McCarrick speaks....

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (9/8/19)

• "Theodore McCarrick, once the most powerful Catholic priest in America...He was the priest whom Meet the Press called to discuss the abuse crisis, and he participated in the funerals of William Rehnquist, Beau Biden, Ted Kennedy, and Tim Russert....He has not spoken publicly in more than a year....
  
  "I asked him if he had done it. He has been accused of sexually assaulting minors and making unwanted advances on seminary students he invited to his beach house in New Jersey over the course of many decades. Were those stories true? 'I’m not as bad as they paint me,' he said. 'I do not believe that I did the things that they accused me of.' I told him it sounded like he thought it was possible—that saying he didn’t 'believe' he had done those things, or that he doesn’t remember them, makes it sound as if he’s leaving it an open question. No, he said.
  
  "There was only one accusation he wanted to discuss specifically: James Grein’s allegation that McCarrick had groped him while hearing Grein’s confession. McCarrick raised this incident before I’d had a chance to ask about it. 'The thing about the confession, it’s a horrible thing,' he said, sounding suddenly more urgent. 'I was a priest for 60 years, and I would never have done anything like that. … That was horrible, to take the holy sacrament and to make it a sinful thing'" (Slate, 9/3/19).

• "McCarrick, who has always declared himself innocent, was deprived of any opportunity to appeal the sentence...the pope has made it impossible to conduct any further investigation, which could have revealed who in the Curia and elsewhere knew of McCarrick's abuses, when they knew it, and who helped him to be named archbishop of Washington and eventually a cardinal....The most important purpose of penalties in the canonical order is repentance and conversion....the mere 'reduction to the lay state' is completely inadequate, because it does not provide a remedy and does not express the concern for the most important purpose of punishment, namely, the salvation of McCarrick's soul. Indeed, unless it is accompanied by other measures, a simple laicization could be considered an expression of contempt for the lay state. The idea that a prelate who misbehaves is punished by being 'reduced' to the lay state smacks of clericalism. As Professor Scott Hahn argues, it undermines the meaning of the universal call to holiness" (Arcbishop Carlo Vigano, 5/2/19)

• Made for Love (USCCB, September 2019)

• How Many Abortions Were Involved in Vaccines? (CoG for Life, 8/31/19)

National Concerns

• As per an 8/20/19 email from the Family Policy Alliance: "President Trump’s Department of Labor has proposed a new federal rule that would protect an important aspect of religious freedom.... While simply indicating your support of the proposed rule is just fine, you may wish to add additional comments...making your voice heard [Click here.] in support of religious freedom!"
• Submit Your Official Comment to Say: Pro-Life Health Workers Must Not Be Forced to Assist With Abortions (Susan B Anthony List)
• Oppose the Misleadingly named Do No Harm Act (cf, American Life League)
• Oppose the Misnamed Equality Act (Human Life Action)
• Support the Heartbeat Bill, HR 3985 (cf, LifeSite)
• Support the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (cf, USCCB)
• Born-Alive Legislation Deserves a Vote in the People's House (USCCB) 
• Contact your U.S. senators and representatives today and ask them to support the LIFT for Charities Act! (USCCB)
• Support the Equal Campus Access Act, HR3243/S1168 (USCCB)

Commonwealth of Pa

(Pa Catholic Conference Legislative Review and Voter Voice)

• Please Urge Your Senator and Representative to Co-Sponsor the "Heartbeat" Anti-Abortion Bill (Pa Catholic Conference) 
• Please contact your Rep, Senator, and the Governor to ask for a religious exemption for Catholic adoptions (Pa Catholic Conference)
• (See also the Pa Family Council link.)
• Call for Funding Increase for Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference) 

The Garden State

• Support the NJ Born Alive Survivors Protection Act A5287/S3905 (NJRTL)
• Vote No on S4103/ A5802 (NJRTL)
• Vote No on A5508/ S3804 (NJ Catholicj Conf)
• Support the NJ Pain Capable Unborn child Protection Act, A 1686/S537 (http://protectviablebabies.com/take-action/)

On the right side of the home page, you will find links to email Church leadership about "Catholic" health care, Bucks country representation in DC, Bucks County representation in Harrisburg, Central NJ representation in DC and Central NJ in Trenton.