I was surprised this morning but my parish didn’t mention Congress’ healthcare plan as requested by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. My parish is very strongly pro-life but today we had a visiting priest so there might have been some lack of communication.
I’ll ask my pastor about it during the week.
As you know, the USCCB asked every parish in the United States of America to distribute materials and make an appeal to mobilize the Catholic faithful concerning the fundamental and foundational human right to life being ignored in the current healthcare legislation.
Did your parish participate? If so, to what extent?
November 2, 2009 at 2:25 am
Nothing at Nativity of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church; however the eastern rite bishops are (I believe) not part of the USCCB so that may be part of the reason. Our pastor and parish are strongly pro-life.
November 2, 2009 at 2:51 am
Nothing said @ Epiphany Church in San Francisco
November 2, 2009 at 2:53 am
Of course we did–so did all the other parishes in our diocese–every little bit helps.
November 2, 2009 at 2:58 am
No word on healthcare but we are busy with the annual bishop's financial appeal in the Diocese of Austin this weekend and next. So, hopefully it will be read and distributed soon.
November 2, 2009 at 3:02 am
Kate – Niederauer has no spine. It was his duty to distribute it to the parishes, which he apparently has no intention of doing now or ever (most likely so as not to offend Pelosi).
The Tridentine mass we go to at Mater Dolorosa had the inserts. But we went to St Gregory's earlier this morning and spoke with the Mnsgnr (a dastardly modernist) and humbly asked him if we could distribute the inserts, since he did not have them in the bulletins. He became angry and said, "we don't do inserts." I said, "I understand. We can also distribute them after mass if that is convenient." To which he said, "No you will not. Not at MY church." So, we put them on all the windshields of the cars in and around the street.
There is truly a blanket of evil covering many churches. Pray for priests. Pray for the church.
November 2, 2009 at 3:03 am
St. Patrick in Dallas had the bulletin insert put in by hand by faithful volunteers on Friday for the weekend Masses and included petitions in the prayers of the faithful. Thank you Fr. Josef!
November 2, 2009 at 3:31 am
There was no mention of health care during the Mass, in the homily, however there was a lengthy letter in the church bulletin which had a copy of a letter sent to Washington that was signed by our Bishop. There was also contact information for us to call our representatives.
Our church is very pro-life, but most of what we are hearing is coming to us via the bulletin and the prayers of the faithful when they pray for those in government to make wise decisons to end the culture of death and to legislate laws to proetect the innocents.
November 2, 2009 at 4:02 am
We had a visiting priest for our service at St. Thomas in Dallas, so I don't know if it was mentioned in the other masses, but they handed out the insert and had "responsible healthcare" as one of our petitions.
November 2, 2009 at 4:12 am
Our pastor at St Dismas in Waukegan IL made a special point of mentioning it.
November 2, 2009 at 5:05 am
At the Church of the Nativity in DBQ, they mentioned abortion twice in the prayers of the faithful. 1st in a prayer that called it a form of child abuse & then in a prayer like that recommended from the USCCB.
After Communion the pastor, Fr. Thoman read the 1st part of the insert, called on everyone to read it in its entirety & made special mention of the website to contact our House & Senate reps.
Also to anonymous, the American Eastern Catholic Bishops ARE a part of the USCCB. So the inserts should have been distrubed by them as well.
November 2, 2009 at 5:11 am
Here in MD, at our 2 cluster Parishes, we had the Bishop's Bulletin Inserts in the bulletins & we posted the flyers (Expectant Mom & MD – Health Care is about savings lives, not destroying them) on the doors so folks could spot them upon leaving Church. Unfortunately a couple of other items were on tap at Mass, Operation Christmas Child and a campaign to sign up for MD Catholic Conference legislative up-dates (a good thing), so the homliy didn't directly address the Bishop's Campaign. However, I hope that we will have our Associate Pastor next weekend and he is very
enthusiastic about this effort and I'm sure he will address it from the pulpit.
November 2, 2009 at 6:44 am
Had the insert in the bulletin, but the pastor simply said "The US Bishops have an insert for you to 'update' yourselves on the importance of healthcare in the country."
Not a word mentioned about abortion and conscience. Updating…. that's all.
November 2, 2009 at 2:01 pm
We are in the northern tip of the Diocese of Scranton. Cardinal Rigali is our interim Bishop. Many parishes across the diocese had inserts the weekend of the 25th. I checked all their websites. 🙂 There is a huge statement on the diocese's website. IMO, it would have been fairly simply to print this out whenever and make it available. We did have an insert, though. A local chiropractor, who is a parishioner, explained for us the ABC's of nutrition and health. An Apple a day, Beets everyday, and Carrots too. I sent an e-mail to our parish priest this morning. I am not surprised.
November 2, 2009 at 2:49 pm
At my home parish St. Paschals in Spokane we had it and the pastor gave a good explination of what the insert was about before the homily.
At the EF Mass as St. Charles I helped out at I spied the insert in the bulitan as well.
November 2, 2009 at 3:34 pm
St. Patrick Parish in Kansas City, Kansas had a full page bulletin insert, mentioned it in the homily, announcements and Prayers of the Faithful.
November 2, 2009 at 6:16 pm
At St. Joseph in Otis Orchard, WA we had a bulletin insert and mentioned it in the announcements after Mass. I don't know about the Prayers of the Faithful though …I was trying to find a tissue for a 3 year old.
November 2, 2009 at 9:15 pm
In other news, the Communist Conference of Catholic Bureaucracy requests we arrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic …
November 3, 2009 at 2:16 am
My parish had the inserts, and it was mentioned during the prayers of the faithful. There was nothing about it in the homily or announcements, but I might attribute that to the priest we had – he's new to the parish as well as to the country, and maybe he didn't know how to/wasn't used to addressing American politics? Of the other priests at the parish, I guarantee one mentioned it (I haven't asked, but I guarantee it), and I'd venture a guess the other did, as well. Our pastor has been ill, and while everything appears to have been running smoothly, maybe there's a bit of a power vacuum and no one gave the order to make sure this gets said? I was surprised not to hear more about it, knowing our parish, but it wasn't ignored.
November 3, 2009 at 2:53 am
My parish, Holy Trinity Catholic Church, VA, did not. I'm not sure why though…