TCA Podcast, – “Conversations with Consequences,” Episode 142 – Covid’s Impact On Kids & Dr. Donna Harrison Exposes The FDA On Chemical Abortions Dr. Grazie Christie and Ashley McGuire discuss the dire situation many children and teens are facing amid the ongoing pandemic with a mental health crisis looming and upticks in violence on school campuses. Dr. Donna Harrison also joins to discuss the latest guidelines regarding abortion pills–and the real dangers they pose to mothers and babies–and why the FDA is seemingly turning a blind eye to the research. Father Roger Landry also offers an inspiring homily to prepare us for this Sunday’s Gospel. Catch the show every Saturday at 7amET/5pm on EWTN radio! https://thecatholicassociation.org/podcast/ep-142-covids-impact-on-kids-dr-donna-harrison-exposes-the-fda-on-chemical-abortions/ ___________________________________________________________ 1. How Marxism ‘Won’ the War of Ideas, By Francis X. Maier, The Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2022, Pg. A13, Opinion The modern, and especially American, addiction to technology as the answer to every problem may be excessive, but it would not have surprised Augusto Del Noce. And therein lies a cautionary tale. A leading Italian philosopher and cultural critic, Del Noce died in 1989. Unknown to most English speakers until recently—the first English translation of his seminal text, “The Problem of Atheism,” was published this month—he predicted the Soviet Union’s collapse and the sexual revolution decades in advance with stunning accuracy. He foresaw the failure of Marxism in the East. He also described its ironic triumph in the West in the form of a soft totalitarianism—i.e., a consumer-friendly technocracy of experts. … In effect, as Del Noce argued throughout his career, Marxism was and is a new form of an old heresy, gnosticism. It’s a cult of sacred knowledge, the possession of which claims to unlock our understanding and allow us to control the world. But the cult inevitably leads to nihilism, because Marxist theory is fundamentally atheist, which destroys its religion-like authority when the promised heaven on earth declines to appear. Marxism succeeds in crippling the supernatural imagination. But it has nothing of any higher purpose to put in its place beyond relentless political struggle against the power structures of a corrupt present. Marxist theory may have failed, but its afterlife of bitter activism drags on in our current grievance movements. … Del Noce was never a Luddite. He respected the good in technology. But he also knew that gnosticism comes in all shapes and sizes, that when we dispense with the God of Abraham, we put other gods in his place, that humans have a bottomless appetite for building heaven on earth, and that we therefore have the unhappy habit of turning our ideas and our tools into objects of obsession and then worship. He knew that idolatry kills. Mr. Maier is a senior research associate at Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government and a senior fellow in Catholic studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. https://www.wsj.com/articles/marxism-won-war-of-ideas-augusto-del-noce-gnosticism-catholic-therapy-ai-mental-health-technology-11641483920 ___________________________________________________________ 2. Missionaries of Charity evicted from property in northern India, By Nirmala Carvalho, Crux, January 7, 2022 A group of Missionaries of Charity were evicted from a facility in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the latest move against the religious order founded by St. Mother Teresa. The religious sisters ran a children’s home in Kanpur Cantonment but were evicted by India’s Defense Department on Jan. 3. … The move is just the latest in a series of actions the Indian government has taken against the Missionaries of Charity, which Mother Teresa founded in 1950 in Calcutta, now known as Kolkata, to serve the poorest of the poor. She died in 1997 and was declared a saint in 2016 by Pope Francis. https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2022/01/missionaries-of-charity-evicted-from-property-in-northern-india ___________________________________________________________ 3. European court rejects ‘gay cake’ case as inadmissible; ruling in favor of Christian bakery stands, By Jonah McKeown, Catholic News Agency, January 6, 2022, 2:00 PM The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a case brought by a Northern Irish gay rights activist, who claims a bakery discriminated against him by refusing to create a cake with a message supporting gay marriage, as inadmissable. Gareth Lee ordered a cake in May 2014 from Ashers Bakery located in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He requested the cake bear the message “support gay marriage,” a message to which the owners, the McArthurs, objected on account of their Christian faith. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom had reached a unanimous verdict in favor of the McArthurs in 2018, after a lower court had ruled against the bakers. Lee had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, bringing a new case against the UK government. On Jan. 6, the ECHR determined that Lee’s case was inadmissible because he had “failed to exhaust domestic remedies.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250040/european-court-rejects-gay-cake-case-as-inadmissible-ruling-in-favor-of-christian-bakery-stands ___________________________________________________________ 4. Top 7 Pro-Life Moments of 2021, Highlighting some of the best pro-life stories from the past year including 2 premature babies now heavy-weights in the Guinness Book of World Records!, By Alyssa Murphy, National Catholic Register, January 6, 2022, Opinion As the pro-life movement across the nation gears up for the March for Life in just a few short weeks and Catholics in the country pray for an end to abortion as the Supreme Court deliberates the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, here are some of the most pivotal moments and stories from the last year that truly highlight the humanity of the unborn. 1. Baby Richard: Richard Scott William Hutchinson came into the world weighing a whopping 11 ounces, the smallest, most premature baby on record in the world. … 2. Baby Curtis: Born July 5, 2020 at only 21 weeks, tiny but mighty Curtis Means also celebrated his first birthday in 2021. … 3. Window Into the Womb: As the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, centered around a 15-week Mississippi abortion ban, a record number of amicus briefs were filed in support of the ban. One of those briefs, written by three pro-life doctors and submitted by The Catholic Association, offered rare, detailed imaging and photographs, showing the window into the womb. As technology has advanced dramatically since the Roe v. Wade era, 3-D ultrasound imaging provided the Supreme Court justices with images of life on display, including unborn babies sucking their thumbs and kicking. … 4. Texas Takes Bold Step: The Lone Star State took a bold step to protect life by passing the Heartbeat Law, making abortion illegal after six-weeks gestation or when a fetal heartbeat is detected. … 5. Safe Haven for Babies: As reports of alarmingly high false positives in prenatal testing came out this month, the state of Ohio took bold moves in 2021 to protect babies with Down syndrome. … 6. Protecting Adoption: The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision to protect faith-based adoption. The case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, concerned the largest city in Pennsylvania ending its foster-care contracts with Catholic Social Services because the faith-based agency said it would not certify same-sex couples to be foster parents. … 7. Super Bowl Story: In a pro-life commercial during primetime television, Super Bowl 2021 featured Paralympian swimmer Jessica Long and her beautiful adoption story. https://www.ncregister.com/blog/top-7-pro-life-moments-of-2021-mnnnhgw9 ___________________________________________________________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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