MPAA Rating: G USCCB Rating: A-I Reel Rating: (3 out of 5 reels) In 1947, Walt Disney had Alfred and Elma Milotte shoot footage of the seals living on the Pribilof Islands of Alaska. Some […]
St. Augustine was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant and gifted men to have ever lived—and we are fortunate that he left such a wealth of his brilliance in his many and varied writings. A […]
Washington D.C., May 5, 2017 / 01:53 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Debate continues over the Democratic Party’s acceptance of pro-life members, voters and politicians, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made comments signaling that she is open to them.
The San Francisco Democrat cited her own childhood in a “very Catholic family” in an Italian-American sector of Baltimore.
“Most of those people – my family, extended family – are not pro-choice. You think I’m kicking them out of the Democratic Party?” she told the Washington Post May 2.
She said that the Democrats were united by “our values about working families,” suggesting that Democrats’ perceived rigidity on issues like gay marriage and abortion helped elect Republican Donald Trump as president. She cited the fact that the passage of the 2010 health care law was possible only after securing assurances it would not fund abortion.
About three in ten Democrats think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, the Pew Research Center has said.
Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America criticized Rep. Pelosi, telling the Washington Post “encouraging and supporting anti-choice candidates leads to bad policy outcomes that violate women’s rights and endanger our economic security.”
Hogue praised the 2016 Democratic Party platform, saying “it didn’t just seek to protect abortion access – it sought to expand it.” She said the party “can’t back down” if it wants to regain power.
Support for pro-life Democrats became a subject of debate within the party in mid-April, when former Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez publicly supported the Democratic candidate for mayor of Omaha, Neb., Heath Mello.
Pro-abortion rights activists criticized the endorsements, noting Mello’s support for abortion restrictions in the Nebraska legislature and his opposition to some taxpayer funding of abortion.
The abortion rights advocacy group NARAL harshly criticized Perez and Sanders, calling their support for Mello “politically stupid.”
Amid the controversy, Mello said that as a Catholic his faith “guides my personal views” but “as mayor I would never do anything to restrict access to reproductive health care.”
In response to the political debate, Perez said there was no place for pro-life advocates in the party.
“Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” he said, adding “this is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.”
Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, told CNA in late April that Perez’s move was “stunning to see.”
“Pro-life Democrats are deeply concerned about this extreme position that the Democratic Party has taken and this non-negotiable position,” she said.
In her recent interview, Pelosi told the Washington Post she thought abortion is “kind of fading as an issue.”
At the same time, she pointed to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (D-Penn.), who ran as a pro-life Democrat.
“Bob Casey – you know Bob Casey – would you like him not to be in our party?” she said.
While Casey has described himself as pro-life, he has also opposed an end to funding abortion provider Planned Parenthood through federal contraception programs.
His father, Bob Casey, Sr., was a governor of Pennsylvania who was denied a speaking spot at the 1992 Democratic National Convention when he sought to present a report critical of the party’s platform on abortion that declared “reproductive choice” to be a fundamental right.
Ahead of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, then-Speaker of the House Pelosi attempted to justify her position in favor of abortion on Catholic grounds. Her attempt was rebuked by then-Archbishop of Denver Charles J. Chaput.
Sydney, Australia, May 5, 2017 / 01:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For one critic, a report that IVF-conceived embryos are being cremated and turned into jewelry for their mothers shows the basic problem with the artificial creation of human embryos.
“… […]
Vatican City, May 5, 2017 / 10:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday Pope Francis told seminarians studying in Rome to resist complacency and to think of their studies as strength training for their hearts and wills, preparing them for service to others.
“Your College is increasingly a ‘gym’ where you work out to give your life with willingness; your studies are tools of service for the Church, which also embellish the rich cultural tradition of your beloved country,” he said May 5 to the community of the Pontifical Romanian College.
“To treasure, through prayer and intense study, what the Lord has done in his People, is a beautiful opportunity in the years you spend in Rome, where you can breathe the universality of the Church.”
Pope Francis met with the community at the Vatican’s Consistory Hall to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the college’s founding.
In his speech, the Pope reflected on the history of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church of the Byzantine rite which came into full union with the Bishop of Rome in 1700.
In the 20th century the Church was persecuted under communism and forced underground, only re-emerging 40 years later after the fall of the communist regime in 1990.
After these difficulties, the Church in Romania is now experiencing a “beautiful rebirth,” Francis said, with new challenges to face. But “this story, made of great witnesses of faith and moments of trial, of severe winters and of flourishing springs, belongs to you,” he said.
It is good to remember this story, not as way to stay stuck in the past, but embracing each era of the Church as it comes, always remaining open to the actions of the Holy Spirit, the Pope continued.
Remembering the recent history of the Church in Romania will help them to overcome the temptation to settle for mediocrity, trying to lead “a ‘normal’ life,” Francis said, “where everything is without impetus and ardor, and where sooner or later you end up becoming the jealous keepers of your time, your security, your well-being.”
Instead, he urged them, aspire to a “passionate ministry” encouraged by the examples of your great witnesses of the faith.
“A Shepherd, as a disciple configured to Christ who gave his life ‘until the end’ (John 13:1), cannot allow himself to come to terms with a mediocre life or to adapt to situations without risking anything.”
“To guard over the memory, then, is not simply to remember the past, but to lay the foundation for the future, for a hopeful future,” he said.
In addition to preserving the memory of the Church in their country, Pope Francis encouraged them to cultivate hope, saying it was his second wish for them.
“There is so much need to nourish Christian hope, that hope which gives a new outlook, capable of discovering and seeing good, even when it is obscured by evil,” he said.
In the liturgy during the Easter season we hear from the Acts of the Apostles how the early Church “persevered in prayer, communion, and charity,” the Pope said. They never lost sight of hope, and gave it to the world, “even when it is without means, unfinished and opposed.”
“I wish your home to be a cenacle where the Spirit plants missionaries of hope, infectious bearers of the presence of the Risen Lord, courageous in creativity and never disheartened to problems and shortages of means,” he said.
“May the Holy Spirit also arouse in you the desire to seek and promote, with purified heart, the path of concord and unity among all Christians.”
Pope Francis then turned to those present from the Pontifical College of St. Ephrem, which hosts student priests of the Eastern Catholic Churches who speak Arabic, and who are welcomed by the Pontifical Romanian College.
“By meeting you, I think of the situation in which there are so many faithful in your lands, many families, who are forced to leave their home in the face of the collapse of waves of violence and suffering,” he said.
“These brothers and sisters I want to embrace in a special way, together with their Patriarchs and Bishops.”
Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, May 5, 2017 / 09:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Following the Cuban bishops’ ad limina meeting with Pope Francis on Thursday, one of the nation’s bishops commented that the island is eagerly awaiting change.
“Cuba is waiting for change. Some changes happen faster than others, but we Cubans, whatever our personal ideas may be, realize that the people can live in better spiritual and material conditions, and that things must change,” Archbishop Dionisio García Ibáñez of Santiago de Cuba told Vatican Radio May 4.
“They are economic and social changes, which necessarily go together … There are cultural changes which are rather rapid, especially among the youth who have familiarity with digital means of communication and have another mode of thinking. This makes the world come to Cuba and come to know better its reality. Political change is also to be expected: it is the structures, and above all the legal one, which have to change.”
Cultural change has been the most visible effect of the opening between the United States and Cuba, Archbishop García commented, saying that “there are now more possibilities for travelling abroad, and tourists can more easily come to Cuba. Although it is still limited, the population has a greater access to new communications technologies and this produces a cultural change which is the condition for any other change, because it makes it possible for persons to chance their own criteria for judgement.”
He said there has been a change for the Church in that “there is a better understanding of religion, and the people can express their own faith.”
“Cubans are a religious people, but we also see there is little faith formation. For us bishops, it is a difficult problem to face. However, we are a creative Church which has been close to its people and who is now witnessing their faith.”
Archbishop García also noted that “we have vocations, although there are not enough. Thanks be to God, we have fidei donum missionaries, both diocesan and religious, but we still need more. But I would like to say that any missionary who come to Cuba and who wishes to work, has much to do because he finds receptive persons.”
An important and positive change for the bishops has been an easing of permits for visas and residency for missionaries, he added: “The situation has changed a lot. I can say that now there are no more obstacles than before, because when a bishop asks for an entry visa for a missionary he does not encounter problems.”
Asked about the buildings the Church is recovering, the bishop said that “this process has just begun. It’s already a positive thing. In certain dioceses they have returned some buildings, but it’s a slow process.”
“We are working with the state in order that, after 50 years in which the population has grown, we might be able to have the places for worship that we need.”
While they wait for this to move forward, the archbishop explained, “we have houses of prayer, that is, the faithful make their homes available for their communities to gather there. There aren’t parish churches with their pastoral buildings, but nevertheless the Church lives.”
Kansas City, Kan., May 5, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas announced this week a halt to their involvement with Girl Scouts USA, and an eventual transfer of their support to alternative scouting programs.
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Vatican City, May 5, 2017 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the prayer video for May, Pope Francis challenged the Catholic community to pray that the continent’s Christians will witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace.
Beyond the natural beauty of Africa, the Pope said, “we see its joie de vivre, and above all, we see grounds for hope in Africa’s rich intellect, cultural, and religious heritage.”
The May 4 video began with footage expanding over the beautiful landscapes of Africa, and changes to quick scenes of diverse individuals reflected in mirrors – like a doctor with a San Damiano Crucifix hanging beside her, a shop owner reflected among the goods in his shop, and a woman in traditional African attire smiling among vegetables in the market place.
However, as the music became more heartfelt, the Pope admitted, “we cannot fail to see fratricidal wars decimating peoples and destroying these natural and cultural resources,” and the mirror splinters as two men used coarse tools to break apart bricks.
Pope Francis then asked for prayers to assist the Christian communities’ witness to Christ, and promote peace among the countries struck by bloodshed and famine.
“Let us join with our brothers and sisters of this great continent, and pray together that Christians in Africa, in imitation of the merciful Jesus, may give prophetic witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace,” said Pope Francis, appearing near the end of the video.
Then the video pans to a pair of hands reaching to pick up a piece of broken mirror, fractured in the previous scene, and a man lifts it up to reflect the smile of a woman facing him.
The Apostleship of Prayer, which produces the monthly videos on the Pope’s intentions, was founded by Jesuit seminarians in France in 1844 to encourage Christians to serve God and others through prayer, particularly for the needs of the Church.
Since the late 1800s, the Jesuit-run global prayer network has received a monthly, “universal” intention from the Pope. In 1929, an additional missionary intention was added by the Holy Father, aimed at the faithful in particular.
Starting in January, rather than including a missionary intention, Pope Francis has elected to have only one prepared prayer intention – the universal intention featured in the prayer video – and will add a second intention focused on an urgent or immediate need if one arises.
The Pope’s prayer videos are filmed in collaboration with the Vatican Television Center.
Merrimack, N.H., May 5, 2017 / 12:05 am (National Catholic Register).- Anthony Esolen, the prolific Catholic scholar and author known for his distinctly Catholic worldview and translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, has accepted a teaching posi… […]
Editor’s note: This is the first of a series of reviews and essays—positive, critical, and mixed—of Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option (Sentinel, 2017). After having written something in 2015 about Rod Dreher’s project of marketing MacIntyre’s […]
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