Week in Review – What a Week! Where Do We Start?
As August rolls to an end, we hope many of you have taken the time to talk with your US senators and let them know the importance of keeping in the budget bills a prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion. We clearly do not want our tax money being used to kill preborn human beings.
We’ve received the following report on the budget bill from the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus:
This week, the House of Representatives passed S. Con. Res. 14, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2022 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2023 through 2031, by a vote of 220-212.
Background:
This budget resolution for FY2022 is the first step in the reconciliation process and establishes the framework for a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Congressional Research Service explains, “The reconciliation process begins when Congress includes reconciliation instructions in a budget resolution…Committees respond to these instructions by drafting legislative language [which is]…packaged…into one or more reconciliation bills by the House and Senate Budget Committees. … Once reported, reconciliation legislation is considered under special procedures on the House and Senate floor.”
In other words, the budget resolution prepares the way for a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that can bypass the Senate filibuster. The budget reconciliation proposal includes billions in taxpayer dollars that are not protected from being used to fund abortion. For example:
- A new Federal-run Medicaid program for non-expansion states
- Funding for Community Health Centers, National Health Service Corps, Nurse Corps, and Graduate Medical Education.
On a different matter, the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus reported:
This week, the House of Representatives passed H.R.4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021, by a vote of 219-212.
H.R. 4 would give the federal government greater control over state and local election laws. It would amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to establish a “coverage formula” identifying the states and local governments required to get preclearance from the federal government before making any change to election law or practice. The original Voting Rights Act of 1965 contained a coverage formula in Section 4(b) that was invalidated by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder (2013).
The bill could jeopardize the election process and inhibit the ability for Americans to elect their leaders, including pro-life ones. Please make sure you communicate to your senators the need to stop both of these bills.
ALL in the News – Judie Brown Addresses USCCB’s Refusal to Accept Religious Exemptions for COVID Vaccine; STOPP Report Tackles PP Numbers
This week, ALL president Judie Brown released a statement on the FDA authorization of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The statement, titled, Pro-Life Movement Has Obligation to Back Conscience Protections Regarding Vaccines, calls out the USCCB’s push to refuse religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Wednesday of this week, the semi-monthly STOPP Report was sent to a list of thousands of pro-life activists and readers. The main article, Behind the Planned Parenthood Numbers, discusses Planned Parenthood’s reports on abortion numbers, its government income, its adoption referrals, and its prenatal services.
ALL’s program, the Marian Blue Wave, continues to grow with more than 4,000 prayer partners signed up on the interactive map. The Marian Blue Wave asks Catholics to commit to saying a Rosary once a week for the specific intentions of ending all abortion, shutting down all Planned Parenthood and abortion facilities, and for the protection of our Lord in the Eucharist.
Every Friday afternoon, the American Life League social media team, Dwain Currier and Katie Brown, host the Friday Live Show on Instagram Live. The hosts regularly discuss current events and provide young adults a platform where they can have their culture of life questions answered. Replays of the show can be found on Facebook.
Every Friday afternoon, the American Life League social media team, Dwain Currier and Katie Brown, host the Friday Live Show on Instagram Live. The hosts regularly discuss current events and provide young adults a platform where they can have their culture of life questions answered. Replays of the show can be found on Facebook.
Jim Sedlak’s Pro-Life Activism from Creation to Death is a weekly talk-radio program on the Radio Maria USA network. The show can be heard live every Friday at noon (Eastern Time) and is repeated on Saturdays (10 PM). Each show features an update on what is happening in the pro-life world, and frequently quests will appear on the show to provide first-hand updates and experiences.
Video of the Week – Fr. Mike Schmitz Tackles ‘Can Someone Be Denied Communion?’
Watch Fr. Schmitz give an eloquent explanation of the Eucharist as a gift for the spiritually sick and not the spiritually dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzd7JYnWx0IThis week has brought to our offices at American Life League many phone calls from tired, emotional, and discouraged individuals. Good people trying to live their lives and just overcome by what’s happening at the airport in Afghanistan, the rushed full approval of the Pfizer vaccine by HHS, the position of the USCCB and many bishops telling people to get the shots, and the letters arriving from employers demanding that people get the shot or give up their jobs.
It is overwhelming.
People are looking for help and hope. In times like these, we must go to God to find that hope and help.
We are recommending to callers that they can find what they are looking for in a treatise by St. Alphonsus de Liguori. The original was written in Italian, but there is a good English translation on the EWTN website. It is titled Uniformity with God’s Will.
It is not a quick read. Alphonsus takes the time to explain everything in detail and to give practical recommendations on how one can apply conformity to God’s will in everyday life.
There is much to be learned, and an understanding of this treatise will do much to quiet your nerves and understand that, despite all the turmoil and confusion in our world today, God is ultimately in charge and if you put your faith in Him, you can get through this.
In a treatise like this it is sometimes dangerous to take quotes out of context. But there are some gems, to which we would like to call your attention.
- Perfection is founded entirely on the love of God: “Charity is the bond of perfection;” and perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s: “The principal effect of love is so to unite the wills of those who love each other as to make them will the same things.”
- The essence of perfection is to embrace the will of God in all things, prosperous or adverse. In prosperity, even sinners find it easy to unite themselves to the divine will; but it takes saints to unite themselves to God’s will when things go wrong and are painful to self-love. Our conduct in such instances is the measure of our love of God. St. John of Avila used to say: “One ‘Blessed be God’ in times of adversity is worth more than a thousand acts of gratitude in times of prosperity.”
- “A fool,” says the Holy Spirit, “is changed as the moon; but a holy man continues in wisdom as the sun.” The fool, that is, the sinner, is as changeable as the moon, which today waxes and tomorrow wanes; today he laughs, tomorrow he cries; today he is meek as a lamb, tomorrow cross as a bear. Why? Because his peace of mind depends on the prosperity or the adversity he meets; he changes with the changes in the things that happen to him. The just man is like the sun, constant in his serenity, no matter what betides him. His calmness of soul is founded on his union with the will of God; hence he enjoys unruffled peace. This is the peace promised by the angel of the Nativity: “And on earth, peace to men of good will.” Who are these “men of good will” if not those whose wills are united to the infinitely good and perfect will of God?
- Above all, let us cherish that prayer of our Lord, which he himself taught us: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Our Lord bade St. Catherine of Genoa to make a notable pause at these words whenever she said the Our Father, praying that God’s holy will be fulfilled on earth with the same perfection with which the saints do it in heaven.
In these days of uncertainty and rapid changes, we recommend you take the time to read this treatise and understand you are not alone.
Pro-life Social Media – NARAL Gets a Big ‘No’
Abortion is violence. The abortion activist group, NARAL, wants to protect access to that violence.
Protect abortion access.
— NARAL (@NARAL) August 26, 2021
There you have it. NARAL is pro-violence. Because the killing of children waiting to be born comes with stigmatization, NARAL and its allies attempt to couch the violence around care, compassion, and health. Thus, every instance of the word “abortion” uses it as an adjective to things most people find favorable.
But abortion is physical brutality against the preborn child, so no matter how NARAL et. al. phrase it, pro-life advocates see right through it.
Tweets by JosephJ73519126Never!! Praying for an end to abortion.
— Nancy Fadeley (@NancyFadeley) August 26, 2021
I prefer to protect unborn humans, thanks.
— Rob (@UncleOtis23) August 26, 2021
— Jim Eagle (@sosayssmedley) August 26, 2021
Anyone else with a “no”? Message received. Loud and clear.