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- Newsletters -
March 2006 Dear Friends, In the wake of the disastrous decisions taken in our Parliament regarding the homicidal drug RU486, more than ever we are aware that we must awaken in all hearts the awareness of the sanctity of life from the moment of conception. With this in mind, more than ever in the past, we cannot impress on you enough the importance of celebrating the moment of the Conception of Our Dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which we celebrate on Saturday 25th March The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord - The Day of the Unborn Child
On the home front, some of you already know, and others not, that the Martellos have their home on the market. Having returned to NSW from far north Queensland, where we lived and raised our family for 14 years, we came to Lismore in December 1997. When we came we had no idea what was in store for us, and I can honestly say that this work has been the richest experience of my life. Since our arrival in Lismore, each of our three children has made his/her way to Sydney, where I originate. My 88-year-old Mother lives there and we feel that because of the difficulty in traveling we should move to the Hunter Region where Sydney would be more easily accessible. So we ask for your prayers: • That we will be able to sell our home soon without agent. • That we will be able to find a suitable home where we could care for Mum, if she so desires. • That Apostles for Life will continue to grow and go from strength to strength. I will continue to do what I can from a distance - e.g. the newsletter will continue, but obviously there will be some changes to be made and these can be worked out over time. The most important work - that of regular prayer before the Tabernacle - can be continued by our small enthusiastic group. I will keep you posted as to eventualities as they are revealed. This work is God’s work and He will show us the way we are to go if we pray and seek His Will.
Dear Angela and Nadir, I read your newsletter - thank you for all that you are doing. We are a small group here but still "hanging in". Yesterday Dianne took the National line (Pregnancy Helpline phone 1300 139 313)for the first 4 hours and received 4 calls, and I took it from 2 to 10pm and received 15 calls - so you see there is obviously a great need for our services. Love Fran Costa, Macksville Pregnancy Support
Dear Angela and Nadir, Thank you for your latest newsletter (I am in the process of sending out mine). It is as per usual an excellent newsletter. God Bless, Anne Lastman, Victims of Abortion.
Dear Angela and Nadir, Thank you for the newsletters. They are appreciated because they always end on a heartening and hopeful note – whatever the news. With all the grim stuff happening around us, they keep us in touch with each other’s efforts to hold it back. You encourage us to keep on plugging away, and we all need that encouragement sometimes. Please keep me on your mailing list. Dr Deirdre Little, GP-Obstetrician, Bellingen
Two-Child Policy Stalled in Filipino Congress Lack of Support Cited C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute) Friday Fax
Vol. 9, Number 10 | Feb 24, 2006
Proposed legislation in the Philippines that would impose radical limits on the number of children that families can have appears to have less support in the Congress than was once reported. But pro-family opponents of the bill warn that it remains on the legislative calendar and remains a threat despite the fact that the proposed act is very unpopular in the majority Catholic country. In January Friday Fax reported that some Filipino legislators, arguing that the Philippines needs a much more aggressive policy of population control, introduced a bill that is strikingly similar to the one-child policy of Communist China. The "Responsible Parenting and Population Control Act of 2005" includes a preference in education for 2-child families, free access to abortifacients, mandatory sex education for children as young as 10, and imprisonment penalties for health care providers who refuse to perform or provide sterilization services for a population that is 87% Catholic and 5% Muslim. At that time one sponsor of the act reported that he had the votes of 135 of 238 members of the Filipino House. It was thought that the bill could be debated and voted on at any time. It now appears that this particular statement was hyperbole. According to Eileen Macapanas Cosby, Executive Director of the Filipino Family Fund, the act was not debated, let alone passed, by the Filipino House last January. Nevertheless, Cosby warns that the bill remains a threat. She said supporters of the "2-child" policy have pressed on. According to Cosby, the act is "still on the schedule" of the House's legislative calendar, listed as "unfinished business," which means that it can be brought up for debate and a vote at any time during the early days of the work-week during any one of the next few weeks. If passed the act would provide for a centralized bureaucracy that would be run by three non-elected officials from NGOs. This new bureaucracy would oversee the implementation of the legislation. Cosby said the bill "paves the way" for "the kind of human rights nightmare that is already" taking place "in China, with its coercive sterilization and contraception practices." She calls the proposed bill "China-lite." Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is likely to veto the proposed act if it passes both houses of Congress. As in the American system, the act would then return to Congress where it must receive two thirds of the vote in both chambers to override the veto. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HOW THE SENATE VOTED ON RU486 AND SOME FACTORS ♀ - Member or supporter of Emily’s List (See explanation below) ⋔ - Member, all-party Parliamentary Group on Population & Development (See below) AYES
NOES
You can see from the code above that these two groups have quite and influence in Parliament EMILY'S LIST AUSTRALIA http://www.emilyslist.org.au/default.asp is a national organisation aimed at getting more progressive Labor women elected to Parliament. Formed in 1996, EMILY's List has provided crucial support to women seeking election to government. It has supported 101 new women MPs into parliaments around Australia. EMILY is an acronym: Early Money Is Like Yeast. It provides financial, training and mentoring support to endorsed candidates in State and Federal election campaigns. There are currently almost 3,000 members of EMILY's List across Australia. EMILY's List is a political network formed to increase the number of women Labor parliamentarians who are willing to support the crucial issues of childcare, equal pay, pro choice. Do you believe ….. that women should have control over their own bodies? Then you should support EMILY's List……… You don't have to be a member of the Labor Party to support EMILY's List. THE PARLIAMENTARY GROUP ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT (PGPD) http://www.pgpd.asn.au/about_pgpd.html was formed in 1995 to promote the Program of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994. The PGPD consists of cross-party members from the Commonwealth, State and Territory Parliaments of Australia who are dedicated to raising awareness on ICPD issues in Australian Parliaments, conferences and international meetings. The objectives of the PGPD are: • To engage members of the Australian federal and state Parliaments in supporting and promoting women’s human rights and empowerment in the Asia Pacific region; in particular their sexual and reproductive rights. • To advocate that at least 5% of Australia’s aid program expenditure be directed to population and development activities as set out in the ICPD. • To advocate and promote evidence-based policies and legislation on sexual and reproductive health care policies, practices and services. • To increase support for access to systems and services which enable women and men to improve their reproductive health care options. Many pro-lifers felt their hopes dashed when the final vote resulted in both Houses agreeing to take the responsibility for abortifacient drug, RU486, out of the hands of the Health Minister and give it directly to the TGA. These two political organizations I believe are very important. However, having given a lot of thought to this, I find myself thinking that we were fighting the wrong fight. Drastic as this result is for many babies and their mothers, a much more important issue is that of the widespread use of the abortifacient Pill. Until we fight and win the war against all chemical abortifacients, including the Pill, we can never hope to win the war against abortion. Contraception leads inexorably to abortion. All contraceptive pills and many contraceptive devices are abortifacient. All contraceptive pills on the market are designed in such a way that they sometimes cause abortions. The use of contraceptives is dependent on a mindset that will allow for abortion when the contraceptive fails. Is this why there is so much indifference to the death of children by abortion in our society? Secondly, we must protect our children from the abuse commonly known as sex education, and practiced in Catholic as well as state schools. Nobody has the right to usurp the responsibility of the parent, to invade the child’s privacy and sully the child’s innocence, and no child should ever be instructed in a group setting such as a classroom, and especially not a mixed sex classroom. This is Church teaching. Every parent has the absolute right and responsibility to remove their child from the spiritual, moral and psychological danger that is sex education. If we could win on these two fronts the abortion rate would drop drastically. And if we could get every pro-lifer to participate in the Spiritual adoption of the Unborn Child we would be home and hosed. RU486 was just the start of our training.
A True Story
After some time of talking with them the priest said: “I want you to make a novena(1) imploring the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the intercession of our Mother Mary and in honour of Saint Francis. And the intention is to be: either that you will conceive a child, or accept that the Will of God may be that you will not have children.” Then the priest blessed(2) the man , and through him, his wife. He could do that because the two are one flesh. Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. Gen 2:24 The couple did as the priest had advised, but they found it very difficult to pray the second intention: that they would accept God’s Will if children were not part of His plan for them. But pray it they did, for nine days running. The wife conceived during the novena! Their child, a boy, was born on October 4th - the feast of Saint Francis – and they named him…….yes you guessed it….Francis. They went on to have six beautiful children, and still are totally open to the Gift of Life. Let the whole of humanity tremble,
O admirable heights and sublime lowliness! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under the little form of bread! Look at the humility of God and pour out your hearts before Him! Humble yourselves as well, that you may be exalted by Him. Therefore, hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally. http://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/~mferrare/Novena/novena.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) A prayer of their choice, for example an Our Father, Hail Mary and Gloria, repeated for a period of nine days for a particular intention. (2) The priest’s blessing is of inestimable value here and ought not to be neglected. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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amartello@apostlesforlifesite.org
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Apostles
for Life News 
Letters to the Editor
One day a young husband was brought by his friend, to see and
talk to a Franciscan priest. He came because he and his wife were not able to
conceive a child, and they were considering, as a last ditch attempt to solve
their problem, using in-vitro-fertilization (IVF). They were both Catholics.
the whole world shake and the heavens exult when our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, is present on the altar in the hands of
a priest! 
