Month: June 2020

Denver Newsroom, Jun 3, 2020 / 03:26 am (CNA).- While President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, a better strategy would be engagement and linking U.S. funding to reform, says the head of U.N. advocacy for a pro-life legal group.

“Defund, don’t disengage. Don’t leave. There’s still good that can be done if the U.S. really takes a stand,” Elyssa Koren, director of United Nations advocacy at ADF International, told CNA June 1.

On May 29, President Donald Trump said he would withdraw from the WHO, charging that the agency failed to alert the world when the novel coronavirus emerged. He accused the U.N. agency of helping China cover up the threat.

Last month, Trump put a temporary freeze on U.S. funds during a review of U.S. membership. The U.S. had typically given $400 million per year to the organization, whose budget is about $4.8 billion per year.

“This situation actually warrants a middle-ground approach,” Koren said. “It doesn’t make sense for the U.S. to back out.”

Koren, author of the ADF International white paper “The United Nations Population Fund and the Illicit Promotion of Abortion,” is among the observers who has criticized WHO for its involvement in abortion. She suggested the U.S. could defund the agency without completely cutting ties.

It is not appropriate “for taxpayer dollars to go for abortion in developing world,” she said. However, the U.S. has the ability to make funding dependent on reforms.

“We understand the value of the U.N. We understand the value of the WHO,” she said. According to Koren, the popes “always underscore that there has to be a place for those global conversations to be had.”

“I don’t think recreating these institutions, abandoning one and setting up shop in another, is really going to change the dynamics or avoid the pitfalls,” she said.

Koren said problems in pro-life issues are serious enough to warrant defunding. The WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research has as its main funder the International Planned Parenthood Federation, a major abortion advocacy group. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also heavily involved.

She has found other areas of worry that may be benefitting in part from U.S. funding: “Labeling abortion as an essential response to the pandemic. Listing abortificacients as essential medicines. Home abortions, do-it-yourself abortions. That’s egregious enough that now is the time to defund.”

“American policy under the current administration is that we shouldn’t be using taxpayer dollars to promote abortion abroad,” Koren continued, labeling WHO funding a “fundamental violation” of these policies. “It doesn’t make sense to be giving hundreds of millions of dollars to the WHO if they will be channeling that money into the provision of abortion in these countries.”

This tendency is evident even in the UN global coronavirus response plan, which calls for $2 billion for coronavirus relief.

Koren explained that the United Nations Population Fund, known by the acronym UNFPA, provides Minimum Initial Service Packages. In these packs are instruments used in the context of abortion: vacuum extractors, craniocrasts for the crushing of fetal skills, and drugs to perform abortions.

While the UNFPA would say the equipment is used for complications from miscarriages, Koren said, “that’s largely refuted because it comes with manuals from IBIS, an abortion provider, explaining how they can be used for abortions.”

UNFPA and related agencies has a long history of sending this packages in tandem with abortion referral services.

Koren voiced alarm that the WHO refers to these kits in its coronavirus pandemic plans for Ecuador, which has suffered heavily from the disease and requested priority response from the WHO. It received $8 million in aid.

“Ecuador is a country that doesn’t have abortion. Abortion is illegal,” Koren said.

However, the coronavirus response plan for the country both says that Ecuador should implement legal, safe abortion and says that the MISP kits will be sent.

“It’s very clear that at the end of the day, the implicit or explicit understanding is that Ecuador should legalize abortion if it wants to get money for the coronavirus,” said Koren.

Some groups have asked Trump to reverse his decision to withdraw from the WHO, including the American Medical Association.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who heads the Senate Health Committee, said the move could disrupt clinical trials for high-demand vaccines, Politico reports.

“Certainly there needs to be a good, hard look at mistakes the World Health Organization might have made in connection with coronavirus, but the time to do that is after the crisis has been dealt with, not in the middle of it,” he said.

It is unclear whether Trump needs congressional approval to withdraw from WHO. He had told WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that after 30 days he would make the funding freeze permanent unless unspecified changes took place. However, he announced the move to withdraw only 11 days later.

Asked whether abortion foes would be blamed if WHO faces resource shortages in fighting the novel coronavirus, Ebola or malaria, Koren replied: “I would say ‘isn’t it tragic that the WHO brought this on itself’.”

“We have to be careful not to discredit the good work it’s done in the past,” she said. “But at the end of the day, the primary reason the U.S. defunded it wasn’t on pro-life grounds.”

Koren suggested the U.S. Agency for International Development could distribute aid instead. Beneficiary countries like Ecuador would then take its money from the U.S., without U.N. policy.

However, she acknowledged U.S. policy on foreign aid and abortion could change with the presidential administration.

Citing her 10 years of experience working at the U.N., Koren said pro-life advocates’ goal there is to partner with countries to help make sure their voices are heard. The U.N., in theory, is supposed to listen.

“The member states are supposed to set the agenda. No member state, no matter how small, should be subsumed by the larger voices,” she said. “A vast majority of countries, particularly in the developing world, have highly restrictive laws on abortion.”

Koren said ADF international helps pro-life countries “stand up to the system” and tries to unite countries “to have one pro-life voice.”

“The good news is right now we have a big country on our side: the U.S. is actively working to create pro-life coalitions to stand up to the aggression of the U.N. Bureaucracy.”

She alleged that pro-abortion rights advocates are not working to elevate the voices of member states, but are instead trying to advance their agenda “at all costs” rather than “asking what the countries have to say.”

Some reports call into question President Trump’s claim that the U.N. agency was involved in cover-up. On June 2 the Associated Press reported that while WHO publicly praised China’s response to the new coronavirus, it encountered significant delays in collecting data from the Chinese government. WHO officials were frustrated they did not get the information they needed.

Experts have debated whether WHO should have been more confrontational, or whether that approach would have put it at risk of being kicked out of China.

WHO has agreed to an independent probe of how it handled the global pandemic.

A Department of Homeland Security report dated May 1, acquired by the Associated Press, showed that some U.S. officials believe China covered up the extent of the outbreak and the contagiousness of the new coronavirus in order to stock up on medical supplies.

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Denver Newsroom, Jun 2, 2020 / 05:38 pm (CNA).- Minneapolis clergy, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul-Minneapolis, participated in a silent walking protest Tuesday afternoon to the spot where George Floyd died in police custody last week, stopping to pray at the memorial that had been set up for him.

Hundreds of local leaders from Christian denominations and other religious traditions were present for the prayerful event.

“While many faiths were represented, there was great unity as we prayed for justice and peace,” Archbishop Hebda said in a tweet Tuesday.

It was a great privilege to pray alongside faith leaders #stpfaithleadersforjustice in our communities today both in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. While many faiths were represented, there was great unity as we prayed for justice and peace. pic.twitter.com/q9ULUGeu3V

— Bernard Hebda (@ArchbishopHebda) June 2, 2020

Archbishop Hebda had offered a Mass for the soul of George Floyd and for his family May 27.

Other Catholic cergy present included Father Kevin Finnegan, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish southwest of the city. Father Finnegan was glad to see Archbishop Hebda at the protest, though “he was not at all the center of attention.”

“I ended up being “up front” for the prayer part…not where I intended,” Finnegan told CNA in an email.

“But a [great] place to ask God to grace our community.”

Dozens of cities across the country have seen widespread protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Some protests have turned to nights of rioting, or conflicts with police. At least five people have died amid the protests.

In the video of the May 25 arrest, an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department can be seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck for several minutes after the man was taken into custody. Floyd could be heard saying “I can’t breathe” several times. Floyd died soon after.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was arrested May 29, and has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. He and the three other officers present at Floyd’s arrest were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department.

Catholics across the Twin Cities have called for justice and unity in the wake of Floyd’s death.

Hundreds join Mpls clergy on silent march to block where George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer. Diverse crowd prayed at memorial that has become sacred ground. pic.twitter.com/zZUgIPxIKP

— maury glover (@maurygloverFOX9) June 2, 2020

“The love of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, clearly shows us that we are all children of one God, and that we are all equally subjects of Christ our King, in the Kingdom of God our Father. We are all brothers and sisters,” Fr. Erich Rutten, pastor of St. Peter Claver Parish in St. Paul, said in a YouTube message May 27.

“This particular case is so egregious, that it’s just maddening,” Rutten— who shepherds the largest African-American Catholic community in the Twin Cities— told CNA.

“Our faith calls us way beyond racism, into a radical unity, in the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom we’re all brothers and sisters. I mean truly: Really brothers and sisters,” he said.

St. Albert the Great Parish, located in the Longfellow neighborhood, sheltered 34 neighbors as riots destroyed surrounding businesses and damaged homes the night of May 28. Less than a mile from the church, thousands of protesters gathered to burn the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct, many of them inflicting violence on the surrounding area as well.

The Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis sustained fire damage May 29 amid riots in the city, and graffiti was found on the Church of St. Mark in St. Paul, over two miles away from the heart of the violence.

[…]

Washington D.C., Jun 2, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- After President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is ready to send U.S. troops into states to quell riots, law professors at Catholic universities said acting against the wishes of state governors would be counterproductive, but likely would not violate the law.

Mass protests and some riots have occurred in major U.S. cities and suburbs since shortly after the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. While 23 states have mobilized the National Guard to quell rioters, on June 1 Trump said he would deploy U.S. troops in states that have not done so.

Legal experts told CNA that the Insurrection Act, a law approved by Congress in 1807 and amended over the years, that allows the president to use the military on American soil in times of insurrection. But the statute is subject to a number of limitations, they said, and has historically been used in cooperation with state governors and not against their wishes.

Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell at the University of Notre Dame Law School said Trump “has a narrow statutory right” to send the U.S. military into states, but that in her judgment, “the right does not apply to the current civil unrest.”

Trump cited the need to maintain law and order during a period of unrest, O’Connell said, but the current protests and riots have been created, in part, because of recklessness by law enforcement through “militarized policing.”

“Our nation is witnessing the impact of excessive force, not the lack of it. Excessive force was used against George Floyd. It is being used by some seeking justice for him. It will not end with the deployment of military fire power,” O’Connell said.

In the White House Rose Garden on Monday, President Trump said that he would deploy the U.S. military to states to quell riots, if state governors did not call up the National Guard.

“Today, I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets,” Trump said, calling for “an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled.”

“If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” he said.

In Washington, D.C., Trump said he would dispatch “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers.” Citing the vandalism of monuments and businesses and acts of violence against police, Trump called them “acts of domestic terror.”

On Tuesday night the AP reported that “ roughly 700 members of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division had arrived at two military bases near Washington. Another 1,400 soldiers are ready to be mobilized within an hour, the two Pentagon officials said. The soldiers are armed and have riot gear as well as bayonets.”

Professor Antonio Fidel Perez of the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America said that while Trump had threatened to act if governors refused to, the “lion’s share” of Insurrection Act cases have involved presidents acting with the consent of state governors.

“It’s generally construed to authorize the president, clearly upon the request of governors, to use the military to enforce state law,” he said.

The mobilization of U.S. troops and the federalization of the National Guard “is a shared responsibility and needs to be done in cooperation between state, local, and federal authorities,” said Dr. Meryl Chertoff, executive director of the Georgetown Project on State and Local Government Policy and Law.

“A unilateral effort,” she said of Trump threatening to act alone, “is only going to be counterproductive.”

There are instances in which presidents have mobilized U.S. forces without a governor’s consent. President Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 to protect black students who were integrating into previously-all-white Central High School. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson subsequently invoked the law in the 1960s to enforce civil rights laws.

University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck wrote for NBCNews.com that the president has “sweeping power” under the law “to use the military for domestic law enforcement” and does not need the consent of state governors to do so. Furthermore, the president can make “the factual determination that the military is necessary,” Vladeck said. 

Perez agreed that it is “unlikely” a court would overrule a sitting president on whether his factual determination of the need for federal forces was erroneous.

The law was last invoked by President George H.W. Bush during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles over the acquittal of police officers for assault in the beating of Rodney King. Then-governor of California Pete Wilson asked for federal troops to help quell the riots.

President George W. Bush considered sending federal troops to New Orleans to quell riots after Hurricane Katrina, but decided against it after the Louisiana governor said he did not want the military deployed.

Congress later amended the statute in the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act to liberalize the authority of the president to act without the consent of governors.

However, in the face of backlash by state governors, Congress subsequently withdrew that expansion of executive power, “indicating a congressional unwillingness to broaden the authority of the president to act unilaterally,” Chertoff said. 

Trump, she said, “hasn’t given a good justification” for using the law, especially since he has not yet issued a proclamation but rather has simply used a “bunch of threats.”

If U.S. troops are mobilized, or the National Guard is federalized, the action is also constrained by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which says the troops must be used “in cooperation with police for peaceful purposes,” Chertoff said.

It is not to be equated with “martial law,” a term that “doesn’t really exist in U.S. jurisprudence,” Perez said. The closest legal comparison might be the suspension of habeas corpus, which President Lincoln employed without congressional authorization during the Civil War.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 2, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso led several of his priests in prayer in memory of George Floyd on Monday, June 1.

Seitz is the first U.S. Catholic bishop to physically and publicly join the protes… […]

Minneapolis, Minn., Jun 2, 2020 / 04:17 pm (CNA).- As protests turned violent Thursday night after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a police officer, a small Catholic parish in Minneapolis became a refuge for neighbors who didn’t feel safe in their homes.

St. Albert the Great Parish, located in the Longfellow neighborhood, sheltered 34 neighbors as riots destroyed surrounding businesses and damaged homes the night of May 28. Less than a mile from the church, thousands of protesters gathered to burn the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct, many of them inflicting violence on the surrounding area as well.

Father Joe Gillespie, pastor of St. Albert the Great, said the church’s neighbors feared fire and burglary, and asked the church for shelter. After receiving a call from the Volunteers of America asking for assistance, the church welcomed its neighbors into the church social hall, asking them to provide their own blankets and mats to sleep on.

“It wasn’t a Hilton,” Gillespie told CNA, while adding that the church basement provided running water and plenty of bathrooms.

The church is a back-up site for the Volunteers of America, which houses former inmates transitioning back into the workforce in Minneapolis. In case of floods or power-outages, residents can seek refuge in St. Albert the Great.

Although the parish’s partnership with Volunteers of America has been in place for over 10 years, the church had not been thus-utilized until this crisis.

St. Albert the Great office and communications manager Erin Sim received the call from the Volunteers of America the morning of May 28, and immediately made the church basement available to them.

“You can’t just help your own, you have to be available to help everybody,” she said.

As violence once again escalated that night, some of the residents who sought shelter in the church took the building’s safety into their own hands. They took shifts to keep watch over the building, joining a group of Native Americans who kept watch over the attached Native American immersion charter school.

“We have been miraculously spared from the devastation around the Church,” said Sim.

Father Joseph Williams of St. Stephen’s Church in Minneapolis also received a call from a parishioner seeking refuge in the church. The Sanchez-Ponce family, who also live in the area surrounding the Third Police Precinct, took shelter in the church rectory the night of May 28, according to a report by the Catholic Spirit.

Not every Twin Cities parish emerged unscathed; the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis suffered fire damage, and graffiti was found on the Church of St. Mark in St. Paul, over two miles away from the heart of the violence.

“It had a war-like quality,” said Gillespie. “We’ve been under siege.”

In wake of the violence inflicted on their community, Gillespie said that the message of togetherness during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic extends to this situation.

“We’re in this together,” said Gillespie, echoing the refrain of the pandemic. “It takes a neighborhood to repair itself. It’s not just my house or my church, it’s our church and our house.”

“[St. Albert’s] has always been a welcoming parish,” said Gillespie. The church has been in the neighborhood for 85 years and was a place that the community gravitated to when their homes felt threatened.

“Any church offers that possibility in times of need,” said Gillespie, who said the parish follows the “sanctuary model.”

The Saint Albert the Great community has received an outpouring of donations to distribute to those in need, including water, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and food. Gillespie noted that the church received three substantial monetary donations the morning of June 1 alone.

Giving back to those in need is nothing new to St. Albert’s church: even before the recent destruction in the neighborhood, St. Albert was helping to provide food and rent to those most affected by the pandemic.

Parishioner Rebecca Davis, who has lived in the Longfellow neighborhood since 2001, said that she thinks of St. Albert the Great as “the little parish that could.”

Since the onset of the coronavirus, St. Albert’s has organized teams of parishioners to serve the community, both parishioners and non-Catholics alike.

The community response to the violence accompanying protests has largely been a grass-roots effort to meet the community’s needs as they emerge.

“It’s a lot of pop-up organizations,” said St. Albert the Great part-time staff member Ed Burke. “One day they will come up, they will start taking donations, they will fill a field, and then they will stop. So then you go somewhere else.”

“So many people want to help but they aren’t sure what to do,” said Davis. She recently tried donating food to a local school that called for donations, and joined a line that stretched around several blocks in order to do so.

“So much has been destroyed,” said Sim, “but [it is] inviting us to think about the world we want to rebuild.”

Despite the destruction he has witnessed in the past week, Father Gillespie will not give up his sense of humor.

“I haven’t been to a slumber party since I was about 10,” said Gillespie, reflecting on Thursday night.

[…]