In union with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Religious Liberty Week, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge celebrated a Mass for Religious Liberty at St. Thomas More Cathedral in Arlington on June 23, the day after the solemnity of the patron saint of the church.

With this year’s theme “Life and Dignity for All,” Bishop Burbidge said in his homily, “we will never tire of protecting the unborn child and the sanctity of all human life.”

Bishop Burbidge discussed current threats to religious freedom, including attacks on Catholic churches around the world and specifically attacks in the United States in response to the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

In light of the impending decision, Bishop Burbidge urged Catholics in the diocese to continue to promote the faith and promote the work of Catholic charities that support pregnant women and their children.

“We must ensure that no government interference will ever deter us from doing this work according to beliefs that we hold firmly,” Bishop Burbidge said.

With the USCCB documenting over 100 attacks on Catholic churches since 2020, Bishop Burbidge stressed, “We are at a critical juncture.”

With the feast of St. John the Baptist on June 24, Bishop Burbidge recalled that the persecutors of St. John the Baptist did not ask him to deny Christ but rather told him to be silent. With St. John’s refusal to do so also came his martyrdom; Bishop Burbidge encouraged Catholics to adopt this courageous attitude as well and to vocalize their faith.

For the remainder of Religious Freedom Week, Bishop Burbidge urged Catholics to do three things: pray, reflect and act. He encouraged Catholics to pray for the prayer intention for the day of Religious Freedom Week, “for all those who attack our churches and threaten those who live their faith.”

For reflection, Bishop Burbidge urged the faithful to reflect on the lives of the saints and all those who died to protect religious freedom. Finally, in his call to action, Bishop Burbidge said now was not the time to be silent, but rather to “bravely take our faith into the public arena and elect those leaders known for their support of religious freedom and the protection of all human life”. “In doing so, Catholics will not remain silent, as the executors of St. John the Baptist would have liked, but rather promote and defend the faith, reminding the world of the continued presence of the Church, he said. declared.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In a June 21 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that a Maine tuition assistance program that excluded religious schools violated the Constitution’s free exercise clause.

The opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, said: “A state need not subsidize private education, but once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify certain schools. private only because they are religious.”

He also said that the court’s decision in Carson v. Makin stemmed from a principle in its two previous decisions, in particular the 2020 opinion in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. In that case, the court said the state of Montana could not prevent religious schools from receiving scholarships funded by tax credits under its school choice program.

The Maine case went further, asking whether the state could prevent students from using public funds to attend schools that provide religious instruction.

Roberts pointed out that a neutral benefits program that provides public funds to religious organizations through independent choices of recipients of those benefits does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

During oral arguments last December in the case, several judges criticized the state’s decision-making process in determining how religious a school was in order to decide whether or not the school could participate in the program specifically for rural communities.

Schools deemed to have the potential to “infuse” religion into classrooms were excluded while other schools deemed by the state school board to be the “rough equivalent” of public – or religiously neutral – schools could participate in the schooling program.

“It’s doctrine-based discrimination. It’s unconstitutional,” Roberts said at the time, which he essentially reiterated in his opinion.

Justice Stephen Breyer, in his dissent, pointed out that the court had “never before held” what it says today, “that a state must (and cannot) use public funds to pay religious education under a tuition program designed to ensure the provision of free public education throughout the State.”

Breyer, joined by Judge Elena Kagan and in part by Judge Sonia Sotomayor, said the ruling pays more attention to the free exercise clause and not enough to the establishment clause of the Constitution.

Nichole Garnett, a law professor at Notre Dame Law School, who focuses on education policy, called the decision “a victory both for religious freedom and for American schoolchildren.”

“The majority makes it clear, once again, that when government makes a benefit available to private institutions, it must treat religious institutions – including faith-based schools – fairly and equitably,” she said. said in a June 21 statement.

She also noted that the opinion cements the constitutional principle that “requires government neutrality – and prohibits hostility – toward believers and religious institutions.”

Garnett, signed an amicus curiae brief in the Maine case submitted by Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative on behalf of elementary and secondary schools from three religious traditions: Catholic (Partnership for Inner-City Education), Islamic (Council of Islamic Schools in North America) and Jewish (National Council of Young Israel).

Noting how the decision could impact school choice programs, she said it “removes a major barrier to the expansion of parental choice in the United States by clarifying that when states enact choice, they must allow parents to choose denominational schools for their children.”

“Denominational schools have a long and proven track record of providing a high quality education, especially for our most disadvantaged children, and policies that exclude them from private school choice programs are both unconstitutional and reckless,” she added.

Becket, a religious freedom law firm, also filed an amicus brief in the case, noting that states have a long history of excluding religious institutions from public benefits, often in part because of the amendments. Blaine embraced a time of anti-Catholic sentiment in the late 19th century.

The Blaine Amendment to prohibit direct government aid to educational institutions that have a religious affiliation was first proposed in Congress in 1875 by Representative James G. Blaine of Maine.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the Committee on Religious Liberty of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Catholic Education, issued a statement in response to the Court’s decision.

In their statement, Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Daly said, “The Supreme Court has rightly held that the Constitution not only protects the right to be religious but also law religious. This common-sense result reflects the essence of Catholic education. Additionally, the Court again affirmed that states cannot exclude religious schools from generally available public benefits based on their religious affiliation or practice. In our pluralistic society, it is vital that all people of faith can participate in publicly available programs and thus contribute to the common good.

The bishops’ statement also noted that “it is appropriate that this decision relates to a program in Maine, the state in which James G. Blaine served as a senator in 1875 when he worked for the passage of the amendment.” Blaine – a cynically anti-Catholic measure. to amend the US Constitution to ensure that no public assistance is provided to “sectarian” schools. While his efforts were narrowly defeated, the Blaine Amendments were eventually passed in one form or another by 37 states. These laws have nothing to do with government neutrality toward religion. Rather, they are expressions of hostility towards Catholics. We are grateful to the Supreme Court for continuing to rebuke this harmful legacy. »

The USCCB filed a amicus curiae short of support for the petitioners.

DETROIT — It was 3 a.m. at a parish-sponsored retreat, and Marie Wilkie of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Farmington Hills, Michigan, was in her pajamas, dozing before the Blessed Sacrament on display in the chapel.

Wilkie was unfamiliar with Eucharistic adoration, but she was drawn to the presence of the Lord before her.

While chaperoning students on a trip to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Karen Ervin of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth, Michigan, stumbled across a chapel of worship.

Following the example of nuns praying before the Blessed Sacrament, she fell on her knees. Overwhelmed with emotion, Ervin got up to leave, and Christ spoke to him clearly saying, “Stay with me.

Time and time again Christ calls from his exposed place in the chapel of adoration and invites his beloved children to remain with him, to sit in silence and be present with him: “I am here”, says -he.

These stories are at the heart of the new I AM HERE campaign, a partnership between the Archdiocese of Detroit and the Hallow app created to support the U.S. Bishops’ three-year National Eucharistic Revival and to inspire people to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist and to experience its power of transformation.

U.S. archdioceses and dioceses will kick off the renewal with Eucharistic processions on June 19, the feast of Corpus Christi.

In the Archdiocese of Detroit, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron will lead a two-mile Eucharistic procession from the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament to Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

The I AM HERE campaign is a way to answer the call of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in a “unique way in Detroit,” said Emily Mentock, associate director of strategy for the Department of Communications at the ‘archdiocese.

“Diocese across the country are going to emphasize worshiping Jesus in the Eucharist through things like Eucharistic Processions, Holy Hours and Eucharistic Congresses,” Mentock said. “But we know, here in the Archdiocese of Detroit, the power of testimony and testimony to release the gospel.”

The I AM HERE campaign includes a website – iamhere.org – and social media channels featuring stories of individuals whose lives have been touched by Eucharistic adoration, as well as a series of free audio meditations on the Hallow app to help people pray before the Blessed Sacrament.

The campaign also aims to partner with parishes to expand worship opportunities and encourage parishioners to submit their own stories.

The campaign includes stories from people from all walks of life and with different backgrounds and experiences, Mentock said. The website will feature written testimonials and a featured story will be shared each week along with a photo essay and in-depth first-person narrative.

“I hope people can connect with some of the stories,” Mentock told Detroit Catholic, the archdiocese’s online media outlet. “They might see similarities in a person’s life, but also be open to the possibilities of all the different ways Jesus can transform people. Hopefully we can help people encounter the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and inspire them to go meet him there.

The campaign will feature a story each week until the National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024, said Edmundo Reyes, communications director for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Over two years, over 100 individual stories will be shared.

“In addition to these featured stories, people are invited to submit their own stories to post on the website,” Reyes said. “So we hope to have hundreds, if not thousands of stories as witnesses to this transformative power of the Eucharist.”

The Archdiocese has partnered with Hallow, a Catholic app offering reflections and prayer guides, to offer free audio meditations to help people pray before the Blessed Sacrament.

“We think meditations can help people,” Reyes said. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been to worship or haven’t been there for a long time, these meditations will get you started.”

There are six meditations, written and voiced by Julianne Stanz, a nationally acclaimed speaker and writer who is Director of Discipleship and Parish Life for the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin. She is also a consultant to the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Catechesis and Evangelism and a member of the leadership team for the National Eucharistic Revival.

There is an additional meditation by Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, president of the National Eucharistic Revival. He chairs the USCCB Evangelism and Catechesis Committee, which spearheads the revival and congress.

“Our mission at Hallow is to help people pray, so it was a natural partnership for us to provide these wonderful meditations to help people as they pray before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament,” Kevin said. Cotter, Content Manager at Hallow. “Our first six meditations take the listener on a journey of encounter with Christ in the Eucharist, each centered on a truth about the nature of God: I am with you; I am love; I am the way.”

The silence of worship can be intimidating, Mentock said, so the meditations are a resource for helping people encounter Jesus in the Eucharist.

“Even for people who are seasoned worshipers, the meditations are truly great journeys and reflections on the ‘I Am’ statements of Jesus throughout the scriptures,” Mentock said. “It brings (people) into the presence of mind and heart that Jesus is there with them in the Eucharist and meets them wherever they are in their brokenness, in their sorrow, in their joy.”

The final component is a partnership with parishes to help them increase awareness and participation in Eucharistic adoration, Reyes said. The hope is to see more worship opportunities and to increase the number of people participating.

The I AM HERE campaign will provide parishes with promotional materials to encourage worship, but also to share their own stories, Reyes added.

“We want the stories to be very, very local and we want participating parishes to collect stories from their own parish to share with their own communities,” Reyes said. “We want to invite others to be inspired.”

Stories don’t have to be miraculous or dramatic, Reyes said; rather, most come from daily encounters in which Christ makes clear that he is present in the Eucharist.

“‘I am’ is the name of God revealed to us: ‘I am who I am,'” Reyes said. “The name (of the campaign) comes from the name of God which is “I am”. “Here” refers to the Eucharist, but it also refers to the fact that God is with us in our circumstances, in our brokenness, in our failures, in our hurts. God wants to be with us, and one of the ways he is with us is through the Eucharist.

– – –

Patti is a staff reporter for Detroit Catholic, the online media outlet for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Source: Effective Communications

Ceremonies to install Bishop Mark O’Toole as Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff and Bishop of Menevia will take place next week at St David’s Cathedral, Cardiff (Monday June 20) and St Joseph’s Cathedral Church from Swansea (Thursday 23 June) .

Appointed by Pope Francis, Bishop Mark O’Toole has served as Bishop of Plymouth since 2013. Succeeding Bishop George Stack, who has served in Cardiff since 2011, the new Archbishop will be installed in St David’s Cathedral, Cardiff on Monday June 20. , the feast day of the Welsh martyrs Saints Julius and Aaron.

As well as assuming oversight of Catholic communities in the Archdiocese of Cardiff, Bishop O’Toole also becomes the new Bishop of Menevia, a diocese that includes Swansea and surrounding areas. The two dioceses combined incorporate much of South and Mid Wales, alongside Herefordshire.

Having spent the last eight years as Bishop in the Diocese of Plymouth, ministering in the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, Bishop O’Toole looks forward to immersing himself in the communities of both dioceses.

Bishop O’Toole, 59, was born in London and spent much of his ministry there. He said, “I am grateful and humbled by the trust the Holy Father has placed in me. I face the task that awaits me with both enthusiasm and a certain anxiety, aware of my own weaknesses… it is with this deep sense that the Lord goes before all of us in this new mission, that I fully embrace this new calling in my life.”

Bishop O’Toole insists he “must listen and learn to begin with” and will deliver his homily at the Installation Masses in English and partly in Welsh.

He studied an MPhil in theology at Oxford University from 1990 to 1992, where his supervisor was the Lady Margaret Professor of Theology and Swansea-born former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

Bishop O’Toole’s predecessor, Bishop George Stack, said: “I warmly welcome the appointment of Archbishop-elect Mark O’Toole as Archbishop of Cardiff and Bishop of Menevia ‘in persona Episcopi’. This arrangement was made by the Holy See maintaining the identity, the legal reality, the history and the pastoral life of each diocese.

“Archbishop-elect Mark will bring great gifts to this new ministry. People in every diocese will be blessed by his experience as Bishop of Plymouth. His pastoral, theological and administrative skills will be of enormous benefit to us all. His national responsibilities as Chairman of the Department of Evangelism and Discipleship of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has been recognized by the Holy See for membership in the International Council of Catechesis His Celtic heritage will resonate with of the Catholic faithful in Wales and the wider community of his new home.”

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, President of the Catholic Bishops‘ Conference of England and Wales, said: “I offer Bishop Mark my fullest support and fervent prayers as he prepares to assume his new role. I am sure the Catholic community in Wales will warmly welcome him, as will the leaders of other churches there and those of civil society. St David and All Saints in Wales, pray for him .

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Attendees at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday passed a resolution encouraging state lawmakers to criminalize pastors who sexually abuse their parishioners.

Baptists also passed a resolution publicly apologizing to survivors of sexual abuse and another urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court opinion classifying abortion as a constitutional right.

An attempt to abolish the agency that lobbies on behalf of Southern Baptists in Washington failed.

The resolutions dealing with sexual abuse were passed a day after the convention overwhelmingly approved recommendations made by the denomination’s Sexual Abuse Task Force, which called for the creation of a database containing the names of church leaders and volunteers who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

Noting that many states and their licensing boards already prohibit sexual relationships between clients and their physicians, psychiatrists, or attorneys, the Baptists called on “legislators in each state to pass laws that would provide definitions and classification consistent cases of sexual abuse by pastors, such as sexual abuse”. committed by pastors constitutes a manifest abuse of authority and trust.”

Delegates, known as messengers, voted overwhelmingly for the resolution, which noted that Arkansas is among states that already have laws on the subject.

Under Arkansas Code § 5-14-126 (2020), a person commits third-degree sexual assault if the person:

“Engages in sexual intercourse or departs from sexual activity with another person who is not the actor’s spouse, and the actor is … a member of the clergy and is in a position of trust or authority over the victim and uses the position of trust or authority to engage in sexual intercourse or to deviate from sexual activity”.

At the 2021 Southern Baptist annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, messengers said pastors who commit sexual abuse should be permanently disqualified from holding leadership positions in a church.

Pastoral standards should be as high as those set for lay professionals, Wednesday’s resolution said.

Griffin Gulledge, a pastor at Madison Baptist Church in Madison, Georgia, urged messengers to support the measure.

“We have spent a lot of time this week and in the history of our convention discussing the need to resist, reprimand and expel wolves from our midst,” he said, adding, “There is no ‘There are no wolves more destructive than those who destroy the faith by abusing sex.’

Too often, “sexually aggressive or sexually predatory pastors can move from church to church, with a trail of victims left behind and we just say, ‘He’s fallen into sin,'” Gulledge said.

“It is illegal in many states for a teacher to have sex with a student of legal age and it should be illegal for pastors to attack their own congregations and that congregation should have no problem saying so” , he added.

The resolution also called on lawmakers to pass laws protecting churches from civil liability “when they share information about alleged abuses with other organizations or institutions.”

In 2019, the Texas Legislature unanimously passed such a shield law which had been championed by Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, and the new convention president.

At a news conference after voting on the resolutions ended, Barber said the Texas legislation had been endorsed by other organizations, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“This is not just a church problem, it is an issue that affects many parts of our society, so we would love to see not only Southern Baptist churches, but also people of goodwill across the country to work with us to help these kinds of laws get passed,” he said.

During this year’s annual meeting, the messengers passed nine resolutions and discussed a number of other proposals.

Southern Baptists on Wednesday strongly rejected efforts to abolish the denomination’s public policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Supporters had warned the move would undermine anti-abortion lobbying efforts at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Critics have described the agency as divisive and politically motivated.

Joshua Scruggs, a courier from North Carolina, introduced the motion, accusing the commission of “causing unnecessary division among Baptists” and taking a stand on issues “on which Southern Baptists significantly disagree.”

Richard Land, who served as the commission’s chairman from 1988 to 2013, spoke out against the measure, noting that the Supreme Court, any day now, is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the ban. 15-week abortion in Mississippi.

A draft copy of the decision, leaked last month, showed that a majority of the court appeared ready to overrule Roe and send the matter back to the states.

Such a move, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler told the messengers moments earlier, would spark a state-by-state battle, with some states rushing to ban abortion and others trying to bolster the right to abortion.

Given decades of convention pressure to ban abortion, Scruggs’ motion was ill-timed, Land suggested.

“I can’t imagine a more damaging time for the Southern Baptist Convention to pull funding from the ERLC,” he said, saying the agency would be “fully prepared” to help anti-abortion forces. to prevail.

The agency, with offices in Washington, DC, and Nashville, Tennessee, became a lightning rod for controversy after its then-president, Russell Moore, became the most visible critic of the then candidate. President Donald Trump.

Moore’s criticisms of the convention’s handling of sex abuse allegations further upset some of his fellow Baptists, including Ronnie Floyd, who at the time was chief executive and chairman of the executive committee tasked with addressing the issue.

Floyd, the former pastor of Cross Church Northwest Arkansas, had also served on Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Council in 2016, as had Land and several other Southern Baptists.

On Wednesday, Land told the Messengers that he disagreed with some of the agency’s decisions in recent years, but nevertheless insisted that the agency was too important to reject.

“I have given 25 years of my life to the ERLC. I know the good it has done. I know the religious freedom it stands for. I know the unborn babies it stands for, and I implore you not to defund [it],” he said.

Wednesday marked the last day of the annual Baptist meeting.

During the rally this week, the messengers also passed resolutions condemning Russian aggression and calling for peace in Ukraine, stressing the importance of ministry in rural areas and denouncing the prosperity gospel, which teaches that Christ’s death on the cross enables believers to obtain health and wealth without suffering, sickness and poverty.

The ‘Sexual Abuse Complaint and Repentance’ resolution apologized, by name, to ten sexual abuse survivors ‘for failing to heed their collective warnings and taking swift action to fight more early against clergy sexual abuse”.

Each of the survivors had given permission for their name to be included in the resolution, the drafters said.

In another resolution, the messengers also condemned past efforts to forcibly assimilate Native American children by forcing them to enroll in federal boarding schools, and said efforts to forcibly convert Native Americans to Christianity had been “reprehensible.” and contrary to biblical teachings.

Mike Keahbone, a Native American and senior pastor of First Baptist Church Lawton-Fort Sill in Oklahoma, had urged fellow Baptists to adopt the resolution.

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Program date: June 10, 2022

Air date: June 13, 2022

From the City Club of Eugene:

Among the newcomers to our community are people referred by the US Refugee Admissions Program, the official resettlement program of the United States government. Refugees fled their home countries due to persecution. While overseas, they are reviewed and vetted by the United Nations and/or United States federal agencies, a process that typically takes years. If the refugees are approved for resettlement in the United States, the International Organization for Migration arranges their travel here. Upon arrival, they are granted “refugee” status – a permanent status offering a pathway to citizenship – and receive resettlement assistance.

In Lane County, Catholic Community Services (CCS) provides immediate assistance to anyone in need and supports families as they take positive steps to lift themselves out of poverty. One of the programs that supports this mission is the Refugee and Immigrant Services Program (RISP). Through an innovative and unique collaboration between local faith groups, service organizations, community volunteers and professional staff, RISP is helping neighbors around the world build a prosperous future here in Lane County. As a remote placement agency under contract to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, CCS serves refugees of all faiths, nationalities, and ethnicities.

RISP’s refugee resettlement and asylum seeker assistance programs support refugees, asylum seekers and asylum seekers as they settle in our community. These programs help clients improve their English skills; provide transportation to critical appointments; and supporting clients’ efforts to obtain employment and find and pay for housing. Since 2016, the RISP has resettled 9 immigrants from Syria, El Salvador and Iran. Since October 2021, RISP has resettled 33 people from Afghanistan and provided legal and social services to over 100 asylum seekers.

Speaker:

Christine Zeller Powell is an attorney with the Refugee and Immigrant Services Program at Catholic Community Services (CCS) in Lane County. She was a co-founder and longtime volunteer leader of the Refugee Resettlement Coalition of Lane County, a partner of Catholic Community Services in welcoming and supporting refugees and asylum seekers. She earned BS, MS, and JD degrees from the University of Oregon.

About the City Club of Eugene:

The mission of the City Club of Eugene is to build community vision through open inquiry.

The Club explores a wide range of important local, state and national issues and helps formulate new approaches and solutions to problems. Membership is open to all, and Club members have a direct influence on public policy by discussing issues of interest with elected officials.
officials and other policy makers. The City Club’s mailing address is PO Box 12084, Eugene, OR 97440, and its website is cityclubofeugene.org.

Video and broadcast

This program will be broadcast live and the videotape will be available
on the City Club of Eugene Facebook page and You Tube channel, in addition to our website. It will air on Monday, June 13, at 7:00 p.m., on KLCC 89.7 FM.

Contact: For more information, contact Silver A. Mogart, City Club of Eugene, Executive Director, (541) 485-7433, [email protected]

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said May 20 that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should not “be admitted” to communion unless and until she publicly repudiates her position on legal abortion. Two days late, Pelosi reportedly received the sacrament at a Catholic church in the nation’s capital. And three other bishops from the conservative wing of the American Catholic Church have followed Cordileone’s lead, barring Pelosi from receiving communion in their respective jurisdictions. Here are NCR readers’ responses to the news. Letters have been edited for length and clarity.

Suppose an archbishop prevents a Catholic politician from receiving Holy Communion because he supports a doctrine contrary to official Catholic teachings. Some might suggest that such an action is a rather confusing and possibly incorrect application of Church law and an apparent contradiction of the United States Constitution.

First, politicians are sworn to represent their constituents. If a politician ignored such an important electoral preference, he could be removed from office in the next election. Yet the Catholic Church says that supporting such a position will result in the loss of reception of a sacrament. In the refusal of communion, it is judged that a mortal sin has been committed. However, one of the three conditions of moral sin is the full consent of the will. This is a classic moral dilemma for the politician: such a person is under duress and cannot make a decision entirely freely.

Second, a person who “supports” a non-Catholic doctrine has not actually promulgated the particular doctrine in question. Another requirement for a mortal sin is called “sufficient matter.” The anti-Catholic doctrine already exists. The politician does not have the power to support or eliminate the doctrine. The Supreme Court is apolitical.

In addition, God has granted each person free will. The mere fact that another person favors/supports a certain measure does not guarantee that another citizen will follow or follow the advice. Thus, one could argue that the proposed scenario fails because it is unable to assure guilt beyond a reasonable doubt – since a politician has no position in such matters.

MICHAEL OSLANCE
St. Louis, Missouri

***

The Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone should obey the pope and enter into communion with his brother bishops at the American episcopal conference before he causes a schism. Most American Catholics believe in allowing abortion in certain situations.

He could pay some attention to the social justice teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the equality of all people created and loved by God. He could look at some of the big business activities funding the movement leading the church to a possible schism.

JAMES CORR
Cleveland, Ohio

***

Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone and former President Donald Trump have at least one thing in common. They know how to exploit a power vacuum. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and “drain the swamp” were messages that resonated with millions of white Americans in fear of “losing their country.” Likewise, Cordileone has taken the lead against Pope Francis and what the Archbishop sees as the pope’s lukewarm stance toward U.S. Catholic politicians, particularly President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and their refusal to support the abolition of abortion in this country.

To Francis and his advice that the Eucharist not be drawn into the politics of abortion, the Archbishop challenges Francis to “resign himself or shut up.” Cordileone is doing what many right-wing Catholics have wanted to do, but no one else has committed to doing it. It’s about condemning what the Catholic right sees as their support for abortion and bringing the ultimate punishment to the only person Cordileone can punish, Pelosi.

Francis is a wonderful human being and a hero to many. But if he refuses to stand up to Cordileone and his politicization of the Eucharist, he will be seen as a weak leader and a man who talks more than he does. And if Cordileone gets away with his power play, who and what are next to erode Francis’ authority and leadership?

Bill Kristofco
Parkville, Maryland

***

Doesn’t the Archbishop of San Francisco know that the Eucharist is nourishment for the community rather than a reward for good conduct?

Ed Hoeffer
Cincinnati, Ohio

***

I am saddened that Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone does not see the shining example of Jesus living his own global message through the act of sharing his body and blood with his betrayer. No clearer demonstration of “love your enemies” can be found. No more specific act of sharing the Eucharist with the unworthy can be named. We don’t need to ask, what would Jesus do? The answer is there, in the synoptic gospels.

WILLIAM H. MCANALY
Granbury, TX

***

I am a catholic cradle. Please explain to me why the National Catholic Reporter objects to a bishop teaching someone to follow God’s command, “thou shalt not kill”?

Our bishops are the shepherds of the flock of God. For bishops, cardinals, priests or any religious, to remain silent while a public figure denounces the law of God would be a sin on their part. It is their calling and duty to help guide us to our own salvation through their leadership.

If a bishop cannot denounce a sin, then in the same way he cannot hear confessions and do penance. The same is true in both cases.

NANCY-BRADY
Ankeny, Iowa

***

Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone is presumptuous and mean-spirited in asserting the power to deny Holy Communion to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, until Pelosi votes as the Archbishop wishes on abortion as a civil law issue.

This is presumptuous on the part of the Archbishop, because in leaving us the Holy Eucharist, Jesus said: “Take of this all and eat of it, for this is my body”.

The Archbishop wants to rewrite the words of consecration to add a clause saying “all of you except Pelosi”.

This is right in the teaching of Jesus.

It is also cruelly hurtful to Pelosi, a lifelong practicing Catholic and mother of five, and her family.

FRANK LINDH
San Rafael, California

***

So where are we?

If you don’t like this bishop, cardinal, priest, you can go to another bishop, cardinal, priest and get the answer you want. It’s not new, of course, but as in this example, it’s being broadcast.

Who does or does not receive communion seems to depend on the reigning diocesan hierarch. So regardless of my state of being (i.e. sinner, repentant, etc.) and my relationship to Christ, it is up to someone else to know if I am worthy to receive Christ. And somebody else is not Christ.

I admit that I don’t know of a solution to this. There are different standards in different dioceses, parishes, ministers and laity within the church. This may be the only way to do it since we are all different and have different layers of faith, religiosity, understanding and belief. I once experienced three adjoining dioceses with three different programs, processes and ages for confirmation. Each bishop, of course, knew “best.” Then, when the bishops changed, the programs, the processes, the ages changed as well.

So what else can a person do but follow his own conscience? Or perhaps, as Buddhists humbly point out, everything is impermanent.

DAVID MURRAY
Cedarville, MI

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(RNS) – In response to recent mass shootings, Pope Francis and US Catholic bishops have called for gun control measures that would save lives. This may surprise some people who think that abortion is the sole public policy concern of the Church hierarchy. Unfortunately, the media and the bishops themselves pay too little attention to the larger “life” agenda.

While praying for the children killed and their families in Uvalde, the Pope did not hesitate to say: “It is time to say enough about indiscriminate arms trafficking.

Francis has frequently spoken out against gun trafficking, including in his 2015 speech to a joint session of Congress. “Why are lethal weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? he asked US lawmakers. “Unfortunately, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is soaked in blood, often innocent blood.”

After the Uvalde shooting, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago didn’t mince words.

“Who are we as a nation,” he asked, “if we don’t act to protect our children? What do we love more: our instruments of death or our future?

“The Second Amendment, unlike the Second Commandment, did not come from Sinai,” Cupich told NPR. “There is an understanding that we all have in our hearts, engraved in our hearts, a natural law about the value of human life. And no amendment can override that.

Cupich wasn’t the only one speaking out. On behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the chairs of four conference committees issued a statement urging all members of Congress to take action in response to the killings.

RELATED: After winning on abortion, it’s time for Catholic bishops to switch sides

They were not liberal bishops, but four of the most conservative prelates in the United States: Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, Washington.

They called for dialogue and concrete actions that “address all aspects of the crisis, including mental health, the state of families, the valuing of life, the influence of the entertainment and gaming industries, the ‘bullying and the availability of firearms’. They called for “the adoption of reasonable measures to control guns”, echoing the pope’s pleas that “it is time to say ‘no more’ to indiscriminate arms trafficking”.

“My heart is broken by the Texas elementary school mass shooting. I pray for the children and adults who were killed, and for their families. It’s time to say enough about the gun trade blind.” – Pope Francis pic.twitter.com/1NAzZptURD

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) May 25, 2022

In their Friday, June 3 letter to Congress, these bishops elaborated on what they consider to be “reasonable” gun control.

They encouraged Congress to improve “the gun background check process by voting in favor of the bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 (HR 8) and the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021 ( HR 1446)”. They also supported extreme risk protection orders through the passage of the federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2021 (HR 2377).

They complained that, “In the ten years since the massacre of children at Sandy Hook, very little has been done by Congress to regulate these guns and prevent another catastrophe. We urgently call on members of Congress to work together in a bipartisan way to make these horrific attacks less likely to happen again. »

The bishops emphasize that they are not “Johnny-come-latelies” to the discussion of gun violence, noting that as early as 1994 they published a pastoral message “Confronting a Culture of Violence: A Catholic Framework for Action.”

“For many years,” the bishops told Congress, “the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has supported a number of reasonable measures to address the problem of gun violence and continues to support the efforts of the United States Congress to advancing these policies into legislation”.

“It shouldn’t be the case,” they argue, “that in the United States a person needs character references to apply for a job, but not to buy military-style assault weapons.”

The bishops call for “a total ban on assault weapons and limitations on civilian access to high capacity weapons and ammunition stores,” including reserve stocks. They cite studies showing that high-capacity magazine limitations can reduce the number of people killed in mass shootings by up to 38% and those injured by up to 77%.

They also support universal background checks for all gun purchases and the criminalization of gun trafficking. The bishops added their support for recent proposals to set a more appropriate minimum age for gun ownership.

The USCCB website has additional recommendations: “Regulations and Limitations on Purchasing Handguns; measures that make firearms safer, such as locks that prevent children and anyone other than the owner from using the gun without permission and without supervision.

Another page on the website provides visitors with an easy way to write to their Senators and Representatives in support of these gun control measures.

RELATED: Catholic bishops oppose some Biden programs, support others

Sadly, hardly anyone in the country is aware of the strong and comprehensive stance on gun control taken by the US Catholic bishops. Bishops rarely talk about it. Catholics don’t hear about it from the pulpit of the church. The media don’t report it.

Perhaps the Catholic clergy fear antagonizing the faithful by talking about gun control, but according to a 2012 PRRI poll, 62% of Catholics support stricter gun control, far more than the 35% of support from evangelical Christians.

Catholic social teaching has been called the Church’s best-kept secret. The bishops’ response to gun violence should no longer be a secret. It should be preached from the rooftops.

The American Catholic bishops are killing Catholic News Service, one of their most successful national programs. Founded in 1921, CNS is the AP for Catholic news, providing copies to Catholic publications across the country and around the world.

In a 2021 meeting with CNS reporters in Rome, Pope Francis told them that “over the past hundred years, Catholic News Service has made an invaluable contribution to the English-speaking world through its coverage of the mission of the Church to proclaim the Gospel and to witness to the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.”

CNS’s New York and DC offices will close by the end of the year. Its Rome office will continue, but who knows for how long. Stories from his Rome office will be made freely available to all U.S. dioceses.

Although part of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, CNS is staffed by professional reporters who report the news using the highest journalistic standards. It’s old-fashioned journalism that gives the news without opinion. If you want to know what is happening in the Catholic Church, you read CNS.

Over the years, to keep up with church news, I have always read stories written by Jerry Filteau, John Thavis, and other outstanding CNS reporters. The stories of its reporters were supplemented by articles by journalists from diocesan newspapers deemed to be of national interest.

The volume of its coverage is impressive. In the third week of May this year, he published about 75 stories, as well as Spanish translations of some plays.

You can still find coverage of bishop appointments and deaths, meetings and statements of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Church political activities on abortion, immigration, poverty, health care, racism and other public policies. It also covered the work of Catholic education, Catholic health care and Catholic charities. Catholic involvement in ecumenical and interreligious activities has also drawn attention, along with the words and actions of the Pope and the Vatican.

As a scholar, I have found his archives extremely useful in writing my books on the American bishops and the Vatican. In the pre-internet days, I spent countless hours going through records to familiarize myself with the history of the institutions and people I studied.

With much of his archive online today, researching a subject or person is much easier. When a reporter asks to interview me about a bishop or topic, I often go to the CNS online archives and do a word search. By the time I’m interviewed, I’ve become an instant expert capable of impressing any reporter on a subject I knew little about hours earlier.

When the CNS closes, I hope these archives will be open to the public. Today, it is only open to subscribers.

The CNS has always had its detractors among the bishops. Some did not understand that good journalism required reporting bad news as well as good news about the church. These bishops did not like the CNS’s coverage of the sexual abuse crisis or disagreements in the church. They didn’t want to cover up theologians or other people who disagreed with the bishops or the pope.

These bishops wanted a propaganda agency, not a media. They put the CNS on the defensive by complaining about specific journalists and reports. They have lobbied for budget cuts, which has led to major layoffs in the past. This year’s decision is quite simply the deathblow for an institution that has been slowly bleeding itself.

In the past, the CNS received a large part of its funding from diocesan newspapers subscribing to its service. When these newspapers closed, the CNS lost this source of revenue and became more dependent on the USCCB. Many bishops are reluctant to fund a national program as they suffer from sexual abuse payments, COVID-19 and reduced income. Even moderate bishops without diocesan papers did not want to give their limited money to the CNS.

On the other hand, many conservative bishops love Mother Angelica’s media empire, which now includes EWTN, the National Catholic Register (not to be confused with the National Catholic Reporter), and the Catholic News Agency, or CNA. When cable companies offered free time on an ecumenical channel to bishops, they turned it down because they feared it would compete with EWTN.

Many bishops love EWTN more than their own child, CNS, even though EWTN commentators freely criticize bishops who do not reflect their conservative views – and, of course, Francis is not above criticism.

Many liberals classify media giant EWTN in the Fox News category of Catholicism, and it certainly has a conservative bent.

In the past, Mother Angelica was uncritical in her coverage of the conservative views of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but ignored these popes when pushing Catholic social teaching and social justice. Her comments often went beyond pious reflections to rants against what she disliked about liberals. Today, Raymond Arroyo, news director and anchor on EWTN, skips the piety and dives straight into Fox and Republican talking points on the culture wars.

CNA provides the most direct competition to CNS in news coverage. While diocesan newspapers and websites have to pay for CNS, CNA is free and has already replaced CNS in many Catholic publications and websites. When CNS dies, CNA will be the only Catholic news service available.

The quality of ANC varies. When he does direct news, it can be informative. I check CNA every day and find a story or two to read. When he posts comments, it’s one-sided conservatism.

Many Catholics don’t realize how much of their news about the church comes from the CNS. They don’t understand that much of the news they read at the National Catholic Reporter, Crux, America, their diocesan newspapers and other Catholic media comes from the CNS.

In the first three weeks of May, for example, the National Catholic Reporter published 44 articles on CNS, Crux published 33 articles and America published 17 articles. Additionally, CNS was the source of dozens of news photos used in Catholic publications.

While the bishops keep CNS reporters in Rome, that is not where the greatest need is. America, the National Catholic Reporter, Crux, La Croix International, The Tablet of London and other Catholic publications also have excellent reporters in Rome, as does Religion News Service. While I am glad the Rome bureau will continue, it is Catholic news coverage in the United States that will suffer the most from the CNS closure.

Catholic publications should hire additional journalists, which they cannot afford, to replace the articles they currently receive from the CNS. Could CNS subscribers pool their resources to hire two or three reporters to cover Catholic news? Are there any foundations and donors willing to fund this?

At RNS, we of course hope that the sad demise of CNS will encourage more Catholic publications to turn to RNS for their articles. Some Catholic publications, such as the National Catholic Reporter, Crux and America, already have subscriptions. But RNS covers news from all religious denominations and should considerably strengthen its Catholic coverage to replace CNS. Are there any foundations and donors willing to fund this?

The disappearance of the CNS illustrates the more general problem of the Catholic Church operating at the national level through the episcopal conferences. The church has strong structures that can work at the parish, diocesan and Vatican level, but the national entities are weak because each bishop wants a veto over anything he doesn’t like and the Vatican fears that national entities strong do not challenge its authority.

The rise of the EWTN empire is also a challenge for Catholic progressives. Why are they unable to manage and finance an equivalent media empire?

May God bless all CNS journalists who over the years have dedicated their lives to the church. They did a wonderful job of which they can be proud. It’s sad to see them go.

The hardline positions of many conservative Catholic bishops in the United States are not shared by a majority of lay Catholics. Most say abortion should be legal, promote greater LGBT inclusion and oppose denying communion to politicians who support abortion rights, according to a new poll ‘Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The poll, taken in mid-May, shows a clear gap between the mainstream views of American Catholics and some recent high-profile actions taken by church leaders.

For example, leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently called on Catholics across the country to pray that the United States Supreme Court would end the constitutional right to abortion by reversing its 1973 ruling. Roe versus Wade. According to the new poll, 63% of Catholic adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 68% say Roe should be left as is.

On May 20, the Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, announced that he would no longer allow United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to receive communion due to her support for the right to abortion.

According to the poll, only 31% of lay Catholics agree that politicians supporting abortion rights should be denied communion, while 66% say they should be allowed access to the sacrament.

An even larger majority – 77% – said Catholics who identify as LGBT should be allowed to receive Communion. This contrasts sharply with a policy issued by the Diocese of Marquette, which encompasses Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, that pastors should deny communion to transgender, gay, and non-binary Catholics “unless the person has repented.”

Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, said the rift between grassroots Catholics and bishops “reveals a breakdown in communication and trust — shepherds far removed from sheep.”

“This is a precarious time for the American Catholic Church,” she added in an email. “American Catholics are, on the whole, accustomed to living and working in a pluralistic society, and this poll reinforces the idea that they want the public square to remain pluralistic, free from coercion and oriented towards caring. vulnerable populations among us”.

The Reverend Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said the poll results did not surprise him and underscored the need for clergy and anti-abortion activists to redouble their efforts to change people’s positions .

“For us who work on pro-life issues, these kinds of polls are like a summons,” he said. “You have to do your job – maybe you have to do it better.”

As for the conservative bishops, “their awareness of the shortcomings that the polls reveal is precisely one of the reasons why they feel the need to speak out,” Pavone said. “They strive to exercise the role described for them in the scriptures, namely to patiently and persistently teach the faith, whether convenient or not, to dispel confusion.”

Beyond the divide between bishops and laity, the poll highlighted other challenges facing the church, which is the largest denomination in the United States.

For example, 68% of Catholics reported attending religious services once a month or less. Compared to five years ago, 37% said they now dated less often; 14% said they were dating more often.

During this five-year period, 26% of Catholics said their opinion of the Catholic Church had deteriorated, while 17% said their opinion had improved. Most said their opinion had not changed.

More than two-thirds of American Catholics disagree with Church policies that bar women from becoming priests. And 65% say the church should allow gay people to be ordained.

The poll was taken just after a Supreme Court draft majority opinion was leaked that would invalidate Roe against Wade. The opinions of American Catholics, as expressed in the poll, were consistent with those of the general American public, both in terms of support for the legality of abortion and the preservation of Roe.

However, there were strong differences between the major religious groups. While 63% of Catholics said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, this position was shared by 74% of mainstream Protestants and only 25% of evangelical Protestants.

Sharon Barnes of Dallas, who converted to Catholicism as a young adult, appreciates the centuries-old consistency of Catholic doctrine. Yet it differs from the church on some major social issues, including abortion.

“It’s a woman’s right to decide,” Barnes, 65, said. “It’s something you kind of have to come to terms with, and it’s between you and God.”

Pedro Gomez, a 55-year-old Border Patrol agent in Rio Rico, Arizona, is a lifelong Catholic who prays nightly and attends church regularly. He understands the need for abortion in cases of rape, incest or saving a woman’s life, but said he views the procedure as the murder of a child.

Gomez was surprised that most American Catholics have some degree of support for abortion rights.

“There are a lot of gray areas now that were never there in my upbringing,” he said. “Maybe they’re watering down Catholicism…Now people can make their own rules.”

Ed Keeley, a 62-year-old public school teacher in Houston, was also raised Catholic. He described abortion as “a difficult subject”, saying he believed in the sanctity of life but that abortion should be allowed in specific cases, including rape or incest.

He finds it “ridiculous” that a priest refuses communion to someone because of his opinions on abortion or politics in general.

Last year, some conservative bishops, including Cordileone, argued publicly that President Biden — a lifelong Catholic — should not receive Communion because of his support for abortion rights. However, Pope Francis has voiced his opposition to such a stance, saying Communion “is not a prize for the perfect.”

Cordileone’s recent refusal of Communion for Pelosi was supported by several of his clerical colleagues, including the archbishops of Denver, Oklahoma City, Portland, Oregon, and Kansas City, Kan. However, Archbishop Michael Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa, released a statement describing the action as “misguided.”

“As Jesus said, it’s the sick who need a doctor, not the healthy, and he gave us the Eucharist as a healing remedy,” Jackels said. “Don’t turn people away who need medicine.”

He also argued that abortion was not the only critical “life issue” facing the church.

“Protecting the Earth, our common home, or making food, water, shelter, education and health care accessible, or defending against gun violence…these are life issues too,” did he declare. “To be consistent, to fix the scandal of Catholics who are indifferent or opposed to all these other problems of life, they should also be denied Holy Communion.”

John Gehring, Catholic program director for the Washington-based Faith in Public Life clergy network, said some conservative bishops are engaging in culture wars “in ways that damage their already diminished relevance and credibility.”

“Most Catholics are fed up with bishops who want to weaponize the Communion in a hypocritical, one-issue campaign against pro-choice politicians, especially when we see Pope Francis offering a better roadmap,” Gehring said.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,172 adults, including 358 Catholics, was conducted May 12-16 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the American population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points, and for Catholics it is plus or minus 7.4 percentage points.

Associated Press religious coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

BUTLER COUNTY, IOWA – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), founder and chairman of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, along with Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and 45 of his colleagues by sending a unified message to Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) pledging to vote to block any bill that would undermine the Hyde Amendment, which bans taxpayer funding for abortions.

“We write to express our steadfast support for the Hyde Amendment and all other longstanding pro-life protections. For over 45 years, the Hyde Amendment has ensured that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund abortions, saving the lives of nearly 2.5 million unborn children…the Hyde Amendment is supported by both a substantial majority of the American public and a bipartisan majority of sitting United States Senators, and was recently signed into law by President Biden in Public Law 117-103,” wrote the senators.

“We urge you to start where we left off by making a basic commitment to maintain the same pro-life protections that were included in Public Law 117-103, and to avoid any taxpayer-funded giveaways that benefit the “Billion-Dollar Abortion Industry. The American People, Born and Unborn, Deserve Nothing Less,” concluded the senators.

This letter is endorsed by Susan B. Anthony List, Family Research Council, March for Life, Catholic Vote, National Right to Life, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Americans United for Life, Concerned Women for America, and Alliance Defending Freedom.

-30-

After fierce closed-door debates over President Joe Biden and Holy Communion, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops managed to release a muted document last fall that did little to please the public. activists on both sides of the Church’s wars on abortion and to the benched politicians.

However, a passage from “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church” has ticked the clock in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, setting the stage for the current clash between Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and a member of his herd – – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“It is the particular responsibility of the diocesan bishop to work to remedy situations which involve public actions contrary to the visible communion of the Church and to the moral law,” the passage notes. “Indeed, he must guard the integrity of the sacrament, the visible communion of the Church and the salvation of souls.”

The Diocese of Cordileone comprises California’s 12th congressional district. After six private attempts to reach Pelosi, he released a statement on May 20 telling him “you must not report for Holy Communion and, if you do, you must not be admitted to Holy Communion, until that you publicly repudiate your plea for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution from this grave sin in the sacrament of penance.”

The archbishop built his case with quotes from Pope Francis, Pope St. John Paul II and now-retired Pope Benedict XVI, as well as canon law stating that Catholics who “stubbornly persist in grave sin manifest” are “not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

The speaker’s words and actions, he added, suggest she cares nothing for papal authority. Pelosi, the mother of five, recently told the Seattle Times that “the personal nature of it all is so appalling, and I say that as a devout Catholic. They tell me, ‘Nancy Pelosi thinks she knows more about having babies as the pope .’ Yes, I know that. Are you stupid?”

While the news has been dominated by signs that the Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade, these ongoing debates among Catholics are rooted in years of disagreement over the words and actions of recent popes.

Writing to his flock, Cordileone noted that in 2004 the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith told the American bishops that when a Catholic politician champions laws promoting abortion, “his pastor should meet … informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he ends the objective situation of sin and warning him that otherwise he will be denied the Eucharist .”

This advice came from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI. But the chairman of the committee who received that letter — the now disgraced Theodore McCarrick — claimed Ratzinger supported the compromise, saying local bishops should rule on those issues. Since then, the bishops have been arguing about this “McCarrick doctrine”.

As for Pope Francis, Cordileone said he “has been one of the world’s most outspoken defenders of human dignity at every stage and condition of life. He denounces what he evocatively calls the ‘culture disposable “. There can be no more extreme example of this cultural depravity than when direct attacks on human life are enshrined in the law of a country.”

At the beginning of his pontificate, Francis noted: “Every child who, rather than being born, is unjustly condemned to be aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before his birth, then just after birth , experienced the rejection of the world.”

Cordileone reviewers note that the pope met and prayed privately with Biden for 75 minutes last fall. Afterwards, the president said, “We just talked about the fact that he was happy that I was a good Catholic.” Biden claimed that Francis had urged him to “continue to receive Communion.”

In another discussion of these conflicts, during an in-flight presser, Francis emphasized, “I have never refused the Eucharist to anyone. However, he also said that it is possible for a Catholic to separate from the church and, therefore, “is not able to take communion because he is outside the community. It’s not a sanction: you’re on the outside. Communion is to unite the community.”

This is a “pastoral issue,” Francis said, and “we bishops deal with this principle pastorally.”

Terry Mattingly runs GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is a principal investigator at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi.

After one of the consistories earlier in the pontificate of Pope Francis, for which I did the radio commentary – possibly in 2016 but more likely in June 2017, as the sun was bright and it was rather warm outside and I remember the city in bloom (a magnificent spectacle) – I met a monsignor on my way out. He had an office that put him in fairly close and frequent contact with the communication device. He was in his happy rags.

“What a renewal for the Church! he told me, about of the creation we had just witnessed.

“Those are red caps,” I offered, without too much concern. Red hats are what they are. The pope must distribute them from time to time.

While Pope Francis is rightly praised for his willingness to search underserved and underrepresented neighborhoods for heads on which to perch red hats – and there is much to be said for this – his reluctance to foster relationships and community among its choices is problematic, to say the least. Cardinals help the Pope govern the universal Church while he lives and reigns, and choose his successor when the See of Rome is vacant.

To do well, they must know each other. They need to have an idea of ​​each other’s interests – real and perceived – as well as each other’s concerns and priorities. They must know each other personally. Every man needs to have some idea of ​​what makes the other manic, or at least be on good terms with someone who has such a feeling. This type of work dynamic simply does not develop on its own or overnight. Popes frequently summon cardinals to general assemblies, which helps them feel each other. Francis did so at the start of his pontificate, but has not brought together the entire College of Cardinals for such an “extraordinary consistory” since 2015. Francis says he wants to meet the entire College for two days after the ordinary consistory in August, but that alone will set him back a day late and a dollar less.

Men who barely know each other cannot work well together, and Pope Francis has not done all he can to give his closest associates the chance to get to know each other in a meaningful way, to understand the personalities, interests , the concerns, the priorities of each. Critics of Francis have accused him of playing politics with his appointments to the College of Cardinals, but every pope does. Francis’ appointments frequently strike observers as rather theatrical (despite being political theatre), however, and this time is no exception.

Sunday’s announcement of new red hats drew cheers from many quarters, along with groans and shrugs from Rome to the peripheries – geographic and existential – for the names on the list and the names omitted (some d between them rather visibly).

The major archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, did not receive a red hat, for example. Catholics in war-torn Ukraine and Ukrainians in general may have appreciated such a gesture of solidarity in the face of the unprovoked invasion of Russia undertaken without any plausible case of war (and with a little nuclear terrorism as a measure). Pope Francis, however, is playing his own game with Russia these days and will not be distracted or deterred.

Pope Francis has seen fit to elevate a legionary curial official, Archbishop Fernando Vergez Alzaga, president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and president of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

The Legionaries of Christ are the religious congregation founded by notorious sociopath and inveterate evil, Marcial Maciel, who used priestly society as a front for his criminal exploits. Maciel also used the secular arm of the Legion – a group called Regnum Christi – as a cash cow to fund his debauchery.

It’s one thing to refrain from suppressing the Legion altogether, as Pope Francis did (and Benedict before him, though at least they didn’t protect and promote Maciel, as did the Pope Saint John Paul II, no doubt influenced by the late Cardinal Angelo Sodano, his former Secretary of State, who died last week at the age of 94). It’s another to raise people who relate to it, even if they’re lifers like Bishop Vergez.

Pope Francis appointed Vergez bishop in 2013, after more than four decades of curial service in various offices and departments. Then Francis appointed him archbishop and put him on the secret Vatican financial oversight board and installed him as chief administrator of the Vatican City government. The Presidency of the Commission for the Vatican City and of the Governorate is the cantonment of a cardinal (although the city had a layman for governor until the last century), only… why raise a man like Vergez to such heights? ?

It is wrong to attribute guilt by association, and wrong to destroy a man simply because he has an unhappy attachment. Yet to cautiously let a personally intact man serve out his time in lesser office is light years away from destroying his career or smearing his name.

If the personal is a policy – and it is – then victims of the Legion and of clerical sexual abuse in general may feel that Pope Francis’ policy is somewhere between “Nothing to see here” and “Get over it, already. It is an impression made all the more easily forgivable by Francis’s decision to create Bishop Lucas Van Looy, SDB (emeritus of Ghent in Belgium). Van Looy does not have what could accurately be described as a trouble-free record of abuse and concealment.

The big one for Catholics in the United States – whose name has drawn both cheers and mockery – is Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, a “Bishop Francis” very close (and very much in the shadows) of the Blase Cardinal Cupich of Chicago. Smart money wants Cupich had something to do with getting McElroy’s name on the list.

Church watchers and Vatican insiders already knew that Cardinal Cupich was powerful. If Cupich is intent on building and solidifying his power base, it looks like Pope Francis is ready to play with him and with McElroy. Neither Cupich nor McElroy are exactly popular among the brethren of the American episcopate, but popes don’t give out red hats based on their performance in popularity contests.

News of the impending creation of the Bishop of San Diego as Robert Walter Cardinal McElroy may well be a hard pill to swallow for the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, not least because San Diego is a suffragan seat of LA, where Gomez has been without a red hat since taking over from famed Roger Cardinal Mahony in 2011.

Gomez’s statement regarding the company was nonetheless cool and perfect in Church parlance.

“By appointing Bishop Robert McElroy Cardinal,” reads the USCCB President’s official statement, “Pope Francis has shown his pastoral concern for the Church in the United States.” It’s the kind of thing that supporters and critics alike can answer, “Indeed.”

Bishop Gomez said he “knew and had the privilege of working with Cardinal-designate McElroy for many years,” and that they had worked “as brother bishops” on several issues and initiatives in service of the Conference. of the Catholic Bishops of the United States, as well as the Catholic Conference of California.

“[Bishop McElroy’s] strong faith and the pastoral concern for the faithful that he demonstrated in his diocese will serve the global Church well,” Bishop Gomez also said.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco noted that Bishop McElroy “is a San Franciscan native” and sent “congratulations to Cardinal-elect McElroy.” Cordileone, you’ll recall, recently made headlines when he announced that staunchly pro-choice House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — whose constituency includes most of San Francisco — shouldn’t stand. present for Holy Communion within the Archdiocese, citing its position on Abortion.

The move itself was not a big surprise. If the timing was somewhat confusing, perhaps this Sunday’s announcement offers some clarity. Suffice it to say, McElroy takes a different view of the best pastoral approach to wayward and recalcitrant politicians when it comes to Holy Communion. Never mind. Different shots.

It used to be fun to tease the post of who had a red hat and who didn’t. These days, maybe not so much.

(RNS) – The US Catholic bishops are killing Catholic News Service, one of their most successful national programs. Founded in 1921, CNS is the AP for Catholic news, providing copies to Catholic publications across the country and around the world.

In a 2021 meeting with CNS reporters in Rome, Pope Francis told them that “over the past hundred years, Catholic News Service has made an invaluable contribution to the English-speaking world through its coverage of the mission of the Church to proclaim the Gospel and to bear witness to the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

CNS’s New York and DC offices will close by the end of the year. Its Rome office will continue, but who knows for how long. Stories from his Rome office will be made freely available to all U.S. dioceses.

Although part of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, CNS is staffed by professional reporters who report the news using the highest journalistic standards. It’s old-fashioned journalism that gives the news without opinion. If you want to know what is happening in the Catholic Church, you read CNS.

Over the years, to keep up with church news, I have always read stories written by Jerry Filteau, John Thavis, and other outstanding CNS reporters. The stories of its reporters were supplemented by articles by journalists from diocesan newspapers deemed to be of national interest.

The volume of its coverage is impressive. In the third week of May this year, he published about 75 stories, as well as Spanish translations of some plays.

You can still find coverage of bishop appointments and deaths, meetings and statements of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Church political activities on abortion, immigration, poverty, health care, racism and other public policies. It also covered the work of Catholic education, Catholic health care and Catholic charities. Catholic involvement in ecumenical and interreligious activities has also drawn attention, along with the words and actions of the Pope and the Vatican.

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As a scholar, I have found his archives extremely useful in writing my books on the American bishops and the Vatican. In the pre-internet days, I spent countless hours going through records to familiarize myself with the history of the institutions and people I studied.

News Service homepage on May 25, 2022. Screenshot” width=”800″ height=”450″ srcset=”https://religionnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/webRNS-CNS-Logo2.jpg 1600w, https://religionnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/webRNS-CNS-Logo2-427×240.jpg 427w, https://religionnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/webRNS-CNS-Logo2-807×454.jpg 807w, https://religionnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/webRNS-CNS-Logo2-768×432.jpg 768w, https://religionnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/webRNS-CNS-Logo2-1536×864.jpg 1536w, https://religionnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/webRNS-CNS-Logo2-624×351.jpg 624w, https://religionnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/webRNS-CNS-Logo2-300×169.jpg 300w, https://religionnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/webRNS-CNS-Logo2-600×338.jpg 600w” sizes=”(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px”/>

Catholic News Service homepage on May 25, 2022. Screenshot

With much of his archive online today, researching a subject or person is much easier. When a reporter asks to interview me about a bishop or topic, I often go to the CNS online archives and do a word search. By the time I’m interviewed, I’ve become an instant expert capable of impressing any reporter on a subject I knew little about hours earlier.

When the CNS closes, I hope these archives will be open to the public. Today, it is only open to subscribers.

The CNS has always had its detractors among the bishops. Some did not understand that good journalism required reporting bad news as well as good news about the church. These bishops did not like the CNS’s coverage of the sexual abuse crisis or disagreements in the church. They didn’t want to cover up theologians or other people who disagreed with the bishops or the pope.

These bishops wanted a propaganda agency, not a media. They put the CNS on the defensive by complaining about specific journalists and reports. They have lobbied for budget cuts, which has led to major layoffs in the past. This year’s decision is quite simply the deathblow for an institution that has been slowly bleeding itself.

In the past, the CNS received a large part of its funding from diocesan newspapers subscribing to its service. When these newspapers closed, the CNS lost this source of revenue and became more dependent on the USCCB. Many bishops are reluctant to fund a national program as they suffer from sexual abuse payments, COVID-19 and reduced income. Even moderate bishops without diocesan papers did not want to give their limited money to the CNS.

On the other hand, many conservative bishops love Mother Angelica’s media empire, which now includes EWTN, the National Catholic Register (not to be confused with the National Catholic Reporter), and the Catholic News Agency, or CNA. When cable companies offered free time on an ecumenical channel to bishops, they turned it down because they feared it would compete with EWTN.

Many bishops love EWTN more than their own child, CNS, even though EWTN commentators freely criticize bishops who don’t reflect their conservative views – and, of course, Pope Francis isn’t above criticism. .

A statue at the entrance to EWTN Studios in Irondale, Alabama on January 8, 2019. RNS Photo by Jack Jenkins

Many liberals classify media giant EWTN in the Fox News category of Catholicism, and it certainly has a conservative leaning.

In the past, Mother was uncritical in her coverage of the conservative views of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but ignored those popes when they pushed Catholic social teaching and social justice. Her comments often went beyond pious reflections to rants against what she disliked about liberals. Today, Raymond Arroyo, news director and anchor on EWTN, skips the piety and dives straight into Fox and Republican talking points on the culture wars.

CNA provides the most direct competition to CNS in news coverage. While diocesan newspapers and websites have to pay for CNS, CNA is free and has already replaced CNS in many Catholic publications and websites. When CNS dies, CNA will be the only Catholic news service available.

The quality of ANC varies. When he does direct news, it can be informative. I check CNA every day and find a story or two to read. When he posts comments, it’s one-sided conservatism.

Many Catholics don’t realize how much of their news about the church comes from the CNS. They don’t understand that much of the news they read in the National Catholic Reporter, Crux, America, their diocesan newspapers and other Catholic media comes from the CNS.

In the first three weeks of May, for example, the National Catholic Reporter published 44 articles on CNS, Crux published 33 articles and America published 17 articles. Additionally, CNS was the source of dozens of news photos used in Catholic publications.

While the bishops keep CNS reporters in Rome, that is not where the greatest need is. America, the National Catholic Reporter, Crux, La Croix International, The Tablet of London and other Catholic publications also have excellent reporters in Rome, as does Religion News Service. While I am glad the Rome bureau will continue, it is Catholic news coverage in the United States that will suffer the most from the CNS closure.

Catholic publications should hire additional journalists, which they cannot afford, to replace the articles they currently receive from the CNS. Could CNS subscribers pool their resources to hire two or three reporters to cover Catholic news? Are there any foundations and donors willing to fund this?

At RNS, we of course hope that the sad demise of CNS will encourage more Catholic publications to turn to RNS for their articles. Some Catholic publications, such as the National Catholic Reporter, Crux and America, already have subscriptions. But RNS covers news from all religious denominations and should considerably strengthen its Catholic coverage to replace CNS. Are there any foundations and donors willing to fund this?

RELATED: At USCCB meeting, US bishops ignore real issues while debating details

The disappearance of the CNS illustrates the more general problem of the Catholic Church operating at the national level through the episcopal conferences. The church has strong structures that can work at the parish, diocesan and Vatican level, but the national entities are weak because each bishop wants a veto over anything he doesn’t like and the Vatican fears that national entities strong do not challenge its authority.

The rise of the EWTN empire is also a challenge for Catholic progressives. Why are they unable to manage and finance an equivalent media empire?

May God bless all CNS journalists who over the years have dedicated their lives to the church. They did a wonderful job of which they can be proud. It’s sad to see them go.

A former Vatican ambassador to Turkey and Taiwan who grew up in Michigan and served in countries around the world will become the next assistant bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, Pope Francis announced Monday.

Beginning in July, Bishop Paul Fitzpatrick Russell will become one of five auxiliary bishops in the archdiocese, which includes more than one million Catholics in six southeast Michigan counties. There are two other retired auxiliary bishops.

Russell, 63, has served as a diplomat and helped represent the Catholic Church around the world, including in Turkey, Taiwan, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Switzerland, Nigeria and Turkmenistan, according to a biography from the archdiocese. of Detroit and previous media reports.

In 2008, Pope Benedict appointed Russell Chargé d’Affaires of the Apostolic Nunciature in Taiwan, meaning he was effectively the Vatican’s ambassador to the tiny Asian nation. The Vatican has no official relations with mainland China.

Russell served as ambassador to Taiwan for eight years, working to “help relations between the Holy See, Taiwan and the mainland,” he said in a 2016 article in the Boston Pilot, a Catholic newspaper.

In 2016, Pope Francis appointed Russell Apostolic Nuncio to Turkey and Turkmenistan. He received the title of archbishop the same year. In 2018, Pope Francis added Azerbaijan to the nations to which he served as ambassador.

“I am so happy with Pope Francis’ decision to send me home and look forward to serving as Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Detroit and immersing myself in the mission and ministry of the local church in the southeast Michigan,” Russell said Monday in a statement from the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron said Russell’s global experience will help enrich the local archdiocese.

“Having served the Church all over the world, Bishop Russell brings to the Archdiocese of Detroit a valuable perspective of the universal Church and our mission to make all nations joyful missionary disciples,” Vigneron said in a statement. .

Russell was born in Massachusetts. After his parents divorced, he moved with his mother to his hometown of Alpena, Michigan when he was in third grade, according to the Archdiocese of Detroit and the Boston Pilot.

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He attended St. Bernard Elementary School in Clairvaux and Alpena High School, then entered St. John’s Seminary in Boston and was ordained a priest in 1987. Russell served five years in parish ministry and one year in as personal secretary to Cardinal Archbishop Bernard. Straight.

After studying in Rome at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and at the Pontifical Gregorian University, he became a diplomat for the Catholic Church.

Russell’s tenure as ambassador to Turkey and Taiwan has come amid sometimes strained relations between the Vatican, Turkey and China.

China severed ties with the Vatican in 1951. Pope Benedict XVI visited Turkey in 2006 but was met with protests for comments he made earlier about Islam; while there he visited a mosque, only the second time in history that a pope has visited an Islamic place of worship, according to media reports.

Years before Russell became ambassador to Turkey in 2016, he worked in Turkey for the Vatican in the apostolic nunciature from 2000 to 2002. He was visiting the United States at the time of the September 11 attacks, the archdiocese said. from Detroit.

“I was there at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York,” he told the Boston Pilot. “The world completely changed at that time. We are seeing the fruits of that now.”

When he became ambassador, Turkey was facing an influx of refugees from Iraq and Syria.

“Turkey is geographically in a difficult place in the world,” he said in 2016. “The southern border is Syria, the so-called Islamic State, Iraq and Iran – it’s a neighborhood And yet, the presence of the Church in Turkey has been since the beginning of Christianity.Turkey is a land blessed by the presence of the Apostles and many great saints.

Russell said in the statement from the Archdiocese of Detroit that he first met Vigneron 30 years ago. In 2016, Vigneron was one of the co-consecrators when he became archbishop in a ceremony in Boston.

“Bishop Vigneron has shown me fraternal support on various occasions, and now his warm welcome to the Archdiocese is a particular source of gratitude,” Russell said.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: [email protected] or Twitter @nwarikoo

Marcel Ariston Blé – Abidjan) and Christian Kombe, SJ – Vatican City.

The plenary assembly of Ivorian bishops officially began on Tuesday, May 17 with a solemn mass in the parish of Saint Marcel d’Akouai Santai. It was preceded by an opening ceremony in the auditorium of the minor seminary of Bingerville. The Eucharist was presided over by Bishop Jean-Jacques Koffi Oi Koffi of the diocese of San Pedro-en-Côte d’Ivoire. He is also vice-president of the Conference. Various Catholic priests, religious and lay faithful attended the opening mass. Many have braved the traffic jams of Abidjan to commune and pray with their bishops.

Do not be afraid

The homilist, Bishop Alexis Touably Youlo of the Diocese of Agboville and Apostolic Administrator of Yamoussoukro, spoke about the complex social and economic challenges that the country and the African continent are going through. He encouraged those gathered not to lose hope.

“Do not be afraid,” Bishop Youlo said. He continues: “But then a question arises and imposes itself on us: how not to be afraid today when suffering becomes the daily lot of many? How not to be afraid when our Africa is in turmoil, the storm of repeated crises, interethnic conflicts, the storm of misery in all its forms? How not to be afraid when for many young people, the future seems uncertain? he wondered.

Bishop Youlo, the newly elected president of RECOWA (an association of West African bishops), nevertheless assured that even in the face of these worrying situations, Africans must keep in mind that “Christ is at our sides. The Lord helps us to face these trials,” reassured the prelate.

“It is this message of encouragement that we, your Bishops, united and gathered around our dean, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Kutwa, come to communicate to you this evening. And this is our ministry, our mission: to strengthen you in the faith,” Bishop Touabli Youlo said.

Bring the Good News to the world

The Apostolic Nuncio in Côte d’Ivoire, Archbishop Paolo Borgia, was delighted that the Episcopal Conference took place shortly after the visit of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See and after the episcopal ordination of Bishop Jean -Sylvain Mambe Emien. The latter is the first apostolic nuncio of Ivorian origin. He was assigned to Mali.

Bishop Borgia added that the ordination of Bishop Emien testified to the greater maturity of the Ivorian Church which “thus opens up to the universal Church in a unique mission to bring Christ to the world”, he said. declared.

This mission of evangelization must be the work of all the baptized, he further affirmed. Each must participate in this mission according to his own vocation. The Nuncio stressed that this must be done according to the gifts received from the Spirit.

Collegiality

The opening ceremony of the plenary assembly was also an opportunity for the Apostolic Nuncio in Côte d’Ivoire to emphasize the collegial dimension of the episcopal mission.

“Conferences are the place of cooperation between bishops for the common good of the Churches entrusted to them in the service of the mission,” the papal representative said.

During their meeting, the Bishops will hear the reports of the various apostolates and commissions in order to take resolutions for the revitalization of the institutions and the Church in Côte d’Ivoire.

“Wow. God is good,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano began his victory speech on the night of May 17. The crowd shouted back, “All the time.” “And all the time,” said the successful candidate. “God is good,” answered the crowd. Notice, I believe God is good all the time. But that’s not the usual way election candidates start big speeches.

Mastriano is not a usual candidate. He is a Christian nationalist. “Are there any freedom-loving Americans in the house here? He continued. “1 Corinthians 1:27 gives us all hope. ‘God uses fools to confound the wise and the weak so that they may be found strong.’ It’s his story. And he chooses people like you and me to change history. I always like to say that when we make his story our story, we can change history.

Considering America’s place in the world as providential is as American as apple pie. From John Winthrop’s “City on a Hill” sermon delivered to his fellow Puritans in 1630, through Manifest Destiny, the post-war struggle against “ungodly communism”, the idea that working for American greatness equaled somehow to achieve the Kingdom, is almost a commonplace. It is not for nothing that the Society of the Cincinnati commemorated the centenary of the final abandonment of isolationism by the United States and its entry into the First World War with an exhibition entitled “The Great Crusade: The First World War and the Legacy of the American Revolution”.

This providentialist story has always played a little too quickly and loosely with the facts. New England was populated by strict Calvinists in the 17th century, but most other colonies were more obviously commercial enterprises. The American foundation was led mainly by deists like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington or Unitarians like John Adams. The United States Constitution makes no mention of a deity, and the Bill of Rights specifically failed to privilege any particular type of religious expression or affiliation.

Abraham Lincoln was not only our greatest president, but also the outstanding American theologian of the 19th century. His second inaugural speech, delivered as the Civil War drew to a close, acknowledged a deity deeply committed, but whose only partisanship was in the name of justice and charity:

Both [North and South] read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes his help against the other. It may seem strange that a man dares to ask God for help just to wring his bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us not judge that we are not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered – that of neither was fully answered.

The Almighty has his own designs. “Woe to the world because of offenses because offenses must come, but woe to the man through whom the offense comes.” If we suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must necessarily occur, but which, having continued during its appointed time, he now wishes to suppress and which he gives to the north and in the south this terrible war like the misfortune due to those by whom the offense came, we will see there a derogation from those divine attributes that believers in a living God always attribute to him.

We sincerely hope — we fervently pray — that this mighty scourge of war can be quickly eradicated. Yet if God wills it to continue until all the wealth accumulated by the serf’s two hundred and fifty years of unrewarded toil is poured out and until every drop of blood drawn with the whip is paid for by another drawn with the sword as it was said three thousand years ago, it must still be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and absolutely just.”

These words convey a different sense of the relationship between divine will and national purpose than heard at Mastriano’s campaign headquarters the other night.

In 1980 Reverend Jerry Falwell published a book, Listen, America!, in which the political neophyte wrote, “Any diligent student of American history will discover that our great nation was founded by godly men on godly principles to be a Christian nation. That same year, however, an editorial in Falwell’s Moral Majority Report was titled “Moral Majority Opposes ‘Christian Republic'” because Jewish adherents to the newly formed group objected to the term.

Throughout his career, Falwell sometimes blurted out the phrase “Christian nation,” but he always apologized, even though his whole approach to politics was rooted in his particular brand of Christian identity.

Mastriano thinks America has gone through tough times because we have abandoned God’s ways. He opposes vaccination mandates and gay rights and anything transgender related, critical race theory, property taxes and any restrictions on gun ownership. As a state senator, he held a hearing after the 2020 election to examine false claims of voter fraud made by former President Donald Trump’s legal team and to discuss ways to overturn the election results. the victory of President Joe Biden. He was present during the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Trump made a controversial endorsement of Mastriano’s offer late in the race and it appears the endorsement was ratified, it did not create, the groundswell of support for Mastriano.

At a “Patriots Rise for God and Country” event in April, Mastriano told the rally, “We have the power of God with us. We have Jesus Christ whom we serve here. He guides and directs our not.” Mastriano’s language is steeped in religious idioms, just like mine, but he doesn’t care to confuse the city of God with the city of man. Mastriano refuses to recognize the label of Christian nationalism, but he is almost an archetype of the phenomenon. You half expect the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill to show up at one of his gatherings.

Pope John Paul II, on his first trip back to his native Poland as pontiff, explained the Polish nation’s complex relationship with Christ and his church. “It is therefore impossible without Christ to understand the history of the Polish nation — this great millennial community — which is so profoundly decisive for me and for each one of us,” he said during his sermon in Victory Square in Warsaw on June 2, 1979. “If we reject this key for understand our nation, we expose ourselves to substantial misunderstanding. We no longer understand each other. It is impossible without Christ to understand this nation with its past so full of splendor and also of terrible difficulties.”

It was in the sufferings of Poland that the pope founded this national hermeneutics. It was not the cheap “prosperity gospel” that, applied to politics, comes from the mouths of Mastriano and his ilk.

Christians are called to engage in the world, and to engage in it as Christians. But without the mediating influence of a teaching body like Catholic social teaching, or the Calvinist theology of Abraham Kuyper, or the distinctions drawn by Talmudic scholars, confusing God’s purposes with our own purposes is always a dangerous business.

This is why the Catholic bishops of Pennsylvania must speak out. Mastriano’s crude political theology has religious as well as political ramifications. If people think his version of Christianity is genuine, even more people will stray from the religion. Either way, bishops have a responsibility to teach their flock that Catholic theology does not traffic in the often hateful, sometimes crazy ideas that Mastriano says are part of its divinely inspired platform. Yes, God is good, and good all the time. These are the ends to which Christian nationalists put the eternal goodness of God which stinks of the sin of pride.

“What is ONE thing you would like to share with Pope Francis as he leads the Church?” That’s one of the key questions being asked in a new survey by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to gather information for Pope Francis’ synod on synodality.

The survey is for “all the baptized” and aims to reach practicing and non-practicing Catholics, said Amy Tadlock, a canon lawyer and chief organizational effectiveness officer for the archdiocese.

Pope Francis wants “all Catholics around the world to come together, listen to each other, listen to the Holy Spirit and give their input on how He should guide the global Church in the years to come. And every diocese is invited to participate,” said Tadlock, whom Bishop Bernard Hebda has assigned to oversee local efforts related to the Vaticanit is Synod on synodalityformally entitled “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission”.

The survey invites participants to share a written response to the “one thing” question, then select five areas “on which you think the Catholic Church should focus its greatest attention” from a list of 30 topics, including “pro-life efforts,” “climate change” and “role of women in the Church.”

The survey also asks for certain demographic information, but respondents remain anonymous.

In 2020, Pope Francis announced that the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops would focus on “synodality,” which the Synod’s website defines as “a style, a culture, a way of thinking and being, which reflects the truth that the Church is led by the Holy Spirit who enables everyone to offer their own contribution to the life of the Church. The bishops’ meeting is due to take place at the Vatican in October 2023.

Preparation for the Synod on Synodality is a two-year process that includes consultation with all the faithful, divided into four phases. The current phase includes the collection of information at the diocesan level.

The archdiocese’s investigation cites the preparatory document of the Vatican Synod, which states that “the purpose of the Synod…is not to produce documents, but “to sow dreams, to stir up prophecies and visions, to allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, heal wounds, build relationships together, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from each other and create brilliant ingenuity that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, will give strength to our hands.

The archdiocese will share the feedback gathered by the survey with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in late June.

The Vatican Synod’s emphasis on “a listening Church” is part of ongoing efforts in the Archdiocese through the Archdiocesan Synod process, which began in 2019. This process included 30 prayer and listening events and discussion groups in 2019-2020, through which Bishop Hebda identified three areas of intervention for the local Church.

Catholics in the Archdiocese provided input on these priority areas through parish consultations with small parish groups for six sessions in 2021 and parish synod leadership team meetings in February and March 2022. This work culminate in the Assembly of the Archdiocesan Synod in St. Paul on June 3. -5, followed by the discernment by Bishop Hebda of a pastoral letter, expected in November, and a subsequent plan of action.

“What we have done here for our own local synod process has already laid an incredible foundation for the Vatican synod process that Pope Francis has called for,” Tadlock said. “What we’re doing now with this investigation builds on that foundation.”

Tadlock said she hopes the survey will draw participation from a wide range of Catholics, including those who attend daily Mass to those who no longer identify with the faith, and everyone in between. the two.

The survey option allows the local church to hear from people “who haven’t been to church in years, maybe they haven’t been since they made their first Communion. Or maybe they were hurt by someone in the Church, or they left because of unfortunate circumstances or because of pain or even betrayal,” Tadlock said.

“(For) the people who have left, it’s still their chance to say…how they think the Church can be better. It is important that they know that they are still considered members of the Church and that we still want to hear from them,” she added. “We still care about them and we still care about what they think. And we can only be better when we hear from all members of the Christian faithful.

Keywords: Amy Tadlock, Listening Church, Synod Ordinary General Assembly, Choice, Pope Francis, Poll, Synod on Synodality, Synodal Church, Vatican Synod

Category: Local News

A longtime funeral director from Altoona has decided it’s time to retire.

Robert M. “Bob” Jones Jr., 79, owner and manager of Jones Funeral Home, 1222 13th Ave., will end his career on May 31.

“There are two reasons – it’s time and I have medical problems,” said Jones. “It’s time to stop.”

Jones took over the family business, founded in 1915 by his grandfather, Edgar W. Jones, in July 1965, after the sudden death of his father, Robert M. Jones Sr.

Jones admits he hadn’t planned on a career as a funeral director, but his father had other ideas.

“I wanted to do something with the exterior. I wanted to do something with animals,” said Jones. “My dad said, ‘I could have someone else run this, but I wish it was you,’ so I went to mortuary school.”

Jones got his license at age 21 and served as a funeral director for 17 years before “I decided that was what I wanted to do.” He has been a licensed funeral director for 57 years and in the business for approximately 65 years.

He took over the business at age 22 — he had only had his license for six months — when his father died. He admits to having faced challenges.

“Being a young age was the main challenge. When he died I was 22 and looked like I was 16. You wonder how much someone trusts a 22 year old », said Jones.

“Bernie Krise, who had worked for my father for about 15 years, if not for him, I would not have succeeded because of my youth”, said Jones. “He took good care of me; he had a good relationship with me.

Jones grew to love the business over the years and especially enjoyed helping people.

“I’ve enjoyed the people I serve the most. You think when they come in there’s going to be a lot of crying. It happens, but with the majority of people I deal with there’s more laughter than crying », said Jones.

He said he gets the most satisfaction when people tell him how good they made their loved one look.

“I once had an accident victim, the coroner said it couldn’t be fixed. His mother said, “You have given my son back to me. You can’t put a price on that.” said Jones, who estimates he’s done between 4,000 and 5,000 funerals over the years.

He said the biggest change over the years has been the increasing number of cremations.

“We are doing 50% now, about seven years ago the number was 30-35%,”said Jones.

The Jones family have been members of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament – located across the street from the funeral home – for over 90 years. The funeral home served the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown by arranging the funerals of six Catholic bishops.

“Our company did all six, my grandfather two, my father two and I did two. We are the only company in the region to have carried them out. … It’s one of the things we’re most proud of,” said Jones.

Jones is a familiar face in the diocese, spokesman Tony DeGol said.

“He is an usher and generously supports the parish by sponsoring the radio broadcast of Sunday Mass and parish calendars. We have worked closely with him over the years and appreciate his professionalism. He always does whatever is necessary to accommodate our unique needs and families wishes,” said DeGol. “Bob’s retirement marks the end of an era at Altoona. We are grateful for all he has done to serve the community and the Church, and we wish him many blessings in the next chapter of his life.

Jones said it takes special qualities to become a funeral director.

“You have to be a people person, you have to love people and take care of their needs at a difficult time in their lives. They call us undertakers, most people don’t know where to go or what to do. There are things to take care of, like war veterans benefits, social security – people don’t worry about those things until someone dies,” said Jones. “I know where to go and what to do. If I don’t know, I find out.

For those considering entering the profession, Jones said they should know that it is very difficult work.

“You give up a lot, but if you’re willing to do it and serve people, you’ll be fine. I gave up Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas dinners, kids’ events. You work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. I answer the phone in the middle of the night. People are surprised to hear my voice. People want to talk to me and not an answering machine”, said Jones.

Jones is believed to be the oldest active funeral director in the area.

“Bob is just a gentleman. He’s been a mentor of mine, a great guy, very dedicated, hardworking and a great family man,” said longtime friend Jeff Somers, owner/supervisor of Myers-Somers Funeral Home, Altoona.”We’ve all shared ideas over the years, and Bob has been a role model for many of us.

Jones is highly respected by others in the profession.

“My wife and I traveled with him and Jean to national funeral conventions. It was nice to travel with him. We had a long-standing relationship. He was an effective leader and advocate for the funeral profession,” said Dave Mason, vice president of Stevens Mortuary and supervisor of Plank, Stitt and Stevens Funeral Home in Hollidaysburg.

“He was always super nice, a great guy. He was very welcoming and always accepting, there weren’t many women in the business when I met him about eight years ago,” said Kelly Burket, president of the Keystone Funeral Directors Association and funeral director at Mauk and Yates Funeral Home, Altoona.

Jon C. “Jack” Russin is another longtime friend and hunting partner from years past.

“Bob was a true professional who served his family with great dignity and compassion. He was an excellent mentor to young adults pursuing careers in the funeral industry. Bob truly cared about the families he had the privilege to serve, said Russin, supervisor/funeral director at Jon C. Russin Funeral Home, Bellwood.

Jones has plans for her retirement, including attending some upcoming family weddings.

“I want to go back to fishing on the Juniata River. We are going from Mifflintown to Mexico. We fish for smallmouth bass. I fish everything I can catch, carp, catfish. I just like to fish. I will also be hunting with my daughter Nicole (Kimmel) and working around the house,” said Jones.

Jones said he was unsure about the future of the family business.

“We have two entities that are interested. I hope it will remain a funeral home,” said Jones. “I want it to stay like this, it would be hard to get out of the church to see anything else.”

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.

The Jones File

Name: Robert M. Jones Jr.

Age: 79

Position: Retiring as Owner/Director of Jones Funeral Home

Education: 1960 graduated from Altoona Catholic High School, 1963 graduated from Cincinnati School of Mortuary Science, 1965 graduated from Saint Francis College with a business degree

Family: Wife, Jean; daughters, Ann, Pam, Nicole and Renee; and 10 grandchildren

Estimate: “My key to success is to be there and do what I’m supposed to do. When someone says, ‘You have to do this’, I do it. I do what is necessary for the family at that moment. .

NEW YORK — Top leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called on the faithful to pray and fast Friday, hoping the Supreme Court is on track to strike down the constitutional right to abortion. Yet even among Catholics who oppose abortion, there is some unease about the consequences of such a decision.

A recently leaked Supreme Court draft opinion suggests a majority of all nine justices are set to overturn Roe v. Wade of 1973 – a decision that would allow every state to ban abortion.

Some anti-abortion Catholics say such a result would be the answer to their prayers. Others warn that Catholic leaders should distance themselves from the politically partisan wing of the anti-abortion movement and broaden their concept of “pro-life” by supporting general policies that put in place safety nets for single mothers and low-income families.

Madison Chastain, a Catholic blogger and disability advocate, describes herself as anti-abortion, but opposes Roe’s cancellation and the criminalization of abortions.

Factors that cause abortion, she wrote in the National Catholic Reporter, include lack of comprehensive sex education, inadequate health care and workplace inequities.

“Making abortion illegal before tackling these injustices will kill women, because women will continue to have abortions, in secret and in unsafe conditions,” she wrote.

Sam Sawyer, a journalist and Jesuit priest, says he is a “devoted pro-life advocate” who favors Roe’s overthrow. Yet he responded to the leak with an essay listing why abortion-rights supporters are so alarmed by the prospect.

“The pro-life movement and its political alliances are seen as a threat not only to abortion itself, but also to democratic norms, judicial commitments to civil rights, and health and economic security. women,” Sawyer wrote in America, the Jesuit magazine. of which he is editor-in-chief.

Republican politicians, backed by anti-abortion leaders, “have used the lives of unborn children as moral cover to ignore other calls for justice,” Sawyer wrote. “Political allies of the pro-life movement gutted social safety net programs that would make it easier for women to carry their pregnancies to term.

The call for a day of fasting and prayer came from Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the Pro-Life Activities Committee of the USCCB.

They asked for prayers for the overthrow of Roe and for “the conversion of the hearts and minds of those advocating for abortion.”

The archbishops echoed calls from other Catholic leaders who, after the Supreme Court leak, suggested that a reversal of Roe should be coupled with increased awareness and support for pregnant women and new mothers.

Lori pointed to a USCCB program called Walking With Moms in Need, saying the church should redouble its efforts “to accompany women and couples facing unexpected or difficult pregnancies, and during the early years of parenthood. “.

The episcopal conference has designated the “threat of abortion” as its top priority — a view that many lay Catholics do not share. According to Pew Research Center polls, 56% of American Catholics say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Catholic University of America, joins demonstrators to protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, May 3, 2022 in Washington. "Our campus claims to be 100% pro-life and despite supporters saying that, we’ve come out to show that’s not true," Flores said. ” class=”lazy” src=”data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 6000 4000"/%3E” style=”object-position:50% 50%;transition:opacity 0.5s ease 0.5s;opacity:0″ title=”Fiorella Flores, center, a student at the Catholic University of America, joins demonstrators to protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, May 3, 2022 in Washington. "Our campus claims to be 100% pro-life and despite supporters saying that, we’ve come out to show that’s not true," Flores said. ” itemprop=”image” width=”6000″ height=”auto”/>

Professor O. Carter Snead, who teaches law and political science at the University of Notre Dame, said by email that most Catholics engaged in anti-abortion activism “are not political supporters tough guys, but more like people looking to take care of mothers and babies by any means available.”

As an example, Snead cited the Nicola de Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture – which he directs – and one of its initiatives, titled “Women and Children First: Imagining a World post-Roe”. Through teaching, research and public engagement, the initiative aims to strengthen support for “women, children (born and unborn) and families in need”.

However, achieving broad bipartisan collaboration on such initiatives may not be happening anytime soon, Snead acknowledged.

“It is true, unfortunately, that the only political party that has been willing to join together to provide legal protection for unborn children is the Republicans,” he said.

Chad Pecknold, professor of theology at the Catholic University of America, also doubted there could be a post-Roe push for bipartisanship on abortion.

“As long as Democrats insist on abortion during nine months of pregnancy, and as long as Republicans recognize that abortion violates the 14th Amendment, it will remain a partisan issue,” he said. declared by e-mail.

“But the focus of the pro-life movement has never been partisan,” Pecknold added. “The goal is justice for the unborn who have the right to live, to be loved, to be raised in a family.”

Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas – a vocal critic of Catholic politicians who support abortion rights – said abortion opponents “must continue to provide support and care for mothers who find themselves in difficult situations”.

“I pray that we can move to a place where both mother and child are held sacred and where society supports both lives in any way possible,” he said via email.

David Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture, questioned the significance of recent promises by Catholic bishops and other anti-abortion leaders to boost support for single mothers.

“Can this movement that is so tied to the Republican Party and the Conservative movement suddenly pivot to mobilizing its people for socially liberal policies?” Gibson asked, referring to programs like subsidized child care and paid maternity leave.

Steven Millies, professor of public theology at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, says the bishops bear partial responsibility for the entrenched polarization over abortion, which he expects to continue even if Roe is overthrown.

“It is unrealistic to hope that divisive habits will be abandoned,” Millies said, suggesting the bishops could have done more to reduce abortions over the years by pushing for stronger, better-funded social programs.

Rebecca Bratten Weiss, writer and digital editor at Catholic American Magazine, said she no longer calls herself “pro-life” – although she has been active in the movement for many years and believes that any life deserves to be protected.

“The people working to overthrow Roe have made it clear that they have no interest in expanding the safety nets,” she said. “Either they haven’t thought about the consequences, or they’re okay with the consequences — higher infant mortality, more women seeking unsafe abortions, more families pushed into desperate measures.”

Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest who writes for Religion News Service, suggested in a column that Roe’s overthrow should be an occasion for reassessment by the many bishops who have embraced the Republican Party because of its anti-abortion stance.

“Catholic bishops will celebrate this victory they have worked for decades, but ironically it should lead to a divorce between bishops and Republicans,” Reese wrote. “The GOP has nothing else to offer them. In fact, with the exception of abortion, his proposals are the opposite of Catholic social teaching.

Assuming Roe is overthrown, Reese added, “bishops can declare victory on abortion and focus on social programs…that help women have and raise children so they are not forced to abort.”

Still, Reese doubts that will happen.

“I guess they will keep fighting until there is consensus in America on abortion,” he wrote. “That will mean sticking with the Republicans and sacrificing all of their other priorities.”

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer.

Associated Press religious coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A bill slated for debate Thursday at the Louisiana House would make women who have abortions subject to criminal prosecution and jail time — a stance that has drawn opposition from the anti-abortion governor of the state. Louisiana and groups such as Louisiana Right to Life and the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Republican Rep. Danny McCormick is pushing the bill despite a crescendo of opposition from traditional proponents of abortion rights allies, for now, with some opponents of legal abortion.

“To suggest that a woman would be jailed for an abortion is just plain nonsense,” Governor John Bel Edwards, a devout Catholic and Democrat who has long split with his party on the abortion issue, said Wednesday.

“Our long-standing policy is that women vulnerable to abortion should not be treated like criminals,” Louisiana Right to Life said in a statement.

McCormick disagrees, saying a woman who has an abortion should be in the same legal position as a woman who takes the life of a child after birth. “When I give equal protection to the unborn child, that is the possibility,” he said in a telephone interview Wednesday evening.

McCormick’s bill has come under scrutiny in light of the leak last week of a draft opinion from the United States Supreme Court indicating that the High Court is preparing to strike down decisions confirming a constitutional right to abortion. But it was introduced in March, on the legal theory that it could end abortion regardless of what any court does.

In addition to rewriting homicide laws to include abortion, it states that any federal law, regulation, or court order permitting abortion is void, and that any judge who blocks enforcement of the bill’s provisions could be dismissed.

Members of the committee that introduced the bill last week expressed doubts about its constitutionality. Edwards called it “patently unconstitutional” on Wednesday.

Edwards joined in critics of the bill, saying it criminalizes certain types of contraception and parts of the in vitro fertilization process. McCormick said Thursday that forms of birth control that don’t destroy a fertilized egg aren’t affected by the law. And he disputes the claim by Edwards and others that the bill would criminalize certain aspects of in vitro fertilization, pointing to state law that already grants rights to “and the in vitro fertilized human egg.” vitro”.

Anti-abortion legislation usually passes easily through the Louisiana Legislature, but outright opposition to the bill from some anti-abortion stalwarts could bolster attempts to derail the measure or heavily change it.

Louisiana already has laws in place criminalizing abortion, including a ‘trigger law’ guaranteeing it will be a crime if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision establishing the right to abortion . The statutes appear to exempt women from prosecution, although some abortion rights advocates have suggested they need to be tightened.

McCormick said existing laws are insufficient to give fetuses equal protection under the law. “It’s a debate we need to have in Louisiana,” he said. “There are good people on both sides of the debate.”

Redeemer Health, a Catholic nonprofit in Montgomery County that has reported five straight years of operating losses, wants to form what it calls a “strategic partnership” for its Meadowbrook Hospital and medical practices, according to a letter sent Monday to the Redeemer community. .

It’s unclear what Redeemer means by pursuing a strategic partnership – which comes a decade after a proposed merger with Abington Health was scrapped amid controversy over plans to stop abortions at Abington.

“We do not plan to sell the hospital, but rather to partner with other healthcare providers who share our commitment to serving our current and future communities, including efforts to address inequalities and disparities. health,” Redeemer chief executive Mike Laign said in the letter.

Sometimes health systems talk about “strategic partnerships” and mean little more than cooperation in selected service lines, experts say. Redeemer already has such a partnership with Cooper’s MD Anderson Cancer Center in Camden for an integrated cancer treatment program. But it could be that Redeemer is looking for a stronger alliance to help it overcome the financial challenges it has had as a small independent system.

The long-running coronavirus pandemic has made it difficult for even financially strong systems to break even due to service disruptions as patients have stayed home for fear of contracting the virus. Labor costs also skyrocketed because many nurses and other workers quit their jobs.

Redeemer did not immediately provide additional information.

Redeemer’s announcement, which is not in financial difficulty, adds to the flux in the Philadelphia-area hospital industry. Tower Health is trying to sell Chestnut Hill Hospital and the already closed Brandywine and Jennersville hospitals in western Chester County. He also wants to reduce his role at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, which he owns 50-50 with Drexel University.

ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest health care system, announced in February that it had entered into a preliminary agreement to acquire Crozer Health of Delaware County, which is owned by a California-based for-profit company, Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. It does not It’s unclear whether ChristianaCare and Crozer are on track for a final agreement by next month, as originally planned.

Meanwhile, Prospect continues to eliminate services at Crozer hospitals. The intensive care unit at Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill is closing later this month. In June, Crozer will end outpatient mental health and addiction treatment services at the former Chester Community Hospital campus, as well as the addictions inpatient unit at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland.

READ MORE: VA plans to close its hospitals in Coatesville and University City as part of massive restructuring

Redeemer said his search for a partnership was only for the 239-bed Holy Redeemer Hospital and Holy Redeemer Medical and Ambulatory Services. The hospital and medical practices accounted for $354 million of Redeemer’s $445 million in total revenue in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, according to its latest audited financial statements. Together, these two units recorded operating losses of $14 million.

The Redeemer organization also owns retirement communities, nursing homes, hospice services, a home care and hospice provider, low income housing for the elderly and disabled, an organization visiting nurses and related businesses.

Catholic healthcare systems are required to follow ethical and religious guidelines established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The 49 guidelines include bans on abortions and direct sterilization, for example.

“It would be the wrong Sunday for anyone to mess around here,” George said.

George noted in his sermon the outcry over the draft high court opinion. The judges appear poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and end the nation’s right to legal abortion.

“It would be easy to jump on the wrong side of the fence of this issue and go with the flow. … But as followers of Jesus Christ, this is not an option or a choice that God gives us. If we believe in him, we believe in what he says about life in the womb,” George said to applause.

Legend

At First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Reverend Anthony George mentioned the issue of abortion in the news in his Mother’s Day sermon on Sunday, May 8, 2022. “It would be easy to jump on the wrong side of the fence of this question and go with the flow. … But as followers of Jesus Christ, this is not an option or a choice that God gives us. If we believe in him, we believe in what he says about life in the womb,” George said to applause. (Photo from Church livestream)

Credit: First Baptist Church of Atlanta

Credit: First Baptist Church of Atlanta

Legend

At First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Reverend Anthony George mentioned the issue of abortion in the news in his Mother’s Day sermon on Sunday, May 8, 2022. “It would be easy to jump on the wrong side of the fence of this question and go with the flow. … But as followers of Jesus Christ, this is not an option or a choice that God gives us. If we believe in him, we believe in what he says about life in the womb,” George said to applause. (Photo from Church livestream)

Credit: First Baptist Church of Atlanta

Credit: First Baptist Church of Atlanta

At the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, one of the largest predominantly black churches in the state, senior pastor Rev. Jamal Bryant said the draft notice is evidence that the Supreme Court of United States “has no faith in women making decisions about their own bodies.” .”

Bryant read part of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s comments that when the government controls the decision on abortion, women are “treated as less than a full adult.”

“If America is anything other than racist, it’s sexist,” Bryant said during his sermon. “It is diabolically designed to keep women out of power and in a place of subjugation.”

Legend

At the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia on Sunday, May 8, 2022, Senior Pastor Reverend Jamal Bryant said the draft abortion notice leaked last week is proof that the Supreme Court of United States “has no confidence in women making decisions about their own bodies.” (Photo from Church livestream)

Credit: New Birth Missionary Baptist Church

Credit: New Birth Missionary Baptist Church

Legend

At the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia on Sunday, May 8, 2022, Senior Pastor Reverend Jamal Bryant said the draft abortion notice leaked last week is proof that the Supreme Court of United States “has no confidence in women making decisions about their own bodies.” (Photo from Church livestream)

Credit: New Birth Missionary Baptist Church

Credit: New Birth Missionary Baptist Church

Sunday sermons in metro Atlanta reflect the ongoing debate among the American faithful – some with cautious joy and others with impending dread – as a reversal of the 49-year-old’s decision has never been more possible. .

National polls show that most Americans support access to abortion. A Public Religion Research Institute survey from March found that a majority of religious groups think it should be legal in most cases – except for white evangelical Protestants, 69% of whom said the procedure should be banned in most or all cases.

Religious groups that have historically taken a strong anti-abortion stance, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, have urged worshipers to pray for Roe’s overthrow.

Bishop Garland Hunt of the Father’s House in Peachtree Corners used the holiday to note that children are “blessed and ordained in the womb.”

Referring to the High Court leak, he said “God is the giver of life. God created life. “

Life, he said, begins at conception and that a woman’s body should not be “a killing zone”.

“In fact, life was already ordered before the foundations of the earth. If you really want to know, you’ve already been called before conception. Design only catches up with what God has already ordained.

No faith is monolithic on the issue of abortion. Yet many adherents of religions that do not ban abortion are dismayed that a view held by a minority of Americans could supersede their individual rights and religious beliefs.

In Judaism, for example, many authorities say that abortion is permitted or even required in cases where the woman’s life is in danger.

“This decision would prohibit abortion where our religion allows us to do so,” said Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, Scholar-in-Residence at the National Council of Jewish Women, “and it bases its concepts on when life begins on the someone else’s philosophy or theology.”

In Islam, similarly, there is room for “all aspects of reproductive choice, from family planning to abortion,” said Nadiah Mohajir, co-founder of Heart Women and Girls, a Chicago-based nonprofit that works with Muslim communities on reproductive rights and other gender issues. .

According to new data released Wednesday by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, 56% of American Muslims say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, a figure that roughly matches the beliefs of American Catholics. .

“I personally think abortion is the greatest failure of our church, of our Christian way of life,” Deacon Chester Griffin said during services at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Atlanta on Sunday. Mothers Day. “We are now in a situation where people are basically saying if you have an abortion you should go to jail. Now, I don’t know how it’s going to be, but I think as a Good Shepherd, our Jesus wouldn’t want that. Our Jesus would like to have compassion.

Griffin said he believes that over the next few months and years, women will change the world.

“I think there will be enough women saying enough. Stop this madness and start living like human beings and those of us in the church will say ‘start living like Jesus.’”

Compassion is a virtue emphasized by some Christian leaders who are calling on their staunchly anti-abortion colleagues to turn down the heat as they speak out on the issue.

Caitlyn Stenerson, pastor of the Evangelical Alliance Church and campus minister in the Twin Cities Area of ​​Minnesota, called on church leaders to “be careful,” keeping in mind that women on their pews may have had abortions for various reasons and may be grieving and struggling. with trauma.

“As a pastor, my job is not to heap more shame on people but to bring them to Jesus,” Stenerson said. “We are called to speak the truth, but with love.”

PHOTO ABOVE: This 1898 photo provided by the Sisters of the Holy Family (SSF) shows members of the religious order of African American Nuns in New Orleans. One of the oldest black brotherhoods, the SSF, formed in New Orleans in 1842 because white Louisiana brotherhoods, including the slave-holding Ursuline order, refused to accept African Americans. (SSF via AP)

By David Crary

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Even as a young adult, Shannen Dee Williams – who grew up black and Catholic in Memphis, Tennessee – knew only one black nun, and a fake one at that: Sister Mary Clarence, played by Whoopi Goldberg in the comedy movie ” Sister Law.”

After 14 years of research, Williams — a history professor at the University of Dayton — arguably knows more about black American nuns than anyone in the world. His full and compelling story, “Subversive Habits,” will be released on May 17.

Williams found that many black nuns were modest about their accomplishments and reluctant to share details of bad experiences, such as racism and discrimination. Some acknowledged harrowing events only after Williams confronted them with details gleaned from other sources.

“For me, it was about acknowledging the ways in which trauma silences people in ways they may not even be aware of,” she said.

The story is told chronologically, but always within the context of a theme that Williams outlines in her preface: that the nearly 200-year history of these nuns in the United States has been ignored or willfully suppressed by those who wanted or disrespected them.

“For too long, scholars of the American, Catholic, and Black past have unknowingly or consciously declared—by virtue of misrepresentation, marginalization, and outright erasure—that the history of Black Catholic nuns has no meaning. importance,” she wrote, describing it. book as proof that their story “always mattered”.

Williams begins her story in the pre-Civil War era when some black women, even in slave states, made their way into Catholic sisterhood. Some entered orders previously reserved for whites, often in menial roles, while a few pioneering women formed orders for black nuns in Baltimore and New Orleans.

Even as the number of American nuns — of all races — relentlessly dwindles, this Baltimore order founded in 1829 remains intact, continuing its mission to educate young black people. Some current members of the Oblate Sisters of Providence help run Saint Frances Academy, a high school serving low-income black neighborhoods.

Some of the most detailed passages in “Subversive Habits” recount the Jim Crow era, which spans from the 1870s to the 1950s, when black nuns were not spared the segregation and discrimination endured by many other Africans. -Americans.

In the 1960s, Williams writes, black nuns were often discouraged or prevented by their white superiors from engaging in civil rights struggles.

Yet one of them, Sister Mary Antona Ebo, was at the forefront of marchers who gathered in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 to support black suffrage and protest Bloody Sunday violence when white state troopers brutally dispersed peaceful black protesters. . An Associated Press photo of Ebo and other nuns during the march on March 10 – three days after Bloody Sunday – made headlines in many newspapers.

More than two decades before Selma, Ebo faced repeated struggles to overcome racial barriers. She was denied admission to Catholic nursing schools because of her race and later endured segregation policies in the white-led order she joined in St. Louis in 1946, according to Williams.

The idea for “Subversive Habits” took shape in 2007, when Williams – then a graduate student at Rutgers University – was looking for a compelling topic for a paper to be presented at a seminar on African-American history.

At the library, she rummaged through microfilm editions of black-owned newspapers and came across a 1968 article in the Pittsburgh Courier about a group of Catholic nuns forming the National Conference of Black Sisters.

The accompanying photo, of four smiling black nuns, “literally stopped me in my tracks,” she said. “I was raised Catholic… How did I not know black nuns existed?”

Fascinated by her discovery, she began to devour “everything I could that had been published on Catholic black history,” while undertaking to interview the founding members of the National Black Sisters’ Conference. As her research expanded, she scoured neglected archives, previously sealed church records and out-of-print books, while conducting more than 100 interviews.

“I have witnessed a deeply unknown story that disrupts and revises much of what has been said and written about the American Catholic Church and the place of black people within it,” Williams writes. “Because it is impossible to tell the journey of black sisters in the United States – accurately and honestly – without confronting the largely unacknowledged and unreconciled histories of colonialism, slavery and segregation.”

Historians have been unable to identify the nation’s first black Catholic nun, but Williams recounts some of the earliest moves to bring black women into Catholic religious orders.

One of the oldest black brotherhoods, the Sisters of the Holy Family, formed in New Orleans in 1842 because white Louisiana brotherhoods, including the slave-holding Ursuline order, refused to accept Afro -Americans.

The principal founder of this New Orleans order – Henriette Delille – and the founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, Mary Lange, are among the three black nuns in the United States designated by Catholic authorities as worthy of consideration for holiness. . The other is Sister Thea Bowman, a beloved educator, evangelist and singer who died in Mississippi in 1990 and is buried in Williams’ hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, there are about 400 African-American nuns, out of a total of about 40,000 nuns.

This overall figure represents only a quarter of the 160,000 nuns in 1970, according to Catholic researchers at Georgetown University. Regardless of race, most of the remaining nuns are elderly, and the influx of young novices is rare.

Williams told the AP that she considered leaving the Catholic Church — in part because of her handling of racial issues — as she began researching black nuns. Hearing their stories revitalized her faith.

“As these women were telling me their stories, they were also preaching to me in such a beautiful way,” Williams said. “It was not done in a way that reflected any anger – they had already made peace with it; despite the ungodly discrimination they had faced.

What keeps her in the church now, Williams said, is a commitment to those women who have chosen to share their stories.

“It took a lot for them to get it out,” she said. “I remain in awe of these women, of their loyalty.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops announced to staff on May 4 a sweeping reorganization of its communications department, including the closure of the Washington and New York offices of the Catholic News Service.

In meetings with newsroom staff, James Rogers, the conference’s director of communications, said the Washington office would be closed at the end of the year.

The Rome office of the Catholic News Service will remain open and will continue to report on the Vatican and related international events.

A statement released by the Bishops’ Public Affairs Office said, “Over the coming months, the USCCB Communications Department will undertake a significant realignment to better utilize the resources entrusted to the Conference by the faithful in a way that matches today’s communications environment.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops announced to staff May 4 a sweeping reorganization of its communications department, including the closure of the Washington and New York offices of the Catholic News Service.

“Unfortunately this will impact a number of staff. We are grateful for the time and dedication of the committed team of Conference communicators who serve the Church; job transitions can be difficult, and as this is a personnel matter, no additional details will be discussed at this time.

The statement continued, “Catholic News Service offices in New York and Washington will be closed at the end of the year, as will the USCCB Publishing Office. These changes, while painful, will give the remaining functions – including the Rome Office of the Catholic Press Service and the Office of Public Affairs – a more durable basis on which to do their work.

Effective January 1, 2023, Catholic News Service will stop charging customers for its coverage. It will make its Rome coverage available to all U.S. dioceses for free beginning in 2023.

Greg Erlandson, director and editor of the Catholic News Service, said he was “deeply saddened by this decision”.

Greg Erlandson, director and editor of the Catholic News Service, said he was “deeply saddened by this decision”.

“For more than a century, Catholic News Service has served the local, national and international Catholic press. I am proud of the professionalism of our team of writers, reporters and photographers and all that they have accomplished.

Staff reductions will also take place in public affairs, creative services, and marketing and episcopal resources.

A total of 21 employees will be made redundant.

Catholic New Service was founded in 1920. In a meeting with Rome office staff in 2021, Pope Francis told them that “over the past hundred years Catholic News Service has made an invaluable contribution to the English-speaking world through its coverage of the church. mission to announce the Gospel and to bear witness to the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

The news service currently serves a majority of US dioceses as well as national and international media operations.

USCCB Publishing, which owns the rights to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the American Catechism for Adults, and many other books, will cease publishing at the end of 2022.

FALL RIVER – This year’s Ash Wednesday fell in early March less than a week after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and as the harrowing plight of the Ukrainian people became evident.

In order for Catholics in the region to respond, Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, SDV, authorized the Ash Wednesday collection to be designated “to aid the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.” To date, this collection has raised a total of $256,021 from parishes in the Diocese of Fall River and additional returns are still being received.

“Once again, the faithful women and men of the Diocese of Fall River have shown their characteristic generosity in responding to the suffering of others,” Bishop da Cunha said.

“I think we were all moved with both prayer and a desire to do something after learning and seeing through the news the total destruction in Ukraine, the indiscriminate loss of life, the separation and displacement of families, and unimaginable suffering”.

The Diocese of Fall River forwards the proceeds of the collection to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, which, through its longstanding relationship with the bishops of Europe Central and Eastern, is able to help the Church in this region in its response and outreach to those affected and displaced by the violence.

Officials with the Diocese of Fall River’s finance office said many parishes reported continuing to receive contributions to the collection for Ukraine well after Ash Wednesday through the rest of March and into April. In fact, some parishes were still handing in Ukrainian collection returns last week.

Father Jeffrey Cabral, who is a pastor at Santo Christo Parish in Fall River, said he accepted donations in the weeks after Ash Wednesday.

“Through Facebook posts, parish announcements, homilies and intentions during Mass, and of course the TV news, parishioners have become profoundly more aware of the desperate need of Ukrainian refugees, just like the Holy Family who had to flee in Egypt”. he said.

Sharing that the response to the Santo Christo Ukrainian collection has far exceeded that of other special collections, Fr. Cabral said he was “truly humbled by the great generosity of his parishioners.”

In Falmouth, St. Joseph Parish, Guardian of the Holy Family, has decided to augment the Ash Wednesday collection with proceeds from a take-out chowder lunch and a special Maundy Thursday collection, both specifically for Knights of Columbus relief efforts in Poland and Ukraine.

St. Joseph’s pastor, Bishop Stephen J. Avila, explained, “Seeing families displaced, living in fear, losing homes and family members has touched many of our hearts and souls.

Most dioceses in the United States hold the annual National Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe to help support the overall rebuilding of the Church in that region since the collapse of communism. In the Diocese of Fall River, this collection is historically resumed on Good Friday. This year, however, in response to the emergency in Ukraine and the focus of the collection on assistance there, Bishop da Cunha moved it to Ash Wednesday.

The website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) explains that the collection is an opportunity for Catholics in the United States to show their solidarity with their sisters and brothers in Ukraine.

In a Feb. 28 letter to his fellow bishops, the USCCB chair of the Subcommittee on the Church in Central and Eastern Europe wrote that fundraising contributions “will continue to provide emergency funds that are already helping the victims of this war with food and water”. , hygiene supplies, support and other necessary humanitarian services.