FIC Blog

Connecticut’s pro-life movement is particularly strong in Bridgeport. Here is video of my speech at the Bridgeport abortion clinic marking the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

And here is a notice on the Bridgeport 40 Days for Life sent to FIC by our friend, Sr. Mary Concepta:

Our local community in Fairfield County will again participate in the 40 Days for Life Spring Campaign (Feb. 22-April 1, 2012), set to open on Feb. 18, 9am with Holy Mass celebrated by Bishop William Lori followed by pro-life speakers and a procession to the vigil site with blessing. [It begins at the Catholic Center, 238 Jewett Ave, Bridgeport.]  We invite you to join this Spring 2012 campaign individually or by inviting your Church and/or organization to consider ‘Adopting-a-Day’ of prayerful vigil at the Summit Women’s Center (10am-6pm, 3787 Main St. Bridgeport).  We have ’40 DFL Kits’ available to make it easy for you to get your Church or organization involved.  Please let us know if we can send you one either electronically or by mail. Please forward this announcement to others who may be interested in participating. Thank you!

Even if you are unable to stand vigil with us in solidarity with the unborn and their mothers and fathers, please keep this effort in your prayers in a special way during the 40 days of Lent. We offer our prayers and fasting to God and trust that He will bring the tragedy of abortion to an end in our community and heal our wounded nation. We are so grateful to you for uniting your prayers with ours on behalf of the most vulnerable.  May God reward you with His abundant Life!

For more information email respectlife@diobpt.org.

Because of snow, the Bridgeport March for Life has been postponed to Saturday, January 28th. Please join FIC executive director Peter Wolfgang, who will be giving the keynote address, at the Bridgeport March for Life, 3787 Main Street, Bridgeport at 8:30 AM on Jan. 28th.

The Fairfield County Catholic is reporting that Nancy Matthews will retire this week after nine years as chancellor of the Diocese of Bridgeport:

The chancellor earned a place in diocesan history when working beside Bishop Lori, she helped to lead opposition to the now infamous Senate Bill 1098. Proposed by the judiciary committee of the state legislature in 2009, it sought to reorganize and regulate the Catholic Church in Connecticut.

 Unconstitutional on its face, the proposed bill was met with strong opposition when callers blew out the capital switchboard and more than 5,000 people rallied at the State Capitol in Hartford to protest. Shortly after that event, the Office of State Ethics tried unsuccessfully to put arbitrary limits on the Church’s right to defend religious liberty at the rally. With the chancellor’s leadership, the diocese successfully filed suit under the Federal Civil Rights Statute and the investigations promptly ground to a halt.

“Bishop Lori understood the implications immediately. He taught us that we can take neither freedom of speech nor freedom of religion for granted,” says Matthews. The story was reported around the U.S. and helped to crystallize the Church’s response to the growing threats to religious liberty.

“Personnel is policy” goes the old saying and so it was with Chancellor Matthews. Among the lay employees that work for the Catholic Church in our state and advise Connecticut’s bishops, she was one of the fiercest defenders of religious liberty we have ever seen. Her intervention at key moments helped buttress the Church’s witness in defense of its own rights in Connecticut–and of the rights of all believers of whatever faith or denomination.

How fortunate Connecticut is to have the continuing leadership of Bridgeport Bishop William E. Lori, a John Paul II-style bishop with an apostolic soul and a penchant for hiring people like himself. We are grateful for Chancellor Matthews’ service to our state and we look forward to working with her successor.

Forwarded to FIC:

Recent attacks against churches in Iraq and Egypt demonstrate that Christianity faces an uncertain future in the Middle East. This one-day conference, on January 21, 2012, from 9 AM - 4 PM, will bring together representatives from the Christian communities in Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt to speak about the day-to-day threats faced by Christians in the Middle East. Activists serving the persecuted church in Muslim-majority countries will describe their efforts to promote human rights in the Middle East. The conference will be held at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel and Conference Center on 1657 Worcester Road, Framingham, MA 01701. To register or for questions, visit camera.org/events/#persecutedchurch or contact Josh Mellits, Events Planning Associate, at josh@camera.org or call 617.789.3672 or 888.736.3672.

[Update: The Bridgeport March for Life has been moved to Jan. 28 because of the expected snow.]

I mentioned previously that I will not be at the Hartford March for Life this year. However, I will be the keynote speaker for the Bridgeport March for Life on Saturday, January 21st. Details courtesy of the organizers, Connecticut chapter of Operation Save America:

Roe V Wade 39th Memorial, January 2[8], 2012, Saturday, 8:30 AM, 3787 Main Street, Bridgeport

Please come take a public stand against abortion. It’s been 39 years since legalized abortion in our nation and 60 million children are dead. The church needs to rise up and say “NO MORE!” We will be having a memorial service to remember all the children that have been killed by abortion. Peter Wolfgang from the CT Family Institute will be our keynote speaker. We will also have clergy, statesmen, testimonies and music. OSA-CT (203-878-3126)

The National Catholic Register has a breakdown on March for Life events nationwide, including Bridgeport.

Remember school choice? The Connecticut chapter of Americans for Prosperity do, and they are taking part in a simulcast event on it Jan. 26th. We encourage our homeschooling friends–and others who care about parents having more say in their children’s education–to attend. Details are provided by AFPF-CT:

American 15-year-olds rank 35th out of 57 countries in math and literacy!  America shouldn’t be 35th in anything.  It’s time to Restore American Exceptionalism!  Rather than protecting and promoting failure, let’s put our kids first. Let’s do even more to support the teachers and the schools that are succeeding, but let’s hold those that are failing firmly accountable. Whether it’s a private school, a charter school, or a traditional public school, parents should have the right to choose the school that will do the best job educating my children. Every child deserves the best education we can give them – and every family has a right to choose the education that’s best for their child. Restoring American exceptionalism to our schools and putting kids first isn’t a Republican issue or a Democrat issue.  It’s an American issue.  Join the conversation today! Join AFPF-Connecticut in a simulcast event with everything you need to know about school choice!

When:  Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 7:00p Where: SBC Restaurant & Brewery 850 W Main Street Branford, CT

Register here.

A “gay nativity scene” at a church in California has been vandalized and we are immediately informed that it will be investigated as a hate crime.

A Bible-burning vandal damages New Haven’s Christmas tree–possibly soaking the holy book with something to increase the fire–and authorities call it “unfortunate.” A person deliberately crashes his car into Fairhaven’s nativity scene, destroying the figures of the Holy Family while leaving other figures untouched, and we are merely told that the creche has been repaired.

Are these incidents also being investigated as hate crimes? Or does your Christmas scene need a gay couple to qualify?

The Rally for Life in Hartford will be  January 21, 2012, the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Sponsored by Helpers of God’s Precious Infants and supported by the CT Coalition for Life, the Family Institute of Connecticut and St. Gerard’s Center for Life, the March will begin with a 9 am Mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral (140 Farmington Ave.) presided over by Archbishop Henry Mansell. Following Mass, people will march to the state Capitol for prayer and then proceed inside the building to hear pro-life speakers. State Capitol activities begin at 10:30 am. For more information, contact Fr. Anthony DiMarco at 860-928-6535.

In 2009, the CT Coalition for Life asked FIC to help with this annual Hartford March for Life. We boosted their numbers from 50 to about 300 and I personally hosted the speakers program in the Capitol for three years in a row. Though I will not be available to MC the Hartford March this year, FIC endorses this event and we encourage everyone to attend. The Hartford March for Life’s higher turnout has held steady during the three years FIC hosted the speakers portion and we hope that will continue in our absence.

[Update: I will be keynoting the Jan. 28 Bridgeport March for Life.]

The Pro-Life Ministry of the Archdiocese of Hartford is also sponsoring a pilgrimage to Washington, DC for the 2012 March for Life. All are welcome to join in this national gathering. The prayerful pilgrimage is an opportunity to witness firsthand the hundreds of thousands of pro-life supporters who oppose the taking of the most innocent among us, the unborn. Most impressive is the tremendous number of youth who are dedicated to reversing the law that allows this travesty.

Mainstream  media will never show how truly enormous is this March for Life. Each year the numbers marching are tremendous and it will be in our nation’s capital, Washington, DC, where, we believe, this terrible law will one day be overturned.

Buses will leave the Franciscan Life Center on Sunday, January 22, 2012 and return Monday night, January 23. Mass will be celebrated in our hotel by Archbishop Henry Mansell, followed by breakfast and speaker, Monsignor James Moroney from the Diocese of Worcester. To learn more about the pilgrimage and to download the registration form, please go the Pro-Life Ministry website: www.prolifeministry.org

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has overruled an FDA recommendation to allow minor girls unfettered access to Plan B, the “emergency contraceptive” that may act as an abortifacient. This is the same drug that our state government, in violation of basic religious liberty, forces Connecticut’s Catholic hospitals to provide.

Society should always do what it takes to protect children and respect parents’ rights. While HHS made the right call here, we anticipate more pressure and underhanded tactics from abortion activists and the drug companies. Unfortunately, history has shown that this Administration is happy to play ball with Big Abortion and Big Pharmaceutical when it can advance its anti-life, anti-family, anti-freedom agenda.

What We’re Up Against

The Connecticut Post is running a fawning, puff-piece series on Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy’s first year in office. The series inadvertently reveals what we are up against–and why Family Institute of Connecticut is so crucial to faith and family in our state.

There is, for instance, this in the first installment:

[Dannel Malloy] remembers his mother sitting there with him. She was devout in the standard way — obedient to the Church teachings she agreed with, stubbornly resistant to the rules that were obviously wrong.

Only in the mind of a liberal newspaper reporter would pick-and-choose cafeteria Catholicism be considered “devout in the standard way.” (You can read one response to the Post’s anti-Catholic bias here.)

Values?

More to the point, Malloy’s misunderstanding of his faith has had serious anti-family consequences for our whole state. From the second installment of the Post puff piece:

[Andrew] McDonald is also part of the reason they jokingly refer to themselves as “the gayest administration ever.” It is a reflection of Malloy’s profound progressiveness on social and gender matters, even for a Democrat, that they so readily joke about it. It is also a reflection of the personal pride the governor takes in the politics of inclusion. It is no mistake that Malloy lobbies hard in the final hours before a vote on new anti-discrimination protections for transgendered people. His friend Rachel, a former colleague in Stamford, has been through transition. Malloy’s personal loyalties coincide with the assumption that they all share about the inevitability of equality. They’re getting on the right side of history. That’s one thing Malloy’s friends love about him. After the bill passes, McDonald tells the governor, brightly: “All the trannies love you!” He smiles and laughs.

This is what we are up against. FIC was the only group to lead the fight against the Bathroom Bill, which allows “transgender” men to teach small children and to enter women’s bathrooms. When others shrunk back, we took up the fight. Without FIC, there would have been no organized resistance to the Bathroom Bill at all.

Virtually alone against the self-described “gayest administration ever,” we lost the Bathroom Bill fight by only three votes. But the details of that loss showed the sign of our growing strength.

In 2005, legislators in both parties abandoned us on gay civil unions and the bill was signed into law by a Republican governor. But this year, 2011, we persuaded the entire GOP–and several Democrats–to stand with us against the Bathroom Bill, something we have never accomplished before. The strength of the pro-family vote was so surprising to Connecticut’s power establishment that it led to a Courant article exploring the shift at the Capitol.

This is the value of FIC. We can build on this success, this near-miss in defeating the Bathroom Bill, in ways that we could not when we lost the 2005 civil union bill. Even against the “gayest administration ever”–especially against an administration that would describe itself in that manner–FIC is more crucial to the fight for faith and family in Connecticut than we have ever been before.

But we need your help to keep our momentum going. Please go to our homepage, please donate and please also sign up for our email alerts. Watch your in-boxes for information on what you can do to defend faith and family in our state–even under the shadow of the self-described “gayest administration ever.”