1. The FBI’s Catholic Canard, The bureau withdraws a document warning about ‘radical-traditionalist’ believers., By The Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2023, 6:55 PM, Editorial House Republicans are accusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation of political bias, and the bureau certainly isn’t helping its own defense. See its retraction of a field-office report lumping some “traditionalist” Catholics with “violent extremists” and calling for government investigation. A whistleblower last week leaked a January report from the FBI’s Richmond office entitled: “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.” According to this FBI catechism, “radical-traditionalist Catholics” are characterized by their devotion to the Latin Mass, their disdain for modern popes, and their “frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology.” The Latin Mass? Maybe that was a threat to the Roman republic, circa 50 A.D., but not to America’s in 2023. … FBI Director Christopher Wray’s problem is that millions of Americans no longer believe this. While we doubt FBI leadership is pursuing a political agenda, the bureau clearly has major issues with partisan operatives and quality control in its ranks. If Mr. Wray wants to re-establish trust in the wake of the FBI’s recent string of scandals, he will have to do more to clean house. https://www.wsj.com/articles/fbi-catholics-traditionalists-report-retracted-extremists-southern-poverty-law-center-72b817c9__________________________________________________________ 2. Pro-life groups zero in on drugstore chains that plan to fill abortion-pill prescriptions, By Valerie Richardson, The Washington Times, The Washington Times, February 16, 2023, Pg. A1 Neighborhood drugstores still reeling from Black Lives Matter riots, shoplifting surges and opioid litigation now face a new challenge: pushback over the abortion pill. Pro-life groups mobilized after Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid confirmed that they plan to fill prescriptions for the two-drug abortion regimen. They were responding to the Food and Drug Administration’s Jan. 3 finalization of a rule that lets retail pharmacies dispense the pills in stores and via mail. Since then, the pharmaceutical chains have had a taste of what it’s like to be Planned Parenthood. The pro-life group Live Action crashed the annual Walgreens shareholders meeting on Jan. 26 in Newport Beach, California. The Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising held protests outside an estimated 55 drugstores in a coordinated Feb. 4 action. On Tuesday, activists rallied outside Walgreens headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, where they chanted “abortion pills kill” and signed an outsized Valentine’s Day card to CEO Rosalind Brewer asking her to rethink the company’s “reckless decision to turn every Walgreens pharmacy into an abortion facility.” … The movement is just getting started. Students for Life is organizing a National Day of Protest on March 4 as part of its newly launched “Cancel Abortion Cartels” campaign urging pharmacies across the country to opt out of dispensing abortion pills. Meanwhile, the Alliance Defending Freedom has a case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas challenging the FDA’s 2000 approval of mifepristone, one of the two drugs sanctioned for use to terminate pregnancies before 11 weeks of gestation. … https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/feb/15/pro-life-groups-zero-drugstore-chains-plan-fill-ab/__________________________________________________________ 3. National Archives agrees to settle March for Lifers’ censorship lawsuit with tours, apologies, By Valerie Richardson, The Washington Times, February 16, 2023, Pg. A10 The National Archives and Records Administration has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by pro-life advocates by giving them a private tour and apologizing in person for censoring the anti-abortion messaging on their clothing. The proposed consent agreement filed Tuesday in federal court comes a week after four March for Life participants sued, saying they were told to remove or cover up their pro-life T-shirts, sweatshirts, buttons and hats during the Jan. 20 visit to the National Archives Museum. The National Archives also asserted in the consent order that its policy allows visitors to wear clothing “that display protest language, including political and religious speech,” and that its security personnel will be reminded of that policy. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/feb/15/national-archives-march-lifers-agree-settle-censor/__________________________________________________________ 4. Biden has put women at grave risk, but states can still protect them, By Grazie Pozo Christie, The Washington Examiner, February 15, 2023, 11:33 AM, Opinion While the Biden administration has been making hard lefts at every turn, the state of Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to sail straight ahead. This has been in education and immigration policy, and I am now watching it play out in terms of chemical abortion policy. From my vantage point on the front lines of pregnancy care in Florida, and in my considered medical opinion, Florida law protects women, whereas recent attempts at federal deregulation expose them to grave medical risks. Biden’s Food and Drug Administration recently deregulated the abortion drug mifepristone to the extent of allowing its prescription through telemedicine and dispensation of these drugs by pharmacies across state lines. Chemical abortion is now, according to the CDC, the most common method of abortion in the U.S. The Biden administration is upset that the laws of many states, including Florida, still require these powerful drugs to be dispensed in person by a qualified physician. A presidential memorandum even directs the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security to find a way to force the states’ hands. The FDA’s decision to deregulate abortion pills has come in response to political pressure from the abortion industry and attempts to make an end run around patient-protection laws in states like Florida. Our state laws require that abortions be performed by qualified physicians who have physically examined the patient, determined the location and age of the embryo or fetus, and who are responsible for appropriate follow-up in case of minor and major complications. … I found it heartening to hear DeSantis defend Florida women against the Biden FDA’s reckless decision to deregulate abortion drugs. In our state, a woman can have a legal abortion, chemical or surgical, for any reason through the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. But here, she will be far safer than a woman in, say, California or Vermont. National pharmacy chains cannot possibly give her the follow-up care or direction that she needs. Neither will the unscrupulous and inattentive telehealth “practitioners” that litter the internet. Florida and states with similar protections will. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/biden-has-put-women-at-grave-risk-but-states-can-still-protect-them__________________________________________________________ 5. Pope Francis creates independent supervisory commission for Rome Diocese, By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency, February 15, 2023, 7:50 AM Pope Francis on Wednesday created a new independent supervisory commission for the Diocese of Rome. The commission will meet once a month and report directly to the pope in a yearly meeting. The oversight committee is part of the pope’s reform of the governance of the Rome Diocese, a reorganization that centralizes more of the diocese’s activities under his authority. In a document issued Feb. 15, Pope Francis established norms for the commission and nominated its first members. The six-member commission is intended to act as internal oversight on financial, administrative, and legal issues for the Diocese of Rome, as stated in the apostolic constitution issued Jan. 6. … https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253652/pope-francis-creates-independent-supervisory-commission-for-rome-diocese__________________________________________________________ 6. Archdiocese of Miami offers to take in priests exiled from Nicaragua, By Catholic News Agency, February 15, 2023, 3:45 PM The archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, announced that his archdiocese will receive with open arms the priests and seminarians who were exiled by the dictatorship in Nicaragua, offering them longer-term housing. The prelate explained to Florida Catholic Media that although they will initially be taken in by Nicaraguan families living in the United States, they are invited to then stay at the St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami on a permanent basis. “I’m offering them the hospitality of the seminary as well as the opportunity to get acclimated, acculturated and see what the next steps would be after that,” Wenski told Florida Catholic Feb. 11. … https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253656/archdiocese-of-miami-offers-to-take-in-priests-exiled-from-nicaragua__________________________________________________________ 7. Catholic groups join fight against FDA approval of abortion pill, By Tyler Arnold, Catholic News Agency, February 15, 2023, 4:25 PM Several Catholic organizations are making their voices heard in the legal battle against the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of an abortion-inducing drug by signing onto an amicus brief in a lawsuit against the agency. … The National Catholic Bioethics Center was one of several Catholic organizations that signed onto an amicus brief with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. This includes the Catholic Bar Association, the Catholic Benefits Association, and the Catholic Health Center Leadership Alliance. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253659/catholic-groups-join-fight-against-fda-approval-of-abortion-pill__________________________________________________________ 8. Canadian government moves to delay expanding assisted suicide to include the mentally ill, By Joe Bukuras, Catholic News Agency, February 15, 2023, 4:45 PM The Canadian government has introduced legislation to delay by one year plans to include mental illness among the list of conditions eligible for the country’s assisted suicide program. The assisted suicide law — which is euphemistically coined Medical Assistance in Dying — excludes Canadians from eligibility whose only medical condition is mental illness.   In 2021 lawmakers excluded mental illness for a two-year period to allow “additional time to study how MAID on the basis of a mental illness can safely be provided and to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect those persons,” according to the Canadian Justice Department’s website. With the end of that two-year ban quickly approaching, Minister of Justice David Lametti has introduced legislation to keep the exclusion in place for another year, until March 17, 2024. … https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253660/canada-moves-to-delay-expanding-assisted-suicide-to-include-the-mentally-ill__________________________________________________________ 9. Apocalypse Now, By Francis X. Maier, The Catholic Thing, February 16, 2023 I’m a derivative writer.  I wish I were creative.  I wish I were ingenious.  But my friends and colleagues, and others I admire, are just smarter than I am.  This would be sad if it weren’t also consoling.  I can’t fix the world, but I don’t need to.  Neither do you.  In the vast stream of history, individuals rarely seem to matter. . .except in the eyes of God.  But of course that’s the one place that really does matter. So the implications for each of us are worth noting, and they’re captured best by a familiar cleric in a recent interview: Interviewer:  In your opinion, what are the greatest areas of reform needed to renew the Church? Familiar cleric: Us; all of us. We’re the problem. Structures and policies are important, but people are decisive. In a sense, the focus of real Church reform is always the same: you and me. It’s that simple, and also that difficult. No one really likes to change, because it’s hard. And the essence of conversion is a sea change in the way we think and live. In its Hebrew root, “holy” doesn’t mean “good,” although holy people are always good. Holy means “different from” and “other than.” Christians are meant to be different from and other than the ways of the world. So if we want to reform the Church, we first need to reform ourselves. Here’s what that means. “Fixing the world,” or at least healing its worst wounds, is the mission of the Church.  And while the Church is the soul of the world and always holy, her fertility in any given age depends on “us; all of us.”  The holiness of her people translates into the fruitfulness of her mission. … As Catholics, we ignore a Church history that’s rich both in hard lessons and luminous reasons for hope.  The process of suffering, purification, and fresh life in the Church is not new; it’s only new for us.  But the things we do faithfully now become seeds for Christian renewal in generations to come.  What we lack is trust. … George Orwell once said that the really great stories are written “by people who are not frightened.”  It’s a line worth remembering.  We’ve been given, and we’re adding our lives to, the greatest story ever told.  God never abandons his people.  We just need to act like we believe it. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2023/02/16/apocalypse-now-3/__________________________________________________________

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.
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