followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)
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April 27, 2010
Dear Friend of Life, Last week I returned to Priests for Life headquarters from Birmingham. The building is still not back to normal yet. That's why I've sent you this email. I'm counting on you to ... ... click here click here and send Priests for Life the largest gift you can! That's because, just before I left for EWTN, a second rain storm hit Staten Island and turned what was already a bad situation into a much worse one. In all, twelve offices have suffered mild to severe water damage. So has our chapel, our computer server room, our phone center, our conference room ... in all, about 2,000 square feet of work space has been damaged. Some more severely than others. All totaled, repair costs are going to run closer to $150,000 ... not the $110,000 figure I gave you in my prior email about this. And every dollar we have to spend on repairs is one less dollar we have to spend on our critical “Political Responsibility” effort during this year's important election season. That's why it is so vital that you click here and send Priests for Life the largest contribution you can so that we can recoup money spent on repairs and keep all of our election-related projects on track. Just so you know, here's a more precise breakdown of damage and repair cost. The heaviest damage was to the room which houses our phone center as well as our computer storage server. The phone system has to be completely replaced. As does the environmental sensor system which protects all of this sensitive electronic equipment. I'm just grateful our main computer server wasn't in that room. I shudder to think of what it would have cost us to replace that unit ... not to mention the hours it would have taken to get everything back up and running. As it is, it will cost upwards of $50,000 to replace the phone system and the computer equipment. In the offices and chapel, the wallboard around all the windows is completely ruined and has to be replaced. But before those repairs could be done, we had to put down a mold preventative. Unfortunately, while we were in the midst of doing all that, the second storm hit and undid much of the work done up to that point. That happened just days before I left for EWTN. The mold preventative treatment had to be done a second time. And the drying out process had to be extended as more water seeped into outer walls. I am especially upset over the damage done to the chapel. Little by little over the past six years we had put nice touches on the chapel. Religious art. Beautiful stations of the cross. Stained glass windows. Well, some of the art is now ruined. The stations should be okay. But like the other offices, the wallboard around the windows is ruined. The chapel is still functional for daily Mass as well as morning, noon and evening prayer .. but only barely. The total repair estimate is as follows: 1. Phone system/computer server: $ 50,000 2. Replacement of dry wall in 12 offices, conference room, chapel – including mold treatment: $ 80,000 3. Clean-up of building plus restoration of damaged areas: $ 15,000 Total estimate .................................................................. $145,000 As you can see, it's not pretty. And it's not cheap. But what makes all this especially disheartening is the timing of it all. As you know only too well, Congress has passed sweeping changes to our nation's health care system. Not content with having abortion-on-demand as the law of the land throughout all nine months of pregnancy, these pro-abortion extremists have decided to force you and me to pay for the slaughter of our innocent unborn brothers and sisters. Their actions fly in the face of what the majority of Americans want and believe. But these anti-life fanatics simply don't care. What's more, they have any number of individuals giving them political cover. I found it particularly galling when the leaders of many of the major "Catholic" women's religious orders in the United States sent a letter to every member of the House of Representatives claiming to represent 59,000 women religious. Contrary to the position of our bishops, they wrote: "We write to urge you to cast a life-affirming 'yes' vote when the Senate health care bill (H.R. 3590) comes to the floor of the House for a vote as early as this week. ... We urge you to vote 'yes' for life by voting yes for health care reform in H.R. 3590. Those statements are outrageous and only served to give political cover to those lawmakers who wanted this so-called "health care reform" no matter how it impacted the youngest members of our human family. Echoing the feelings of many of his brother bishops, Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin pointed out that these nuns were "hoping that the fog of confusion would conceal their real intent." My response to their letter was simply this: It is absurd to advocate social justice while risking the expansion of a holocaust. The right to life is at the heart of social justice. We can't pursue one by sacrificing the other. Thankfully those nuns were not the only ones making their voices heard in Congress. Writing on behalf of the Membership of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, Mother Mary Quentin Sheridan, R.S.M., spoke out eloquently in defense of the unborn when she wrote: "The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious …finds the provision of the bill to include expansion of abortion funding and fails to include conscience protection. We believe the bill needs to include the Hyde Amendment as passed by the House in November. Protection of life and freedom of conscience are central to morally responsible judgment. We join the bishops in seeking ethically sound legislation." But, of course, media that have an anti-life agenda reported on the first letter and ignored the second. Priests for Life worked hard, however, to get some media attention for the second letter. For example, on the day of the health care vote, I had the privilege to preach to a room full of members of Congress and their families and staff during a prayer service held in the US Capitol! We need to spare no expense and overcome all hurdles in our mission to spread our pro-life message far and wide. And we need to do so for the simple reason that we are the majority! Poll after poll and survey after survey yields the same result. Namely that ... ... most Americans share our belief in the sacredness of human life and their disapproval of abortion-on-demand. Unfortunately, the constant drumbeat of anti-life misinformation is achieving its desired result and confusing people of good will ... most especially those who profess to be pro-life. How else do you explain the phenomenon of people who say they are pro-life voting for candidates who do not share their pro-life values? And that gets to the heart of the matter, which is this: We cannot expect our elected representatives to pass the right kind of laws unless we have the right kind of lawmakers in office. Which is why Priests for Life is pulling out all the stops to make sure every American who identifies himself as pro-life gets involved in this year's electoral process. Most important of all, we must make sure that when they go into the voting booth on November 2 ... ... they take their pro-life values and principles with them! And we will use every means of communication at our disposal to drive that message home: TV ... radio ... the Internet ... Facebook ... youtube ... email ... newsletters ... newspapers ... magazines ... letters to the editor ... appearances on talk radio ... EVERYTHING! To do so, however, we need your constant and generous financial support ... starting today with a special gift that will help cover the unexpected and budget-busting $145,000 we're having to pay to repair water damage to our Priests for Life headquarters. I am begging you to help. That $145,000 was intended for our "Political Respsonsibility" work. It must be replaced just as quickly as possible. So please click here and be as generous as you possibly can today. Of this much I can assure you: The expansion of abortion which Congress has enacted under the guise of health care reform" will be challenged! But in order for that challenge to have any chance of success, I need your help today. Thank you. And know that in grateful appreciation for all that you are doing to protect the youngest members of our human family, I remember you at each Mass that I say; as do all the priests here at Priests for Life. God bless. And if I may ask you one more favor. Each year I survey our supporters to learn how we can serve their needs more effectively. After giving your donation, would you take a moment and fill out the short survey I've placed at www.priestsforlife.org/survey. It is very important to me to know what you're thinking about our ministry! Sincerely yours in Christ, Fr. Frank Pavone National Director, Priests For Life and Gospel of Life Ministries PS I cannot overstate the urgency of my request of you today. As I've told others, our nation is at a crossroads. In a very real sense, we are at the very same point that Israel was just before crossing into the Promised Land. On that day God said to His Chosen People: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life that you and your descendants may live!" Well, our nation is about to have its own day of reckoning. It is this November 2. Election Day 2010. On that day we, as a people, will give God our choice. And it will be either death …or LIFE. We are called to elect leaders who understand the truth proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence; namely, that the first of the unalienable rights all Americans have is the RIGHT TO LIFE!!! The consequences of the choice our nation will make this November are very clear. To find out what they are, just read the 30th chapter of Deuteronomy. Thanks and God bless. NOTE: If you prefer to send a check, please make it out to Priests for Life and send it to us at PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314. If you have any questions, call us toll-free at 888-735-3448 x232. |
