TCA Podcast, – “Conversations with Consequences,” Episode 92 – The TCA Team On The Beauty Of The Feminine Genius
Dr. Grazie Christie is joined by her TCA colleagues Maureen Ferguson and Ashley McGuire as they discuss the beauty of the feminine genius and how best to live out the vocation of wife, mother, sister, and professional in the public square. The team also discusses the meaning behind St. John Paul II’s powerful words and the stark contrast to what modern feminism has become. Dr. Grazie Christie also revisits with Tim and Rebecca Shah as they discuss religious freedom in India. Father Roger Landry also offers an inspiring homily for this Sunday’s Gospel. Tune in every Saturday at 7amET/5pmET on EWTN radio!
https://thecatholicassociation.org/podcast/ep-92-the-tca-team-on-the-beauty-of-the-feminine-genius/
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1. UN approves global conference on protecting religious sites, By Edith Lederer, Associated Press, January 22, 2021
The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution Thursday condemning damage and destruction of religious sites and asking the secretary-general to convene a global conference to spearhead public support for safeguarding places of religious heritage.
The resolution condemns the increasing targeting of “cultural property, including religious sites and ritual objects … by terrorist attacks and outlawed militias,” often resulting in destruction as well as theft and illicit trafficking of stolen items.
It strongly deplores “all attacks on and in religious places, sites and shrines … including any deliberate destruction of relics and monuments” which violate international law. And it condemns all threats to attack, damage or destroy religious sites, “and denounces any moves to obliterate or forcibly convert any religious sites.”
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-middle-east/2021/01/un-approves-global-conference-on-protecting-religious-sites/
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2. Fauci says Biden expected to overturn ‘Mexico City policy’ in ‘coming days’, By Catholic News Service, January 22, 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci told the World Health Organization’s executive board Jan. 21 that “in the coming days,” President Joe Biden will revoke the so-called “Mexico City policy,” which blocks U.S. funding of foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform and promote abortion as a form of family planning.
The action will be part of the new president’s “broader commitment to protect women’s health and advance gender equality at home and around the world,” said Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and now Biden’s chief medical adviser.
He made the comments after being chosen to head the U.S. delegation to WHO. The White House released his prepared remarks.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2021/01/fauci-says-biden-expected-to-overturn-mexico-city-policy-in-coming-days/
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3. Mixed messages on Biden reveal not just competing camps, but divided hearts, By John L. Allen Jr., Crux, January 22, 2021, Opinion
Among the many traditions surrounding a presidential inauguration, Catholics seem to have created one of their own, especially when it’s a Democrat: Mixed messages from the Vatican and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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On Wednesday both the Vatican and the USCCB released statements on the inauguration, and once again it was a Tale of Two Tones.
Pope Francis’s brief congratulatory note to President Joe Biden was lofty and avoided areas of possible disagreement, while a longer message from Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the USCCB, offered prayers and support but also warned that the new administration “would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity,” drawing clear lines in the sand on the issues of “abortion, contraception, marriage, gender.”
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The difference between 2009 and 2021, however, is eight years of Pope Francis. When Obama took office, the U.S. bishops were fairly compact in focusing on the abortion issue, while today there are enough “Francis bishops” in the U.S. to offer a vocal counterweight, one closer to the Vatican’s line.
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So, today we have three groups, not just two, at odds within the Catholic power structure: The Vatican, the leadership of the USCCB, and an increasingly influential cluster of bishops who dissent from that leadership.
Some may find this division distressing, especially at a time when a new president is calling Americans to unity. Yet here’s the glass-half-full reading: In a time when “facts” seem to be up for grabs, at least the discord reflected in those messages has the virtue of being honest.
Most importantly, this isn’t exclusively, or even primarily, a tension between Rome and the USCCB, or between Gomez and Cupich. Instead, it’s a fault line that runs straight through the hearts and minds of many American Catholics themselves.
https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2021/01/mixed-messages-on-biden-reveal-not-just-competing-camps-but-divided-hearts/
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4. Vatican convicts ex-bank chief in property embezzlement scam, By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, January 21, 2021, 12:13 PM
The Vatican’s criminal tribunal on Thursday convicted the former head of the Vatican bank and his lawyer of embezzling millions of euros in proceeds from the sales of Holy See-owned real estate, and sentenced them to nearly nine years in prison each.
The court also awarded the bank, known as the Institute of Religious Works, some 23 million euros in restitution from money seized from the suspects’ Swiss and Vatican bank accounts that were frozen during the investigation.
Prosecutors had accused former bank chief Angelo Caloia, 81, and his 97-year-old lawyer, Gabriele Liuzzo, of embezzlement, misappropriation of funds and money-laundering between 2001 and 2008, when the bank sold off a sizeable chunk of its real estate assets.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/vatican-convicts-ex-bank-chief-in-property-embezzlement-scam/2021/01/21/f7e442a0-5c0b-11eb-a849-6f9423a75ffd_story.html
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5. French doctor who made Down discovery closer to sainthood, By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, January 21, 2021, 9:58 AM
The French doctor who discovered the genetic basis of Down syndrome but spent his career advocating against abortion as a result of prenatal diagnosis has taken his first major step to possible sainthood.
Pope Francis on Thursday approved the “heroic virtues” of Dr. Jerome Lejeune, who lived from 1926-1994 and was particularly esteemed by St. John Paul II for his anti-abortion stance.
The papal recognition of Lejeune’s virtues means that he is considered “venerable” by the Catholic Church. The Vatican must now confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession for him to be beatified, and a second one for him to be declared a saint.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pope-moves-down-syndrome-md-advocate-closer-to-sainthood/2021/01/21/14d9737a-5bf9-11eb-a849-6f9423a75ffd_story.html
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6. In far-reaching executive order, Biden redefines ‘sex’, By Kevin J. Jones, Catholic News Agency, January 21, 2021, 6:01 PM
In one of his first acts in office, President Joe Biden has signed an executive order to interpret sex discrimination in federal law to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The move could impact high school sports, the privacy of single-sex bathrooms, faith-based organizations that are government grantees or contractors, and whether employees may face retaliation for voicing “discriminatory” religious beliefs.
“This executive order is a massive overreach,” John Bursch, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom legal group, told CNA Jan. 21. “It essentially has the effect of taking the word ‘sex’ and ‘sex discrimination’, anywhere those words appear in federal law, and converting them to include sexual orientation and gender identity.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/in-far-reaching-executive-order-biden-redefines-sex-74944
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7. San Francisco archbishop responds to Pelosi: ‘No Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion’, By Catholic News Agency, January 21, 2021, 1:20 PM
The Archbishop of San Francisco on Thursday responded to the Speaker of the House accusing pro-life Trump voters of being sellouts.
In a Jan. 18 podcast with former senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that support of pro-life voters for former President Donald Trump was an issue that “gives me great grief as a Catholic.”
“I think that Donald Trump is president because of the issue of a woman’s right to choose,” she said of abortion, implying that pro-life voters boosted Trump to victory in 2016. She added that these voters “were willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.”
On Thursday, Pelosi’s archbishop responded to her comments on abortion and voting.
“No Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion,” said Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Pelosi’s home diocese, in a statement issued on Thursday. “Our land is soaked with the blood of the innocent, and it must stop.”
Pelosi has long supported abortion despite her Catholic faith. In 2008, she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” regarding when life begins, “over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition.” She said that her Catholic faith “shouldn’t have an impact on a woman’s right to choose.”
On Thursday, Archbishop Cordileone clarified that “Nancy Pelosi does not speak for the Catholic Church.”
“And on the question of the equal dignity of human life in the womb, she [Pelosi] also speaks in direct contradiction to a fundamental human right that Catholic teaching has consistently championed for 2,000 years,” Cordileone said.
The archbishop added that Pelosi’s use of the phrase “right to choose” in reference to abortion “is a smokescreen for perpetuating an entire industry that profits from one of the most heinous evils imaginable.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/san-francisco-archbishop-responds-to-speaker-nancy-pelosi-no-catholic-in-good-conscience-can-favor-abortion-98251
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8. U.S. bishops applaud Biden’s actions on immigration, By Catholic News Agency, January 21, 2021, 10:20 AM
he U.S. bishops’ conference applauded President Joe Biden for halting some deportations and preserving the DACA program on his first day in office.
“We applaud President Biden’s restoration of the DACA program, and we also strongly encourage him and the U.S. Congress to immediately enact legislation that provides a path to citizenship for Dreamers,” Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles and Bishop Mario Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C., stated on Thursday.
Archbishop Gomez is the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB), and Bishop Dorsonville is the chair of the conference’s migration committee.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/us-bishops-applaud-president-joe-bidens-actions-on-immigration-71778
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9. U.S. bishops praise Biden’s repeal of travel ban, By Catholic News Agency, January 21, 2021, 8:45 AM
After President Joe Biden on his first day in office revoked a travel ban from certain Muslim-majority and African countries, leading U.S. bishops praised the move.
“We welcome yesterday’s Proclamation, which will help ensure that those fleeing persecution and seeking refuge or seeking to reunify with family in the United States will not be turned away because of what country they are from or what religion they practice,” stated Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Bishop Mario Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
Cardinal Dolan chairs the religious freedom committee of the U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB), and Bishop Dorsonville chairs the conference migration committee.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/us-bishops-praise-president-joe-bidens-repeal-of-travel-ban-97458
___________________________________________________________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. |
