Author Archives: rocklandrtl

40 Days of Life Begin

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P9250128For the fourteenth time in Rockland, the 40 Days of Life campaign has begun — one of 297 vigils being held this autumn in 11 countries.

Volunteers gathered at Perlman Drive in Spring Valley, near the Planned Parenthood office at 3 p.m. Wednesday. Deacon John Kelly from St. Gregory Barbarigo Church in Garnerville led the group in the recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet followed by the Rosary.

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The 40 Days is a  program of prayer and fasting, constant vigil, and community outreach to draw attention to the evil or abortion in our own community. Its goal is to touch hearts and to bring about a beginning of the end of abortion.

If you believe that prayer changes things and the power of love can transform lives, the 40 Days volunteers welcome you and need you!

The hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day on Perlman Drive, and then through the night at the Eucharistic Chapel of St. Gregory Barbarigo Church on Cinder Road in Garnerville. The last day is Nov. 2.

For more information or to sign up for one hour a week, please call 845-492-6709.

 

40 Days for Life: What’s Going On in Spring Valley?

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To watch the video, click anywhere on the photo.

A focused, moving, thoughtful video from the founders of the 40 Days for Life. Find out how the movement got started, how it’s saved thousands from abortion, and hear from people whose lives were changed by it. Here’s what’s behind the activities you’ve seen on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley. Just click anywhere on the photo above. It’s 8 minutes long.

 

GAO Says Obamacare Subsidies Pay for Abortions

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According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO),  there has been widespread violation of the rules that are supposed to prevent our tax dollars from being used to pay for abortions covered by insurance plans sold on the Obamacare health exchanges.

The GAO, a nonpartisan investigatory arm of Congress, reported last week that “not a single one of the 18 insurance companies that are selling abortion-covering plans, and that responded to the GAO, actually were collecting the required separate payment” for the abortion coverage, according to National Right to Life.

The purpose of the “separate payment” is to make sure the abortion coverage is paid for by the customer who wants it, and not by us citizens, whose taxes subsidize insurance premiums for 87% of the people who purchase insurance on the government exchanges.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) said, “When jamming the law through Congress, the administration and Washington Democrats insisted that ObamaCare would not fund abortions. The harsh and sad reality that today’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) report confirmed is that there is little the administration is doing to live up to that promise.”

Here’s Politico’s story. And here’s one from The Hill.

 

40 Days of Life Starts Wed., Sept. 24

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20131012_12425740 Days for Life is a nonconfrontational, 40-day, non-stop, round-the-clock prayer vigil outside a  Planned Parenthood center or  abortion facility.

The opening ceremony of the Rockland 40 Days of Life begins Wednesday, Sept. 24,  at 3 p.m. at the prayer site on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley on public property near the Planned Parenthood office.

At 5 p.m. each day, the vigil moves to Eucharistic Chapel of St. Gregory Barbarigo Church on Cinder Road in Garnerville, and continues through the night. In the morning, at 9 a.m., it resumes again on Perlman Drive. The last day is Sunday, Nov. 2.

Many volunteers are needed to maintain this peaceful and educational presence for 40 days. Your presence will send a powerful message to the community about the tragic reality of abortion. Please come and be the “voice” for the “voiceless.”

For more information or to sign up for one hour a week, please call 845-492-6709.

National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Babies

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RemembranceHaverstraw, Sept. 13 — On Saturday, at 5 p.m.,  prolifers gathered at the Garden of Innocents outside St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Haverstraw to remember the 56 million babies lost to abortion and to pray for the protection of the most precious gift of innocent LIFE and the forgiveness and healing of those who have been so very wounded by the abortion choice.

The prayer service was led by Msgr. Robert McCabe, pastor of St. Mary’s.

The Garden of Innocents was dedicated by Bishop Austin Vaughan on May 3, 1992.

Thousands Mourn Innocent Victims of Abortion on National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children

 

St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2013

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Guest blogger Sean Miller

Guest blogger Sean Miller

Our good friend from New Jersey, guest blogger Sean Miller, recalls the first time he marched for life in a St. Patrick’s Day parade.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2013

Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect.

It was the first time I was going to march in a parade. And it wasn’t just any parade. It was the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, dear to my heart for a number of reasons.

First of all, I’d be celebrating my Irish heritage of which I am very proud, and I’d be honoring St. Patrick, my namesake. (My middle name is Patrick).

Also, I’d be representing the unborn, marching with the local right-to-life group. In a rather hostile, modern world, that was a challenge I was proud to take up.

But I did have some reservations. How would the onlookers react? Would there be hostility or confrontation?  Continue reading →

Sidewalk Counseling: Harassing or Helping?

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Guest blogger Sean Miller

Guest blogger Sean Miller

Here’s the second part of guest blogger Sean Miller’s posting on sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics. Sean, an experienced counselor, explains how an offer to help is often perceived as harassment.

Sidewalk Counseling: Harassing or Helping?

The atmosphere in front of an abortion mill can be surreal. Not surprising considering what is going on within its walls.

So for a sidewalk counselor to be able to function and not dissolve into a pool of tears, you have to put up a protective wall within. Remember, this is a spiritual battleground, and there is no time to be absorbed in “how I feel.” These are the front lines!

The matter at hand demands two necessary ingredients: prayer and counseling. They are interdependent. All must be done in a spirit of deep humility, silence, and compassion, with the understanding that we are present for these troubled couples so that we can help them in their time of great need.

Unfortunately, they do not always perceive us as helpers.  Continue reading →

Attempt to Undo the ‘Hobby Lobby’ Decision Fails

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imagesToday, by a vote of 56-43, the U.S. Senate did not take up a bill (S.2578, the so-called “Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act’) that would have overriden all federal laws  protecting the rights of conscience and freedom of religion regarding health coverage mandates.

If such a bill passes into law, it would, in effect, repeal the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” and overturn last month’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Obamacare mandate that required religious, family-owned corporations such as Hobby Lobby to include contraceptive/abortifacient coverage in employee health insurance.

The two senators from New York, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand voted in favor of this bill and even co-sponsored it.

Here’s why defeating S.2578 is vitally important to prolifers.

Senate Dems Launch Push for “Most Radical Pro-abortion Bill Ever

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WASHINGTON – Four months before the mid-term congressional election, Senate Democrats are pushing into the national spotlight “the most radical pro-abortion bill ever considered by Congress,” said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life organizations.

Tobias was one of two non-congressional witnesses who testified against the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act” (S. 1696), at a hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this morning.

“This bill is really about just one thing: it seeks to strip away from elected lawmakers the ability to provide even the most minimal protections for unborn children, at any stage of their pre-natal development,” Tobias told the committee. “Calling the bill the ‘Abortion Without Limits Until Birth Act’ would be more in line with truth-in-advertising standards.”  Continue reading →