January 4-10: The USCCB's National Migration Week
As per the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report 2013, only "a mere fraction of the more than 26 million men, women, and children who are estimated to suffer in modern slavery have been recognized by governments as such and are eligible to receive the protection and support they are owed." Some try to insinuate that Catholics and others who champion the rights of not-yet-born children do not recognize other assaults on basic human dignity. How wrong they are!
"The solemn proclamation of human rights is contradicted by a painful reality of violations,
• wars and violence of every kind…,
• genocides and mass deportations,…
• ever new forms of slavery such astrafficking in human beings,
child soldiers,
the exploitation of workers,
illegal drug trafficking,
prostitution" (The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Chapter 3: The Human Person and Human Rights)
Our neighbor - Mercer County (NJ) Congressman and pro life champion Chris Smith - has also been the undisputed congressional champion in sounding the alarm to the modern slavery of human trafficking:
"There’s nobody more committed or dedicated....I appreciate Chris’s advocacy on this issue....And it’s no understatement to say that he was banging the drum on this long before many in Congress even knew the term 'trafficking in persons' or understood what it really meant" (Secretary of State John Kerry, Remarks at the Annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) Release, 6/19/13).
The USCCB urges us to continue to advocate for "just and compassionate immigration reform", and to tell President Obama to Oppose use of "family detention."
January 10 and 17: 9:45 AM Rosary for Life / Divine Mercy Chaplet in Trenton (near State and Clinton)
January 17 - January 25: The USCCB's “9 Days for Life”
As we join with our bishops in prayer for an end to abortion, what a great time to follow-up on their "Project Life and Liberty: Postcard Campaign" (click here) and to urge co-sponsorship/ support of
- No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (HR 7 / S 946)
- Health Care Conscience Rights Act (HR 940 / S 1204)
The USCCB asks us to urge our elected officials to
- OPPOSE the so-called Protect Women's Health from Corporate Interference Act (HR 5051/S2578)
January 20: "What I Saw at the Vatican Colloquium on Man and Woman in Marriage" (Princeton Professor Robert George will speaking at 7 PM at Saint Paul's in Princeton)
We need to urge co-sponsorship/support of four pieces of federal legislation, backed by the USCCB, for defense of marriage/family:
- Marriage and Religious Freedom Act (HR 3133 / S 1808): "would bar the federal government from discriminating against individuals and organizations based upon their religiously-motivated belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage....The Act is needed because of growing intolerance toward religiously-minded individuals and organizations who want to live by their conviction that marriage is the union of one man and one woman or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage" (http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/marriage/promotion-and-defense-of-marriage/marriage-and-religious-freedom-act-backgrounder.cfm)
- State Marriage Defense Act (HR 3829 / S 2024): "various agencies of the Executive Branch have decided to use a 'place of celebration' rule rather than a 'place of domicile' rule when determining the validity of a marriage for purposes of federal rights, benefits, and privileges....The effect, if not the intent, of this choice is to circumvent state laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman....[The State Marriage Defense Act would require] the federal government...to defer to the marriage law of the state in which people actually reside when determining whether they are married for purposes of federal law" (Archbishop Cordileone, 1/10/14).
- Marriage Protection Amendment (HJ Res 51): "The amendment would secure in law throughout the country the basic truth known to reason that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Preserving this elemental truth is necessary for the good of society at large and for the good of children who deserve the love of both a mother and a father, neither of whom is expendable. Indeed, marriage is the only institution that unites a man and a woman to each other and to any child conceived of their union. Federal court opinions that essentially redefine marriage to be merely a state recognized arrangement of intimate adult relationships ignore the truth about marriage, which deserves the highest protection in law" (Archbishop Cordileone, 2/19/14).
- Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2014 (HR 5285 / S 2706): "in recent years, some religious child welfare providers in our country...have been and continue to be excluded from carrying out adoption and foster care services because these providers believe that children deserve to be placed with a married mother and father. The Inclusion Act would remedy this unjust discrimination by enabling all providers to serve the needs of parents and children in a manner consistent with the providers’ religious beliefs and moral convictions" (Archbishop Cordileone, Archbishop Lori, and Archbishop Wenski, 7/31/14)
Other than from Representatives Mike Kelly, Joe Pitts, Keith Rothfus, and Bill Shuster, the response to the defense of marriage from Pennsylvania's delegation in D.C. has been abysmally disappointing - even from officials who consider themselves "pro-life." We need to shout from the rooftops what our Church proclaims:- Each and every human being is owed uncompromising respect from its very first moment of fertilization until natural death, AND
- Each and every human being has the right to originate in the loving embrace of a mom and dad, who are wife and husband....
- But no matter how a new human life came to be, that new human life is owed uncompromising respect from its very first moment, because she or he is made in the image of God.
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Failure to defend marriage/family is truly a failure to be "pro life."
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