From the Pastor
January/15/2010
The tragedy of the deadly earthquake that has struck Haiti this past week has wreaked havoc on the poorest nation of our hemisphere. In this most impoverished country of nine million people, 80% of whom are Catholic, tens of thousands of God’s people have lost their lives, including the capital city’s new archbishop, many priests, nuns and seminarians. The beautiful large cathedral in the capital city was destroyed, along with the major seminary, the residence of the country’s president, most government buildings, hospitals, churches, schools and countless homes. It could hardly have happened to a more tragic nation, whose people have been wearied over the past half century by corrupt dictators, inept politicians, four disastrous hurricanes just one year ago, and a political and cultural infrastructure that has been ravaged and raped repeatedly. Is this latest devastation what it finally takes to wake up the better-off nations of the world to come to the aid of their beleaguered brothers and sisters? We will take up a special Second Collection next weekend to express our solidarity with the victims of this natural disaster. Your most generous support of relief efforts will be channeled by our diocese to Catholic Relief Services, which has already been at work alongside numerous other charitable organizations to bring aid and comfort to those who have survived the quake. In the meantime, our Haitian mission church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Delray Beach, is asking for canned goods and dry-packaged goods such as rice and beans to help their starving relatives in Haiti. The drive was originally planned to help out parishioners of that mission who are hurt more than most by the economic crisis in our country and area, but who see the plight of their own family members “back home” as even more desperate, and are willing to share their own few goods with them. You can put the food in our food baskets near the entrances of our church. You can put your money in envelopes next week, marked “FOR HAITI.” Pray for the families of our seminarians, Wesler and Jude!
Not losing sight of the Haitian tragedy, we are still concerned (as we always will be) especially at this time of year, with the tragedy of abortion, and the lives it destroys in our society. As we approach the anniversary of the infamous Roe v Wade decision of our nation’s Supreme Court, we are reminded that there are still forces in our government, especially in our Congress, that consider human life to be expendable for the sake of convenience, greed, selfishness, personal or political ambition or desperation. All of our recent popes have labeled abortion to be the #1 moral issue of our time, because it reflects the ultimate disregard for human life through attacks on the most vulnerable innocent human life. It can NEVER be justified. That’s why we offer daily petitions in our Prayers of the Faithful at Mass, beseeching God to end this scourge of sin in our society. That’s why more and more of our bishops are reckoning with politicians who, while they describe themselves as ‘practicing’ Catholics, continually vote or work against the teachings of the Catholic Church on these and related important moral issues, always trying to rationalize their way of their morally precarious situations with the oblique, “I follow my conscience.” Their consciences are obviously not formed by thetrue teachings of the Church, enlightened by the Holy Spirit. No wonder the Archbishop of San Francisco severely chastised Nancy Pelosi after her ridiculous remarks recently about her disagreement with Church teachings on this and other moral issues. He clearly states: “It is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching to conclude that our freedom of will justifies choices that are radically contrary to the Gospel—racism, infidelity, abortion, theft. Freedom of will is the capacity to act with moral responsibility; it’s not the ability to determine arbitrarily what constitutes moral right. While we deeply respect the freedom of our fellow citizens, we nevertheless are profoundly convinced that free will cannot be cited as a justification for society to allow moral choices that strike at the most fundamental rights of others. Such a choice is abortion, which constitutes the taking of innocent human life, and cannot be justified by any Catholic notion of freedom.” There are others, too, who continue to harp on their Catholicity while trying to rationalize their way out of the problem. They are so blatantly wrong when it comes to two thousand years of Christ continuing to teach through His Church. Please be advised that the Obama Health Care Plan as it currently is drawn up, is strongly opposed by the U. S. Catholic Bishops Conference.
ACTION: Contact your Representative and Senators today by e-mail, phone or FAX. To send a pre-written, instant e-mail to Congress go to www.usccb.org/action. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: 202-224-3121, or call your Members’ local offices. Contact info can be found on Members’ web sites at www.house.gov & www.senate.gov.
MESSAGE to the HOUSE MEMBERS: “I urge you to uphold essential provisions against abortion funding, to include full conscience protection and to assure that health care is accessible and affordable for all. Until and unless these criteria are met, I urge you to oppose the final bill.”
MESSAGE to the SENATE MEMBERS: “I urge you to support essential provisions against abortion funding, similar to those in the House bill. Include full conscience protection and assure that health care is accessible and affordable for all. Until and unless these criteria are met, I urge you to oppose the final bill.” WHEN: Votes in the House and Senate on the final bill are expected this month- January. Act today! Thank You!
In solidarity with the countless victims of the Roe v Wade decision, and those taking part in the annual Right to Life march in D.C. this week, please join our bishop across the street from the County Court House in West Palm Beach on Friday, January 22nd at 11 A.M., as we pray the annual Rosary for Life. If and when you can, join us for our Rosary for Life each 1st Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at the abortion center just north of 45th St. and Village Blvd., West Palm Beach. !!!
THANK YOU! We did it! We made our DSA goal for the first time in over 6 years without digging into parish operational funds! If the few remaining pledges are honored, we’ll be slightly over this year’s goal (so much for the nay-sayers and negative media).
Very Rev. Canon Tom
Not losing sight of the Haitian tragedy, we are still concerned (as we always will be) especially at this time of year, with the tragedy of abortion, and the lives it destroys in our society. As we approach the anniversary of the infamous Roe v Wade decision of our nation’s Supreme Court, we are reminded that there are still forces in our government, especially in our Congress, that consider human life to be expendable for the sake of convenience, greed, selfishness, personal or political ambition or desperation. All of our recent popes have labeled abortion to be the #1 moral issue of our time, because it reflects the ultimate disregard for human life through attacks on the most vulnerable innocent human life. It can NEVER be justified. That’s why we offer daily petitions in our Prayers of the Faithful at Mass, beseeching God to end this scourge of sin in our society. That’s why more and more of our bishops are reckoning with politicians who, while they describe themselves as ‘practicing’ Catholics, continually vote or work against the teachings of the Catholic Church on these and related important moral issues, always trying to rationalize their way of their morally precarious situations with the oblique, “I follow my conscience.” Their consciences are obviously not formed by thetrue teachings of the Church, enlightened by the Holy Spirit. No wonder the Archbishop of San Francisco severely chastised Nancy Pelosi after her ridiculous remarks recently about her disagreement with Church teachings on this and other moral issues. He clearly states: “It is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching to conclude that our freedom of will justifies choices that are radically contrary to the Gospel—racism, infidelity, abortion, theft. Freedom of will is the capacity to act with moral responsibility; it’s not the ability to determine arbitrarily what constitutes moral right. While we deeply respect the freedom of our fellow citizens, we nevertheless are profoundly convinced that free will cannot be cited as a justification for society to allow moral choices that strike at the most fundamental rights of others. Such a choice is abortion, which constitutes the taking of innocent human life, and cannot be justified by any Catholic notion of freedom.” There are others, too, who continue to harp on their Catholicity while trying to rationalize their way out of the problem. They are so blatantly wrong when it comes to two thousand years of Christ continuing to teach through His Church. Please be advised that the Obama Health Care Plan as it currently is drawn up, is strongly opposed by the U. S. Catholic Bishops Conference.
ACTION: Contact your Representative and Senators today by e-mail, phone or FAX. To send a pre-written, instant e-mail to Congress go to www.usccb.org/action. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: 202-224-3121, or call your Members’ local offices. Contact info can be found on Members’ web sites at www.house.gov & www.senate.gov.
MESSAGE to the HOUSE MEMBERS: “I urge you to uphold essential provisions against abortion funding, to include full conscience protection and to assure that health care is accessible and affordable for all. Until and unless these criteria are met, I urge you to oppose the final bill.”
MESSAGE to the SENATE MEMBERS: “I urge you to support essential provisions against abortion funding, similar to those in the House bill. Include full conscience protection and assure that health care is accessible and affordable for all. Until and unless these criteria are met, I urge you to oppose the final bill.” WHEN: Votes in the House and Senate on the final bill are expected this month- January. Act today! Thank You!
In solidarity with the countless victims of the Roe v Wade decision, and those taking part in the annual Right to Life march in D.C. this week, please join our bishop across the street from the County Court House in West Palm Beach on Friday, January 22nd at 11 A.M., as we pray the annual Rosary for Life. If and when you can, join us for our Rosary for Life each 1st Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at the abortion center just north of 45th St. and Village Blvd., West Palm Beach. !!!
THANK YOU! We did it! We made our DSA goal for the first time in over 6 years without digging into parish operational funds! If the few remaining pledges are honored, we’ll be slightly over this year’s goal (so much for the nay-sayers and negative media).
Very Rev. Canon Tom