1. HHS to pull health-care conscience rule, By Sean Salai, The Washington Times, April 20, 2022, Pg. A2
The Biden administration plans to remove a Trump-era conscience clause that protected medical workers from participating in such services as abortions and sex-change treatments.
A Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed to Politico on Tuesday that the agency “has made clear through the unified regulatory agenda that we are in the rule making process” to implement new rules as early as later this month.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/apr/19/biden-to-scrap-rule-allowing-hospitals-employers-s/
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2. Biden, abortion and conscience, Administration wants faith-based health professionals out of medicine, By Jonathan Imbody, The Washington Times, April 20, 2022, Pg. B4, Opinion
If you are a health professional who follows the Hippocratic oath’s proscription against abortion, should a government funded hospital be allowed to coerce you to participate in abortions against your professional ethics and personal conscience?
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Faith-based professionals and hospitals do not and cannot separate their faith motivation to serve the needy from their faith convictions to protect human life.
That’s why over 9 in 10 of faith-based health professionals agreed with our survey question, “I would rather stop practicing medicine altogether than be forced to violate my conscience.”
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The pro-abortion Biden administration now is moving to drive those same professionals out of medicine. The Biden HHS, headed by Xavier Becerra, the former attorney general of California who promoted the abortion industry and persecuted pro-life individuals, has announced the intention to get rid of the existing HHS conscience protection rule.
The ill-considered move threatens to imperil patients’ health care access and promises to pump up the coffers of the abortion industry, in part by permitting grant stipulations that prevent conscience-observing, life protecting health groups from competing for government grants. The move delights Democrat campaign funders like Planned Parenthood, a $1.5 billion business that rakes in over half a billion dollars ($618.1 million) annually in taxpayer funding while performing over a third of a million (354,871) abortions.
Jonathan Imbody is a public policy consultant and writer at FaithSteps.net and has several decades of experience in federal health policy
https://amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/apr/19/biden-abortion-and-conscience/
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3. Pope Francis: To discard the elderly ‘is a grave sin’, By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency, April 20, 2022, 3:20 AM
To not honor the elderly as God commands, and to treat them as something to discard, “is a grave sin,” Pope Francis said on Wednesday.
During his weekly meeting with the public in St. Peter’s Square on April 20, the pope said “this commandment to honor the elderly gives us a blessing.”
“Please, care for old people,” he urged, “because they are the presence of history, the presence of the family. And it is thanks to them we are here. Please, do not leave them alone.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251014/pope-francis-to-discard-the-elderly-is-a-grave-sin
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4. Business ‘outside the family’: What if Becciu blames Pope Francis?, By Ed. Condon, The Pillar, April 19, 2022
Cardinal Angelo Becciu is on a month-long break from his trial in Vatican City, where he faces charges of abuse of office, embezzlement, and conspiracy.
The former sostituto at the Secretariat of State was originally scheduled to make his second appearance in court at the beginning of this month, but after the pope decided to waive the pontifical secret for his former chief of staff, Becciu’s legal team discovered a scheduling conflict which required his appearance in court be pushed back by a month.
The cardinal will likely spend at least some of that month with his lawyers, revising his trial strategy — which could lean heavily on discussing what the pope knew, and approved, about his alleged actions.
Perhaps the most interesting consideration is whether Becciu will attempt to implicate Pope Francis in order to save himself.
“Taking sides against the family” might usually violate his personal code, but the situation has changed for Becciu. The cardinal might earnestly believe Pope Francis has left him holding the bag after his efforts to serve the pontiff went south.
And if Becciu feels he has been betrayed, the next chapter of his courtroom drama might well be the most dramatic.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/business-outside-the-family-what?s=r
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5. NJ diocese agrees to $87.5M deal to settle sex abuse suits, By Mike Catalini, Associated Press, April 19, 2022, 6:31 PM
A New Jersey Catholic diocese has agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims involving clergy sex abuse with some 300 alleged victims in one of the largest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the United States.
The agreement between the Diocese of Camden, which encompasses six counties in southern New Jersey on the outskirts of Philadelphia, and plaintiffs was filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden on Tuesday.
The settlement must still go before a U.S. bankruptcy judge. If approved, the settlement would exceed the nearly $85 million settlement in 2003 in the clergy abuse scandal in Boston, although it’s less than other settlements in California and Oregon.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nj-diocese-agrees-to-875m-deal-to-settle-sex-abuse-suits/2022/04/19/cd19ead6-c02b-11ec-b5df-1fba61a66c75_story.html?variant=95d42e19c24b03e7
___________________________________________________________TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. |
