though the church - literally via envoy to find a suitable young lady for an INTRODUCTION - not arranged marriage or anything. Then, they went to Lourdes to pray and seen discernment together. It because just about the strongest and most beautiful Christian marriage of any royal person I've studied or learned about. 

They wanted children immediately and Fabiola was pregnant five times, only to miscarry every single time - two almost costing her her life. As a couple they prayed to find healing and understanding as to this great sorrow in their lives and they determined that it left their heart open to love ALL the children of Belgium as their own. They were the most devoutly Catholic royal couple certainly of the 20th century, I have little doubt. Indeed, it was a Roman Catholic monarchy. I've read many stories about the King and Queen stopping their car and getting out and asking to say the rosary with a group of school children or religious. They truly lived their deep faith and love for the people.

The "work around" whereby he was made a non-ruler for two days or so was a mechanism employed by the Prime Minister at the time. It was, I admit, a very clunky way of going about it, but what was Baudouin able to do? The King is not able to make any laws or even affect the law. He REFUSED to sign the law full stop. He put the monarchy in jeopardy doing so. I don't know if you know this, but Belgium is a hopelessly divided country between the Flemish (of Dutch heritage) North, many humanists and the Roman Catholic French of the South. The only thing that is seen as unifying Belgium is the monarchy.

His father got remarried during WWII and the Belgian people were so angry that he was forced to abdicate. It was decided that Baudouin would take the oath and be King. He was only 20 years old! The monarchy came very close to dissolving. Baudouin was rock solid and stoic and for him to again put that monarchy in jeopardy during his lifetime had to have been deeply troubling to him. That is how much he was against abortion.

A bill may have been withdrawn at the request of the King but no monarch had ever before refused to sign something passed by parliament and set before him. On this issue, however, King Baudouin refused to budge. He regarded the bill as immoral, harmful and something he could not, under any circumstances, put his signature to. The politicians tried to find a way to make the King more compliant, arguing that he could sign it in his official capacity as King while opposing it in his private capacity as an individual. King Baudouin would have none of it. He would not sign it, could not sign it and that was that. A full-blown crisis seemed unavoidable.

The truth, of course, is that King Baudouin could not have changed the moral values of his entire people nor could he coerce them into accepting his Catholic view of right and wrong. That is what would have been necessary to stop the law entirely. As it happened, the only options the King had were to sign or not to sign and he did all he could have done to stop the bill. He refused to sign it under any circumstances. King Baudouin should be saluted for his moral courage in the face of overwhelming pressure. (last two paragraphs from the Mad Monarchist site)

He also called for special protections to be given to the unborn.  He didn't have much of a move to make - there was little he could do - but I think relating him to Pilate is so deeply unfair. 

Comment by Dawn Marie on February 9, 2016 at 5:54am

I don't see how this man did anything heroic.  He simply stepped aside so someone else could act to murder those infants still in the womb.  Essentially he acted something like Pontius Pilot.  He didn't defend the unborn he just moved aside.