The history of the Assumption – and why it’s a Holy Day of Obligation

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Denver, Colo., Jun 8, 2023 / 08:50 am (CNA).
Congress must act to help prevent the exposure of children to online pornography and to combat online exploitation and abuse of children and other vulnerable people, the U.S. Con… […]

Washington D.C., Jan 19, 2021 / 10:25 am (CNA).- President-elect Joe Biden will nominate a supporter of the contraceptive mandate to a top position at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), he announced on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Biden announced that he would nominate Dr. Rachel Levine, a biological man identifying as a transgender woman who has served as Pennsylvania’s health secretary since 2017, to be HHS Assistant Secretary for Health. Before serving as Pennsylvania’s health secretary, Levine served as the state’s physician general.

Levine has been outspoken on social issues, supporting gender-transition surgery and the contraceptive mandate while opposing a proposed 20-week abortion ban.

Levine’s nomination to HHS, along with that of Health Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra, signals that social issues could be priorities at the agency for the next several years. These might include pro-LGBTQ policies, funding of abortion providers, and religious freedom conflicts with Catholic organizations.

Regarding the Obama-era HHS contraceptive mandate, Levine in 2017 called it “immoral and unethical” to allow for religious exemptions to the mandate. Hundreds of non-profits and businesses—including the Little Sisters of the Poor—had objected to the mandate and the Obama administration’s opt-out process for objecting non-profits.

After the Trump administration announced in 2017 that religious employers and other organizations morally opposed to the contraceptive mandate could receive exemptions from it, Levine issued a sharp statement in opposition.

“It is immoral and unethical to give any employer the ability to take away access to health care from an entire gender,” Levine said as Pennsylvania’s acting health secretary, in 2017. “We cannot allow women’s health to be reduced to one issue or be jeopardized in any way.”

Levine also wrote an op-ed against the Trump administration’s reversal of Obama-era rules on transgender accommodation.

In Feb., 2017, the Trump administration said it would stop defending the Obama administration’s transgender bathroom policy in court; the policy had directed schools to allow students to use gender-specific bathrooms according to their gender identity, and not their biological sex.

In an op-ed for the Patriot-News, Levine wrote that “[t]he decision by the Trump administration to roll back the most basic protections for transgender and gender expansive youth is heartbreaking.”

“To Pennsylvania’s transgender and gender expansive youth and their families who are worried or concerned, I want you to know that Governor Wolf’s administration has your back,” Pennsylvania’s then-physician general wrote.

In 2016, Levine spoke out against a 20-week abortion ban that criminalized abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in cases where the mother’s life was in danger. The bill also banned the “dilation and evacuation” abortion procedure.

Levine said at the time that the bill “punishes women whose pregnancies have complications.”

“Women and their families, when faced with a devastating diagnosis of a significant fetal anomaly, have the right to make the decision which is appropriate for them, in consultation with their doctors,” Levine said.

Levine’s family moved their mother out of a personal care home early in the COVID-19 pandemic, because of the high spread of the virus; the decision invited some media scrutiny.

Levine was also questioned for the state’s policy of requiring nursing homes to accept recovering COVID patients from hospitals, although the state health secretary responded that asymptomatic staff at the homes—not patients discharged from hospitals—were the primary spreaders of the virus there.

If Levine is confirmed to HHS, along with Becerra, they together could craft policy to influence a number of issues including abortion, gender-transition surgery, and the contraceptive mandate.  

While California’s attorney general, Becerra fought aggressively in favor of an abortion coverage mandate that religious employers were not exempt from, and continued the prosecution of pro-life activist David Daleiden.

If confirmed as Health Secretary, Becerra—a Catholic—could reignite a number of Obama-era policies that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other Catholic groups were opposed to.

These might include resurrecting court battles with the Little Sisters of the Poor and other Catholic groups that opposed the Obama administration’s procedure by which to “opt out” of the contraceptive mandate. The groups said that the policy still required them to provide coverage for contraceptives through their employee health plans, which they morally objected to.

Other HHS policies could include re-imposing the full transgender mandate—a requirement that doctors perform gender-transition surgery upon the referral of a mental health professional—and various requirements of religious groups that receive HHS grants, such as adoption agencies having to match children with same-sex couples.

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Washington D.C., Feb 6, 2020 / 02:49 pm (CNA).- The world must raise their voices and stand up for persecuted Christians, Hungarian State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians Tristan Azbej said Thursday.

Azbej was one of eight speakers at a Feb. 6 side-event of the National Prayer Breakfast that was sponsored by the organization Save the Persecuted Christians.

“All of humanity should stand up and come to the aid of persecuted Christians,” said Azbej.

Christian lives have the same dignity as those who follow other religions, he said. He questioned why stories of Christian persecution, such as the recent murder of a Nigerian seminarian, do not make the news, but when people of other religions are discriminated against, the stories are broadcast worldwide.

“Why is (Christian persecution) not on the agenda of the United Nations, of the European Union, and so on,” he asked.

“And I know there is no such thing as competition of martyrdom, but we have to talk about the proportions,” he said, noting that nearly 300 million Christians in the world are persecuted for their faith. This, he said, represents 80% of the total number of people who face persecution for their religion, meaning Christians are “the most persecuted religious group in the world.”

“It doesn’t get even a passing mention at the major human rights forum,” he said.

As the State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians, Azbej said that he has a “two-fold” mission. His first priority, he said, is “saving lives,” which he does through the government-run nonprofit “Hungary Helps.”

The other part of his mission, he explained, is “to be the voice of those that are not heard. To be the voice of those who are suffering.”

Azbej is, in his words “the only one with a government title that has the term ‘persecuted Christians’ in it,” something that he hopes changes as more countries move to address the plight of persecuted religious groups.

He especially called on historically-Christian countries to move to protect their fellow Christians, and he accused these countries of attempting to shed their Christian identities, which Azbej said was indicative of an “identity crisis.”

Azbej explained that when he started in his position in 2016, his main focus was on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. Now, he said, his priorities have shifted to the plight of the Christian community in west Africa.

“As we have learned more about the nature and extent of Christian persecution, now we are turning more and more focused on Africa,” he said. “In west Africa, there is a genocide going on, and the whole world is turning a blind eye.”

Part of the aid work Azbej’s organization does is the rebuilding of churches and communities that have been destroyed by the Islamic State. One Northern Iraqi town renamed itself Tel Askouf, meaning “Daughter of Hungary,” in appreciation for the approximately 2 million euros ($2.2m) donated by the Hungarian government to rebuild the town.

This, said Azbej, is something that can be replicated around the world.

“We wouldn’t only want to see ‘Sons and Daughters of Hungary,’” he said. “We would like to see daughters and sons of the United Nations, or of the United States or Germany or of the European Union.”

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