Issues

Catholic Charities Diocese of Trenton is in need of both monetary and food support, as donations have decreased in the past few months for its Community Services program.

“We count on the community to partner with us to help their neighbors in need,” said Arnold Valentin, director of Community Services. “So we’re putting out the call: We need help now. Please, do what you can, because your support can make a big difference for hundreds of people who live on the margins in our area.”

A partnership between two social service agencies is aiding the local community in new ways.

Habitat for Humanity of Burlington County and Greater Trenton-Princeton is partnering with fellow nonprofit Catholic Charities Diocese of Trenton to donate groceries, cleaning supplies and other household items they receive and cannot sell at their Maple Shade “ReStore” warehouse.

Dawn Teresa Parkot does not mince words when she speaks about the Aid in Dying bill.

“I firmly believe that assisted suicide is homicide and those who assist, regardless of their intentions, are guilty of taking a life just as surely as if they participated in a state-sanctioned execution,” Parkot said, using a computer-based communication system to speak.

A bill that would allow terminally ill residents to end their lives now goes to the New Jersey governor after passing both houses of the state Legislature March 25.

The Aid in Dying bill, A1504/S1072, passed the Assembly 41-33 and the Senate 21-16.

Moments before the vote, Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-26, addressed his colleagues, saying, “This bill will make New Jersey neither more compassionate nor more just.”

Pro-life advocates are urging state residents to contact their legislators in opposition to a bill that would allow terminally ill adults to end their lives.

On March 25, the Aid in Dying bill, A1504/S1072, will be voted on in both the state Senate and Assembly.

Pro-life advocates were dealt a setback Feb. 7 as legislation that would allow terminally ill adults to end their lives advanced in the state Legislature.

By a vote of 6-3, the Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee voted in favor of the “Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Act” (S1072/A1504). It now goes to the Senate Budget Committee.

New Jersey’s minimum wage earners will now see a steady increase to $15 an hour under a bill signed into state law Feb. 4 by Gov. Phil Murphy.

The long-debated increase will happen incrementally, with most of New Jersey’s low-wage workers seeing a rise to $10 an hour in July, and a jump of another $1 each January until reaching $15 an hour in 2024. The current rate is $8.85 an hour.

WASHINGTON – Everything old is new again. Even if it’s 100 years old.

Some U.S. bishops, just months after the end of the Great War – better known today as World War I – met to assemble a proposal for a “reconstruction” program for the country now that the war had ended.

The government shutdown has impacted a housing program run by Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton, leaving 27 homeless or recently homeless adults with an uncertain future.

The federal funding for Catholic Charities’ Rapid Rehousing program in Mercer County would have been renewed this month – but wasn’t because of the shutdown, which now exceeds 24 days. The emergency-housing program serves 17 single homeless adults, with another seven on the waiting list.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Jan. 8 a bill that doubles funding for security in nonpublic schools.

Under the bill, religious and private schools in the state will see security funding increase from $75 to $150 per student. The additional $11.3 million in funding will go to various security measures and upgrades.

The New Jersey assisted suicide bill, which was scheduled for a vote Oct. 29, has been postponed to an undetermined later date.

Patrick R. Brannigan, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops, said that the delay is an opportunity for people to call their legislators and let them know why they oppose assisted suicide.