The Friends of the Poor® Walk is a unique national fundraising effort organized nationally and
locally by Councils and Conferences of the Society. It allows community members from all
walks of life across the country to participate in a simultaneous, nationwide event to raise
national awareness of the challenges faced by the nation’s poor and to raise significant funds
for use in direct service to the poor. All funds raised locally will be used locally.
The Third Annual Friends of the Poor® Walk will be held on Saturday, September 25, 2010. The
alternate date for this event is Sunday, September 26, 2010.
What are the benefits of hosting the Walk?
The Walk raises funds for direct service to the poor in your community.
The Walk raises awareness about the challenges faced by the nation’s poor.
The Walk increases the Society’s national visibility.
The Walk provides a terrific opportunity to involve members of your parishes and the
general public in helping the poor in your community.
The Walk helps develop significant public donor participation.
Other things to keep in mind
In 2009, the Walk raised over $1,235,000 in 158 Walk locations.
Everything you need to host a Walk is online at www.svdpfriendsofthepoorwalk.org.
Free t‐shirts are available for walkers who register before July 30th.
2010 Walk corporate sponsors are Ascension Health, Catholic Knights and Scottrade.
There will be national advertising for the Walk through TV, radio and print.
What should you do?
Invest in your community by hosting a Friends of the Poor® Walk in 2010. We know that, as we
work together, we can empower others to make a difference in our efforts to reduce poverty.
For questions about hosting a Walk in your community, please contact Jim Reason at (248)
960‐1173 or jrea4321@att.net
OR Pledge Jim Today by clicking this link.

RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE
DATE: July 6, 2010
TIME: 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 pm
PLACE: Zepf Hall (Lower Level)

Can you please give? All we need is a pint! It only takes a little more than an hour and you get cookies and juice when you’re done. Walk-ins are welcome. Drawing for prizes at the end of the blood drive for all who donate and attempt to donate. Thank you and hope to see you there!

The need is great and giving doesn’t get much easier than this:

Sign Up On-Line Today for a convenient appointment!!
Donors should go to www.redcrossblood.org
Enter SPONSOR CODE: STWILLIAM

Amid all the shouting, showmanship, and shell games surrounding the recently passed Health Care Legislation, there is a voice which has spoken clearly, consistently, and compassionately about the deficiency of the legislation.  While politicians of every persuasion fail to acknowledge the fundamental human rights which the legislation suppresses – the right to life – few give an ear to their declaration.  Even those in the news media who should be the most pertinacious of professionals to decry the abridgement of personal rights and free choice which this legislation portends, ignore the urgings of this voice of reason which simply points to the fact that in America we have passed legislation which will require its citizens to repudiate their faith and morals  to obtain health insurance which makes them complicit in an objective evil.

The issue and the objection are not so complicated as some would have us think.  It is ‘bad’ even ‘evil’ legislation not because it does no good, but because it is deficient of a greater good that it ought to include — it is deficient in being as good as it could and ought to be.  The US Conference of Catholic Bishops have stated their case in well-reasoned and clear statements time and again.  Their arguments and position would win the day in any objective debate, unfortunately reason and objectivity have been ignored and a fundamentally flawed piece of legislation has been passed.

Please take time to read the excerpted statement which follows:

US Bishops: Ills of Health Bill Outweigh Benefits

Express Disappointment Over Legislators’ Push for Abortion
WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 16, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Faced to an upcoming vote on health care reform, the U.S. bishops are protesting that the current bill contains too many objectionable items.

The prelates are “disappointed and puzzled” by recent advances in the process, said Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, in a statement released Monday.

He said that the conference is disappointed “to learn that the basis for any vote on health care will be the Senate bill passed on Christmas Eve.”

The House is expected to vote on this bill before the end of the month. President Barack Obama is currently lobbying lawmakers in order to rally support around the bill.

“Notwithstanding the denials and explanations of its supporters,” the cardinal explained, “and unlike the bill approved by the House of Representatives in November, the Senate bill deliberately excludes the language of the Hyde amendment” in order to “expand federal funding and the role of the federal government in the provision of abortion procedures.”

“In so doing, it forces all of us to become involved in an act that profoundly violates the conscience of many, the deliberate destruction of unwanted members of the human family still waiting to be born,” he said.

Minority rules

The prelate pointed out that these steps were taken by lawmakers despite the fact that “the provisions of the long standing Hyde amendment, passed annually in every federal bill appropriating funds for health care” reflects “the will of the majority of our fellow citizens.”

As well, he added, it goes against the fact that “the American people and the Catholic bishops have been promised that, in any final bill, no federal funds would be used for abortion and that the legal status quo would be respected.”

Cardinal George summarized several points that the bishops find “deeply disturbing about the Senate bill.”

“In the Senate bill,” he said, “there is the provision that only one of the proposed multi-state plans will not cover elective abortions — all other plans (including other multi-state plans) can do so, and receive federal tax credits.”

“This means that individuals or families in complex medical circumstances will likely be forced to choose and contribute to an insurance plan that funds abortions in order to meet their particular health needs,” the prelate explained.

“Further,” he stated, “the Senate bill authorizes and appropriates billions of dollars in new funding outside the scope of the appropriations bills covered by the Hyde amendment and similar provisions,” which will ultimately be available “for elective abortions.”

“Additionally, no provision in the Senate bill incorporates the longstanding and widely supported protection for conscience regarding abortion as found in the Hyde/Weldon amendment,” the cardinal pointed out.

He asserted that “any final bill, to be fair to all, must retain the accommodation of the full range of religious and moral objections in the provision of health insurance and services that are contained in current law, for both individuals and institutions.”

Fundamentally flawed

The conference president stated that the bishops “judge that the flaws are so fundamental that they vitiate the good that the bill intends to promote.”

The archbishop of Chicago added, “Assurances that the moral objections to the legislation can be met only after the bill is passed seem a little like asking us, in Midwestern parlance, to buy a pig in a poke.”

“What is tragic about this turn of events is that it needn’t have happened,” he continued. “The status quo that has served our national consensus and respected the consciences of all with regard to abortion is the Hyde amendment.”

Cardinal George observed: “The House courageously included an amendment applying the Hyde policy to its health care bill passed in November.

“Its absence in the Senate bill and the resulting impasse are not an accident. Those in the Senate who wanted to purge the Hyde amendment from this national legislation are obstructing the reform of health care.”

“The deliberate omission in the Senate Bill of the necessary language that could have taken this moral question off the table and out of play leaves us still looking for a way to meet the President’s and our concern to provide health care for those millions whose primary care physician is now an emergency room doctor,” he said.

The cardinal underlined two principles that underlie the concerns of the U.S. bishops: “health care means taking care of the health needs of all, across the human life span; and the expansion of health care should not involve the expansion of abortion funding and of polices forcing everyone to pay for abortions.”

He concluded, “Because these principles have not been respected, despite the good that the bill under consideration intends or might achieve, the Catholic bishops regretfully hold that it must be opposed unless and until these serious moral problems are addressed.”

As Forwarded by:

Christopher M. Root
Chairman, Department of Catholic Charities
Diocese of Lansing
300 West Ottawa Street
Lansing, MI  48933

Read more: US Bishops: Ills of Health Bill Outweigh Benefits

When 11 of our high school youth group members travelled  with St. William of Vercelli  Knights of Columbus and Dads’ Club members to the 32nd Annual respect Life Dinner last Thursday, their presence at a table in the center of the room did not go unnoticed.  Check out the Saturday, March 27, 2010 Oakland Press article reprinted below:

By LAWRENCE M. VENTLINE
Special to The Oakland Press

“Everybody counts” was the message that resounded loud and clear during a Respect Life event at Burton Manor in Livonia.

Dozens of area metropolitan high school students from Oakland County and beyond chimed in with a crowd of 600 other anti-abortion advocates Thursday, including Archbishop Allen Vigneron, leader of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, who challenged participants at the 32nd annual Respect Life dinner to regroup, refocus and reaffirm “the voice of truth in the public square.”

He also advised participants to pause, reflect and pray.

Attorney General Mike Cox, among other civic and community leaders, including Pam Bouchard, were present.

Leaflets saying Cox is leading the fight against the just-passed health care legislation were passed out.

“Yes, we’re disappointed, but there is much work to do in enshrining rights to life that will have to follow implementing health care legislation,” Vigneron told the audience.

“What shall we do tomorrow and in the future to respect all of life from the womb to natural death?” he asked, urging pastors to partner with Respect for Life of Michigan, be vigilant for life and support the cause.

“For better or worse, we’re joined at the hip as we win some and lose some,” said Brian Cusack, director of development for the Right to Life of Michigan Educational Fund.

A $10,000 check from the Knights of Columbus Michigan State Council was presented to Right to Life, while others pledged financial support, including several tables of area high school students who chimed in.  This including Novi Catholic Central Jamal Jasser, who vowed to “help support the pro-life cause,” and Brendan McClorey, who said he wants “to get involved and stand up.”

Jessica Gatten of Walled Lake Western pledged to support the Knights in anti-abortion activity, while Livonia Ladywood student leader Katie McDonald “wanted to support a good cause,” and Walled Lake Northern’s Shelby Diftenderfer also aims to continue to work with pro-life.

Pontiac Notre Dame Prep student Daniel Terzano “believes that one day we, as a country, will be pro-life.”

South Lyon East High School student James Smith said: “I wanted to support what I believe in and be around others who share my beliefs.”

Several Oakland County clergy also attended, including the Highland Holy Spirit Parish pastor, the Rev. Leo Lulko.

“We love babies and can’t imagine anyone killing one,” said Janelle Radtke of Walled Lake St. Matthew Lutheran Church. Her husband, Gerry Radtke, who attends Our Savior Lutheran in Hartland, said he and his wife attend each other’s churches, supporting pro-life causes.

St. William of Vercelli Council and the St. William Dads’ Club sponsored three tables of guests including 10 high school students from the parish.  The evening was encouraging as guests  were reminded of the many positive steps being taken to promote a culture of life which recognizes, preserves, and promotes the dignity of the human person from which all other human rights flow.

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Everything, including your health, can change in the blink of an eye. Don’t put off today what can’t wait until tomorrow. As your professional Knights of Columbus agent, I urge you to make securing life insurance for you and your family a top priority.

It is my fraternal obligation to make sure that every member has the opportunity to protect his family with the Order’s top-rated insurance products.  I’ll work with you to put a plan in place that will help your family when that help is what they needed the most.

Your Knights of Columbus insurance program is second to none.  As the premier safety net for Catholic families for more than 126 years, our insurance program makes me proud. But I’m also concerned that too many of our brother Knights have not yet looked into the needs of their family. I suspect that, for many of them, life insurance has drifted to the backburner until tomorrow. Don’t be one of them; move your insurance needs to the forefront today.

Call me.  Let’s talk.

Todd Diffenderfer
Field Agent
Knights of Columbus

Catholics view donation as an act of charity and love. Transplants are morally and ethically acceptable to the Vatican.
In 1956, Pope Pius XII declared: “A person may will to dispose of his body and to destine it to ends that are useful, morally irreproachable and even noble, among them the desire to aid the sick and suffering…this decision should not be condemned but positively justified.”
In August 2000, Pope John Paul II told attendees at the International Congress on Transplants in Rome: “Transplants are a great step forward in science’s service of man, and not a few people today owe their lives to an
organ transplant. Increasingly, the technique of transplants has proven to be a valid means of attaining the primary goal of all medicine—the service of human life. … There is a need to instill in people’s hearts, especially in
the hearts of the young, a genuine and deep appreciation of the need for brotherly love, a love that can find expression in the decision to become an organ donor.”

In His Encyclical letter, Evangelium Vitae (On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life), Pope John Paul II observed: “There is an everyday heroism, made up of gestures and sharing, big or small, which build up an authentic culture of life. A particularly praiseworthy example of such gestures is the donation of organs in a morally acceptable manner.”

There’s no age limit for organ donation and many people with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, are still able to donate organs. Even people with HIV and hepatitis can donate to others with the same illnesses. Please don’t rule yourself out. Sign up today.

Register Online – Get Your Heart Logo

When you sign up on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry, you’ll get a heart emblem for your license and your name will appear on the state’s database.  Click the logo to the left to register today!  Indicate that you heard about the drive from”Religious Organization”/”Knights of Columbus”

RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE
DATE: March 7, 2010
TIME: 8:00 am to 1:30 pm
PLACE: Zepf Hall (Lower Level)

Can you please give? All we need is a pint! It only takes a little more than an hour and you get cookies and juice when you’re done. Walk-ins are welcome. Drawing for prizes at the end of the blood drive for all who donate and attempt to donate. Thank you and hope to see you there!

The merits of the “Ultrasound Program” which has been endorsed by Supreme was discussed with many positive comments many of which are summarized as follows:

Anecdotal evidence of ultrasound’s persuasive powers has been steadily accumulating since 1983, when two government researchers published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine on pregnant women who underwent ultrasound tests while considering abortions.

Viewing their unborn children early in pregnancy, before movement is felt by the mothers, may “influence the resolution of any ambivalence toward the pregnancy itself in favor of the fetus,” wrote Drs. John C. Fletcher, then of the National Institutes of Health, and Mark I. Evans, then of George Washington University Medical School. “Ultrasound examination may thus result in fewer abortions and more desired pregnancies.”

Fletcher and Evans wrote that one woman who had been beaten early in pregnancy was given the test to see whether her child had been injured in the womb. When she saw the image of her child moving on the screen, she said: “I feel that it is human. It belongs to me. I couldn’t have an abortion now.” Another woman, 10 weeks pregnant, said after her ultrasound exam: “I am going all the way with the baby.”

Pregnancy centers from Joplin, Mo., to Denver, Co., report that many women and their partners leaning toward abortion change their minds after ultrasound exams. Dorothy Wallis of the Care Pregnancy Clinic in Baton Rouge, La., reports that 98 percent of women who have ultrasounds choose to carry to term.

In light of the potential to save many unborn children AND improve prenatal care and with regard to the good standing of the Lennon Pregnancy Center a motion was made from the floor at the Monday, April 1, 2010 Regular business meeting to donate $300.00 to the Fr. Patrick O’Kelley Council Ultrasonic Machine Fund.  The motion having been seconded shall be brought up for vote at the April 5, 2010 Regular Business Meeting.

GUEST SPEAKER

The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron Archbishop of Detroit is a trustee of the National Catholic Bioethics Center and the Catholic University of America. In the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Archbishop is a member of the Doctrine Committee and the Subcommittee on Catechism. He also serves on task forces for strengthening marriage and health care.

With his installation as the fifth Archbishop of Detroit in January 2009, he became Metropolitan Archbishop for the Province of Detroit (the seven dioceses of Michigan) and Chairman of the Michigan Catholic Conference. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Sacred Heart Major Seminary and SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake. He is Publisher of The Michigan Catholic newspaper.

EVENT SCHEDULE

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2010

BURTON MANOR
27777 Schoolcraft
Livonia, MI 48150

6:00 p.m.
Social Hour

7:00 p.m.
Dinner and Program

St. William of Vercelli Council 4064 has reserved tables at which there are still some available seats ($47.50 each).  We encourage you to consider attending this evening in support of Life and for the benefit of the Michigan Right to Life movement..

R.S.V.P. BY MARCH 10, 2010

Individual Ticket Price
$47.50 PER PERSON

Email Jim Simpson to reserve your spaces.