37730 St. Francis Court, Purcellville, VA 20132-9600   
                 Phone (540)338-6381/6440 Fax (540)338-6431

Today is 10/8/2008
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St. Francis de Sales Women's Council

Respect Life Committee

May 30, 2008
 “Choose life! Was the ultimate reason for our obedience to all God’s commandments. Perhaps we have lost sight of this: in a society where the Church seems legalistic and institutional to many people, our most urgent challenge is to communicate the joy born of faith and the experience of God’s love.”   - Pope Benedict XVI, New York City

The focus of the Respect Life Committee is to educate and deepen the respect of human life from birth to death. We promote this here at St. Francis, as well as the community in general, by participating in the annual March for Life, promoting awareness of outreach programs for pregnancy support agencies, e.g. Project Gabriel, Lifeline, Birthright; abortion healing, and care for the elderly and dying. The committee promotes advocacy on the national, state and local levels to adept laws that defend and protect human life. And finally, we encourage prayer among our parishioners to promote a “Culture of Life” and respect for human dignity.

For more information or if you are interested in becoming involved in this committee, please contact Michele Cohoon at 540-554-2049 or Keith Crawford at 540-751-0171.
 

SPECIAL UPCOMING EVENTS: 

Respect Life Mass with Bishop Loverde - June 21, 2008 at 9:30am
at St. Joseph Parish, 701 N. Columbus Street, Alexandria, 22314, followed by the rosary led by the Bishop at the abortion facility at Annandale Women's Clinic 2839 Duke Street Alexandria, VA

No Mass in July

Pregnancy Loss, Sexual Trauma and Unrevolved Grief - Educational Training - Wednesday, September 24, 2008 
The founders of Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries, Theresa Burke, PhD. and Kevin Burke, LSW, are providing a 1-day clinical training on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Reenactment, Trauma’s Impact on the Brain, and Hope and Healing for Sexual Abuse, including an overview of the new retreat model for healing sexual trauma. They will also explore how the Church can reach out to trauma victims preparing for marriage and why healing is essential for future marital health. This training is sponsored by the Office for Family Life and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington. Licensed Professionals are eligible to receive Continuing Education Credits. Location, and time TBA.

 Life Chain - Remember, Life Chain is on Sunday, October 5th. It is not too early to start to think about ways to get your parishioners, especially the youth to schedule this event in their calendars.

Motherhood Interrupted: Catholic Ministry for Post-Abortive Healing - Jane Brennan author of “Motherhood Interrupted” will be speaking at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish on July 2, at 7:30 p.m.

Humanae Vitae – A celebration of the truth – 40 years later
 Saint Raymond’s will host a conference celebrating Humanae Vitae on July 18th and 19th.  Speakers include Dr. John Bruchalski, founder of Tepeyac Family Center; Fr. Richard Hogan, popular writer and speaker, Fr. Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International.  Cost $35 single and $50 couple until July 11th.  Email hildebrandseven@cox.net or call 703-455-3193 to register.

For Teens: Pro – Life Boot Camp 2008 in Dallas, Texas High School and Homeschool Students  age 14 and up at the University of Dallas in Irving, TX.  Come just for the weekend, July 25-27 or come for the whole Boot Camp, July 25 - July 30.

 

  • Catholic OB-GYN Practice Accepting New Patients:  Tepeyac Family Center, the pro-life OB-GYN practice in Fairfax, VA, announces the addition of two Catholic OB-GYN physicians to the staff, and is now accepting new OB and GYN patients.  To make an appointment, email info@tepeyacfamilycenter.com or call (703) 273-9440.
     

 A few good sources for Pro-Life News:

v     USCCB Pro-Life Secretariat

v     Virginia Catholic Conference

v     www.lifenews.com

v     www.lifesitenews.com

v     Family Research Council

v     National Catholic Register

v     National Committee for Human Life Amendment

v     Human Life International 

  • Is it a Baby? A booklet that follows the true story of a nurse practitioner working in a women's health clinic which refers women for abortion.  While originally not participating in abortion at all, Cortney Davis' work slowly draws her closer and closer to abortion—as she rationalizes her increased involvement all the way, even to the point of participating in one.  Yet her conscience will not free her as God keeps sending her messages that she cannot ignore.  For more information or to order, visit our website:   www.requiempress.com or call toll free:  1-888-708-7675.
     

  • News from the Filipino Family Fund - Regrettably, the Two Child Policy was revised to include a consolidation of four other pro-choice bills and was passed without due process on May 21st.   This proposed infrastructure will threaten the religious freedom, freedom of speech, the sanctity of marriage, parental rights, women's health and bring a host of problems unnecessarily to the Filipino people. It is sponsored in part by those responsible for proposing China's disastrous One Child Policy. Archbishop Paciano Aniceto will soon issue a statement in opposition. The bills may be passed within the next two weeks according to Ms. Fenny Tatad, the Executive Director of the Filipino Bishops Legislator Caucus.  In her urgent appeal for prayers Tatad says, "  . . .  We strongly believe in the power of prayer and in the moral influence of our Lay Leaders and Pastors to enlighten the minds of our Legislators and our Political Leaders."   (More to follow in the next days about our specific outreaches for solidarity and how you can help. For those who are Filipino citizens, or have relatives who are, please contact your Filipino legislators to oppose H.B. 17, H.B. 812, and H.B. 39 and the newly consolidated bill which includes them all.) Right now, it is urgent that we Americans unite in prayer and fasting against these persecutions of our brothers and sisters' religious freedom to collectively build a Culture of Hope. 

 

Defund Planned Parenthood through a letter writing campaign - Another way to help defund Planned Parenthood is through a letter writing campaign called the Project Mustard Seed- it really works as 160 companies have already decided to stop giving donations to PP through persistent pro-life writers who expose the truth about PP! ( If you'd like to get on his email distribution you can write to John at naughtonjj@juno.com ).  John provides an easy way to get your letter out by providing sample letters - it's easy and effective.  (See below for more information)

CATHOLIC CHARITIES NEWS

Please contact CCDA if you are interested in housing women during their pregnancy who are in need of a stable, loving environment in which to make decisions about their future and that of their unborn child.  As a licensed child-placing agency, Catholic Charities will need to conduct a home study that meets the requirements of the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Please call the intake worker at 703 425-0100 for further information.

    Adoption Information Meetings are held at 5294 Lyngate Court, Burke, VA 22015 at 6:00-8:30 p.m. on June 12, 2008.  The presentation will cover Catholic Charities Domestic, International, Interstate and Parental Placement Adoption Programs with emphasis on the home study, placement and supervision of children as well as resources from which to adopt and local adoptive parent support groups.  We are especially seeking African/American and interracial couples interested in adopting.  Registration Fee:  $20.  Please call 703-425-0100 to register. (The meeting will be conducted in English but for those who speak only Spanish, please call the office and ask for the Latina social worker.)

    Free “Forums for the Family” workshops are presented by professionals in the counseling field and are open to the public. They are held at St. Ann Church, 5300 N. 10th St. in Arlington from 7:30 to 9pm on the dates listed. Please RSVP to Catholic Charities’ Family Services at 703-841-2531.

Search for Life You can benefit pro-life organizations by doing all of your internet searching at www.Pro-LifeSearch.com. Catholic, Chicago-based lawyers, Joe Hanley and Jack Manhire have partnered with Google so that over 50% of the revenue generated by "hits" to sponsored sites each will go into a savings account which benefits various pro-life organizations such as Priests for Life, Human Life International, and pregnancy resource centers. ProLifeSearch is SafeSearch filtered so that you get the search power of Google minus the objectionable, obscene materials.  All charities to whom donations are given must actively uphold the culture of life as taught by the Church, and they must not advocate any sort of violence. So, set ProLifeSearch.com as your homepage.  The benefiting charities and the amount of money raised thus far is listed on the site.


Virginia Catholics seeking involvement in the political process will have access to an informative new resource.  The Virginia Catholic Conference, which represents the mutual public-policy interests of the Commonwealth's Catholic bishops and their dioceses, has posted www.vacatholic.org to provide members of the Arlington and Richmond dioceses their bishops' perspective on critical state and federal policy issues, timely action alerts, and valuable materials to foster advocacy within parishes, schools, and other Church organizations.
 


Outreach Agencies

Arlington Diocese Respect Life Office, family life@arlingtondiocese.org , (703) 841-2550

Gabriel Project of Arlington (helps pregnant women with long or short-term needs by offering assistance at the parish level), Gabrielproject@arlingtondiocese.org, 1-866-444-3553

Project Rachel (post abortion counseling), project Rachel@arlingtondiocese.org, (703) 841-6552 or 1-888-456-HOPE.

Lifeline Pregnancy Care Center, www.pregnancylifeline.org/index.html  (703) 771-3030.

LAWS (Loudoun Abused Womens Shelter) provides temporary emergency shelter, food, support to women and their children experiencing domestic violence and abuse, www.lcsj.org, (703) 777-6552 (24 hour shelter) or (703) 771-7845 (office).

SALT (Social Action Linking Together) advocacy group promoting social justice issues both in the state and nationally, jhorejsi@cox.net
 

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