San Jose, Calif., Oct 5, 2017 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A priest in California has been sentenced to three years in prison for bank fraud and ordered to pay restitution after he put over $1.4 million in church donations into his bank accounts.
Fath… […]
Vatican City, Oct 5, 2017 / 04:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the Chaldean Catholic Church begins their annual synod, Pope Francis kicked the meeting off by telling leaders of the eastern rite that given the new apprehensions arising from increasing political instability, they must urgently work to promote unity at all levels of society.
“If in fact a tragic page has closed in some regions of your country, it means that there is still much to be done,” the Pope said Oct. 5, urging Chaldean Church leaders in Iraq “to work tirelessly as builders of unity.”
This unity is especially important between pastors of the Chaldean Catholic Church and leaders of other Catholic rites in the area, who should work together in “promoting dialogue and collaboration among all the actors of public life” in helping to facilitate the return of displaced persons and to heal divisions, he said.
Francis stressed that this commitment to unity “is necessary now more than ever in the current Iraqi context, faced with new uncertainties about the future.”
“There is need for a process of national reconciliation and of a joint effort of all the components of society, to reach shared solutions for the good of the whole country,” he said, and voiced his hope that the “strength of spirit, hope and industriousness” characteristic of Iraqi society would never diminish.
He told the Church leaders to “remain firm” in their intention of “not falling into discouragement before the difficulties that still remain despite what has been done in the reconstruction work on the Nineveh Plain.”
Pope Francis spoke to participants in the Synod of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which is taking place from Oct. 4-8 in Rome,and comes on the tails of a recent Aid to the Church in Need conference on rebuilding towns and villages on the Nineveh Plains, during which Patriarch Luis Rafael Sako, Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, was a keynote speaker.
In addition to new fears and uncertainties roused by the recent referendum vote to liberate Iraqi Kurdistan from the Iraqi central government, making it an independent state, other talking points in the Chaldean synod will include forced migration, the return of displaced persons, the rebuilding of villages on the Nineveh Plains, Chaldean Church law, liturgical topics and vocational pastoral activities.
In his speech, the Pope said that given Iraq’s roots as a land of “civilization, encounter and dialogue” evangelized by St. Thomas the Apostle, it’s especially important that Christians in the region are united in promoting “respectful relations and interreligious dialogue through all components of society.”
He also encouraged them for a number of new vocations to the priesthood and religious life. However, with a general decline in vocations throughout the Church, Francis also cautioned against “welcoming into seminaries people who are not called by the Lord.”
“It’s necessary to examine well the vocation of youth and to verify their authenticity,” he said, explaining that formation in seminaries must be integral and “capable of including various aspects of life responding in a harmonious way to the four human, spiritual, pastoral and intellectual dimensions.”
The Pope also urged Chaldean Church leaders to work together with the Latin Church to address the diaspora of their faithful throughout the world, with an eye to the local ecclesial contexts in which they live, both from a numerical point of view, and that of religious liberty.
Special attention must be paid, he said, to the pastoral care of faithful in the territories where ancient eastern communities “have long been established,” while also promoting “communion and fraternity with the Latin rite communities in order to give the faithful a good witness without spreading divisions and disagreements.”
The Congregation for Oriental Churches will help in this task, Pope Francis said, and closed his address praying that the Chaldean Synod gathering would be “a fruitful moment of fraternal dialogue and reflection for the good of the beloved Chaldean Church.”
Denver, Colo., Oct 5, 2017 / 03:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When Timothy Piazza pledged a fraternity at Pennsylvania State University in February 2017, he had hoped to find a brotherhood.
To join the fraternity, he endured severe hazing rituals, one of which ended with Piazza collapsing down a set of basement stairs, where he was left alone without medical attention. Ultimately, the injury led to his death.
His girlfriend of three years, Kaitlyn Tempalsky, told reporters that Piazza joined the fraternity looking for friendships. She told the New York Times that “he wasn’t in it for the partying … He really wanted that brotherhood.”
Male friendships are becoming a rarity in American culture, Catholic leaders say, which could lead some men, like Piazza, to look for friends in dangerous situations.
Historically, occasions for brotherhood were systemically built into many cultures, Catholic psychologist Dr. Jim Langley told CNA.
Listing the examples of chopping down trees or heading into battle together, Dr. Langley said, “It’s our base coding, in our human nature as men” to complete projects or engage in activities together – though in contemporary culture, men are becoming more isolated.
“Men who are isolated are prone to all sorts of mental health problems – anxiety and depression. Specifically among men that we see in our work, men who are isolated are much more prone to addiction to pornography.”
Langley explained that the source of pornography addiction may stem from a desire for intimacy, even for male friends.
“Men in general struggle with [intimacy], it’s a pretty common thing. But it’s not just romantic intimacy, and it’s not just intimacy related to woman, we also have a longing for brotherhood.”
Because humans are physical, intellectual, and relational beings, he said, our sense of identity is not discovered by being alone, it is rather found in the context of other people.
“Specifically, figuring out how we can contribute in relationship and how relationships contribute to us.”
Matthew Schaefer, director of student development at Franciscan University of Steubenville, agreed.
“I am the best man I can be when I have strong male friendships. We hear in Scripture that ‘iron sharpens iron,’ and so it is with men,” Schaefer said.
“When men engage in true friendships – and by this I mean more than spending time together playing sports or video games – they can encourage one another toward holiness.”
Schaefer pointed to the household system at Franciscan University, through which more than half of the university’s students participate in small, single-sex faith communities.
“These same-sex communities help members grow in mind, body, and spirit and hold each other accountable to ongoing conversion.”
“In men’s households, they are encouraged to be on more of a schedule by committing to weekly gatherings, generally focused on prayer. They are present to console in times of need and celebrate in times of joy. They are brothers for the Christian walk.”
This type of accompaniment is not easily accomplished, said Daniel Porting, a FOCUS missionary at Southern Methodist University, who reflected on his own college experience in the Phi Gama Delta fraternity.
Porting told CNA that most fraternities have mentoring programs, but that those programs are not always taken seriously.
“So that’s a very good structure, I’m not saying they do it well, but there is a structure in every fraternity where they want to inspire that good authentic and organic friendship, where it starts on a one-on-one level, where one person can accompany another,” he said.
But secular culture is struggling to foster this type of friendship, Dr. Langley said, “because an authentic friendship with men, in some ways, needs to be reinvented.”
“As men, we connect through doing things side-by-side, but if you look at the routes that men have to connect with each other, it’s very superficial.”
Dr. Langley said that some social norms and stereotypes make it difficult for men to pursue deep friendships with one another.
“Until recently in our culture, being affectionate with another man was really frowned upon and looked at as being effeminate, or a person would worry about [appearing] homosexual.”
Research conducted by Dr. Niobe Way, a psychology professor at New York University, published in 2013 by the American Sociological Association, showed that male friendships, which include emotional vulnerability, are typical during boyhood. But as boys get older, and deep male friendships become associated with homosexuality, she said men lose this avenue of emotional vulnerability.
“It is only in late adolescence – a time when, according to national data, suicides and violence among boys soar – that boys disconnect from other boys,” said Way in a 2013 article in Contexts magazine.
“The boys in my studies begin, in late adolescence, to use the phrase ‘no homo’ when discussing their male friendships, expressing the fear that if they seek out close friendships, they will be perceived as ‘gay’ or ‘girly.’”
Mark Harfiel, vice president of Paradisus Dei, a family-based Catholic ministry, said that when culture doesn’t support true masculinity, men lose sense of what it means to be authentically human.
“When you turn from Christ and begin to make all truth relative with no absolutes, you begin to lose a sense of what it even means to be human. All relationships have become sexualized and masculinity itself has even come into question.”
Secular culture often promotes a damaged view of masculinity, Daniel Porting said. He suggested that there are three main characteristics of heightened masculinity in the culture: an emphasis on power, pleasure and wealth.
“And I think that those all lead to unfulfillment and a lack of joy.”
Porting noted that many college-aged men with whom he works have suffered from a lack of authentic masculine role models, which creates wounds in men and impedes the desire to be loved.
The FOCUS missionary said these wounds are difficult for men to address, and added that when he meets men on campus he will steer away from questions like, “how is your life growing up?” or “how is your family?”
These questions “trigger something that is very wounding because someone didn’t step up and be a good role model,” he said.
Every parish needs to have an opportunity for men to find fraternal bonds and spiritually rich accountability, Harfiel added. That Man is You, a program affiliated with Paridisus Dei, is one possibility, he said, noting the group has created an estimated 1,000 male fraternal groups and reached over 100,000 men in the past 12 years.
However, this avenue might not be available for everyone, and Langley acknowledged that some men struggle with an even bigger problem – namely, fear.
“If there are not opportunities, one could create opportunities, connections with other people, but we’re afraid to be the first person to do that. We’re afraid to meet new people. We are afraid to be real with other people. So the virtue which would overcome all these virtues really is truly courage.”
Especially if there is no men’s ministry at the parish, Dr. Langely said, most likely other men in the parish are feeling the same way. He added that most people will be flattered by an invitation, “because it feels good to be noticed.”
This invitation, he said, doesn’t need to be big. It could simply be asking a gentleman (and maybe his wife) out for a bite to eat, or starting a small parish group of guys who go out periodically for beers.
“If you do sense a call to start something, then don’t be afraid to keep it simple. A friend of mine at my parish started a men’s group called ‘faith fermentation,’ which is just a fancy title for a bunch of guys going to get some beers together.”
“So don’t worry about starting anything big. Just start something that ‘scratches your own itch,’ and most likely it will scratch the itch for connection that other men have too.”
Prioritizing male friendships with priests, peers, old and young adults, Langley said, takes courage. He noted Christ’s own example of surrounding himself with friends.
“We are blessed with this wonderful example of Jesus Christ, and he told his apostles that he was their friend – they weren’t just his pupils, they weren’t just the flock he was ministering to.”
Oaxaca, Mexico, Oct 5, 2017 / 12:07 am (ACI Prensa).- A team of pilgrims representing World Youth Day 2019 offered a message of hope and consolation to Mexicans impacted by a devastating Sept. 7 earthquake.
On Oct. 2, the team visited areas affected by the earthquake with the official World Youth Day Pilgrim Cross and a Marian icon, as a sign of solidarity.
The team is touring Mexico as part of an international pilgrimage promoting the 2019 World Youth Day, to be held in Panama City, Panama. They had been scheduled to stop in Oaxaca, in the south of Mexico, during their tour, but local churches cancelled their visits after the earthquake, due to the extensive damage in that area.
The group decided to “make a visit anyway as a sign of solidarity, as a sign of the presence of Christ through the cross and the Blessed Mother with the icon,” Fr. José de la Luz López, national adviser to the Mexican bishops’ youth ministry, told CNA.
They received permission to bring the World Youth Day symbols to the cathedral and two shelters in Tehuantepec, an area heavily impacted by the earthquake. Young people from the Tehuantepec diocesan team also participated in organizing the reception of the cross and icon.
Fr. José de la Luz said that the symbols were transported to Oaxaca in a pickup truck from Acapulco, a distance of 400 miles that typically takes more than 12 hours by car.
The priest said he would “sum up in two ways” the reaction of the earthquake victims when they received the cross and icon.
“First, these symbols gave a lot of hope. The young people were very enthusiastic, they were very hopeful in the midst of all their bewilderment and pain, and they were committed to rebuild their homes,” he said.
“The second thing I take away is that we Mexicans are going to have a lot to learn from the young people from these hard hit places. The people of Oaxaca have shown us a great deal of fortitude and faith,” he continued.
At the cathedral in Tehuantepec, the World Youth Day cross was displayed during a service drawing more than 120 people.
From the cathedral, the cross was taken to a nearby shelter, where nearly 100 people gathered to pray. Most of them were elderly, the priest said, because the young people and adults were out removing the debris from their homes in order to rescue their belongings.
The team then transported the cross through devastated areas, displayed in the bed of their pickup truck. “We passed through the most affected areas and we prayed from the pickup truck. Then we went to the town of Ixtepec, where the situation is somewhat different – the shelters are very small because most of the people have set up tents next to their homes,” Lopez said.
Besides visiting one of the shelters in Ixtepec, the cross and icon were also present at a Holy Hour that a local parish held for the victims.
The pilgrimage will continue in Mexico until Oct. 13, before travelling through Central America and the Caribbean, and concluding August 2018 in Panama.
The 8.1-magnitude earthquake that struck the southern coast of Mexico on Sept. 7 resulted in widespread damage and nearly 100 deaths. It was followed less than two weeks later by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake 400 miles away, which killed more than 300 people and injured 6,000.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
“I worry about my students,” says the award-winning Poet Laureate of California, “so many of whom are so preoccupied with social media and digital entertainment […]
Rome, Italy, Oct 4, 2017 / 04:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- It’s well-known that in ancient Rome hundreds of thousands of people would to pile into the stacked layers of stone seating in the Colosseum to watch gladiators fight to their death, cheering on as the warriors met a bloody and often drawn-out end.
However, while being a “gladiator” in modern Rome has mostly become a way pick up extra cash in photo-ops with tourists, there are some who argue that the gruesome nature of the ancient battles, in which people would essentially celebrate and take pleasure in the pain of others, hasn’t gone away, but has rather taken on a new, less obvious form in the digital world: pornography.
When it comes to internet pornography, Dr. Donald Hilton Jr. of the University of Texas Health Science Center said we as a society have to learn to ask the “uncomfortable questions about our culture, why we’re so easily voyeuristic to watch people being harmed.”
While pornography has always been a problem, the new widespread access offered through the digital world has led to a culture that enjoys “watching women being hurt on screen,” he told CNA.
Hilton recalled that in a tour of the Colosseum, his guide explained that throughout the centuries of its of operation, the structure “had up to several hundred thousand animals and gladiators dying in the colosseum with people watching them and enjoying watching their pain.”
Now “I think we have a neon colosseum, a colosseum of screens where far more, now, are watching people being harmed. And people are enjoying it,” he said, adding that in his opinion, “we’re no better than the ancient Romans in that.”
“In fact, in some way I think we’re worse, because at least they did it openly, but we hide behind our screens at night and do it, and tell ourselves it’s okay.”
Hilton spoke as part of a four-day conference on protecting children in a digitally connected and global society. Titled “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” the conference is being held in Rome Oct. 3-6 and is organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Center for Child Protection.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin opened the conference as a keynote speaker. Other participants in the congress include social scientists, civic leaders, and religious representatives. Discussion points include prevention of abuse, pornography, the responsibility of internet providers and the media, and ethical governance.
Several leading personalities participating argued that given the easy access children have to the internet, they are increasingly falling prey to an industry that, without the proper protections, can ultimately leave them vulnerable, becoming victims to a wide variety of abuses.
On day two of the conference, Hilton was part of a panel of experts exploring the dangers of internet pornography and its impact on children, specifically the link between pornography and violence, and the effects of porn use on the human brain, particularly among youth.
A celebrated neuroscientist and world-renown surgeon, Hilton examined the scientific changes in the human brain when viewing pornography.
Essentially, he said human beings have “two brains,” one being the cortex, which he called our “thinking brain,” and the other being the brain stem, referred to by Hilton as our “wanting brain.” So while the brain might tell us to do something because it feels good, the cortex will tell us to slow down and think about the consequences.
Between the two is the “reward center” of the brain, he said, explaining that while it is intended to help motivate us, the reward center can be “hijacked and diverted” from this purpose if we take in “powerful rewards indiscriminately.”
In this case, the reward center can “reset the pleasure thermostat of the brain,” and a “new normal” is established, which can quickly become addiction, Hilton said, explaining that the brain structure is impacted by learning, and that “addictive learning sculpts the brain in a very damaging way.”
Referring to a recent study done by medical personnel, he said addictions to food and sex have now been put on par with substance abuse, because the same changes are found in brain studies “and the behaviors are almost identical.”
Children and young adults are particularly at risk from this, he said, because for one, the frontal-lobe control center of the brain don’t fully mature until the person is in their mid-20s. However, most exposure to pornography happens at a young age, leaving children particularly vulnerable to changes in the brain structure.
He said children are also more at risk because the chemicals for processing rewards and addictions are more potent brains that are not yet mature, so “an immature breaking system is essentially paired with an accelerated reward-seeking drive.” He also cited problems with brains systems that identify observers with the “motivational state” of those performing in the program, which in pornography is often linked to violence.
In his comments to CNA, Hilton said porn access at a young age is particularly concerning because since the brain of a child or teenager is not yet developed, it makes a strong imprint and “sets their template” in way that essentially sculpts the brain to prefer what they watch over reality.
Quoting American author, feminist, and political adviser Naomi Wolf, he said “pornified” boys are increasingly led to a mentality that “real women are just bad porn.”
Hilton said that in order to help counter the online porn industry, the issue has to be addressed in a new way. Whereas in the past it has primarily been relegated to the moral realm, he said the issue is wider, and that it’s important to bring the issue up in public settings “without mentioning religion.”
“Can we talk about exploitation not only of youth who are viewing pornography, but of young female performers that are being used up so quickly and exploited by a very powerful industry? Can we leave the religion out of it and talk about it from a public health perspective?” he said.
“This is a vast industry, the internet is a vast industry,” he said, adding that if any other industry had the same amount of disease, emotional health issues, and drug abuse involved, “they would cry out and there would be outrage.
However, “with porn, as long as they take their clothes off and put a camera there, you can do anything you want,” he said, comparing porn to “filmed prostitution.”
“Can we really say that porn is good and that people should view it if the people that make it are being harmed? Is it an ethical product then?” he asked, and noted that according to one study paper, 88 percent of the scenes in the 250 most popular porn movies show aggression toward women.
So when looking at the concrete numbers, “if it’s not ethical to produce it, is it ethical to watch it? What is the price someone is paying to film that?”
Also speaking at the conference was Dr. Mary Anne Layden, a psychotherapist and Director of Education for the University of Pennsylvania, who addressed the link between violence and pornography.
In her speech, she presented various research studies linking the use of pornography to increased aggression toward women. In youth particularly, various studies have proved that exposure to porn at a young age increases the likelihood youth will be promiscuous at an earlier age, and are more prone to partner abuse as they get older.
Porn use also and the misconceived belief that if access is so common, it isn’t harmful, and that women who are treated violently in porn films actually like it, she said.
In comments to CNA after her speech, Layden said pornography is especially dangerous for children because “everything children see is educational,” and since porn is typically the only imagery kids have when it comes to sex, they learn about it from “this toxic form.”
“Now their brains are absorbing this and they are getting these messages, and then they very quickly start to act on that,” she said, explaining that they “will likely start having sex earlier, they will likely think all relationships are sexual, they’ll start to try and get their partner to try and act out things they’ve seen in pornography.”
Pornography also leads to misconceptions about the human body and what constitutes abuse, she said, explaining that many young adults have come into her clinic complaining that their bodies “don’t work” because things don’t happen like they do in movies.
While numerous research studies have proven that performers in pornography films don’t enjoy what they do on-set, many people still believe the opposite, Layden said, because they don’t see the suffering the performers endure.
What most people don’t know, she said is that “on those porn sets there is a doctor, on every porn set,” and “he will give you any drug you can name – he will give you Percocet, he will give you Xanex, he will give you heroine, he will give you anything to get you to go through that scene, take that torture and smile while they’re doing it.”
She said that when children first come into contact with pornography their initial reaction is that “there’s something scary” about it, and even something violent, but that very quickly they start to learn from what they see that “violence is a sex act,” and this notion becomes more normal as they get older.
In terms of protecting children from harmful images, Layden stressed the importance of educating parents on the risks and finding the right software to block problematic content from popping up.
Unfortunately, she said around only 20 percent of parents have actually put protective software on their children’s devices and activated it.
But if parents are looking for a good company, she said “Covenant Eyes” has programs that work very effectively through blocks and accountability software that will send a list of their child’s search history to them at the end of the week.
While it might not be possible bring the porn access to zero, it is possible to reduce it, Layden said.
“The fact that we can’t reduce it to zero doesn’t make us stop anything else,” she said, naming youth smokers and cancer patients as examples. And concrete ways to reduce exposure is to put filters on computers in libraries and at schools, as well as personal devices children own, and to not let them put their computers in their bedrooms.
She also stressed the need to get legislators and governments involved, explaining that pornography sites have finally been legally required to check the age of someone trying to access their web-pages.
“That won’t stop the damage that’s done to adult men,” she said, explaining that pornography first of all does damage to those who use it, “but it will stop with the most vulnerable, which is the children.”
Perpetrators of pornography must also be held accountable, Layden said, because the industry ultimately makes money by “hurting children.”
“This is an absolute scandal, these are child abuse perpetrators, these pornographic websites,” she said, explaining that they ought to be treated as perpetrators and put in jail, because “if you actually enforce law against obscenity, you can actually take all of their profits.”
Doing this would also “send the message to culture that if we’re putting them in jail, this must be a bad thing,” she said. “The permission-giving beliefs that say everyone is doing it, it must be fine, is just one of the biggest damages, and we can start the sending the message that it’s not okay.”
“We’ve got to stop saying ‘boys will be boys,’” and instead begin educating families more effectively on what healthy sexuality entails, she said, because pornography “hurts everyone involved; men, women, children, performers…it hurts everybody that comes close to it.”
Washington D.C., Oct 4, 2017 / 03:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- All life is valuable – especially those who are suffering, urged speakers at a recent pro-life program at Georgetown University on Monday. Their lives deserve care and accompaniment, even … […]
Oakland, Calif., Oct 4, 2017 / 03:37 pm (CNA).- Whether he’s navigating a harrowing obstacle course in front of the camera or doing behind-the-scenes content editing for an evangelization website, Sean Bryan wants people to know that he is proud … […]
Washington D.C., Oct 4, 2017 / 03:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- German pharmaceutical company Bayer announced recently that it has suspended from all non-US sales the Essure coil, a controversial form of birth control which has received the strictest possible FDA warning for its side effects, which include chronic pain, bleeding, and severe allergic reactions.
“The device [Essure] was sold to me as a simple and easy procedure. I was told that I’d be in and out of the doctor’s office in 10 minutes and that there’d be no recovery time,” said Laura Linkson, a user of Essure who shared her testimony on the UK show Victoria Derbyshire, according to the BBC.
“I went from being a mum who was doing everything with her children, to a mum that was stuck in bed unable to move without pain, at some points being suicidal,” Linkson continued, saying, “I felt like I was a burden to everyone around me.”
Essure is a nickel and polyester coil which is inserted into the fallopian tubes, causing scar tissue growth, as a way of preventing eggs from reaching the womb. This form of birth control, known as hysteroscopy sterilization, has been around since 2002 and is currently manufactured and distributed by Bayer.
Last week, Bayer announced its voluntary decision to halt all sales outside of the U.S., citing “commercial reasons.”
“We would like to reassure the Essure patients and their accompanying healthcare professionals that this decision is made for commercial reasons and that it is not related to a safety or product quality issue,” read a statement from Bayer’s website. “According to our scientific assessment, the positive risk-benefit ratio of Essure remains unchanged.”
Essure sales in the EU were temporarily halted last month, following product license suspension in Ireland due to overall concerns for the product. Bayer also encouraged hospitals in the UK to suspend the use of their existing stocks for the time being.
However, Essure is still being sold in the U.S., its most popular market, although Bayer announced it is no longer marketing outside of the country.
Despite its popularity, more than 15,000 women in the U.S. alone have reported serious health issues resulting from the birth control coil, according to BBC.
In fact, over the past few years a group has surfaced called Essure Problems – an organization of women who are lobbying against Essure in court due to negative experiences with the product. The group now has more than 35,000 members.
Some reported side effects included chronic pain, flu-like symptoms, bleeding, depression, exhaustion, suicidal thoughts, and allergic reactions. In some cases, the coil had moved into other parts of the body, protruding into nearby organs and the pelvis.
These side-effects are a far cry from the device’s label warnings, which include “mild to moderate pain and/or cramping, vaginal bleeding and pelvic or back discomfort for a few days.”
“Whatever they’ve put on the label, multiply it by 200,” said Angela Desa-Lynch, an administrator for the Essure Problems Group, in a previous interview with CNA.
“They don’t tell you that it’s ‘I can’t get out of bed and take care of my kids’ kind of pain,” she continued.
Surgery or a hysterectomy is the only way to remove the Essure coil, which has resulted in additional complications with the birth control device.
The coils can easily break during surgery, causing further health issues such as additional surgeries, inflamed abdomens, and cysts. In addition, most health insurance companies will not cover the cost of the coil’s removal, resulting in a hefty medical bill.
“One woman had a coil in her colon, she went from a business owner to bankruptcy” after four surgeries, Desa-Lynch stated.
The FDA placed its most severe warning on the birth control coil in November 2016. Known as the “black box” label, it is “designed to call attention to serious or life-threatening risks,” according to the FDA’s website.
An FDA spokesman said that the agency “has taken several steps to ensure the ongoing evaluation of Essure’s safety and efficacy, as well as to educate healthcare professionals and women about the potential risks of using the device.”
Washington D.C., Oct 4, 2017 / 02:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In an interview with CNA on Monday, Bishop George Murry of Youngstown, who chairs the US bishops’ newly-formed anti-racism committee, revealed the names of the seven other bishops who are committee members.
The bishop members of the committee, Murry told CNA Oct. 2, are Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, and Bishop Martin Holley of Memphis.
Bishop consultants to the committee include Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago; Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C.; Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore; Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice; and Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin.
Lay consultants to the committee will be announced later this week, Murry said.
Murry reflected that “the problems of racism are deep and widespread, and will take time to heal … Young people are understandably frustrated. We don’t do them a service by not talking about this, by hoping it’ll go away.”
“We need to turn to them and say instead of throwing rocks, instead of destroying buildings, and instead of setting cars on fire, let’s sit down and talk about what concrete steps can we take to overcome this problem.”
The ad hoc committee was announced in August after white supremacists and neo-Nazis rallied in Charlottesville, Va., and a 20 year-old man drove a car into the counter-protest killing one and injuring 19.
The committee will explore ways the Church can address the root causes of contemporary manifestations of racism, the conference said. The bishops will also hold public conversations about racism and race-related problems.
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