2024 election

The Dispatch

Wisconsin Catholics, bishop voice support for life as swing state wrestles with abortion

July 6, 2024 Catholic News Agency 15
“Abortion isn’t wrong because the Catholic Church says it’s wrong,” Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, pointed out. “The Catholic Church says it’s wrong because it’s inherently wrong.” / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Jul 6, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

As the 2024 U.S. presidential election heats up, a Wisconsin bishop is calling on President Joe Biden to consider “the dignity of life” while other Wisconsin Catholics are also voicing their support for the pro-life cause.

“Our goal is certainly that every one of our parishes has people equipped, informed to receive, to welcome, to accompany, and to really practically help both women and men that find themselves in crisis pregnancy or crisis parenthood,” Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, told EWTN News correspondent Owen Jensen.

When asked what he would say to Catholic president Biden, Hying responded: “I would say, Mr. President, we invite you to look at what the Church says about the dignity of life.” 

“It’s important to point out that abortion isn’t wrong because the Catholic Church says it’s wrong,” Hying continued. “The Catholic Church says it’s wrong because it’s inherently wrong.”

Wisconsin pro-life advocates are awaiting a state court decision on an 1849 abortion law protecting unborn children. The legislative director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, Matt Sande, voiced concern about the Wisconsin State Supreme Court’s current makeup, calling the court, which has a liberal majority of 4-3, “radicalized.”

“Not only are we looking at them ruling 940.04, our abortion ban, unenforceable, overturning it, they could be looking to find a right to abortion in our state constitution,” he told Jensen on “EWTN News Nightly.” 

Tom Usle, the northern regional manager of Students for Life, noted that now is the time to “step up” for the right to life. 

“It’s a battleground state, to be sure,” Usle said. “But we also see just more and more people are really coming to the realization that it is on us now to step up.” 

“We no longer have the excuse of: ‘Roe’ is in the way, we can’t do anything about abortion,” he said. “Now is the time that we really do have the power.”

A pro-life student in Milwaukee credited adoption with saving her life from abortion. 

“All glory be to God that I was kept and able to live given the chance at life,” Isabelle Thompson told Jensen.

Thompson, who is Catholic, gave advice for expectant mothers who may be considering abortion. 

“A pregnancy that you’ll go through is nine months of your life, and that’s hard to give that up, even if you’re not going to keep that child — especially if you’re not going to keep that child,” she said. “That’s a hard nine months to give of your life, but that’s nine months as opposed to a child’s entire life that could be gone.” 

To her biological mother who put her up for adoption years ago, Thompson said: “Just thank you. Not only for giving me life, but you gave my parents a child, something that they couldn’t have. Adoption is one of their greatest blessings.”

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No Picture
News Briefs

Trump pledges, if elected, to get jailed pro-life activists ‘back to their families’

June 25, 2024 Catholic News Agency 1
Former U.S. President Donald Trump walks on stage to deliver the keynote address at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Policy Conference at the Washington Hilton on June 22, 2024, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 25, 2024 / 10:50 am (CNA).

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, has expressed his support for the pro-life activists who have been aggressively prosecuted and jailed under the Biden administration.

Trump raised the issue during a June 22 speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, where he specifically mentioned the case of 75-year-old Paulette Harlow, a Catholic, who was convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act this year. 

The U.S. Department of Justice has tried and convicted more than a dozen pro-life activists in 2024 based on the federal law, which increases penalties for anyone who obstructs access to an abortion clinic. Harlow, who is in poor health, was sentenced last month to 24 months in prison for participating in a blockade of an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C.

“Paulette is one of many peaceful pro-lifers who Joe Biden has rounded up, sometimes with SWAT teams, and thrown them in jail,” Trump said. “Many people are in jail over this. … We’re going to get that taken care of immediately — [on the] first day.”

Trump added that, if elected to another term as president, his administration would “rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who’s unjustly victimized by the Biden regime, including Paulette, so we can get them out of the gulags and back to their families where they belong.”

When reached for comment, the former president’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, did not elaborate on Trump’s pledge. CNA specifically asked whether Trump would commit to pardoning Harlow and the other pro-life activists convicted of FACE Act violations during the Trump administration.

During his speech, Trump said Christians, and especially Catholics, are being persecuted under the county’s current leadership. The former president also reiterated his promise to create a federal task force to investigate anti-Christian bias and other forms of illegal discrimination against people of faith. 

“We will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, in our hospitals, and in our public square,” Trump said.

Trump also took credit for the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. He said abortion policy was given “back to the states … where the people [can] vote and make their decisions.” He said if Democrats “get their way, they will have a federal law for abortion to rip the baby out of the womb in the seventh, eighth, and ninth month and even execute the baby after birth.”

For her part, Leavitt said the Biden administration has “waged a yearslong assault on Christianity.” She added that, under Biden, the Federal Bureau of Investigation “plotted to infiltrate Catholic Masses to spy on attendees” and emphasized that as president, Trump will “end Biden’s discrimination against Christians and stand up for religious freedom, as he did in his first term.” 

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No Picture
News Briefs

Puerto Rico bishops conference issues 2024 election reflection

June 2, 2024 Catholic News Agency 1
Scene of the walled city of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. The oldest Governor’s Mansion under the American flag, La Fortaleza, is top right. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 2, 2024 / 05:50 am (CNA).

The bishops of Puerto Rico have published a pastoral message ahead of this year’s Nov. 5 elections, in which they call on the citizens of the U.S. territory to “decide correctly” through “discernment, contemplating in depth the reality and the history” of the island.

This year, Puerto Rico’s voters will choose their governor, resident commissioner (sole non-voting member of the U.S. Congress), all members of the Puerto Rico Senate and House of Representatives, as well as all 78 mayors of the island’s municipalities. 

In addition, for the first time, this Nov. 5 Puerto Rico’s voters will cast a symbolic vote for President and Vice President of the United States. Those ballots will not be tabulated in the official U.S. presidential election, however, which is limited to U.S. citizen voters who are residents of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

“Knowing how to discern in order to decide well, requires the utmost respect for people. The debate should be about ideas that arise from reality and not about liking a particular person. Prioritizing the essential dignity of each human being will impose on us a sacred respect for others,” the Puerto Rican Bishops’ Conference (CEP) counseled voters, adding that this will elevate the level of dialogue and the debates and foster an atmosphere of respect during the process.

Citing 1 Thessalonians 5:21 “Test everything; hold fast what is good,” the bishops exhorted Puerto Ricans to elect representatives who know how to “become servants of the people” in addressing urgent needs. “We must not lose our sense of urgency towards those who are suffering, and it is a duty to identify those who will work together with each other beyond partisan lines, to find authentic and far-reaching solutions,” the bishops emphasized.

"Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini" ("Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord") are the first words seen as one enters Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, through the ancient city's main entrance gate. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
“Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini” (“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”) are the first words seen as one enters Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, through the ancient city’s main entrance gate. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In this regard, the CEP also identified more than a dozen top priorities on which candidates and elected officials should focus to improve the situation on the island. These include the protection of children at every stage of life, including the unborn, the protection of vulnerable adults, the protection of the family, the problem of violence and drugs, poverty and the healthcare system. 

The “demographic situation” in reference to the aging of the population and low birth rate as well as the “definitive solution of the political status of Puerto Rico” rounded out the priorities.

In conclusion, the bishops emphasized “the importance and nobility” of political activity and the political vocation, which is designed to serve everyone equally, with a special predilection for those who are suffering the most.

The “world of politics,” the bishops observed, demands a level of solidarity “where we are all co-responsible for everyone.” 

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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