1. U.S. bishops welcome Senate passage of infrastructure bill, By John Lavenburg, Crux, August 11, 2021
The U.S. bishops conference on Tuesday applauded the U.S. Senate passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for how it “affects those on the margins of society” and looks to protect the environment.
“Aware that our environmental challenges are too big for any one bill, we are pleased that the legislation reflects an integral ecology, with historical investments in public transit, rail, bridges, and clean drinking water, and emphases on climate change mitigation, carbon capture and climate resistance,” said Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development in a statement.
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Despite a push from Democrats to do away with the Hyde Amendment – a longstanding provision that prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion – the Senate adopted an amendment around 11 p.m. Tuesday to preserve it in the $3.5 trillion budget resolution. In a near partisan 50-49 vote, democrat Joe Manchin joined all of the Republicans in voting for the pro-life measure.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2021/08/u-s-bishops-welcome-senate-passage-of-infrastructure-bill/
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2. Federal judge rules against several Indiana abortion laws, By Tom Davies, Associated Press, August 10, 2021, 9:11 PM
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that several of Indiana’s laws restricting abortion are unconstitutional, including the state’s ban on telemedicine consultations between doctors and women seeking abortions.
The judge’s ruling also upheld other state abortion limits that were challenged in a broad lawsuit filed by Virginia-based Whole Woman’s Health Alliance in 2018 as it fought the denial of a license to open an abortion clinic in South Bend.
U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker issued a permanent injunction against the telemedicine ban, along with state laws requiring in-person examinations by a doctor before medication abortions and the prohibition on second-trimester abortions outside hospitals or surgery centers. Barker also ruled against state laws requiring that women seeking abortions be told human life begins when the egg is fertilized and that a fetus might feel pain at or before 20 weeks.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-judge-rules-against-several-indiana-abortion-laws/2021/08/10/11e1df20-fa2a-11eb-911c-524bc8b68f17_story.html
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3. Poll reveals religious differences in acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine, By Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service, August 10, 2021
A poll whose results were released Aug. 5 by the Public Religion Research Institute showed large differences between religious groups in their attitudes toward getting the COVID-19 vaccine for themselves or for their children.
Forty percent of white Catholics and 48 percent of Hispanic Catholics said they have gotten or will get their children vaccinated, but only 18 percent of white evangelical Protestants and 27 percent of Hispanic Protestants said they will do the same. The two Protestant groups are the least likely to do so of all the groups surveyed in the poll.
Among other groups, 33 percent of white mainline Protestants, 35 percent of Black Protestants and 35 percent of the religiously unaffiliated “are vaccine acceptant for their children,” PRRI said.
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The percentage of those who believe religious exemptions should be in place for COVID vaccinations is growing.
Last January, 73 percent opposed religious exemptions for children attending public schools, compared to 27 percent who supported them. The PRRI poll, conducted June 2-23, found that opposition to exemptions had shrunk to 57 percent, with support rising to 42 percent. The number rises still further to 50 percent for parents of school-age children.
Among parents, 69 percent of Republicans are in favor of religiously based vaccine refusals, as are 49 percent of Independents and 36 percent of Democrats.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2021/08/poll-reveals-religious-differences-in-acceptance-of-covid-19-vaccine/
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4. Andrew Cuomo resigns: He personifies abuse of power at the expense of the vulnerable, The unborn, the elderly and women – depend on the powerful to use their strength to protect. Cuomo failed them all., By Ashley McGuire, USA Today, August 10, 2021, 2:30 PM, Opinion
The man who became the daily face of pandemic leadership, the liberal darling and presidential prospect, is being shown his exit, forced to resign, his crimes against women and the elderly having been brought into the light. In 14 days, his part in this play will be over.
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Under his leadership, New York passed one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country. Someone whose regard for the vulnerable is so coarsened that he can celebrate the violent dismembering of a fully viable pre-born life and works to enshrine it in the law is capable of anything.
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To deny the humanity of pre-born life is to deny truth. To work toward and celebrate their industrial scale slaughter is the use of power with no relationship to truth. Protecting the vulnerable is an end-to-end enterprise. All the vulnerable depend on those in power to use their strength to protect. The pre-born in the womb, the elderly stricken with covid, the young women starting their careers in New York’s power machine. Their fates are all tied together, and Andrew Cuomo is the personification of the abuse of power at the expense of the vulnerable.
Ashley McGuire is a senior fellow with The Catholic Association and the author of Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/08/10/andrew-cuomo-resigns-sexual-harassment-abuse-of-power/5554358001/
___________________________________________________________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. |
