El Paso, Texas, Feb 25, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Catholic bishops from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border are meeting in El Paso with immigration advocates, interreligious groups, and other leaders to show solidarity with migrants and to strategize ac… […]
Washington D.C., Feb 25, 2019 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act has failed to achieve the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture and bring the legislation forward. The Senate voted of 53 to 44 to invoke cloture on Monday, but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to halt a filibuster by Democratic senators.
The vote was almost entirely on party lines.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), the legislation’s lead sponsor, submitted the bill in early February using the Rule 14 process, which means the bill was brought directly to the Senate floor. After an initial attempt to pass the bill via unanimous voice vote was foiled by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Feb. 4, the process shifted to a roll-call vote.
Speaking on the floor of the Senate Monday, Sasse urged members from both parties to consider how little the legislation actually aimed to ensure.
“I urge my colleagues to picture a baby that’s already been born, that’s outside the womb gasping for air. That’s the only thing that today’s vote is actually about. We’re talking about babies that have already been born. Nothing in this bill touches abortion access,” Sasse said.
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would have penalized doctors or other medical professionals who do not provide medical care to infants who are born alive following a botched abortion attempt. The bill does not restrict abortion rights.
Several Democratic senators spoke against the bill saying it would force doctors to provide care against the “reproductive rights” and “choices” of women.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) called the measure a “solution in search of a problem,” and that i could force doctors to provide “unnecessary” or even “harmful” care to patients. She was not clear if she was referring to the child or the mother as the “patient.”
Speaking after the vote, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said it was “unconscionable” that “protecting innocent, newborn abortion survivors is now a partisan issue.”
“Every infant that is born alive despite a botched abortion deserves the same proper medical care and treatment that doctors are required to give to other newborns,” Rubio said.
The Florida senator was an original co-sponsor of the bill.
Rubio said that the vote “made it crystal clear” that Democratic senators “support the legalization of infanticide” and “openly embraced the growing extremism” within their party.
Sasse told CNA on Feb. 1 that he did not think there was “any legitimate argument” that could be made against his legislation, and that he hoped that nobody in the Senate would oppose the bill.
The Nebraska senator brought the fast-track the legislation in response to comments by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) that appeared to endorse neglecting infants who survived late-term abortions. Northam’s spokesperson later said that the governor was only referring to infants with “severe” birth defects or other disabilities.
Sasse said that objecting to his bill would be a sign of support for infanticide.
“(Members of the Senate) need to show what side they’re on,” Sasse told CNA in February. “It’s a pretty simple question: are you on the side of these vulnerable little babies, or are you on the side of Gov. Northam and his defense of infanticide?”
Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (WV), Bob Casey (PA) and Doug Jones (AL) all voted in favor of the bill, as did Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). The four senators are usually considered to be potential swing votes on abortion issues.
While uncommon, there have been many documented cases of infants surviving abortions. Former abortionist Kermit Gosnell is currently serving a life sentence after he was found to have murdered numerous infants who were born alive after surviving attempted late-term abortions.
Los Angeles, Calif., Feb 25, 2019 / 04:06 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles responded to the Vatican’s summit on abuse by stressing the need for a renewal of fidelity within the entire Catholic Church.
“This crisis in the Chu… […]
Washington D.C., Feb 25, 2019 / 02:47 pm (CNA).- A Canadian priest who apologized last week for plagiarism has resigned from the governing board of a Catholic college affiliated with the University of Toronto.
“As a sign of contrition and acknowledgement of the error, I freely submitted my resignation (Feb. 24) to the Collegium of the University of St. Michael’s College,” Fr. Thomas Rosica told The Catholic Register Feb. 25.
“It has been a privilege for me to serve that excellent university for many years in various capacities. I did not want my errors to cloud over the university governance and offer a bad example to students, educators and staff. We know that plagiarism is wrong, especially when it is practised deliberately. Please note that my actions were never deliberate. Nevertheless they were wrong.”
In a statement Monday, Fr. Don McCleod, CSB said that “Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB made significant contributions while serving the St. Michael’s community as a member of its Collegium,” adding that he had “respectfully accepted his resignation from the Collegium.”
McLeod is the chairman of the Collegium, or governing board, of The University of St. Michael’s College, which was founded by the Congregation of St. Basil, the religious community of which McLeod and Rosica are members. The college has nearly 4,000 students.
Rosica, a long-serving English language press aide at the Vatican Press Office, and the CEO of Canada’s Salt+Light Television network, was reported by Life Site News Feb. 15 to have plagiarized sections of text in several lectures and op-eds from a variety of writers, among them priests, theologians, journalists, and at least two cardinals.
Subsequent reports found widespread plagiarism in essays, speeches, and op-eds by Rosica, dating back more than a decade. Plagiarized sections in some texts ran beyond even one paragraph.
“I realize that I was not prudent nor vigilant with several of the texts that have surfaced and I will be very vigilant with future texts and compositions,” Rosica told The Catholic Register.
“I take full responsibility for my lack of oversight and do not place the blame on anyone else but myself.”
Rosica told the National Post Feb. 22 that “What I’ve done is wrong, and I am sorry about that. I don’t know how else to say it.”
Rosica also told the National Post his plagiarism was inadvertent and not malicious. He explained that “it could have been cut and paste,” apparently meaning that he had mistakenly included passages of text written by others in his texts without remembering to attribute them.
The priest added that he would “apologize that this came to light, and it’s wrong, and it’s not going to happen again.”
After Rosica’s initial apology, evidence emerged on Twitter that Rosica had also copied directly and without attribution the work of several theologians in a 1994 article he published in the theological journal “Worship.”
Journalists who have worked with Rosica told CNA they were surprised by the evidence of plagiarism, noting the priest’s intellectual gifts and his reputation for charitable generosity toward young staff members and journalists.
Sources noted that Rosica is known to work extremely long hours and to eschew vacations or time off. Some praised the priest’s love for the Church, and his availability to assist the bishops of Canada and the Holy See whenever he is asked.
The priest told the National Post that some plagiarism might have occurred because he neglected to check sources and overlooked attributions in background material prepared for him by interns.
He elaborated Monday, telling The Catholic Register that “if there was an error on my part, it is that I have often relied on others who have generously helped me in my preparation of various texts and I did not do the necessary checking into sources, etc. I regret that. It was never willfully done.”
One source confirmed to CNA that the priest sometimes has had interns assist him with research, adding that he was not aware of incidences in which interns would have written speeches or op-eds for Rosica, and that he was unaware of what role interns might have played in the priest’s plagiarism.
Rosica is no stranger to controversy. In August 2018, the priest generated considerable debate when he wrote that Pope Francis “breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants because he is ‘free from disordered attachments.’ Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”
The remark prompted considerable debate among Catholic commentators and theologians.
Rosica was scheduled to be honored in April at the annual Provincial’s Dinner of the Canadian province of the Society of Jesus. The province withdrew its invitation Feb. 25.
“The Jesuits of Canada have followed the recent media reports regarding plagiarism by Father Thomas Rosica, CSB, actions for which he has taken responsibility and offered a full apology. Plagiarism is a grave offense against intellectual honesty and the community of scholarship. At the same time, many of us know Fr. Tom personally, and celebrate his genuine service to the Church in Canada and around the world. It is with great sorrow then that we have written to Father Rosica and withdrawn our invitation to him to receive the Magis Award on April 24, in the context of the Annual Provincial’s Dinner,” the province said.
Rosica is a member of the Board of Trustees at St. John Fisher College in New York and the Board of Directors at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. Neither college was available for comment before deadline.
This story has been updated.
Brisbane, Australia, Feb 25, 2019 / 01:51 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane is being investigated by his former archdiocese over his alleged handling of information on child sex abuse given him by a woman during a 2006 meeting.
As president of the Australian bishops’ conference, Coleridge attended the Feb. 21-24 Vatican summit on the protection of minors in the Church.
Guardian Australia reported Feb. 25 that “the complaint against Coleridge relates to a 2006 meeting with a Canberra woman who had offered information about child sexual abuse.”
The woman was relating information about abuse in the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn. Coleridge was appointed Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn in June of that year, and was installed Aug. 17.
According to Guardian Australia, it is alleged Coleridge called the woman a gossip “and acted agressively towards her.”
Coleridge has denied the allegations.
A representative of the the Canberra-Goulburn archdioese told Guardian Australia it is conducting an independent investigation, but progress has been delayed because the woman is not participating: “Archbishop Mark Coleridge cooperated with the investigation and strongly refuted the allegations. When [the complainant] was invited to cooperate with the independent investigation, she chose not to engage with the process. She has instead chosen to take these allegations to the media, which is deeply disappointing.”
The Archdiocese of Sydney has also been made aware of the allegations.
Coleridge was born in 1948, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1974, where he then became auxiliary bishop in 2002. He was Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn from 2006 to 2012, when he was transferred to the Archdiocese of Brisbane.
He gave a homily at a Mass in the Vatican’s Sala Regia Feb. 24 at the conclusion of the child abuse summit, during which he said that “at times we have seen victims and survivors as the enemy. We have been our own worst enemy.”
The Brisbane archbishop also lamented weak historical care of sex abuse victims, and urged “very practical ways of accompanying all those who have been abused in whatever way they need to be accompanied.”
Washington D.C., Feb 25, 2019 / 12:09 pm (CNA).- While much of the opioid crisis of the last two decades has been associated with white Americans and prescription drugs, the number of African American fatalities from opioid overdoses is on the rise.
M… […]
Washington D.C., Feb 25, 2019 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Recent poll shows a 17-point increase in the number of Americans who identify as pro life, up from 38 percent earlier this year. The results follow a month in which several states passed expansive new pr… […]
Vatican City, Feb 25, 2019 / 11:06 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Sunday that Pope Francis will publish in March a post-synodal exhortation on last October’s synod on young people, faith, and vocational discernment.
The papal document, for whi… […]
Vatican City, Feb 25, 2019 / 10:11 am (CNA).- On Monday, in the Vatican’s first follow-up to last week’s child abuse summit, officials emphasized “encounter” and the need for concrete responses as called for by Catholics.
The f… […]
“And the Oscar for Best Actress goes to…Jennifer Jones, for her portrayal of St. Bernadette Soubirous in The Song of Bernadette.” That was not from the Academy Awards of February 24, 2019, of course, but […]
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