Sunday, May 29, 2011

Walking the Victory Trail to Protest the Pill

Dear Friends,

Earlier this month, I came across a disturbing news item: "The drug war in Mexico has forced the Catholic Church to confront allegations it accepts donations from drug lords." I was reminded of how few Catholics seem "to get it" with regard to hormonal contraceptives being abortifacients....


With Central Jersey & Philly's Northern Suburbs being home to some of the WORLD'S leading manufacturers of hormonal contraceptives, it would be wonderful if local pastors, the episcopacy, and/or pro life offices join us in Walking the Victory Trail to Protest the Pill. At this point, the Legal Center for the Defense of Life has spoken with the local sheriff & confirmed that the walk will be fine (Just be careful to use designated parking in Washington's Crossing Park!).


Bravo, Bravo, Bravissimo to the American Life League for its annual "The Pill Kills" awareness efforts! Praise God that the American Life League's founder is also a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

"Census: Divorces Decline But 7-Year Itch Persists" (BC Courier Times, 5/18/11)

Judging from the title, "Census: Divorces Decline But 7-Year Itch Persists," it would appear that no one at the Courier Times actually read "Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2009" (United States Census Bureau, 5/17/11). In that report, the Census Bureau does NOT say that divorces are on the decline but only talks of "the leveling of the divorce rate" from 1996 to 2009.


While the Census Bureau may be reporting that the overall divorce rate has not gotten any worse, it also reports that fewer people are getting married and that far more people are cohabiting. The Courier Times has applied a simplistic, Happy Face spin, instead of taking a serious look at the report. For example, the Census Bureau tells us that, "While 70 percent of men who married between 1960 to 1964 stayed married for at least 20 years, only about 60 percent of men who married between 1980 to 1984 stayed married as long." Is the divorce rate "leveling" primarily BECAUSE more people are living together and not bothering to marry in the first place?


"So what?," you may ask. Well, scholars from the Brookings Institution and Princeton University maintain that such trends are of enormous significance:

  • "Although it was once possible to believe that the nation’s high rates of divorce, cohabitation, and nonmarital childbearing represented little more than lifestyle alternatives brought about by the freedom to pursue individual self-fulfillment, many analysts now believe that these individual choices can be damaging to the children who have no say in them and to the society that enables them."

Those same scholars remind us of benefits to society from marriage, which our great-grandparents likely took for granted:
  • "marriage is associated with better health, higher earnings, and greater wealth among adults as well as with academic success and mental health among children."


Simply put, society has a vested interest in the preservation of marriage and families. Yet as reported by Steve Weatherbe, "Social scientists are concealing the harm that divorce, single parenting and stepfamilies do to children. Not only that, they are also hiding the benefits which even unhappy marriages bestow, not just on children, but on the couples involved. So claim the heads of several organizations devoted to defending traditional marriages."


I believe that insufficient attention is paid to factors associated with successful marriages. For example, as per the Institute for American Values and the National Marriage Project at the University of Virgina: "if you are a reasonably well-educated person with a good income, your parents stayed together, you are religious at all, and you marry after age 25 without having a baby first, your chances of divorce are very low indeed." Now, except for the marrying at 25+, doesn't that constitute the core of what your great- grandparents would have advised – or expected from - your grandparents, regarding marriage?

  • Be prepared & ready to properly support your family!

  • Check that your intended has a good example of solid marriage from her/his own family.

  • Honor God always!

  • Sexual intimacy is only for marriage!


"Natural Family Planning" (i.e., fertility awareness to achieve pregnancy or to postpone pregnancy) includes the absolute foregoing of contraceptives/abortifacients. For those with a serious reason to avoid pregnancy, Natural Family Planning has been found to be highly effective. While it may come as a shock to some, its use is another factor associated with marital success - Among those who follow Natural Family Planning, the divorce rate has been reported to be 0.2% (Yes, that is correct. About 1/5th of 1 percent!).


To kick off the 2011 Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, Holy Trinity in Morrisville is hosting a talk by Dr. Lester Ruppersberger (Saturday, July 23rd, 9:30 a.m.). For additional information, please contact Canon915@verizon.net.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Walking the Victory Trail to Protest the Pill

Monsignor Jim Innocenzi, Pastor
The Church of Saint George
1370 River Road
Titusville, N.J. 08560

Dear Msgr Innocenzi,

Misleadingly identified on maps as the "Janssen Farm," 1125 Trenton-Harbourton Road (aka, Bear Tavern Road; aka Route 579; aka George Washington's "Victory Trail") in Titusville is home to the Customer Communications Center of Ortho-McNeil Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC.

Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical is one of the world’s leading producers of “the Pill.” When you rightly count chemical and mechanical methods, Pharmacists for Life International tell us that there have been 276,675,000 abortions in George Washington's America, since 1973!

From the "Phillips Farm" area in Washington Crossing Park, it is a 1.5 mile walk along the "Victory Trail" to the "Janssen Farm." As that entire walk would falls within your parish, it would be wonderful if you or one of your deacons would lead us in a peaceful, prayerful walk on the afternoon of June 4th. Unless I am mistaken, permits are NOT yet required in New Jersey for peaceful, prayerful walks (If you know otherwise, please advise. Also, please see the attachment.).
Especially with tomorrow being "Mothers' Day," please prayerfully consider supporting and leading this effort.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Say, Guess What They "Grow" at the Janssen Farm?

The "Janssen Farm" is 1.5 miles from the Phillips Farm Group Area of the New Jersey side of the Washington Crossing State Park....


To get from the Phillips Farm to the Janssen Farm, you can hike 1.5 miles on Trenton-Harbourton Road (aka, Bear Tavern Road; aka Route 579). This is the very route which Washington and his men traveled, for the Battle of Trenton....

( And the Janssen Farm takes pride in being on this road!)


Say, here comes the Janssen Farm now!


(Click the below image, to learn some of the products "grown," under the auspices of the Janssen Farm!)


Yup, this is one of the world's leading producers of "The Pill"!



As per Pharmacists for Life International - when you rightly count chemical and mechanical methods - there have been 276,675,000 abortions in Washington's America, since 1973!

Would you be interested in organizing a peaceful, prayerful walk from the Phillips Farm to the Janssen Farm, on the afternoon of June 4th? What -if any- sorts of permits need to be acquired?

The Beatitudes from "Jesus of Nazareth"

 

Use of Emergency So-Called Contraceptives in Catholic Hospitals for Those Reporting Rape

Book & Film Reviews, pt 1

Book & Film Reviews, pt 2


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