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, June 29, 2023

Update on the Solemnity of Sts Peter & Paul

Promoting the Sanctity of Human Life and the Sanctity of Marriage/Family/Human Sexuality (6/29/23: Solemnity of Sts Peter & Paul edition)

Catholic Relief Services Reportedly Helping Biden Use Aid Program to Promote Abortion (CatholicVote, 6/27/23)

"the world [& the Church] is deafeningly silent" (6/27/23)

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

"the world [& the Church] is deafeningly silent"

Nigerian bishop describes persecution and killings of Catholics: ‘It has become a daily occurrence’ (Catholic News Agency, 6/19/23)

"52,250 Christians have been murdered in ONE nation – 90% of ALL CHRISTIANS MARTYRED for their faith were killed in Nigeria. This is a genocidal nightmare, and the world is deafeningly silent" (American Center for Law and Justice, 6/27/23)

As per NJRTL, "NO" to A4829 & "NO" to A5472/S3864  (6/27/23)

Trump Vows to Sign a Bill Barring ‘Child Sexual Mutilation in All 50 States’ (Epoch Times, 6/27/23)

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 2


As per NJRTL, "NO" to A4829 & "NO" to A5472/S3864



"To receive text alerts, text NJRTL to 50457

Dear Joseph

Please take immediate action on the following bills:

 

A4829 - Requires the Department of Health to create a website with information on reproductive rights. Here is a link to the bill

Status:   The Senate version of the bill passed the Senate on 6/20/23.  The Assembly bill (A4829) is scheduled for this Friday's (6/30) Voting Session.

Background:  The bill appropriates up to $75,000 for the establishment of a State Website on Reproductive Health Services.  NJRTL testified in opposition to this bill before the Assembly Health Committee. Planned Parenthood testified in favor. Given this administration's overt support for abortion, we believe that abortion will unfairly be promoted over childbirth with this website.  We also note that the provisions in this bill are duplicative of a June 29, 2022 page posted by the NJ Attorney General's website entitled, "Know Your Rights."  Further, a simple Google search for N and abortion yields a myriad of websites that provide information on these issues which makes the enactment of A4828 totally unnecessary.  

Action needed:  CALL AND EMAIL your two Assembly members immediately and tell them to Vote No on A4829.  Since this is an election year for both Houses of the Legislature, they will be much more attentive to your phone calls and emails.  

You can search for your Two Assembly members by municipality HERE

A5472/S3864 - Establishes "New Jersey Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Center Act" and appropriates $23,220,000 and $3,220,00 for operational costs. Here is a link to the bill

Status:  Both the Assembly and Senate will most likely vote on this legislation during this Friday's (6/30) Voting Session. Here is a link to the Senate bill

Background:  NJRTL testified in opposition to this bill. This bill is the brainchild of Tammy Murphy, Governor Murphy's wife. The blueprint for this legislation originated through a document created by the Governor's wife's called "Nurture New Jersey."  Abortion was promoted throughout the Nurture NJ document as one of the solutions to preventing infant and maternal mortality and preventing racial disparities in health care. While we surely want to do all we can to reduce infant and maternal mortality in NJ, especially among minority populations, we emphatically reject and oppose abortion as a solution to this problem. We point to statistics that show a disproportionate number of black babies dying every year by abortion in NJ.  We also note that the second leading cause of infant death is premature births, and abortion is known to cause a high rate of premature births in subsequent pregnancies.    A5472/S3864 will allow the creation of a Center in the city of Trenton that will serve as a central hub to coordinate among national state, and local agencies as well as private organizations.   In addition to the $23,220,000 to establish the Center, it allows a $20K stipend for  each Board Member and Community Advisory members and the Board Members serving as Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of the Community Advisory Board will receive $40K. Presumably, this is part of the allocation of $3,220,000 included for operational costs.  The Fiscal Estimate from the Office of Legislative Services notes that state costs in subsequent years are indeterminate and will depend on what "may be deemed necessary to support the activities of the authority."

The Act creates layers of bureaucracy that will be controlled by both the Governor and his wife who have well documented positions on expanding and promoting abortion with our tax dollars.   A5472/S3864 provides financial incentives and perks to certain favored political groups.  One political group that is specifically named throughout the bill who will be the financial beneficiary of this bloated bureaucracy is Planned Parenthood which, after the FY 2024 budget is adopted, will have received over $164M of our tax dollars within the last 5 years. The legislation claims the Center and its works will be an independent entity of the Executive Branch and its principal departments, but a clear read of the bill shows that the Executive Branch controls all aspects of the Act.  It allows the principal departments of the Executive Branch to enact regulations which will have the force of law again without the legislature or public's involvement.  

Action Needed:  CALL AND EMAIL your State Senator and two Assembly Members and tell them to Vote No on A5472/S3864.   

You can search for your State Senator and Two Assembly members by municipality HERE

Since this is an election year for both Houses of the Legislature, they will be much more attentive to your phone calls and emails"

 


Sunday, June 25, 2023

July 2: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 2

  • ....
"URGENT ACTION LETTER
 
Dear Friends of Life,

Medical and legal elites want the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) to change the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) to make “brain death” easier to declare, explicitly without consent, including for the apnea test which removes the life-supporting ventilator and only risks harm. 

Conscience opt-outs have been discussed but only if objection is made “prior” to initiation of the “brain death” exam protocol. Physician and healthcare provider opt-outs were not included. Conscience rights must include both patients and providers. 

If you agree with the attached action letter prepared by Dr. Paul Byrne and Dr. Christine Zainer, please sign and return before July 9, 2023 to Christine Zainer (NOT directly to the ULC):

Christine Zainer
P. O. Box 26635
Milwaukee, WI 53226 
 
To:  The Honorable Samuel Thumma & All Members of the Determination of Death Act Committees & Style/Drafting Committees; Uniform Law Commission; 111 N. Wabash Avenue, Suite 1010; Chicago, IL 60602; E-mail:  info@uniformlaws.org; Phone: (312) 450-6600

In light that you may be revising the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA), this urgent letter strongly encourages you to repeal and replace the current UDDA with the model statute below.  

The new Act must protect life until death (certain death, no evidence of biological life). Death is the cessation of the person’s life on earth. The soul or life force, not any one body part, is the unifying life principle. The precise moment when the soul, the immaterial life force, separates from the body is of paramount importance but that precise moment for this immaterial event is unknowable, hence only after the fact can criteria be used to verify that it has occurred.
 
There is no ground for legal presumption or less secure criteria. The right to live is the most basic right. The State is obligated to protect the person’s right to live until death. This obligation is independent of any other interest, assuming innocence of a capital crime. 

The public has not been informed that a person declared dead by neurological criteria (DNC), i.e., “brain death” (BD), has a beating heart, circulation, respiration (exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide) albeit with a ventilator. Urine production, digestion, waste excretion, wound healing, temperature maintenance, and homeostasis of interdependently functioning organs and systems are present. There is the ability to carry and nourish the baby in the womb if pregnant. The BD patient may be called a “corpse,” but is not a corpse and is not suitable for burial, cremation, or vital, unpaired organ excision.

BD criteria are based on bedside observation of lack of functions, presumed to be “irreversible” or “permanent,” neither of which can be tested empirically. They do not require necrosis or destruction.

The apnea test is part of BD testing. During the apnea test procedure, the life-supporting ventilator is disconnected for up to 10 minutes.  There are no benefits to the patient, only risks of harm.

1. The statute ought to protect the person from being declared dead when still alive. Full and complete information about the apnea test and any tests used to declare BD must be provided with freedom, at any time, by patients, surrogates, physicians, and other health care providers, to decline or cease the apnea test, exams, and protocols, for the determination and declaration of BD.   
2. Treatment options ought to be made available that protect and preserve the life of the patient, even if disability is a potential outcome. Treatments should not be denied based on “quality-of-life” judgments by caregivers even though a patient or surrogate may legitimately refuse them. 
3. Model statute below, in the negative, sets minimum criteria before death is declared. This minimum fulfills a change in state of the three vital systems to protect living patients from being treated as dead. 

No one shall be declared dead unless respiratory and circulatory systems and the entire brain have been destroyed.  Such destruction shall be in accord with universally accepted medical standards.”  

Respectfully,
Email:______________________________________     Date:____________________________
Signature:__________________________________ 
Print Name:_________________________________ 
Street Address:____________________________________                    
City, State, Zip:____________________________________

Note: If you have difficulty printing this letter here, go to https://lifeguardianfoundation.org/?page_id=135."

(from Knowledge is Power & Action is Powerful 
    • Nigerian priest freed after torture, hospitalized with ‘deep wounds on his head’ (ACI Africa, 6/21/23)
    • Areas of liturgical change with unplanned results:
      • "Loss of Latin:....
        Movement of the tabernacle: ....
        Removal of altar rails:....
        Communion fast:....
        Standing for Holy Communion:....
        Mass facing the people: ....
        Extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion: .... 
        Communion in the hand"
      (Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas, 10/25/22)
    Promoting the Sanctity of Life and the Sanctity of Marriage/Family/Human Sexuality

    Scientific documentation abortion [including so called "contraceptives" that are abortifacient] kills living human beings/persons 
    (
    Diane Irving, PhD, 6/26/22)


    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)







    Wednesday, June 21, 2023

    Issues in Catholic Medical Ethics

    Awakening the Unresponsive Patient (HaloVoice, 6/6/23)

    Clarity is Charitable (Amazon review, 6/20/23)

    Ghoulish New Organ Procurement Procedure (HaloVoice, 6/20/23)

    Really Bad Science’: Biden Admin Admits LGBT Lifestyle Produces Worse Mental Health, Addiction (DailySignal, 6/20/23)

    Knowledge is Power & Action is Powerful (HaloVoice, 6/21/23)

    "URGENT ACTION LETTER
     
    Dear Friends of Life,

    Medical and legal elites want the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) to change the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) to make “brain death” easier to declare, explicitly without consent, including for the apnea test which removes the life-supporting ventilator and only risks harm. 

    Conscience opt-outs have been discussed but only if objection is made “prior” to initiation of the “brain death” exam protocol. Physician and healthcare provider opt-outs were not included. Conscience rights must include both patients and providers. 

    If you agree with the attached action letter prepared by Dr. Paul Byrne and Dr. Christine Zainer, please sign and return before July 9, 2023 to Christine Zainer (NOT directly to the ULC):

    Christine Zainer
    P. O. Box 26635
    Milwaukee, WI 53226 
     
    To:  The Honorable Samuel Thumma & All Members of the Determination of Death Act Committees & Style/Drafting Committees; Uniform Law Commission; 111 N. Wabash Avenue, Suite 1010; Chicago, IL 60602; E-mail:  info@uniformlaws.org; Phone: (312) 450-6600

    In light that you may be revising the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA), this urgent letter strongly encourages you to repeal and replace the current UDDA with the model statute below.  

    The new Act must protect life until death (certain death, no evidence of biological life). Death is the cessation of the person’s life on earth. The soul or life force, not any one body part, is the unifying life principle. The precise moment when the soul, the immaterial life force, separates from the body is of paramount importance but that precise moment for this immaterial event is unknowable, hence only after the fact can criteria be used to verify that it has occurred.
     
    There is no ground for legal presumption or less secure criteria. The right to live is the most basic right. The State is obligated to protect the person’s right to live until death. This obligation is independent of any other interest, assuming innocence of a capital crime. 

    The public has not been informed that a person declared dead by neurological criteria (DNC), i.e., “brain death” (BD), has a beating heart, circulation, respiration (exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide) albeit with a ventilator. Urine production, digestion, waste excretion, wound healing, temperature maintenance, and homeostasis of interdependently functioning organs and systems are present. There is the ability to carry and nourish the baby in the womb if pregnant. The BD patient may be called a “corpse,” but is not a corpse and is not suitable for burial, cremation, or vital, unpaired organ excision.

    BD criteria are based on bedside observation of lack of functions, presumed to be “irreversible” or “permanent,” neither of which can be tested empirically. They do not require necrosis or destruction.

    The apnea test is part of BD testing. During the apnea test procedure, the life-supporting ventilator is disconnected for up to 10 minutes.  There are no benefits to the patient, only risks of harm.

    1. The statute ought to protect the person from being declared dead when still alive. Full and complete information about the apnea test and any tests used to declare BD must be provided with freedom, at any time, by patients, surrogates, physicians, and other health care providers, to decline or cease the apnea test, exams, and protocols, for the determination and declaration of BD.   
    2. Treatment options ought to be made available that protect and preserve the life of the patient, even if disability is a potential outcome. Treatments should not be denied based on “quality-of-life” judgments by caregivers even though a patient or surrogate may legitimately refuse them. 
    3. Model statute below, in the negative, sets minimum criteria before death is declared. This minimum fulfills a change in state of the three vital systems to protect living patients from being treated as dead. 

    No one shall be declared dead unless respiratory and circulatory systems and the entire brain have been destroyed.  Such destruction shall be in accord with universally accepted medical standards.”  

    Respectfully,
    Email:______________________________________     Date:____________________________
    Signature:__________________________________ 
    Print Name:_________________________________ 
    Street Address:____________________________________                    
    City, State, Zip:____________________________________

    Note: If you have difficulty printing this letter here, go to https://lifeguardianfoundation.org/?page_id=135."


    June 25, 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time


    Sunday, June 18, 2023

    June 25, 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    6/25/23: 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, A (sign/voice)

     NJ Mass & Rally for Life. 6/24

    Philadelphia Mass & March For Life, 6/24

        • 46 Nigerian Christians Killed In Terrorist Attacks As Government Accused Of Negligence: Report | (The Daily Wire, 6/17/23)
        • Uganda school attack: Dozens of pupils killed by militants linked to Islamic State group (BBC News, 6/17/23)oĺ
        • Dodgers Honor Hate Group in Mostly Empty Stadium Amid National Backlash (CatholicVote org, 6/16/23)
          • "one wonders if, in his eagerness to please sodomites by confirming them in sin, this heretical Jesuit does not seek to legitimize for himself and his supporters what the natural and divine Law decree as sinful.... It is necessary that all the faithful – and their Pastors – be reborn in love for Jesus Christ" (Archbishop Vigano, 6/16/23)
        • Areas of liturgical change with unplanned results:
          • "Loss of Latin:....
            Movement of the tabernacle: ....
            Removal of altar rails:....
            Communion fast:....
            Standing for Holy Communion:....
            Mass facing the people: ....
            Extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion: .... 
            Communion in the hand"
          (Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas, 10/25/22)


        Promoting the Sanctity of Life & the Sanctity of Marriage/Family/Human Sexuality
         
        (6/8/23 update: Tobiah and his wife, Sarah)


        Scientific documentation abortion [including so called "contraceptives" that are abortifacient] kills living human beings/persons  (Diane Irving, PhD, 6/26/22)


        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)





        Friday, June 16, 2023

        Monday, June 12, 2023

        re: REPORT: Largest Catholic Health Network Performs Sex-Change Operations (The Lepanto Institute, 6/11/23)


        If bishops and priests have known of  forbidden procedures occurring at Catholic hospitals & not tried to stop them, wouldn't that be grounds for excommunication?

        Movies for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, A





        Sunday, June 11, 2023

        "if you hearken to My voice & keep My covenant, you shall be My special possession" (6/18/23)

            Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob;
            tell the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians
            and how I bore you up on eagle wings
            and brought you here to Myself. 
            Therefore, if you hearken to My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My special possession, dearer to Me than all other people, though all the earth is Mine.
            You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
            6/18/23, 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, A (sign/voice)
            • Pastoral Letter on Racial Healing: “We Are One Body” (Archbishop Pérez, Corpus Christi 2023)
              • "Our American bishops, rightly concerned about the widespread loss of faith in the Most Holy Eucharist, have launched a three-year 'Eucharistic revival.' All the teaching, preaching, & programs in the world, however, will avail little to nothing if we don’t address the root causes of the unbelief, namely, that the signs and symbols of the Sacred Liturgy no longer support the teaching. So herewith is a 'modest proposal' to reverse this problem....
                  Loss of Latin:....Every major religion retains a place of honor for a sacral language, lest the pedestrian override the sacred. Banishing Latin has also contributed to the “balkanization” of parishes as various ethnic groups split off into their separate communities.
                  Movement of the tabernacle: ....why the relegation of the tabernacle to a side altar, separate chapel (or closet), resulting in the replacement of Christ at the center, usually by an enthroned priest? With the tabernacle off the central axis, should we be surprised by people chatting as they enter the church as if they were in a movie theater?
                  Removal of altar rails: Ripping out altar rails obscured the necessary distinction between the sacred and the profane....
                  Communion fast:....The purpose of the Eucharistic fast is to make us feel physical hunger, the better to know spiritual hunger for the Bread of Life.
                  Standing for Holy Communion:....The problem is not so much with standing as such but with the lack of any sign of reverence....
                  Mass facing the people: ....Ironically, the versus populum position is far more clericalist than the ad Orientem posture because, perforce, it makes the priest the center of attention.
                  Extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion: .... Lay distribution of the Holy Sacrament diminishes two sacraments: the august nature of the Eucharist (if anyone can distribute It, what’s the big deal?) and the unique identity of the ordained minister....
                  Communion in the hand: .... What is certainly incontestable is that for over a millennium, reception on the tongue was universal. The call for its abandonment occurred at the time of the Protestant Reformation. We should not be surprised, then, that 70 percent of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence (the very statistic that precipitated episcopal alarm) and have a truncated understanding of the Sacred Priesthood (and a concomitant decline in priestly vocations) since the introduction of Communion in the hand more than four decades ago....
                "No element called for here in any way contradicts a single paragraph of the Vatican II Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. While still an Anglican, St. John Henry Cardinal Newman warned in 1831: “Rites which the Church has appointed, and with reason, – for the Church’s authority is from Christ, – being long used, cannot be disused without harm to our souls.” (Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas, 10/25/22)
            • French 'backpack hero' says his faith gave him strength to fight knifeman (Reuters, 6/9/23)
            • Priest Returning from Pastoral Duties in Nigeria Shot Dead, Archdiocese in “great shock” (aciafrica, 6/8/23)
              • "90% of ALL CHRISTIANS KILLED for their faith are in one nation – Nigeria" (ACLJ email, 5/30/23)
            • Don’t Just Blame the Dodgers: Blame the Collapse of Catholic Fidelity (Anne Hendershott, 6/8/23)
              "It is time to admit that until faithful Catholics are willing to risk everything to tell the truth about the idolatrous aims of the left-wing LGBTQ movement and its enablers — replete with its demonic transgender ideology — groups like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will continue to be celebrated as heroes."
              • Bp. Strickland: Catholics should charitably correct error, even if it comes from Pope Francis (5/28/2023)

              Promoting the Sanctity of Life and the Sanctity of Marriage/Family/Human Sexuality
              (6/8/23 update: Tobiah and his wife, Sarah
              )

              Scientific documentation abortion [including so called "contraceptives" that are abortifacient] kills living human beings/persons  (Diane Irving, PhD, 6/26/22)


              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)





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