August 1, 2015: Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop & Doctor of the Church

“The man who indulges in impurity is like a person….so much tormented by thirst, that the more he drinks the more thirsty he becomes. Such, too, is the nature of the accursed vice of impurity; it is never satiated….Every vice produces darkness of understanding; but impurity produces it in a greater degree than all other sins….All that I have said on this subject has been said, not that any one present, who has been addicted to the vice of impurity, may be driven to despair, but that such persons may be cured. Let us, then, come to the remedies. These are two great remedies-- prayer, and the flight of dangerous occasions” (Saint Alphonsus Liguori) 

Have we lost awareness in our time of sins against purity, marriage/family, and human life?  Do we fail to see any connections to assaults against marriage by the judiciary and crimes against humanity by our nation's largest abortion provider? Natural Family Planning Awareness Week (July 19 - 25) and the 47th anniversary of Humanae Vitae provided wonderful "teaching moments" for proclaiming anew the Church's teaching on marriage/family and human life.  Those occasions passed with nary a word from most pulpits, in prayers of the faithful, or bulletins. 

US House and Planned Parenthood

• On July 21st, U.S. Representative Diane Black introduced HR3134, "the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015."  
• As of August 1, Mike Fitzpatrick is NOT among the 163 co-sponsors of HR 3134. 

US Senate and Planned Parenthood

• On July 28th, Senator Joni Ernt's introduced S 1881, "A bill to prohibit Federal funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America," which was introduced on 7/28/15.  Unfortunately, a look at a press release on Senator Toomey's web site indicates that S 1881 may be a weakened compromise.  There does not appear to any restrictions on the redirection of monies 
• As of August 1,  Bob Casey is NOT among the 44 co-sponsors of S 1881; Pat Toomey IS a co-sponsor of S 1881.

On a federal level, Catholic leadership has posted alerts for  HR940, HR1150, HR824 / S435, S1553, HR2802 / S1598, HR1299 / S667, and S1177, as well as passage of HR 7 in the Senate.

You can find "alerts" about specific federal legislation advocated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at "ALERTS CENTRAL" (http://cqrcengage.com/catholicbishops/action).  The USCCB notes that "Action alerts for pro-life issues can also be found through our partner organization, the "National Committee for the Human Life Amendment" (NCHLA)  [http://www.nchla.org/action.asp], and that Action alerts for issues related to immigration reform can be found through the USCCB-led Catholic coalition, "Justice for Immigrants" [http://www.capwiz.com/justiceforimmigrants/issues/alert/?alertid=14503781&type=CO].  The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC) also posts alerts (https://www.votervoice.net/PACC/Campaigns).