Annual Feast of the Holy Innocents Mass to be Celebrated at St. Cyril of Jerusalem Church in Jamison in Bucks County, Pa. on December 28th

 

Re-posting as a reminder for those who live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and the surrounding area. 

The Feast of the Holy Innocents is observed each December 28th to remember the children slaughtered by King Herod and his henchmen.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the "Vicinity of Bethlehem," so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi. (Wikipedia)

This feast day holds a particular significance to the pro-life movement as we also remember all the innocent pre-born babies killed each and every day through the terrible sin of abortion.

In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a Mass is celebrated each year on this date to honor the memory of those children who have been killed though abortion.

The Mass and memorial service for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, will be held  on Friday, December 28, 2018, at St. Cyril of Jerusalem Church, located at 1410 Almshouse Road in Jamison, Pa.  Mass begins at 7:00 pm.

We invite all to attend and ask that you invite your pro-life family and friends to join you.


Use this link to find directions to St. Cyril of Jerusalem Church

 This event is sponsored by the Bucks County Pro-Life Coalition.  

   

The primary mission of the Bucks County Pro-Life Coalition is to provide financial support to area crisis pregnancy centers and educate the community regarding sanctity of life issues from conception until natural death.  For more information and for up-to-date articles and events, please follow us on Facebook here.

How the Holidays Are Particularly Hard for Couples Struggling with Infertility

by Mary Rose Somarriba, Editor
Natural Womanhood


Marc Sherman and his wife Erin know the pain. Perhaps you have been trying to have a baby for a while now. As the year comes to a close, the sense of grief can feel like a heavy chain, pulling you down and stifling your joy for the season.

It’s one thing that babies seem to be everywhere at this time of year, and maybe unconsciously you had hoped you could bring some tidings of good news at a holiday gathering. Instead, you may feel like it’s one more year of infertility, on the books—perhaps you were in the same position last year—and one more on the way; will it ever end? The pain can be compounded when loved ones say unhelpful things.

So as we near Christmas, we at Natural Womanhood spoke with Marc Sherman of Organic Conceptions, on how real this pain can be for couples, and how loved ones might better respond.

Please use this link to read the interview with Marc Sherman

 

Natural Womanhood is the most far-reaching women’s health literacy program since the Pill. We exist because many women are harmed by or at risk from the use of contraceptives, and most don’t know they have a viable alternative.

Natural Womanhood is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the promotion of fertility charting, as a way to promote disease prevention, self-knowledge, relational intimacy, and effective family planning. Natural Womanhood helps young women and couples regardless of their income, ethnicity, or religion.

Would you like to help us accomplish this ambitious goal? Join this movement and become an advocate or volunteer to help spread the word about Natural Womanhood.

For more information on Natural Womanhood or to join this movement, please use this link.

 

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, Pinterest, and on MeWe.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.

In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

Woman Seeks Biological Embryo 'Swap' With Stranger Because She Wants Boy, Not Girl

"To trade a human embryo is to trade a human being. Human beings are not commodities to be traded like baseball cards," Nikolas T. Nikas, Bioethics Defense Fund

Oct. 22, 2008 photo, research associate Crystal Pacutin pulls a frozen vial of human embryonic stem cells at the University of Michigan Center for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich. An appeals court gave short-term approval Thursday for continuing federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. (Photo:AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

By Brandon Showalter
Christian Post

A New York-based actress named "Lisa" reached out to other women in order to exchange her and her husband's own embryo for another because she wants a boy and not a girl.

The New York Post reported that the 37-year-old actress, whose last name was not given and who has struggled with infertility for several years wanted another son, and her son was begging for a brother. So she decided to pursue making a trade.

Last Wednesday Lisa posted in online forums the following message: 

"Hello, we have been trying to give my child a sibling for three years . . . we want to complete our family with a son. We have a great quality female embryo. Would you like to consider a trade?"

The female embryo she offered was comprised of her own egg and her husband Ray's sperm. The male embryo she was seeking is comprised of the gametes of two different people.

Although she received significant pushback for her sex-selection ethic and her post was removed, she eventually found a woman from California in her forties who was interested in a possible swap.

Both couples are storing their frozen embryos at a fertility center, and might go forward with the trade if the woman's husband approves it.

"It depends whether he is hell-bent on [using] his own DNA," Lisa said.

This California woman's husband reportedly told her that if she was going to be pregnant again "it's going to be a girl!" since her husband already had six sons from a previous marriage and another son with her.

The New York Post also reported that Lisa is "unfazed" by criticisms from people who are offended she would give up her biological child and raise someone else's just because she wants a girl and not a boy. 

Continue reading here

March for Life President Hints at Strategic Expansion in Recent Interview

By Laura Nicole
Live Action News

Since 2012, Jeanne Mancini has been president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, the organization behind the March for Life. During an interview with Catholic News Agency’s CNA Newsroom podcast (Episode 5), Mancini shared her thoughts on the state of the pro-life movement and hinted at plans to continue expanding the reach and impact of the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., which is the annual capstone event of the pro-life movement. 

With echoes of the great Civil Rights marches of the 1960s, tens of thousands of citizens from across the United States brave the freezing weather in our nation’s capital each year to demand an end to legalized abortion.

How massive was the crowd for the #MarchForLife2018? Check out this time-lapse video by @Students4LifeHQ . Now if only the mainstream media would cover this awesome #ProLife event! https://t.co/HMoJJ5zyUk
— Julie Roys (@reachjulieroys) January 20, 2018

Witnessing to the dignity of human life with religious and faithful from Charlotte, North Carolina. #MarchforLife #MarchForLife2018 pic.twitter.com/mAQEoshK3e
— Fr Joseph Matlak (@IosephBenedict) January 22, 2018

Jeanne Mancini took the mantle of the March for Life from famous pro-life activist Nellie Gray. Gray organized the first March for Life in 1974, the year following Roe v. Wade, and continued to do so each year until her death in 2012. Mancini has brought fresh energy and dynamism to the March for Life. 

“The founder of the March for Life was 88 when she passed away, and so she wasn’t that engaged in social media,” Mancini explained.

During her tenure thus far, Mancini has been able to capitalize on the vigor and enthusiasm of a young pro-life movement including spreading the message using all forms of mass communication. 

“We’ve also worked to grow our social media presence quite a bit,” Mancini said. “And so it’s been fun to work with young people and to grow that presence.” 

In spite of the media continuously downplaying the event’s significance, the March for Life is thriving and growing through the organization’s dynamic outreach. In fact, some sources estimated the March for Life in 2018 drew a crowd of 100,000.

Theme of 2019 March for Life

READ: Media bias clearly seen in coverage of march for women vs. March for Life

Over the decades, attendance at the March for Life has become the way for pro-life leaders to take a public and powerful stand in defense of the preborn. In 2017, Vice President Mike Pence became the first sitting VP to address the March for Life. In 2018, President Trump became the first sitting president to address the march via live video. Previous pro-life presidents, including George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, also regularly delivered remarks via telephone.

Continue reading here

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, Pinterest, and on MeWe.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does? 


National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.
In Southeast Penna: Call the Community Women's Center at 215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available. Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org. 

Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono Call Pro-Life Trump Judicial Nominee “Extreme” Because He’s Catholic

By Kevin Daley

Life News

Two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are pressing a nominee for the Nebraska federal trial court about his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal service organization of the Catholic Church.

Democratic Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Kamala Harris of California submitted written questions in December to Brian Buescher, an Omaha lawyer nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, proposing that he resign his affiliation with the Knights, which they call an “all male society” that “has taken a number of extreme positions” on social questions.

The Catholic News Agency was first to report Friday on Hirono and Harris’ questions respecting the Knights of Columbus.

Buescher leads the agribusiness litigation practice at Kutak Rock LLP, where he has practiced since graduating the Georgetown University Law Center in 2000. President Donald Trump nominated him to the federal bench on Oct. 10 at the recommendation of GOP Sens. Ben Sasse and Debra Fischer of Nebraska.

Lawmakers did not question Buescher about his enrollment in the Knights during his Nov. 28 confirmation hearing, though he listed his association with the group in a questionnaire he returned to the Judiciary Committee prior to his appearance. The issue was only raised in a series of follow-up questions Democrats transmitted to Buescher on Dec. 5. Senators often submit written questions to nominees following a confirmation hearing, though they generally escape public notice.

Christian leaders have previously criticized Judiciary Committee Democrats for perceived anti-Catholic bias. Hirono was among the Democratic lawmakers who expressed concern that Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s religious convictions would impede the discharge of her judicial duties during Barrett’s confirmation hearing for the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2017.

Like Buescher, Barrett is a Catholic. She is considered a serious contender for the Supreme Court, should another vacancy arise during the Trump administration.

Among other items, Harris asked Buescher if he was aware that the leadership of the Knights opposes gay marriage, while Hirono asked whether he can assure litigants that he will fairly judge matters relating to reproductive rights.

Founded in 1882 as a mutual benefit society for impoverished Catholic immigrants in New England, the Knights currently operate in over a dozen countries and distribute almost $200 million in charitable funds annually. The organization has some 15,000 chapters.

“The Knights of Columbus is a Roman Catholic service organization with approximately two million members worldwide,” Buescher wrote in response to Hirono and Harris’ questions.

“The organization has a religious and charitable purpose. I joined the Knights of Columbus when I was 18 years old and have been a member ever since. My membership has involved participation in charitable and community events in local Catholic parishes.”

 Continue reading here

Michael Buble Joins Down Syndrome Kids for Heartwarming Rendition of ‘All I Want for Christmas’

By Calvin Freiburger

Life Site News

A viral video of children with Down syndrome singing a Christmas classic is making the rounds and raising appreciation for their intrinsic value, this time with some surprise star power behind it.

Wouldn’t Change a Thing is a group dedicated to a “world where negative perceptions of Down syndrome are a thing of the past” through articles, speaking to the press and various organizations, highlighting positive stories from Down families, and videos that appeal to mass audiences while challenging popular assumptions.

The group’s most recent project collects videos of 25 families of kids with Down syndrome, singing along to Michael Buble’s rendition of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” as well as performing the lyrics with sign language. Last week, the group of kids and parents appeared on the British ITV talk show This Morning, complete with a surprise appearance by Buble himself.

“When I heard that Wouldn’t Change a Thing had chosen one of my songs to sign to, I was really moved by it,” the artist said. “It’s absolutely beautiful.”

The video begins as a montage of the individual families’ videos, then transitions halfway through to the This Morning set, where the children are brought in to watch the lighting of several Christmas trees and eventually sing and sign all together with the hosts.

Co-host Rochelle Humes apologized for tearing up during the segment, The Mirror reported. "It's just so lovely,” she said. The Mirror noted that the segment elicited a powerful response on social media, as well.

The video “has me crying into my porridge. As someone who cares for an adult with DS, this is SO important,” one viewer said. “Excuse me while I wipe my tears off my sleeve,” another asked.

Still more audience members endorsed the “beautiful” segment for having them “absolutely sobbing” and congratulating everyone involved for “magical stuff.”

Buble himself opened up this fall about a challenge in his own family, his five-year-old son’s two-year battle with liver cancer. Noah, the oldest of Buble and wife Luisana Lopilato’s three children, is said to face a long recovery but is doing well.

"When this all started, I became the strength to somehow pull us and lift us and be positive," the singer said in October. "When the chemo was done and they said, 'We did it,' 'We're good, he's OK,' I just fell. My wife picks me up now."

"We took it day by day," he explained. "We all moved and lived by (Children's Hospital Los Angeles) and we just had the best doctors. God, thank you Jesus Christ."

Continue reading here

Do You See What I See?

And because eyes are being opened, ears unstopped, and hearts unshackled, what William McKenna once called our “unforced revulsion” at abortion is finding a wider audience. 

By Pro-Lifers
National Right to Life

Editor’s note. This story first ran many years ago in National Right to Life News. We’ve run it between Thanksgiving and Christmas virtually every year since and it has consistently garnered more response than almost any article we’ve ever run.

It was also composed before passage of the historic ban on partial-birth abortion. In many ways it would be a perfect fit to substitute the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.” This is the last edition of NRL News Today until after Christmas and I thought our growing number of readers might enjoy “Do you See What I See?” If you do, please share it with friends and family.

It was late in the afternoon the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My wife, Lisa, and I had established a temporary safe haven in our kitchen free from the usual chaos that comes with the presence of four joyfully rambunctious children. We’d somehow managed to wrest free a few minutes just to read the paper, enjoy a cup of coffee together, and chat. It was nice!

For reasons I did not fully understand at the time, when I read in our local newspaper that the Salvation Army was experiencing a dramatic shortage in volunteer bell ringers to man its familiar red kettles, I was so shocked I jumped up from the table and searched out the local number.

The gentle lady who answered mistakenly thought I was someone inquiring about a paid position. When I assured her otherwise, she was so pathetically grateful for my willingness to help them help the poor that a wave of shame washed over me.

How many times, I thought, had I brushed past these magnanimous folks, who patiently waited for some sign my heart was at least a few degrees warmer than the temperature outside? How many times had I been so self-absorbed that these devoted volunteers simply blended into the brick facades behind them?

I was mortified when I recalled that even though I had occasionally given money, never once had I emerged from my self-absorption long enough to actually “see” them, let alone grasp what their silent vigil stood for. Because I had always looked through them, they never really existed for me.

I hastily volunteered for several assignments. (In what was surely a feeble attempt at expiation, I made sure that one of them was on my birthday.)

The moral of this story needn’t be belabored to tenderhearted pro-lifers. When our culture “looks” at the vulnerable, all too often there is a failure to recognize and therefore an inability to reach out in love and compassion. This is never more true than in our treatment of the littlest Americans, the unborn child.

However, it wasn’t just because of the news account and the subsequent phone call that I saw these kindly souls with new eyes. I was already predisposed, if you will, because Christmas was approaching, to Christians the celebration of the birth of the Messiah.

Even those who do not share the faith, honor Jesus for his unconditional expression of love for widows and orphans, the sick, and the social outcast, his loving admonition to care for the least among us. This most assuredly included little children, as Luke’s poignant gospel account reminds us so beautifully.

Jesus healed out of a deep well of compassion. He restored many whose bodies, hearts, and souls were weighed down with immense physical and emotional burdens. But he was also teaching us a timeless lesson: unless we are willing to open our eyes, we will be blind to the hurting around us.

While it is not my intention to idealize pro-lifers, it would be false modesty to ignore that they demonstrate a tremendous capacity to truly “see” what others either cannot, or choose not, to see. It is no accident that pro-lifers defend unborn babies. Love and concern for the downtrodden, the dispossessed, and the marginalized is what gives their lives a rich unity of purpose.

The great hope of the pro-life movement is that despite our nation’s descents into inhumanity and indifference, the self-image of Americans is deservedly of a good people, blessed in a unique way. And it is because Americans are fundamentally decent people that the significance of the debate over partial-birth abortion cannot be exaggerated.

Continue reading here

AND HE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW

Note: The following was written by the late Joe Wall.   Joe was an ardent defender of life for well over 40 years and spent many hours in prayerful witness outside abortion mills, particularly the Northeast Women's Center. 

By Joe Wall

It was a cold winter morning. A recent snowfall covered the ground; an icy wind whipped across the wide boulevard cutting the face of the man pacing back and forth on the sidewalk. He was engaged in his usal Saturday morning occupation, a rosary vigil at an abortion chamber.

This chamber, the Northeast Women's Center, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was on the third floor of the small office building. He had spent several hours every Saturday praying the rosary for the unborn babies being brought in to be killed. He prayed too for their mothers, usually frightened young girls. He had tried and tried to interest others in coming to the vigils. Sometimes, he was successful, and two, three, four people would join him. But, all too often, as on this Saturday, he was alone.

The loneliness, even more so the apathy, the heartlessness of his fellow Catholics, was beginning to wear him down. As he walked back and forth, fingering his beads, frozen to the bone, he wondered if it was all worthwhile, if anybody cared, if his efforts really made a difference.

This morning, particularly, an almost unbearable sense of defeat and depression weighed him down. Fighting it, he knelt in the snow, on the lawn between the building and the sidewalk, to say his next rosary. He hoped that, somehow, this added bit of hardship would help. Oddly enough, it did and, after finishing the rosary, he arose with a lighter heart. He completed his vigil that day and went on to continue them for many years thereafter.

What he didn't know was that as he knelt there in the snow, praying, a young woman was watching from a window on the third floor. She was waiting to be brought into the procedure room for her abortion. Sad to relate, she did have the abortion that day. And, as often happens, she found herself pregnant again a few months latter. Once more, she was face with an agonizing decision. The memory of that day at the clinic came back to her; she could not forget the sight of that lone man kneeling in the snow, praying for her and her baby. She decided that if a stranger could care that much for her baby, so could she. She would let the baby live.

That day, by his presence and the simple act of kneeling in prayer, he had saved a child's life...and he didn't even know!

This is a true story. Longtime pro-life counselor Jean Neary told it to me on a radio show twelve years later. She had heart it from the young woman who had come to her for counseling during her successful pregnancy.

To learn the other side of the story, I didn't have to question the man who had knelt in the snow that day so long ago, as it was me!

PRAYER FOR THE UNBORN FROM POPE BENEDICT XVI

The following is a prayer composed by Pope Benedict XVI which asks God to bless families and to inspire society to embrace each and every life.

Lord Jesus,

You who faithfully visit and fulfill with your Presence

the Church and the history of men;

You who in the miraculous Sacrament of your Body and Blood

render us participants in divine Life

and allow us a foretaste of the joy of eternal Life;

We adore and bless you.

Prostrated before You, source and lover of Life,

truly present and alive among us, we beg you.

Reawaken in us respect for every unborn life,

make us capable of seeing in the fruit of the maternal womb

the miraculous work of the Creator,

open our hearts to generously welcoming every child

that comes into life.

Bless all families,

sanctify the union of spouses,

render fruitful their love.

Accompany the choices of legislative assemblies

with the light of your Spirit,

so that peoples and nations may recognize and respect

the sacred nature of life, of every human life.

Guide the work of scientists and doctors,

so that all progress contributes to the integral well-being of the person,

and no one endures suppression or injustice.

Give creative charity to administrators and economists,

so they may realize and promote sufficient conditions

so that young families can serenely embrace

the birth of new children.

Console the married couples who suffer

because they are unable to have children

and in Your goodness provide for them.

Teach us all to care for orphaned or abandoned children,

so they may experience the warmth of your Charity,

the consolation of your divine Heart.

Together with Mary, Your Mother, the great believer,

in whose womb you took on our human nature,

we wait to receive from You, our Only True Good and Savior,

the strength to love and serve life,

in anticipation of living forever in You,

in communion with the Blessed Trinity.

 

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, Pinterest, and on MeWe.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.
In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

Angels Have Red Hair

Note: This article, by the late, great Joseph Wall is one of our annual posts at Christmastime.   It first appeared in the Nov/Dec 1996 issue of the American Life League’s Celebrate Life Magazine. The Northeast Women’s Center was at that time located at 9600 Roosevelt Blvd. Through the efforts of the NE Philadelphia Chapter of the Pro-Life Coalition of Pa,they lost their lease and were forced to move to another location on Roosevelt Blvd. at Comly Road, a few miles up the road. It is now a Planned Parenthood facility and pro-life activists remain ever vigilant in their constant witness outside this killing center. 

By Joseph Wall

WHADDAYA TALKING ABOUT? Angels have red hair? What kind of nonsense is this? Explain yourself?

Patience, dear reader. There is logic here. There is also a charming (and true) little tale behind it.

There was, and alas still is, (see note at top of article) in our city an abortion clinic – the Northeast (Philadelphia) Women’s Center. Since its opening in the mid-1970’s it has been picketed regularly by neighborhood pro-life people. We have conducted prayer vigils, sidewalk counseling and, in later years, occasional rescues.

One of our activities was a visit to the clinic on Christmas morning. Incidentally, the clinic closed for only two holidays during the year – Christmas and Yom Kippur! The purpose of our pilgrimage on Christmas day was to offer a kind of present to all the little ones who had died there during the preceding year. Our present was a simple one: A few of us would kneel on the sidewalk outside the front door of the multipurpose building housing the abortion clinic. We would pray the Rosary for God’s precious infants who had been put to death there since the previous Christmas. Then we would place a present; a doll, or a teddy bear in holiday wrappings, inside the vestibule of the building, in front of the elevator to the third floor – the clinic floor.

When the clinic personnel arrived the next morning, they would see this present with its gift tag and would know that at least some people cared for the little babies they had killed. More important, we hoped and believed that the babies themselves would know that there are those who loved them enough to help them celebrate on earth what they were celebrating in heaven; the birthday of the baby Jesus.

And so it was that on a cold, rainy Christmas morning a dozen years ago, a handful of pro-lifers; Stephanie Morello, Kathy Long, Susan Silcox, Patricia Dowling and myself, made our way to the Northeast Women’s Center abortion clinic. We knelt in prayer, saying the Holy Rosary for the 4,000 babies whose lives were so abruptly terminated there since the last Christmas. Having completed our prayers, we went to the front door with the intention of opening it and placing our gift for the unborn babies inside, out of the rain; alas, it was locked! All the other doors to the building were locked as well. What to do? We did not want to leave our gift on the walkway outside, where it would become sodden with rain; a soggy mess would be a poor gift for these little ones. And it would be the only gift they would ever get.

As we stood there trying to figure out what to do, a young man with bright red hair came up the walk from the parking lot. When he saw us, he asked what our problem was. We explained our dilemma. “Oh”, he said, “I have keys to the door.” With that, he proceeded to unlock the door and let us into the vestibule. We laid the Christmas present for our pre-born brothers and sisters in front of the elevator and turned to thank him. That quickly, he had vanished. We never saw him again.

Now you, dear reader, can believe what you wish about this; that it was happenstance, simply a coincidence, whatever. Personally, I believe that the Good Lord, seeing our confusion, sent one of His red-haired angels to bail us out.

Incidentally, this is not the only case of a red-haired angel going about the world doing the Lord’s work. I know of another one…but, then, that’s another story!