Posted on 04/26/2024 21:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, chapel and statue. / Credit: Joseph Antoniello, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).
Franciscan University of Steubenville will continue to separate its housing, restrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams on the basis of biological sex — rather than self-asserted “gender identity” — despite recent federal changes to Title IX guidelines.
The announcement comes after President Joe Biden’s Department of Education issued a new interpretation of Title IX, which states that all prohibitions on sex discrimination will now apply to discrimination based on a person’s self-asserted “gender identity.”
Religious schools, such as the Catholic Franciscan University, are exempt from Title IX provisions that violate their faith.
Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, the president of Franciscan University, sent a letter to students that stated that the new interpretation of Title IX does not apply to the university because it is inconsistent with the Catholic Church’s teaching on sex. The university president referenced Franciscan’s compendium on human sexuality, which states that a person’s “sexual identity” is based on his or her biology.
“We believe in the inherent dignity of every human person,” Pivonka wrote in the email. “And as a passionately Catholic institution, we believe in and follow the teachings of the Catholic Church that consider ‘sex’ to refer to the objective reality of a human person as a man (male) or as a woman (female), grounded in and determined by a person’s biology.”
Per the university’s policy, neither employees nor students will be forced to refer to a person with pronouns that are inconsistent with the person’s biological sex. They will also not face any discipline for “holding views and beliefs” consistent with the university’s position on human sexuality, which is based on Catholic teaching.
In his letter, Pivonka noted that there is a difference between “behaviors that may be judged by our current cultural norms to be discriminatory,” such as explaining the Catholic teaching on sexuality, and “behaviors that, in fact, violate the dignity of a person,” such as harassment or violence.
“Violations of the dignity of a person will not be tolerated on this campus,” he said. “Presenting authentic Catholic teachings, which convey truth, beauty, liberty, and healing, uplift the human person in every respect. Teaching what the Church teaches is an act of charity and our duty as a Catholic university.”
The Biden administration implemented the new regulations late last week. According to the executive summary, the changes are meant to “clarify that sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
The new interpretation of Title IX has already created tension with states that have passed laws restricting women’s and girls’ athletic competitions and other private spaces to only biological women and girls. Public officials in at least two states, Oklahoma and Florida, have already said they would not comply with the new rules.
Posted on 04/26/2024 20:45 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
null / Credit: KieferPix/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).
Provisional data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week showed that the fertility rate in the United States hit a record low and the total number of births in the country was the lowest it’s been in decades.
According to the report, slightly fewer than 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, or 54.4 births per 1,000 women aged 15 through 44. This was a 2% decline in total births and a 3% decline in births per 1,000 women when compared with the previous year.
The total fertility rate, which estimates how many children an average woman would have over the course of her life based on the yearly data, was just over 1.6 births per woman, which was a 2% decline from the previous year. This is well below the replacement rate needed to sustain a population, which is about 2.1 births per woman over her life.
This was the fewest number of babies born in the United States in a year since 1979 and the lowest fertility rate recorded in American history — just under the previous record lows set in 2020.
The 2023 decline reverses a minor fertility rate bump for the calendar years of 2021 and 2022, which was the first increase since 2014. The 2023 numbers continue a wider trend in fertility declines since the 1960s when contraception became widely available in the United States and the women’s liberation movement began to emerge. Abortion became widely available in the 1970s after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision — which was overturned in 2022.
The birth rate dropped for teenagers and women in their 20s and 30s — but the decline was sharper for teenagers and women in their 20s than it was for women in their 30s. The birth rate for women in their 40s did not show significant changes.
According to the data, the 2023 birth rate for teenagers aged 15 through 19 was 13.2 per 1,000 women, which was a 3% decline from the previous year. The birth rate for women aged 20 to 24 was 55.4 births for 1,000 women, which is a 4% decline from the previous year. The birth rate for women aged 25 through 29 was 91 births per 1,000 women, which was a 3% decline from the previous year.
The 2023 birth rate for women aged 30 through 34 was 95.1 births per 1,000 women, which was a 2% decline from the previous year. For women aged 35 through 39, there were 54.7 births per 1,000 women, which was a decrease of less than 1%.
According to the report, most ethnic groups saw a decline in total births and a decrease in fertility rates from 2022 to 2023 — but this reduction affected some ethnic groups at different rates.
The total number of births was down 5% for American Indian and Alaska Native women, 4% for Black women, 3% for white women, and 2% for Asian women. For Hispanic women, the total number of births went up by 1%. There was not much change for Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander women.
No ethnic group saw an increased general fertility rate from 2022 to 2023. It decreased by 5% among American Indian and Alaska Native women and Black women, by 3% for Asian and white women, and by 1% for Hispanic women. The rate was virtually unchanged for Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander women.
Posted on 04/26/2024 16:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
null / Orhan Cam/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
The addition of “gender identity” in the Biden administration’s interpretation of anti-discrimination rules could jeopardize state laws that restrict women’s sports and women’s locker rooms to only women, according to legal scholars.
Late last week, President Joe Biden’s Department of Education redefined the prohibition on sex discrimination in education, enshrined in the 1972 Title IX provisions, to include discrimination based on a person’s “gender identity.”
The new guidelines prohibit any policy and practice that “prevents a person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity.”
Although the new guidelines do not clearly explain how the mandate would be enforced, experts at the legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the conservative Heritage Foundation told CNA that it could force educational institutions to allow men who identify as women to access sports competitions, women’s locker rooms, bathrooms, and dormitories that are exclusive to women.
Other concerns they noted included free speech protections for those who use pronouns that align with a person’s biological sex when it conflicts with the person’s self-proclaimed gender identity and the effect this change could have on other federal agencies, who base their sex discrimination policies on Title IX.
The guidelines apply to public and private educational institutions that accept federal money, which imposes the new rule on K-12 schools, colleges, trade schools, and other institutions. They apply regardless of whether state laws restrict these competitions and spaces to only women. The law does contain an exemption for religious schools that claim certain provisions of the new rule violate their beliefs.
“This is a … radical redefinition of sex,” Matt Sharp, who serves as senior counsel and director of Center for Public Policy at ADF, told CNA.
“Rather than sex being based on biology, now your ‘gender identity’ comes into play [in these anti-discrimination provisions],” Sharp said.
Sarah Parshall Perry, who serves as a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told CNA that the change will have a “catastrophic impact” on women.
All anti-discrimination provisions that apply to a person’s sex, she noted, will now apply to a person based on his or her self-described “gender identity.”
“All of these [anti-discrimination rules] are lumped under the exact same heading of sex,” Perry, who previously served as senior counsel at the Department of Education, added.
Less than a week into the promulgation of the new guidelines, the reinterpretation is already causing tension with states that have passed laws to protect women’s sports and prevent males from entering women’s locker rooms and bathrooms. Public officials in Florida and Oklahoma have warned the administration that they will not comply with the mandate.
“Florida rejects Joe Biden’s attempt to rewrite Title IX,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a video message posted on X on Thursday.
“We will not comply and we will fight back,” he said. “We are not going to let Joe Biden try to inject men into women’s activities. We are not going to let Joe Biden undermine the rights of parents and we are not going to let Joe Biden abuse his constitutional authority to try to impose these policies on us here in Florida.”
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters called the change an attack on states, families, and women. He instructed school districts to not comply with the administration’s definition.
“Biden’s rewrite of Title IX is one of the most illegal and radical moves we have ever seen from the federal government,” Walters said. “Oklahoma will not sit idly by while radicals trample on the Constitution and take away women’s rights. We are taking swift and aggressive action against Biden in his war on women.”
Currently, West Virginia is facing a legal challenge against its law that prohibits biological males from engaging in women’s and girls’ athletic competitions. The lawsuit accuses the state of discriminating against males who self-identify as women. It bases its argument on Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination — a claim used in the lawsuit before the federal government officially changed its interpretation.
An appellate court ruled against West Virginia, but the state’s lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sharp said the administration’s redefinition of sex discrimination does not change the legal argument used to defend these state laws.
He told CNA that the administration’s change is “unlawful” and that these interpretations “violate the plain meaning of Title IX,” which is “built upon an understanding that there are … only two sexes.”
“The legal approach is exactly how it’s always been,” Sharp said.
Penny said the administration’s redefinition of sex goes against the “entire purpose and history and mission” of the ratifiers of Title IX, which she said “was a significant movement for the women’s liberation movement.”
Now those who defend the traditional understanding of the law, she noted, are seen as “being conservatives or libertarians.”
“Sex has always meant [the] biological distinctions between men and women,” Penny said.
Posted on 04/26/2024 13:51 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Families, donors, and others gather with Bishop Erik Pohlmeier for the dedication of the “Precious Ones Baby Mausoleum” at the San Lorenzo Cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida, on April 23, 2024. / Credit: Fran Ruchalski/courtesy of the Archdiocese of St. Augustine
CNA Staff, Apr 26, 2024 / 09:51 am (CNA).
Families gathered with St. Augustine Bishop Erik Pohlmeier on a sunny Tuesday this week for the dedication of the “Precious Ones Baby Mausoleum” at the city’s San Lorenzo Cemetery.
Six years in the making, the 44,000-pound granite mausoleum is designed for babies lost at a young age through miscarriage, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), or stillborn births. A brick walkway marked by a charcoal cross leads up to the brilliant white mausoleum, which is full of burial spaces that are ready to honor little ones.
Miscarriages are common events, and women often suffer through them quietly, one 2018 study found. About 10% to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, usually because of development issues, according to the Mayo Clinic.
More than 20,000 babies are stillborn every year in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and there are more than 3,000 reported cases of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) in the U.S. each year.
“It’s beautiful to see all those families that were there today, that were together,” Maureen Shilkunas, director of the Office of Human Life and Dignity at the Diocese of St. Augustine, told CNA in a video call. “I think about all the children that they have lost together and they’ll all be entombed together.”
Shilkunas works closely with couples who experience miscarriage or child loss and helps them prepare for the memorial. The remains of miscarried babies are buried together, in a communal entombment, because they are so small.
“It’s a very unusual and a very unique situation to think that we all, when we go to funerals, unless it’s our own family, you really don’t know who we’re buried next to or entombed next to,” she continued.
“But what an opportunity that today was given to these families to see all of these siblings playing together on the lawn and attending Mass together, knowing that their siblings who are home with God will also be together.”
“And that’s really a special thought to see that, how they’re all together and having that fellowship.”
The crypt was a $250,000 project, largely a gift of the laity to the local Church. Michael Hoffman, the director of stewardship and development at the diocese, found that people were eager to give.
Once Hoffman got the word out, it took only six months to raise the funds and another three months to build the mausoleum.
May Oliver, the previous director of the human life office, took inspiration for the Precious Ones Mausoleum from a former law in Texas that required burial for all remains of children who died from abortion, miscarriage, or stillbirth.
A woman who had lost two daughters during pregnancy called the diocese asking for help. Though the diocese would sometimes bury miscarried babies in the Catholic cemetery, Oliver wanted to offer more resources to her and other families in these situations.
She decided to start a “Campaign for the Precious Ones” in her diocese, offering Masses for couples who had miscarried or lost a child.
But the long-term goal was the Precious Ones Mausoleum.
“It is really an educational process,” Oliver told CNA in a phone call. “Before, we used to be much more aware that these babies should be buried, but we have to reeducate our Catholic community and the community at large.”
Miscarriages are often “not acknowledged in many ways,” Shilkunas said.
Parents often have to request the remains from the hospital, and in some hospitals, the remains are even treated as clinical waste and incinerated. Women often report a lack of social support, understanding, or even acknowledgement of their loss.
“It’s really time to be talking about these things,” Shilkunas said. “And it’s time for us to let people know that this should be the common conversation, that we really should be able to walk through [it with] mothers and fathers.”
Pohlmeier noted that the pain of the loss is “made worse” when hospitals “don’t treasure that gift [of life].”
“There are lots of people who take that [gift of life] very seriously and then suffer the loss of a child … that immediately touches their hearts and moves them in a way that only the awareness of this gift of life can do,” Pohlmeier told CNA.
“For the pain that people feel because we treasure the gift of life from its earliest moments, we ought to treat the situation with every dignity and respect,” the bishop said.
The diocese built relationships with local funeral homes and hospitals so that couples can hear about Precious Ones in their time of need. Each of the 12 empty crypts will be named for a saint so that they will be easy to identify for visiting family members. Hoffman told CNA that he hopes to add a reflection garden surrounding the mausoleum.
Any couple, regardless of their faith background, can have their child buried in the mausoleum at no cost to them. Pohlmeier said that even those who aborted their child could bring remains to be buried.
He anticipated that as chemical abortions at home increase, there may be more “immediate regret,” with mothers having to deal more directly “with the remains.”
“That experience of [the] healing the power of God and the suffering of loss might come as a shock to some people after it’s too late,” Pohlmeier added. “But of course, that doesn’t change for us at all the care and respect that we would show to both mother and child in those situations.”
When asked what it was like to finally see the mausoleum at its dedication, Oliver said it was “beautiful.”
The dedication involved a Mass concelebrated by five priests and Pohlmeier, with the Knights of Columbus color guard attending in full regalia, wearing berets and carrying swords.
It was a “cloudless blue sky,” Oliver recalled, and Pohlmeier’s homily, which touched on how loving one’s neighbor extends “to those that have lost the life of a child,” stood out to her.
“It was beautiful, heartfelt,” Hoffman said of the homily. “And he touched everybody, not necessarily [just] the parents that have lost kids, but the people that supported the endeavor, the initiative, people that prayed on it.”
The mausoleum not only helps honor unborn children and the grief of their parents but could also have an effect on hospitals and “to our culture as a whole,” Pohlmeier told CNA.
“The simple existence of it has a certain evangelization quality in raising the awareness of how precious a life in the womb is,” Pohlmeier noted.
“It seems crucial to our pro-life witness and to our responding to the grief of families in our parishes,” he continued.
“This is really a testament to our faith, our Church, and especially the Diocese of St. Augustine that we value life so much that we will erect something to make sure that [lost children] have a proper burial,” Oliver said.
“My hope is that other dioceses and other states take this on because I can only tell you the comfort that it is bringing to families, and the beauty and the dignity that it is showing to them the way we honor [the children],” Shilkunas added.
Shilkunas recalled seeing “the pride” that parents had at the dedication ceremony “in talking about these children in front of their children who are running around.”
“It’s a beautiful opportunity,” she said.
“It’s a testament to the diocese,” Hoffman added. “It’s going to be there forever, and it’s a testament to the diocese that we value life.”
Posted on 04/26/2024 10:30 AM (CNA Daily News - US)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. opened up to veteran EWTN News anchorman Raymond Arroyo about his family’s strong faith growing up, how his faith helped him overcome drug addiction and how it impacts him in his day-to-day life in the travails of U.S. presidential politics. / Credit: EWTN News "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo" / Screenshot
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 06:30 am (CNA).
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. discussed the importance of his Catholic faith in his daily life, his plan to reduce abortions without federal restrictions, and his opposition to biological males playing in women’s sports during an exclusive interview on “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” Thursday night.
Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, is running a vigorous independent campaign to be the next president of the United States. He launched an independent bid for the White House last October after initially challenging incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In the interview, the presidential hopeful opened up about his family’s strong faith growing up, how his faith helped him overcome drug addiction, and how it impacts him in his day-to-day life.
“The centerpiece of our lives [growing up] was Catholicism,” Kennedy told Arroyo.
“We said the rosary at least once a day, oftentimes three times a day,” Kennedy said. “We prayed before and after every [meal]. We read the Bible every night. We read the lives of the saints. We went to church, sometimes twice a day. We would go to the 7 o’clock Mass and 8 o’clock Mass in the summers. It was our whole family, and it was really our whole community. It was part of me growing up.”
At age 15, following his father’s assassination, Kennedy expressed that he struggled with his faith. He became addicted to drugs, including heroin, until he was 28 years old.
“During that period of time, I wouldn’t say I lost my faith, but when you’re living against conscience, which you have to do if you’re addicted to drugs, you push God out over the periphery of your horizon,” Kennedy said. “So the concept of God was, although it never was erased from me, it was just a distant concept that was not part of my day-to-day life.”
He credits “a profound spiritual realignment” for his recovery from addiction in early adulthood, which he said has been “the centerpiece of my life ever since.”
“I had a spiritual awakening very early in my recovery, which I was lucky about because I no longer had to struggle with the compulsion to take drugs,” Kennedy explained. “That was lifted away from me. But you can’t live off the laurels of a spiritual awakening. You have to renew it every day, and you renew it through service to other people.”
He said his faith gives him peace in the midst of the storms of life and cited his favorite saints, specifically St. Francis and St. Augustine.
On the issue of abortion, Kennedy said his family has been divided on the issue and that he does not see himself as a “doctrinaire on either side.”
Kennedy said he disagrees with former President Donald Trump’s plan to leave abortion policies up to the states. Although he acknowledged that “every abortion is a tragedy,” he said decisions “should be up to the mother” and that he does not “trust government officials and bureaucrats” to be involved in the issue.
Rather than implementing restrictions on abortion, Kennedy has proposed a plan to subsidize day care “to make sure that no American mother ever has an abortion of a child that she wants to bring to term because she’s worried about her financial capacity to raise that child.”
“I would like to maximize choice but also minimize the number of abortions that occur every year,” Kennedy said.
The presidential hopeful also said he would not reverse the Biden administration’s approval of expanding access to the abortion pill in stores like CVS and Walgreens. However, he added that “we ought to know what the side effects are, what the risks are, [and] what the benefits [are].”
Kennedy said he disagrees with the Biden administration’s recent change to Title IX, which interprets sex discrimination as including discrimination of “gender identity.”
He is opposed to biological males who identify as women being allowed to participate in women’s sports. “I don’t think it’s fair if a boy can walk off a neighboring playing field and say, I’m a girl now, and I’m going to take that spot that you worked for,” the candidate said. “I think we all need to respect people who have sexual differences and protect them, but I don’t believe that people who were born men ought to be able to compete in consequential sports.”
While he characterized himself as "extremely pro-Palestinian" and expressed support for the Palestinian people to have their own nation, Kennedy also said "I don't see that Israel has any choice except to eradicate Hamas."
"When people say 'ceasefire' what Israelis hear when they see that is what happened in the last five ceasefires, where Hamas used each of those ceasefires to rearm, to regroup," Kennedy said. He pointed out that in its charter, Hamas is clear that "they do not want negotiations. They want one thing: the eradication of Israel."
At this juncture, Kennedy is polling well behind Biden and Trump but has stronger poll numbers than any independent or third-party candidate since Ross Perot in 1992. A compilation of polls from RealClearPolling currently puts him at just under 12%.
“All we need to do is to get to 33% to win the election,” Kennedy said in the interview. “You don’t need 50%. It’s a three-way race. It’s really a five-way race. All I need is to get to 33%, and I’m close to that in a bunch of states.”
The election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Posted on 04/26/2024 10:00 AM (CNA Daily News - US)
Students, faculty, monks, and staff at Belmont Abbey College took part in their first “Cover to Cover” Bible Marathon Reading Event from April 8–12, 2024.. / Credit: Nicholas Willey
CNA Staff, Apr 26, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Eighty-five hours and 42 minutes. That was the time it took students, faculty, monks, and staff to read the Bible from beginning to end at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina during its first “Cover to Cover” Bible marathon reading event earlier this month.
More than 110 readers took turns standing at a podium in Stowe Hall, the college’s main administration building, reading aloud from sacred Scripture throughout the day and night beginning Monday, April 8, and ending in the early hours of Friday, April 12.
Tom MacAlester, PhD - Vice Provost and Dean of Student Life at Belmont Abbey College, told CNA in an interview that the idea came from an experience he had during his time in college at Florida State University.
“There was a group of a number of campus ministries at Florida State that kind of undertook an ecumenical approach to reading the Bible from cover to cover, nonstop,” he explained. “Baptist students and Catholic students — we even had some students from Hillel come and read parts of the Old Testament, and it was a really cool event.”
“It’s stuck with me all these years, and I was excited to be able to try it out here at the Abbey and ended up having a fantastic reception,” he added.
Ahead of the event, sign-up sheets were sent out to all students and staff giving them the ability to find a time that worked with their class schedules.
MacAlester shared that once they shared the vision for the event, “it was an easy sell” and “students got really excited about it.”
“There was a moment where we were like, ‘Oh, maybe we’ll just do the New Testament,’ but then students started signing up for the Old Testament,” he said. “You know reading the Book of Numbers at two in the morning — that sounds like really exciting stuff, right? But our students signed up really quick.”
He said many students have reached out to share how meaningful the event was to them and how, for many, “in a beautiful and a providential way, the Lord had them reading a very specific verse just for them and how touching and moving that was to them.”
There are now plans in the works to ensure each incoming class to Belmont Abbey has the opportunity to take part in the “Cover to Cover” Bible marathon at least once during their four years at the college. This will most likely mean a once-in-three-years cycle, MacAlester explained.
MacAlester hopes that students recognized “the power of Scripture” by taking part in this event.
“It’s a blueprint right? If we’re looking for a guide, if we’re looking for inspiration in how to live a holy life and one day hopefully get to heaven and bring our friends, we can’t be ignorant of Scripture,” he said.
Posted on 04/25/2024 20:45 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
An aerial view of Washington Square in San Francisco on May 22, 2020. / Credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images
CNA Staff, Apr 25, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).
San Francisco police arrested a homeless man last Sunday for allegedly stabbing a Catholic parishioner after an altercation involving the two outside a historic Catholic church in the city.
Twenty-five-year-old Marko Asaulyuk of San Francisco was charged with attempted murder and eight counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
The victim, who was released from the hospital Sunday, only suffered a minor injury to his leg, Father Tho Bui, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, told CNA Thursday in an email.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was conferring the sacrament of confirmation on the parish school’s students, religious education students, and students from a nearby parish during a noon Mass when a “disruptive man” entered the church, as Bui described him.
The man was walking up and down the main aisle of the church holding a bottle of wine, ABC7 reported.
Bui said a group of parishioners and parents told the disruptive man to leave the church and escorted him out. ABC7 reported that the man was speaking with someone outside the church and said “Jesus is not real.”
A “scuffle” then occurred on the sidewalk and that’s when the man stabbed the parent in the leg, according to the priest.
The suspect, who was reported to be homeless, was arrested the same day, Bui said. Police said when they arrived at the scene, aid was given to the victim, who was brought to the hospital with “non-life-threatening injuries.”
Witnesses helped the police locate the suspect, police said.
Bui called the incident “sad” and “extremely disturbing” but noted “the good news is that the criminal is behind bars, charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and is being held without bail.”
“Very likely, by getting him off the streets, our parishioners and dads prevented something even worse from happening,” he said. “But this is just the latest in an unending series of incidents caused by our city government’s tolerance of crime and mentally ill people on the streets.”
“It’s not specific to Sts. Peter and Paul. We saw in the news just this past week that the nurses at SF General [Hospital] and the librarians at our public libraries are demanding more protection from exactly the kind of incidents we had on Sunday,” he said.
“Like SF General and the public libraries, we are open every single day. The mission of Jesus Christ requires it! While both our school and club can, and do, fulfill their missions while having gates and doors locked, the Church cannot,” Bui said.
CNA reached out to the archdiocese for comment but did not receive a response.
Posted on 04/25/2024 15:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
null / Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Apr 25, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).
Louisiana State Police have obtained a new search warrant to collect documents from the Archdiocese of New Orleans as part of an ongoing investigation into Church abuse in that state.
State police spokesman Jacob Pucheu confirmed to CNA on Thursday that the bureau had obtained the warrant as part of its investigation into “numerous complaints of child sexual abuse” leveled at the archdiocese. The inquiry was first launched in 2022, he said.
“As part of the ongoing investigation, on Monday, April 22, 2024, SVU investigators obtained an additional search warrant to collect information and documents from the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” Pucheu told CNA.
“The archdiocese is cooperating with investigators to fulfill the terms of the search warrant,” he said. “This investigation remains ongoing with no further information available at this time.”
Pucheu declined to directly provide a copy of the warrant, saying that “since it is under investigation, it is not readily available.”
The archdiocese itself did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday morning.
The warrant comes as state police are investigating retired priest Lawrence Hecker, who was indicted in September on felony charges related to allegations that he raped an underage teenage boy in the 1970s.
A team of forensic experts this week said Hecker, who is 92, is presently unfit to stand trial due to short-term memory loss, though the experts said the accused priest could stand trial at a later date.
Prosecutors earlier this year had vowed to proceed with Hecker’s trial amid doubts of his competency. Orleans Parish First Assistant District Attorney Ned McGowan promised to “roll him in on a gurney” to try him.
The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020, with Archbishop Gregory Aymond pointing to financial pressure from clergy sex abuse claims as the driving force behind the reorganization.
“The prospect of more abuse cases with associated prolonged and costly litigation, together with pressing ministerial needs and budget challenges, is simply not financially sustainable,” the prelate said at the time.
Last year the archdiocese said it would ask “parishes, schools, and ministries” for monetary contributions in order to protect diocesan assets during the bankruptcy proceedings.
The archbishop had previously said that “parishes, schools, and ministries” would not be affected by the filing.
But “this is no longer the case,” Aymond said last year, “because of many external factors now facing us, including the fact that the law governing the statute of limitations has changed to now permit the filing of past abuse claims in civil court.”
Posted on 04/24/2024 21:15 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Pro-life advocates demonstrate prior to an Arizona House of Representatives session at the Arizona State Capitol on April 17, 2024, in Phoenix. / Credit: Rebecca Noble/Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 24, 2024 / 17:15 pm (CNA).
The Arizona House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to repeal a law protecting unborn babies from abortion throughout pregnancy.
The narrow 32-28 vote passed an “abortion ban repeal” bill designed to overturn the pro-life law. Republicans have a narrow majority in the Arizona House, but the bill was able to pass as three Republicans joined the Democrats against the pro-life measure.
The repeal bill will now be considered by the Arizona Senate where Republicans also hold a narrow 16-14 majority. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has already signaled she will sign the bill into law if it is passed by the Arizona Senate.
Even if the repeal bill is signed into law it will likely not go into effect until 90 days after the legislative session closes, meaning the pro-life law may be in effect for a short time. The pro-life measure is currently set to go into effect on June 8.
This comes after Democrats launched several unsuccessful attempts to repeal the pro-life law after a controversial Arizona Supreme Court decision ruled that the law — passed in 1864 — could go into effect.
Dormant since being invalidated by Roe v. Wade in 1973, the 1864 law protects all unborn life from conception and imposes prison time for those who “provide, supply, or administer” an abortion. The court ruled that since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, there were no legal reasons to keep the law from being enforced.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden criticized the Arizona pro-life law as backward, blaming former President Donald Trump for the Supreme Court overturning Roe and “literally taking us back 160 years.”
Abortion is currently legal in Arizona until the 15th week of pregnancy. If the 1864 law takes effect, however, all abortion will be illegal, except in cases in which the mother’s life is in danger.
Posted on 04/24/2024 20:15 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Pro-life and pro-abortion activists at a demonstration outside the U.S. Supreme Court as it hears arguments in the Moyle v. United States case, in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 2024. The case deals with whether an Idaho abortion law conflicts with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). / Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 24, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).
A divided Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a case that will determine whether federal law requires pro-life states to have broader exceptions for women who seek abortions in emergency situations.
The crux of the case focuses on whether Idaho’s Defense of Life Act conflicts with a federal rule that requires hospitals to provide stabilizing health care that is consistent with standard medical practice in certain emergency situations.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit that argues Idaho’s law prevents hospitals from providing this care in some situations because it only allows abortions in cases of rape, incest, and when “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.”
The lawsuit, Moyle v. United States, is based on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which Congress enacted in 1986 to ensure that everyone has access to emergency medical care even if they can’t afford to pay for that care.
Under EMTALA hospitals that receive Medicare funds must provide stabilizing care when the absence of care could put the patient’s health in serious jeopardy or cause the impairment of bodily functions or serious dysfunction of bodily organs. The law does not specifically reference abortion, but the Department of Justice is arguing that an abortion will sometimes be the standard care necessary to meet these rules.
According to the DOJ, Idaho’s threshold for when it permits abortion is too strict, because it only permits abortions when necessary to prevent the death of the mother and does not include any exceptions that would cover the other health risks considered in EMTALA.
The Supreme Court’s decision in this case could have far-ranging effects on protections for unborn children in Idaho and more than 20 other states that have passed pro-life laws in the past few years.
In oral arguments presented to the justices, Idaho’s lawyer Joshua Turner said Idaho’s law does not conflict with EMTALA in any way and claimed the DOJ is “misreading” the statute when it makes that assertion.
Turner argued that states can legally regulate the practice of medicine and that they frequently impose such regulations. As an example, he noted that states control medical licensing and the legality of certain treatments. He referenced the different approaches among states related to how long a doctor can prescribe opioids to someone who is dealing with chronic pain and said there are “countless examples” of this.
The DOJ’s interpretation, according to Turner, would prevent the state from enforcing any of these regulations because it “lacks any limiting principle” and essentially “leaves emergency rooms unregulated under state law.” He further said that proper “professional standards” change from day to day and that it is limited to available treatments, according to the text: “Illegal treatments are not available treatments.”
Turner added that the provisions in EMTALA have never been used to challenge a state regulation or criminal statute. He claimed that for EMTALA to override a state’s criminal law, it would need to be very clear.
“Congress must speak clearly,” Turner said. “It has not done so here.”
Some of the judges challenged Turner on his interpretation and probed him with questions about when abortions would be allowed under Idaho’s law. Justice Elena Kagan argued with Turner about whether EMTALA was clear, claiming “the federal government has plenty to say about [when care must be provided] in this statute.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor pressed Turner with questions about whether Idaho’s law would permit an abortion in various hypothetical situations. Turner said the law permits an abortion when the life of the mother is threatened, which is based on “the doctor’s good-faith medical judgment” but was repeatedly interrupted when he sought to explain further.
The line of questioning and frequent interruptions provoked the ire of Justice Samuel Alito, who commented that Turner was presented with quick hypotheticals and “asked to provide a snap judgment of what would be appropriate” and “hardly given an opportunity to answer.”
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who provided the legal arguments on behalf of the DOJ, said Idaho’s law conflicts with the text of EMTALA, which has real implications for what is “happening on the ground.” She asserted that Turner is “gravely mistaken” in saying that there is no conflict.
“This case is about how [EMTALA] applies to pregnant women in a medical crisis,” Prelogar said.
Prelogar challenged Turner’s interpretation that the DOJ’s position would threaten all state medical regulations, asserting that EMTALA is “textually very narrow.”
According to Prelogar, if abortion is necessary to provide stabilizing care for a woman under the conditions set in EMTALA, “the statute protects her and gives her that choice.” She said the patient must “be offered pregnancy termination [when it is] the necessary treatment.”
Some of the justices challenged Prelogar’s interpretation of the law. Justice Clarence Thomas noted that EMTALA imposes a rule on hospitals as a condition to receive Medicare funding but that the law does not make demands of the state.
“In this case, you are bringing an action against the state, and the state’s not regulated,” Thomas said.
Thomas and other judges noted that EMTALA concerns spending and questioned Prelogar on whether it would preempt a state’s criminal laws.
“Congress has broad power under the spending clause to impose [these rules],” Prelogar responded.
The judges also questioned Prelogar about whether EMTALA respects conscience objections made by doctors and hospitals who have moral objections to providing abortions, and she said those protections are still in place. They also asked her whether a mental health crisis could ever permit an abortion under EMTALA, to which she replied that abortion is “not the accepted standard of practice to treat any mental health emergency.”
