1. We Just Saw the Future of Anti-Abortion Laws, An appellate court has reinstated a bizarre grab bag of statutes that were invalidated more than three years ago., By Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times, August 13, 2020, 5:00 AM, Opinion
When I wrapped up the Supreme Court term in a column last month, I observed that in his separate opinion providing a crucial fifth vote to overturn a Louisiana abortion law, Chief Justice John Roberts had been “careful to leave the door open to continued attacks on the right to abortion.”
What I intended as a cleareyed warning to my fellow abortion-rights supporters to hold the cheers for the outcome in June Medical Services v. Russo turns out to have been quite an understatement. It turns out that the door, with the chief justice holding it, opened wide enough to drive an entire federal appeals court through.
Last week, the famously anti-abortion United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit invoked the chief justice’s separate opinion to justify reinstating four Arkansas anti-abortion laws that a federal district judge had invalidated more than three years ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/opinion/arkansas-abortion-laws.html?
___________________________________________________________
2. Getting to Know Kamala Harris, By The Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2020, Pg. A14, Editorial
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made their first appearances as a campaign ticket on Wednesday, and Americans still know little about the running mate who may be President sooner rather than later. One way to fill in the gap is to inspect Ms. Harris’s record as California’s Attorney General, and one revealing episode is the way she used her power to blow up a deal to rescue struggling Catholic hospitals.
…
Hospital workers, patients and taxpayers paid a fearsome price for Ms. Harris’s intervention on behalf of the SEIU. As troubling was Ms. Harris’s use of her authority to help a political supporter and punish a business she didn’t like. She was in the vanguard of the new progressive state AGs who use prosecutorial power against opponents. Watch for this in the Harris Administration in 2025, if not sooner.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/getting-to-know-kamala-harris-11597273754
___________________________________________________________
3. Catholic Hong Kong media tycoon’s arrest sparks fear Church could be next, By Elise Ann Allen, Crux, August 13, 2020
Earlier this week prominent Catholic millionaire and media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested in Hong Kong along with two of his sons and two executives of his Next Media company on charges of collusion with foreign forces and conspiracy to defraud under China’s new national security law.
…
A Catholic, Lai is also a known supporter of prominent Catholic personalities in Hong Kong who have been outspoken in criticizing China over the new law, which went into effect June 30, as well as human rights abuses and limits to religious freedom, prompting speculation that these people could be next on Beijing’s blacklist.
One of the prominent figures Lai has supported is Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, who has openly criticized China on several fronts and has also vocally opposed Pope Francis’s approach to China, most notably over a 2018 agreement on the appointment of bishops, the renewal of which is currently under negotiation.
…
Pope Francis on Wednesday met with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who in June came under fire from Chinese authorities for issuing a statement saying that any new security laws imposed on Hong Kong “must fully comply with China’s human rights obligations,” including measures outlined in international treaties that protect civil and political freedoms
…
The pope’s meeting with Bachelet was private and the contents of their discussion have not been made public, so it’s not known if they discussed the situation in Hong Kong or other issues related to China.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2020/08/catholic-hong-kong-media-tycoons-arrest-sparks-fear-church-could-be-next/
___________________________________________________________
4. ‘Deeply flawed’: Catholics react to Harris VP selection, By Catholic News Agency, August 12, 2020, 3:30 PM
Catholics and pro-life organizations offered a range of reactions to the selection of Sen. Kamala Harris as former vice president Joe Biden’s running mate for the 2020 election.
…
Fordham University professor Charles Camosy, who left the Democratic Party earlier this year over the party’s stance on abortion, called Harris a “deeply flawed” choice for VP.
“It is very good that a Black woman has been nominated for VP. And I can understand a desire to choose the lesser of two evils,” said Camosy on Twitter Wednesday.
“But for Catholics in favor of prenatal justice, and of government defending these children from terrible violence, we must say that Harris is a deeply flawed candidate. Unreserved praise of her VP candidacy is, in effect, yet another example of erasure of the prenatal child,” Camosy said.
Democrats for Life of America also criticized Harris’s selection, saying in a statement that she “does not provide pro-life Democrats with any assurances and will, in fact, further alienate 21 million Democratic voters who have been left out of the party for quite some time.”
…
Michael Sean Winters, a writer for the National Catholic Reporter and the author of “Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats,” also expressed his reservations about Harris.
…
Winters was critical of Harris’ 2018 questioning of a judicial nominee over his membership of the Knights of Columbus, calling her treatment of Brian C. Buescher “embarrassing in both its ignorance and its bigotry.”
…
Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, described Harris as “staunchly pro-abortion and anti-religious liberty,” and said that she “favors radical abortion policies including late-term abortion paid for by taxpayers, as well as forcing Catholic religious orders like the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide abortion drugs in their healthcare plans.”
On Twitter, CatholicVote called Harris a “devout anti-Catholic.”
Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence said on Twitter that, in effect, Biden’s selection of Harris pointed to an absence of Catholic values by the Democratic candidate.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic-react-to-joe-biden-nomination-of-kamala-harris-for-vp-69973
___________________________________________________________
|
|
