"S.B.3 to Run Soon in Pa. House..."

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  S.B.3 to Run Soon in Pa. House; Our Efforts Needed; Dec. 5th Event in Harrisburg (Pro-Life Coalition of Pa, 11/30/17)
• Call Now to Pass Abortion Ban in PA (Pa Pro Life, 11/30/17) - Pass SB 3 in Pa House

   
• Call to make sure your right to vote isn't taken away (Pa Pro Life, 11/28/17)

• Could Catholic actor Eduardo Verastegui be the next President of Mexico? (CNA, 11/28/17)

ACTION ALERT: Call for Public Comments on the HHS Contraception / Abortifacient Mandate (Human Life Action, 11/22/17) 

On the right side of the home page is a link to email the White House and the Pa Delegation on selected federal matters (11/18/17 update), as well as a link to email Bucks County's Delegation in Harrisburg on selected state matters (11/18/17 update).

S.B.3 to Run Soon in Pa. House; Our Efforts Needed; Dec. 5th Event in Harrisburg (Pro-Life Coalition of Pa, 11/30/17)

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From: Michael McMonagle <paprolifecoalition@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2017 7:03 PM
To: Mike McMonagle
Subject: S.B.3 to Run Soon in Pa. House; Our Efforts Needed; Dec. 5th Event in Harrisburg

 

Dear Pro-Life Friends:

Summary

We expect Pa. House leaders to run S.B.3 from December 4-6, 2017.  Thus, it is time to renew our efforts to pass this life-saving legislation with at least a 136-vote veto-override majority.  These efforts include a Rally in the Pa. Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 from 10:30-11:15 AM.

The Importance of S.B.3 and this Rally

S.B.3

- would protect approximately 2,000 children and their mothers from abortion each year in Pa.,

- provides a small but significant step toward protecting all children and mothers from abortion,

- educates our fellow citizens on the pro-life position,

- recruits and activates our fellow citizens into the work of the pro-life movement, and

- keeps the "abortion issue" prominent in the public square.

Our Tuesday, December 5, 2017 Rally provides

- spiritual and temporal encouragement to the Pa. House Members who will be serving as the leading advocates for the passage of S.B.3,

- promotes contact with Pa. House Members in their Harrisburg Offices, and

- counters the representatives of Pa.'s abortion industry who will likely be present in our Capitol in opposition to S.B.3.

The attached flyer provides additional information about S.B.3 and our December 5th Rally.

Our Most Important Effort

Please personally contact your State House Member in his or her District Office and urge him or her to support S.B.3.  You can identify your Member and contact information by visiting www.house.state.pa.us and clicking on "Your Address" under "Find My Representative."

In anticipation of this upcoming vote on S.B.3, pro-life citizens, for the past month, have been visiting and promoting contact with freshmen Members and those with a "mixed" record and/or position.  We believe that we are close to passing S.B.3 with at least 136 votes.

Big Picture Analysis

I am also attaching a lengthy article by Maggie Gallagher and Frank Cannon from the December 2017 issue of First Things, which is entitled, "Culture is Downstream of Politics."  This article argues that the continuing public policy debates on the "abortion issue" have resulted in a slow but steady public opinion trend toward the pro-life position, despite the culture.  In contrast, the lack of public policy debate on the "same sex marriage" issue has resulted in a steady public opinion trend in favor of "same sex marriage" because of the culture.

The immediate relevance of this article is that it confirms the importance of our efforts to pass S.B.3, which includes our December 5, 2017 Rally.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this e-mail and its attachments.  Please contact your State House Member as soon as possible.  Finally, please join us in the Pa. Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at 10:30 AM.

Best wishes,

Mike McMonagle
President
Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania
215-393-3610

Call Now to Pass Abortion Ban in PA (Pa Pro Life, 11/30/17) - Pass SB 3 in Pa House

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From: Maria <Gallagher@paprolife.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2017 1:55 PM
To: gallagher@paprolife.org
Subject: Call Now to Pass Abortion Ban in PA

 

Dear Pro-Life Leaders,

 

Please call your state representative and urge him or her to pass Senate Bill 3, which would ban the brutal practice of dismemberment abortions in PA.

 

During horrific dismemberment abortions, babies are torn limb by limb from their mothers' wombs.  This practice should not be tolerated in a civilized society.

 

The bill would also change the abortion limit in Pennsylvania from six months' to five months' gestation.

 

If you don't know who your state representative is, or you need contact information, please visit http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/#address .

Find Your Legislator - PA General Assembly www.legis.state.pa.us Visitor Information. Interested in visiting the State Capitol? For information on visiting the Capitol Complex, please visit pacapitol.com. Contact

 

Thank you for making these critical calls and sending these important emails!

 

Please share this message with all appropriate lists.

 

Yours for LIFE!

 

Maria V. Gallagher

Legislative Director

Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation

www.paprolife.org

Home www.paprolife.org Our Mission: The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, Inc., is committed to promoting the dignity and value of human life from conception to natural death and to restoring legal protection for preborn children. Through legislation, political action, education and other legal means, we proclaim the trut

717-541-0034

 

Victims’ group apologises to priest over false abuse claims (CatholicHerald.co.uk, 11/30/17)

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/11/30/victims-group-apologises-to-priest-over-false-abuse-claims/

Paul VI, Prophet (Bishop Robert Barron, Catholic World Report, 11/28/17)

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2017/11/28/paul-vi-prophet/

Cdl. Dolan, alumni ‘baffled’ over Notre Dame decision to offer birth control coverage (LifeSiteNews, 11/28/17)

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-calls-out-notre-dame-for-puzzling-policy-reversal-to-offer-contrac

Could Catholic actor Eduardo Verastegui be the next President of Mexico? (CNA, 11/28/17)

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/could-catholic-actor-eduardo-verastegui-be-the-next-president-of-mexico-62268/

First Sunday of Advent, "What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"

Our Lady of Guadalupe (12/12/17)
Immaculate Conception (12/8/17)
Come Walk with Us (Diocese of Trenton, 12/2/17)

• Call to make sure your right to vote isn't taken away (Pa Pro Life, 11/28/17)

• With chalk sketches, the Met captures the making of Michelangelo (Crux, 11/25/17) 

• Looking at the Updated Charter for Healthcare Workers (11/23/17)
• "Introduction: Ministers of Life" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• "Procreating" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• "Living" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
(Human life inviolable and 'indisposable; Abortion and the destruction of nascent life; Embryo reduction; Interception and contragestation; Ectopic pregnancies; Anencephalic fetuses; Conscientious objection; Defending the right to life;
Prevention; Prevention and vaccines; Medical prevention and society;
Sickness;
Diagnosis;
Interventions on the genome; Gene therapy; Regenerative therapy;
Treatment and rehabilitation; 
Prescription and appropriate use of pharmaceuticals; Access to available medications and technologies; Sustainable health, pharmaceutical companies, rare or neglected diseases; Pain relief treatments;
Informed consent of the patient; 
Biomedical research and experimentation; 
Organ and tissue donation and transplantation; 
Determination of death; The removal of organs from pediatric donors; 
Xenotransplants; Transplantation and personal identity; Abuses in transplantation;
Forms of dependence; Drug dependence; Alcoholism; Tobacco dependence; Psychotropic drugs; Psychology and psychotherapy; 
Pastoral care and the sacrament of the Annointing of the Sick;
Ethics committees and clinical ethics counseling; 
Health care policies and the right to preservation of health)
• "Dying" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)

ACTION ALERT: Call for Public Comments on the HHS Contraception / Abortifacient Mandate (Human Life Action, 11/22/17) 

On the right side of the home page is a link to email the White House and the Pa Delegation on selected federal matters (11/18/17 update), as well as a link to email Bucks County's Delegation in Harrisburg on selected state matters (11/18/17 update).

Determination of death; The removal of organs from pediatric patients

Determination of death
"115. The removal of vital organs from a cadaver poses the problem of diagnosing death with certainty in a new way....It is properly up to medicine to determine as precisely as possible the clinical signs of death...."

"116. If the scientific data do offer grounds for stating that the criterion of whole-brain death and the related signs indicate with surety that the unity of the organsim has been lost irreversibly, the it can be declared that the neurological criterion, 'if rigorously applied, does not seem to conflict with the essential elements of a sound anthropology. Therefore a health-worker professionally responsible for ascertaining death can use these criteria in each individual case as the basis for arriving at that degree of assurance in ethical judgement which moral teaching describes as "moral certainty." This moral certainty is considered the necessary and sufficient basis for an ethically correct course of action.  Only where such certainty exists, and where informed consent has already been given by the donor or the donor's legitimate representatives, is it morally right to initiate the technical procedures required for the removal of organs for transplant.'236

[Dr. Peter Colosi (2012) has pointed out that "Some medical doctors and theologians doubt that brain-dead donors are actually dead. This would mean that the removal of the vital organ is the act by which the donor dies, but the Catechism (No. 2296) states, '[I]t is not morally admissible directly to bring about the disabling mutilation or death of a human being, even in order to delay the death of other persons'.... Eminent Catholic critics of brain death are Dr. Paul Byrne of St. Charles Mercy Hospital in Oregon, Ohio, and Josef Seifert of the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein and Granada, Spain.  The medical studies of Dr. Alan Shewmon of UCLA Medical School are quite convincing indications that brain dead people are not dead, or at the very least that we do not have moral certainty that they are....The view that brain-dead people (whole brain death) are dead is held by eminent Catholic theologians, such as John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. The seriousness of this question is: If the pope ever declared that brain dead people are not dead, then all Catholic hospitals would have to stop performing heart transplant operations and all Catholics would have to stop seeking to receive hearts from donors....Some hold that the Church has already pronounced in favor of brain death, and they cite this passage from Pope John Paul II’s Aug. 29, 2000, speech to the International Transplantation Society....I always notice that little word 'seem' in the first sentence. If further knowledge reveals that brain death does seem to conflict with a sound anthropology, this would remove the moral certainty referred to later in the quotation, and it would follow that vital organ donations should not be done."

If you click here and move to 22:35, you will hear a radio 1/8/2014 "debate" between Dr. Paul Byrne and Dr. John Haas (NOT a physician).  In that debate, Haas appears to incorrectly speak as though Pope John Paul II (2000) unequivocally endorsed so-called brain death criteria.

'In an area such as this, in fact, there cannot be the slightest suspicion of arbitration and where certainty has not been attained the principle of precaution must prevail. This is why it is useful to promote research and interdisciplinary reflection to place public opinion before the most transparent truth on the anthropological, social, ethical and juridical implications of the practice of transplantation.'237"

As per Pope Benedict XVI (2008), "individual vital organs cannot be extracted except ex cadavere....In these years science has accomplished further progress in certifying the death of the patient. It is good, therefore, that the results attained receive the consent of the entire scientific community in order to further research for solutions that give certainty to all. In an area such as this, in fact, there cannot be the slightest suspicion of arbitration and where certainty has not been attained the principle of precaution must prevail....the principal criteria of respect for the life of the donator must always prevail so that the extraction of organs be performed only in the case of his/her true death (cf. Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 476)"]

The removal of organs from pediatric patients
"117. Particular care must be used in the procurement of organs from pediatric donors...." 

Fw: Call to make sure your right to vote isn't taken away (Pa Pro Life, 11/28/17)

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From: Maria <Gallagher@paprolife.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2017 9:43 AM
To: gallagher@paprolife.org
Subject: Call to make sure your right to vote isn't taken away

 

Dear Pro-Life Leader,

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer is once again pushing a bill that would take away your right to vote for appellate judges in Pennsylvania. You can find the article here: http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/john_baer/for-a-better-pennsylvania-part-3-judicial-elections-20171127.html .

 

Please call your state Representative and urge him or her to vote no on House Bill 111, because you do not want your right to vote for judges to be taken away. If you don't know who your state representative is, or you need contact information, please visit http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/#address .

 

Please share this information with all your pro-life group members, friends, and family members.

 

Thank you for making these critical calls and sending these important emails!

 

All the best,

 

 

Maria V. Gallagher

Legislative Director

Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation

www.paprolife.org

717-541-0034

 

Organ and tissue donation and transplantation

Organ and tissue donation and transplantation 
"109....The donation and transplantation of organs are significant expressions of service to life and...solidarity..., and they are 'a peculiar form of witness to charity'219...."

"110....When an organ is procured from a living donor, the consent must be given personally by a subject capable of expressing it.221  Special attention should be given to subjects in particularly vulnerable condition.
When an organ is procured from a cadaver, the consent must have been expressed somehow during the donor's lifetime or made by someone who can legally represent him...."

"111....'The right road to follow, until science is able to discover other new forms and more advanced therapies, must be the formation and the spreading of a culture of solidarity that is open to all and does not exclude anyone' [225: "A medical transplantation corresponds to an ethic of donation that demands on the part of all the commitment to invest every possible effort in formation and information, to make the conscience ever more sensitive to an issue that directly touches the life of many people. Therefore it will be necessary to reject prejudices and misunderstandings, widespread indifference and fear to substitute [i.e., so as to replace] them with certainty and guarantees in order to permit an ever more heightened and diffuse awareness of the great gift of life in everyone']
  
"112. Autograft transplants, in which the removal and the transplant are performed on the same person, are legitimated by the principle of totality...."

"113. Homograft transplants, in which the removal is performed on an individual of the same species as the recipient are legitimized by the principle of solidarity....'With the advent of organ transplantation, which began with blood transfusions, man has found a way to give of himself, of his blood and of his body, so that others may continue to live. Thanks to science, and to the professional training and commitment of doctors and health-care workers, [...] new and wonderful challenges are presented. We are challenged to love our neighbor in new ways; in evangelical terms, to love "to the end" (Cf. Jn. 13:1), yet within certain limits which cannot be exceeded, limits laid down by human nature itself.'226"

"114....[When a freely consented donation is from a cadaver] It is necessary...to be certain that one is dealing with a cadaver, so as to make sure that the removal of organs does not cause or even merely anticipate death.  The removal of organs from a cadaver is legitimate following a sure diagnosis of the donor's death...."  

With chalk sketches, the Met captures the making of Michelangelo (Crux, 11/25/17)

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2017/11/25/chalk-sketches-met-captures-making-michelangelo/

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

About 500 years ago, Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego amidst wide acceptance of infant sacrifice. We so need her intercession amidst the devaluing of human life and marriage/family in the North America of our own time.
•"Mary of Nazareth has always had a special place in the heart of the Church. She is theotokos, the 'God-bearer'; Scripture’s greatest human witness of courage, humility and grace. This is why Catholic life has honored her through the centuries in so many different ways: Our Lady of Consolation; Mother of Sorrows; Mother of Mercy; Our Lady of the New Advent; Queen of Heaven; Virgin Most Pure -- and in a special way..., December 12, Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of America, one continent north and south.  All of these titles are true and richly deserved. But they can sometimes obscure the human reality of Mary’s life: a young woman of the rough Galilean hills, pregnant, with a seemingly implausible story before her marriage to Joseph, who gave birth to her child in the cold in a stable far from home and then, hunted by Herod, was forced to flee to Egypt. Mary – our mother; the mother of the Church – had an intimate understanding of suffering, flight, homelessness and uncertainty. At Guadalupe, Mary appeared not to the rich or powerful, or even to the local bishop, but to the poor peasant Juan Diego...."we need to remember that the Holy Family too was once a family of immigrants and refugees. And we need to treat the undocumented among us with the mercy and justice we expect for ourselves" (Archbishop Chaput, 12/12/14).

First Sunday of Advent, 12/3/17

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/120317.cfm

http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/17_12_03.mp3




https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc6E9VeWfnc

Biomedical research and experimentation

Biomedical research and experimentation
"99....'Research or experimentation on the human being cannot legitimate acts that are in themselves contrary to the dignity of persons and to the moral law. The subjects' potential consent does not justify such acts. Experimentation on human beings is not morally legitimate if it exposes the subject's life or physical and psychological integrity to disproportionate or avoidable risks. Experimentation on human beings does not conform to the dignity of the person if it takes place without the informed consent of the subject or those who legitimately speak for him.'204...."

"100. The ethical norms of research require that it be directed toward promoting human well-being....In the experimentation phase, or the testing of a research study's hypotheses on human beings, the good of the person - protected by ethical norms - demands respect connected essentially with consent and risk."

"101....There is a threshold beyond which the risk becomes humanly unacceptable.  This threshold is defined by the inviolable good of the person....
The properly documented provision of adequate information and verification of understanding, for the purposes of obtaining free and informed consent from the persons involved, are always a necessary and indispensable element....
Minors or adults who are legally not capable of understanding and making decisions can also be involved in clinical experimentation, provided that, subject to the criteria of scientific validity, their involvement is justified by a proportionality between the reasonably foreseeable risks and benefits for the minor or incapacitated subjects.  Experimentation that is not expected to provide direct benefits..., but only for other persons in similar conditions...can be ethically justified when it is not possible to obtain the same result on adult, competent subjects and the risks and burdens are minimal.  In both cases, informed consent must be requested of the parents or the legal representative in accordance with the laws of each particular country."

"102. Experimentation cannot be initiated and continued unless all precautions have been taken to avoid foreseeable risks and to reduce the consequences of adverse outcomes....a basic phase of preclinical research is necessary....if useful and necessary, experimentation with new drugs or techniques cannot exclude the use of animals before going on to human subjects....It follows that all experimentation 'should be carried out with consideration for the animal, without causing it useless suffering.'211....
in the clinical phase human experimentation must abide by the principle of proportionate risk....
Catholic health care workers [should be on ethics panels/committees]...."

"103....the consent of the subject is needed...." 

"104. In experimentation on a sick person for therapeutic purposes, due proportion must be attained...."

"105. Clinical experimentation can be carried out also on a healthy person who voluntarily offers himself ....it is always necessary to interrupt the experimentation if intermediate evaluations indicate an excessive risk or a clear lack of benefit."

"106....research and experimentation on human embryos and fetuses must be subject to the moral norms that apply to a child who is already born and to any human subject...."

"107....special attention must be given to the involvement of persons who may be vulnerable...."

"108....The physician or the commercial sponsor of the experimental research cannot request the use of contraceptive, or worse still, abortive methods as a condition for participation in the experimentation."

[As per the USCCB's Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, “31….the greater the person’s incompetency and vulnerability, the greater the reasons must be to perform any medical experimentation, especially nontherapeutic."  While it does not employ uptodate language, it is worth checking out “Geraldo Rivera - The P and A System.”]

Informed consent of the patient

Informed consent of the patient
"96. The health care worker can intervene if he has previously obtained the patient's consent, implicitly (when the medical acts are routine and involve no particular risks) or explicitly (in documentable form when the treatments involve risks)...."

"97. Consent may be presumed in a case where the health care worker is called to intervene on a patient who is momentarily or permanently incapable of understanding and deciding, so as to save the patient...."

"98. In a case where the patient is not capable of understanding the necessary information...and there is no urgent need to intervene, the health care worker must communicate...to the legal representative and request consent....When the patient authorizes it, his relatives can be informed about his state of health and his treatments and be involved in these decisions."

Prescription and appropriate use of pharmaceuticals; Access to available medications and technologies; Sustainable health, pharmaceutical companies, rare or neglected diseases; Pain relief treatments

Prescription and appropriate use of pharmaceuticals
"90....As part of their work of societal education about health care, health care workers must call due attention to the use of pharmaceuticals because of the social costs they can entail, among other reasons."


Access to available medications and technologies
"91....Health care workers and their professional associations must become promoters of greater sensitivity in institutions, assisted-living facilities, and the health care industry, so that the right to the preservation of health may be extended....Those responsible for health care activities must allow themselves to be uniquely and forcefully challenged...."
 

Sustainable health, pharmaceutical companies, rare or neglected diseases
92. While not denying certain rights of pharmaceutical companies, there is "the right to access to basic or necessary treatments, or both,  especially in underdeveloped countries, [189]' and especially for "in the cases of rare [The reference notes the European Union understanding to be 0.05% of the population.] and neglected diseases, 191 which are accompanied by the notion of orphan drugs.192  Health care strategies aimed at pursuing justice and the common good must be economically and ethically sustainable...."

Pain relief treatments
"93. Pain has a biological function....Nevertheless, it calls on medicine for palliative treatment...."

"94. 'In the long run, pain is an obstacle to the attainment of higher goods and interests.' 195...."

"95.  For the Christian, pain can take on a noble penitential and salvific meaning....The free acceptance of pain for Christian motives must not suggest that we ought not to intervene to assuage it...."

Treatment and rehabilitation

"84. Diagnosis is followed by treatment and rehabilitation, in other words, the performance of those interventions that permit, as much as possible, the recovery and the personal and social reintegration of the patient...."

"85....every human being has a primary right to what is necessary for the maintenance of his own health and to adequate health care....those who care for the sick have the duty to carry out their work with the utmost diligence and to provide any treatments considered necessary or useful.176  This includes not only those aimed at  possible recovery, but also palliative treatments...."

"86. If recovery is impossible, the health care worker must never give up taking care of the person. [The footnote references 1 and 2.]  He is obliged to provide all ordinary and proportionate care....
The use of ordinary means of sustaining the patient's life is morally obligatory....
extraordinary means may be declined with the patient's consent or upon his request, even if it hastens death...."

"87. The principle of proportionality of treatment just mentioned can be explained and applied as follows:

• 'If there are no other sufficient remedies, it is permitted, with the patient's consent, to have recourse to the means provided by the most advanced medical techniques, even if these means are still at the experimental stage and are not without a certain risk.'
• 'It is also permitted, with the patient's consent, to interrupt these means, where the results fall short of expectations'  because there is no longer due proportion between 'the investment in instruments and personnel' and 'the results foreseen' or because 'the techniques applied impose on the patient strain or suffering out of proportion with the benefits which he or she may gain from such techniques.'
• 'It is also permissible to make do with the normal means that medicine can offer. Therefore one cannot impose on anyone the obligation to have recourse to a technique which is already in use but which carries a risk or is burdensome. Such a refusal is not the equivalent of suicide.'  Instead it may simply indicate "an acceptance of the human condition, or a wish to avoid the application of a medical procedure disproportionate to the results that can be expected, or a desire not to impose excessive expense on the family or the community.'181

"88. In the absence of other remedies, interventions involving the modification, mutilation, or removal of organs may be necessary to restore the person's health.  The therapeutic manipulation of the human organism is legitimate in this case by virtue of the principle of totality [182] (which for this reason is also called the therapeutic principle)...."

"89....Bodily life is a fundamental good, the condition for all the others, but there are higher values...."

Interventions on the genome; Gene therapy; Regenerative therapy

Interventions on the genome
"79....strictly therapeutic interventions that aim to treat diseases resulting from genetic or chromosomal anomalies must be distinguished from manipulation that alters the human genetic patrimony."

Gene therapy
"80....[Assuming informed consent and that there is NOT excessive/disproportionate risk,] 'procedures used on somatic cells for strictly therapeutic purposes are in principal morally licit' 163 inasmuch as they aim to correct a genetic defect or cure a disease....Germ line cell therapy, in contrast, at the present state of the research is morally illicit, inasmuch as it is not yet possible to prevent the spread to the progeny of possible harm resulting from the intervention" [See 165, n. 26]."  Manipulation for non-therapeutic ends is illicit.



Regenerative therapy
"81....[Stem cell uses are] "gravely illicit when they involve the procurement of stem cells from a living human embryo, because this inevitably causes its destruction.169  Also illicit is the harvesting of fetal stem cells from a procured abortion, if there is a direct relation between the act of abortion and the use of the stem cells...."

"82. The production of embryonic stem cells is often connected with attempts at human cloning.... Reproductive human cloning is morally illicit....So-called therapeutic cloning would be even more serious from the ethical point of view...."

"83. The manipulation of animal or plant cells for pharmaceutical purposes raises no moral question, as long as it shows respect for nature...."

[While #167 may seem to infer a favorable judgment on the use of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, Section 30 of Dignitas Personae appears to preclude their use.  "One of the top researchers in the field of stem cells has said that iPS (induced pluripotent) stem cells, the 'embryo-like' cells hailed by many as the answer to the ethical problems presented by embryonic stem cells, are 'probably' actually already embryos and have already, with the right conditions and treatment in the lab, developed into 'complete animals' in experiments.... LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Dr. Dianne Irving, a former bench biochemist researcher with the National Institutes of Health in the US, who confirmed Dr. Gurdon’s assertion, saying, 'Some iPS cell are potentially embryos'....Given the ability of cells to be reverted to the embryonic stage, she said, 'any human cell can be used for reproductive purposes,' so pro-life people must start making very careful distinctions about what type of cell is being created and used and the methods used to obtain them...." (LifeSiteNews, 4/23/13)]

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

• Come Walk with Us (Diocese of Trenton, 12/2/17)

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

• Irish abortion referendum committee accused of ‘appalling’ anti-life bias (LifeSiteNews, 11/24/17)

• We should pay more attention to the souls in purgatory (Catholic Herald, 11/24/17)

• Vatican official calls Trump's Haiti move 'a sad decision' (Catholic News Agency, 11/24/17)

• Pope on migration: Peace isn't possible unless we go beyond polemics (EWTN, 11/24/17)
• Why the Mike Pence dining maxim is a rule for realists (MercatorNet.com, 11/24/17)
• Looking at the Updated Charter for Healthcare Workers (11/23/17)
• "Introduction: Ministers of Life" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• "Procreating" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• "Living" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• (Human life inviolable and 'indisposable; Abortion and the destruction of nascent life; Embryo reduction; Interception and contragestation; Ectopic pregnancies; Anencephalic fetuses; Conscientious objection; Defending the right to life)
• (Prevention; Prevention and vaccines; Medical prevention and society)
• (Sickness)
• (Diagnosis)
• (Interventions on the genome; Gene therapy; Regenerative therapy)
• (Treatment and rehabilitation; Prescription and appropriate use of pharmaceuticals; Access to available medications and technologies; Sustainable health, pharmaceutical companies, rare or neglected diseases; Pain relief treatments)
• (Informed consent of the patient; Biomedical research and experimentation; Organ and tissue donation and transplantation; Determination of death; The removal of organs from pediatric donors; Xenotransplants; Transplantation and personal identity; Abuses in transplantation)
• (Forms of dependence; Drug dependence; Alcoholism; Tobacco dependence; Psychotropic drugs; Psychology and psychotherapy; Pastoral care and the sacrament of the Annointing of the Sick)
• (Ethics committees and clinical ethics counseling; Health care policies and the right to preservation of health)
• "Dying" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)

• Pope Prays for South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zenit, 11/23/17)

• You can now zoom in on the iconic Ghent Alterpiece (Aleteia, 11/22/17)
  
  
• "[']Cultural and ideological colonization doesn’t tolerate differences and makes everything equal, ending by persecuting believers,' said Pope Francis in his homily of the Mass celebrated this morning, November 21, 2017, in the chapel of Santa Marta Residence.
  
  "In his homily, the Holy Father said that 'ideological and cultural colonizations only see the present, they deny the past and don’t see the future. They live in the moment, not in time, and that’s why they can’t promise us anything.'
  
  “'And with this attitude that all be the same and erase differences, they commit the very bad sin of blasphemy against God the Creator,' he explained. 'Every time there is a cultural or ideological colonization, one sins against God the Creator because one wants to change Creation as He made it,' he continued....
  
  "A persecution stemming from ideological colonization always goes on thus: it destroys, 'makes everything the same, isn’t capable of tolerating differences,' stressed the Pontiff...." (Zenit, 11/21/17).

• Free to Serve: November 2017 Newsletter (USCCB, 11/21/17) 

• Little Sisters of the Poor forced back into court to fight birth control mandates (LifeSiteNews, 11/21/17)

• Pope Francis: ‘Compassion’ is more effective in addressing inequalities (11/18/17) 

ACTION ALERT: Call for Public Comments on the HHS Contraception / Abortifacient Mandate (Human Life Action, 11/22/17) 

On the right side of the home page is a link to email the White House and the Pa Delegation on selected federal matters (11/18/17 update), as well as a link to email Bucks County's Delegation in Harrisburg on selected state matters (11/18/17 update).

Diagnosis

"76. Guided by this integrally human and properly Christian understanding of sickness, the health care worker...formulates the diagnosis and the related prognosis...."

"77....he must guard against the opposite extremes of diagnostic abandonment and diagnostic obstinancy....In the first case, the patient is compelled to go from one specialist or one health care service to another, without finding the physician or the diagnostic center able and willing to treat his ailment....In the second case, in contrast, there is a stubborn insistence on an excess of diagnostic tests, aimed at finding a sickness at all costs.  One may be tempted...to medicalize problems that are not of a medical nature....A sort of obstinancy could become manifest in so-called defensive medicine...."

"78. Ruling out such excesses, and guided by full respect...diagnosis does not generally pose problems of an ethical nature....Particular problems are nonetheless posed by predictive diagnostics, because of the possible repercussion on the psychological level and forms of discrimination that may result from it."

Sickness

“73….Sickness is more than a clinical, medically definable fact. It is always the condition of a human being, the sick person. Health care workers must approach patients with this integrally human view of sickness….”

“74. Christians know by faith that sickness and suffering share in the saving power of the cross of the Redeemer….'On the cross, the miracle of the serpent lifted up by Moses in the desert (Jn 3: 14-15; cf. Num 21:8-9) 

https://edrugsearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Moses-and-the-Origin-of-the-Medicine-Symbol.png

is renewed and brought to full and definitive perfection.  Today too, by looking upon the one who was pierced, every person whose life is threatened encounters the sure hope of finding freedom and redemption' 157....Sickness and suffering acquire an extraordinary fruitfulness when experienced in close union with the sufferings of Jesus....Christian reinterpretation can help the sick person develop a threefold healthy attitude toward his sickness:

….awareness….

….acceptance….

….offering….”

“75….Aid given to family members and their cooperation with health care workers are valuable components of health care….”

"And the King will say to them in reply,'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of Mine, you did for Me.'"

• Come Walk with Us (Diocese of Trenton, 12/2/17)

Christ the King, 11/26/17

ACTION ALERT: Call for Public Comments on the HHS Contraception / Abortifacient Mandate (Human Life Action, 11/22/17) 

On the right side of the home page is a link to email the White House and the Pa Delegation on selected federal matters (11/18/17 update), as well as a link to email Bucks County's Delegation in Harrisburg on selected state matters (11/18/17 update).

• Pope on migration: Peace isn't possible unless we go beyond polemics (EWTN, 11/24/17)
• Why the Mike Pence dining maxim is a rule for realists (MercatorNet.com, 11/24/17)
• Looking at the Updated Charter for Healthcare Workers (11/23/17)
• "Introduction: Ministers of Life" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• "Procreating" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• "Living" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• (Human life inviolable and 'indisposable; Abortion and the destruction of nascent life; Enbryo reduction; Interception and contragestation; Ectopic pregnancies; Anencephalic fetuses; Conscientious objection; Defending the right to life)
• (Prevention; Prevention and vaccines; Medical prevention and society)
• (Sickness; Diagnosis; Interventions on the genome; Gene therapy; Regenerative therapy)
• (Treatment and rehabilitation; Prescription and appropriate use of pharmaceuticals; Access to available medications and technologies; Sustainable health, pharmaceutical companies, rare or neglected diseases; Pain relief treatments)
• (Informed consent of the patient; Biomedical research and experimentation; Organ and tissue donation and transplantation; Determination of death; The removal of organs from pediatric donors; Xenotransplants; Transplantation and personal identity; Abuses in transplantation)
• (Forms of dependence; Drug dependence; Alcoholism; Tobacco dependence; Psychotropic drugs; Psychology and psychotherapy; Pastoral care and the sacrament of the Annointing of the Sick)
• (Ethics committees and clinical ethics counseling; Health care policies and the right to preservation of health)
• "Dying" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)

• Pope Prays for South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zenit, 11/23/17)

• You can now zoom in on the iconic Ghent Alterpiece (Aleteia, 11/22/17)
  
  
• "[']Cultural and ideological colonization doesn’t tolerate differences and makes everything equal, ending by persecuting believers,' said Pope Francis in his homily of the Mass celebrated this morning, November 21, 2017, in the chapel of Santa Marta Residence.
  
  "In his homily, the Holy Father said that 'ideological and cultural colonizations only see the present, they deny the past and don’t see the future. They live in the moment, not in time, and that’s why they can’t promise us anything.'
  
  “'And with this attitude that all be the same and erase differences, they commit the very bad sin of blasphemy against God the Creator,' he explained. 'Every time there is a cultural or ideological colonization, one sins against God the Creator because one wants to change Creation as He made it,' he continued....
  
  "A persecution stemming from ideological colonization always goes on thus: it destroys, 'makes everything the same, isn’t capable of tolerating differences,' stressed the Pontiff...." (Zenit, 11/21/17).

• Free to Serve: November 2017 Newsletter (USCCB, 11/21/17) 

• Little Sisters of the Poor forced back into court to fight birth control mandates (LifeSiteNews, 11/21/17)

• Pope Francis: ‘Compassion’ is more effective in addressing inequalities (11/18/17)

• Muslims Are Converting to Christianity in Record Numbers (National Catholic Register, 11/17/17)


• The Museum of the Bible opened in D.C. on 11/17/17! 

• 2017 Summary Report: Marriage and Family in the Age of Trump (Deseret News and the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, 11/16/17)

• Tomb of Christ: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Experience opened in D.C. on 11/15/17! This already existed: http://www.virtualtoursantosepolcro.org/index_en.htm

• new website endorsed by NY's Cardinal Dolan: https://truthandlove.com/

• Marriage Unique for a Reason: November 2017 Newsletter (USCCB, 11/3/17)

Christ the King, 11/26/17

"And the King will say to them in reply,'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of Mine, you did for Me.'"

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112617.cfm

http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/17_11_26.mp3

https://youtu.be/fIoTV3PkPfI

"Who fosters people's growth from their mother's womb, and fashions them according to His will!"

• Come Walk with Us (Diocese of Trenton, 12/2/17)

ACTION ALERT: Call for Public Comments on the HHS Contraception / Abortifacient Mandate (Human Life Action, 11/22/17) 

On the right side of the home page is a link to email the White House and the Pa Delegation on selected federal matters (11/18/17 update), as well as a link to email Bucks County's Delegation in Harrisburg on selected state matters (11/18/17 update).

•  Looking at the Updated Charter for Healthcare Workers (11/23/17)
• "Introduction: Ministers of Life" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• "Procreating" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• "Living" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)
• (Human life inviolable and 'indisposable; Abortion and the destruction of nascent life; Enbryo reduction; Interception and contragestation; Ectopic pregnancies; Anencephalic fetuses; Conscientious objection; Defending the right to life)
• (Prevention; Prevention and vaccines; Medical prevention and society)
• (Sickness; Diagnosis; Interventions on the genome; Gene therapy; Regenerative therapy)
• (Treatment and rehabilitation; Prescription and appropriate use of pharmaceuticals; Access to available medications and technologies; Sustainable health, pharmaceutical companies, rare or neglected diseases; Pain relief treatments)
• (Informed consent of the patient; Biomedical research and experimentation; Organ and tissue donation and transplantation; Determination of death; The removal of organs from pediatric donors; Xenotransplants; Transplantation and personal identity; Abuses in transplantation)
• (Forms of dependence; Drug dependence; Alcoholism; Tobacco dependence; Psychotropic drugs; Psychology and psychotherapy; Pastoral care and the sacrament of the Annointing of the Sick)
• (Ethics committees and clinical ethics counseling; Health care policies and the right to preservation of health)
• "Dying" (excerpts from the New Charter for Health Care Workers)

• You can now zoom in on the iconic Ghent Alterpiece (Aleteia, 11/22/17)


• Free to Serve: November 2017 Newsletter (USCCB, 11/21/17) 

• Little Sisters of the Poor forced back into court to fight birth control mandates (LifeSiteNews, 11/21/17)

• Pope Francis: ‘Compassion’ is more effective in addressing inequalities (11/18/17)

• Commentary: Don’t buy fake agendas; defend the pope! (Catholic News Agency, 11/17/17)


• The Museum of the Bible opened in D.C. on 11/17/17! 

• 2017 Summary Report: Marriage and Family in the Age of Trump (Deseret News and the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, 11/16/17)

• Tomb of Christ: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Experience opened in D.C. on 11/15/17! This already existed: http://www.virtualtoursantosepolcro.org/index_en.htm

• new website endorsed by NY's Cardinal Dolan: https://truthandlove.com/

• Marriage Unique for a Reason: November 2017 Newsletter (USCCB, 11/3/17)

As per the Pa Family Institute, "Funding irreversible sex-change surgery harms children."

PENNSYLVANIA: Stop Tax Dollars for Kids' Transgender Surgeries (Pennsylvania Family Alliance)

Stop Paying For Children's "Sex Change" Surgery (PaFamily.org)

Senate Committee Approves Bill to Reauthorize CHIP; Maintains Funding is Used for Intended Purpose (Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, 10/18/17)

Fw: ACTION ALERT: Call for Public Comments on the HHS Contraception / Abortifacient Mandate (Human Life Action, 11/22/17)

---

From: NCHLA: Human Life Action <info@nchla.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2017 11:51 AM
To:
Subject: ACTION ALERT: Call for Public Comments on the HHS Contraception / Abortifacient Mandate

 

Call to ActionDear Friend,With apologies for intruding on your Thanksgiving preparations, I write to ask you to take a moment of your time to register your support  for a recent action by the U.S. Dep

Call to Action

Dear Friend, With apologies for intruding on your Thanksgiving preparations, I write to ask you to take a moment of your time to register your support  for a recent action by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which provided religious and moral exemptions to the Obamacare Contraceptive Mandate. HHS has called for the public to submit comments by 11:59 PM EST on December 5. Over 10,000 comments opposing this return to common sense have already been submitted by the public. It is critical our voices are heard too. Please take action now.   On October 6, 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued two interim final rules that, together, create a broad religious and moral exemption from the HHS contraceptive Mandate. Although this action does not rescind the Mandate itself, it does give religious and moral objectors immediate relief from its onerous burdens. HHS has called for public comments about this policy change, and we urge you to offer comments in support of the exemptions before the public comment period ends on December 5. We have prepared comments for you to send with a quick click.     The USCCB has submitted comments that you can read here and here. Please add your voice to theirs and let the Trump Administration know that although we still urge the Administration to reconsider and rescind the Mandate, as long as the Mandate is in place these broader exemptions are laudable and mark a return to common sense. Click here to learn more and to send your comments.   Please know that I give thanks for you. I am deeply grateful that you always stand with us and for all you do to protect life and liberty of conscience in law. May God's choicest blessings be yours this Thanksgiving.   Together we will be heard! Executive Director

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Looking at the Updated Charter for Healthcare Workers

An English translation of the Updated Charter for Health Care Workers is now available. In reporting on the update earlier this year, Vatican Radio (2/6/17) noted that "The new references of the Magisterium, after 1994, that appear in the Charter are:

John Paul II’s Encyclical letter Evangelium vitae (1995);
John Paul II, Discourse to participants in the International Congress on transplants (29 August 2000), no. 4: AAS 92 (2000), 823-824;
The Encyclical Letters of Benedict XVI, Spe salvi on Christian hope (2007) and Caritas in veritate (2009);
Benedict XVI, Discourse to participants in the International Congress promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Life on the theme of organ donation (2008);
Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, on the proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World (2013);
Pope Francis, Message to the participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of its institution (2014);
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Responsa ad quaestiones ab Episcopali Conferentia Foederatorum Americae Statuum propositas circa cibum et potum artificialiter praebenda [English translation](2007);
The Instruction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas personae (2008);
Pontifical Academy for Life, Prospects for Xenotransplantation - Scientific Aspects and Ethical Considerations (Vatican City, 2001);
Pontifical Academy for Life, Moral reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human foetuses (2005)."