Columbus, Ohio, Dec 4, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Ohio Senate is expected to pass legislation banning abortion on an unborn baby after he or she has a heartbeat, and there could be enough votes to override Gov. John Kasich’s promised v… […]
Washington D.C., Dec 4, 2018 / 02:05 pm (CNA).- Women have spoken about their personal and near experiences of abortion and the lack of resources and support which led them to the tragic decision.
A recurring theme in the responses to a surve… […]
Harrisburg, Pa., Dec 4, 2018 / 12:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Citing due process, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday wrote that the names of 11 former and current priests in a grand jury report on allegations of clerical sexual abuse of minors are to remain permanently redacted.
The 11 names will be kept redacted as “the only viable due process remedy … to protect their constitutional rights to reputation,” Justice Debra Todd wrote in the court’s Dec. 3 majority opinion.
More than 300 priests were named in the report.
“We acknowledge that this outcome may be unsatisfying to the public and to the victims of the abuse detailed in the report. While we understand and empathize with these perspectives, constitutional rights are of the highest order, and even alleged sexual abusers, or those abetting them, are guaranteed by our Commonwealth’s Constitution the right of due process.”
Article 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution enshrines a person’s right to possess and protect their good reputation, placing it on the same footing as life and liberty.
Six of court’s justices were joined in the majority opinion, while Chief Justice Thomas Saylor filed a dissenting opinion.
Several individuals named in the report, including some priests, have objected to being included in the document. They argued that the grand jury report links their names to terrible crimes or cover-up efforts, but that they had not been afforded the chance to respond to allegations made against them, or given the benefit of due process of law.
A redacted version of the report was released Aug. 14. It detailed sexual abuse allegations in six of Pennsylvania’s eight Latin-rite dioceses, following an 18-month investigation into thousands of alleged instances of abuse spanning several decades.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro responded to the Supreme Court’s decision saying it “allows predator priests to remain in the shadows and permits the Church to continue concealing their identities,” and that “the public will not relent in its demand that anyone involved in this widespread abuse and cover up be named.”
The grand jury report was adopted and issued by the grand jury, but its text was drafted by Shapiro’s office.
In his dissent, Saylor argued that the petitioners’ due process concerns could be remedied by having a judge conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether disputed matters in the report were supported by the evidence.
This suggestion was rejected by the majority of the court because they held it is not authorized by the statute governing Pennsylvania’s grand juries, and because the supervising judge would be evaluating diverging types of evidence.
Syracuse, N.Y., Dec 3, 2018 / 06:49 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Diocese of Syracuse has released a list of 57 priests credibly accused of abusing a minor, with some of the charges dating back to the 1950s.
“It is my fervent hope and prayer that this effort will bring some peace and healing to those who have been directly harmed and to all members of our community of faith,” Bishop Robert Cunningham of Syracuse said Dec. 1.
Stressing that no clergy credibly accused of abuse of a minor are in active ministry, he said the list includes both deceased priests and living priests removed from all ministry.
The accused priests were ordained as far back as 1911.
Some abuse victims have not wanted the names of their abusers released. While the diocese previously yielded to their wishes, Bishop Cunningham said, “upon serious reflection and prayer, I have concluded this practice has become a roadblock to moving our local Church forward.”
The 75-year-old bishop, who has submitted his resignation upon reaching retirement age under Church law, added that it was not fair to leave such a decision about abuse disclosure to his successor.
“The news over the past few months of the tragic failings of the Catholic Church has been deeply distressing and has caused many to lose faith and trust,” he said. “It continues to weigh heavily on our hearts. Personally for me, as your bishop, I have prayerfully considered what I can do to help rebuild trust and forge a path to restoring and strengthening the faith.”
A credible accusation, the diocese explained in documents accompanying the bishop’s letter, meets one of several criteria: the allegation is “natural, reasonable, plausible and probable”; the allegation is corroborated with other evidence or another source; or the allegation is acknowledged or admitted by the accused.
Some additional allegations have been reported to the appropriate district attorneys and will be added to the list if found credible, the diocese said.
A compensation program run by the diocese determined that there are 85 known abuse victims, as of September. A diocesan compliance officer works with accused priests and regularly monitors them.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told Syracuse.com he has reviewed the list released by the diocese several times. His office and the diocese have taken steps to ensure that accused priests who are still alive do not pose any danger to children. There are 19 such priests in the diocese.
Bishop Cunningham told Syracuse.com that Catholic leaders had for a time taken the view that sex abusers were not criminals, but psychiatric patients suffering “a sickness that we thought was treatable.” Priests, including some in the Syracuse diocese, were sent to Catholic treatment centers like the Southdown Institute in Canada and St. Luke’s in Maryland.
The bishop also said previous generations had a poor understanding of the damage caused by sexual abuse.
“Not just in the Church, but in society at large, there’s been an evolving understanding of child sexual abuse, the trauma it causes, the difficulty it causes,” Cunningham said in his letter.
“I don’t think the church ever intended to cover anything up,” Cunningham continued. “They frequently handled situations as families wanted or as society was doing at that time. I think it’s a slow awakening to realize how serious this issue is. And it covers much more than the Church.”
The 2002 approval of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People ended the practice of treating priests and returning them to active ministry.
The U.S. bishops had intended to address sex abuse again at their fall general assembly, but the Congregation for Bishops ordered them to postpone voting on resolutions until a special global meeting of the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences to address the sex abuse crisis, set for this February at the Vatican.
Seattle, Wash., Dec 3, 2018 / 05:16 pm (CNA).- Coffee giant Starbucks and microblogging website Tumblr have each announced they will be taking steps to prevent the online access of pornography.
Tumblr announced Monday that sexually explicit content and nudity will be banned on its blogging platform, effective Dec. 17.
The policy comes after the site was removed from Apple’s App Store in November. Images of child pornography had reportedly been uploaded on the website, after the filters had failed to block them.
According to the new ban, GIFs, videos, and images exposing genitalia, along with illustrated sexual acts, will be prohibited. Art featuring nudity will be permitted, as will nakedness in some photos of public events like political protests.
In a similar move, Starbucks announced last week it will block access to pornographic material viewed through WiFi networks at the company’s stores beginning next year. The coffee chain banned in-store pornography in 2016, but did not install filters to prevent customers from accessing pornography.
The recent decision comes after an internet-safety group, Enough is Enough, pressured Starbucks to restrict the pornography accessed on the café’s WiFi.
The coffee company said recently that it had been looking for a way to block pornography on its network without thwarting access to other websites.
Details on the new filters have not been released, but Starbucks has said it will introduce them sometime in 2019.
“We have identified a solution to prevent this content from being viewed within our stores and we will begin introducing it to our U.S. locations in 2019,” the representative told NBC News.
Starbucks made the announcement shortly after Enough is Enough re-issued a petition Nov. 20 which has more than 26,000 signatures. The petition was a second attempt by the group to campaign against the lack of porn restriction on Starbucks’ WiFi.
In 2014, the non-profit pressured Starbucks and McDonald’s to create a porn-free environment on publicly accessible WiFi.
Donna Hughes, CEO of Enough is Enough, said McDonald’s quickly responded to fix the problem, while Starbucks promised to act but did not. At present, Starbucks has only filtered porn in its U.K. locations.
“Starbucks has had a tremendous opportunity to put its best foot forward in protecting its customers from images deemed obscene and illegal under the law, but they haven’t budged, despite their promise two years ago,” Hughes said in a Nov. 26 statement.
“We demand Starbucks do the right thing by keeping its promise of two and half years ago,” she said. “We applaud Starbucks’ commitment to protect children in its UK stores, but what about America’s children? …There’s no reason why Starbucks can’t offer that same level of commitment of WiFi safety to its loyal customer base here in the United States.”
Hughes said that because Starbucks did not follow through with its 2016 commitment, the company has kept open an for child pornography to be accessed under the radar, and for teens to bypass parental controls.
Enough is Enough ran a thank-you campaign for Starbucks after it promised to block porn in 2016. Hughes told NBC News that, this time, the group will withhold applause and continue to apply pressure until the changes are seen.
“They won’t get an applause until they’ve actually implemented safe Wi-Fi filtering,” Hughes said. “This time we’re going to wait and see, and we’re going to keep the pressure on.”
Major porn websites have issued statements in response to the decision. The pornographic video-sharing site YouPorn, released a memo which banned the Starbucks’ products from the organization’s offices, beginning in January 2019.
A similar site, Pornhub, also issued a statement, noting it would be rolling out “Safe for Work” content – nudity-free videos. The category contains topics like video game reviews and advice from porn stars.
However, sexual and obscene advertisements may still be encountered in the “SFW” webpages. It is unclear if the new ban will block entire domains containing pornography, or allow access to parts of the websites which do not have sexually explicit material.
Washington D.C., Dec 3, 2018 / 01:30 pm (CNA).- George H.W. Bush, who died late Friday, served as a fighter pilot in World War II, head of the CIA, vice president under Ronald Reagan, and as the 41st president of the United States. But he maintained throughout his last years that his most important role was that of a father of six.
“I can honestly say that the three most rewarding titles bestowed upon me are the three that I’ve got left: a husband, a father and a granddad,” Bush said in 1997 at the opening of his presidential library in Houston.
In the days following the president’s death, Catholics around the country remembered the 41st president for his character and family values.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference and Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, offered prayers for the former president and for his family, and praised Bush as a “courageous man, dedicated leader and selfless public servant.”
As a congressman, Bush represented Texas’ seventh congressional district, which is within DiNardo’s archdiocese.
“President Bush’s career in the public eye – from the Lone Star State to the global stage – was marked by incredible statesmanship and honor,” DiNardo said in a statement released by the archdiocese.
“His strong faith in God, devotion to his wife of 73 years, the late First Lady Barbara Bush, and his boundless love for the covenant of family served as a model for all to follow. The City of Houston was very proud to call him one of our own and one of our brightest points of light. We will forever be grateful for his presence and commitment to our community and to the people of Houston.”
Bush’s marriage to Barbara, who died earlier this year, was the longest marriage in the history of the American presidency.
In his speech at the 1992 Knights of Columbus convention, President Bush, an Episcopalian, spoke of the importance of character and morality in American society.
“I think my parents were like yours: They brought me up to understand that our fundamental moral standards were established by Almighty God. They taught me that if you have something for yourself, you should give half to a friend. They taught me to take the blame when things go wrong and share the credit when things go right. These ideas were supported by society,” he told the Knights.
Joseph Cullen, a spokesman for the Knights of Columbus, told CNA that Bush had “a wonderful feel for what makes America great: her people and their individual communities, including faith communities.”
“He knew that religious liberty produced varied and wonderful fruits, especially in the areas of charity and service. He knew us at the Knights. He encouraged us and did so personally at two of our conventions, including in 1992 as president. We are grateful to have known him and now pray for him and his family” Cullen said.
Bush noted in 1992 that there was a “disturbing trend” in “the rise of legal theories and practices that reject our Judeo-Christian tradition.”
“The President should set the moral tone for this nation,” Bush said.
Other bishops and Catholic voices have issued their own tributes to the 41st president.
“A gracious and humble man who lived a life of service to others, President George H.W. Bush is remembered as a man of character, a husband and father who did his best to bring about a kinder and gentler nation. He guided our country during difficult times with grace, dignity and courage,” Bishop Nelson Perez of Cleveland said Dec. 1.
Bishop Robert Deeley of Portland, Maine, also extended his prayerful sympathy to the Bush family.
“He will be remembered for his integrity. A man of faith and humility, may he be at peace with the Lord he served in life,” Deeley said.
His presidency from 1988 to 1992 oversaw the fall of the Soviet Union. In Bush’s last State of the Union Address in 1992, he said, “By the grace of God, America won the Cold War.”
Later that year, the president went on to say, “Saint Ignatius said, ‘Work as though all depended upon yourself, and pray as though all depended on God.’ The practice of that motto conquered communism. Ceaseless prayer and tireless work halted the cold war and spared us from the catastrophe of a third world war. Believers behind the Iron Curtain defied persecution; believers in the West defied indifference.”
Bush met with Pope Saint John Paul II in Rome twice during his presidency. Though the two leaders disagreed over the U.S. military intervention in the Gulf War, Bush described his last presidential meeting with John Paul II as “major tour d’horizon, touching on all the trouble spots” in the world.
When Bush first entered politics as a Republican Congressman, he supported funding for Planned Parenthood, however he went on to be an effective pro-life president. Bush used his power of veto to stop 10 bills with pro-abortion provisions, according to the National Right to Life Committee.
“President George H.W. Bush dedicated his administration to advancing pro-life policies to protect mothers and their unborn children,” National Right to Life President Carol Tobias said Dec. 1. “He used his presidency to stop enactment of pro-abortion laws and promote life-affirming solutions.”
Bush’s funeral will be held at Washington’s National Cathedral on Wednesday, Dec. 5 with President Donald Trump and his wife in attendance.
Denver, Colo., Dec 2, 2018 / 02:29 pm (CNA).- “Insincerity was an evil which sprang up within the Church from the first,” wrote Blessed John Henry Newman in 1839. “Ananias and Simon were not open opposers of the Apostles, but false br… […]
Steubenville, Ohio, Dec 2, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- When Mike and Alice Hernon started their podcast on marriage and family in 2015, they didn’t think anyone would listen, outside of their family and maybe a few close friends.
Both from big families – Alice the second of 10 siblings, and Mike one of six – and parents of 10 children themselves, the Hernons would often get asked for parenting advice at extended family gatherings.
At the urging of their siblings who were benefiting from their advice, the Hernons started a marriage and family podcast.
“At the beginning if you listen to our first two or three episodes, we kind of start off by saying something like, there are probably just like five of our brothers and sisters and their friends listening,” Alice told CNA.
But over the past three years, the podcast grew from a small fanbase of friends and family to 10,000 listeners per month.
“We literally did zero marketing! We didn’t do anything” to promote the podcast, Alice said.
“We didn’t have time,” Mike added. They were too busy with work and with their own family life.
Sensing a growing need among parents and families for guidance and support, and with the support and partnership with Our Sunday Visitor Institute, Alice and Mike have decided to expand their podcast into a full-time marriage and family ministry called The Messy Family Project.
In addition to the podcast, the Hernons will now offer their advice, support and encouragement through videos, downloadable resources, and live events such as retreats and workshops.
“One of our taglines is: ‘we’re not experts’ because neither of us have counseling degrees, we’re not professors, we’re not doctors,” Alice said. “We are really just older parents who are ahead of most of the people who are listening to us, so what we want to do is just kind of give that encouragement, that practical advice, but without being dogmatic.”
They’ve gained their wisdom from their own families of origin, from years of experience raising their own children (who are now ages 6-23), and from the teachings of the Catholic Church, and from interacting with families through various ministries over the years.
Their mission: “to empower parents, strengthen marriages and bring families to Christ.”
This mission has been on the hearts of the Hernons for a while, Mike said, because “we believe it’s more challenging to raise children today than maybe it ever has been.”
They offer their wisdom as older siblings who have been there, rather than as parents of a different generation, Mike said.
“There are challenges that our parents didn’t have,” he said, “everything from technology to all of the cultural issues that are bearing on our children and our family life.”
They wanted to offer their support and advice for Catholic families to build their own unique cultures instead, which will look different depending on the individual family, Mike said.
“We don’t try to say – this is the perfect plan. We try to share experiences, also the principles from the Church, because we believe the Church is an expert in humanity, an expert in real living.”
Creating a strong, welcoming and unique family culture, built on a Catholic identity, is one of the best ways to combat the cultural messages that are antithetical to Catholicism and family life today, the Hernons said. “The best defense is a good offense,” Mike said.
“Our ‘offense’ is creating your own family culture,” Alice said.
“Families need to not allow their children to be influenced by the world’s culture more than by their own family culture, because when you create your own family culture…that culture is a very powerful influence on our children because it’s an unspoken set of beliefs and expectations.”
A strong family culture also allows parents to enforce values without being judgmental of other families, Alice said.
“Because when a child says, ‘Oh well Susie is allowed to wear that dress to prom,’ you can say ‘Yeah, but Susie’s not a Hernon, and this is who we are,’” she said.
Family culture is communicated primarily through relationships, the Hernons said – the relationship of the parents with each other, the relationships parents have with individual children, and then the relationships children have with each other.
“The grace for your family flows from the sacrament of marriage,” Mike said.
“More is caught than taught, and kids need to see what that marriage looks like, and you model for them in so many ways what true love is, what it means to lay down your life, what it means to have a vocation, a mission of service.”
The Messy Family Project offers resources that cover a wide variety of topics related to family culture – including discipline, growing spiritually as a family, managing screen time, fostering sibling relationships, strengthening marriages, and building community with other like-minded families.
These resources include downloadable worksheets for parents to work through together, because spouses are each other’s own best parenting resource, the Hernons said.
“One of our themes is that parents need to work together and listen to each other as the experts,” Alice said. “More than they listen to us, more than they listen to anybody else out there, they need to listen to each other. So we have worksheets for parents to go through and have conversations with each other.”
Much of the Hernons’ inspiration comes from Pope St. John Paul II, and his teachings on marriage and family.
“Each family finds within itself a summons that cannot be ignored and that specifies both its dignity and responsibility: family, become what you are!” Pope John Paul II said in his 1981 apostolic exhortation Familiaris consortio.
That quote “sums up the goal” of The Messy Family Project, Mike said in a press release.
The Hernons said they are also inspired by St. Mother Teresa and the Little Flower of Therese, who found joy and holiness even in the little things of life.
They are also inspired by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who said in a 2017 address: “When young people ask me how to change the world, I tell them to love each other, get married, stay faithful to one another, have lots of children, and raise those children to be men and women of Christian character. Faith is a seed. It doesn’t flower overnight. It takes time and love and effort.”
Alice said she hopes Catholic families can find inspiration and hope, even in troubling times in the Church and in the world, through The Messy Family Project.
“I think a lot of times, Catholics look at the (Church sex abuse) scandals and say – ‘How can we change the Church?’”
“That’s important and we need to do that, but start with your family. That’s the most influence you can have, is over your family, and I think that people forget that.”
Los Angeles, Calif., Dec 1, 2018 / 03:56 pm (CNA).- Hundreds of Catholics processed through Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in a special Eucharistic procession for the poor this month.
The event was organized by the Beloved Movement, a forum that promo… […]
Washington D.C., Dec 1, 2018 / 02:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The suicide rate in the United States is at its highest in at least 50 years, and is contributing to a decrease in the nation’s life expectancy, the federal government said Thursday.
Life… […]
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