Saint Joseph Parish: $1,980.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $112.00 from the second collection (plate); $34.00 from the Dues envelopes; $144.50 from the loose. Thank you.

Saint Vincent DePaul Parish: $894.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $136.50 from the second collection (plate); $20.00 from the Building Maintenance envelopes; $457.00 from the loose. Thank you.

PLEASE MAKE IT A POINT to sign the on-line petition against the (deceptively named) Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) at http://www.paprolife.org/foca/foca4.htm. FOCA is a radical piece of legislation which would wipe out virtually all limits on abortion, including Pennsylvania's landmark Abortion Control Act. That would mean no more parental consent, informed consent, or 24-hour waiting periods for abortion. It would also mean the return of the heinous practice of partial-birth abortion. Please make sure you share the link with your pro-life friends and family members as well.

PRO-LIFERS HAVE A GREATER BATTLE THAN EVER BEFORE

by John E. Usalis

There is no doubt that I am pro-life. Call me anti-abortion if you like. Being anti-abortion means the same to me as being prolife, so there is no real difference. I’d like to think that a majority of people in our area are also prolife, and we’ve been fortunate that many of our local elected officials at the state level are also prolife.

Unfortunately, the person elected to our highest office, President Barack Obama, was the most pro-abortion presidential candidate we have ever had. Now he is in the driver’s seat, and has already started to prove it. One day after the 36th anniversary of the infamous Roe v Wade decision that made abortion legal in all 50 states, Obama “terminated” what is called the “Mexico City Policy.”

The president of Human Life International (www.hli.org), the Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, said, “Millions of death warrants have just been signed, sealed and delivered over to the world's powerful abortion lobby. True to his word, President Obama has undone the ‘Mexico City Policy’ that kept your tax dollars from funding organizations that promote abortion around the world. This policy has protected the poor and oppressed of the world — especially those living in Third World countries — for the past eight years. Now that protection is gone!”

Basically, the Mexico City Policy stated that U.S. tax dollars would not be given to countries or programs that promoted and/or provided abortions outside the U.S. The name comes from a population conference held in Mexico City in 1984, prompting President Ronald Reagan at that time to introduce the policy. It was reversed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, and reinstated by President George W. Bush in 2001.

However, now in a time of economic crisis, our hard-earned federal taxes will go to kill preborn babies around the world. How many death warrants did Obama sign with one stroke of his pen? How many black children in Africa and around the world will never see the light of day? Obama has been labeled a “progressive.” Well, if this is being progressive, then I need a new definition of the word.

Oh, by the way, when he rescinded the Mexico City Policy, Obama released a statement that he also will work to reverse another Bush policy by reinstating funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports the Chinese population control program that includes forced abortion and sterilization. (I guess you can’t have choice everywhere!) And we still need to watch out for the Freedom of Choice Act, which would lift all restrictions on abortion around the nation if passed.

Back to the Mexico City Policy: According to a report by the Catholic News Agency, “controversy particularly focuses upon the mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where an estimated $461 million is at stake.”

Carlos Polo, a Peruvian who is director for Latin America of the Population Research Council, asked “Where is Obama’s promise to fight poverty in order to reduce the number of abortions?”

What are the consequences of the new policy? Polo told CNA, “The money that USAID has been distributing to fight poverty, relieve hunger and droughts, will end up in the pockets of feminist and pro-abortion organizations to push the legalization of abortion in our countries. The hard-earned American taxpayers’ money will be diverted from poor children and women to the fat salaries of feminist leaders. This is not a potential scenario; it is exactly what happened in South America during the Clinton administration, when he reversed the Mexico City Policy. In Peru during those years, USAID financed the most brutal, compulsory campaign of sterilizations, with the open support of feminist, pro-abortion organizations, despite the fact that poor, peasant women were the victims of the campaign.”

Polo told CNA reporters that international outcry forced USAID to end its funding of then-President Alberto Fujimori’s sterilization campaign. “But by then, thousands of women, most of them in their late teens and early 20s had been sterilized, and several died as a consequence of the procedure,” Polo explained. The reversal of the Mexico City Policy, Polo said, “clearly demonstrates that President Obama is not interested in fighting poverty to reduce abortions, and that there is no possible common ground with those who want to fight for the right to life. President Obama has chosen to do exactly the opposite in the poorest countries: increase abortions and reduce help for the poorest.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said that the President’s action signals the beginning of the “abortion bailout.” “Abortions here in the U.S. are at their lowest number in years — so it's unfortunate that President Obama is poised to make subsidizing abortion abroad one of his first priorities,” she said in a prepared statement.

Austin Ruse, director of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, also opposed the move, telling CNA: “One of the abortion questions that is almost unanimous in America is that we do not want federal funds being spent on abortions. By striking down the Mexico City Policy, President Obama gives lie to the claim that he wants fewer abortions. In fact, he is the most pro-abortion president in the history of the republic. Those so-called pro-life Catholics who supported Obama have a lot to answer for.”

While I didn’t see this reported anywhere in the mainstream media, the U.S. Senate recently voted against an amendment introduced by U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida to restore the Mexico City Policy. Scandalously, only six of the 24 Catholic senators voted for the amendment. And, just so you know, our “pro-life” Catholic senator, Bob Casey Jr., also voted against it. — Bet your Daddy would be proud of you now, Bob, though maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise since you’ve received $327,914 in contributions from the pro-abortion lobby. — Interesting. If Casey is pro-life, why is the pro-abortion lobby supporting him?

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that so many Catholic senators voted so deplorably. In last November’s election, 54 percent of Catholics nationwide voted for Obama, and the eight states where Catholics are the largest percentage of the population, all those states went for Obama.

And, of course, we also have U.S. Speaker of the House and Catholic “theologian” Nancy Pelosi who supported spending hundreds of million dollars of taxpayer money — in the economic stimulus bill, no less — for “family planning services,” which is the usual code for abortion. Would someone tell me how using tax dollars to kill future taxpayers and consumers helps the economy? Luckily, that part of the stimulus package was removed at Obama’s request. There may be hope for him yet.

I was listening to a homily at last Sunday’s Mass on EWTN, and the Rev. Scott Haynes, a priest from the Archdiocese of Chicago, had some poignant comments: “The culture of death that we are living in seems to be a fruit we have reaped — a fruit reaped based on the catastrophic 1973 decision of the Supreme Court, Roe vs. Wade,” Father Haynes said. “Fifty million babies in 36 years have been ripped out of their mothers’ wombs. They have been denied life, denied liberty, denied the pursuit of happiness. And if we dare raise our voice against this, we’re told, ‘This is all legal.’ But when man’s law violates God’s law, man’s law isn’t legal.”

Father Haynes added, “And what an abomination it is that millions of Catholics and other Christians put this government in place — a government that mocks Christ and our Church.”

I am grateful to Mr. Usalis for contributing this piece to our bulletin. (EBC)

LENTEN REGULATIONS
• A Catholic is obliged TO FAST on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday if he / she is between the ages of 18 and 58 inclusive. If a person has observed his or her 59th birthday, he or she is not obliged to fast. On the other hand, he / she is not forbidden to fast either!

• Define “to fast”: For our purposes, “to fast” means to eat only one full meal per day plus two smaller meals. The quantity of these two smaller meals, taken in total, ought not equal the quantity of the one full meal.

• One does not — repeat: DOES NOT — satisfy his or her obligation to fast by eating fast food. That is not what “to fast” means.

• A Catholic is obliged TO ABSTAIN on Ash Wednesday and on all of the Fridays of Lent if he / she is 14 years old or older. Note that there is no “upper limit” to the obligation to abstain. If you are 104 years old, God bless you, but you are still expected to abstain.

• Define “to abstain”: For our purposes, “to abstain” means to eat no meat or meat products. “Meat” includes poultry. “Meat” does not include fish or eggs or dairy products.

• Can a person be dispensed or excused from fast and / or abstinence?

• For a good reason, a person may be dispensed by his or her pastor or by some other priest who has the faculty to do so. Those who are ill or have a similar serious reason are excused from the observance of fast and abstinence. Let us not be footloose and fancy free in considering ourselves excused or dispensed. There should be some serious reason.

• Catholics are obliged to fulfill their “Easter duty”. If eligible to receive Holy Communion, one must receive at least once during the Paschal season. In the United States this year (2009), the Paschal season extends from 1 March to 7 June. If conscious of serious sin, one is obliged to go to Confession during the Paschal season.

• Catholics are also encouraged to make Lent a time of more intense prayer and to practice almsgiving and other works of charity. Parishes are encouraged to continue participation in Operation Rice Bowl.

TWO ANECDOTES ABOUT BISHOP WELSH

#1 — Back in 1983, we priests of the Allentown Diocese were waiting for Rome to announce who our new bishop would be. Bishop McShea had reached (surpassed!) the canonical age of retirement and, as always happens at such times, the rumors were flying about who might be his successor. My brother, Msgr. Francis X. Connolly, and several other priests were going on vacation and would be out of the country for a couple of weeks. My brother asked me to give him a call if it should happen that the new bishop would be announced while he and the others were away. I assured him that I would. Sure enough, the news broke while they were away! I learned that the new bishop would be someone named Thomas J. Welsh. I had heard his name before, but didn’t know anything in particular about him. So, I did as I had said I would, viz. call my brother. When I called, I got Msgr. Bob Forst on the phone. He said my brother wasn’t there at the time. (I think he was out checking the prices on palm fronds for Palm Sunday.) So, I told Msgr. Forst the news. He took the news with no discernible reaction, one way or the other. So, I asked him, “Well, what do you think? You’ve been around a while! What do you know about him?” “Well” said Msgr. Forst, “I’ve heard that he’s a man who can stop after one peanut!” I wasn’t sure at the time if that was meant to be a compliment or not, but I’ve had 25 years to think about it. I’m quite certain that it is a compliment. It is a statement about capacity for self-discipline. It’s another way of saying: Vincit qui se vincit! (He conquers who conquers himself!) Yes, as I think about it, we’d all be a lot better off if we were like Bishop Welsh in that regard: Stop after one peanut.

#2 — Also in 1983, in the summer, I was in Washington DC attending a National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) convention. Like most conventions, the NCEA convention included a great many exhibits on the convention floor --- all sorts of goods and services and programs being promoted at various and sundry booths. I remember that I was walking along minding my own business, looking at what was to be looked at, when a man walked up to me and introduced himself. I shook hands with him and he noticed my name tag, which included the name of my diocese. He wanted me to come over to his booth and take some of his literature. To be polite, I followed him and he started a line of chatter with me. He commented on the fact that I was from the Diocese of Allentown. He told me that he “felt sorry” for me. That didn’t make any sense to me and I asked him why he would feel sorry for me. He told me that he felt sorry for me because of our new bishop, viz. Thomas J. Welsh, recently transferred from Arlington to Allentown. That didn’t sit well with me and I asked him to tell me what was wrong with Bishop Welsh. By this time, we had reached his booth and I started to put two and two together. This man was a representative of DIGNITY, a group that calls itself Catholic and that promotes the acceptance and the mainstreaming of homosexuality. (It is one of several Trojan horses in the City of God.) He told me how unaccepting and intolerant Bishop Welsh had been of the DIGNITY agenda while he was Bishop of Arlington (VA). I decided it would not be advantageous for me to prolong my conversation with this man so zealous for the sanctification of sodomy. So, I took his literature and bade him adieu.
It is much to Bishop Welsh’s credit that he was scorned by the DIGNITY crowd. We can learn a lot about the quality of a man from knowing who his enemies are.