Last Chance to Stop Pro-Abortion Health Care Reform
posted by Webmaster
President Obama and Nancy Pelosi are pulling out all the stops to pass a massive pro-abortion health care bill -- the days immediately ahead will decide the issue.
Changes that have been proposed by President Obama would fix NONE of the abortion problems in the Senate-passed bill (H.R. 3590) which will likely be voted on soon by the House. In fact, they would make them worse.
This is no time to relax! Read about the many problems with the current Senate bill at www.nrlc.org.
Please immediately TELEPHONE the Washington, D.C. office of your U.S. House member. Any U.S. House office can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-225-3121. Simply give them your zip code and ask for the phone number of your U.S. Representative. Many are undecided how they will vote, allegedly including Congressman Ron Kind from Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District (according to the Capitol publication “The Hill”). Your Representative needs to hear from you right away, even if you’ve called before!
Ask him or her to vote “no” on the Senate healthcare bill unless the language of the Stupak Amendment is added. If they try to say there is no abortion funding in the current bill, tell them that is NOT true and ask them to go to the website of the National Right to Life Committee (www.nrlc.org) and read the commentary by Legislative Director Douglas Johnson.
This alert was sent to the parishes by:
Christopher J. Ruff, S.T.L.
Director of the Office of Ministries and Social Concerns
PO Box 4004
La Crosse, WI 54602-4004
Changes that have been proposed by President Obama would fix NONE of the abortion problems in the Senate-passed bill (H.R. 3590) which will likely be voted on soon by the House. In fact, they would make them worse.
This is no time to relax! Read about the many problems with the current Senate bill at www.nrlc.org.
Please immediately TELEPHONE the Washington, D.C. office of your U.S. House member. Any U.S. House office can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-225-3121. Simply give them your zip code and ask for the phone number of your U.S. Representative. Many are undecided how they will vote, allegedly including Congressman Ron Kind from Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District (according to the Capitol publication “The Hill”). Your Representative needs to hear from you right away, even if you’ve called before!
Ask him or her to vote “no” on the Senate healthcare bill unless the language of the Stupak Amendment is added. If they try to say there is no abortion funding in the current bill, tell them that is NOT true and ask them to go to the website of the National Right to Life Committee (www.nrlc.org) and read the commentary by Legislative Director Douglas Johnson.
This alert was sent to the parishes by:
Christopher J. Ruff, S.T.L.
Director of the Office of Ministries and Social Concerns
PO Box 4004
La Crosse, WI 54602-4004
Recordings from Holy Week 2009
posted by Jason and Darcy
Get in the spirit of the season... relive the sacred music from last year's Holy Week:
http://www.saintpetercatholic.com/schola-recordings.html
http://www.saintpetercatholic.com/schola-recordings.html
The Areopagus 2-3-10
posted by Phil Lawson
2-3-10
I have written about the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist out of Ann Arbor, MI before. (Not least because my sister-in-law is a part of the Order ). Website here: http://www.sistersofmary.org/
This beautiful, young, and rapidly growing order is going to be featured on Oprah of all places next week Tuesday, Feb. 9th.
Here’s the email I received:
Please keep this in your prayers -- but on Feb. 9th, our 13th
anniversary as a community, we will be on the "Oprah Winfrey Show"!!
They were out here yesterday filming and 4 Sisters will be flown to
Chicago for the filming to be completed Thursday. So...if you
wish....you might decide to tune in on Feb. 9th -- and to PRAY that GOD
will be able to use these efforts, too, for His Greater Honor and Glory.
God bless us all....counting on your prayers, please!
in Jesus, Mary, and all our saints,
Sister!!
I’ll certainly be praying that this remarkable opportunity bears much fruit!
Phil’s Tidbits:
Here’s an inspiring story of Grant Desme—a top baseball prospect for the Oakland Athletics who is giving it up to enter the seminary. The Oakland Athletics, to their credit, are being completely supportive.
TOP BASEBALL PROSPECT RETIRES TO ENTER PRIESTHOOD
NEW YORK — As a top prospect for the Oakland Athletics, outfielder Grant Desme might've gotten the call every minor leaguer wants this spring.
Instead, he believed he had another, higher calling.
Desme announced Friday that he was leaving baseball to enter the priesthood, walking away after a breakout season in which he became MVP of the Arizona Fall League.
"I was doing well at ball. But I really had to get down to the bottom of things," the 23-year-old Desme said. "I wasn't at peace with where I was at."
A lifelong Catholic, Desme thought about becoming a priest for about a year and a half. He kept his path quiet within the sports world, and his plan to enter a seminary this summer startled the A's when he told them Thursday night.
General manager Billy Beane "was understanding and supportive," Desme said, but the decision "sort of knocked him off his horse." After the talk, Desme felt "a great amount of peace."
"I love the game, but I aspire to higher things," he said. "I know I have no regrets."
In a statement, Beane said: "We respect Grant's decision and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors."
Athletes and the priesthood have overlapped, albeit rarely.
Al Travers, who gave up 24 runs during a one-game career for a makeshift Detroit Tigers team in 1912, became a Catholic priest. More recently, Chase Hilgenbrinck of the New England Revolution left Major League Soccer in 2008 to enter a seminary.
Desme spoke on a conference call for about 10 minutes in a quiet, even tone, hardly sounding like many gung-ho, on-the-rise ballplayers. As for his success in the minors, he said "all of it is very undeserving."
The Athletics picked Desme in the second round of the 2007 amateur draft and he was starting to blossom. He was the only player in the entire minors with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases last season.
Desme batted .288 with 31 homers, 89 RBIs and 40 steals in 131 games at Class-A Kane County and high Class-A Stockton last year. He hit .315 with a league-leading 11 home runs and 27 RBIs in 27 games this fall in Arizona, a league filled with young talent.
Desme went into the AFL championship game well aware it might be the last time he ever played. "There was no sad feeling," he said. He homered and struck out twice, which "defines my career a bit."
The Big West Player of the Year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Desme was ranked as Oakland's No. 8 prospect by Baseball America. There was speculation the Athletics might invite Desme to big league spring training next month.
Rather, Desme intends to enter a seminary in Silverado, California, in August. He said abbey members didn't seem surprised someone who would "define myself as a baseball player" was changing his life so dramatically.
Desme said he didn't consider pursuing his spiritual studies while also trying to play ball. His family backed his decision and he said the positive reaction to his future goal — the surprising news spread quickly over the Internet — was "inspiring."
"It's about a 10-year process," he said. "I desire and hope I become a priest." In a way, he added, it's like "re-entering the minor leagues."
Desme's first two years in the minors were beset by shoulder and wrist problems. He said his days off the field gave him time to think about what was most important to him, to read and study the Bible and to talk to teammates about his faith.
In retrospect, he said, those injuries were "the biggest blessings God ever gave me."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The idea and use of “excommunication” continues to be widely misunderstood. Bishop Vasa recently gave a helpful explanation :
Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker Oregon via Lifesitenews.ccom
Using medical imagery, Vasa explains that just as it is not good for a doctor to allow a patient with diabetes to continue eating sugar, so also a bishop cannot let a Catholic who is in error remain so. It is the duty of the doctor to prescribe the proper medication and “accusing the doctor of being a tyrannical power monger would never cross anyone’s mind,” says Vasa.
“In fact, a doctor who told his diabetic patient that he could keep ingesting all the sugar he wanted without fear would be found grossly negligent and guilty of malpractice.
In the same way, bishops who recognize a serious spiritual malady and seek a prescription to remedy the error, after discussion and warning, may be required to simply state, ‘What you do and say is gravely wrong and puts you out of communion with the faith you claim to hold.’ ”
Further, Vasa also explains that excommunication guards the rest of the faithful from falling into the same error as the excommunicated. If a person is allowed to publicly dissent from the Catholic faith, Vasa says that other Catholics may become confused as to what the Church actually teaches.
-Bishop Vasa’s full column can be found here: http://www.sentinel.org/node/10596
Finally, this is so far out there as to be humorous:
John Paul II Attacker Wants to Team With Dan Brown
Agca to Be Released Monday; Interview and Book in Future
ROME, JAN. 13, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 is set to be released Monday from a Turkish prison after serving almost 29 years. He said he has contacted the author of "The Da Vinci Code" for help in writing a book.
Agca has said once he is free he wants to do two things: visit John Paul II's tomb and write two books, including one about his life. For help with this second task, Agca reported that he has contacted Dan Brown, author of the bestselling science fiction work "The Da Vinci Code."
"I will proclaim the perfect Christianity that Vatican [sic] has never understood," Agca announced in a handwritten letter sent to The Sunday Times newspaper.
Agca's 29 years in prison resulted not only from his attempted assassination of the Pope, but also from having killed Abdi Ipekci, director of the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, in 1979.
God Bless you!
Phil Lawson For the latest info on St. Peter’s, check out the parish website: www.saintpetercatholic.com (You can also find old editions of the Areopagus here)
The Areopagus is a regular email for adults that includes various reflections, tidbits, news and events. Hope you find it fruitful!
If you would like to be added to this list, send an email to lawsphil@gmail.com
On the other hand, if you would like to be removed, send an email to the same address indicating that.
I have written about the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist out of Ann Arbor, MI before. (Not least because my sister-in-law is a part of the Order ). Website here: http://www.sistersofmary.org/
This beautiful, young, and rapidly growing order is going to be featured on Oprah of all places next week Tuesday, Feb. 9th.
Here’s the email I received:
Please keep this in your prayers -- but on Feb. 9th, our 13th
anniversary as a community, we will be on the "Oprah Winfrey Show"!!
They were out here yesterday filming and 4 Sisters will be flown to
Chicago for the filming to be completed Thursday. So...if you
wish....you might decide to tune in on Feb. 9th -- and to PRAY that GOD
will be able to use these efforts, too, for His Greater Honor and Glory.
God bless us all....counting on your prayers, please!
in Jesus, Mary, and all our saints,
Sister!!
I’ll certainly be praying that this remarkable opportunity bears much fruit!
Phil’s Tidbits:
Here’s an inspiring story of Grant Desme—a top baseball prospect for the Oakland Athletics who is giving it up to enter the seminary. The Oakland Athletics, to their credit, are being completely supportive.
TOP BASEBALL PROSPECT RETIRES TO ENTER PRIESTHOOD
NEW YORK — As a top prospect for the Oakland Athletics, outfielder Grant Desme might've gotten the call every minor leaguer wants this spring.
Instead, he believed he had another, higher calling.
Desme announced Friday that he was leaving baseball to enter the priesthood, walking away after a breakout season in which he became MVP of the Arizona Fall League.
"I was doing well at ball. But I really had to get down to the bottom of things," the 23-year-old Desme said. "I wasn't at peace with where I was at."
A lifelong Catholic, Desme thought about becoming a priest for about a year and a half. He kept his path quiet within the sports world, and his plan to enter a seminary this summer startled the A's when he told them Thursday night.
General manager Billy Beane "was understanding and supportive," Desme said, but the decision "sort of knocked him off his horse." After the talk, Desme felt "a great amount of peace."
"I love the game, but I aspire to higher things," he said. "I know I have no regrets."
In a statement, Beane said: "We respect Grant's decision and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors."
Athletes and the priesthood have overlapped, albeit rarely.
Al Travers, who gave up 24 runs during a one-game career for a makeshift Detroit Tigers team in 1912, became a Catholic priest. More recently, Chase Hilgenbrinck of the New England Revolution left Major League Soccer in 2008 to enter a seminary.
Desme spoke on a conference call for about 10 minutes in a quiet, even tone, hardly sounding like many gung-ho, on-the-rise ballplayers. As for his success in the minors, he said "all of it is very undeserving."
The Athletics picked Desme in the second round of the 2007 amateur draft and he was starting to blossom. He was the only player in the entire minors with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases last season.
Desme batted .288 with 31 homers, 89 RBIs and 40 steals in 131 games at Class-A Kane County and high Class-A Stockton last year. He hit .315 with a league-leading 11 home runs and 27 RBIs in 27 games this fall in Arizona, a league filled with young talent.
Desme went into the AFL championship game well aware it might be the last time he ever played. "There was no sad feeling," he said. He homered and struck out twice, which "defines my career a bit."
The Big West Player of the Year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Desme was ranked as Oakland's No. 8 prospect by Baseball America. There was speculation the Athletics might invite Desme to big league spring training next month.
Rather, Desme intends to enter a seminary in Silverado, California, in August. He said abbey members didn't seem surprised someone who would "define myself as a baseball player" was changing his life so dramatically.
Desme said he didn't consider pursuing his spiritual studies while also trying to play ball. His family backed his decision and he said the positive reaction to his future goal — the surprising news spread quickly over the Internet — was "inspiring."
"It's about a 10-year process," he said. "I desire and hope I become a priest." In a way, he added, it's like "re-entering the minor leagues."
Desme's first two years in the minors were beset by shoulder and wrist problems. He said his days off the field gave him time to think about what was most important to him, to read and study the Bible and to talk to teammates about his faith.
In retrospect, he said, those injuries were "the biggest blessings God ever gave me."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The idea and use of “excommunication” continues to be widely misunderstood. Bishop Vasa recently gave a helpful explanation :
Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker Oregon via Lifesitenews.ccom
Using medical imagery, Vasa explains that just as it is not good for a doctor to allow a patient with diabetes to continue eating sugar, so also a bishop cannot let a Catholic who is in error remain so. It is the duty of the doctor to prescribe the proper medication and “accusing the doctor of being a tyrannical power monger would never cross anyone’s mind,” says Vasa.
“In fact, a doctor who told his diabetic patient that he could keep ingesting all the sugar he wanted without fear would be found grossly negligent and guilty of malpractice.
In the same way, bishops who recognize a serious spiritual malady and seek a prescription to remedy the error, after discussion and warning, may be required to simply state, ‘What you do and say is gravely wrong and puts you out of communion with the faith you claim to hold.’ ”
Further, Vasa also explains that excommunication guards the rest of the faithful from falling into the same error as the excommunicated. If a person is allowed to publicly dissent from the Catholic faith, Vasa says that other Catholics may become confused as to what the Church actually teaches.
-Bishop Vasa’s full column can be found here: http://www.sentinel.org/node/10596
Finally, this is so far out there as to be humorous:
John Paul II Attacker Wants to Team With Dan Brown
Agca to Be Released Monday; Interview and Book in Future
ROME, JAN. 13, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 is set to be released Monday from a Turkish prison after serving almost 29 years. He said he has contacted the author of "The Da Vinci Code" for help in writing a book.
Agca has said once he is free he wants to do two things: visit John Paul II's tomb and write two books, including one about his life. For help with this second task, Agca reported that he has contacted Dan Brown, author of the bestselling science fiction work "The Da Vinci Code."
"I will proclaim the perfect Christianity that Vatican [sic] has never understood," Agca announced in a handwritten letter sent to The Sunday Times newspaper.
Agca's 29 years in prison resulted not only from his attempted assassination of the Pope, but also from having killed Abdi Ipekci, director of the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, in 1979.
God Bless you!
Phil Lawson For the latest info on St. Peter’s, check out the parish website: www.saintpetercatholic.com (You can also find old editions of the Areopagus here)
The Areopagus is a regular email for adults that includes various reflections, tidbits, news and events. Hope you find it fruitful!
If you would like to be added to this list, send an email to lawsphil@gmail.com
On the other hand, if you would like to be removed, send an email to the same address indicating that.
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