Surveillance footage shows suspects spray-painting pro-abortion slogans on the exterior of South Broward Pregnancy Help Center, a pro-life clinic in Hollywood, Florida, on May 28, 2022. / Screenshot from Archdiocese of Miami Vimeo video
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 15, 2022 / 16:51 pm (CNA).
The White House has condemned the threat Wednesday, according to The Daily Wire.
White House Assistant Press Secretary Alexandra LaManna told the Daily Wire that “Violence and destruction of property have no place in our country under any circumstances, and the President denounces this.”
“We should all agree that actions like this are completely unacceptable regardless of our politics,” she said.
The statement threatening pro-life pregnancy centers was posted on abolitionmedia.noblogs.org and is dated June 14.
“You have seen that we are real, and that we are not merely pushing empty words. As we said: we are not one group but many,” the alleged Jane’s Revenge post says.
In the communique, “Jane’s Revenge” claims responsibility for attacks in “Madison WI, Ft. Collins CO, Reisertown MA, Olympia WA, Des Moines IA, Lynwood WA, Washington DC, Ashville NC, Buffalo NY, Hollywood FL, Vancouver WA, Frederick MA, Denton TX, Gresham OR, Eugene OR, Portland OR,” and more.
The post says the group exists in “countless locations invisibly” and adds that “You’ve read the communiqués from the various cells, you’ve seen the proliferating messages in graffiti and elsewhere, and you know that we are serious.”
The post says it is “easy and fun” to attack pro-life centers and vows “to take increasingly drastic measures against oppressive infrastructures. Pro-life centers were warned to stop operating as pregnancy centers, the post says, referring to this option an “honourable way out.”
“You could have walked away. Now the leash is off. And we will make it as hard as possible for your campaign of oppression to continue,” the post says.
“Rest assured that we will, and those measures may not come in the form of something so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti,” the post says. “Sometimes you will see what we do, and you will know that it is us.”
The post threatened harassment to the point when “Eventually your insurance companies, and your financial backers will realize you are a bad investment.”
The post says that any “anti-choice group” that ceases operations will not be targeted.
“But until you do, it’s open season, and we know where your operations are. The infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive. We will never stop, back down, slow down, or retreat. We did not want this; but it is upon us, and so we must deal with it proportionally,” the post says.
“Through attacking, we find joy, courage, and strip the veneer of impenetrability held by these violent institutions,” it says.
Addressing allies of the group, the post says, “Go do one of your own. You are already one of us. Everyone with the urge to paint, to burn, to cut, to jam: now is the time. Go forth and manifest the things you wish to see. Stay safe, and practice your cursive.”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu. / Credit: Alan Holdren/CNA
ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 19, 2023 / 10:15 am (CNA).
The trial of Cardinal Angelo Becciu ended Dec. 16 with the prelate being convicted of embezzlement and sentenced by the Vatican co… […]
Cardinal Raymond L. Burke during the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, June 29, 2019. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Aug 21, 2021 / 10:04 am (CNA).
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke has been removed from a ventilator and will move from the ICU to a hospital room as he continues to battle COVID-19.
According to an Aug. 21 update on the cardinal’s health, Burke was able to speak by phone with his sister on Saturday morning and “expressed his deep gratitude for the many prayers offered on his behalf,” the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe reported.
Praised be Jesus Christ! Cardinal Burke’s family is pleased to announce that His Eminence has come off the ventilator and will leave the ICU today to return to his hospital room. https://t.co/i8BpqVm467pic.twitter.com/duvrDMFEQn
The shrine, located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, has been providing information about the 73-year-old cardinal’s health after he was admitted to the hospital and put on a ventilator Aug. 14 due to complications from COVID-19.
Burke’s “family asks that we continue those prayers for his full and speedy recovery, and they are grateful to God for the exceptional medical care the Cardinal has received from the dedicated doctors and nurses who continue to assist him,” shrine director Fr. Paul N. Check wrote Aug. 21.
“The Shrine and the Cardinal’s media will provide further updates as directed by his family,” he said.
Burke had previously announced his diagnosis of COVID-19 on Aug. 10. A week later, the Shrine reported that the cardinal was in “serious but stable condition” and that the next few days would be critical. The shrine asked for continued prayers for Cardinal Burke and his family, especially through praying the rosary and attending Mass.
Prayers for the cardinal’s recovery have poured in throughout his illness.
“I’m praying for Cardinal Burke’s healing. And for an increase in humility all around,” wrote National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez. “And also, a respect for conscience rights at this time of great fear. Fear does not bring out the best in us, it would seem.”
Lopez was critical of media reports which stressed Cardinal Burke’s orthodox Catholic faith, as well as his opposition to vaccination mandates. It is not known if Cardinal Burke was vaccinated against COVID-19, but he has been a vocal opponent of closing churches, as well as mandatory vaccines.
The Latin Mass Society created a “spiritual bouquet” where people could submit prayers or other devotional acts done with the intention of Cardinal Burke’s recovery.
“Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak attends a taping of the show’s 35th anniversary season at Epcot Center at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, in 2017. / Credit: Gerardo Mora/Getty Images
Boston, Mass., Sep 3, 2023 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Pat Sajak, the longtime host of the popular television game show “Wheel of Fortune,” will be retiring after this upcoming season.
After more than 40 years in that role, Sajak is like a member of the family for the show’s millions of fans.
A lesser-known fact about the Emmy winner is that he’s the chair of the board of trustees at Hillsdale College, a small Christian, classical liberal arts school in southern Michigan that is often branded as “conservative” and which one magazine has even described as being “at the heart of the culture wars.”
Founded by Freewill Baptist slavery abolitionists in 1844, Hillsdale defines itself as “nonsectarian Christian.” But Sajak’s many Catholic fans might be interested to know that Hillsdale has a thriving Catholic community of students and faculty — and has become something of a hub for converts to the Catholic faith.
An average of about 15 students from Hillsdale convert to Catholicism each year, Kelly Cole, a staff member from the local St. Anthony Catholic Church, which ministers to the students, told CNA.
Additionally, in recent years certain Catholic prelates have made visits to campus including Winona-Rochester Bishop Robert Barron, who gave the college’s graduation commencement address in May, and German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, who offered a lecture on campus in 2021.
Is Pat Sajak Catholic?
Sajak declined an interview with CNA. While his religious affiliation isn’t clear, a 1993 article from the Los Angeles Times reported that Sajak received an annulment from the Catholic Church. Sajak’s first marriage was with Sherril Sajak, but after they divorced, he married Lesly Brown, his current spouse of over 30 years, according to Hollywood Life.
People magazine reported that Sajak married Brown at a Catholic church in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1989. Outsider reported that this church was St. Mary’s.
A Chicago native, Sajak, who called himself an “unapologetic conservative” in a 2012 interview with the Hoover Institution, has Polish roots and described his upbringing as blue-collar. A Vietnam veteran, he served as a television weatherman before his time at “Wheel of Fortune.”
“Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak speaks at the Hillsdale College graduation ceremony on May 17, 2019, in his first year as chairman of the board of trustees at the college, located in Hillsdale, Michigan. Credit: YouTube/Hillsdale College
Since 2019, Sajak, who is 76 according to the History Channel, has been serving as chairman of the board for the school. But he’s been involved with the school long before he was the chair, serving as the vice chairman of the board of trustees beginning in 2003.
He said in his interview with the Hoover Institution that he came to Hillsdale as a result of his relationship with the school’s president, Larry Arnn, whom Sajak met when he served on the board of the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank.
In that interview, he praised the school for not taking government funding, something that Hillsdale prides itself on.
The school was included in the Princeton Review’s 2024 edition of the nation’s best colleges, earning a No. 3 ranking of “most conservative students,” a No. 2 ranking of “most religious students,” and a No. 2 ranking of having the “friendliest students.”
A Great Books curriculum
Why is Catholic life at Hillsdale so vibrant?
On Hillsdale’s website, the school prides itself on a core curriculum that “considers the spiritual and intellectual inheritance of the Western Tradition and provides a fuller perspective on the world and its workings.”
From the school’s longtime English professor David Whalen’s perspective, the college’s “traditional, Great Books-heavy curriculum” inevitably brings students into contact with many ideas that are influenced by the Catholic faith.
The Great Books curriculum consists of literature courses mandatory for every student.
Professor David Whalen has been teaching English at Hillsdale College for almost 30 years. Credit: YouTube/Catholic Diocese of Lincoln
Whalen, a Catholic who is also the school’s associate vice president for curriculum, said that the amount of Catholic conversions each year is a result of “grace” but “also the natural consequence of young people reading deeply in the Western intellectual and spiritual tradition and reflecting on their own beliefs.”
While the “great majority” of Hillsdale’s faculty and students are not Catholic, Whalen said that the atmosphere on campus is “highly collegial” and the Catholic community flourishes at the school.
“There are enough Catholic students, faculty, and staff to sustain a quite vibrant Catholic community and, at the same time, integrate with the campus as a whole,” he said. “This makes the college attractive to Catholic students, as does its traditional curriculum and strong academics.”
Being a minority on campus, Catholics would do well to brush up on their faith, Whalen said.
“This is a highly intelligent place, and people with different beliefs are going to be articulate and thoughtful about them. So, the Catholics here need to be so as well,” he said.
Taking Catholicism seriously
Cole, who converted to Catholicism the year she graduated from Hillsdale in 2002, said that she took Whalen’s literature course and it had a major impact on her conversion.
But it wasn’t just the literature classes that pushed her to convert, it was mainly the history courses, she said.
“And my history courses were taught by Protestants; it wasn’t Catholics that were teaching this or anything,” she noted.
Kelly Cole, who is seen in this photo with two of her seven children William (right) and Alex (left), graduated from Hillsdale College and converted to Catholicism in 2002. Credit: Kelly Cole
Cole, 43, said that “trying to faithfully engage with history and the history of Christendom and talking about our Judeo-Christian heritage just led to me feeling like I needed to take Catholicism seriously.”
Earlier this year, the Diocese of Lansing posted a video highlighting the 2023 Easter Vigil at St. Anthony’s in which 24 people, 22 of them Hillsdale students, were received into the Catholic Church.
Today, Cole, her husband, Lee Cole — a professor at the college — and her seven children all reside in Hillsdale, where she serves on staff at the city’s St. Anthony Catholic Church, where she was received when she converted more than 20 years ago.
Defenders of the faith
Just as it did then, St. Anthony is the sole institution providing the sacraments to students on campus. But the church works hand in hand with the school’s “Catholic Society,” a student-led club that organizes social events and opportunities for students to receive the sacraments and brings speakers to campus.
Noah Hoonhout, a 2023 graduate who led the school’s Catholic student organization, said that the Catholic Society is “the most active” club on campus.
Among the recent speakers the society has sponsored are German Cardinal Gerhard Müller and American theologian George Weigel, both of whom drew large crowds, according to Hoonhout.
Noah Hoonhout, 22, a 2023 graduate, was the president of Hillsdale’s Catholic Society in his senior year. Credit: Noah Hoonhout
According to the Hillsdale Daily News, the school’s president called Weigel and Müller “ardent defenders of the immemorial teachings of the Christian faith and of the liberty of the human soul before God that Hillsdale College holds so dear” following their lectures in 2021.
Whalen told CNA that when Müller visited campus he was invited to say a few words at a dinner in his honor at the school’s president’s house.
Whalen said that Müller “gave an extemporaneous short talk that was both brilliant and beautiful. It was a great moment.”
The Catholic Society points students toward St. Anthony’s many ministries, one of which is specifically established for Hillsdale students called “The Grotto.”
The Grotto is a house located near campus where students can come and pray before the Blessed Sacrament.
Each week, the Grotto offers Mass, confession, eucharistic adoration, the recitation of the rosary, formation events, and social gatherings for the students, such as “convivium,” where dozens of students will gather for dinner at the house on Thursday nights and hear a talk on the Catholic faith from a professor at the school.
Hoonhout, 22, said that the Grotto is one of the “centers of Catholic culture” on campus.
What’s next?
In Sajak’s long tenure at “Wheel of Fortune,” he has earned several awards, including a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2019, Guinness World Records deemed him to have “the longest career as a game show host for the same show,” which was 35 years and 198 days at the time, according to abc.com.
Although not much is known about what Sajak will do following retirement from “Wheel of Fortune,” Hillsdale has said that he will continue serving in his role as chairman of its board of trustees.
His role at the game show will be taken over by celebrity host Ryan Seacrest. Sajak’s longtime co-host, Vanna White, reportedly will remain with the show.
“Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last,” Sajak tweeted on June 12. “It’s been a wonderful ride, and I’ll have more to say in the coming months. Many thanks to you all.”
The last quoted comment in this article is not from the mind of the ordinary. It’s articulated with concise intelligence, modus operandi on the principle of perceived just proportion. Likely from a professor or someone with higher education. But isn’t higher education where the Marxist ideology that infects our culture from?
Talk show commentator former Major Iraq Afghanistan veteran Peter Hegseth’s book The Battle for the American Mind traces the indoctrination of secularism, disparagement of religious values beginning with children dating back to the institution of government public education and names like philosopher psychologist John Dewey. Today the Teachers Union is the vanguard for secularism and homosexual promotion in the classroom. Advanced secularism and homosexuality, the premise that all sexual desires are permissible even advantageous for a liberal culture is imposed on our children beyond what education is presumed to be by most of us. The government during this administration imposing its disorded will on the public.
Yes, and I repeat my comment from June 25:
Back in the day, the late 19th century, education was provided by Quakers, Lutherans, Presbyterians and Catholics, but swelling Irish and German Catholic immigration fed into propaganda against the Catholics. “Eventually Protestants, ‘combining their forces against the common enemy, solidified public opinion in support of the nonsectarian public school’ and enacted legislation to prevent the subsidizing of parochial schools with public money’ (citation in Joseph Mc Sorley, “An Outline History of the Church by Centuries,” 1945).
So, today, from non-sectarian to value-neutral, radical secularism with abortion indoctrination and gender theory, and with leading public figures, nominally Catholic and clueless, intent on mandating this religion of Secular Humanism on the national population.
“The President denounces this.”
I don’t believe you Joe – Prove it, say it yourself.
The last quoted comment in this article is not from the mind of the ordinary. It’s articulated with concise intelligence, modus operandi on the principle of perceived just proportion. Likely from a professor or someone with higher education. But isn’t higher education where the Marxist ideology that infects our culture from?
Talk show commentator former Major Iraq Afghanistan veteran Peter Hegseth’s book The Battle for the American Mind traces the indoctrination of secularism, disparagement of religious values beginning with children dating back to the institution of government public education and names like philosopher psychologist John Dewey. Today the Teachers Union is the vanguard for secularism and homosexual promotion in the classroom. Advanced secularism and homosexuality, the premise that all sexual desires are permissible even advantageous for a liberal culture is imposed on our children beyond what education is presumed to be by most of us. The government during this administration imposing its disorded will on the public.
Yes, and I repeat my comment from June 25:
Back in the day, the late 19th century, education was provided by Quakers, Lutherans, Presbyterians and Catholics, but swelling Irish and German Catholic immigration fed into propaganda against the Catholics. “Eventually Protestants, ‘combining their forces against the common enemy, solidified public opinion in support of the nonsectarian public school’ and enacted legislation to prevent the subsidizing of parochial schools with public money’ (citation in Joseph Mc Sorley, “An Outline History of the Church by Centuries,” 1945).
So, today, from non-sectarian to value-neutral, radical secularism with abortion indoctrination and gender theory, and with leading public figures, nominally Catholic and clueless, intent on mandating this religion of Secular Humanism on the national population.
That went well.