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

Saturday, November 30, 2019

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks" (First Sunday of Advent)

  • "Being considered 'judgmental' and 'hypocritical' by people who hate your message sort of comes with the Christian message. It’s a big part of the 'the world will hate you because it hated me first' message Jesus preached....And weighing the pros and cons of a presumably unregenerate president who is also willing to defend some of the values we think are worth preserving isn’t hypocritical. It’s prudential. As [per] National Review editor Rich Lowry..., 'At the end of the day, we’re asked to either favor Trump or root for Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden or Mayor Pete, who oppose us on basically everything. So it’s a pretty simple calculation'" (The Federalist, 11/29/19).
  • "A reporter and a researcher who reviewed literature on 'gender affirmation' have raised concerns about growing political and academic support for life-altering surgical procedures...

    "'It’s important to keep some perspective here—how national debates and discourses are being driven by quite small shares of the population,' [U of Texas at Austin Professor Mark] Regnerus said....

    "in 2016, Paul R. McHugh, M.D., the former chief of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Lawrence S. Mayer, M.B., M.S., Ph.D., then a scholar in residence in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s psychiatry department, reviewed hundreds of scientific articles on sexual orientation and gender identity issues. 'Compared to the general population, adults who have undergone sex-reassignment surgery continue to have a higher risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes,' they concluded'" (CNA, 11/26/19).

  • Under New York State's so-called 'Boss Bill' (SB660): "If a Catholic pro-life pregnancy centre refuses to hire a person who advocates and promotes abortion, or who fires an employee because they do, the new law allows for heavy punitive damages against the charity....The law targets not only conformity to the secular dogma on abortion, but also on contraception, vasectomies, in vitro fertilisation and adoption for LGBT couples (Catholic Herald, 11/26/19).
  • "'In the Sahel the fundamental human rights are violated every day: the right to life, to religious freedom, to education, to property, to security,' denounced the Bishops of Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Mali and Ivory Coast, in a statement released at the end of a meeting held in Ouagadougou, on the crisis that is devastating the region due to the violence of armed jihadist groups that hit vast areas of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso" (Zenit, 11/25/19).
  • "a resolution recognizing the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire that had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives was recently blocked from moving forward in the Senate by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)....

    "The House passed the resolution...just over two weeks before an official visit of Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House. The resolution [was] sponsored by Rep. Adan Schiff (D-Calif.).... 

    "Many scholars have recognized the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923 by name; in that span, the Armenian minority—mostly Christians—in eastern Anatolia was systematically displaced and annihilated by the Ottoman Empire. The death toll of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs is estimated to be around 1.5 million.

    "Turkey has long denied that genocide took place, claiming the number of deaths is far less than estimated and that they were largely due to conflicts related to World War I.... 

    "the White House reportedly did not want to let the resolution torpedo its efforts to get Turkey to reject an S-400 missile system from Russia" (CNA, 11/25/19).
  • New US asylum rule is gambling with lives of migrants, Catholic leaders warn (CNA, 11/25/19)




National Concerns

  • NO to "the Shaheen amendment...[in] the Senate’s State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS) appropriations bill" (Human Life Action).
  • Support the Heartbeat Bill, HR 3985 (cf, LifeSite)
  • Support the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (cf, USCCB)
  • Born-Alive Legislation Deserves a Vote in the People's House (USCCB) 
    • Support the Equal Campus Access Act, HR3243/S1168 (USCCB)
    • Submit Your Official Comment to Say: Pro-Life Health Workers Must Not Be Forced to Assist With Abortions (Susan B Anthony List)
    • "Make the Family Great Again" petition

    Commonwealth of Pa

    (Pa Catholic Conference Legislative Review and Voter Voice)
    • Please ask the governor, Pa Senate and Pa Assembly for a religious exemption for adoptions (Pa Catholic Conference) (See also the Pa Family Council link.)
    • Call for Funding Increase for Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)  
      • Please ask Governor Wolf to SIGN House Bill 800 on the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)

    The Garden State

    • Support the NJ Born Alive Survivors Protection Act A5287/S3905 (NJRTL)
    • Vote No on S4103/ A5802 (NJRTL)

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

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    Thursday, November 28, 2019

    Our Crisis and Saint Thomas à Becket, December 29

      "At the end of another long day trying to sign up new clients accusing the Roman Catholic Church of sexual abuse, lawyer Adam Slater gazes out the window of his high-rise Manhattan office at one of the great symbols of the church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

      “'I wonder how much that’s worth?' he muses.
    [When my parents would take my sister and I to visit Saint Patrick's a half century ago, we were always reminded that Saint Patrick's was built with the sacrificial giving of poor immigrants.]
      "Across the country, attorneys like Slater are scrambling to file a new wave of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy, thanks to rules enacted in 15 states that extend or suspend the statute of limitations to allow claims stretching back decades. Associated Press reporting found the deluge of suits could surpass anything the nation’s clergy sexual abuse crisis has seen before, with potentially more than 5,000 new cases and payouts topping $4 billion....

      "lawyers [are] fighting for clients with TV ads and billboards asking, 'Were you abused by the church?'...

      "Lawyers acknowledged the difficulty of predicting what will happen but several believed payouts could exceed the $350,000 national average per child sex abuse case since 2003. At the upper end, a key benchmark is the average $1.3 million the church paid per case the last time California opened a one-year window to suits in 2003" (Associated Press, 12/2/197)
    If we "cross the pond" to England and go back nine centuries, perhaps we can gain some insight....

    First, some background

    The Norman king "Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189)... ruled as King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and Lord of Ireland; at various times, he also partially controlled Scotland, Wales and the Duchy of Brittany. Before he was 40 he controlled England, large parts of Wales, the eastern half of Ireland and the western half of France—an area that would later come to be called the Angevin Empire" (Wikipedia).
    Becket is "The 12th-century saga...of the deep friendship and later conflict between...Henry II...and his friend, Sir Thomas a Becket..., and how...the monarch decided to appoint Becket archbishop of Canterbury. Much to Henry's surprise, Becket was transformed into a deeply spiritual man of God, who took his new responsibilities very seriously....

    "Becket went head-to-head with the king over the vigilante murder of an erring priest by one of Henry's knights. Henry's famous despairing cry, `Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?' -- leads to Becket's martyrdom in his cathedral" (USCCB) [It must be noted that the Catholic Encyclopedia suggests that Thomas' conversion was less dramatic, says nothing about Henry's famous line and indicates that Henry's culpability for Thomas' murder is actually unclear.].
      "Many people who venerate the name of Thomas Becket (and/or love the movie with Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole that carries his name) likely do not understand the cause for which he was martyred, and if they did learn it, would likely be scandalized given our current presuppositions concerning the prerogatives of the omnipotent State as opposed to those of the relatively impotent Church.

      "For you see, one of the major points-of-contention between King Henry II and Archbishop Becket was the attempt by the king to bring 'criminous clerics' under the immediate jurisdiction of the royal courts rather than the ecclesiastical courts. Becket himself had no desire to be lenient with these priests—quite the contrary—but he suspected (rightly, as it turns out) that the king would use the coercive power of the royal courts to threaten church officials with punishment in order to bring them more and more under his control.

      “'St. Thomas seems all along to have suspected Henry of a design to strike at the independence of what the king regarded as a too powerful Church,' the Catholic Encyclopedia tells us....

      "The secular powers of the state begin a juridical process saying they merely want to punish 'criminous clerics'—and of course, who could be opposed in principle to that? But as events unfold, the same laws are eventually used to dispossess the Church of its money, property, and traditional rights and privileges....

      "In an earlier article..., in which I argued that we needed more well-trained canon lawyers and staff to work on diocesan tribunals, I made the following comment:

        'It is not sufficiently appreciated, for example, that the scandal of pedophile priests was in many ways a failure of bishops to use their tribunals properly. There were canonically prescribed processes in place to have each of those cases adjudicated before a tribunal. But many bishops chose instead to replace centuries of pastoral wisdom and canon law with the latest fads coming out of the psychological schools. Talk about selling one’s birthright for a mess of pottage. If each of those accusations of priestly misconduct had been properly adjudicated before a tribunal, as they were supposed to have been, rather than bypassing the process so that the bishop could handle things ''quietly,'' ''on the down-low,'' ''unofficially,'' we may have seen a very different outcome.'

      "….bishops should not simply 'wash their hands of the problem'...by passing the judgment off to a psychological therapist (as was done before) or by passing the judgment off to a secular tribunal (as is being done now)….

      "the current appeal to secular authorities arose precisely because certain bishops in the past acted not only irresponsibly, but also contrary to canon law. The result was that a later generation of bishops has been left scrambling trying to restore their credibility even though most of them did not cause the problem. And yet doubts remain that current bishops can be trusted either. This is unfortunate, but understandable. Actions speak louder than words.

      "The right approach now should be: 'Let’s learn from the mistakes of the past and get back on the right track by establishing an ecclesiastical court system that can be trusted.' Restoring the proper role of the tribunals would clearly and publically [sic] separate these judgments from any personal animus or bias on the part of the bishop either in favor or in opposition to the accused, while not simply turning our priests immediately over to the whims of the secular court system with its politically ambitious prosecutors and highly-paid litigators who push for every-higher damages to line their own pockets....

      "The question we must ask now is whether some bishops in the U.S. and elsewhere have under the current pressures from the secular authorities become like those who gave in to England’s King Henry II, assuming (as did their predecessors) that all legal functions properly belong to the state, and given this view, who are increasingly willing to turn over to secular authorities all determinations not only about guilt or innocence, but about, say, whether a couple is married or not, whether things like abortion and euthanasia are wrong, and whether marriage is something between a man and a woman. Too many in the Church seem to assume that if the state says something is a marriage, it is, and if the state dissolves it, it’s dissolved.

      "Perhaps some need to be reminded who was given the power 'to bind and to loosen.' And then they need to spend some time in prayer at the shrine of Thomas Becket, considering very seriously the cause for which he was willing to sacrifice his life. (Professor Randall Smith, 6/5/14)



    Epilogue (of sorts) about Henry II

    The Lion in Winter deals with an older Henry II and the infighting among his sons, his estranged wife, and himself over whom is to succeed him.  At age 17, Henry II had become "the Duke of Aquitaine by marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine....Henry and Eleanor had eight children – three daughters and five sons. Three of his sons would be king....In 1173 Henry's heir apparent, 'Young Henry', rebelled in protest; he was joined by his brothers Richard [the Lion Hearted] (later a king) and Geoffrey and by their mother, Eleanor....Young Henry and Geoffrey revolted again in 1183, resulting in Young Henry's death....[Henry II] was succeeded by Richard.  Henry's empire quickly collapsed during the reign of his youngest son, John." (Wikipedia).

    [English] Royal Family Tree 1819-2019
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    Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 9, 2019)

    "Reflecting on the Immaculate Conception of Mary helps us to enter into a profound and life-giving mystery....lack of self-giving is precisely what ails us in today’s culture. When we prepare engaged couples for marriage, for example, we spend quite a bit of time on what, to many, seems a foreign concept: trusting God with your life....Because of the serpent’s deception, men and women throughout history have bought into the lie and grasp fruitlessly at all sorts of ways to control their own destiny instead of putting things into the hands of their loving Creator. This is so painfully manifest today by the high incidence of sexual activity outside of marriage, and the death-dealing acts of contraception and abortion.  But we must have hope! Despite the many manifestations of grave sin all around us, God so wants to heal and restore us, that He became Man to save us. By the gift of Mary, conceived without sin, He provided the pure vessel to be the Mother of the Savior....Pope Benedict helps us understand the Immaculate Conception this way: 'The person who abandons himself totally in God’s hands does not become God’s puppet, a boring "yes man"; he does not lose his freedom. Only the person who entrusts himself totally to God finds true freedom, the great creative immensity of the freedom of good.'  In place of the destructive behaviors that only cause us heartache, let us look to Mary Immaculate, the new Eve, the Mother of the Redeemer, to lead us to the freedom of the truth and to share that truth with others, for nothing shall be impossible for God" (Truth and Charity Forum, 12/9/13)


    https://www.youtube.com/embed/FtKrTrEDDsI?autoplay=1


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    NOT a "Dark Knight", December 14


    Not....


    Not....


    Not even....

    December 14th is the Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church, author of Dark Night of the Soul.

    Dark Night of the Soul

    "General term in mystical theology to identify every form of purification through which God leads persons whom He is calling to a high degree of sanctity. It is called 'night' to distinguish a person's normal spiritual condition of seeing, although dimly, by the light of faith; whereas in mystical purification a person is deprived of much of this light. There is a 'groping in the night.' It is called a 'dark' night to emphasize the intensity of withdrawal of God's illuminating grace. The purpose of such purification is to cleanse the soul of every vestige of self-love and unite a person more and more closely with God. As the intellect is thus mortified, the will becomes more firmly attracted to God and more securely attached to His divine will. This purification, however, is only a means to an end, namely, 1. to give greater glory to God, Who is thereby loved for Himself and not for the benefits He confers; 2. to lead the one thus purified to infused contemplation and even ecstatic union with God; 3. to enable the mystic to be used more effectively by God for the spiritual welfare of others, since the more holy a person is the more meritorious are that person's prayers and sacrifices for the human race" (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=32943).

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    Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12

    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).

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    Tuesday, November 26, 2019

    Bad news in Jersey and other updates....

    News Updates

    • As per an 11/26/19 email from NJ Right to Life, A5802 has tragically passed and we must continue to oppose "this shameful scheme to use $9.5 Million of our tax dollars to subsidize Planned Parenthood's abortion business. The companion bill (S4103) will probably be heard next in the Senate Budget Committee on Thursday, December 5, 2019, with a vote following shortly thereafter in the full Senate, possibly on Monday, December 16th....Tell your State Senators to Please Vote No on S4103/A5802" 
    • "'In the Sahel the fundamental human rights are violated every day: the right to life, to religious freedom, to education, to property, to security,' denounced the Bishops of Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Mali and Ivory Coast, in a statement released at the end of a meeting held in Ouagadougou, on the crisis that is devastating the region due to the violence of armed jihadist groups that hit vast areas of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso" (Zenit, 11/25/19).
    • "a resolution recognizing the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire that had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives was recently blocked from moving forward in the Senate by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)....

      "The House passed the resolution...just over two weeks before an official visit of Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House. The resolution [was] sponsored by Rep. Adan Schiff (D-Calif.).... 

      "Many scholars have recognized the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923 by name; in that span, the Armenian minority—mostly Christians—in eastern Anatolia was systematically displaced and annihilated by the Ottoman Empire. The death toll of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs is estimated to be around 1.5 million.

      "Turkey has long denied that genocide took place, claiming the number of deaths is far less than estimated and that they were largely due to conflicts related to World War I.... 

      "the White House reportedly did not want to let the resolution torpedo its efforts to get Turkey to reject an S-400 missile system from Russia" (CNA, 11/25/19).
    • New US asylum rule is gambling with lives of migrants, Catholic leaders warn (CNA, 11/25/19)


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    Sunday, November 24, 2019

    First Sunday of Advent, December 3

    First Sunday of Advent, December 1
    Thanksgiving Day, November 28
    - let us not forget our most
    vulnerable sisters and brothers!

    National Concerns

    • NO to "the Shaheen amendment...[in] the Senate’s State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS) appropriations bill" (Human Life Action).
    • Support the Heartbeat Bill, HR 3985 (cf, LifeSite)
    • Support the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (cf, USCCB)
    • Born-Alive Legislation Deserves a Vote in the People's House (USCCB) 
      • Support the Equal Campus Access Act, HR3243/S1168 (USCCB)
      • Submit Your Official Comment to Say: Pro-Life Health Workers Must Not Be Forced to Assist With Abortions (Susan B Anthony List)
      • "Make the Family Great Again" petition

      Commonwealth of Pa

      (Pa Catholic Conference Legislative Review and Voter Voice)
      • Please ask the governor, Pa Senate and Pa Assembly for a religious exemption for adoptions (Pa Catholic Conference) (See also the Pa Family Council link.)
      • Call for Funding Increase for Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)  
        • Please ask Governor Wolf to SIGN House Bill 800 on the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)

      The Garden State

      • Support the NJ Born Alive Survivors Protection Act A5287/S3905 (NJRTL)
      • Vote No on S4103/ A5802 (NJRTL)

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

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      St. Francis Xavier and "Silence", December 3

      December 3 marks the memorial of "Saint Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies and Japan":
      "In every age since Christ charged the Apostles to go and preach to all nations there have been saintly and heroic men who have journeyed to far lands in order to bring new peoples into the Christian fold. Among those who labored most zealously was the Jesuit, Francis Xavier, named by Pius X as official patron of foreign missions and of all work for spreading the faith. The first great missionary to the Orient in modern times, Xavier planted Christianity in western and southern India, in the then uncharted islands of the Indian Ocean, and in Japan. He died, four hundred years ago, while making a valiant effort to reach the people of China....
      "[While at the University of Paris] he had come under the influence of a compatriot and fellow student, Ignatius Loyola, a former soldier who was fifteen years his senior. Filled with a compelling desire to save souls, Loyola had drawn around him a little band of seven earnest men who, in 1534, formed themselves into the Society of Jesus, dedicated to the service of God.[1] Francis was a member of this group....
      "Xavier [and his companions]....boarded a ship..., landing at Kagoshima, on the Japanese island of Kyushu, on the feast of the Assumption, 1549....
      "Xavier set himself to learn the Japanese language. As soon as he could use it fluently, he began to preach. But not long afterward the prince grew angry with the Portuguese merchants because they had abandoned his port of Kagoshima to carry on their trading at Hirado, a better harbor, a little to the north of modern Nagasaki. He withdrew the permission he had given Xavier and threatened to punish any Japanese who became a Christian. The few converts remained faithful and declared they were ready to suffer banishment or death rather than deny Christ. After a year at Kagoshima, Xavier decided to push on to Hirado, carrying on his back all the articles necessary for the celebration of Mass.
      "On the way he stopped to preach at the fortress of Ekandono, where the prince's steward and the prince's wife were secret believers in the new teaching. When he departed, Xavier left the converts in the steward's care, and twelve years later another missionary found this isolated little group still full of fervor and faithfully practicing their religion. At Hirado the missionaries baptized more converts in twenty days than they had done at Kagoshima in a whole year. Leaving these converts in charge of Father Torres, Xavier and his party set out for Kyoto, the imperial capital, on the main island of Hondo. They went by the beautiful Inland Sea to the port of Yamaguchi, and Xavier preached there, in public and before the local prince. The number of persons interested in his message was small.
      "After a month's stay at Yamaguchi, where he met with many affronts, Xavier resumed his journey with his companions. It was nearing the end of the year, and they suffered from inclement weather and bad roads. They reached Kyoto in February, and here Xavier found that he could not have an audience with the emperor without paying a large sum of money. Also, the city was in a state of civil disorder, and after a fortnight's stay he returned to Yamaguchi. 
      "Having now learned that evangelical poverty had not the appeal in Japan that it had in Europe and in India, he decided to change his method of approach. Handsomely dressed, with his companions acting as attendants, he presented himself before Oshindono, the ruler of Nagate, and as a representative of the great kingdom of Portugal offered him the letters and presents, a musical instrument, a watch, and other attractive objects which had been given him by the authorities in India for the emperor. Oshindono, pleased with these attentions from an envoy of so great a power, gave Xavier leave to teach in his province, and provided an empty Buddhist temple for his residence. Under these auspices, Xavier preached to such effect that he baptized many.
      "Hearing after a time that a Portuguese ship had arrived at a port in the province of Bungo in Kyushu and that the prince there would like to see him, Xavier now set out southward again....
      "by the end of 1551 Xavier felt free to take passage on the Portuguese ship back to India, leaving the Japanese converts in charge of Father Torres and Brother Fernandez. He had been in Japan for about two years and had baptized, according to report, some seven hundred and sixty Japanese....
      "Within a few weeks of Xavier's death Loyola wrote to recall him to Europe for the purpose of making him his successor, in recognition of his heroic work in the Orient. In 1622 Xavier was canonized, along with the founder of the Society of Jesus...."

      Instead of presenting the dramatic and heroic life of this great saint, Hollywood (not surprisingly) opted for a strange fictional tale of Jesuits in Japan:
      "Silence is probably Shusaku Endo’s best-known work in both America and Japan....The novel is set in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when Ieyasu successfully purged his regime of all foreigners and Christians, killing thousands and driving many thousands more underground.  Hearing that a leading Jesuit, Fr. Ferreira, has apostasized under persecution in Japan, Fathers Garrpe and Rodrigues are sent to verify the reports....Rodrigues is eventually captured....

      "Rodrigues endures a long ordeal of imprisonment, transport, and interrogation, constantly expecting torture and possible martyrdom, while watching Japanese Christians suffer and die for their faith.  His guards bring him to watch Garrpe’s martyrdom....Rodrigues is then publicly humiliated, confronted with the apostate Ferreira, outwitted at casuistry by both Ferreira and the magistrate Inoue, and eventually persuaded to trample on the fumie (an image, typically of Madonna and Child, designed by the Japanese authorities expressly to be spit on and trampled in repudiation of Christian faith).  He is then recruited to help in the detection, capture, and interrogation of other Christians and foreigners....  
      "the novel itself...is indelibly marked with the author’s own striving to come to terms with his baptismal faith.  This is not to say that Endo’s writing exemplifies or exalts orthodoxy.  If the conscious decisions of the protagonist Rodrigues are taken as normative, then the work can be seen to prefer apostasy in service of radical pluralism, with a vaguely Jesus-flavored ethos animating secularized service to whatever regime holds power.  Endo himself has pointed out, however, as have various critics, that Rodrigues and Kichijiro both appear to have given the authorities cause to view them as secret Christians. 
      "No one should recommend Silence as an exemplary Catholic novel without qualification.  Teachers and parents who want to use it should surround it with good instruction in how to read literature as well as sound catechesis.  Those who are prepared to struggle and pray their way through a gripping and tragic confrontation between a faith shaped by martyrs and a world full of collaborators will find much in Endo’s work to recommend it.  Artists should emulate Endo’s mastery of narrative style; and anyone interested should turn from the fiction to the many historical accounts of the Japanese martyrs, and pray for the souls of their kinsmen" (Dr. Peter Epps, 8/14/14).
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      Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

      Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (11/24/19) (Signed Homily)

      National Concerns

      • NO to "the Shaheen amendment...[in] the Senate’s State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS) appropriations bill" (Human Life Action).
      • Support the Heartbeat Bill, HR 3985 (cf, LifeSite)
      • Support the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (cf, USCCB)
      • Born-Alive Legislation Deserves a Vote in the People's House (USCCB) 
        • Support the Equal Campus Access Act, HR3243/S1168 (USCCB)
        • Submit Your Official Comment to Say: Pro-Life Health Workers Must Not Be Forced to Assist With Abortions (Susan B Anthony List)
        • "Make the Family Great Again" petition

        Commonwealth of Pa

        (Pa Catholic Conference Legislative Review and Voter Voice)
        • Please ask the governor, Pa Senate and Pa Assembly for a religious exemption for adoptions (Pa Catholic Conference) (See also the Pa Family Council link.)
        • Call for Funding Increase for Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)  
          • Please ask Governor Wolf to SIGN House Bill 800 on the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)

        The Garden State

        • Support the NJ Born Alive Survivors Protection Act A5287/S3905 (NJRTL)
        • Vote No on S4103/ A5802 (NJRTL)

        On the right side of the home page, you will find links to email Church leadership about "Catholic" health care, Bucks country representation in DC, Bucks County representation in Harrisburg, Central NJ representation in DC and Central NJ in Trenton.
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        Saturday, November 23, 2019

        "NO" on the Pa Telemedicine Bill and on the Shaheen Amendment in the federal SFOPS Appropriations Bill

        "The PA House has...stripped an amendment from the Telemedicine Bill that would have prevented its use for ABORTIONS. If the bill passes as it now stands, it would permit abortions to be performed...without the patient having to be in the presence of a health care professional" (Pa Catholic Conference).

        On the federal level, "the Shaheen amendment must be removed from the Senate’s State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS) appropriations bill" (Human Life Action)


        National Concerns

        • NO to "the Shaheen amendment...[in] the Senate’s State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS) appropriations bill" (Human Life Action).
        • Support the Heartbeat Bill, HR 3985 (cf, LifeSite)
        • Support the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (cf, USCCB)
        • Born-Alive Legislation Deserves a Vote in the People's House (USCCB) 
          • Support the Equal Campus Access Act, HR3243/S1168 (USCCB)
          • Submit Your Official Comment to Say: Pro-Life Health Workers Must Not Be Forced to Assist With Abortions (Susan B Anthony List)
          • "Make the Family Great Again" petition

          Commonwealth of Pa

          (Pa Catholic Conference Legislative Review and Voter Voice)
          • Please ask the governor, Pa Senate and Pa Assembly for a religious exemption for adoptions (Pa Catholic Conference) (See also the Pa Family Council link.)
          • Call for Funding Increase for Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)  
            • Please ask Governor Wolf to SIGN House Bill 800 on the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)

          The Garden State

          • Support the NJ Born Alive Survivors Protection Act A5287/S3905 (NJRTL)
          • Vote No on S4103/ A5802 (NJRTL)

          On the right side of the home page, you will find links to email Church leadership about "Catholic" health care, Bucks country representation in DC, Bucks County representation in Harrisburg, Central NJ representation in DC and Central NJ in Trenton.
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          Friday, November 22, 2019

          Tell Gov Tom Wolf (717-787-2500) that you want him to sign the Down Syndrome Protection Act.

          Tell Gov Tom Wolf (717-787-2500) that you want him to sign the Down Syndrome Protection Act.


          National Concerns

          • Support the Heartbeat Bill, HR 3985 (cf, LifeSite)
          • Support the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (cf, USCCB)
          • Born-Alive Legislation Deserves a Vote in the People's House (USCCB) 
            • Support the Equal Campus Access Act, HR3243/S1168 (USCCB)
            • Submit Your Official Comment to Say: Pro-Life Health Workers Must Not Be Forced to Assist With Abortions (Susan B Anthony List)
            • "Make the Family Great Again" petition

            Commonwealth of Pa

            (Pa Catholic Conference Legislative Review and Voter Voice)
            • Please ask the governor, Pa Senate and Pa Assembly for a religious exemption for adoptions (Pa Catholic Conference) (See also the Pa Family Council link.)
            • Call for Funding Increase for Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)  
              • Please ask Governor Wolf to SIGN House Bill 800 on the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) (Pa Catholic Conference)

            The Garden State

            • Support the NJ Born Alive Survivors Protection Act A5287/S3905 (NJRTL)
            • Vote No on S4103/ A5802 (NJRTL)

            On the right side of the home page, you will find links to email Church leadership about "Catholic" health care, Bucks country representation in DC, Bucks County representation in Harrisburg, Central NJ representation in DC and Central NJ in Trenton.
            Posted by at No comments:
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            The 10 Commandments

            The 10 Commandments

            The Beatitudes (from "Jesus of Nazareth")