Upcoming Meetings

Erik Jazwiecki Grand Knight KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS Stuart Altschuler, PGK Financial 6 Wyoming Avenue Moorestown Council, No. 1082 Secretary Audubon, NJ 08106 4 Bramley Road 856-546-0553 Chartered January 28, 1906 Moorestown, NJ 08057 ` [email protected] 856-235-7076 [email protected] January 2014 Newsletter

Upcoming Meetings: Tuesday 1-7-2014-8:00pm Officers’ Meeting Heritage House Thursday 1-9-2014-7:45pm Business Meeting Cafeteria Thursday 1-23-2014-8:00pm Social Meeting TBD Tuesday 2-4-2014-8:00pm Officers’ Meeting Heritage House Thursday 2-6-2014-7:45pm Business Meeting Cafeteria

Grand Knight’s Comments:

Happy New Year! Below you will find the latest news regarding our Council!

Past Events

Our Council sold "Keep Christ in Christmas" signs over several weekends in December. We sold approximately 225 signs and raised over $430 for Options for Women. Thanks to all those who helped out.

The council held a 1st degree as part of the monthly business meeting on December 5th. We had 10 new members join our Council. Congratulations and welcome to all of our new members. Please take the time to make our new members feel welcome. If you see an unfamiliar face at a meeting or event, introduce yourself and make a new member feel welcome. We are targeting another Open House / 1st degree sometime soon for recruits that couldn’t make the last one.

Our annual Lunch with Santa was held on December 7th in the OLGC School Cafeteria. We had a good turnout at this event and everyone had a good time. Thanks to everyone who helped out, especially Brother Greg Klint and Mike Olshansky who once again headed up this important event.

The Council Christmas Dinner was held Thursday, December 13th at Al Dente in Moorestown. 25 Knights and their wives attended, and a festive pre-Christmas celebration was had by all.

Upcoming Events

On January 11, 2014 the Knights will gather at the Mt Carmel Cemetery to remove all Christmas grave decorations and load a truck which will take the material to a landfill. We will meet at 9:00 AM. With enough help we should complete this activity in about two hours. Family members are invited and this is a good opportunity to earn service hours for those who need them. Contact Thom Scattaregia, [email protected], or 856-235-5240 to volunteer for this project.

We will be conducting our annual Baby Bottle Drive on the weekend of January 18th and 19th to coincide with the March for Life which will be held in Washington, D.C. on January 22nd.

The annual Free Throw Competition is tentatively scheduled for January 22nd. The competition will be held in the OLGC gym. John Glowacki is heading up the event and is looking for a few volunteers to help out with this event. If you are interested in helping out please contact John at [email protected]. More details to follow.

On February 16th, in the Main Church, the council will be sponsoring a concert by Marty Rotella. Here is a link to his website - http://www.martyrotella.com/. This should be an exciting event to take the whole family to.

Over the next few months, the Council will be selling Phillies Raffle tickets. Tickets are $5. First prize is two lower-level tickets plus parking to 14 Sunday Phillies games. Second prize is a big screen TV. Proceeds benefit our council. As an incentive, any Knight who sells 9 tickets get one ticket for themselves to enter in the raffle. Please let me know if you are interested in purchasing tickets. District Deputy – Ed Michalak: Congratulations to the Grand Knight and Membership Director (Joe Maguire) for an excellent job with the Fall recruitment program. Recruiting new members is essential to the continued growth and well-being of our Council and the Order. Membership in the Knights of Columbus gives the Catholic gentleman the opportunity to improve his own life and his community. Membership allows him to experience the fraternal bond that Knights share while growing closer to his family and faith. Please consider running another successful recruitment program this spring. Financial Secretary’s Message – Stuart Altschuler:

Please let us know if you've volunteered your time outside of the Knights of Columbus. Did you know that in 2012, members of the Knights of Columbus contributed 70 million hours of volunteer service? How do we know that? Because you tell us! Please estimate the total time you spent volunteering your time outside the Knights in 2013 (just a rough estimate is fine) and send it to [email protected] or call 856.235.7076 by January 25. Note that this includes a broad array of activities including Church ministries, community and service activities, volunteer board membership, and athletic coaching.

Religious and Civil Liberties Director – Dave Lyzinski: It now appears that the Doctor Assisted Suicide Bill will not be voted on during the lame duck session of the legislature.

This month we need to turn our attention once again to the issue of religious liberty. When the New Jersey Court legalized same-sex marriage, it did not provide any protection for organizations and individuals who had religious objections to same sex marriage. Without protection for religiously affiliated organizations, groups like the Knights of Columbus can be forced to participate in evil by having to rent our homes for same-sex marriage festivities. The legislature is now undecided as to whether this kind of protection should be provided by law. We need to help them decide. They are being heavily pressured to do nothing and to leave us without protections. See the very biased Star Ledger blog where they refer to such protections as ugly concessions: http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2013/12/gay_marriage_is_baaaack_editor.html

Please contact your legislators and demand legal protection for organizations and individuals that have religious objections to same-sex marriage. When writing please note that the LGBTE lobby is insisting that any such legislation only exempt the Knights of Columbus and similar organizations if they rent their halls only to their own members. This is unacceptable.

Pro-Life Director – Joe Graham: The Supreme Court has agreed to take two cases challenging the Obamacare anti-conscience mandate. Oral arguments will be heard in the spring. Over 80 lawsuits with over 200 plaintiffs have been filed based on alleged violations of the First Amendment. The mandate requires employers to provide and pay for coverage of contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs even if doing so violated personal beliefs.

The First Amendment, which states in part, that no law should be enacted that would prohibit the free exercise of religion is the basis for the lawsuits. The argument is that "Americans do not forfeit their freedoms by going into business, and the anti-conscience mandate is inconsistent with the protection of religious freedom enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act." As I see it, after feeling confident in thinking that we knew how Justice Roberts would vote, the outcome of this case is anyone's guess. Prayers to protect the unborn as well as our consciences are very much called for.

Church Director – Tom Bell: FEBRUARY 1. 2014: 1st Saturday Devotion: Crypt Chapel following the 9:00 AM Mass MARCH 18, 2014 Options Annual Banquet, details to follow MARCH 29, 2014: KofC Memorial Mass, 5:00 PM, Main Church JUNE 20- 22 Council Retreat, St. Joseph's in the Hills, Malvern, PA

For details call Tom Bell 856-235-6266 or [email protected]

Vivat Jesus, Erik Jazwiecki, Grand Knight