1. Abortion and the Supreme Court, By The Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2022, Pg. A16, Editorial
The Supreme Court will soon decide an abortion case in which Mississippi has asked the Justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. The oral argument suggested that five Justices lean toward doing so, but a ferocious lobbying campaign is trying to change their minds.
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Judging from the Dec. 1 oral argument in Dobbs, the three liberal Justices would bar the Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks as a violation of Roe and Casey. Justices Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito are likely votes to sustain the law and overturn both precedents. Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett seemed, in their questioning, to side with the three conservatives.
But Chief Justice John Roberts tried during the oral argument to find a middle way.
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We hope he doesn’t succeed—for the good of the Court and the country. The Chief’s middle ground might be explainable with some legal dexterity, but it would prolong the Court’s abortion agony. Critics on the left would still lambaste the Court for letting Mississippi’s law stand. And states would soon pass more laws with even narrower restrictions that would eventually force the Justices to overturn Roe and Casey or say the precedents stand on solid ground.
Far better for the Court to leave the thicket of abortion regulation and return the issue to the states. A political uproar would ensue, but then voters would decide on abortion policy through elections—starting in November.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/abortion-and-the-supreme-court-dobbs-v-jackson-mississippi-john-roberts-11651009292?
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2. Virginia is embracing life, Its pro-life movement shows how much can change so quickly, By Jeanne Mancini, The Washington Times, April 27, 2022, Pg. B3
This time two years ago, pro-life Virginians were lamenting Gov. Ralph Northam’s decision to repeal laws placing reasonable limits on abortion. Last year the pundits were claiming former Gov. Terry McAuliffe would sail into office and continue Northam’s extremism. Instead, Glenn Youngkin won the gubernatorial election, ushering in a new era of pro-life governance in Virginia.
Mr. Youngkin has consistently embraced pro-life policies grounded in science and compassion, but the pro-life community can’t rest on its laurels. Abortion activists still control the Virginia Senate and are putting up roadblocks to Mr. Youngkin’s agenda. That is why thousands of pro-life Virginians will gather in Richmond on April 27 for our fourth annual Virginia March for Life to demand that the general assembly protects life and doesn’t force taxpayers to fund abortion.
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The success of the pro-life movement in Virginia shows how much things can change in a few years. We should be proud of the progress we have made and let it inspire us to push for even bigger changes because, after all, lives are on the line.
Jeanne Mancini is the president of March for Life.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/apr/26/virginia-is-embracing-life/
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3. Vatican’s chief diplomat visits Mexico during time of Church-State tensions, By Inés San Martín, Crux, April 27, 2022
During the visit of Pope Francis’s top diplomat to Mexico on Tuesday, the Vatican and the Mexican government promised to cooperate in building peace and protecting human rights.
“Mexico and the Holy See look to the future together, sharing the same values,” said Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin at an event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Holy See.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2022/04/vaticans-chief-diplomat-visits-mexico-during-time-of-church-state-tensions
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4. The Pope And The Patriarch Of Moscow, By George Weigel, First Things, April 27, 2022, Opinion
Pope Francis is undoubtedly grieved by the carnage in Ukraine. And when the Catholic Church’s chief ecumenical officer, Cardinal Kurt Koch, tells journalists he shares the papal conviction that religious justifications of aggression are “blasphemy”—a wicked use of the things of God—we may be sure that this, too, is Francis’s view of things.
Why, then, should Pope Francis meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’, as some personalities and movements in the Church were once urging? Since the invasion of February 24, Kirill has repeatedly deployed religious justifications for Russia’s barbaric assault on Ukraine. Is Kirill not, then, a blasphemer?
Some of those promoting a second Francis/Kirill encounter were likely thinking of the “optics.” Two religious leaders meeting in wartime to pray for peace would, they imagined, vividly demonstrate the Christian capacity to rise above ethnic hatred and national passion in the name of Easter faith and universal moral norms. That, however, was fantasy based on fallacy.
Kirill Gundayev began his ecclesiastical career at the World Council of Churches in a job that would only be given to someone completely trusted by, and likely working with, the KGB, the Soviet secret intelligence service. During his years as Russian Orthodox patriarch, Kirill has promoted an expansive vision of the “Russian world” that falsifies the Christian history of the eastern Slavs and underwrites a revival of czarist and Stalinist imperialism. Kirill is also a mouthpiece in the Russian disinformation campaign proclaiming the tyrant Vladimir Putin as the savior of civilization against Western decadence—a lie that has duped too many Catholics.
A meeting between the current Bishop of Rome and the current Patriarch of Moscow would not have been a meeting of two religious leaders. It would have been a meeting between a religious leader and an instrument of Russian state power.
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By the wanton slaughter of innocents in Bucha, in Mariupol’, and throughout Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has stigmatized himself with the mark of Cain. Kirill has tried to mask that stigma. For the Bishop of Rome to have met with Kirill as if the Russian were a true religious leader would have bitterly disappointed Catholic and Orthodox Ukrainians, who would not unreasonably have regarded it as a betrayal; it would have depleted the Holy See’s moral capital in world affairs; and it would have contributed nothing to peace.
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/04/the-pope-and-the-patriarch-of-moscow
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5. Pope Francis updates canon law on dismissal from religious institutes, By Courtney Mares, Catholic News Agency, April 26, 2022, 9:35 AM
Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter on Tuesday bringing Church law up to date on the rules for dismissal from religious institutes, in light of the updated penal law on sanctions related to clerical sexual abuse and other crimes.
The letter, known as Recognitum librum VI and issued motu proprio (on the pope’s “own impulse”) on April 26, modifies one sentence from canon 695 of the Code of Canon Law.
The pope explained that the modification makes the line consistent with the major revisions made last year to Book VI of the code’s penal law, which classified some crimes differently and introduced new crimes.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251065/pope-francis-updates-canon-law-on-dismissal-from-religious-institutes
___________________________________________________________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. |
