Chicago, Ill., Jan 11, 2019 / 03:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Thousands of pro-life advocates will rally this month in major cities throughout the country, marking the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that mandated legal abortion i… […]
Washington D.C., Jan 10, 2019 / 05:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Little Sisters of the Poor are back in court this week, as two states are challenging their religious exemption from the HHS contraception mandate.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra have each filed lawsuits saying that the sisters should not receive a religious exemption from the mandate. Other states have joined onto these lawsuits as well.
“The Little Sisters are looking forward to a final victory in this case, so they can put this whole lawsuit behind them. It’s been a long fight,” Becket Fund for Religious Liberty senior counsel Lori Windham told CNA. The Becket Fund is representing the Little Sisters in these cases.
Oral arguments were heard on Thursday in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Trump in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The judge said that she would make a decision by Monday.
On Friday, oral arguments will be heard in the case State of California v. HHS, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Windham, who was present for oral arguments, told CNA that while the judge had issued an injunction blocking the Trump Administration’s protections of the Little Sisters of the Poor, she did have tough questions for the state.
“She asked Pennsylvania why it was wrong for the Trump Administration to issue this rule protecting the Little Sisters and others, but wasn’t wrong for the Obama Administration to issue a series of rules to create the mandate in the first place,” Windham explained. She said that the state’s lawyers attempted to explain why this was different, and then tried to steer away from that particular topic.
The Little Sisters were one of several hundred plaintiffs to file suit against the Obama-era HHS Contraception Mandate, which would have required them to offer free-of-charge contraceptive coverage to their employees through their insurance plan.
This mandate was issued under the Affordable Care Act by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2011.
In addition to the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Little Sisters of the Poor also take a vow of hospitality. The order operates nursing homes to care for the elderly poor, and are present in communities around the world. The Little Sisters were not eligible for the initial religious exemption from the mandate because they serve and employ those of all faiths.
In October 2017, the Trump Administration issued a new rule that would allow the Little Sisters of the Poor to receive a religious exemption and would not force them to distribute contraceptives against their religious beliefs.
After Thursday’s arguments, Mother Loraine Marie Maguire of the Little Sisters issued a statement, saying that she hoped the five-plus years of court cases would soon be over.
“We pray that the court will allow us to finally and fully return to our life’s passion of caring for the most vulnerable members of our society,” she said.
Biloxi, Miss., Jan 10, 2019 / 03:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Joseph Lawson Howze, the first black bishop to lead a diocese in the United States in the 20th century, died Wednesday, January 9 at the age of 95 after a lengthy illness.
Howze was appoi… […]
Washington D.C., Jan 9, 2019 / 05:23 pm (CNA).- President Donald Trump has threatened to stop sending federal money to the state of California for wildfire recovery, a move that Catholic aid workers say could dramatically impact thousands of California families trying to rebuild their lives.
“Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,” Trump wrote in a tweet Wednesday.
“Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] to send no more money.”
The fire season in California in 2018 was the state’s worst on record, with thousands of structures destroyed and nearly 90 lives lost. An unusually dry autumn contributed to the severity of the fire season.
About 6,650 people in California have successfully applied for FEMA assistance to the tune of nearly $50 million in aid, according to the latest available numbers from FEMA. That assistance can be used for essential home repairs and other necessities not covered by insurance.
It’s not yet clear whether Trump has the legal authority to order FEMA directly to cut funding for California, but the Sacramento Bee reports that the president does have to power to refuse to declare a state of disaster in California during or after future fires.
The Washington Post reportedly reached out to FEMA for comment, but received only an automated reply saying the agency is unable to respond to general press inquiries due to the partial government shutdown. The agency has said that individuals can still apply for aid while the government is shut down.
California’s newly-elected governor has called on the Trump administration to double federal funding to manage the state’s forests.
Kevin Eckery, spokesman for the Diocese of Sacramento, told CNA that though he suspects the president’s words were a political message directed at California’s new governor, the impact of defunding FEMA completely could be devastating.
“It’s sad that whatever politics are involved here are being directed at these families that really need our care, concern, and our help in order to rebuild,” Eckery told CNA.
“You take an emergency that affects thousands and thousands of families in northern California, billions of dollars in property damage, that began on federal land with the possible involvement of a public utility, and then try and say, ‘No, this is all about California forest management processes’…I’m kind of dumbfounded,” he said.
“In terms of toying with people’s livelihoods and their concern about rebuilding, it becomes even more strange when you realize that this is a community that is probably one of the few places in California where a majority of voters supported President Trump.”
Eckery explained that in the case of a natural disaster, for the most part the state has the primary responsibility for operations along with their partners in local government. FEMA can then underwrite grants and low-interest loans to help provide aid from outside the state; for example, if a state needs large amounts of concrete for levies, not all of which can be sourced in-state.
If Trump were actually to carry out his threat to defund FEMA, thousands of families trying to rebuild that would be affected, he warned.
The Sacramento diocese is making schooling available for free for 30-40 students affected by the fire, Eckery said, and Catholic Charities is engaged in case management to match families with resources so they can do their own rebuilding.
“We’ve moved from the emergency stage to the recovery stage,” he said.
“People need to understand that even though the Camp Fire is out of the day-to-day headlines, it still burned down a community of 35,000 people. And so that is a lot of hurt, and those people need and deserve our help.”
Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa, whose district includes much of northeastern California, wrote in a press release that he expects the president to keep his promise to help victims of the fires.
“Although I share the President’s great frustration with California’s choking regulations from the stranglehold environmental groups have on the state, as well as the inaction on federal lands up until this Administration…threats to FEMA funding are not helpful and will not solve the longer term forest management regulatory problems,” he wrote.
“These are American citizens who require our help.”
Washington D.C., Jan 9, 2019 / 04:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday evening, US President Donald Trump highlighted humanitarian problems present along the US-Mexico border and issued a call for increased security, including the construction of additional barriers on the border. His remarks were met with mixed reactions and frustration from Catholics across the United States.
Among the points raised by Trump in his Jan. 8 address is that approximately 90 percent of the heroin supply in the United States enters the country through the border with Mexico. “More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War,” said Trump.
Trump also highlighted the dangers of the journey from Central America to the United States, saying he feared children were being used as “pawns” by “vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs.”
Isaac Cuevas, the director of immigration and public affairs for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, told CNA that while he agrees with Trump’s assessment that there is a humanitarian crisis at the border, he did not believe either Trump’s address, or the response by Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), were signs that progress will be made.
“Both sides agree that immigration is an issue that can no longer be ignored, but they also need to agree on where change has to start,” Cuevas said.
“These challenges in migration will not go away with the implementation of barriers, but we all agree that the system, especially from a legal standpoint, is broken and needs help.”
Cuevas told CNA he thinks that it would be a “common-sense solution” for both parties to work together and create a plan that would both strengthen security at the border and create a way for people who are already here to obtain legal status: “A pathway to citizenship, for good people making positive contributions in our communities and to our way of life in this country,” he said.
Bishop Daniel Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville, which is located along the southern border, tweeted Jan. 9: “Mothers and children are fleeing the very criminal elements that we ourselves recognize represent a mortal danger. Are we not capable of sustaining a response that both protects the vulnerable and restrains the menace?”
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark said Jan. 9 of “Tuesday’s immigration speeches” that he was deeply disappointed by “the dehumanizing words used to describe our immigrant sisters and brothers. These men, women and children are neither numbers, nor criminal statistics, but flesh and blood people with their own stories and histories. Most are fleeing human misery and brutal violence that threatens their lives. False and fear-filled caricatures seek to provoke a sort of amnesia that would have this great nation deny our roots in immigrants and refugees.”
The cardinal quoted Pope Francis, and then said, “Those coming to our borders seeking asylum or escaping crushing poverty are not pawns in a political debate, but rather the strangers and aliens our Scriptures constantly instruct us to welcome … I beg all our legislative leaders to come together for the common good.”
The stalemate over the border wall continues amid the USCCB’s National Migration Week, taking place Jan. 6-12. The week’s theme this year is “Building Communities of Welcome”.
Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, chair of the USCCB Committee on Migration, said Jan. 4 that “In this moment, it is particularly important for the Church to highlight the spirit of welcome that we are all called to embody in response to immigrant and refugee populations who are in our midst sharing our Church and our communities.”
Washington D.C., Jan 9, 2019 / 12:30 pm (CNA).- Democratic lawmakers are divided over questions some see as a religious litmus test applied to candidates for the federal bench. The debate has turned into a war of words between members of Hawaii’s… […]
New York City, N.Y., Jan 9, 2019 / 11:00 am (CNA).- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for a change to the state’s constitution to enshrine abortion rights. Leading pro-life leaders called his statements “abhorrent” and “out of step” of mainstream politics.
Speaking Monday at an event in Manhattan, Cuomo said that he hopes to pass an amendment that “writes into the constitution a provision protecting a woman’s right to control her own reproductive health.” He was joined at the event, hosted at Barnard College, by former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Pro-life activists decried Cuomo’s wish for a constitutional amendment protecting abortion and the imminent law as extremist politics at work.
“Gov. Cuomo’s extremist push to conflate abortion with healthcare is a tragic example of politics and ideology triumphing over medicine and the science of embryology,” Americans United For Life CEO Catherine Glenn Foster told CNA.
In New York, changing the state constitution requires the state legislature to approve the amendment in addition to passage in a statewide voter referendum. The earliest such an amendment could be passed is 2021.
In the near term, the New York state legislature is likely to pass the Reproductive Health Act later this month. The legislation would codify the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and that permit abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. The bill was first introduced in 2007.
The New York state senate recently returned to Democrat-majority control for the first time since 2010, and the bill is widely expected to become law.
Foster said that the Reproductive Health Act has “nothing to do with women’s rights or enhancing women’s health,” and instead, it would simply make abortion more dangerous by stripping away health and safety regulations on abortionists.
“Under Gov. Cuomo’s leadership, New York nail salons will be more regulated than abortion facilities,” Foster added.
Foster’s comments were echoed by Tom McCluskey, March for Life vice president of government affairs.
McCluskey told CNA that it was “abhorrent” that Cuomo would prioritize abortion legislation during this time, and that this move was “out of step with the mainstream.”
“The American consensus has consistently supported limiting abortion to, at most, the first trimester,” McCluskey said, pointing out that only six countries allow abortion to occur after the 20th week of pregnancy.
“[The proposed amendment] is just another example of Democratic extremism that benefits none and hurts our most vulnerable.”
Washington D.C., Jan 9, 2019 / 07:45 am (CNA).- President Donald Trump signed the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act on Tuesday.
The law, which was authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), authori… […]
Washington D.C., Jan 8, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- Opus Dei confirmed this week that in 2005 it reached a $977,000 settlement with a Washington, D.C. woman who alleged that Opus Dei priest Fr. C. John McCloskey sexually assaulted her in the context of pastoral counseling.
The story has made headlines because of McCloskey’s connection to political and media circles in Washington, D.C. But it has also gained attention because of the place Opus Dei has occupied in popular culture, especially after the publication of the 2003 novel “The Da Vinci Code,” which offered a portrayal of Opus Dei many critics dismissed as fantastical.
But what is Opus Dei?
Founded in 1928 by Spanish priest Fr. Josemaria Escriva, the movement was borne of Escriva’s vision to help lay Catholics in Madrid understand the baptismal calling of holiness and evangelization. He called the movement Opus Dei to emphasize his belief that its foundation was a “work of God,”- or, in Latin, “Opus Dei.”
The movement began as a program of Catholic spiritual and intellectual formation for laymen, and began admitting women to its programs of formation two years after its foundation.
Technically, Opus Dei is a “personal prelature,” which is a Church structure comprised of priests and deacons joined together to “accomplish particular pastoral or missionary works,” according to canon law. The priests and deacons of the prelature are not members of a religious order, like the Jesuits or Benedictines, and therefore, they do not make public vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, as religious priests and brothers do. Instead, they are secular clerics, as are diocesan priests, which means that like diocesan priests, they are obliged to celibacy and to obedience, but they are not bound to poverty, or to other aspects of monastic, or religious life.
Because Opus Dei is a “personal prelature,” its members are the priests and deacons incardinated into its structure. However, Opus Dei also involves lay Catholics, who associate themselves to the mission of the prelature by means of individual agreements.
Association comes at different levels: some unmarried Catholics collaborate with Opus Dei as “numeraries,” who dedicate much of their life and time to Opus Dei and its mission; “supernumeraries” are typically married, and share in Opus Dei’s work and mission in the context of their families; “cooperators” may be married or unmarried laity who collaborate with or support Opus Dei at a less committed level. There are also diocesan priests and bishops associated with Opus Dei through an organization called the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.
Though commonly referred to as “members,” numeraries, supernumeraries, and cooperators are not formally members of Opus Dei, and remain subject to the jurisdiction of their own diocesan bishops and pastors. The prelate, or head, of Opus Dei does not exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction for those collaborators, except in regard to specifically delineated matters related to collaboration in the prelature’s mission. The educational and spiritual work of Opus Dei, including formation, is subject to the oversight of the diocesan bishop in each place where the prelature operates.
In 2016, there were more than 2,000 priest members of the prelature, and more than 90,000 lay people were connected to the organization by means of agreements. The prelature is operative in nearly 70 countries, and headquartered in Rome.
In the United States, Opus Dei supports Catholic schools, generally segregated by sex, in several cities. The organization offers formation through spiritual direction, retreats, “evenings of recollection,” at which priests offer spiritual guidance and confession, and through “circles,” small group meetings of spiritual formation. In Washington, D.C., Opus Dei operates the Catholic Information Center, a centrally-located bookstore offering weekday Mass and frequent evening programs.
Opus Dei has been criticized by some observers, who say the organization in inconsistent in its practices in different regions, promotes secrecy about its practices and governance, and focuses its recruiting on persons of wealth or influence.
Opus Dei’s spirituality is rooted in the writings and thought of Fr. Josemaria Escriva, who was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2002. Escriva’s work focused on becoming holy in ordinary life, by means of a deep prayer life, offering to God sacrifices and challenges, and the cultivation of virtue.
Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan 8, 2019 / 02:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Hawaii’s law legalizing assisted suicide went into effect last week, but many physicians and pharmacists are choosing not to prescribe or dispense the needed medication.
The Our Care, Our Choice Act was signed into law in April 2018, and took effect Jan. 1.
“A minority of physicians feel prepared to actually participate in terms of writing a prescription,” Dr. Daniel Fischberg, medical director of the The Queen’s Medical Center palliative care department told the AP.
According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, The Queen’s Medical Center and Hawaii Pacific Health have both said their pharmacies will not fill prescriptions for assisted suicide, and patients may not administer the medication at their locations.
CVS has said that their pharmacists can choose whether to fill prescriptions for assisted suicide drugs.
The law allows a terminally ill adult Hawaii resident to receive a prescription for a lethal medication if two doctors find that the person has fewer than six months to live and is mentally competent. The patient must undergo a mental health evaluation to determine that they are not “suffering from conditions that may interfere with decision-making, such as a lack of treatment of depression,” according to the AP.
The patient must make two requests for the life-ending medication, with a 20-day waiting period between requests, and sign a written request witnessed by two people, one of whom cannot be related to the patient.
A doctor may dispense the medication, but it must be self-administered.
The law includes criminal penalties for tampering with a request for lethal medication or coercing such a prescription.
Health care providers and facilities are free not to cooperate with assisted suicide under the law.
The Hawaii health department expects 40-70 requests for assisted suicide in 2019.
While the Our Care, Our Choice Act was being considered, Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu wrote that his wonder at the bill “is compounded when I think of how, until now, we have prided ourselves on helping people not take their own lives. We have suicide prevention programs and hotlines, and have always considered suicide a tragedy that wreaks havoc on so many survivors who feel grief and frustration that they were not able to prevent this ‘autonomous’ decision from being made.”
Bishop Silva pointed out that under the law, the death certificate of one who commits assisted suicide will list as the immediate cause of death their terminal disease.
“In other words, it will lie about the real immediate cause of death, which is freely and deliberately ingesting a poison into one’s system,” he wrote. “If we call it another name besides suicide, then it may become respectable. Under no circumstances should we call it what it is, since certain insurance benefits may not be available to one’s estate if one commits suicide. So let’s also lie to the insurance company by calling it ‘death with dignity’ or some other title that will make it sound more respectable.”
In addition to Hawaii, assisted suicide is legal by law in the District of Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Vermont, and Colorado; and in Montana through a state supreme court ruling.
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