Month: October 2020

CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2020 / 04:59 pm (CNA).- Ahead of the U.S. presidential election, the Diocese of Phoenix is hosting its biennial legislative seminar encouraging Catholics to form their consciences in order to help fulfill their responsibility as citizens.

The Catholics in the Public Square seminar will be held virtually on the morning of Oct. 3, hosted by the Diocese of Phoenix and Bishop Thomas Olmsted, in conjunction with the Catholic Women of Phoenix and the Knights of Columbus.

“There is a growing division in our state and in our country, especially in recent months,” said Olmsted in an August promotional video. “As we approach the fall elections, what we must never forget, however, is that God remains with us and has a plan and responsibility for each of us to be faithful Catholics and loyal responsible citizens.”

The seminar will be live-streamed on the diocese’s Youtube and Facebook pages. The event has taken place every two years since Olmsted became bishop in 2004, and it typically attracts around 400 attendees.

The seminar will begin at 9:30 a.m. with Mass celebrated by Olmsted. It will continue with speeches from religious freedom experts including Helen Alvaré, law professor at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, and Alan Sears, who served as the president of Alliance Defending Freedom for over 20 years.

Ron Johnson, executive director for the Arizona Catholic Conference, helped organize the event. He said the formation of laity is one of  its main goals. The seminar will encourage Catholics to be faithful beyond the normal obligations of Mass and to practice the faith in every aspect of their lives, including civic responsibilities.

“Part of the seminar … is that we need to be Catholic in everything we do, not just at Mass on Sunday for an hour, but wherever we are,” he told CNA. “Praying, volunteering at soup kitchens, you name it. But, voting is also a very important one as well. We have an obligation as Catholics to form our conscience.”

Religious freedom will be among the major issues discussed at the seminar.

“Religious liberty is going to be a big one,” Johnson said. “[Helen Alvaré is] going to have a lot of important things to discuss with regard to our faith and our institutions in particular, how we’re at risk of losing our Catholic identity. If we don’t stand up for the culture we’re in right now, we’ve got a real risk.”

Speakers will address the impact of threats to religious liberty throughout the United States and across the world, not only for the Catholic Church, but also in various professions, such as health care, he said.

In a Sept. 29 video from the Arizona Catholic Conference, the state’s bishops stressed voting as an important part of the obligation to promote the common good.

“The Catholic Church is not partisan and does not endorse candidates,” Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson said. “We are, however, firmly committed to promoting Catholic teaching and encouraging the laity to fully engage in promoting the common good in all aspects of their lives.”

Neither major political party embraces the fullness of Catholic teaching, said Bishop Wall of Gallup. “We are called to pray and reflect upon the critical moral issues of our day.”

“Catholic teaching reminds us that the protection of innocent human life from abortion is the pre-eminent issue of our time,” Bishop Olmsted said. “Accordingly, respect for the human dignity of all people, including immigrants, refugees, and the poor are also critical parts of Catholic social teaching. We oppose all forms of unjust discriminations and advocate for the healing of divisions that have resulted from racism in all of its various forms throughout the years.”

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CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2020 / 03:53 pm (CNA).-  

When sheriff’s deputies set out to arrest the Florida man who is believed to have set fire to a Catholic Church last month, it turned out he was already in jail. Eugenio Rodriguez-Colina was charg… […]

CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2020 / 02:55 pm (CNA).- A new report from Catholic Relief Services has found that growing violence in the Sahel region of West Africa has its foundation in economic inequality, creating one of the fastest growing humanitarian crises i… […]

CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York called Judge Amy Coney Barrett the “best candidate” for the Supreme Court vacancy, and said she, like her potential predecessor, faces biases du… […]

CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2020 / 01:07 pm (CNA).- A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Tennessee law that requires doctors to inform patients seeking medical abortion that the procedure could be reversed if the patient acts quickly.

The law, which was signed by Gov. Bill Lee in July, requires abortion providers to notify patients that medical abortions can be reversed; a procedure that is becoming more common among pro-life doctors, but which has not yet been evaluated by the FDA.

Medical abortions made up around 40% of at U.S. abortions in 2017, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. The FDA allows the two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol to be used until 10 weeks gestation.

Tennessee’s law required the physician to offer notification of the possibility of reversal at least 48 hours before the abortion, again in writing after the first pill of the regimen has been administered, and written on “conspicuously” displayed signs in private offices, ambulatory surgical treatment centers, facilities, and clinics that have provided more than 50 abortions in the previous calendar year, CNN reported.

Tennesee’s five abortion clinics, along with Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, filed suit against the law in August.

The federal judge, William Campbell, wrote that he was “unable to assess fully the competing expert opinions as to whether the mandated message is ‘truthful and not misleading,’ in the absence of the experts’ testimony,” but also that the plaintiffs had demonstrated “a strong or substantial likelihood” that the mandate violates the First Amendment.

The judge’s block on the law will last until Oct. 13.

Several other states, including Oklahoma, North Dakota, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Nebraska have passed laws requiring abortion providers to inform patients about abortion pill reversal. A district judge granted a preliminary injunction against North Dakota’s requirement during Sept. 2019. 

In July, a federal judge overruled FDA requirements that women visit with a doctor in-person before they can be prescribed a medical abortion.

Since 2000, the FDA has placed the chemical abortion protocol of mifepristone and misoprostol under its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy list, requiring it to be prescribed in-person in a hospital, clinic, or medical office. The patient must sign a form acknowledging that she has been adequately informed of the risks.

Pro-abortion groups, however, have pushed for the pill to be dispensed remotely via telemedicine during the coronavirus pandemic, due to apparent difficulties women could face traveling to a clinic in-person.

The first drug, mifepristone, effectively starves the unborn baby by blocking the effects of the hormone progesterone. The second drug, misoprostol, is taken up to two days later and induces labor.

Side effects that women suffer from the pills, such as heavy bleeding, abdominal pain, or severe infections, are usually treated at emergency rooms, which are not required to report the incidents to the FDA.

After the federal judge’s decision, pro-life leaders and senators asked the FDA to remove the abortion pill from the market altogether by classifying it as a public health hazard. Nearly two dozen pro-life leaders said that pro-abortion groups were “using the coronavirus pandemic as a ruse” in their efforts to deregulate the pills.

A 2018 study, published in Issues in Law and Medicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal, examined 261 successful abortion pill reversals, and showed that the reversal success rates were 68 percent with a high-dose oral progesterone protocol and 64 percent with an injected progesterone protocol.

Both procedures significantly improved the 25 percent fetal survival rate if no treatment is offered and a woman simply declines the second pill of a medical abortion. The case study also showed that the progesterone treatments caused no increased risk of birth defects or preterm births due.

The study was authored by Dr. Mary Davenport and Dr. George Delgado, who have been studying the abortion pill reversal procedures since 2009. Delgado also sits on the board of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The Abortion Pill Rescue Network, which Delgado serves as a medical advisor, has claimed to have saved over 500 babies from abortion. The network is a program of Heartbeat International, a longstanding network of pro-life pregnancy assistance.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which tends to oppose abortion regulations, has criticized the scientific claims behind abortion pill reversal.

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Denver, Colo., Oct 1, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- A federal judge on Tuesday denied an injunction sought by a Protestant ministry against Colorado’s coronavirus health orders, which limit religious gatherings to 175 persons.

Christine Arguello, a judge of the US District Court for the District of Colorado, wrote Sept. 29 that “numerous courts have considered, and persuasively rejected,” arguments similar to those made by the plaintiff, Andrew Wommack Ministries, and that the suit was thus unlikely to succeed.

“Plaintiff seeks to enjoin public health laws in order to allow it to gather a large group of people during a pandemic. Granting such an injunction would present a high risk of harm to the state of Colorado as well as the public generally,” Arguello concluded.

She added that “The state has the responsibility to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 virus, which is made more difficult when case numbers increase. The relief Plaintiff requests has the potential to increase case numbers significantly, placing a high burden on the state. Further, Plaintiff would be compromising the health of the public, which could cause the death of an untold number of innocent citizens.”

Liberty Counsel, which is representing the ministry, immediately appealed the ruling.

Matt Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, commented that “The virus does not discriminate between nonreligious and religious gatherings, but Gov. Jared Polis does. There is no constitutional justification to treat nonreligious gatherings better than religious gatherings. The First Amendment gives preferential treatment to the free exercise of religion. We look forward to presenting arguments to the Court of Appeals.”

Andrew Wommack Ministries was seeking relief to hold a conference meant to start Oct. 5 in Woodland Park, in Teller County about 20 miles northwest of Colorado Springs, and expected to gather at least 600 persons.

A conference held by the group at the beginning of July was linked to a Covid-19 outbreak. The outbreak consists of 24 staff who have tested positive, and 16 attendees. One attendee died, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Andrew Wommack Ministries’ suit against the public health orders said they restrict its religious activites “if the number in attendance exceeds arbitrarily imposed numerical limitations and capacity limitations that are not imposed on numerous nonreligious gatherings of like kind” and impose “discriminatory and disparate prohibitions on the types of activities that AWMI may engage in at their own facilities, as the orders allow AWMI to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, provide other material social services and necessities of life to an unlimited number of individuals with unlimited volunteers in a single facility, but the Orders prohibit AWMI from engaging in a religious conference, ministry, event, gathering, or service with the same individuals in the same facility.”

The suit also argued that religious events are treated differently from large protests: “while the Governor has unilaterally and significantly restricted the number of individuals permitted to assemble or participate in AWMI’s religious activities, he has excused from such restrictions untold thousands of protesters who have gathered all throughout Colorado cities, with no social distancing, and with no threat of criminal or legal sanction.”

Earlier this year the US Supreme Court, in 5-4 decisions, upheld coronavirus regulations of religious gatherings in both Nevada and California.

On July 24 it upheld Nevada’s regulation that limits attendance at indoor religious services to 50 persons. Some businesses in the state, such as casinos, may admit 50% of their capacity.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissent which was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, while Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a separate dissent and Kavanaugh added his own thoughts.

Gorsuch’s brief dissent observed that “this is a simple case. Under the Governor’s edict, a 10- screen ‘multiplex’ may host 500 moviegoers at any time. A casino, too, may cater to hundreds at once, with perhaps six people huddled at each craps table here and a similar number gathered around every roulette wheel there. Large numbers and close quarters are fine in such places. But churches, synagogues, and mosques are banned from admitting more than 50 worshippers—no matter how large the building, how distant the individuals, how many wear face masks, no matter the precautions at all.”

“In Nevada, it seems, it is better to be in entertainment than religion. Maybe that is nothing new. But the First Amendment prohibits such obvious discrimination against the exercise of religion. The world we inhabit today, with a pandemic upon us, poses unusual challenges. But there is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel,” he wrote.

In May, the court ruled in favor of California’s limits on the number of people who may attend a church service, emphasizing the need to defer to elected officials amid efforts to respond to coronavirus.

On the other hand, a US District Judge in May blocked the North Carolina governor’s order limiting most church services to 10 people or fewer, saying it was a double standard to limit religious services but not similar activities under anti-coronavirus restrictions.

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