Family Institute of Connecticut & Fortnight for Freedom!
June 21st, 2012 by Peter
[Update: Although the Fortnight for Freedom has come and gone, FIC’s 2012 Religious Liberty Tour will continue. The speaking schedule at the end of this blog post will be updated regularly with more events.]
You know about the increasing attacks on religious liberty overseas and even here in our own country. In fact, if you are a regular reader of FIC’s email alerts, you know that Connecticut is oftentimes the first place where attacks on faith and family are launched and that the Family Institute of Connecticut plays a key role in fighting back.
In the last few years FIC has become a de-facto anti-defamation league for Christians and other people of faith in Connecticut. We helped beat back an outrageous legislative assault on the Catholic Church. We secured the strongest religious liberty protections against same-sex “marriage” in the nation. We defended First Cathedral, a Baptist mega-church in Bloomfield, against the ACLU.
As a guarantor of religious freedom in Connecticut, it was natural for FIC to take up the fight against the federal HHS mandate, which will require religious institutions and other employers of conscience to pay for and provide abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilizations even if it violates their beliefs.
This is not just a Catholic issue. If the federal government can do this to the biggest religious denomination in the country then it has the power to force all of us, whatever our denomination, to violate our beliefs.
That is why Family Institute of Connecticut is pleased to join the Catholic Church, the Family Research Council and other organizations in observing a “Fortnight for Freedom,” a period of prayer and public education beginning today (June 21) and concluding on America’s Independence Day, July 4th. These two weeks have been set aside to celebrate our heritage of religious liberty and educate the American people about the growing threats to our first freedom.
At the request of the Archdiocese of Hartford, FIC executive director Peter Wolfgang has been on a speaking tour in local churches to make people aware of how the HHS Mandate threatens our freedoms and what we can do about it. But religious liberty isn’t just a Catholic issue. The stakes are enormous…and all people of faith need to stand together to defend our freedom as believing citizens.
Below is the current list of Peter’s Presentations on Religious Liberty. Please join us at one of these events:
- Monday, June 25, 7:30 pm: Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, Chiara Center, San Damiano Room 275 Finch Ave, Meriden
- Tuesday, June 26, 7 pm: Face of Pro-Life live call-in TV show. Contact Friars of the Immmaculate at friars@figuadalupe.com to locate station near you.
- Saturday, June 30, 1 pm: My Father’s House, 39 North Moodus Road, Moodus
- Tuesday, July 3, 7 pm: St. Catherine of Siena, 265 Stratton Brook Road, West Simsbury
- Saturday, July 7, 12:05 pm: Special Edition Saturday on WATR, 1320 AM, Waterbury
- Tuesday, July 10, 7 pm: St. Joseph Church, 31 Oak Street, Winsted
- Sunday, July 22, 6:30 pm: Southbury Baptist Church, 114 Roxbury Road Southbury
- Tuesday, July 24, 7:30 pm: St. Joseph Parish Center, 48 Middlesex Ave, Chester
- Thursday, July 26, 7 pm: St. Augustine Church, 35 Washington Ave, Seymour
- Wednesday, August 1, 7:30 pm: Immaculate Conception, 74 West Main Street, Waterbury
- Friday, September 14, 7:30 pm: Knights of Columbus Council 1155, St. James Church Hall, 896 Main Street, Manchester
- Sunday, October 14, 5:00 pm: Church of the Nativity, 48 East Street, Bethlehem (starts with pot luck dinner)
- Monday, October 15, 1747 Poquonock Avenue, Windsor (tentative, to be confirmed)
- Saturday, October 27: Connecticut Catholic Men’s Conference, East Hartford (tentative, to be confirmed)
- Monday, October 29: Holy Trinity Parish, Wallingford (tentative, to be confirmed)
As you can see, the dates above extend well beyond the Fortnight for Freedom. If you are a religious institution in Connecticut that would like to have Peter as a speaker, please contact Mary Lou Peters at the Archdiocese’s Pro-Life Ministry office at 203-745-7300.
Though Peter’s appearances are being booked through the Archdiocese, we encourage you to call whether you are Protestant, Catholic or Jewish. As a non-sectarian pro-family organization, Family Institute of Connecticut defends the religious liberty of all believers in Connecticut.
This FIC Blog post, originally an email alert to our members, has already been updated to include information that was not in the original message. Be sure to check this post regularly for more updates. (And check out Peter’s response to a Hartford Courant editorial criticizing the Fortnight for Freedom.)
Hello FIC
We are very interested in having Peter Wolfgang come to speak at our parish in Colchester CT. I am on the staff at St. Andrew and my husband serves as the Deacon at our church. Nicole Peck is one of our parishioners. I know she occasionally speaks at the FIC rallies. If Peter is available to speak or be part of panel discussion at our parish, please let me know some available dates in the future. Probably Tuesdays at 7:30pm or Wednesdays at 7pm would be the best times until fall, at which time Sunday afternoons would also probably work.
God bless you!
Colleen Puscas, director of music and liturgy
St. Andrew Parish Colchester CT
Thanks! Please contact Mary Lou at the number in the blog post.
Thanks Peter for the GREAT talk at the Fortnight For Freedom Barbeque at My Father’s House. We have you and all the other speakers on DVD. Please let your people know if they would like a copy of the DVD to contact our office at (860) 873-1906 and speak to either Joanie or Dottie.
Your work at the Family Insitute gives us much hope. God Bless You and please come back soon.
Fr. Bill McCarthy, Mary Alice Rossini and all here at MFH
[…] that list of my upcoming speeches–and information on having me speak at your church–see the information at the end of this post. We will continue to update the list on that blog post as new events are […]
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