Category: Guild Activity

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White Mass – Save the Date!

We are excited to announce that the Finger Lakes Guild White Mass will be held at Sacred Heart Cathedral on October 27th at 11:15am. More details come soon. We hope to see you there!

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Announcing New FLG Officers!

It is with great excitement that we would like to announce the new Finger Lakes Guild Officers!

President – Angela Kristan, MD, MTS

Vice President – Bryan Stanistreet, MD

Treasurer – Alison Carroll, DO will continue in this role

Immediate Past President – Thomas Carroll, MD, PhD will move into this role to assist in a smooth leadership transition.

Thank you to our Officers, Board Members, and Guild Members for all of your hard work and dedication, especially over these past few challenging years!

We look forward to continuing our service to the Rochester Diocese.

St. Basil the Great, Pray for Us!

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Catholic Conversations – Death with True Dignity

January 15, 2022 from 8:30am to 1pm

We are excited to announce that, in cooperation with Mt. Carmel House, St. Bernard’s and the Diocese of Rochester, the Symposium has been resuscitated!

COVID-permitting we will offer an in-person option, though either way, the Symposium will be available via Zoom.

We welcome you would like to join in-person (COVID permitting) or virtually! Please register here!

We will address important topics and questions around common and challenging end of life issues, including…

  • Why does the Church teach that? (Foundations of Catholic Teaching)
  • Does Hospice mean I’m giving up?
  • I don’t need a Health Care Proxy because my wife will make decisions if I can’t.
  • I don’t want Hospice because they’re going to kill me with morphine!
  • But if I start the feeding tube, then the Church says I can never stop it…right?

…and many more…

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Catholic Wellness Answers

FLG President Tom Carroll will be the featured guest on Catholic Wellness Answers, a webcast of MyCatholicDoctor, on November 9th from 8-9pm. He will be discussing, and taking audience questions on, all things Palliative Care including symptom management, advance care planning, end of life decisions/care, and how to talk to your doctor to make sure your wishes and values are known.

Stay tuned for more details, including the video conference link!

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Ready for the next vaccine controversy?

We can only imagine that the next Pfizer and BioNTech mRNA vaccine, this time for influenza (and RSV…and likely many, many more to come), is likely to have the same ties to morally tainted cell lines as their COVID-19 vaccine.

We hope that, at worst, the new Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA influenza vaccines will, like COVID-19 vaccine, utilize morally compromised cell lines only in the confirmatory lab testing phase, and not in Design & Development or Production. Regardless, this is the time for each of us make our voices heard. Please reach out in writing and/or by phone to any and all of the groups listed below to let them know that morally-acceptable vaccines, in addition to be the right thing to do, will be the most commercially successful as well!

Remember…while the Holy Father, through the CDF, and our Bishops (along with others) have been clear that while we are able to accept the currently-available COVID-19 vaccines with a clear conscience, we are also obligated to both avoid scandal and advocate for the development of vaccines that are developed in morally acceptable ways. The advocacy can take many forms, including…

  • Donating to organizations that are developing such vaccines, including the JP2 Medical Research Institute
  • Thanking companies that are developing morally acceptable vaccines including Sanofi Pasture (Human Life Action provides a convenient contact template for Sanofi specifically) and urging them, if they were to create future morally acceptable vaccines.
  • Urging companies that are almost there with COVID-19 vaccine to switch utilize fully morally acceptable vaccine development processes in the future. You can contact Pfizer here and Moderna here.
  • The USCCB has sample letters to vaccine-producing companies urging them to produce morally acceptable vaccines
  • Charitably admonishing companies that are not almost there (i.e., developing very morally problematic vaccines) to change course. AstraZeneca is the company closest to getting a severely morally problematic vaccine approved and can be contacted here.