Cheyenne police recommend charging two unnamed clerics for alleged child sex abuse

The Louisiana Legislature on July 18, 2023, overrode the Democratic governor’s veto of legislation banning transgender surgeries and treatments for minors. / Jeffrey Schwartz|Wikipedia|CC BY 2.0

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 20, 2023 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

Louisiana will become the 20th state to outlaw sex change operations for children after the Republican-led Legislature overrode the Democratic governor’s veto of the legislation.

The bill, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, will prohibit doctors from performing sex change surgeries on anyone under the age of 18. The legislation will also ban doctors from prescribing drugs that are meant to facilitate a sex change, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for patients who are minors.

Rep. Gabe Firment, the primary sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement that the override is a “huge win” for Louisiana children.

“We made it clear today that our children are worth fighting for,” Firment said in the July 18 statement. “This great victory would not have been possible without the prayers and support of parents, grandparents, pastors, and grassroots organizations from around the state who rose up and declared with one voice that ‘no one in Louisiana has the right to harm a child.’ God bless the families of our beautiful state!”

The new law will prohibit any sterilizing surgery on a minor, such as the removal of male or female genitals. It will also prohibit surgeries that would artificially construct tissue that is meant to appear like the genitalia of the opposite sex. Doctors will also not be allowed to remove healthy female breasts for girls or perform breast augmentation surgery on boys or girls.

Other surgeries that remove healthy or non-diseased parts of the body on a minor will also be prohibited, such as facial reconstruction surgery, hair reconstruction surgery, voice surgery, or other aesthetic surgeries designed to facilitate a gender transition.

The law will prohibit doctors from prescribing any drugs that are intended to delay or suppress puberty in a child and will not allow doctors to provide estrogen or testosterone treatments on minors in amounts that would be greater than what would naturally occur in a person of the same sex at that child’s age.

If a doctor has already prescribed these drugs to a minor, the doctor must either immediately halt the treatment or wean the child off of the drugs if necessary. A medical professional who violates the law will have his or her medical license suspended for a minimum of two years and could be subject to civil litigation from the patient. The law does not establish any criminal penalties.

The legislation creates an exception for medically necessary procedures to treat infections, injuries, physical disorders, or physical illnesses. There is also an exception for children born with a medically verifiable sex disorder, such as children who are born with ambiguous sex characteristics.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards criticized the Legislature’s overriding of his veto.

“Today, I was overridden for the second time on my veto of a bill that needlessly harms a very small population of vulnerable children, their families, and their health care professionals,” the governor said. “I expect the courts to throw out this unconstitutional bill as well.”

Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry voiced his support of the override in a statement, saying: “The woke liberal agendas that are destructive to children will not be tolerated in Louisiana.”

“We have sent a signal to America that Louisiana intends to strengthen the family unit and to protect children from harmful gender reassignment surgeries … and I’m proud of those in the Legislature who voted to make this override successful,” Landry said.

Louisiana became the 20th state to prohibit sex change surgeries for children, but the practice is still legal in most states.

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San Francisco, Calif., Aug 14, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- At a Mass marking Sunday’s conclusion of a novena for the defeat of a California bill that would require public universities to provide free access to abortion pills for students, the Archbishop of San Francisco challenged parishioners to grow in charity by embracing works of mercy to the most vulnerable – those in the womb.

Confidence in God “gives us the courage to put our identity into action by imbuing our minds and values with the truth of the Gospel so that we may live our faith with integrity and so be vigilant to the Lord’s coming by serving as a moral conscious of our society,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in his homily at an Aug. 11 Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco.

“And we do so above all, by bearing witness to God by a life of charity, seeking the good of those who are most disadvantaged and defenseless and so fulfill our human vocation of eternal happiness with God in heaven.”

Catholics in California held a novena Aug. 3-11 for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe in order to defeat Senate Bill 24. The state legislature returned from summer recess Aug. 12.

SB 24 is a slightly-amended version of a bill introduced in California’s state legislature last year that was ultimately vetoed.

Former Governor Jerry Brown, a public supporter of abortion, vetoed the similar bill last September, saying it was was “not necessary,” as abortion services are already “widely available” off campus.

California’s current governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said before his election that he would have supported the abortion pill mandate, but has not commented on the new version of the bill since he took office.

The bill would also create a fund to provide a $200,000 grant to each public university student health center to pay for the cost of offering abortion pills, with money coming from nonstate sources such as private sector entities and local and federal government agencies.

The bill would only take effect if at least $10.29 million in private funds are made available by Jan. 1, 2020, which funding has already been secured according to an Aug. 12 analysis of the bill by the State Assembly’s appropriations committee.

Besides requiring college health centers to provide abortion pills free of charge, SB 24 would also require abortion counseling services to students, but it is “specifically written in such a way to exclude pro-life counseling,” according to the California Catholic Conference.

In his homily Archbishop Cordileone said the US “is a country that tolerates the destruction of human beings in their mothers’ wombs, and it exalts it by calling it choice while actually doing nothing to help a woman in a crisis situation to have the support that she needs to make a truly happy choice, a choice for life.”

The archbishop expanded on three lessons: identity, vigilance, and charity.

He said fathers of the Old Testament understood their identity as children of God and took courage in his providence. He said these people were rewarded for their trust, even if the answer to their prayers was not seen for generations to come.

“As the people of God, we are rooted in the certainty of a past historical saving event, which gives us the certainty of hope for God’s deliverance in his own time and in his own way,” he said.

“The fathers of the chosen people did not see this liberation. This was for a future generation, but they had confidence that God would fulfill his promise so they had the courage to do God’s will in the face of great hardship and uncertainty.”

Secondly, he said, Catholics must rise above worldly concerns and be vigilant in their identity in the faith.

“We are not to be duped by popular fashions, by political convention, or by the cultural pressure of the time,” he said. “Our values and our whole way of thinking is not to be conditioned by popular trends or pressure, but by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

He said parishioners cannot act as the gluttonous and violent man in the Gospel’s parable of the unfaithful steward. He said adopting the values of society condones a culture of death.

Lastly, he pointed to Christ’s words on true wealth.

In order to store up riches in heaven, he said, Catholics should give alms to the poor and the most vulnerable. He said, under the Catholic faith, the action of giving alms can be demonstrated in numerous ways, such as participating in the pro-life movement.

“What can be a greater act of charity than to defend those who have no voice with which to defend themselves? It is precisely by such acts of charity on behalf of the poor, defenseless, and marginalized that we prepare ourselves for the life of heaven.”

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Philadelphia, Pa., May 16, 2018 / 02:54 pm (CNA).- The upcoming film, “Pope Francis: A Man of his Word,” has won praise from Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who applauded the movie’s compelling portrayal of the Holy Father…. […]