Author Archives: rocklandrtl

40 Days for Life — Week 4

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popefrancisWHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT 40 DAYS FOR LIFE

POPE FRANCIS, VIA VATICAN SECRETARIAT OF STATE

“The Holy Father greatly appreciates the dedicated work that you and everyone involved in 40 Days for Life are engaged in to promote respect for the lives of all unborn children. His Holiness assures you of his prayerful support for you, your colleagues and all those whose prayer, fasting and sacrifices are saving countless lives and giving glory to God.”

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The Care-Net Pregnancy Center of Rockland is in this building at 2 Perlman Drive in Spring Valley.

Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in America, has an office in the strip mall near our prayer site on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley. Which is exactly why we’re there.

But right across the street, there’s another building. That’s where the Care-Net Pregnancy Center of Rockland has its office — a place where women with unplanned and unwanted pregancies can come for honest information, where they can feel safe and share how they feel, a haven where there is caring and help in bringing their baby to term.  Continue reading →

Senate Dems Stop Vote on Bill to Help Sex Trafficking Victims

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Senate sealA bill to strengthen laws against sex trafficking passed the NY State Assembly unanimously yesterday.

UPDATE: APRIL 22 The U.S. Senate Bill to provide justice for victims of sex trafficking passed today (99-0) with a compromise to divide the victims’ compensation fund into two separate parts: one part would pay for law enforcement services and shelters, but not medical services; money for medical services for the victims would be segregated into another fund furnished by taxpayer money. This fund would be subject to the Hyde Amendment federal restrictions on abortion funding. Sens. Schumer and Gillebrand voted for the bill.

But things did not go so well for sex trafficking legislation on the federal level in Washington, D.C.

Today Senate Democrats blocked a vote on a bill to help victims of sex trafficking because it would not allow a proposed victims’ compensation fund to be used to pay for abortions.

The vote was 55-43, with both senators from New York, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillebrand voting to block debate on the bill.

Further votes to break the Democratic filibuster are expected this week.

Read more about it here.

NYS Assembly Begins To Vote Separately on Women’s Equality Issues

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Today the NYS Assembly unbundled the elements of the Women’s Equality Act (WEA) and passed an individual bill focused on toughening the penalties for sex trafficking and providing more support for victims.

This seems to signal a break from last year when the Assembly passed the entire 10-point WEA package — including the controversial abortion expansion bill — only to see the whole WEA die at the end of the session when the Senate eliminated the abortion measure but passed the other nine women’s rights components individually. The Assembly, in response, maintained that the abortion plank was an indivisible part of women’s equality and refused to vote separately on any of the individual bills the Senate presented them with. As a result, none of the WEA provisions became law last year.

Now that the Senate Republicans hold the majority in that house after winning in  November, the Assembly’s strategy of holding the whole WEA hostage to the passage of the abortion expansion bill has changed.

Again, it’s an example of how much your vote counts.

Today’s bill passed unanimously. The Senate has already passed their version of this bill.

Assembly breaks up Women’s Equality Act, passes sex trafficking bill ~ Politics on the Hudson

40 Days for LIfe — Week 3

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kingWHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
ABOUT 40 DAYS FOR LIFE

DR. ALVEDA KING
NIECE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

“40 Days for Life brings 2 Chronicles 7:14 into 21st century focus. As one human race, we become united in prayer.
Glory to God!”

P3090529The founders of the 40 Days for Life movement may not have been thinking specifically of the Old Testament Book of Chronicles, but the call of God to his people in the passage Dr. King refers to is exactly what the 40 Days is all about:

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

At 40 Days for Life we pray that God will heal our land, changing the hearts of those involved in the abortion industry, forgiving and bringing peace to those who have had abortions, bringing hope to those who are contemplating abortion, and forgiving all of us for all ways that we have failed in building a culture of life that respects and nourishes life, and asking Him to give us strength and show us the way.

We’ve passed the half-way point in our vigil. Please, If you haven’t come yet, you still have two weeks. The final day is Palm Sunday, March 29.

The Rockland 40 Days for Life takes place every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley. It is peaceful and prayerful. It continues overnight  from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. in the Perpetual Adoration Chapel of St. Gregory Barbarigo Church in Garnerville.

For more information on how to participate, please e-mail RachelMinister1@aol.com or call 845-492-6709.

Day 1     Week 1     Week 2

To enlarge a photo, click on it and then you can use the arrow to the right to advance thru the slide show.

 

40 Days for Life — Week 2

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT 40 DAYS FOR LIFE

JIM DALY, FOCUS ON THE FAMILY

“40 Days for Life is a testimony to the power of prayer and what can happen when we’re consumed by a magnificent obsession, namely that life is sacred and every baby at every stage of development deserves to be protected under law. God is on the move amidst the darkness.”

20150221_122419Here in Rockland, we’ve just completed the second week of 40 Days for Life, not as cold as last week, but still challenging and snowy. We think of the other 40 Days participants across the nation — like us, standing in little areas where the snow has been cleared, offering their prayers and suffering for the unborn. You feel a closeness with them. Yes, “God is on the move amidst the darkness.” Please come and join us and help bring abortion to an end.

The Rockland 40 Days for Life takes place every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley. It is peaceful and prayerful. During this cold spell, many participants are praying from inside their parked cars.

The 40 Days continues overnight  from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. in the Perpetual Adoration Chapel of St. Gregory Barbarigo Church in Garnerville.

For more information on how to participate, please e-mail RachelMinister1@aol.com or call 845-492-6709.

Day 1     Week 1

To enlarge a photo, click on it and then you can use the arrow to the right to advance thru the slide show.

 

40 Days for Life — Week 1

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johnson

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE 40 DAYS FOR LIFE:

ABBY JOHNSON, FORMER PLANNED PARENTHOOD DIRECTOR — NOW A PROLIFE ADVOCATE

“I am  in this movement today because of ordinary people who took on an extraordinary task. My former abortion clinic is closed because of their sacrifice. Babies are alive because of them. Women are no longer being hurt by abortion in their community.

You can do this. You can save a life. I now stand alongside you in this 40 Days for Life movement.”

P2200374-1e The Rockland 40 Days for Life takes place every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley. It is peaceful and prayerful. We stand on public property on the outskirts of a mall where Planned Parenthood  has an office. There is no confrontation or attempt to block access. We can’t even see the part of the mall where the office is. But we hope anyone going there — and all those passing by — see our message and are moved by our prayers.

During this cold spell, many participants are praying from inside their parked cars.

The 40 Days continues overnight  from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. in the Perpetual Adoration Chapel of St. Gregory Barbarigo Church in Garnerville.

For more information on how to participate, please e-mail RachelMinister1@aol.com or call 845-492-6709.

To enlarge a photo, click on it and then you can use the arrow to the right to advance thru the slide show.

 

 

Assisted Suicide Coming to New York?

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New York State Assembly Bill A2129-2015
“Establishes ‘the death with dignity act’; allows terminally-ill New Yorkers to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medication”

New York State Senate Bill S3685-2105
“Establishes the New York end of life options act; . . . authorizes the presription of aid-in-dying medication to individuals with terminal illness . . .”

These two bills were recently introduced in the NYS Assembly and Senate to legalize physician-assisted suicide in our state. They have been referred to the Health Committees of their respective houses. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) has already voiced opposition to the bill.

Defending the life of the unborn has traditionally received most of the attention of the right-to-life community. The logo on our Rockland banner, for example, is unborn child in a heart. But there’s always been a second front to our battle — protecting life at the other end of the spectrum, the lives of the elderly and terminally ill.

The fight has now come to our own backyard. Four states already have physician-assisted suicide legislation: Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. We can’t let it happen here.

Please learn everythng you can about the issue. Think about it. Pray about it. Talk to your friends. Write to your legislators. You can send them an email via the NYS Catholic Conference Action Center here.

New York State Catholic Conference Memo of Opposition to proposed physician-assisted suicide legislation

Statement on NY assisted-suicide bills from disability rights group Not Dead Yet 

Ross Douthat –“The Last Right — Why America Is Moving Slowly on Assisted Suicide” (op-ed, the New York Times)

 

 

Dr. Jack Wilke, Rest in Peace

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imagesJack Wilke, MD, the father of the modern prolife movement, passed away on Feb. 20 at the age of 89.

One of the first to speak out about the threat of legalized abortion in the late ’60s, he dedicated his  life to defending the unborn.

Many of us became active in the prolife movement through the work of Dr. Wilke. His landmark Handbook of Abortion was the text book where we learned about the issue and how to argue against it.

And his slides — long before there was an Internet — showed the world the beauty of life before birth — as well as the horror of abortion that ended it.

Do you recall the photo of the nurse’s wedding ring around the thin, tiny arm of little Marcus Richardson, who was born prematurely at 20 weeks? Or the iconic photo of the little feet at 10 weeks?

Those were the photos Dr. Wilke showed us — the photos that made us prolife.

Thank you,  Dr. Wilke. May you rest in God’s peace.

Read “Dr. Jack Wilke, R.I.P.” from the National Review

40 Days for Life: COLD ALERT!!

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20150221_125045Because of the cold and dangerous wind chill temperatures, it would be best to pray inside your car for the time being.

You can park in the spaces right behind the prayer site.

And if anyone could use some winter gear to stay warm during the 40 Days or needs help paying for gas, please let the 40 Days staff know. A generous supporter has offered to help.

RachelMinister1@aol.com or call 845-492-6709.

 

40 Days for Life — Day 1

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AMIDST THE COLD OF WINTER LOVE SHINES FORTH 

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Psalm 22, v. 10: “Yet you drew me forth from the womb, made me safe at my mother’s breast.”

Deacon John Kelly opened the 16th 40 Days for Life with Psalm 22 and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

“LIFE STARTS AT CONCEPTION, NOT AT BIRTH” is the truth of human development and we thank all those brave and determined people who came to witness with love.

For more information on how to participate, please e-mail RachelMinister1@aol.com or call 845-492-6709.