Arizona strengthens conscience protections for health care workers

New York City, N.Y., Jan 4, 2018 / 05:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The funeral for J.J. Hanson, an outspoken assisted suicide opponent, was celebrated Thursday. He was remembered for his strength, faith, and determination.

Hanson died of brain cancer on Saturday at the age of 36. He is survived by his wife, Kristen, and his sons James and Lucas.

“He [J.J.] was one of the most optimistic persons I’ve met in my life,” said Fr. Joselin Berkmans during the homily at Hanson’s Mass of Christian Burial, held Jan. 4 at the Church of St. Anthony of Padua in Yulan, N.Y., about 90 miles northwest of New York City.

“What a great spirit he had. He never worried about his life, but always wanted to be the hope for all who were around him,” Fr. Berkmans continued.

Hanson’s death was felt by many in the New York area, including Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany.

“As we mourn the loss of our friend and fellow advocate, James “J.J.” Hanson, we choose not to focus on the great sorrow surrounding his death,” Bishop Scharfenberger said on Twitter.

“Instead, today, we choose to focus on the great good J.J. did during his time on earth, especially during the past few years of his life when his battle with cancer became for him an opportunity to show the strength of his faith and the power of love and determination,” Bishop Scharfenberger continued.

In 2014, Hanson was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer, the same illness that led Brittany Maynard to take her own life in California three years ago, and given four months to live.

While given a life expectancy of only a few months, Hanson was surrounded by a positive support group and a loving family. Hanson said that during his darkest moment, he might have opted for assisted suicide, but instead chose to pursue alternative treatments. He lived three years longer than expected.

“Here I am three years later, enjoying the arrival of our second son and living life to the fullest,” Hanson said in October 2017.

Throughout his battle with cancer, Hanson became a passionate opponent of physician-assisted suicide and was the president of the Patients Rights Action Fund, an organization which fights efforts to legalize assisted suicide.

He was also actively involved with the New York State Catholic Conference and the New York Alliance Against Assisted Suicide, where he fought against the passage of a bill that would have legalized assisted suicide in the state of New York.

Hanson additionally served as a former aide to Govs. Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson.

“He outlived that death sentence by more than three years, giving hope and inspiration to thousands of people during that time,” remembered Kathleen M. Gallagher, director of pro-life activities for the New York State Catholic Conference, according to the conference website.

“J.J. lived his motto: ‘Every day is a gift, and you can’t ever let that go,’” Gallagher continued.

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Denver Newsroom, Jun 13, 2020 / 03:37 am (CNA).- Amid the worldwide panic surrounding coronavirus and lockdowns, as well as protests and unrest in many parts of the country in recent weeks, it can be easy for people of any faith to ask: Where is God?

Father Phillip Bochanski, director of the Courage International apostolate which ministers to people with same-sex attraction, wrote a book last year on The Virtue of Hope: How confidence in God can lead you to Heaven.

Catholics hope that they will someday be welcomed into eternal life in heaven. Additionally, Bochanski said, we can have hope in this life that the world is unfolding according to God’s divine plan.

“If we forget that we’re passing through this world, and that our goal is actually the next world…it changes our whole moral outlook on things. So hope keeps us mindful of that reality that we’re on the way, we haven’t reached our destination,” Bochanski told CNA.

“That makes all the difference in how we go about our daily responsibilities, but also big-picture questions, like what we’re going through right now.”

He told CNA that there is a difference between being hopeful, in a Catholic sense, and being simply optimistic, sanguine, or naive.

In his book, Bochanski notes that the classic Catholic definition of virtue, which comes from St. Thomas Aquinas, is of a “good habit”— something we repeat over and over, until it becomes second nature.

Some people may be more disposed to be hopeful because of their personality, Bochanski said, but the idea of hope as a virtue means it must be practiced, exercised, and sought.

Hope is one of three “theological virtues,” along with faith and love. Bochanski explained that even though these theological virtues come from God, we still have to work at them by putting them into practice, and exercising them.

“We grow in hope by striving to be hopeful, by letting it shape our actions, and the more we can live with hope, the easier it becomes to be hopeful,” he said.

For Catholics, hope starts with recognizing that God is in charge.

“Hope, for us, means trusting that God has a plan, and that he’s working out his plan even if we can’t see how it’s going to work or if we would prefer a different timing,” Bochanski said.

Jesus models the virtues for Christians, he said, and the fact that Jesus never doubted God’s saving mission is a model of hope for us.

“He didn’t need to be hopeful in the sense of having any doubts, or not knowing what was going to happen, but he models hope for us in the way that he calmly, perseveringly, carries out his mission,” he said.

In the biblical episode of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, for example, the devil offers Jesus various “shortcuts” around the Father’s plan. Jesus, because He knows the Father’s plan, rebuffs the devil’s temptations and resolutely carries out what the Father has set before Him.

“That gives us hope when we’re faced with our own part of God’s plan, but without the omnipotence and omniscience of the Lord,” he said.

“When we’re going through personal difficulties, or community difficulties, or things that are scary and violent, the question that naturally comes to mind is where is God?”

What seems like God’s absence or silence is actually God working in ways that we can’t yet see or perceive, he said.

“Hope brings us back to that reality that He’s never absent. And although I can’t see Him at the moment, I trust him enough to wait for Him to show me and to do what I can moment by moment…If we do our part, God will also do his part and carry out his plan for our lives.”

In the midst of crises, it can be easy to take on the same emotional level as the voices we hear on the news, he said.

Being hopeful in the world today has a lot to do with remaining calm— not indifferent or lax, but keeping one’s situation in perspective.

“I’m not called to save the whole world. I may not be able to do a lot in the grand scheme of things, but in my vocation, in my family, in my work, in my circle of friends, my job is to keep doing the task that God has given me to do and not to panic,” Bochanski said.

The devil likes to emphasize our apparent powerlessness, he said, or distract us from the smaller, daily tasks and acts of love we’ve been given to do.

This can sometimes lead to the spiritual state of acedia— a kind of sadness about things that are spiritual goods, or a “disgust with activity.”

There’s a certain amount of justice we can achieve in a fallen world, Bochanski said, but ultimate justice will not be realized until the Last Day.

“Hope keeps us focused on this step of the journey. One step at a time, one task at a time, one  responsibility at a time, instead of letting us get panicked or overly anxious about having to do something huge. It helps us to keep our eyes on the small things in front of us and keep the world in perspective,” he said.

Bochanski said he heard from many people feeling anxious, restless, and afraid in the first days of the coronavirus lockdown— all reasonable reactions, but hope helps Christians avoid being swayed off course by the emotions of the moment, he said.

If someone is weighed down or anxious about something, modeling hope for them not only will help remind them that the present situation is not the final word, but it also can help to keep that person’s reaction in perspective, he said.

This does not mean simply telling people who are worried not to worry, but instead modeling a hopeful attitude for them.

“Our hope is always in someone or something…when our hope is in God, it’s the most real thing there is. It can’t be a false hope, because it’s based on our understanding of who God is.”

“If you have a friend who is omnipotent, and he offers to help you, you should let him. God, who is omnipotent and omniscient, has offered to help me, and I know that that is true” because God asks of Christians things that are beyond anyone’s natural ability, he said.

Bochanski recommended reading, as well as his book, the 2007 encyclical on hope by Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi.

The paradox of discipleship is freedom through surrender to God, but pride makes us think that we can handle everything ourselves. To reduce the sense of powerlessness, take time to pray and assess what God is asking you to do, Bochanski advised. 

“God, because of who He is, is going to do all the heavy lifting,” Bochanski said.

[…]

Austin, Texas, May 25, 2017 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Church in Texas will work to promote more foster parenting, following the state legislature’s approval of strong legal protections for religious adoption and foster care agencies.

“Now Catholics can join other people of good will and serve Texas’ children in good faith,” said Jennifer Carr Allmon, executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops.

This fall, the bishops’ conference has said, it will work with diocesan offices on a campaign to encourage Catholic families to be foster parents.

“Most Catholic Charities in the state had withdrawn from serving foster children,” the bishops’ conference said May 22. “The new law removes a significant barrier to Catholics serving children in the foster care system and will trigger greater recruitment efforts by Catholic parishes and ministries.”

The bill, called the Freedom to Serve Children Act, could protect the ability of organizations and individuals in Texas’ foster care system who have sincerely held religious beliefs to remove themselves from actions that would directly violate their faith.

It has multiple applications. It could allow groups opposed to abortion to avoid helping a minor obtain an abortion. It could allow groups that believe children should be placed only with a married adoptive mother and father to provide foster services without facing lawsuits from same-sex couples.

The bill passed the Texas Senate May 22 on a 21-10 vote. Democratic Sen. Eddie Lucio of Brownsville joined Republicans to support the bill, saying it would help add more private adoption agencies to Texas’ system: “It’s about increasing capacity, it’s about providing homes for kids.”

The bill now heads to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign the bill.

The Texas House of Representatives had passed the bill by a 93-49 vote on May 10, largely along party lines.

Private foster care and adoption agencies receive about 25 percent of child placement funding in the state, the Associated Press reports. Some groups had suspended services for fear of discrimination lawsuits.

In other states and the District of Columbia, long-serving Catholic adoption agencies have been shut down by laws against sexual orientation discrimination or new state funding rules that would have required them to place children with same-sex couples.

A Texas Department of Family and Protective Services report indicates that 314 children slept in state offices, hotels, shelters and other temporary housing between Sept. 1 and March 31, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

The bill drew opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBT activist groups like the Human Rights Campaign.

Marty Rouse, national field director for the Human Rights Campaign, charged that the bill would “prioritize discrimination over the best interest of kids in the child welfare system.”

Critics voiced concern the bill would allow foster parents to prevent children from being vaccinated. Some critics objected to protecting foster parents’ abilities to limit children’s access to contraceptives and abortion.

South Dakota passed a similar bill in March, but no other states currently have similar legislation.

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