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Denver Newsroom, Aug 28, 2020 / 04:50 pm (CNA).- Rehumanize International, a secular pro-life organization, is set to hold its annual conference Saturday virtually, with an eye to life topics such as abortion, assisted suicide, and the death penalty, as well as police violence and torture.

Aimee Murphy, founder and executive director of Rehumanize International, told CNA that the overarching theme of the Aug. 29 conference is that every human value has worth, and an inherent dignity. She said they plan to emphasize this common dignity and discuss ways people can work together regardless of their differences.

“That inherent dignity that we all share is not something that can be taken away, it’s not a matter of circumstance,” she said.

“Regardless of how old or young you are, how guilty or innocent you are, how small or big you are, how disabled or non-disabled you are, we all share this same inherent human dignity. And that transcends all the various topics we’re going to be talking about at our conference tomorrow.”

Rehumanize International describes itself as a non-sectarian, non-partisan organization “dedicated to creating a culture of peace and life” by opposing violence in all forms, including abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.

Herb Geraghty, director of communications for Rehumanize International, told CNA that although the conference is set to feature a wide range of viewpoints and religions, the biggest unifier among the presenters is a commitment to nonviolence. 

Rehumanize’s “consistent life ethic” is not merely a checklist of topics to support or oppose, and can welcome a wide range of viewpoints with the hopes that people will learn something to bring back to their individual organizations, Geraghty said.

Co-sponsors of the event this year include the American Solidarity Party— which was founded based largely on Catholic social teaching, and is running a candidate for president in this year’s election— as well as Americans United for Life.

In addition to several Christian pro-life speakers— such as Mikhayla Stover, who works with Catholic Univeristy’s school of law— the conference is set to feature such presenters as Robert Saleem Holbrook, a formerly incarcerated person who was sentenced to life without parole as a teenager before a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling overturned his conviction.

John Kelly, a disability self-advocate, is set to join to talk about disability discrimination in the context of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

“I think that’s a really important topic because often it’s not a hot-button issue…and I think that’s really unfortunate, because I think that the creeping threat of euthanasia and assisted suicide is growing on the other side,” Geraghty said.

“Being part of the movement to stem that side and show the voices of people with disabilities, who are going to be the people threatened the most by this type of legislation, is really important. So I’m excited for the attendees to get to hear that.”

Geraghty said the conference had already been set to have policing and criminal justice as one of its focal points well in advance— before the widespread protests against police violence, which began in May, thrust the issue back into the national spotlight.

“Police violence is another [topic] that comes in waves of media attention, because there are always high-profile cases of unjust police violence against civilians,” Geraghty said. 

Geraghty said they had planned on having a panel about the criminal justice system in general, focusing mainly on the death penalty, “the most obvious form of oppressive violence perpetrated by the justice system,” but also wanted to talk about some of the ways that the state can better respect life through better policing practices. 

That panel is set to include another formerly incarcerated person, as well as the director of Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty.

“We can just oppose the death penalty, or we can look at how to disrupt the systems of oppression that lead to people thinking that there needs to be a death penalty, or harsh sentencing laws,” Geraghty said.

Geraghty said one of Rehumanize International’s goals is to recognize and promote the many people and groups who organize around a single issue, such as abortion, the death penalty, or euthanasia.

This approach is more helpful than, for example, asking a person passionately advocating for an end to abortion why they are focusing on that, and not the death penalty, Geraghty said.

Each life issue is an important enough issue that “I am glad that [that person] is working on that individual issue,” even if it means they can’t always devote their time to a range of issues, Geraghty said.

[…]

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 10, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- The release of the McCarrick Report Tuesday has been given a cautious welcome by lay American Catholics, who urged continued concern for the victims of sexual abuse and commitment to transparency by Church authorities.

The Vatican released its lengthy 461-page report on Nov. 10, detailing the Church’s institutional knowledge and decision-making on McCarrick over his decades as a priest, bishop, archbishop, and cardinal. He was laicized by Pope Francis in 2019 because of credible allegations of the sexual abuse of minors and adults.

In his years as a priest, bishop, and cardinal, McCarrick rose to the highest ranks of the Church, including leading the archdioceses of Newark and Washington. He also held influential positions at Catholic organizations including The Catholic University of America, where he was Chancellor, and the Catholic University of Puerto Rico. 

The president of The Catholic University of America, John Garvey, addressed the report in a letter to the university community on Tuesday.

“We offer our prayers and pastoral support for the survivors, that they and their families encounter healing and peace,” Garvey wrote. “And I recommit this University to addressing sex abuse in the Catholic Church with courage and tenacity.”

McCarrick had long-standing ties to Catholic University, first as a student, assistant chaplain, Dean of Students, and an administrator and fundraiser at the university between 1958 and 1965. He later served on the university’s Board of Trustees and as chancellor of the school while he was Archbishop of Washington from 2000 until 2006. The university bestowed an honorary degree on him in 2006.

When the Archdiocese of New York announced in 2018 a credible accusation of child sexual abuse had been made against McCarrick, “the news hit our University community close to home,” Garvey said. The university rescinded McCarrick’s honorary degree that year.

Some lay Catholics expressed their disbelief at the report’s revelations–particularly the lack of a canonical investigation into the allegations against McCarrick until 2018, despite decades of accusations against him.

“To me, one of the things that’s so hard to read, as a Catholic and as a lay person, is that so many innuendos or concerns were never followed up on,” Dr. Susan Timoney, pastoral theologian at The Catholic University of America, told CNA on Tuesday. 

“It’s unbelievable to think that the concern—any kind of concern of the kind of things going on in a seminary—wouldn’t be better investigated.”

Dr. Robert George, a law professor at Princeton University, said that the report does not adequately treat the matter of McCarrick’s proteges, or bishops and cardinals who attained significant positions in the Church because of McCarrick’s influence. 

“Are there influential and powerful leaders in the Church in America and in the curia in Rome who have their positions at least in part due to Theodore McCarrick’s influence?” George asked rhetorically. “Who are they? Why did McCarrick use his influence to advance their careers?”

But Catholics also pointed to progress the Church has made in dealing with clergy sex abuse, and said the report is a necessary first step toward greater transparency and accountability within the Church on the matter.

Timoney noted the universal establishment of diocesan child protection offices in the United States over the last two decades, as well as Pope Francis’ work to establish better accountability for accusations of misconduct against bishops worldwide. The report’s publication “does show a better commitment to transparency,” she said.  

In 2018, Catholic University launched its own special project unity to respond to the clergy abuse crisis as well as other relevant Church matters.

Stephen White, executive director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America, said that, while a single report could not undo the damage by McCarrick, “truth and transparency are necessary steps toward healing those wounds and repairing the trust that has been broken.”

White said that Catholics should manifest “a spirit of penance and humility” amid “our anger and pain at the injustices committed by our clergy, and the sense of betrayal brought about by shepherds who failed to protect the flock.”

As they read the painful revelations in the report, Catholics should not forget “all of the work that the Church does at the grassroots level” to serve people, Timoney said.  

“This isn’t the whole story of the Church,” she said, noting that “we are making a positive impact in a lot of peoples’ lives, day in and day out, through all of our ministries and agencies.”

McCarrick was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of New York in 1958 before becoming auxiliary bishop of New York in 1977. He then became bishop of the new Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, in 1981, before becoming Archbishop of Newark in 1986, and then Archbishop of Washington in 2001, where he was made a cardinal by Pope St. John Paul II.

In 2006, he submitted his letter of resignation at the age of 75, as required by the Church of all bishops at that age. 

After accusations that McCarrick had abused minors and seminarians over a period of years were made public in June 2018, Pope Francis ordered McCarrick to observe a life of prayer and penance and demanded his resignation from the College of Cardinals. 

McCarrick was laicized in 2019, following a canonical process at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which found him guilty of “solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”

[…]

Religious sisters show their support for the Little Sisters of the Poor outside the Supreme Court, where oral arguments were heard on March 23, 2016, in the Zubik v. Burwell case against the HHS mandate. / Credit: CNA

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2024 / … […]