October 1, 2022 Column Father De Celles

OCTOBER: THE ROSARY AND RESPECT LIFE. October is dedicated to both
the Rosary and Pro-Life. So this month, pray the Rosary, especially for the Pro-
Life cause.
 
DAILY ROSARY. I invite you all to come to pray the Rosary with your
family, other families and/or other members of our parish family, here IN
OUR CHURCH EVERY EVENING AT 6:30 PM DURING THIS MONTH OF
OCTOBER. Individual families have signed up for each night to lead the
rosary, but all present will pray together. The Rosary will be informal: there
will be no Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, but of course Jesus will be in the
Tabernacle, and we will just pray the Rosary aloud and together. No fuss or
ceremony, just prayer.
Additionally, we still have a few evenings needing families to volunteer to
lead. Please, prayerfully consider signing up to “lead” by going to our parish
website, and clicking on the link on the pop-up, “Sign Up For October Daily
Family Rosary In Church.”
Although I will join you on many of these evenings, I will not lead the
Rosary, as this is part of my effort to add some simple ways to help you grow
spiritually in prayer without the necessary participation of a priest.
 
Respect Life. Even though Roe v. Wade has finally been overturned, we must
continue our Pro-Life activities unabated as long as there are laws and strong
movements supporting abortion.
Life Chain Today. Today, as in the past, over 100 St. Raymond
parishioners will join other local pro-lifers lining up on the sidewalk of Franconia
Road in front of Key Middle School from 2:30 to 3:30 PM to simply stand
peacefully and quietly praying, maybe holding a sign, as a public witness to our
respect for the dignity of human life. Please join in. Parking is available at the
school, and Pro-Life signs will be available.
40 Days for Life. The Fall “40 Days for Life” Campaign, a similar but more
prolonged public witness to the right to life, has already begun, and St.
Raymond’s will once again take part. Please visit the table with a display and
sign-up sheets in the narthex this weekend and sign up. St. Raymond’s has
committed to keep the following Vigil hours: Every Friday from 10am – noon;
Saturday November 5 from noon-7pm; Sunday November 6 from 9am-3pm.
Recent Pro-Abort News.
FBI Raid on Pro-Life Family. (As reported by “the Daily Signal”): “In an
early morning raid Friday [Sept. 22] in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, about two
dozen FBI agents with weapons drawn pounded on the door of Mark Houck’s
home, where he lives with his wife and seven children.
“The FBI agents arrested Houck based on a federal indictment. Sounds
serious, right?… Not even close. Houck is a
pro-life activist and president of The King’s Men, a Catholic ministry. He has no

prior criminal record. He was arrested Friday morning for an alleged violation of
the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, known as the FACE
Act….
“Houck apparently would regularly drive …to a Planned Parenthood clinic
in Philadelphia to pray and speak outside the facility…The federal indictment
claims that almost a year ago, Houck ‘verbally confronted’ and ‘shoved’ an escort
for an abortion patient ‘to the ground’ and ‘intentionally injured, intimidated and
interfered’ with the escort.
“What the indictment fails to mention….is that on multiple occasions this
pro-abortion escort said ‘crude … inappropriate and disgusting things’ to the
Houcks’ son… Houck kept telling the escort to stop harassing his son…but the
escort refused to stop and when the foul-mouthed vulgarian got too close to his
son, Houck protected him by shoving the escort away. …
“The incident occurred Oct. 21, 2021. The assault claim against Houck is
so weak that …Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner….refuse[d] to file any
misdemeanor charges against Houck….
“Now, almost a year later, the FBI shows up at Houck’s home in force and
the Justice Department charges him with two felonies for an injury that required a
Band-Aid. His conviction could result…in a maximum penalty of ‘11 years in
prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $350,000.’”
 
President Biden. (As reported by ‘Catholic News Agency’): “President Joe
Biden on Thursday appeared to suggest — erroneously — that the Catholic
Church makes exceptions for rape and incest in its condemnation of abortion.
“Biden made the remarks at a fundraising event…while discussing a
Republican-backed congressional bill to ban abortions after 15 weeks into
pregnancy. The president incorrectly said the bill has no exceptions for rape and
incest.
“‘You have Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and others talking about
how they’re gonna you know, make sure that Roe is forever gone and Dobbs
becomes a national law,’ Bloomberg quoted the president saying.
“‘Talk about, what, no exceptions. Rape, incest, no exceptions….Now, I’m
gonna deal with my generic point. I happen to be a practicing Roman Catholic,
my Church doesn’t even make that argument’…
“…[A]ny implication that the Catholic Church makes exceptions where
abortion is concerned is incorrect. ‘Since the first century the Church has
affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,’ the Catechism of the Catholic
Church states. ‘This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.
Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed as an ends or a means, is gravely
contrary to the moral law’ (No. 2271).
“The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also has addressed the difficult
situation of a pregnancy conceived in rape… ‘(A)ny child conceived in rape is,
like his or her mother, an innocent victim. That child, too, has a right to life’…”
 

“Fetal Heartbeat ‘Manufactured.’ (As reported by ‘The Washington
Examiner’): “Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams’s assertion this week that a
baby’s heartbeat at six weeks in utero does not exist and that women who hear it
at their doctor’s office are hearing a ‘manufactured sound’ touched off an
emotional debate about fetal development….
“Abrams made the comments at an event in Atlanta on Tuesday, at which
she argued the sound of a heartbeat doctors show to parents is ‘designed to
convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.’
“At six weeks, experts say a fetus’s heart development is underway and
that its heart muscle is beginning to form….
“‘Between 5 ½ to 6 ½ weeks, a fetal pole or even a fetal heartbeat may be
detected by vaginal ultrasound,’ the American Pregnancy Association notes….
“Johns Hopkins Medicine states on its website that the ‘heart is beating’ for
a fetus by ‘the end of four weeks’…
“Other doctors have said that because the fetal heart at six weeks does not
yet have valves, it is not operating in the sense that is typically associated with a
heartbeat…
“‘The flickering ….is actually electrical activity…’ Dr. Nisha Verma, an
abortion-focused obstetrician-gynecologist…told NPR in May.
“Electrical activity is also what causes an adult’s heart to beat, according to
the Mayo Clinic….”
 
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles