[With a minor formatting change, this is Art's last update]
From: Arthur Mattei <arthurmattei@verizon.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 3, 2021, 6:22 PM
Subject: RESPECT LIFE UPDATE
The Respect Life Update is published every other week as a joint project of the Respect Life Ministry of St. Paul Parish, Princeton, New Jersey and Lawrence Council, No. 7000, Knights of Columbus, Lawrenceville, New Jersey. NEWS NOTES & ACTION ACTION OPPORTUNITIES
**********Whew!!! Glad we we were able to get this update out just in the nick of time! Please give these people all your support. They are the ones out there witnessing their love for Jesus Christ and Life. From RACHEL HENDRICKS, Respect Life Office, Diocese of Trenton:
Greetings Mercer County Parish Reps and Fr. RJ Ballacillo (our newly appointed Mercer Co. RL Chaplain!),
I would like to announce the date for the In-Person Fall 2021 Mercer County meeting – I can't wait to see everyone. I hope you will be able to attend – we have a lot to cover!
Many thanks to Maureen Smitely & to our new Mercer County RL Chaplain, Fr. RJ for hosting our meetings at St. Gregory the Great – their hospitality is unmatched!
Meeting details:
- Who: Mercer County Respect Life Parish Reps and RL ministry members (feel free to invite interested clergy, also)
- When: Wednesday November 3, 2021 at 7:00pm-8:30pm
- Where: St. Gregory the Great Church, 4620 Nottingham Way, Hamilton Square, NJ 08690 (see attached for directions to the Church campus); we will meet in Ferrante Hall, which is in the Parish Center at the back of the parking lot. Park by the side of the building. We will leave the side door open for easier access to our meeting space. If you have questions regarding our meeting location, call Maureen (609)638-9779.
Please RSVP to me by replying to this email (do not hit "reply all")
Peace,
Rachel Hendricks
Coordinator, Respect Life Ministries
Diocese of Trenton
Normal office hours: Tu, W, Th-9am-2pm
(609)403-7192
Fax (609)-406-7458
***********The Catholic League has announced the release a new movie, Purgatory, which shows the fate of the soul that leaves the body after death. Mystics such as FULLA HORAK, ST. FAUSTINA KOWALSKA, and ST. PADRE — people who have been graced by the visits of souls from purgatory — are only some of the protagonists featured in the movie. "Purgatory," tells the story of souls living both in bodies and those that have already left this world. It is also a reminder — in film form — of the most outstanding theologians and scientists, who have been studying the state of human consciousness upon the death of the body. Purgatory opened on October 28th in 700 theaters nationwide. To find a theater near you, click here.
**********Attached is a flyer for virtual sidewalk training. It should prove most valuable to any respect life advocate whether involved in witnesses or not. Thank you to Samar Tabet for providing this to us and for his blessed pro-life work.
**********A hearty congratulations to the priests and parishioners of St. Vincent de Paul parish for their most inspiring Mass for Life on Monday, September 27th at the entrance to the NJ War Memorial, followed by a parade around the State House. When we referred in our recent editorial and the need to get out there and show our faith and love for Jesus Christ, this is exactly what we meant! We'd especially like to extend a note of thanks to JOHN MUKA and the pastor, FATHER STAN. This is what should be happening in every parish.
REGGIE LITTLEJOHN WORKED WITH MOTHER THERESA
Here is a brief but but very touching excerpt from an interview that Reggie Littlejohn gave to the National Catholic Register (the EWTN paper) on her work with Mother Theresa. Reggie heads up Women's Rights Without Frontiers and here heroic work is often cited in these pages. This past week was the feast day of Mother Theresa and if you can read the whole article, please do so. It seems we all need a little better grasp of the abject evil of abortion and the suffering it causes. Go to https://www.ncregister.com/news/how-mother-teresa-inspired-reggie-littlejohn-to-battle-gendercide ;
It is also striking the way Reggie was inspired to pursue this lifelong mission and the inspiration of Mother Theresa. There is no question that we may not all be St Theresa's, but we all have the ability and grace through our baptism to bring the love of Jesus Christ to a pagen world that rejects it. Here's the excerpt:
My husband and I went to Kolkata as part of a trip around the world. I was a student at Yale Law School; he was a student at Yale Divinity School. We both took a year out of school to travel around the world with money I had made as a summer associate working for a big New York law firm. It's amazing you can make enough money in a summer in New York to go around the world for a year. In any case, we were in Kolkata for six weeks, and Mother Teresa was there the whole time........
In an interview with the Register in May, Littlejohn pointed out that, despite the implementation in China of a two-child — rather than one-child — policy at the beginning of the year, forced abortions, mostly of baby girls, will continue on an enormous scale. She also explained how her organization's "Save a Girl" campaign has saved many lives and how International Planned Parenthood Federation is working "hand in hand" with China's population-control machine...........
Mother Teresa began this home, Shishu Bhavan, for babies by picking a baby girl out of a trash can. [Mother Teresa opened the home for abandoned street babies and children in 1955.] In fact, my first contact with gendercide was in India. I was there years before I took my husband. I was there alone in Varanasi, and I wanted to take a boat ride on the Ganges. Just as I was stepping into the boat, I looked down into the water and, there, saw a fully formed, perfectly beautiful baby girl just floating, dead in the water.........
I was utterly appalled, and I pointed her out to the boatman. He said, "Don't worry about it. It's nothing; it's nothing." I will never, ever forget that little baby girl just floating there in the water and the attitude of: "It's nothing. Don't look at that; it's nothing." So that was my initial encounter with sex-selective abortion or infanticide. This was infanticide; she looked as though she had been born, maybe a month old or something — I don't know. Mother Teresa began her home for baby girls by picking up one little girl out of a trash can, these lives that are considered to be worthless......
Then I understood Mother Teresa's position: Every single life, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the disability, is infinitely precious, and everyone deserves to be saved. And I'm so glad I can talk about this young woman because I want her witness to be out there. Her life was worth living because I'm telling you about this, and maybe you'll tell more people about it. But that's a huge inspiration for me…...
DATES TO REMEMBER
**********The recitation of a patriotic Rosary is held at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Yardville on Saturday mornings after the 9:00 am Mass.
**********Every Sunday at 12:30 pm, every Friday at 8:00 am, and now also every Wednesday at 7:00 pm there will be a Tridentine Latin Mass celebrated at St. John the Baptist Church in Allentown, NJ.
**********The prayer witness at Trenton Planned Parenthood every Saturday morning usually runs from about 9:45 am. There are, however, witnesses there when the place opens around 9:00.
**********The prayer witness at Princeton (American) Women's Services at the Hamilton Professional Center (1345 Kuser Road, Hamilton, NJ 08619) usually runs every Saturday morning from 7:00 to 9:00 am. For more information email John Muka at johnmuka@optonline.net and get added to the email list.
**********Bill Draghi continues at the Woodbridge abortion facility at 228 Main Street with new times due to the changes in the abortion mill's schedule. The new times are Wednesdays 1:15 - 4:30; Fridays 11:30 - 3:00; and Saturdays either 9:30 - 12:00 or 1:00 - 3:00. If you're up that way, please join him.
In Christ,
Friends of Life
