Month: August 2020

CNA Staff, Aug 27, 2020 / 12:28 am (CNA).- Texas officials have asked the Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals to allow the state to enforce its ban on a certain type of second-trimester abortions, pending further court decisions.

The rule in question bars “dismemberment abortions,” known medically as “dilation and evacuation” abortions. The procedure uses forceps and other instruments to kill and remove the unborn baby from the womb. The Texas legislature declared the procedure “brutal and inhumane.”

While a panel at the New Orleans-based appellate court has already declined a motion to allow Texas to enforce the law, state officials are now asking the full appellate court to stay the decision. Republican-appointed judges outnumber Democratic-appointed judges on the court 12-5.

In June 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear arguments on a similar ban in Alabama after a federal judge blocked that law. However, on Aug. 7, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower court’s order against enforcement of four Arkansas abortion restrictions, including the state’s dismemberment abortion ban.

That ruling said the U.S. District Court must consider the law in light of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ June decision on a Louisiana law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

Although the court struck down the Louisiana law, Chief Justice John Roberts in his concurring opinion also reaffirmed the right of states to create abortion regulations in order to further women’s health and safety, if they met certain standards in doing so. This has prompted speculation that other state abortion regulations may be able to withstand judicial scrutiny by citing the ruling.

A federal judge struck down the Texas law in 2017, but Texas officials appealed. Their appeal was first heard in November 2018, but the case was postponed until the Supreme Court could rule on the Louisiana law.

In 2017, Texas Right to Life said the dismemberment abortion ban is defensible under the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Gonzales v. Carhart, which says states have a “compelling interest in protecting the integrity and ethics of the medical profession and in protecting the life of the preborn child.”

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CNA Staff, Aug 26, 2020 / 08:22 pm (CNA).- Sr. Deirdre “Dede” Byrne, POSC, was among the speakers at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Now a Catholic religious sister, Byrne previously served as a surgeon, retired army officer, and missionary. The full text of her speech, delivered August 26, is below:

Good evening. I am Sister Dede Byrne, and I belong to the Community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Last Fourth of July, I was honored to be one of the president’s guests at his Salute to America celebration. I must confess that I recently prayed while in chapel, begging God to allow me to be a voice, an instrument for human life. And now here I am, speaking at the Republican National Convention. I guess you’d better be careful what you pray for. My journey to religious life was not a traditional route, if there is such a thing. In 1978, as a medical school student at Georgetown University, I joined the Army to help pay for my tuition, and ended up devoting 29 years to the military, serving as a doctor and a surgeon in places like Afghanistan and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. After much prayer and contemplation, I entered my religious order in 2002, working to serve the poor and the sick in Haiti, Sudan, Kenya, Iraq and in Washington, D.C. Humility is at the foundation of our order, which makes it very difficult to talk about myself. But I can speak about my experience working for those fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries all around the world. Those refugees all share a common experience. They have all been marginalized, viewed as insignificant, powerless and voiceless. And while we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. They are the unborn. As Christians, we first met Jesus as a stirring embryo in the womb of an unwed mother and saw him born nine months later in the poverty of the cave. It is no coincidence that Jesus stood up for what was just and was ultimately crucified because what he said was not politically correct or fashionable. As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life against the politically correct or fashionable of today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. Keep in mind, the laws we create define how we see our humanity. We must ask ourselves: What we are saying when we go into a womb and snuff out an innocent, powerless, voiceless life? As a physician, I can say without hesitation: Life begins at conception. While what I have to say may be difficult for some to hear, I am saying it because I am not just pro-life, I am pro-eternal life. I want all of us to end up in heaven together someday. Which brings me to why I am here today. Donald Trump is the most pro-life president this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden-Harris, who are the most anti-life presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide. Because of his courage and conviction, President Trump has earned the support of America’s pro-life community. Moreover, he has a nationwide of religious standing behind him. You’ll find us here with our weapon of choice, the rosary. Thank you, Mr. President, we are all praying for you.
 

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Denver Newsroom, Aug 26, 2020 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Hurricane Laura caused flooding in several Caribbean territories over the weekend, killing at least 24 people and causing thousands to be without utilities. The storm is now approaching Texas and Louisiana.

The storm first approached the Caribbean Aug. 23 and has killed at least 20 people in Haiti, and three in the Dominican Republic.

Nikki Gamer, media relations manager for Catholic Relief Services, told CNA that while the specifics of the storm’s damages have not yet been evaluated, the victims in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico will be needing more help with basic necessities.

“We’re just beginning to understand the impacts of the latest storm, but what we do know is that whatever the damage, it will be yet more terrible news for the people of Haiti,” CRS’ Haiti country representative Chris Bessey stated.

“In recent years, they’ve dealt with a prolonged economic downturn, drought, worsening food insecurity, political upheaval, COVID-19, and now a devastating storm. Yes – the Haitian people are resilient. But that doesn’t diminish the fact that communities here are struggling under tremendous hardships.”

The storm knocked out power for more than 1 million people in the Dominican Republic and, while utilities had been restored to 400,000 people earlier this week, tens of thousands of people were still without power Aug. 24.

The flooding has collapsed several homes in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It also forced more than 1,000 people to be evacuated across the country and cut off road access to over 120 isolated communities.

In Puerto Rico, the storm brought 67 mph gusts of wind and dumped 3 to 6 inches of rain in the territory’s southern and eastern regions.

Cuba and Jamaica were also affected.

Bessey expressed concern that the storm would also heavily damage farms and further aggravate food problems in Haiti. He said that prior to the storm, CRS had already been providing basic necessities to families struggling from the pandemic and would further assess additional needs following the storm.

“We’re especially alarmed by reports that the storm has caused widespread damage to agricultural lands in the hardest-hit areas, which likely means that hunger will continue to get worse,” said Bessey.
 
“When COVID-19 hit, CRS was already supporting the most vulnerable families to manage the growing food insecurity. In fact, we quickly adjusted our activities to be COVID-safe while providing cash to families as well as information on healthy foods that they can purchase locally, which helps build up the economy. This experience and understanding of community priorities and ongoing work has given us the flexibility to assess the additional needs following the storm.”

The storm is expected to make landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border in the early hours of Aug. 27. More than a half million people in the coastal areas of the two states have been ordered to evacuate.

The National Hurricane Center has said that “large and destructive waves” will be life threatening and may cause flooding up to 30 miles inland.

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Denver Newsroom, Aug 26, 2020 / 05:07 pm (CNA).- One of the featured speakers at the Republican National Convention on Aug. 26 will be Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese lawyer and human rights advocate who has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese governmen… […]

CNA Staff, Aug 26, 2020 / 04:15 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski was installed this week as the Tenth Archbishop of St. Louis, on the feast day of the city’s namesake, Louis IX of France. The new archbishop challenged Catholics to put their faith into action and seek to meet the world face-to-face.

“Parishes are not built from behind desks. Communities are not built from behind desks. As a Church, evangelization does not happen from behind a desk,” Rozanski, 61, said in his installation Mass homily Aug. 25.

Rozanski acknowledged that during the pandemic, most interactions have had to be mediated through the internet and screens.

“I yearn for that day when we can meet safely face-to-face, and not through our TVs. computers, and phones. While we are compelled to be our brother’s keeper, and so must live within these necessary public safety parameters for the time being, let us nonetheless be visible and encounter people as best we can, to spread the joy of the Gospel.”

Pope Francis in June appointed Rozanski to lead the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He succeeds Archbishop Robert Carlson, who presented his resignation to Pope Francis at the customary age of 75.

St. Louis is the largest archdiocese in Missouri, and is home to over half a million Catholics.

Rozanski expressed gratitude for his priesthood and gratitude to Pope Francis for choosing him to lead the archdiocese. The installation Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis was closed to the public because of the pandemic.

Referring to St. Louis by its popular nickname, “The Rome of the West”— so called because of its many grand Catholic churches— Rozanski pointed to the city’s most well-known symbol, the Gateway Arch, as a symbol of hope and unity.

“How much that hope is needed in our country, and in our world, today,” he remarked.

The city’s namesake, St. Louis, was holy “not because of the crown he wore, but because of the service he allowed it to give,” Rozanski said.

“We are called to be a people of hope,” he said, adding that each individual, as well as the Church as a whole, is called to practice love, putting it into action by seeking to meet with people face-to-face.

“We ourselves must be gateways to healing, to evangelization, to mercy, to compassion, to listening with the ears of Jesus,” he said.

COVID-19 is not the only urgent cross facing us today, he said, referring to the “scars of systemic racism.”

St. Louis has seen racially-charged protests in recent months, and historically has been a segregated city. Racial tension in the city has been heightened ever since the Aug. 2014 killing of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, MO police officer.

Rozanski referred to racism as “a man-made plague that isolates us from one another” and diminishes our God-given dignity.

A bishop must always foster a missionary attitude in his diocese, Rozanski said, which involves listening to all his people, not merely those who “would tell him what he wants to hear.”

He called for Catholics to work on “bold and creative methods” of evangelization.

“Let us walk together on this journey of faith. I need your help, and I need your prayers,” he said.

Rozanski had previously led the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts since 2014.

A Baltimore native, Rozanski was born in 1958, and attended Catholic schools in the city. He attended seminary at the Catholic University of America, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1984. He served in parish ministry, the archdiocesan curia, and with its seminary, and was named a monsignor in 2003.

St. John Paul II appointed Rozanski auxiliary bishop of Baltimore in 2004. He oversaw one of Baltimore archdiocese’s geographical vicariates while parishes were merged, and served as vicar for Hispanics. He was vocal in supporting Maryland’s DREAM act, allowing some undocumented immigrants to receive in-state college tuition.

At the time of his episcopal consecration, Rozanski was the youngest bishop in the United States. He went on to serve as chair of the U.S. bishops’ conference committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and as a consultant to the National Association for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities.

A Polish-American, Rozanski has co-chaired the Polish National Catholic – Roman Catholic Dialogue. The Polish National Catholic Church is a schismatic Church founded in the U.S. in the late 19th-century by Polish-American immigrants.

He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Though Rozanski himself backed major changes in the Springfield diocese’s handling of abuse, CNA has reported that one anonymous abuse victim has asked for a Church investigation into whether Rozanski was involved in covering up abuse by a former bishop of the diocese.

On June 24 of this year, the Springfield diocese released a 373-page report finding that an alleged victim’s claim he was molested by the late Bishop Christopher Weldon were “unequivocally credible,” despite Weldon not yet being listed on the Springfield diocese’s list of clergy credibly accused of abuse.

The investigator, Judge Peter A. Velis, said his findings raise questions about whether there was an attempt to conceal the report’s contents about Bishop Weldon from the review board or Bishop Rozanski.

In June, Rozanski apologized for the “chronic mishandling of the case, time and time again, since 2014.”

“At almost every instance, we have failed this courageous man who nonetheless persevered thanks in part to a reliable support network as well to a deep desire for a just response for the terrible abuse which he endured,” Rozanski said at a June press conference, one year after he commissioned the independent investigation into the matter.

In March 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Bishop Rozanski attempted to authorize a change to norms for the anointing of the sick, permitting a nurse, rather than a priest, to conduct the physical anointing. Only a priest can validly administer the sacrament.

Later that same week, the diocese told CNA it had rescinded that policy. Rozanski emailed Springfield priests that afternoon explaining that “After further discussion and review, I am rescinding my previous directive and temporarily suspending the Anointing of the Sick in all instances.”

The diocese reinstated the practice of the anointing of the sick in May.

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