Several states set to consider pro-life, pro-abortion bills

Jean II Restout’s Pentecost (1732)

Birmingham, Ala., May 13, 2021 / 10:55 am (CNA).

The feast of Pentecost falls May 23 this year, and the Eternal Word Global Catholic Network has made available an e-book about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Novena to the Holy Spirit set to begin Friday.

“The Novena in honor of the Holy Spirit is the oldest of all Novenas, since it was first made at the direction of our Lord Himself when He sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost,” said EWTN’s Pentecost webpage.

“It is still the only Novena officially prescribed by the Catholic Church,” said EWTN. “Addressed to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, it is a powerful plea for the light, strength and love so sorely needed by every Christian, especially in these challenging times.”

Interested readers may receive the e-book “The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit” by submitting a form available on the EWTN website’s Pentecost webpage, located in a section dedicated to Seasons and Feast Days.

Pentecost, one of the most important feast days of Christianity, marks the end of the Easter season and celebrates the beginning of the Church.

It celebrates the person of the Holy Spirit coming upon the apostles, Mary, and the first followers of Christ, who were gathered together in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. A “strong, driving” wind filled the room where they were gathered and tongues of fire came to rest on their heads, allowing them to speak in different languages so that they could understand each other.

Pentecost is considered the birthday of the Church. Peter, the first pope, preached for the first time and converts thousands of new believers. The apostles and believers, for the first time, were united by a common language, and a common zeal and purpose to go and preach the Gospel.

The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are traditionally understood to be wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Pentecost occurs 50 days after the resurrection of Christ, and ten days after his ascension into heaven. Because Easter is a moveable feast without a fixed date, and Pentecost depends on the timing of Easter, Pentecost can fall anywhere between May 10 and June 13.

The timing of these feasts is also the origin of the Catholic concept of the novena, nine days of prayer. In the first book of the Acts of the Apostles, Mary and the apostles prayed together “continuously” for nine days after the Ascension leading up to Pentecost. 

Typically, Catholic priests will wear red vestments on Pentecost, symbolic of the burning fire of God’s love and the tongues of fire that descended on the apostles.

The name of the day itself is derived from the Greek word “pentecoste,” meaning 50th.  a parallel Jewish holiday, Shavu`ot, which falls 50 days after Passover. 

This year, some American dioceses have set Pentecost as the date to end the dispensation, that is, a temporary exception, for the Catholic obligation to attend Sunday Mass. The dispensations were issued due to the coronavirus pandemic. In dioceses where the dispensations end, Catholics must attend Sunday Mass and other days of obligation unless sickness or another grave reason, such as a need to care for someone at high risk of illness, prevents them from being able to attend.

The EWTN Global Catholic Network is the largest religious media network in the world. Its website is one of the largest Catholic websites in the U.S. and it reaches millions through television, radio and internet broadcasting. Its news services include Catholic News Agency and the National Catholic Register, while EWTN Publishing is its book division.

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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, Sep 15, 2020 / 02:21 pm (CNA).- The California bishops met Wednesday African American Catholic leaders to begin a year-long initiative meant better to understand and combat racism.

The Sept. 9 meeting occurred on the feast of St. Peter Clav… […]