in Pennsylvania's First Congressional District
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania's_1st_congressional_district http://archphila.org/pastplan/MAPS/Arch.pdf
and the Central Garden State

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Update before Palm Sunday

  • "of all the people in the world who are persecuted for their faith,...75% are Christians.... In the West, that doesn’t make the news channels....Nigeria’s the place where you’re most likely to die this year as a Christian" (The Coming Christian Persecution (Guest: Thomas D. Williams), Crisis, 3/24/23)
  • America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined It, WSJ-NORC Poll Finds (WSJ, 3/27/23)
  • Georgetown Law grad says he had psych eval for questioning COVID policies (NY Post, 3/29/23)
  • Jane’s Revenge Tactics . . . New York Pregnancy Center That Was Set On Fire Is Hit Again (The Wanderer Newspaper, 3/29/23)

  • The HHS Contraceptive Mandate is Back! Your comments are needed (USCCB, 3/30/23)


      Monday, March 27, 2023

      Palm Sunday & Holy Week

      • Submit Comments: Proposed Rules on Contraception Mandate under the Affordable Care Act (BEFORE 4/3, NCHLA)

      Lent in the Holy Land

       Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

      (sign/voice, 123)



      Some devices promoted as "contraceptives" can actually work as "abortifacients"!
      They can cause early abortions, interfering with the implantation of a fertilized egg (or later)!


        Letters to Pharmaceutical Companies ["to protest the use of abortion-derived cell lines and advocate for the development of vaccines with no connection to abortion."]  (USCCB)
      Scientific documentation abortion [including so called "contraceptives" that are abortifacient] kills living human beings/persons  (Diane Irving, PhD, 6/26/22)

      Children of God for Life





      New Jersey Matters


      Church leadership matters
      (Click here for bishop contact info)



      (If you have difficulties opening, be sure you are opening the "web version.")

      Friday, March 24, 2023

      The Annunciation

      • Rather than ordination or the religious life, "most people are called to the vocation of [AUTHENTIC] marriage and family" - our route to eternal life with God! (3/21/23)

      Tuesday, March 21, 2023

      Rather than ordination or the religious life, "most people are called to the vocation of [AUTHENTIC] marriage and family" - our route to eternal life with God!

      • The bad news, the possibly good news, and the need to spread "The Gospel of the Sanctity of Marriage" (11/24/13)
      • "The revolt against God is an ancient battle that circles back to the Garden of Eden, where a sinister force first tried to separate man and woman from the will of Divine Providence and tear asunder the male-female union that the Creator had ordained....the far left has remained undeterred, faithful to its rebellious roots" (p. 11).

        "Throughout the nineteenth century, varying communists, socialists, and assorted utopians wrote about the glories of 'free love' and cogitated on the inherent ills of the traditional family" (p. 24).

        "By 1934 Moscow women were having three abortions for every live birth, shocking ratios that American women, in the worst, wildest throes of Roe v. Wade, never approached" (p. 45)  (Professor Paul Kengor, 4/12/2016)

      •  [To claims of priestly abuse,] "how did the hierarchy respond? Typically with flat denial, a claim that the parents were being uncharitable, a rush to hide evidence and squelch public discussion. That pattern of denial has changed. But what happens, even today, when a lay Catholic complains....All too often the response is similar to the old, flawed pattern that we saw in reactions to sex-abuse complaints: stout denial, a refusal to investigate or to examine evidence, a charge that the lay persons lodging the complaint are uncharitable. Thus the rights of the laity are suppressed and the offenses continue. The sex-abuse scandal has exposed a systematic problem in the American hierarchy: a failure of leadership that violated the rights of the faithful and allowed the spread of corruption" (Phil Lawler, 10/29/18).
      • The universal call to chastity and "de facto apostates" (?) (2/26/19)


      Sunday, March 19, 2023

      5th Sunday of Lent: "This Ilness is Not to End in Death...."


      "Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethanythe village of Mary and her sister Martha....

      (Sign/Voice 1, 2)
      • Clerics and “Clericalism”: Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves (Matthew 10:16) (Catholic365, 3/17/23)
        • "The priesthood deserves our gratitude and respect, but not our blindness. CLCR’s goal was to work cooperatively and confidentially with bishops to address a real issue in many current dioceses. The need for the data collected by CLCR is humiliating and regrettable. But the findings are too important to ignore, and dismissing them on specious 'privacy' grounds only compounds the problem. At this point, enough is enough" (The Catholic Thing, 3/16/23).

          Some devices promoted as "contraceptives" can actually work as "abortifacients"!They can cause early abortions, interfering with the implantation of a fertilized egg (or later)!


            Letters to Pharmaceutical Companies ["to protest the use of abortion-derived cell lines and advocate for the development of vaccines with no connection to abortion."]  (USCCB)
          Scientific documentation abortion [including so called "contraceptives" that are abortifacient] kills living human beings/persons  (Diane Irving, PhD, 6/26/22)

          Children of God for Life





          New Jersey Matters


          Church leadership matters
          (Click here for bishop contact info)



          (If you have difficulties opening, be sure you are opening the "web version.")



          Friday, March 17, 2023

          St Patrick's Day Update

          News Updates (3/14/23


          Clerics and “Clericalism”: Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves (Matthew 10:16) (Catholic Stand, 3/17/23)

          Bethany (c, 2017)





          John 11: 1- 45

          Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, 
          the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
          Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil 
          and dried his feet with her hair; 
          it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
          So the sisters sent word to him saying, 
          “Master, the one you love is ill.”
          When Jesus heard this he said,
          “This illness is not to end in death, 
          but is for the glory of God, 
          that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
          Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
          So when he heard that he was ill, 
          he remained for two days in the place where he was.
          Then after this he said to his disciples, 
          “Let us go back to Judea.”
          The disciples said to him, 
          “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, 
          and you want to go back there?”
          Jesus answered,
          “Are there not twelve hours in a day?
          If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, 
          because he sees the light of this world.
          But if one walks at night, he stumbles, 
          because the light is not in him.” 
          He said this, and then told them,
          “Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
          but I am going to awaken him.”
          So the disciples said to him,
          “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.”
          But Jesus was talking about his death, 
          while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. 
          So then Jesus said to them clearly,
          “Lazarus has died.
          And I am glad for you that I was not there,
          that you may believe. 
          Let us go to him.”
          So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, 
          “Let us also go to die with him.”

          When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus 
          had already been in the tomb for four days.
          Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
          And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary 
          to comfort them about their brother.
          When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
          she went to meet him;
          but Mary sat at home.
          Martha said to Jesus, 
          “Lord, if you had been here,
          my brother would not have died.
          But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
          God will give you.”
          Jesus said to her,
          “Your brother will rise.”
          Martha said to him,
          “I know he will rise,
          in the resurrection on the last day.”
          Jesus told her,
          “I am the resurrection and the life; 
          whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 
          and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
          Do you believe this?”
          She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
          I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
          the one who is coming into the world.”

          When she had said this, 
          she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, 
          “The teacher is here and is asking for you.”
          As soon as she heard this,
          she rose quickly and went to him.
          For Jesus had not yet come into the village, 
          but was still where Martha had met him.
          So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her 
          saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
          they followed her, 
          presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
          When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, 
          she fell at his feet and said to him, 
          “Lord, if you had been here,
          my brother would not have died.”
          When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, 
          he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, 
          “Where have you laid him?”
          They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
          And Jesus wept.
          So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
          But some of them said, 
          “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man 
          have done something so that this man would not have died?”

          So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
          It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
          Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
          Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, 
          “Lord, by now there will be a stench; 
          he has been dead for four days.”
          Jesus said to her,
          “Did I not tell you that if you believe 
          you will see the glory of God?”
          So they took away the stone.
          And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
          “Father, I thank you for hearing me.
          I know that you always hear me; 
          but because of the crowd here I have said this, 
          that they may believe that you sent me.”
          And when he had said this,
          He cried out in a loud voice, 
          “Lazarus, come out!”
          The dead man came out,
          tied hand and foot with burial bands, 
          and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
          So Jesus said to them,
          “Untie him and let him go.”

          Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
          and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

          Tuesday, March 14, 2023

          News updates

          • "Pope Francis was elected to the papacy 10 years ago, on March 13, 2013. How has the worldwide Catholic Church changed since then?

            "Statistically speaking, the Church has grown, keeping pace with and even exceeding overall world population growth....

            "Despite this increase, the Church performed 2 million fewer baptisms in 2020 than in 2013. The number of marriages declined by 702,246, or nearly a third. Confirmations and first Communions also dropped by 12% and 13%, respectively, despite relatively stable levels of Mass attendance in the world’s 13 most Catholic countries....

            “Despite overall growth in the number of Catholics worldwide, that growth has not been evenly distributed. Overall, Africa has a higher baptism rate than Europe and a far higher rate of Mass attendance in countries with large Catholic populations. Another recent analysis by CARA found that Nigeria, Kenya, and Lebanon have the highest proportion of Catholics who attend Mass weekly or more, with Nigeria as the clear leader. Ninety-four percent of Catholics in Nigeria say they attend Mass at least weekly. In Kenya, the figure was 73%, and in Lebanon it was 69%. In comparison, countries like Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands are all under 15%.

            "In addition, Africa bucks the trend of declining vocations by showing an increase in seminarians and religious brothers, according to the 2021 Vatican statistics. Africa also saw the only increase in seminarians and religious brothers across the globe from 2020-2021, at 0.6%. The number of religious brothers in Africa increased by 2.2% during the same time frame....

            "the number of diocesan priests in the U.S. dropped 8% from 2013 to 2021. There are 27% fewer sisters, 19% fewer brothers, and 15% fewer religious priests compared with a decade ago, though the number of permanent deacons has increased slightly, by 3%. Gray said the United States disproportionately relies on immigrant priests to address its own shortages" (Catholic World Report, 3/13/23)

            • Mercy was also quite present in the papacies of John Paul II (see his  Dives in Misericordia i.e., “Rich in Mercy”)  and of Benedict XVI (“Mercy is in reality the core of the Gospel message; it is the name of God Himself, the face with which He reveals Himself in the Old Testament and fully in Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of creative and redemptive love.’). But in the past ten years, it has morphed into something else: 'inclusion' and 'openness,' in the current secular not their authentic Christian meanings – contrary to historic Christianity....the Francis Effect has resulted in a Church that has not, as hoped, attracted people from outside and has left those within even more confused and divided" (First Things, 3/13/23).
            • Woke Priorities Borrowed Trouble for Belly-Up Bank (Washington Stand, 3/13/23

            • Oscar For Best Actor Goes To Volodymyr Zelensky (Babylon Bee, 3/13/23 [satire])

            • "In Nigeria, Christians face unthinkable horrors at the hands of jihadist militant groups. Christians are gunned down as they worship; pastors are burned in their homes. Last year in Nigeria alone, 4,020 Christians were killed and another 2,300 were abducted, including defenseless children.

              "In Afghanistan, the Taliban is directly telling Christians, 'We will find you and we will kill your entire family.' It has been ranked the #1 worst country for Christians in the entire world. The Taliban is responsible for "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments" of Christians, while ISIS-K violently attacks churches" (ACLJ, 3/14/23).

            Sunday, March 12, 2023

            3/19/23 (4th Sunday of Lent): '"So, he went and washed, and came back able to see"


            Laetare Sunday

            http://www.catholicworldreport.com/NewsBriefs/Default.aspx?rssGuid=fatima-visionary-predicted-final-battle-would-be-over-marriage-family-17760/
                • "Some have tried to spread the error that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is merely about 'hospitality'....the Catechism includes Genesis 19 in it scriptural notes on the biblical basis for forbidding homosexual acts....the Bible teaches: homosexual activity is sinful, as are other sexual sins such as fornication and adultery " (Quotes from...Msgr Charles Pope, 3/11/23).
                • The Cardinal’s Lament: A Reply to His Reply (Catholic World Report, 3/9/23)
                    "Cardinal Robert W. McElroy defends the morality of some instances of sex between LGBT and divorced and remarried Catholics. I reply here to four problems with his defense: it proposes
                    1) a misleading conception of conscience;
                    2) a misrepresentation of the history and content of the Catholic Church’s absolute condemnation of all non-marital sexual acts;
                    3) a misunderstanding of the relationship between the doctrinal & the pastoral realms; &
                    4) a non-Christian understanding of conversion, accompaniment, and discipleship"


                  • “Decisive action of women for the salvation of Israel….delineating with ever greater precision the characteristics of Mary's mission in the work of saving all humanity” (Catholic365, 3/6/23)


                  Some devices promoted as "contraceptives" can actually work as "abortifacients"!They can cause early abortions, interfering with the implantation of a fertilized egg (or later)!


                    Letters to Pharmaceutical Companies ["to protest the use of abortion-derived cell lines and advocate for the development of vaccines with no connection to abortion."]  (USCCB)
                  Scientific documentation abortion [including so called "contraceptives" that are abortifacient] kills living human beings/persons  (Diane Irving, PhD, 6/26/22)

                  Children of God for Life





                  New Jersey Matters


                  Church leadership matters
                  (Click here for bishop contact info)



                  (If you have difficulties opening, be sure you are opening the "web version.")

                  home page links

                  The 10 Commandments

                  The Beatitudes (from "Jesus of Nazareth")