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Denver, Colo., Mar 12, 2018 / 02:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- These biblical commandments probably sound familiar: Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

These might not: Do not shave your beard with a razor. Do not wear garments of mixed fibers. Stone adulterers.

In a new T.V. show on CBS, main character Chip Curry, a film critic for a New York paper and soon-to-be father, sets out to improve his moral life by following every law in the Bible – all 613 of them – as literally as he possibly can, with the help of his ‘God squad’, which includes a rabbi and a Catholic priest.

The premise of the show is based on the 2007 New York Times bestseller A Year of Living Biblically, in which author A.J. Jacobs describes his real-life journey of taking the Bible as literally as possible for a year.

While the results in the show and the book are largely comical and portrayed in good humor (at one point a pebble is chucked at a cheating spouse), following every law ever given by God to the letter is nearly impossible, and not what Catholics are called to do, biblical scholar Andre Villeneuve told CNA.

“Good luck if you really want to try to live the Old Testament completely literally,” Villeneuve, who has a doctorate in biblical studies and teaches at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, Colo., told CNA.

“It would mean you would have to stone your son if he’s rebellious and doesn’t listen to you. You would have to stone adulterers. You would have to check every time you approach a woman that she’s not on her period because you’re not allowed to touch her,” he said, “a lot of these things that have to do with purity which are really frankly awkward and would be really problematic, if not impossible, to observe.”

The problem with such literal fundamentalism, he said, is that it doesn’t read and interpret the Bible in light of salvation history and in light of the intent of the laws given by God.

“The 613 commandments in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew Bible, they were given to Jews to begin with, so it’s ridiculous for anyone, whether a Catholic or Christian, to say they’re going to live by all of these commandments, because they were never given to Gentiles,” he said.

Some of these commandments still stand, however – most notably, the 10 Commandments. When Christ came and established a new covenant, the apostles decided which laws were still meant to be followed by Christians, and which laws pertained only to Jews, Villeneuve said.

“What the (apostles) did is…they saw the law as divided into three categories – the moral laws, the ceremonial laws, and the judicial laws,” he said. “So what has been considered to be universal and perennial and never to be changed are the moral laws, which are the 10 Commandments and their interpretation.”

The ceremonial laws related to Jewish worship, or the judicial laws related to matters such as what kind of compensation you can expect if your neighbor’s animal comes onto your property, are not binding for Christians.

Catholics can distinguish what laws of the Bible to follow and what it means to follow them by reading the Catechism and following the teachings and traditions of the Church, Villeneuve noted.

“The easy answer … is that today we have the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the third part is called Life in Christ, or the Moral Law. That’s where you can see the Catholic interpretation of the Ten Commandments in light of jesus’ teaching, and the apostles and the teachings of the Church,” he said. “It’s essentially extracting what is universal about the commandments without taking up all the specific commandments that were given to Jews in their times and culture.”

Even the Jews do not follow and interpret all of the 613 commandments in the Hebrew Bible exactly literally, Villeneuve noted.

As an example, he pointed out that the law “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” may seem cruel at face value, but it was never interpreted literally, even by the Jewish people.

“It doesn’t mean literally gouging out an eye, it means what is an eye worth as far as livelihood, quality of life … and therefore your neighbor should compensate you by so much, by paying you back,” he said. “It’s read and interpreted in a way that’s not literal.”

“The bottom line is that the fundamentalist reading of scripture doesn’t work; even the Jews don’t live that way,” Villeneuve added.

“We don’t read scripture in a vacuum, we don’t believe in ‘sola scriptura’ (the Protestant doctrine of ‘scripture alone’), but it’s always read in light of Christian tradition and the teachings of the Church and the magisterium.”

[…]

Denver, Colo., Mar 11, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As Papua New Guinea begins to recover from a major earthquake, the Capuchin Province of St. Conrad is raising funds in an effort to help those affected by the devastation.

Capuchins have served as missionaries in the country since 1955, and several of the missionaries currently in Papua New Guinea belong to the St. Conrad province, based in Denver, Colo.

“Sadly, dozens of our people lost their lives, mainly caused by landslides. Four young girls were crushed by a falling wall as they slept in their home in Mendi town. Also in Mendi, a young couple and their first-born child were killed by a landslide,” reported Bishop Don Lippert of Mendi, himself a Capuchin.

“Telephone and internet communications are severely limited and in many places access to water and electricity has been interrupted. Many roads have been blocked by major landslides,” Bishop Lippert continued.

He added that “Reports from the remote parishes paint a grim picture of major loss of infrastructure. The diocese’s network of schools and health centers has sustained serious damages throughout the rural, mountainous area.”

Capuchin missionaries to Papua New Guinea built some of the country’s first schools, hospitals, and medical clinics.

On Feb. 26, the Papua New Guinea highlands were struck by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, causing over 100 deaths and countless more injuries. The epicenter of the quake was in Enga province, in the vicinity of Wabag.

Days later, on March 6, Papua New Guinea was again hit by a 6.7 magnitude aftershock, leaving the country without electricity and access to communication systems. Over a dozen more deaths occurred during the aftershock, raising the initial death toll to approximately 117.

The Papua New Guinea Red Cross estimated that upwards of 143,000 people have been affected by the earthquake, leaving as many as 17,000 displaced from their homes. Many people are relying on air-drops for their food and water supply.

The earthquake has also damaged much of the islands’ infrastructure through landslides

The governor of the Southern Highlands Province, William Powi, said that the local government has reached its limit for relief efforts, saying, “it is beyond the capacity of the provincial government to cope with the magnitude of destruction and devastation,” according to the New York Times.

Although the islands have a long journey ahead in rebuilding their devastated communities, the Capuchins hope that their funding campaign will give the islands the aid they need.

Pope Francis recently expressed his concern over the situation, invoking “divine blessings of strength and consolation” to those affected by the disaster.

[…]

Washington D.C., Mar 10, 2018 / 04:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The House of Representatives passed a bill this week that aims to combat online trafficking, targeting the sites that host ads relating to sex work. The bill has received a mixed reception, however, with some arguing it may be ineffective at achieving its goal.

The “Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act” would allow survivors of human trafficking to sue websites like Backpage, where people post advertisements for prostitution. Some of these ads, supporters of the bill claim, are actually for people who are victims of traffickers.  

This new bill would amend the Communications Decency Act to allow lawsuits against websites like Backpage if they are found to be in violation of sex trafficking laws.

Knowingly promoting sex trafficking is currently a crime. Previously, however, the Communications Decency Act would have shielded the sites against these suits as websites were not considered to be liable for content posted by their users.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) and co-sponsored by a bipartisan Congressional group. It passed Tuesday by a vote of 388-25.

While the bill has clear bipartisan support, as well as support from some facets of the tech industry, the Department of Justice and a vocal minority of representatives from both parties have raised concerns that the legislation is unconstitutional and will be ineffective in actually fighting sex trafficking.

In a letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen A. Boyd, the DOJ wrote that the bill’s requirements that prosecutors provide proof that a website benefited from sex trafficking, as well as evidence that the website knew the ad was for a minor or for someone who was coerced or otherwise forced into sex work, would make prosecution of the crime more difficult.

“While well intentioned, this new language would impact prosecutions by effectively creating additional elements that prosecutors must prove at trial,” said Boyd.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), the chairman of the House Liberty Caucus, said on Twitter that a provision in the bill that would allow for companies to be held liable for posts made before the law was passed rendered the bill unconstitutional.

“The Constitution reads: ‘No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.’ Congress just passed this ex post facto law by a vote of 388-25,” said Amash, explaining that he voted against the bill.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>The Constitution reads: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.” (Art. I, §9)<br><br>Congress just passed this ex post facto law by a vote of 388-25. (I voted no, of course.) <a href=”https://t.co/xD42cnrjYt”>https://t.co/xD42cnrjYt</a></p>&mdash; Justin Amash (@justinamash) <a href=”https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/968621897087946752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>February 27, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

Amash’s concerns were echoed by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), who said in a statement on his website that he felt as though the bill went too far and would hinder efforts to fight sex trafficking online.

“There are laws already on the books that have been successfully used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to send executives of websites that promote prostitution to federal prison,” said Scott.

“Further, the bill will apply not only to online advertisers of sex trafficking, which Congress already criminalized in 2015 when we passed the SAVE Act (see 18 U.S.C. 1591),  and punishes conduct that is much less serious than what is ordinarily viewed as ‘sex trafficking.’”

Wagner disputes these claims in a statement, saying the bill will be a tool to put more people in jail for sex trafficking, and will deter websites from posting these kinds of ads.

“FOSTA will produce more prosecutions of bad actor websites, more convictions, and put more predators behind bars. It will give victims a pathway to justice and provide a meaningful criminal deterrent, so that fewer businesses will ever enter the sex trade, and fewer victims will ever be sold,” she said.

Grace Williams, president of the group Children of the Immaculate Heart, which serves those affected by human trafficking, believes that the bill could be beneficial.

In an interview with CNA, Williams said that the evolving nature of human trafficking – and its new reliance on various social media apps and websites – makes it tricky for authorities to arrest those who are responsible.

“[T]he problem is all of these platforms are making it a lot easier to reach victims and making it a lot harder for law enforcement to track down and prosecute because there’s no image trail, no paper trail,” said Williams.

She said the bill appears to “give attorneys more means to to be able to pursue legal action” for these sites.

More importantly, Williams thinks the law will send an important message to websites.

“[W]e’re sending a message to online forums, and various websites that using people for sex is not okay, and especially when their liberty is compromised or not even present.”

[…]

Jackson, Miss., Mar 9, 2018 / 03:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Mississippi legislature has passed one of the strongest restrictions on abortion in the U.S., barring most abortions 15 weeks into pregnancy.

“As I have repeatedly said, I want Mississippi to be the safest place in America for an unborn child,” Gov. Phil Bryant said on Twitter March 6. “House Bill 1510 will help us achieve that goal.”

The Senate voted to pass the bill by a 35-14 vote.

The bill had been modified to remove criminal penalties involving jail time. Physicians who violate the law will lose their state medical licenses and receive a civil penalty of up to $500, National Public Radio reports.

The amended bill passed the Republican-controlled House by a vote of 75-34. An earlier version of the bill passed the House by a Feb. 2 vote of 79-31, with some Democratic support.

In a Feb. 8 message, Bishops Joseph Kopacz of Jackson and Louis Kihneman of Biloxi said the state’s legislature is “to be commended for voting to protect unborn human life.”

State records indicate about 200 abortions a year are performed on women 15 to 20 weeks pregnant, backers of the bill have said. Their bill allows exceptions for when a woman’s life is in danger or when an unborn child has a severe abnormality.

State Rep. Becky Currie, the bill’s sponsor, said the bill is appropriate because most women discover they are pregnant months before the pregnancy reaches 15 weeks.

The passage of the bill drew other praise.

“Mississippians are committed to protecting the lives of unborn children, and this law will be a major step in accomplishing that goal,” Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said, according to the Clarion Ledger. “I am committed to making Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child.”

Both Mississippi and North Carolina currently bar abortion at 20 weeks into pregnancy, measured from a woman’s last menstrual period. Other states start from a date two weeks later.

The state’s only abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, does not perform abortions as late as 20 weeks and so it did not challenge the existing law, clinic owner Diane Derzis told the Associated Press. The clinic does perform abortions three weeks past the legislation’s ban limit. If the bill becomes law, it will refer women seeking these abortions to out-of-state clinics.

Derzis told the Clarion Ledger she was not surprised by the Senate vote, adding that Bryant “has never seen an abortion bill he didn’t like.”

“We will be planning to sue,” she said, adding that pro-life groups are passing abortion restrictions in hopes of national changes through a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

According to Derzis, she and her allies are in “a very fragile place right now.”

“Roe is clearly in danger and that’s what they’re preparing for … They hope by the time they get to the Supreme Court they will have changed the Supreme Court,” she said.

It is unclear whether such abortion limits will pass scrutiny in federal court.

In their Feb. 8 message, Mississippi’s Catholic bishops lamented the failure of the U.S. Senate to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would bar abortion 20 weeks after fertilization.

“We Catholic Bishops of Mississippi wish to reaffirm the sacredness of human life from conception until natural death. With Pope St. John Paul II, we recognize abortion as ‘a most serious wound inflicted on society and its culture by the very people who ought to be society’s promoters and defenders’,” the bishops said, citing St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae.

Legislators “have a duty to make courageous choices in support of life, especially through legislative measures,” they said.

“We ask continued prayer for a culture of life to prevail in our society, and we urge those who voted against this legislation – especially those who are Catholic – to reconsider.”

[…]

Washington D.C., Mar 9, 2018 / 11:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a room full of Lutheran and Catholic intellectuals on Wednesday, one women stood up and shared a story about a civil rights advocate whom she met in New York City in the late 1960s. At a time when many in her civil rights community were beginning to get caught up in abortion advocacy, this man took the time to sit down with her to help her to understand the theological basis for defending the human dignity of both minorities and the unborn.

That man was Richard John Neuhaus, who went on to become a priest and a leading Catholic voice in American politics.

This was one among the many personal stories shared at a March 7 symposium celebrating the gift of a collection of Father Neuhaus’ letters, publications, and photographs to the American Catholic History Research Center archives at Catholic University of America.

George Weigel, Rusty Reno, Hadley Arkes, Robert Wilken, and Gil Meilaender were among the contributors who spoke of Neuhaus’ impact on politics, religion, and culture in America.

“Richard went from activist pastor in Bedford-Stuyvesant … to an enormously influential participant in and chaplain to an intellectual movement that reshaped American public life,” said George Weigel.

His best known book, The Naked Public Square, critiqued an understanding of the First Amendment that calls for a secular American politics. Neuhaus clarified that politics is the product of culture and religion is at the heart of culture.

Neuhaus founded the Institute of Religion and Public Life and its magazine, First Things, shortly before his conversion to Catholicism in 1990.

He had been a Lutheran pastor before he was received into the Church and was later ordained a priest by Cardinal John O’Connor, Archbishop of New York from 1984 to 2000.

“Catholicism was a natural landing point for his thinking,” commented Rusty Reno, the current First Things editor.

He had “a way of seeing everything in the light of the Christian faith, everything drawn into that faith and illumined by it,” reflected Valparaiso professor Gil Meilaender.

Several panelists noted the significance that Neuhaus was an intellectual trained in seminary rather than academia. Neuhaus did not have a PhD. He was “trained to proclaim Christ crucified first,” said Reno.

The letters in the archive provide insights into Neuhaus’ strong personality and capacity for deep friendship.

“He took friendship with a dead seriousness. He knew that friends had to be cultivated and he worked at it,” remembered Robert Wilken, whose friendship with Neuhaus lasted over 50 years.

In 1961 Neuhaus wrote Wilken a 21-page letter telling him all about his life and ministry as a hospital chaplain and Lutheran pastor at an inner-city black parish in Brooklyn.

“Pray for me, Robert, and I’ll remember you always … I just saw a ‘baby boy Washington’ enter life with a cry. He does not yet know how much he will have to cry. His mother is unmarried and does not want him. He will be turned over to the city for a life of not being wanted. This is true than one third of all the hundreds of babies delivered here. I don’t think his prospects are very good for finding love, happiness, joy, purpose … I am not depressed — only filled with wonder. Wonder at the glory and tragedy of life in this city. In a little while I will drive home and can count on being struck again by the New York skyline — a never failing object of adoration. The city and the potential of the civilization it represents — to this I am religiously committed. And to the ways of the God who brought it into being. ‘What is man, that you keep him in mind?’ Little baby boy Washington — fear not, He has redeemed you. He has called you by the name you do not yet have, you are His! I cannot guarantee you that this is true. It may be a pious illusion. But it is better than what is called the truth by mean, but just must be illusion. You are not alone.”

Neuhaus died of cancer in 2009 at age 72. Meilaender reflected at the symposium, “Richard used all the time he had been given and that’s the secret of his life.”

The Richard John Neuhaus Papers are available for public viewing at the Catholic University of America archives from 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday.

[…]

Denver, Colo., Mar 9, 2018 / 10:46 am (CNA).- The Jesuit theologian Henri de Lubac once noted a correspondence between the Reformation’s criticism of Mary and its criticisms of the Church. That correlation is in some sense logical – you can’t have Mary without the Church, nor the Church without Mary. They exist in such an intimate and mutual relationship that one cannot be fully understood without the other. And we see clearly enough in our present day what happens when they are separated: Mary, elevated in excess, loses her humanity and begins to appear as a quasi-fourth-person of the Trinity; and the Church, reduced in excess, loses her divine foundation and appears as an exclusively male-run institution.

This is far from the vision of the early Church, where Mary and the Church were viewed together in a single reality – the New Eve. Jesus Christ, the New Adam and the true spiritual father of mankind, fittingly chose a New Eve to be his helpmate and the true spiritual mother of mankind. This New Eve has two forms: the personal form of Mary and the collective form of the Church. But Mary precedes, being the Church in seed-form before Pentecost.  She alone was given the singular grace of her Immaculate Conception in order to take on the unique role as the Mother of God. She stands at the foot of the Cross as the Church, but also more than the Church; for she personally participates in her Son’s redemption and his foundation of the Church.

At Pentecost, Mary’s mediating maternity becomes the heart of the Church, permeating it with an all-encompassing Marian character. Mary is the Church’s mother, and in her, the Church is mother. For this reason, we can marvelously say – through Mary’s divine motherhood, the Church gives birth to Christ sacramentally in the Eucharist and spiritually in souls!

This beautiful vision of Mary and the Church was largely lost to modern man until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). There, the treatise of Mary was placed within that of the Church, restoring the ancient relationship (cf. Lumen gentium, Ch. 8). But with that came a tragic turn. After the council, Mary’s identity seemed to dissolved into the Church, and Mariology went into a kind of post-conciliar winter.  The modern Catholic sentiment towards Mary changed – now, some thought, we were “rid” of the shame of our bizarre medieval fixation. Now, some claimed she was finally “one of us” – relatable, authentic, truly in the Church.  

But Pope Paul VI, with prophetic intuition, saw through those theological illusions and countered them by declaring that “the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of the Church” (Paul VI, Address at the conclusion of the third session of Vatican II, 21 November 1964). If Mary is the Mother of Christ, and the Church is the Body of Christ, then Mary is the Mother of the Church. He knew, as did his successors, that the defense of Mary’s dignity is intimately tied to the preservation of the faith’s integrity.  

Last Saturday, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had decreed a new liturgical memorial. Beginning this year, on the Monday after Pentecost, the Church will universally celebrate Mary as the Mother of the Church. By this, the Church is not merely encouraging Marian piety. The Church is inviting us to see more deeply the Marian character of the Church’s maternity.

St. Leo the Great formulated this fifteen centuries ago on Christmas: the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the body (Sermon 26, De Nativitate). Meditating on the unique Christian mystery of the Incarnation reveals the pattern of all divinization – re-birth in the order of grace. And birth always requires a mother. To celebrate liturgically Mary as the Mother of the Church is to weave into an organic unity the cross, the Eucharist and maternity. Only through them, St. Leo said, does one “quit the old paths of his original nature and pass into a new man.”

And in our age of self-reliance and neo-pelagianism, perhaps we would do well to quit another old path: that of Marian minimalism, and pass into the newness of this feast, celebrating with joy and filial love, Mary, Mother of the Church.

Father John Nepil is a priest of the Archdiocese of Denver. His opinions do not necessarily reflect the editorial perspective of Catholic News Agency.

[…]

Harrisburg, Pa., Mar 9, 2018 / 10:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The states of Utah and Pennsylvania are considering legislation that would ban abortions solely due to a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis, in an effort to protect babies with disabilities from d… […]

New Orleans, La., Mar 9, 2018 / 02:49 am (CNA).- Melissa Coles found herself pregnant at the age of 18.

Fearing that she and the father could not support a child, she went to the local abortion clinic on Parker Avenue in Indianapolis. But right before… […]

Detroit, Mich., Mar 8, 2018 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A lawsuit threatening a Catholic adoption service is political maneuvering that will do nothing to help children in need of loving homes, families and supporters told a federal court in Michigan during oral arguments this week.

In their latest dispute against a religious entity, Dumont v. Lyon, the ACLU sued in September in order to prevent Michigan from working with faith-based adoption agencies that hold traditional views about marriage, including St. Vincent Catholic Charities.

A 2015 law, which was passed with the backing of the Michigan Catholic Conference, prevents state-funded adoption and foster agencies from being forced to place children in violation of their beliefs. The law protects them from civil action and from threats to their public funding. When the law was passed, about 25 percent of Michigan’s adoption and foster agencies were faith-based.

Shamber Flore, a young woman who was adopted through the foster care program at St. Vincent’s, said that children in foster care need more access to families with loving homes, and that the ACLU’s lawsuit endangers that access.

“I grew up exposed to prostitution, poverty and drugs, but thankfully and fortunately my story didn’t end there,” Flore said in a statement. “I have had the privilege of having my story rewritten and I know this wouldn’t have been possible without the help and aid of St. Vincent.”

The government cannot find foster homes for every child in need, Flore added, and therefore must rely on private agencies like St. Vincent’s to fill in the gaps.

“I am both hurt and confused as to why the ACLU would want to shut down an organization like St. Vincent that only brings good to the greater community,” she said.

“(Foster children) deserve more people, more agencies, more open hearts to fill the shortage of families willing to care for kids like myself. If the ACLU has its way, there will be less helping hands, less homes and ultimately less hope for foster kids, and we can’t let the ACLU take that away.”

The ACLU’s new lawsuit will do nothing to actually help the increasing number of foster children in need of safe and loving homes, said Melissa Buck, a mother who adopted five special needs children with St. Vincent’s.

“This is a petty, needless lawsuit that prioritizes scoring cheap political points at the expense of children,” Buck said in a statement.

“St. Vincent didn’t just save the lives of our children, they’ve accompanied us in the joy of giving them new ones,” Buck noted.

“This is important work. It is also very difficult work. If the ACLU wins their lawsuit, all of this will be taken away…and it would hurt many other families just like mine,” she said.

According to data compiled by Child Trends, more than 600 foster children age out of the foster care system each year in Michigan without ever having been adopted. Studies show that children who age out of foster care without a family are less likely to graduate high school, attend college, or find employment than those who are adopted.

Despite the shortage of available foster families, St. Vincent Catholic Charities found more new foster families than almost 90 percent of other agencies within its service district, according to Becket, the law firm representing the agency.

“St. Vincent particularly excels at finding homes for hard to place children like kids with special needs, larger sibling groups, or older children,” Stephanie Barclay, legal counsel with Becket, said in a statement.

“Despite this heroic and important work, the ACLU sued the state of Michigan to forbid the state from relying on adoption agencies like St. Vincent solely because of its religious beliefs about marriage. But St. Vincent’s beliefs have never prevented a child from being placed in a home,” Barclay said.

This case is not the first time that Catholic Charities has come under fire for reserving adoptions to a mother and a father. In 2006, Catholic Charities of Boston was forced to shut down its adoption services because of a state law barring “sexual orientation discrimination.”

The same year, Catholic Charities of San Francisco was forced to close for similar reasons.

In 2010, after a law redefining marriage, the Washington, D.C. branch of Catholic Charities was forced to close its foster care and adoption services for holding the belief that children should be placed with a married mother and father.

In 2011, Catholic Charities affiliates in Illinois were forced to close after a new requirement stipulated that state money could only go to adoption services that offered those services to same-sex couples.

In the past, gay couples working with other agencies have been able to adopt foster children that were in the care of St. Vincent’s in Michigan, and the ACLU’s clients in Dumont v. Lyon could have done the same, Barclay noted. The clients also live closer to four different adoption agencies other than St. Vincent’s.

“Instead…the ACLU has gone out of its way to target St. Vincent and to try to shut down their programs,” Barclay said.

“Based on today’s hearing, we’re hopeful that the court will listen to the stories of the foster families and children before it who will bear the brunt of the ACLU’s petty lawsuit.”

[…]

Washington D.C., Mar 8, 2018 / 04:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Three major abortion providers received more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds over a three-year period, with a significant portion of the funds going to Planned Parenthood affiliates under le… […]