Saint Joseph Parish: $1,015.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $100.00 from the second collection (plate); $90.00 from the Dues envelopes; $30.00 from the Block envelopes; $118.00 from the loose. Thank you.

Saint Vincent DePaul Parish: $1,034.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $109.75 from the second collection (plate); $20.00 from the Fuel envelopes; $26.00 from the Building Maintenance envelopes; $69.00 from the loose. Thank you.

2009 MASS INTENTION BOOK OPEN
Effective Tuesday, 28 October, we will be accepting requests for Mass intentions for particular dates in 2009. Please note that we cannot possibly accommodate everyone's preferences perfectly, but will do the best we can.
Come to the Rectory to arrange for Mass intentions or else put your requested intentions on a piece of paper, together with your preferred dates, together with the Mass stipend (currency or check). Ten dollars is the amount established by the Diocese as the standard offering for a Mass intention.
If possible, please do not come to the Rectory for Mass intentions on Sat, Sun or Mon. Come, instead, on Tues, Wed, Thurs or Fri.
We ask that, between now and the end of the year, you limit your request for Mass intentions to two Masses per deceased person. At the start of the new year, we can more readily accept additional Mass intentions.

WITH GREAT SADNESS, we learn of the death of Pennsylvania State Senator JAMES J. RHOADES (R-29). The Senator died today (Sat, 18 Oct) as the result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on Route 209 last evening (Fri, 17 Oct). He was 66 years old. He had been the voice of Schuylkill County in the Senate chambers for 28 years (seven terms) and was a candidate for an eighth term in the upcoming election. Jim was widely recognized by persons of all political persuasions as a genuinely good man and a true public servant. He will be missed. Our respect and compassion go out to his wife, Mary Edith, to his children, Jim, Elisa and Mike, and to his seven grandchildren.

Eternal rest grant unto Jim Rhoades, O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

WE SHARE THE MAIL
(This is an actual unsolicited email I received this past week from a parishioner. I made some slight changes in syntax, but none in substance. I asked the writer for permission to print it in the bulletin. He / she gave permission on condition that I not use his / her name.)

Dear Father Connolly:
Maybe you can assist me in strengthening my argument. I was in an abortion discussion with some co-workers. I said that I'm against abortion. They said that they don't agree with killing, but that they do agree with choice - even though they would never have an abortion.
But I figure that, if they are for choice, then they are also for abortion. So, I told them that they were for abortion! But they said that nobody is for abortion. They also argued that anybody who has an abortion does not make that decision lightly and is therefore not for abortion.
So I guess that I've never heard that one before, viz. that they are not for abortion. If you can think of any responses that I can use for future arguments, let me know. Thanks.
Pro-Lifer

Dear Pro-Lifer:
Your initial instincts were 100% accurate. You told your co-workers that "if they are for choice, then they are also for abortion". That is absolutely true! Stay with that insight! Stay with that statement! Don't let anyone snooker you out of it. Logic is on your side.
Let me give an example. Let's say I am a college student who is hard up for tuition money. I decide to hire myself out to a crime syndicate in order to burglarize a certain warehouse. It is my hope that the night watchman will be asleep and won't get in my way. However, I carry a gun just in case. When I get to the warehouse, I notice that the watchman is wide awake and making his rounds. I also notice, to my surprise, that the watchman is my great uncle Hank! I always liked Uncle Hank. He was always kind to me and I really don't want to do him any harm. However, business is business. I need to pull off this job tonight or else I won't have enough money to pay my tuition for the next semester. No way am I going to pass up this opportunity. So, I sneak up behind Uncle Hank, intending to hit him over the head and knock him out. However, he turns around and recognizes me! Now I have to make a choice! This is not an easy choice. I say, "Sorry, Uncle Hank" and put a bullet between his eyes. But the truth is I hate killing. I especially hate killing my own flesh and blood. But I was raised to value education and I have to do what I have to do to get that tuition money. I am not pro-murder and I am not pro-burglary. What I am is pro-education and pro-choice.
Someone might say that my example is absurd, that there is no comparison between Uncle Hank and "a fetus". But of course there is a comparison. Uncle Hank is an adult human person who used to be a fetal human person. A human fetus is a fetal human person who, if not aborted or otherwise bumped off, will grow up to be an adult human person. This is not my "religious belief". It is a scientific fact. Anyone who denies it should go off to see the Wizard - the Wonderful Wizard of Oz - to inquire about getting a brain.
EBC (former fetus)

EX ORE INFANTIUM: WHAT LOVE IS

When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.

Rebecca, age 8

When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.

Billy, age 4

Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.

Karl, age 5

Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.

Chrissy, age 6

Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.

Terri, age 4

Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.

Danny, age 7

Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss.

Emily, age 8

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.

Bobby, age 7

If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend that you hate.

Nikka, age 6

Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt. Then he wears it every day.

Noelle, age 7

Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.

Tommy, age 6

During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.

Cindy - age 8

My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.

Clare, age 6

Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.

Elaine, age 5

Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.

Chris, age 7

Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.

Mary Ann, age 4

I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.

Lauren, age 4

When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.

Karen, age 7

Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.

Mark, age 6

You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.

Jessica, age 8

OBAMA AND ABORTION
Speaking to a group of young Catholics in New York almost one month before Election Day, I had a harsh awakening as jarring as a shot of Wild Turkey 101. Weeks before going to the polling booth, Americans do not know Barack Obama.
In a packed bar, I was discussing the contentious question of whether a Catholic can support Obama for president. I highlighted the priority that defending innocent human lives takes in these considerations, according to the Church. I then went through Obama's radical record on abortion. The jolt came after I finished speaking, when one by one, people told me they had no idea Obama was so radical.
They were shocked. And so was I.
We've been understandably focused on the economy lately, so much so that it's as if there are no other issues. But there are. And in the time we have left, voters must consider them.
Though for Catholics, in the end, it's up to the individual, through prayer, to decide upon political matters, my conclusion is that it would be a very tough thing for a follower of the Pope to back the senator - impossible, actually. Obama has stood on the floor of the Illinois statehouse and argued that a baby born alive due to a botched abortion should not have the same rights as a child carried to term. That, in and of itself - his opposition to Illinois' Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which sought to mandate safeguards for such unwanted children - is a heavy obstacle to overcome for those Obama fans concerned about the future and dignity of human life. He defended infanticide. That alone would be enough to keep me from voting for him. But, as it happens, it's not the only ethical affront the Obama campaign has committed, and far from the only offense to human rights that the Democratic presidential candidate supports.
Care for some others? Barack Obama has told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund that the first thing he will sign as President will be the Freedom of Choice Act, which will sweep away limits on abortion - state and federal - including restrictions on government funding of abortion and laws protecting anti-abortion health care providers.
Barack Obama has condemned the Supreme Court's Gonzales v.Carhart ruling, which affirmed the federal partial-birth abortion ban.
Barack Obama supports federal funding of abortion.
Barack Obama opposes the Hyde Amendment, which restricts use of taxpayer dollars for supporting abortion.
Barack Obama called pregnancy "punishment." Barack Obama believes that the right to have an abortion is a matter of equal rights for women.
Barack Obama wants to stop federal funding to crisis-pregnancy centers.
Barack Obama does not support the Pregnant Women Support Act, a project of Democrats for Life, meant to reduce abortions by strengthening the social safety net. This is important because it exposes as a lie a major talking point employed by those who argue that pro-lifers can support Obama. It shows much of the left's patronizing rhetoric to be nothing but rank deceit. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - a Catholic who developed her own theology to justify her abortion support - and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have not allowed this important act to even come to a vote.
I don't think I'm unreasonable in thinking that sweeping away all abortion limits and funding abortion with federal tax dollars (while defunding centers that provide alternatives to abortion) will increase rather than decrease abortions in the United States.
"The election of Barack Obama would endanger the lives of thousands of unborn children," University of Alabama professor Michael New tells me. "If he follows through on his pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, it would likely nullify many state-level pro-life laws that the pro-life movement has worked hard to enact." Calculations from the results of a 2004 Heritage Foundation study, authored by New, indicate that the repeal of all state-level public funding restrictions, parental-involvement laws and informed-consent laws would result in 125,000 more abortions every year. The repeal of federal pro-life laws might well push the numbers up even higher.
You can fall in love with the romantic idea of a black man becoming president of the United States, but in a country where black women have abortions at five times the rate of white women, he is a profile in cowardice. In a land where we have devoted ourselves to the pursuit of life, this is unacceptable. Vote as if lives depend on you.
They do.

Kathryn Lopez

This article appeared in the 13 Oct 08 edition of The Pottsville Republican and Herald.