"from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate." (27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 10/7/18)

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 10/7/18

• FW: LIFE CHAIN 2018 Mercer County Oct 7 1:00-3:00 PM @ 2279 Route 33 Hamilton

• Congratulations Justice Kavanaugh!"Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's second nominee to the Supreme Court, was confirmed to the court on Saturday with a Senate vote largely divided along party lines. The vote occurred shortly before 4 p.m." (CBS News)

• "After the publication of the accusations regarding the conduct of Archbishop Theodore Edgar McCarrick, the Holy Father Pope Francis, aware of and concerned by the confusion that these accusations are causing in the conscience of the faithful, has established that the following be communicated:
  
  "In September 2017, the Archdiocese of New York notified the Holy See that a man had accused former Cardinal McCarrick of having abused him in the 1970s. The Holy Father ordered a thorough preliminary investigation into this, which was carried out by the Archdiocese of New York, at the conclusion of which the relative documentation was forwarded to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the meantime, because grave indications emerged during the course of the investigation, the Holy Father accepted the resignation of Archbishop McCarrick from the College of Cardinals, prohibiting him by order from exercising public ministry, and obliging him to lead a life of prayer and penance.
  
  "The Holy See will, in due course, make known the conclusions of the matter regarding Archbishop McCarrick. Moreover, with reference to other accusations brought against Archbishop McCarrick, the Holy Father has decided that information gathered during the preliminary investigation be combined with a further thorough study of the entire documentation present in the Archives of the Dicasteries and Offices of the Holy See regarding the former Cardinal McCarrick, in order to ascertain all the relevant facts, to place them in their historical context and to evaluate them objectively.
  
  "The Holy See is conscious that, from the examination of the facts and of the circumstances, it may emerge that choices were taken that would not be consonant with a contemporary approach to such issues. However, as Pope Francis has said: 'We will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead' (Philadelphia, 27 September 2015). Both abuse and its cover-up can no longer be tolerated and a different treatment for Bishops who have committed or covered up abuse, in fact represents a form of clericalism that is no longer acceptable.
  
  "The Holy Father Pope Francis renews his pressing invitation to unite forces to fight against the grave scourge of abuse within and beyond the Church, and to prevent such crimes from being committed in the future to the harm of the most innocent and most vulnerable in society. As previously made known, the Holy Father has convened a meeting of the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences from around the world for next February, while the words of his recent Letter to the People of God still resonate: 'The only way that we have to respond to this evil that has darkened so many lives is to experience it as a task regarding all of us as the People of God. This awareness of being part of a people and a shared history will enable us to acknowledge our past sins and mistakes with a penitential openness that can allow us to be renewed from within' (20 August 2018)" (The Vatican, 10/6/18).

• We need our bishops to speak boldly for the cause of life....
• "If we lack the confidence to preach Jesus Christ without hesitation or excuses to every generation, especially to the young, then the Church is just another purveyor of ethical pieties the world doesn’t need....young people are too often products of the age, shaped in part by the words, the love, the confidence, and the witness of their parents and teachers, but more profoundly today by a culture that is both deeply appealing and essentially atheist. The elders of the faith community have the task of passing the truth of the Gospel from age to age, undamaged by compromise or deformation....what the Church holds to be true about human sexuality is not a stumbling block. It is the only real path to joy and wholeness" (Archbishop Chaput, 10/4/18)
• "The month of October is annually observed by the Catholic Church in the United States as Respect Life Month. We are called to cherish, defend, and protect those who are most vulnerable, from the beginning of life to its end, and at every point in between. Yet this year, as we approach Respect Life Sunday on October 7, our hearts are heavy with revelations of how those who should be most trustworthy have not only failed in this regard but have inflicted immense evil....We are called and sent to be messengers of God's love, treating one another as cherished and chosen by Him. In doing so, we help build a culture that respects all human life. The Body of Christ needs you. The world needs you." (Timothy Cardinal Dolan, 10/3/18)
After reading "De facto approval of abortion by Catholic hospitals and parishes? (9/26/18)," please  urge USCCB president Cardinal DiNardo, Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop Chaput (and his auxiliaries), and NCBC's ethicists to IMMEDIATELY disallow so-called emergency contraception in Catholic hospitals. 

• RE: Scott Hahn: Don’t laicize sexual predators–excommunicate them (LifeSiteNews, 10/4/18)

On the right side of the home page are links to email Pennsylvania's and New Jersey's delegations in D.C. on federal issues (See 9/30/18 update with "report card."), Bucks County's delegation in Harrisburg on Pa state issues (See 9/30/18 update with "report card."), and Central NJ's delegation in Trenton on NJ state issues (See 9/30/18 update.).