Fourth Sunday of the Year A 30th January 2011

We are very pleased to welcome to the parish
TWO MEMBERS OF THE RELIGIOUS ORDER OF
THE HOLY FAMILY SISTERS OF THE NEEDY

Sr. Chinedum Nwadike and Mary Joseph Ogbuokiri, who are now living in Sherrick Green Rd, will be introducing themselves after Mass next weekend.
The Holy Family Sisters of the Needy was founded on 19th March 1983 by a Holy Ghost priest the Very Rev. Fr. Denis Mary Joseph Ononuju Cssp. This was in respone in response to the outcry and misery of poor and marginalized people following the Nigerian Civil war.Their charism is to care for and give solace to the Poor and the Needy. Though founded in Nigeria, it is a Missionary Religious Order. The spirituality of our Religious Order is modeled on that of St. Therese of Lisieux - the Little Way of St. Therese exemplified in love, simplicity of life and childlike confidence in God. Their motto is “I shall gladly spend and be spent for the poor.” They now run orphanages and residences for the elderly.
On 26th June 2007, Rt. Rev. Monsignor John Armitage, the Vicar General of the Catholic Diocese of Brentwood invited the “Sisters of the Needy” to open up a Mission in Brentwood Diocese. Now they have obtained a house in Sherrick Green Road. If anyone would like to contact them you do so through Clergy House, or email: holyfamilysrs@yahoo.co.uk, or meet them after next Sunday’s Mass, or any other they attend – their distinctive habit is dark blue.
In London they work with homeless girls and children, especially those who find themselves in difficult situations due to unwanted pregnancy. Some of them are being ejected by their boy friend, who would prefer abortion, or by their land lord, because their pregnancy would not allow them work and get money to pay their rent. The sisters also help in the Pastoral work of the Parish that they are attached to.
The final goal of all their work is helping them to experience the love of God, and so to know their great value. For further information about the Order visit the website at: www.hfsistersoftheneedy.org.

Second Sunday of the Year A 16th January 2011

This weekend we have the annual white flower collection for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. This group is involved in political battles. In the Pope’s new year message to the diplomatic corps he touched on some relevant aspects of these battles to our country.

Man is a religious animal
The religious dimension is an undeniable and irrepressible feature of man’s being and acting, ... It is indeed the first of human rights, not only because it was historically the first to be recognized but also because it touches the constitutive dimension of man, his relation with his Creator.

Marginalisation of religion in the West [The Pope referred to numerous specific instances where Christians are being violently persecuted, then he turned to the West]
... I think ... of countries which accord great importance to pluralism and tolerance, but where religion is increasingly being marginalized. There is a tendency to consider religion, all religion, as something insignificant, alien or even destabilizing to modern society, and to attempt by different means to prevent it from having any influence on the life of society. Christians are even required at times to act in the exercise of their profession with no reference to their religious and moral convictions, and even in opposition to them, as for example where laws are enforced limiting the right to conscientious objection on the part of health care or legal professionals.
... one can only be gratified by the adoption by the Council of Europe last October of a resolution protecting the right to conscientious objection on the part of medical personnel vis-à-vis certain acts which gravely violate the right to life, such as abortion.

Sex Education
... I exhort all governments to promote educational systems respectful of the primordial right of fam-ilies to make decisions about the education of their children ... I cannot remain silent about another attack on the religious freedom of families in certain European countries which mandate obligatory participation in courses of sexual or civic education which allegedly convey a neutral conception of the person and of life, yet in fact reflect an anthropology opposed to faith and to right reason. …

Religion is at the basis of true civilisation
…. there is a need to reject the dangerous notion of a conflict between the right to religious freedom and other human rights, thus disregarding or denying the central role of respect for religious freedom in the defence and protection of fundamental human dignity.... I would like once more to state forcefully that religion does not represent a problem for society, that it is not a source of discord or conflict. I would repeat that the Church seeks no privileges, nor does she seek to intervene in areas unrelated to her mission, but simply to exercise the latter with freedom. …
The sincere search for God has led to greater respect for human dignity.