Tag Archive for: Amendment 4

Open Letter to all 8 Catholic Bishops in our Beloved State of Florida

Dear Beloved Catholic Bishops of Florida:

Hope all is well with you and your respective diocese as we are 144 days away from the Most Critical Election in our lifetime…and, if we don’t get it right this time around – we can all kiss our Holy Rosaries goodbye and maybe look to moving to Belize or Costa Rica. That is how critical this November 5th election is and how critical “Voting NO on Amendment 4” is. And, that is what my letter of great concern is about today. This is quite urgent.

You all know me by now and my passion for protecting our beloved Holy Catholic Church and our Precious Pre-born. You know that I would put my life on the line for each and every one of you and for every priest in our Diocese of Palm Beach! Everyone knows that!! You receive a good 3 or 4 emails from me on a weekly basis. The biggest part of my 501C-3 Christian on a Mission ministry is to Protect the Unborn from the atrocities of Abortion. As you all know, I do not hold back when I do that, and I certainly do not hold back when I write Open Letters like this. Many people on my extensive “Pro-Life Email List” feel the same way, but are not nearly as BOLD and PASSIONATE as I am when it comes to expressing my Faith. Many are afraid to write what they feel because of the Powers that be, and may be reprimanded because perhaps they work for a certain diocese or maybe a Catholic Church. I work for the Kingdom and my Boss is God. I cannot be fired by God only because I do God’s work every day of the week and the benefits are out of this world!

I am not afraid to speak my mind and I never, ever, fear that something is going to happen to my 501C-3 nonprofit Christian on a Mission ministry. That’s why I chose that name for my ministry because it is a way of LIFE – where I put emphasis on the word LIFE! On the other hand, the Catholic Church is very scared to speak their mind because they fear that something will happen to their 501C-3 Tax Exempt status and this ridiculous thing they refer to as the Johnson Amendment. Please do not pay attention to this Johnson Amendment and let’s pay more attention to this frightening Amendment 4…

My all-time favorite pope – Saint John Paul II taught me one thing: BE NOT AFRAID. That is how I live my life 7 days a week. I seldom rest on the Seventh…

I just got home from a meeting at St. Ignatius Catholic Church on this Amendment 4 issue, where only 96 people showed up, including only ONE Catholic priest and only TWO deacons. Let that sink in for a minute…I was praying that close to 500 people would have showed up with a good 25 priests and a dozen deacons attending. Prayer is Powerful, but when only 3 of our beloved clergy show up for a should-have-been-a MUST ATTEND meeting — I guess the bad weather interfered with God listening to my fervent prayers and my prayers fell short. Beyond comprehension that our clergy did not bother showing up for this meeting, where I invited everyone of our priests, deacons and all 8 bishops to this meeting. After all, the presenter and keynote speaker was only doing this type of meeting ONE TIME and our beloved clergy failed bigly. Where were the folks that work at the Cathedral at? Just asking for a friend…

Sara Johnson, our guest speaker today, did a terrific job with her presentation, just as she did a couple of months ago when I was invited to Orlando for a powerful “TooExtremeforFlorida/Vote NO on Amendment 4” presentation. She was thorough, educational and covered a ton of information today. Her and I have become good friends, as she drove two and a half hours from Orlando in the rain this morning to share her knowledge with us. We need more leaders like Sara Johnson, and keep in mind, she is not even Catholic. Yet, she did an outstanding job with her power point presentation. God bless Sara!

I do not need to mention any other names only because the other ladies who spoke this morning are good friends of mine and I have utmost respect for what they do, which covers “Communication Director for Diocese”; CEO for Catholic Charities and Respect Life Coordinator for the Diocese. The latter happens to be one of my best friends, my right hand person for our PBC Right to Life League and goes over and beyond her call of duty! Actually, all three of these ladies do and I thank God every day that we have these terrific Catholic ladies representing our beloved Diocese of Palm Beach. God bless you 3!

I understand that we had bad weather this morning. I understand that our guest speaker was running a little behind driving from Orlando. I understand that we had to start this meeting 23 minutes late…but, to cut a two hour meeting short (at 11:20 instead of at 12 noon) – really upset the good majority of the people who (some of them drove over an hour in the rain to get there) – and when the meeting was cut off rather abruptly, some tempers flared. Rightly so. I had to bite my tongue as did so many others, including the 12 other people who had their hands up waiting to ask a question. The meeting was supposed to run from 10 am till 12 pm. Starting 23 minutes late, we all figured we would run up until 12:23 pm. We did not even go to 12 noon! We stopped at 11:20, folks…

But, the problem with today’s meeting is that “it was all sugar-coated and way too vanilla” for a True Pro-Lifer’s liking. Comments were made that simply showed signs of surrender right from the get-go. If we are going to cower as a Church because somebody posted something on Facebook saying that they are not in favor of Voting NO on Amendment 4 because they happen to be a Liberal – then, we are already fighting a losing battle. When we throw in the towel at the very beginning of a meeting like today, already on the defensive (speaking about how the Catholic Church has to be extremely careful with what we say; when we have to be so worried about our 501C-3 status, etc., we are already telling those 96 people in attendance today that “the Church is not in favor of creating any waves and will be happy just to stay in that “cozy comfort zone” so that we don’t get in trouble”…Try running that by John the Baptist — the saint who I modeled my life and passion for the Church after. Try running it by Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, my other favorite saint who inspired me to work with the poor of the poorest and to put my life on the line every single day for the most vulnerable – The Precious Pre-born. God bless these two saints.

Yes, Mother Teresa, abortion is the most heinous crime a human being could impose on another human being. It’s evil. When we continue to say that this ever-critical abortion issue is NON PARTISAN (which I have always preached as such), it allows the 50% of The Party of Destruction, Obstruction & Abortion — D.O.A. – Dead On Arrival – to continue voting the way they do and know that they can still attend Mass, receive Holy Communion and even go to confession, which I believe should be the only Sacrament that they should be allowed to receive. Every one of these Pro-abortion Liberals who vote every two years for Murder, should spend their time in a confessional until they get it right! That Left-wing Liberal party is what ruins it for all True Catholics in good standing because they know that they can vote YES on Amendment 4 and get away with murder – literally! That DOA Party knows that and they will continue voting YES ON ABORTION until they are stopped and asked to leave the Holy Catholic Church because of their stance on the murder of the precious pre-born!

ARE OUR BELOVED CATHOLIC BISHOPS EVER GOING TO ADDRESS THIS EXCRUCIATING ISSUE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE??? OR ARE THEY GOING TO TELL ME “WILLY, BEFORE WE BEGIN THIS MEETING, KEEP IN MIND THAT 50% OF CATHOLICS ARE REPUBLICAN AND 50% ARE DEMOCRATS”. THAT IMMEDIATELY TELLS ME THAT THE TOWEL OF SURRENDER HAS ALREADY BEEN THROWN IN EVEN BEFORE WE UTTER OUR FIRST WORD IN THOSE MEETINGS. THERE, MY FELLOW CATHOLICS, LIES THE PROBLEM…

The Catholic Church should be NON-PARTISAN. Period! We should never have to deal with politics when it comes to our Catholic institutions, especially when it comes to the issue of ABORTION! The issue of Abortion is a MORAL issue – not a Political issue, but unfortunately, that’s what it has come to. And, when it comes to Catholic Church Teachings – the Catholic Church has always taught that ABORTION IS MURDER! No matter what party you are with! That is why we have the 5th Commandment. It is not a suggestion – it is a Commandment. But, when the Catholic Church leaders in our country continue to allow 50% of the church to go against Catholic Church teachings (and nothing is done about it) – and they continue to vote for abortion – come November 5th, this despicable Amendment 4 will pass with flying colors. If the election were to take place tomorrow – the Liberal Left would win on both, Amendment 3 and 4, allowing marijuana and abortion to be the Law of the Land in our beloved Free State of Florida. Let that sink in, folks. In just 144 days – if the Liberal Left in Florida (including 50% of Catholics) – vote Yes on 3 and 4, Florida will never be the same. As of yesterday, in the majority of the polls (including Fox News): 53% of Catholics are voting YES on Amendment 4!! NOTE: Of the more than 1,000 voters surveyed in early June, 66% were in support of the pot measure (Amendment 3), and a staggering 69% in favor of the abortion one (Amendment 4). This is what we are up against, folks, and if our beloved Catholic Church and our 8 Catholic Bishops don’t do something about it right now — Florida will be going down the tubes and The Liberal Left will run our beautiful state!

There are 2.1 million Catholics registered in our 7 Catholic dioceses in Florida. There is another 2.2 million Catholics who are NOT registered with our 7 dioceses. That amounts to 4.3 million Catholics. According to Sara’s stats this morning, she told us that we need a total of 4.1 million votes on our side to defeat this Amendment 4! Like I said at our meeting in Orlando two months ago and like I repeated again this morning at our meeting – CATHOLICS ALONE CAN DEFEAT THIS AMENDMENT 4 — ONLY IF WE VOTE LIKE “REAL CATHOLICS”! The irony here is that “our own Catholics” – those who do NOT follow Catholic Church teachings – are going to doom this election and allow Abortion to be performed any time, anywhere for any reason. Breaks my heart…

This is where I believe that our beloved Catholic Bishops of Florida must step up and take the bull by the horns and be the True Shepherds that we want you to be. No more sugar coating. No more taking the 5th. No more “Decline to Sign” experiments. This is the real deal and all 8 of our Bishops have signed on to this “Vote NO on Amendment 4” program. This is the first time that I have seen our Bishops so fired up on any one given issue. I take it, since it is a “60-40″ Majority, all 8 of the Bishops decided to jump on this program because it is WINNABLE”, and the Bishops of Florida want and need a Big Win…

If it was a mere 51-49% majority, I bet my log home that our Bishops would have nothing to do with fighting Amendment 4! You better believe that it takes a lot of guts and intestinal fortitude to write this to our Bishops, but that is God’s honest Truth…and, I only speak the Truth, so help me, God…

Folks, what we heard this morning and what we keep hearing time and again when it comes to our beloved Diocese of Palm Beach is that “It is up to each pastor to run his parish as he sees fit.” That is a bunch of B.S. and I am not talking about Blessed Sacraments! Those 2 letters stand for something else! In my eyes and in the eyes of all True Pro-Lifers, that spells Trouble with a Capital T! In the eyes of the unborn babies, that spells Double Trouble with a Capital DT! So, in other words, if a certain pastor wants to focus on Immigration because that is what his forte is, but, decides not to pay any attention to the excruciating abortion issue – who suffers? The babies. When someone asked the question of “Why aren’t all the pastors showing the powerful and well done 4 minute video of Bishop Barbarito speaking about Amendment 4 – and we heard loud and clear that “It is up to each individual pastor to choose whether he wants to show that important video or not – WE JUST LOST THE BATTLE!! Let that one sink in for a minute, folks. This is why the Catholic Church has been falling apart day by day because our church leaders are NOT being church leaders!! To date, only 2 of our 8 Bishops have made a video on this important
Amendment 4 issue – including Bishop Barbarito (who is a phenomenal human being and is very Pro-Life)! I consider Bishop Barbarito a dear friend and I have utmost respect for him and when he turns 75 on January 4th, we will probably lose him to retirement! His video is very good, informative and needs to be shown in ALL 53 PARISHES BEGINNING THIS WEEK!! Not next week. Not the week after!! This week!! This should be MANDATORY at all 53 parishes in our Diocese with NO EXCEPTIONS! End of story!! No questions asked! And, if the Liberal Left Catholics in our parishes do not approve of this video and refuse to follow Catholic Church teachings and say they are against “Voting NO on Amendment 4” – escort them all out of the church and open the doors for them! That is why we have terrific ushers at all of our churches. We don’t need any CINOs (Catholics In Name Only)! We need Bold Pro-Life Catholics!!

And, trust me, I make my way around to visit many of our parishes because I have hundreds of priest friends. I went up to St. Bernadette Catholic Church this past Sunday to go to Mass and to visit one of my best friends – Father James Molgano (a fierce, oh-so fierce Pro-Life priest, who is battling cancer). He is all about preaching about “No on 4” and I believe his parish will be showing Bishop’s video this week. Thank you, Father James. Please keep him in prayer!

We need all of our 53 parishes to step up right now and put the Vote NO on Amendment 4 ad in every single church bulletin; we need to do weekly pulpit announcements at every single Mass; we need to hand out our prayer cards and read that prayer to Vote No at every single Mass; we need to order yard signs and put them at every single parish. I only had 20 signs and I gave them out to 5 different parishes – beginning with Bishop Barbarito and the Pastoral Center. I went to 4 other parishes and 3 out of 4 put their yard signs up immediately – including the wonderful Rector who hosted our meeting this morning at his beloved parish of St. Ignatius – Father Gavin Badway (another wonderful, Pro-Life priest, who gets it)! Thank you, Father Gavin, for always Being Bold for our babies! But, one parish who I gave my very last 4 signs to about 6 weeks ago told me last week when I asked him “Did somebody steal the 4 yard signs I gave you 6 weeks ago?” He told me “I have not put them up yet. I am waiting for the right time. I am waiting to play Bishop Barbarito’s video at the same time.” Let that one sink in as well. 6 weeks holding my yard signs and I have a dozen parishes asking me for yard signs!! That’s what happens when we allow pastors to run their parishes as he sees fit. Once again, who suffers? The Precious Pre-born. Truly unacceptable, folks. Crying shame…

I really looked forward to our meeting at the Cathedral this morning. I honestly was prepared to speak for a good 15 minutes if I was allowed to. I always come prepared because, what if the keynote speaker’s car broke down and couldn’t make it? Always come prepared because you never know when someone may need you. I wish I could have spoken for those 15 minutes because I have a lot to share; I have a ton of experience; I love what I do and I speak only the Truth when it comes to the Catholic Church and the Unborn. I love our Catholic priests. I respect our 8 Catholic Bishops. I appreciate our Catholic Charities and love our Birthline/LifeLine ministry and every one who has anything to do with it. It’s all good! I love it…but, when our priests and bishops do not stand Boldly for our Babies and refuse to preach the Gospel like John the Baptist, I have a problem. During our question and answer (Q&A) portion of our meeting today – I finally got the microphone and got to speak for about 3 minutes before I was about to be cut off. Pathetic! Why? Because I was following Saint John Paul II’s command of “Be Not Afraid” and when I speak the Truth and it shakes the powers that be – those powers have to make sure they cover their backsides and make sure that they are not exposed. The Truth hurts. But, what hurts more is that the powers that be are going to allow a horrific Amendment that allows babies to be killed in the womb at any time, any place & anywhere to be the law of the Land in Florida only because their jobs and reputations are far more important than it is to Protect the Unborn. The day we run all of our dioceses and parishes around this country like CATHOLIC MINISTRIES instead of like Corporations, is the day that Saint John the Baptist and Saint Mother Teresa will say “Wow, they get it”…and God will have a big smile on His face only because of 3 powerful letters…G.G.T. Yup, God’s Got This. I just pray to God that we Catholics also have it as well…

Thank you, Catholic Bishops of Florida! Thank you, St. Ignatius and Father Gavin for hosting our meeting this morning! Thank you to all who had anything to do with our meeting today in the way of setting everything up – the coffee and refreshments – and all those who spoke during our presentation! I greatly appreciate it and if I sound a bit disgruntled with this letter – I am just speaking the Truth. And, I am speaking for the many people who thanked me for saying what I said this morning and for the dozen new people who I met today for the first time who have already contacted me this afternoon and asked me to speak at one of their upcoming functions. It’s got to be a Total Team Effort with Jesus as our Team Captain! Bottom Line: We Are All In This Two-gether! We the Pro-Lifers – and God, the Creator of Life! Let’s get this election right and put an end to this Amendment 4 and Ban Abortion from Florida completely!!

IN GOD WE TRUST! IN SPEAKING THE TRUTH WE MUST!

Willy Guardiola
Christian on a Mission
Bold Supporter of Bold Bishops

©2024. All rights reserved.

Florida Voters Back Abortion Amendment and Trump

A new poll is reporting that nearly half of voters in the Sunshine State plan to support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a “right” to abortion. An Emerson College survey released on Thursday found that 42% of Florida voters intend to vote “Yes” on a “Amendment 4” this November, enshrining a right to abortion into the state’s constitution. Twenty-five percent of voters intend to vote “No,” and 32% of voters are unsure which way they will vote. The ballot initiative requires at least 60% support in order to pass.

A majority (56%) of Democrats and a plurality (44%) of Independents plan to vote “Yes.” Following former President Donald Trump’s recently-announced opposition to federal pro-life protections, Florida Republicans are more divided on the issue: 36% plan to vote against the abortion amendment, 30% plan to support it, and 34% are unsure.

Additionally, nearly 60% of Florida voters reported that the pro-life law banning abortion after six weeks — slated to go into effect next month after the state’s Supreme Court upheld a related 15-week abortion ban — is “too strict,” 28% said the law is “about right,” and 15% said it’s “not strict enough.” The previous 15-week ban enjoyed marginally more support, with only 43% saying it’s “too strict,” 36% saying it’s “about right,” and 21% saying it’s “not strict enough.”

Election data analyst Michael Pruser posted on social media, “I don’t think a pro-Republican position has a chance of clearing 60% in Florida, let alone an anti-Republican one. What wouldn’t pass in Kansas and Ohio during off-year special turnout will almost assuredly not pass in Florida during a Presidential year [with] Trump on the top of the ticket.”

Anticipating nearly 11 million voters (4.5 million Republicans, 3.55 million Democrats, and 2.85 million Independents) to turn out in November, Pruser explained, “To make 60% work, you’ll need a share of about 23% Republican[s]/95% Democrat[s]/77% Independent[s] to vote YES (which is always harder than NO). This gives you a total of 6,554,500 votes and a winning percentage of 60.13%.” He added, “You can also bet that [Florida’s Republican governor Ron] DeSantis will do what [Democratic Kansas governor] Laura Kelly and [Republican Ohio governor] Mike DeWine didn’t — use his office’s full weight against the amendment.”

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, argued before the Florida Supreme Court in favor of pro-life laws. In comments to The Washington Stand, he warned that “Amendment 4” would be challenged even if passed, saying, “There are constitutional challenges that I think are available.”

In addition to questions of both fraudulent signatures in putting the proposed amendment on the ballot and fraudulent votes in potentially passing the amendment this November, Staver noted, “The Florida legislature has — for many, many years — used the terms ‘unborn child’ and ‘unborn person.’” For example, Florida law dictates that if a woman is killed and her unborn child dies as a result, the killer could be charged with double homicide. Similarly, if a will leaves an estate to the deceased’s children or grandchildren, Florida law understands that to include unborn children or grandchildren. “In all these other areas of law,” Staver said, “unborn children have been recognized as legal persons. Consequently, if this were to pass, we would bring a case to the Florida Supreme Court to recognize the rights of an unborn child which already exist in the constitution which supersede this abortion amendment.”

Referring to Republicans who have begun backing away from pro-life messaging in the wake of Trump’s announcement earlier this week, Staver said, “Politicians should stand for life, not run from it. The right to life is the right of all rights, without which there is no other right. Politicians need to stand for life, not run from it.” He continued, “There are some things that transcend geographical boundaries and political parties and time, and the right to life is fundamental among those.” Staver also compared the issue of abortion to the issue of slavery, saying that neither was a matter of “states’ rights” but of universal morality.

The Emerson College survey also found that a majority (51%) of Florida voters back Trump for president, while only 38% support incumbent Joe Biden, with 11% undecided. When undecided voters were asked which candidate they lean toward supporting, Trump’s support shot up to 56% and Biden’s to 44%. Emerson College explained, “Among Biden voters, 32% support him because they dislike Trump, 24% because they like Biden, 19% care about an issue, and 14% support their party’s candidate. Among Trump voters, 31% support him because they care about an issue, 28% because they like Trump, 16% because they dislike Biden, and 14% support their party’s candidate.”

Florida voters ranked the economy as their top issue of concern (27%), followed by housing (16%), immigration (14%), and abortion (10%). Emerson College noted, “The percentage of voters who marked abortion access as their top issue is four points higher in Florida than in the most recent national poll (6%).”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Biden Launches Pro-Abortion Ad Campaign in Arizona while Republicans Scramble to Respond

EU Politicians Call for ‘Fundamental Right’ to Abortion

Pediatrician Responds to Damning Review on Gender Identity Treatment: ‘I Remain Hopeful’

RELATED VIDEO: Florida’s Channel 25 Interview with Pro-Lifer, Willy Guardiola, as he speaks about the state of Abortion today.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

A review of Florida Constitutional Amendment 4 — Solar Devices by James Lampe

As you consider your vote remember this is a Constitutional Amendment, and once passed the chances of changing it are slim and none.  Before we change the Constitution, shouldn’t the Amendment be clearly beneficial to most Floridians?  Unfortunately, the vast majority of Floridians will be hurt if Amendment 4 is passed.  The Amendment will raise electric rates and ad valorem taxes.  Vote NO on this Amendment.

amendment 4 ballot language

Summary:  This Amendment will exempt solar devices installed on homes or businesses from ad valorem taxes, until 12-31-2037.

First of all, homeowners who install Solar-Electric systems already get a 30% federal tax break!

This financial assistance from the federal government, has been around for years.  Secondly, Florida state government has helped by exempting “solar energy systems or any component thereof” from sales tax.  And now we have this amendment, a third gilded gift to prop-up the failing solar industry.

Nonetheless, let’s see how many people this Amendment will help.  A review of the US Census Fact Finder data on the table below, shows that 30% (2,166,215) of all Floridians live in “Rental Occupied” units, and therefore, no-one in that group would invest in solar-electric systems.  As shown in the “Owner-occupied” category, that leaves 4,986,629 potential customers.

amendment 4 survey

In addition, even if you own a house you may not be able to afford to invest in a solar-electric system.  People who own lower valued housing units valued at $50,000-$150,000, are not likely to invest $30,000 (cost estimate to buy, install, and connect a solar-electric system to the electric grid) for solar system.  So of the 4,986,629 total housing units, we can subtract 1,593,957 for the lower valued houses.  That gives 3,392,697 as the remaining moderate to higher priced housing units that would be the target market for solar-electric systems.

However, there are about 1,000,000 condominiums in Florida, whose owners would also be prevented/impeded from modifying or otherwise changing their common roofs, so the total possible number of housing units for solar falls to 2,392,697, or ~34% of all housing units.

With only ~34% of housing units available for solar-electric systems, how can this Amendment be considered fair?  Worse yet, many snow-birds and residents have mobile homes that are included the housing units, but there is no itemized number for them.  So the 34%, would be even lower if mobile home units were subtracted from the total number of units.

florida solar amendment

In 2015, the Nevada PUC changed the rules for “net metering,” which allows homeowners to sell their excess solar generated electricity to their utility at retail rather than wholesale rates.  But because that arrangement was too costly, the PUC changed the rule.

The Nevada scenario seems like a no brainer, but apparently there was enough grant money to make up for the losses, until one day when the math didn’t work, and the people in Nevada realized that the more electric generated by solar, the less profits the utilities collect.  The utilities need profit to pay staff to restore power after storms, sustain street lighting, and maintain the electric grid, etc.  In addition, utilities work on economies of scale, and their efficiency is reduced when customers convert to solar, because it costs more to generate a KW of electricity.

This Amendment is an obvious attempt by state bureaucrats to boost the heavily subsidized, yet nearly bankrupt solar industry.  It’s not fair or prudent, to let the state pick winners and losers in a free market economy, and we should not let this cronyism go unnoticed.

Vote NO on Amendment 4.